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Undercarriage is on and I've got a few of the smaller details done today. Getting close to finished now - a few things left to do, but it'll be finished by the end of the GB.

Nacelles installed. A little blending in needed but shouldn't be too hard. I reckon I might get some paint on tomorrow.

That’s turned out well (bit of an understatement!). Fantastic job on the masking.

More progress today - wings on and blended in, tailplanes and rudder on, nacelles fully assembled. Looks like I'll be painting soon. It's a bit of a funny kit. Some of it fits well, some of it doesn't. Wings went on ok but needed some filler, whereas the front part of each nacelle was nowhere near an acceptable fit with the rear part and needed some fettling, sanding and filling to get there. Fine raised panel lines all over, except for the doors which were covered in huge rivets (they aren't any more!). Trailing edges of the wings seem pretty close to 1/1 scale thickness! So a bit of an oddity, but I'm glad I'm building it. Here it is:

Something's definitely not right there, and I don't think it's Airfix. I think it's your local retailer. I recently bought the 1/48 Mustang IV for $45 and the 1/48 Blenheim for $63. Both at either Hearn's or Metro Hobbies in Melbourne - I forget which but the prices for Airfix kits are comparable in both of them. Didn't buy my Meteor there but if I did it would be about $80.

Very, very nice Dave.

I’d go with the frog one and paint the flash around him orange to give him a ready brek glow

Lovely Mustang Adrian

Great progress Chris. Good luck with the top wing - with that jig you should be fine. Looking forward to seeing this one in the gallery.

Never knew this kit existed. Great work on the keyhole surgery and it looks interesting with the indented markings filled in!

Sometimes the modelling gods choose unsubtle ways to tell you it’s time to call it done! great work Steve, really nice Wessex

Dug the kit out of the garage today so here's a shot of the box and bagged sprues: I've got two more Phantoms going (well almost got going!) in the Phantoms STGB and I think I'll build this alongside them - since there will be a lot of parts painted the same colours I might create some efficiency by painting them all together. But if I have to I'll prioritise the other two as the STGB's deadline is much sooner. cheers Julian

I had meant to join in a bit earlier but things haven't quite gone to plan. I couldn't decide which Phantom to build so I'm going to have a go at a double build - this might be a bit ambitious as I'm joining half way through, but I'll have a crack at it. As both kits will have a lot in common it might be pretty efficient - I should be able to get parts from both kits painted at the same time for example. So hopefully I'm not overstretching my modelling time here! First up, Hasegawa 1/48 RF-4E: This is going to be in Iranian colours, probably the recent blue/grey scheme they've also been using on their Tomcats, using decals from Hi-Decal. Then the Hasegawa 1/48 F-4G (not sure why, but this has always been my favourite Phantom variant - it might just be from seeing one at my first IAT in 1985): This will be in Euro 1 colours using a Milspec decal sheet. Hopefully I'll get time to get started tomorrow. cheers Julian

Busy day with the Thud today. Got a gloss coat on, decals on and would have got a matt coat on but rain has prevented me getting it out to the garage! @CaracalModels the decals were superb!

Made some progress with the Herald. Fuselage seams cleaned up and now have all the major subassemblies together, although some cleanup is needed. I reckon I'll be moving this into the paintshop pretty soon. cheers Julian