Procopius

That looks incredible.

Blast! Thanks for letting me know, though.

I built an ICM 109E back before I discovered the magic of filler or taking one's time, so about a year ago. My feeling is that it was not unduly difficult to assemble, with good surface detail, but will require a little more care and filler than the Tamiya or Airfix kit. However, I don't think the skill requirements are insurmountable. The decals, as I recall, are pretty awful, though.

Does this sheet include marking options for any "thimble-nosed" TF.Xs?

I believe the Tamiya one is dimensionally inaccurate; the ICM one I understood to be pretty good. But I'm no expert.

Is this a new tool Meteor? I might join for this.

Excellent! Do you know what scheme you'll paint her in yet?

Love the backstory. I'm really excited to see this one take shape.

Ordered the old Xtradecal F3H sheet, and perhaps soon my new workroom will be cleared for action -- for now, it houses several million boxes.

Sweet pete, that's some impressively precise masking!

Really, I should try and find some Firestreaks, not AIM-9Bs, that'd be more appropriate. EDIT: Are these any good? Of course there are no photos. Of course. https://www.whiteensignmodels.com/c/OKB+172+Scale+Accessories/771/1/

I'd really prefer to depict a 1950s-era Sea Hawk, rather than one of the 1970s drone conversions. I think the fall of West Iran and the realization that the USA had to end overseas commitments "East of Greenland" make that decade a bitter one to recall for all Americans.

Well look what just showed up at my office! Pretty exciting. Still trying to figure out a scheme and decals, though the light gull grey/white option seems like it would be more "exotic", and thus, cooler (as if anything is cooler than EDSG over Sky!) choice, though a friend suggested jimmying up some AIM-9Bs and making a trials aircraft.

Looks quite nice! I'm a sucker for shark mouths on planes, I daresay even a Sunderland could be improved by the addition of one. Does Quickboost make an Aeroproducts prop for the Mustang? I had only been able to find the normal prop, uncuffed.

As long as the upper body is intact, you can keep modelling. Legs are just a distraction, they enable you to leave the workbench.

I'm embarrassed to say that despite having in this country all my life, I know very little about the post-WWII USN. It does look like circa 1956, that it should be light gull grey and white(? right?) for upper/under surfaces, respectively, though I also saw some GSB ones in the Naval Reserve --- all this in a cursory google image search. Happily, this blog entry seems to answer some of my questions. Does anyone know of some 1/72 decals for an F2H (physically closer in shape to the Sea Hawk than the real F3H Demon)? I've never built a US Navy plane in my life. EDIT: it does seem, however, that F2H decals are much harder to come by. I'm thinking of snaffling the Xtradecal F3H sheet and using the VF-122 option.

Mine came to me when I ran into a low-hanging support while we cleaned the detritus of the last ninety years out of our "new" basement [and I mean that figure literally; my wife found a papercut silhouette from the 1920s in an ancient cupboard]. So my recommendation is to run into something at full speed, and then find out what's on sale.

Okay, I'm doing this! I have a plan!

Okay! I think I can do this before the deadline. I've ordered my kit. "Two of the defining moments of World War II in the Pacific would have to be, respectively, HMS Prince of Wales and Repulse appearing out of the morning mist off Kota Bahru to shatter the Japanese invasion convoys on December 8, 1941, and the crushing defeat of the American carriers at Midway on June 5, 1942. In retrospect, one of these events seems inevitable; we now know the Japanese invasion force was pitifully small, and could likely never have defeated the British garrison, but historians will forever wonder what would have happened had the USS Hornet's aircraft not lead the American strike aircraft in the wrong direction, or if Spruance, instead of Halsey, had commanded the American ships. "However, we live in the now, and we can only proceed from knowing how events did happen. The subsequent transfer of the Indian Ocean Fleet to Australia, Somerville's surprise victory over the Japanese in the battles of Guadalcanal, these are now forever enshrined in Anglo-American memory, part of the epic of the war in the Pacific. Less discussed are the ramifications for the American carrier force. Between the defeat at Midway and the havoc wreaked by the Nazi atomic attack on Newport News, the American carrier fleet was gutted, and the Americans forced to rely on British carriers for the duration of the war. As the mammoth Malta-class ships were completed, the manpower-starved Royal Navy transferred the older armoured-deck ships to their "impverished cousins", and a generation of US Navy aviators were raised flying Seafires, Barracudas, and Firebrands off of British-built ships. After the war, the US Navy struggled to keep pace, but the nascent Air Force brutally won the wars for funding, gutting the army (suspected of communist infiltration, anyhow) and the navy, and the old British carriers soldiered on, well into the 1970s, by which time they were hopelessly out of date and badly in need of refit. "The 1950s, however, were a golden age of sorts, as British firms teamed up with American companies to market jets to the USAF and USN; the Hawker-North American F-100 Hunter, the Boeing-Vickers Valiant, and the McDonnell-Hawker Sea Hawk all served well, and well into the 1960s." Thinking I'll paint this guy gloss sea blue all over and try and scadge up some reasonably appropriate decals for an F3H Sea Hawk of USS Rodman (ex-HMS Victorious), circa 1956.

I had thought of doing a modernized IAF EE Lightning with F-16 radar and IAF external stores, but I purchased a home in August (with workroom and workbench!) and am still renovating so that I can move in before the month ends. Alas!

Heathen!

Just regular old printer paper, and I used little loops of Tamiya tape under the masks.

I was bitterly disappointed by 3, myself, but I loved ME2 a great deal (Miranda foreva!). This should be quite a Harrier when you've finished!

Many thanks!