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Bust of Christopher Lee in Snarly Dracula mode. Getting some paint on.

So I had started a Kitty Hawk Voodoo (there: http://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/234961637-kittyhawk-f-101-a-voodoo/?hl=voodoo)and wasn't satisfied with how it was turning out (and as the poets from Nashville Pussy sing, it's everybody's fault but mine, of course (*)). So I decided to trat the poor thing with Jeremy Clarkson favorite surgical instrument (a hammer) and reduced it to a pile of very tiny little bits. Then I bought another box and, in the wake of my Phantom FGR2, had a go at it. I started last Thursday and tried to improve from last time. Soooo... I decided to neglect the instructions and assembled each nose half separately. It's not very clean, but nothing that can't be fixed with sandpaper and putty (and it's much much cleaner thant what you get when you follow the instructions). I was wise enough not to listen only to my Y chromosome and followed the instructions for the front wheel well and front gear leg. The cockpit, using both the photoetch and the decals: The airbrakes and their world famous sink marks: The fuselage is almost whole (but the radome is not glued on). Still not that clean, but hey, that ain't no scoop... The refuelling probe housing si puttied: The instrument panel, done using both the photoetch and the decal (it worked for the consoles, so...). The fuselage is whole, the nice sink marks on the sides are puttied. The belly of the beast: No problem for the wings, at least on the upper surfaces. Our sink marks have been cleaned: A bit of putty is needed on the wing lower surfaces to fuselage joins, but nothing dramatic. Really? The tail is reasonably well behaved. Under the nose, putty has been sanded and the panel lines are waiting to be rescribed. The nozzles need a bit of work... But turn out OK. It's paint time! Nose is Gunze gloss black, antiglare panel is Gunze olive drab and the rest is Alclad semi matt aluminum. Now on to the decals. They leave quite quickly their backing up sheet, but once in place tend to be quite stubborn. So before applying any decal I applied some soapy water with a hairy stick. I didn't cut the decal, it was like this on the sheet! The upper surfaces are complete: The fuel tanks: We're almost done with the decalling: And now, I'm very sad to say my fuel tanks seem to suffer from pancreatic cancer. I didn't make that up, it's written all over them: To be continued... S.

It started as a way of getting the modelling mojo back after some kind of saturation with the Shackleton. Bad move, bub... It started so well: The fit of the center wasn't perfect, but seemed good enough: Then I tried to put the cockpit assembly inside the front, and things went ape digestion by-product. The tub, once in place, made the two fuselage parts to spread. I didn't want any of that, so I had to remove the alignement pins in order to get the tub in place: But the tub didn't go all the way to the top of the fuselage, and prevented the wheel well to sit in its right place. I removed the alignement pins from the bottom of the tub and gave said bottom a hefty sanding: I sanded the top of the wheel well and quite a bit of the bottom too, for it to stay in place and to conform to the fuselage "cheek". I glued one of the cheeks before installing the well. Now, I've seen the bottom of the front fuselage doesn't align with the bottom of the center fuselage. Interesting times to come...