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Good day one and all! Just seen the thread open so laying down my marker. I am going for Italeris Avenger in 1:48 (the old Accurate Miniatures kit). This one will be decked out as a Fleet Air Arm version, hoping to do a Pacific Fleet one. The only thing I have done is blow the dust off and give it a good wash! I will do the obligatory parts and accessories shots tonight and post them up tomorrow, along with more details on what version I am doing. Until then Laters! Bob

Greetings all and a happy new year to you all! I thought I would kick this year off with a quick WIP (which will start off quick and then just slow right down like all the others! But the intentions are there!). I got this kit from Santa last year (alright I bought it and gave it to Mrs C, who wrapped it and gave it to me for Christmas……. a nice surprise too, I wasn’t expecting that!), I wanted the airfix version but there were one or two small niggly things that I didn’t like, the main one being the lack of vents by the exhaust (see I told you they were niggly), whilst searching up the Airfix kit I saw this one was available for a little less and with free P&P. Having had several incarnations of Fujimi Phantoms in the past and checking the molds were the better detailed ones I plumped for a bit of nostalgia rather than the new and modern, my foggy memories does make me think that these Phantoms hold up very well. I keep forgetting to take a photo of the box and kit so here is a cheap box shot including all my other holiday additions! Whilst waiting for Santa to do his stuff I also bought some replacement seats and canopy mirrors both from Quickboost, which look very nice. I think the seats are the only weak point of the kit and these do look the part. I also got a set of canopy masks from QMT to save my ham fistedness in masking for something less worth while! So I am all set, a good wash ensued and then onto the cockpit (where else). Like I said I didn't do photos of the kit parts as: a. they have been around for years and you can see them on the web and b. I totally forgot because I was too excited to get going! I gave the area a good clean up and went to prime, unfortunately here in Nova Scotia the temperature doesn't always play ball and with my spray booth being in the garage it doesn't always go well, it was -17 outside which brought the garage temperature right down and even started to freeze my pot of brush washing water! Luckily I invested in a small space heater which warms my bench area up quite nicely to double figures after 10 mins or so, a much cheaper option than trying to relocate my spray booth into the house! So started with a cockpit.. and then a coat of Vallejo Medium sea grey, I also threw a bit of black around and started to colour in the seats with Vallejo acrylic. For the instruments I decided to opt for the kit decals rather that painting, I knew I wouldn’t get it as neat or the colour details in and I do know the raised details on the plastic doesn’t match the decal but I didn’t think it would be too noticeable anyway. A quick gloss coat on the decal areas and with the decals in place I applied lashings and lashings of MicroSol to try and get the decals to settle down so at least some of the detail would show through…..not that it would make much difference.It looks a bit bright in this shot but that is mainly due to the flash. Before fitting the halves together I added a tiny little bit of detail just to fill the area in front of the Observers instrument panel a bit more, And then bolted the fuselage together nice and tightly! Lastly, every phantom build I have done, the pitot tubes on the fin never survive my sausage fingers during the build, so far so good! but will they last?? There is also a spine antenna molded into one half but I sacrificed that straight away as that would hinder in tidying up the join. Once the fuselage is all together and joins faired in it should continue quite quick! So until next time.. Laters all! Bob