Your progress is outstanding David. Looks like you'll soon have a great pair of Cats to display. Really like the way the Hellcat with the wings folded looks. Carry on.

First, rough paintwork on the cat's nose art. Doing this by hand as I think it just looks a little more authentic.
And the postman just brought me a new cutting mat! Back in the day it'd be a new car, a new girlfriend, gigging with the band, leading your team out as captain. In 2017 I'm getting excited about a cutting mat...
Cant quite figure if that's a good or a bad thing?

Hi Bernard.
Simple pleasures indeed. I like to think it's a good reference point of how life is - that small things make you smile.
I've been spending a little more time today on the catmouth and plan to post some photos later. Also been making some electrical 'pigtail' connectors for the HVARs (below). Sun still shining here, four days in a row in London which constitutes a whole Summer.

Long days and pleasant nights, all.

1 attached image. Click to enlarge.

I must have made a whole squadron of Kittyhawks when I was a kid, just because of those shark mouths. The pigtails are 1.4 Amp model railway wire; its great stuff that comes in almost any colour so can be used for a whole lot of purposes - I used the copper and black version for spark leads in the engine and the brake line.

'Polystyrene path to perdition' - might have to steal that one. Almost done with the 'cat mouth' - just some finessing and weathering to do.

And the real thing - my artistic skills are not what they were back in the day but I really wanted to get something of that hand painted 'feel' on the cat. It looks better than it does in the photos. God, where have I heard that before?

The rain is back, so it's back to business as usual here - although it's a public holiday tomorrow, so no Sunday Night Blues tonight. And back on the polystyrene road tomorrow!

1 additional image. Click to enlarge.

David, thanks for the tip on the wire, both look like they'd be really useful, adds a lot to the engine, plumbing!
Great work on the catmouth! Maybe you could branch out and do custom work for the discriminating, like the flames guys in the car business.

Wow David, what a terrific job. I've just been reading through the whole topic. Had some catching up to do. Nice to see the double building of the cats and interesting to read about the differences between them. The folding wings are not only helpful to disguise some errors of the kit manufacturer, I think it's also great to have the cats shown as they could have been on the flight deck. Great job on the nose art as well, wow free hand paitning, just like the real ones. Wonderful job.

Just a little progress today. Built the little tractor tug and added some detail to the cats. Waiting for the wife to go to work later in the week before spraying the cats with some future (she hates the smell, and boy do I mean hates) before some weathering and decals.

I have something of a problem; try as I might I cannot find registry markings for ANY of the cats that relocated from VF 27 on the Princeton to the Essex. May have to take a best guess unless anyone out there (Tom C?) can give me a steer.