Rick, George and Gregor - I appreciate your input.

Rick, the frustration level is not the worst I've had with any of the kits I've built, that Kingfisher was very trying on my patience. I did get the front end attached as well as I could and am moving forward. There is a point in the building process where it all begins to 'come together' and when I reach that I will feel better about it I'm sure.

George, I'm sure with the sponsor ads you mention, doing something quick and dirty by hand like I did is not an option, those ads are much more complex than this tail symbol. I kind of think making that Nazi symbol in two halves like some companies do is a reasonable compromise. Maybe the Italeri management themselves have strong personal feelings and just won't have any part of it and so they omit it altogether. If so, I respect them for it...

Thanks Gregor - I hope to post a picture or too here soon. I have had to concoct my own paint for the underside, to get the subtle grayish blue, using a 50/50 MM Aircraft Gray to thinner mix with a small amount of Testors standard, medium dark, blue mixed in.

Great progress Ralph. Nice job on the canopy framework, which is quite complex. Looks like you should get it done by the end of next month.

Looking good Ralph, I feel your pain, I broke my tail wheel too. I haven't tackled my canopy frames yet because I haven't sorted all the vacuformed sections out yet. Looking forward to seeing yours when it's finished.

Thankfully the tail wheel landed on the table, which is good because I am sure there is some wormhole portal to another dimension between my table and the floor. I am too big to fit in it, but any model part can !

I was fortunate enough to find my tail wheel twice, for which I profusely thanked which ever minor diety that controls that transdiminisional window you referenced. I've found that regular sacrifices of blood, spilled paint and ruined decals keep it at bay, but every so often it eats whole subassemblies if I've missed an offering...

I'll be on the look out...lol. I have yet to install them on mine, actually I think they are steps, but you my be right about them being antennas. Look in your spare parts, it maybe hiding in there disguised as a pitot tube or AOA vane.

FOUND THAT LITTLE SONOFAGUN!
YAY!

It took a diligent hands and knees with flashlight search, but I founf the lost right side step, so now I can re-attach it. Oh it will feel better to have that sense of symmetry restored! It is quite small as you can see, (yeah, that's my index finger it's sitting on) but it really bugged me that it was missing.

1 attached image. Click to enlarge.

Looks pretty good to me Ralph. The lost part should reappear as soon as you get the replacement faired into the wing..