Awesome progress there, Louis. Enjoying watching this build (and all those photos).

Looking good, Louis! Now I need to get back to mine...sorry to be so long getting back to you.

A few comments - the polished area on the inside of the tip tank might possibly be done that way so the pilot could get a visual confirmation that the landing gear was down. We used to put mirrors on the tip tanks of the T-33's and on the insides of the engine nacelles on twin Cessnas just for that. It was a good backup in case the cockpit indications were tango uniform.

As to the tan exhausts - the old jet fuel controls had to be adjusted manually; setting the mixture so to speak. So the exhaust could range from sooty black to tan / brown to gray depending on the quality of the fuel and how well the JFC was set.

The red arrows on the canopy were probably instructions for the canopy jettison in case an unconscious pilot had to be removed from the airplane. It must not have been a standard marking as you don't see many F9F's with those.

Hello again everyone.

I just spent the last few hours fighting with this one. It turned out that the lower wing was severely warped.

I managed to get it straightened out with some careful gluing and a lot of clamping, clothes pins and tape.

After beating it into submission, this is how it looks now. I hope that the plastic doesn't have a memory and try to return to its deformed original shape.

Now I can replace the oleo strut with some round stock, possibly even some metal tubing. This will make it look better since the kit part had a nasty mold seam running through it.

After cleaning the seam up, it no longer looked round. Things happen for a reason.

This one is going to need some filler work on a few seams. It might have been better if the plastic was not warped.
As usual comments are encouraged.

Thanks for looking.

Adventures in plastic, Louis -we all curse them but isn’t that why we all hear the siren call of 20 year old monogam kits. It’s nice to work on a polite and housetrained Tamiya but it’s great to bring a ‘feral’ kit to heal (sic).

Well done.

Hey Louis @lgardner, doesn't Valiant Air Command over in Titusville have one of these? I think Fantasy of Flight over in Polk City has one in storage. There is one still flying here in Texas but I'm going to miss the Dallas show next weekend and I've never seen it come down to Houston.

Looking good Louis. I must have been lucky because none of my parts appear to be warped. Fuselage will go together as soon as I remember where I put my can of lead weights. BTW - it's a little late for you, but I found it is possible to install the nose gear after the fuselage is assembled.

Still trying to decide what markings I'll be using...

Jaime @jetmex, I live about 1.5 miles south of the entrance at Ellington Field. Yes, I'll be out at Wings next weekend. Will be there Friday and Saturday roaming around and helping with the Helldiver if required. On Sunday I'll be in the Photo Pit praying for good weather.

That was some serious clamping and taping Louis, but it’s looking good.