Well after ten long months, it is finally done. I still need to make the base, but the plane itself is done. I can say that in general I have a great time with this build. I was fortunate enough to have a good friend, thanks Ed, who supplied me with this kit. I would recommend it to an experienced builder and while it is a pricy kit, if you build like me and take ten months to build you can break it down to about $10 a month for some excellent modelling experience.
To summarize if I had to give a rating of the kit from 1 to 10 where 1 is throw it in the trash and 10 is modeling Nirvana I would rate this between 7.5 and 8. I would rate it higher but I had a number of parts that were warped, (fuselage, canopy and wing sections) that made the kit a more challenging build then it should be. The detail and the panel engraving is exceptional and the fit is very good when not warped. Also, ICM broke parts into many multiple pieces where other companies may have had a much smaller number. I believe it lets them make future kits with different options a possibility. Luckily throughout this build the generally very good fit of parts made the complicated assemblies actually work. Let me state again the fit of this kit is generally very good, not simple and easy but very good none the less. There is very little putty on this build, because the fit is that good. The one thing I am not sure about is whether or not I like the soft plastic that ICM molds their kits in.
2 attached images. Click to enlarge.
