🙏🏻 Thanks, my friend Spiros @fiveten! I do appreciate those generous comments, but it will be a miracle if I don't screw up the paint before I'm done! 😉 😄 I have to give credit to that splatter stencil; that thing makes it so much easier for painters like me. 🙂 I hope you and your family have a Merry Christmas as well, my friend! 🥂

@gblair, Thanks, George! 🙏🏻 I appreciate your support and the encouragement! 😊

Well my friends, I have some news to report. For all practical purposes, this bird is done, stick a fork into it! 😃 There is only one or two touch ups to do, and I believe I'll call it finished. When I first began this model, I was afraid of the antennae mast's connection to the canopy; it is such a small area and I worried that the glue joint wouldn't be strong enough to withstand any tension from the aerial wire. And unfortunately, my fears were confirmed. I've tried three different approaches with the same result-that mast was pulled back aft each time. Aaarrgghhh! 😡 I may try one more thing and after that, it'll just have to present without that aerial wiring! 😊

I am disappointed that much of my color modulation and fading disappeared under the glosscoat. In bright natural light, it's still apparent but not as dramatic. I need to remember that and compensate for it next time. It's not a bad finish, but somewhat "less" than I had hoped for. 🙂

I have about five or six airplane models that need photographing at an airport. I'd like to take them to a neighboring small town, Rockdale, and use the airport there for the shoot. I want certain weather conditions and may have to wait a while. Currently, it's mighty cold outside and those pics will just have to wait. I did take a few hurried "tabletop pics" last evening and will show those in lieu of some airport "glamor" pics! I posed a half-painted Luftwaffe pilot next to the model for a sense of scale. Those 109s were really smaller than I had expected! 😃

Thanks, John @johnb! 😃 I really appreciate your support and encouragement. Your generous comments mean a lot to me, my friend! 🙏🏻 I used EZ line, or rather Uschi's version of that, at first. Then, I resorted to my old method of stretched sprue. When that sprue tightened, it was too much for that delicate glue joint.

Since I posted those pics, I gave it yet another try. And the EZ line worked this time. I realize now that I was stretching it too much in previous attempts. It sure doesn't look great now, but there is an aerial wire! After so much trouble, I won't be adding that additional piece of wiring that connects to the fuselage spine! Leave good enough alone...sage advice for a bumbler like me! 😄

Thanks, Spiros! It ain't bad, but it is done! 😁 I appreciate those comments, my friend @fiveten! 🙏🏻
I'll be glad to get some proper photos soon, too. 👍

Thanks, Eric! What nice comments, my friend @eb801! 🙏🏻 She turned out okay, not quite as nice as I wanted but finished none the less! Here are some more sneak preview pics; of the starboard side, posed on top of a display cabinet:

Excellent pics, my friend @garybrantley! Great jig!