Thanks my friends @lgardner and @stephen-w-towle!

Louis, the CA kit will definitely be a joy to see it built by you, the Cicogna is such a cool looking plane. Though many find it ugly and ungaining, I think she is a beauty (in her, maybe, peculiar way!)...
Yes, with my sons the "agreement" is to give me their ice cream cups (that they would otherwise throw away... 🙂 ), in return of Vne test flights to their liking, with Vne up to them...
The Cicogna fuselage alone has undergone one already...

Stephen, you are so right about the model being a spring board for further reading. It carries some nice stories behind it!

Spiros, @fiveten
My dear friend, you are a model building machine ! You always amaze me at your quality of work, AND the number of kits that you are able to finish. I really like your building style, and over time I have picked up a few tips and pointers from you. My absolute favorite hands down is the liquefied styrene. After using it, now I wonder how I made do before without it !

I just picked up another tip from you today, and this is to sand the parts joint lines before gluing them together to make a larger assembly.

At one time, (not too long ago), I was cranking a bunch of them out too. However, lately I have had very little time for this. I have too many real life projects going on... As it stands right now, I have way too many builds started, with only two or three nearing completion.

What I have been doing lately is to build and paint all like items at once from various kits. So you will see me building and painting wheels, propellers and engines, from several kits, then I store these completed parts back in the original boxes for later use. It's almost like how our friend Erik has his 109 Kindergarten. This seems to work out well for me. I am about ready to build up some more cockpit assemblies using this method. Right now I have 5 individual A6M Zero cockpits built, and they are ready to paint. I need to finish up the one for the Hasegawa Ki-45, and I will build the one for the larger 1/32 scale Hasegawa Hien and these will be ready to paint as well. One of the Tamiya G4M "Betty" kits are ready for interior painting too. I need to build the interior for the second one and it will be time to spray some Mitsubishi Interior Green, and Kawasaki "cockpit color"... the one that looks like Earth Brown.

I am very impressed with the details they have provided on you Cigona. You are tempting me to locate a 1/48 scale Classic Airframes kit. I might be looking for one of their 1/48 scale Hawk II kits as well.

Thanks for providing this magnificent update. Before you know it, you will have the airframe assembled and it will be ready for paint. Speaking of the paint, I am looking forward to the paint scheme you choose for this one.

Thanks my friend @lgardner!

Yep, Louis, sanding before major assembly can be very useful at kits which tend to be flimsy (like the Victor - oh, that tail!), or big, or having difficult spots to reach after assembly, or all of the above!

I try to paint parts from different kits one color and I have put this method full steam ahead after watching you performing it.

Similarly liquefied styrene has been put to good use after yours and a few of other great friends enthusiastic feedback here!

Looking forward to your Japanese cockpits!

Major assembly commenced

I attached the wings, tailplanes and fins, taking care to observe zero dihedral allover. The cabin innards that will be visible after installing the nose received some Italian cockpit green, too. Here is the result: . I also performed some parts preparation, like the ailerons, rudders and props:
Thanks fo stopping by!
Cheers EoJ GB!

Thanks my friend @lgardner!
Surprisingly QC1 and QC2 are not that aggressive in pushing Vne to hyperpace values, just nice, "normal" test flights! 🙂

Thanks my good friend @airbum!
Yep, Vne test flights are less airframe stretchy lately, a sign of things to come?
Meanwhle I did

Basic puttying

I used some leftover Humbrol putty, went on well.
The main tires were tad "flattened" as well, as to look more natural posed:
Thanks for stopping by!

Thanks my friend @holzhamer!

Thanks my friend @j-healy!