Thanks Erik and George,

Yes I used the crop function but it only reduced the visible image, the actual size on screen stayed constant. I've taken some photos with my old camera. They might be better.

I've made some progress today but nothing particularly interesting. The fuselage halves went together ok and the wings and tail are now on! The aircraft is now set up in my little jig and with a little luck and a following wind will be setting square and true.

That's all folks!

You are right Erik! I posted no pictures yesterday because of the hassle of using my clunky old camera. I’ll continue to relax and rely on my phone. Making the models must be my priority at the moment.

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And I just found out that I can post directly from the phone without even bothering with downloading to my laptop. Excellent!

But that is one big ugly aeroplane!

Another day, another tale of ham-fisted 'progress'.

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I drilled out this hole so that ot would be perfectly round before discovering that it, and the little panel behind it, was a Hasegawa error. It's the gun camera and there's only one, on the other wing. So that needed filling. This time I used good old fashioned filler of the toxic fumes variety - none of that acrylic rubbish!

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More sanding in the morning.

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There's been a lot of sanding today. Look at the step I built into the fuselage yesterday. Maybe too many clamps?

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The step eventually went away but so did that distinctive overlapping panel detail.

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Restored with a bit more sanding, some sawing, and a little delicate scraping. With luck and a lick of paint it won't look so horrible at the end.

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I haven't broken this off yet. There's no-one more surprised about that than me. I even placed the aircraft upside down on the bench once. Every time I see the strange angle though, I think I've bust it.

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I sand using sheets of wet and dry paper wrapped around erasers which I have cut into useful shapes. Cheap and I always have a sharp cutting surface. I found that I kept expensive sanding sticks way too long.

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'Tubby' lined up with the gunsight in a very satisfying way.

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The canopy and windshield fitted reasonably well though a bead of wood glue was used to fill a small gap on the starboard side. I hate working with clear parts. So brittle! So revealing!

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Minor improvements to the tailwheel. Was it really worth the bother? lol

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Shiny aluminium reflector for the landing light. I got that into place and then lost the clear cover, finally abandoning the search and using something from the spares box. Unfortunately it was domed slightly and I hadn't the wit to install it upside down (until lit was too late).

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I think the overall effect is ok though I could have made a lamp too.

Overall, I'm pleased with progress despite the setbacks. It's good to be back at the bench and building something.

Don, I think we travel the same modeling path. All of my builds include a lost part (or more), gluing something incorrectly, having liquid glue run down a part, putting my finger in wet glue, disfiguring the canopy in some way, keeping some appendage intact until breaking it off near the end of the build, and so on. I can't even list the number of tragedies that occur during painting and adding decals. I once was building a kit that was designed so you could put the wrong wings together. I didn't discover the problem till it was too late. I sometimes think this is how my skills get better: figuring out how to fix the stuff I have messed up. The skill to do some of things you are doing for your kit show that your skills are well above average, so I don't think ham-fisted is a good description of what you are doing. Looking forward to seeing this kit built up.

David, yes I’m enjoying myself again. I notice how chaotic I’m working.

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Maybe that’s a clue to my state of mind. Usually I’m so tidy that you can’t tell I’m working. And of course, I haven’t been creating anything for ages.

“If you can’t make a mess, you can’t make anything.”

Perhaps I’m making these mistakes ‘accidentally on purpose’ because my Free Child is so furious about all that Parental control he’s suffered lately?

Hi Tom.

Cheap Ikea furniture. Yes, I love it. Form following function, frill free and fret free following final fractures. Effin’ good stuff for a person who cares more about how his room works than how it looks.

The bench is a mess because I just unboxed my tools and chucked them into the drawers. If I finish ONE Hellcat I’ll organise myself a bit better. If I finish TWO, I’ll rearange the room to put the desk in best light. THREE sees me putting up shelves and FOUR is a new spraybay and extraction system.

By the way Tom, thanks for not posting a picture of your workspace. Once that starts, there will be a hundred sheds, dens and basements taking over the thread. Lol.

Hello all.
Not much to report to you today. I've been tidying up a few small details.

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The zero length rocket launchers were tricky to align. If they are too far out, I may leave off the rockets. The cat hooks are on and the landing light masked.

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The u/c fairings were a little thick do I sanded them down as shown, and also removed my fingerprints!

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As you see, the cat has legs. They are fairly sturdy and will make the spraying easier as I'll have no trouble putting the beast down. Fortunately for me, the legs ant the bays were all painted in the undersides colour (apart from the front of the bays which were in some sort of green - but were often sprayed over anyway, as they will be on this model!)

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Reluctant to set up the airbrush for such a small job, I painted the engine in enamels.

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It's not bad for a rushed and skimped job. I don't think much is visible when installed anyway. Once the enamels are dry tomorrow, I'll try to make an acrylic wash and deepen the shadows.

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The box is emptying. I like that. I like the way a box of chaos gradually turns into one complete aeroplane (and a few forgotten pieces!).

Tomorrow - sanding that spurious camera gun away. Masking the canopy - awful job. and then I think, airbrushing the airframe!

p.s. Look what came in the post today.

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It's the first fighter pilot's biography I ever read, the first of hundreds, and in the edition I remember. I love that cover painting.