Hi Bernard (@lis). You are absolutely correct about photoetch. I really like the way it looks, but sometimes it is a real chore to get it done.

Cockpit looks great George (@gblair). That PE is a pain at times. And the carpet monster, amazing how many times that same scenario happens where the part disappears , then reappears either after you can't use it, or when you least expect it.

Excellent job, my friend @gblair! Love this cockpit. I believe there's a parallel universe in every modeler's carpet.

George (@gblair), I already know the answer to that because I have often wondered the same thing. So one day, I quietly hid behind the door and just watched my work area. Would you believe it, I saw these short little two legged furry creatures with pointy ears rise up out of the carpet and go around moving things and dropping them in different places in the carpet. Some even climbed up on my workbench and stole parts off my work area and hid those in the carpet. Guess I need to get pest control to take a look in my hobby room. 🙂

I have been watching college football today, but I managed to get some work done during the halftime breaks. I reached the point in the instructions where I had to pick a paint scheme because the configuration of the plane is different for the different paint schemes. I chose the paint schemes that carried under-wing rockets, which then dictated the tail wheel and a few other things. I am trying to be careful in my building because you have to build portions of the landing gear prior to closing the fuselage. It looks like everything ended up straight. The fuselage was having problems fitting over the cockpit assembly, but I finally got a good fit. I left the upper nose and part of the turtle deck unglued so I can do a little work to minimize any cleanup. The last thing I did was drill the holes in the wing for the rockets. More tomorrow. Cheers.

8 attached images. Click to enlarge.

Hi Carl (@clipper): I always prefer the Atlantic scheme, so I will probably go with the grey and white. This kit is really detailed and has been fun to build, even if it means working with PE that I can barely see. I built the old Monogram Wildcat several times, and I fondly remember the pilot with the peg coming out of his back. At one point I was thinking about scratchbuilding a new cockpit, but some of the newer Wildcats were coming out, so I chose them instead. I had to do a little adjustment on the cockpit for this one to get the fuselage to close around it. All the parts of the cockpit all slotted into each other, so theoretically it should have fit perfectly. I suspect there was just enough play in the parts to cause a slight misalignment. The fuselage should close up fine, and I am hoping not to have too much sanding to do. I should know more tomorrow. Cheers.

Some really nice progress, George @gblair
Personally I also do look that white/grey scheme a lot. Looking forward to it.

I got the fuselage filled, sanded, and rescribed today. I also got the engine painted and installed. The engine is very detailed, including a bunch of PE. I voted to leave the PE for the ignition wires off the engine. The engine looks very detailed to me, and I was getting really frustrated working with very tiny PE. Speaking of tiny, there is a very small piece that attaches to the top of the center housing, and then a very tiny PE gear attaches to that. I was attempting to glue the plastic piece in place when it twanged into the carpet. After an hour of looking, I managed to find the piece. I added glue to the top of the engine, tweezered the piece in place, and then had it promptly fall off. I had apparently missed the spot of glue, and the piece was in the carpet again. It only took 30 minutes to find it this time, and it is now safely glued to the engine. My Karma must indeed be in sync with the universe to find this piece twice. I also built and installed the wings. All of these pieces are now drying overnight. All the tail surfaces go on tomorrow, then another few hours for the glue to dry. Then it will be time to tackle the rest of the landing gear. :o)

5 attached images. Click to enlarge.