Awesome job, my friend @gblair! Great that you were able to finally tackle that nasty PE.

Thanks, Spiros (@fiveten) and John (@johnb). I finally got through the PE in the cockpit and got to a place I could deal with some of the bigger plastic parts. I hope to be in a place where I can mask and start painting soon.

Hi Carl (@clipper): Well that was weird. I got a notification yesterday that you had replied to this thread, but it didn't pop up to read until this morning. The notification system barely works for me, but it has never done this before. Anyway, lately I have been trying to find ways to better hold things and to deal with small parts. The bar clamps I have are great for larger parts. These are the type that you can get a Home Depot or Lowes to hold wood together, but they are the very smallest size. I have found 3 different sizes of clothes pins that work great and are a lot easier on the plastic than other clamps. I also have alligator clips, but they can be rough on plastic and often distort the pieces I am bonding. Tape is my "go-to" for a lot of tasks, but you have to be careful not to let liquid cement seep under the tape. This happens more than I care to admit. Tiny parts of PE are a whole different problem. You would think that superglue would hold anything, but small PE often eludes the ability of superglue to hold in place. I like some of the new specialized white glue that is designed for PE, but it still has problems if there is only a tiny amount of surface area for gluing. The APD had several of those tiny ladder-shaped PE pieces and I had unsuccessfully experimented with ways to glue them. At times I could get them attached to the model, but even the tiniest amount of handling would cause them to pop free. That is what I envisioned when I saw the wiring harness for the engine with its tiny attachment points, so I decided to save myself a possible stroke and leave them off. The engine looked pretty detailed already. I am counting on you to solve this problem so I can one day return to the APD and its tiny PE parts.

Hi Carl (@clipper): I think one of the problems with superglue is that it is brittle and isn't very strong against side stress. If you try to pull something apart that is superglued, it won't budge. But if you put some side force or twist it, then it pops right off. I think one of the biggest problems with the PE for a ship is that there isn't much surface are to hold the glue. For instance, railings are glued along an edge that is microscopically small. Any side force at all and the railing pops off. I watch videos on YouTube and they make it look so easy, but it never quite works that way for me.

For lost parts, I have actually considered getting a white bedsheet and spreading it under my workbench. It would certainly make finding parts easier, but would make my rolling chair a little difficult to manage. I have also seen people who stretch fine mesh over the hose for a shop vac. The missing parts catch on the mesh and can be retrieved. I need to try one of these just to preserve my sanity.

Excellent job on the landing gear, my friend @gblair!

Nice recovery work there George (@gblair). I can just imagine how badly that could have turned out if it had been done the way the instructions stated. It is certainly possible to do so, but your approach gives you the added benefit of making sure that not only are the angles correct, but that the landing gear allows the airplane to set right.

Beautiful work thus far, George! I don't have an Arma Wildcat in my stash - have a bunch of others - and there is some rich detail in there! Most of it probably wouldn't be seen in a build of mine, since the wheels are up and a pilot is covering up a lot of the interior work. The couple of Arma kits I have built I have been impressed with, but have also found it pays to vary the assembly instructions on occasion, such as you did with the main gear. Nicely done!

I have had lots of life interruptions over the last couple of days, but I have had several small bits of time to move the model forward. It is amazing how much you can get done with 30 or 40 minute chunks of time. My wife will be at a quilter's convention for the weekend, so I should have some more time to work tomorrow. Yeah.

8 attached images. Click to enlarge.