Your engine looks amazing, Eric @eb801; surely much more than just passable!
Good luk with your sanding: I can sense a good result on this...

Spiros - your folded sandpaper idea is working out great. The secret is keeping it wet which helps retain the paper's rigidity and refolding it once in awhile. The other is going at it nice and slow. Thanks for your suggestion. Seems to work great. I'll smooth it out with higher grit.

I'm still going to order some of those sanding needles.

Two Good Eyes, Just Can't See

Got to pull over to the side of the road here and show you all another GWH foobar that apparently no one in their quality control noticed or any kit reviewers. I certainly didn't until now. The following image shows the top of page one kit instructions. I have no idea if this has been corrected since I purchased this kit two years ago but at least the history text (not shown) is reasonably accurate and appropriate for VT-8.

The current box art that goes with this model looks like this:

Just thought I'd point this out.

Spiros - "Taking note of every detail" becomes rather worrisome sometimes, doesn't it?

That's nice to know. I guess it would be safe to buy the kit that showed up at the LHS, armed with this knowledge of boxart.

A fine looking engine it is, Eric.
Details are spot on.

Tom: Yes it's safe to buy GWH's Devastator again. One thing that amazes me is how goofed up the instructions are. They can't even spell "HORNET" right constantly. One thing I notice is that the kit wheels come only in weighted/sagged form. It's my understanding that carrier based planes had their tires pumped up to the max to counter rough landings. The detail on the kit wheel hubs is not all that great either so trying to mask it is a bit challenging nor do Eduard's wheel masks sit properly. I didn't feel like spending any more money on this kit by purchasing corrected wheels from Aires or someone similar.

Spiros: The problem with GWH's prop tip decals, is that they are not wide enough so you would have to go back and paint the edges of the blades and fill in the gaps with the three colors. If I didn't know better, I would guess Techmod just copied the kit decals instead of correcting them.