That's such a great small story,my friend @gblair! I bet you have a lot more to tell, after all your Air Force years (I do!). Many funny things happen "on the spot", this is one of the (many, I admit it) things I love the Air Force for...

Anyways...

After our friend @johnb started his really nice build of his Typhoon here, I told him that I had built one for a friend some 20 years ago and have another version of the same kit he builds stashed. Inspiration started to rise, after John's build. Then, I started Hasegawa Saburo Sakai's quarter scale Zero...

https://imodeler.com/groups/the-empire-of-japan-1919-1946/forum/topic/saburo-sakais-1-48-hasegawa-a6m2a-zero/

...with John starting his same kit but different version. We thought it would be cool to join the Zero builds, so he took the time to write some nice intro and create a combo build thread that contained both Zeros!

https://imodeler.com/groups/the-empire-of-japan-1919-1946/forum/topic/combo-a6m-zero-build-spiros-build-of-saburo-sakai-and-johns-build-of-hiyo-fighter-group/

To make a long story short, since John has started his Typhoon with me willing to start mine and since we had started the combined Zero builds, we thought it would be kind of cool if I also started my Typhoon, kind of running two combo builds simultaneously!

With John kind enough to let me post my Typhoon progress here, yesterday noon I unpacked the Typhoon and started putting it together. So, here it is!

Boxart...

Sprues...

Nice clear parts and the famous poly-caps...

Instructions included are from the three bladed version...

with an extra attachment to cater for my specific version...

Decals look well printed...

...but with the (in)famous ivory shade at the whites, a couple are missing, as I used them at my previous Typhoon built, which "leaves" me with the option to build only the 198th RAF Sq "TP Q" bird, carrying invasion stripes only underneath, and an extra white "Q" letter bilaterally of the front cowling, kind of cool actually! This is an actual pic of the plane...

I started by putting together the cockpit, attached it at the fuselage...

...then attached the wings... After seeing a couple of pics with drooped elevators, i decided to separated them, as to pose them dynamically. Only problem that they had hollowed innards... ...so I glued some sheet at the stabilizers and treated with liquefied styrene the elevators... After trimming and the like, I attached the stabilizers.

The wheels and prop were assembled, as well. Here is the progress so far:

Thanks for stopping by!

What a great introduction to start (or continue) this thread as a combo build, Spiros @fiveten
It will be nice to see the differences between your four blade bubble top and my three blade car door variant.
Very nice to see the elevators in a lowered position. Mine are already attached (fixed) so I will leave it as is.
Hope to make some progress this weekend on my Typhoon as well.

Twin builds, should be fun. I will be following both builds.

Great work done, Spiros @fiveten
Especially getting rid of that gap with LqS is well done.
Hope to make some progress on mine this evening.

@gblair, thanks George, and what a great story. I can imagine that your were very nervous to be a movie star in such a short notice.
@fiveten, my progress is as follows

Not to much done but step by step the smaller parts are ready to be mounted in short notice
Masked the car door canopy and main wheels.

And later on paint the wheels and finish the three blade propellor including the yellow tips.

Looks good, John (@johnb). I always worry about masking before I attach the canopy for fear that the glue will wick up under the masks, but the one time I had it happen was my fault for using liquid glue to attach the canopy.

Looks like a solid sanding session, Spiros @fiveten