My first build of this new year was one that should have been far less trouble than it turned out to be. Tamiya's diminutive Heinkel He162A-2 Salamander.
It's a Tamiya - why would anyone expect any trouble out of any Tamiya kit from the 90s and beyond? Well, to put it bluntly, (a) the decals were hot garbage and (b) the cute detachable engine simply did not work as intended. Perhaps the latter problem was of my own making, but I never could get the thing to stay in place on the rubber inserts for the tiny metal rods they provide. The idea is that you can switch out a closed-up engine nacelle, or a nacelle with the doors wide open to display the engine in all its glory. I never could get it to properly seat atop the airframe, so I opted to simply glue it in place and keep it there with rubber bands while the glue cured. The decals disintegrated in water with the instrument panel decal.
I acquired an aftermarket decal set for this that was unlike most commercial decal sheets, in that it was one big sheet that one has to cut the decals out of. There is a lot of decal film showing on this thing that really soured me on the entire build. I also added a Quinta Studios 3D decal set for the cockpit details, which turned out better than the Tamiya decals would have.
Paints are entirely Vallejo. I kept the weathering to a minimum with only a light wash of Flory dark dirt.
This should have been a relaxing build, given the sterling reputation that Tamiya has. It was not for the reasons that I've outlined, although the airframe parts go together just fine. I used no filler. It is a good kit with remarkably few parts, so perhaps I just had unexpected trouble with the engine mount.
I'll probably get started on my next build, Hasegawa's 1/72 B-47E Stratojet (which is just about as big as Monogram's B-17G in 1/48 if my eyeball comparison is anywhere near accurate) this weekend.