Greetings,
Well, I'm already worn out. I've had just about enough trimming, filling, sanding and tweaking. As I said earlier, I'm just not gonna be obsessive about trying to make this perfect, but some things just weren't acceptable, such as the abysmal "fit" of the fairings on the big scoops on the booms. I mean, these just weren't even remotely close. Out came the Tamiya putty.
The gun bay doors and the nose piece were particularly hideous.
I've been fighting the good fight on those, and I'll try to do some more smoothing, but there's only so much I can stand. I know this kit can be turned into something excellent, but my skills aren't yet at the level where I can compensate for and correct brittle plastic that just doesn't fit.
So a little more smoothing and fiddling (not to mention about a cubic yard of damp TP to fill those wheel bays) and it'll be off to paint.
I'm still leaning toward the NMF "St. Louis Blues." I'll use MM Metalizer because I've used it before and it's what I have on hand. Which means I'll be spraying OD for anti-glare panels and blue for stripes first, as I don't want to mask over the delicate Metalizer. And that means I have to try to match the blue of the other markings. Unless I call an audible at the line and switch it to "Black Market Babe" in OD/gray, which would probably be the far simpler choice.