Oh wow John, I remember some issues with mine but nothing that bad. Might be my age and memory though. 

Cockpit and seat belts came out really well. 

Ah, that's good to hear. I do remember now some small issues with the fit of the nacelles though. Here's hoping yours fits better than mine did. 

Still need to finish my 1/32nd Zero but I just got a set of figures for this and hopefully it won't be quite as involved a build as the Zero allowing me to get something done here this year.

BTW: Am working on the badges- will hopefully have something to report by the end of the month.

This one is finished, although as always I can see a few spots in the photos I could go back and touch up.  Call it light weathering.  I didn't fill the sink mark below the canopy on the right, that's a dent!  I had to do some filling at the wing roots, and where the nacelles fit to the lower wing.  I taped off close to the areas to fill and used Tamiya putty.  A little sanding with a homemade small radius sanding stick and everything seemed happy.  Some sanding was needed on the wing where it joined the top of the nacelle at the front.  The markings are painted on using masks made with the Silhouette Cameo vinyl cutter,  The masks pulled up a little white and I had to do some touch up with a fine brush.  The paints are Gunze Mr Color 15 IJN Dark Green and IJN 56 Dark Grey, the white is Model Master Flat White and the red is MM Insignia Red.  Tires are Floquil Weathered Black.  Kikka is Orange Blossom in Japanese.  At the bottom is a short rendition of a group photo, with the Me 262 V7 and He-280.

Hey John that's awesome!!! Super job on the Kikka and she looks good with the early German jets.

I'll go post you right now, though I'm afraid I again didn't figure anyone would be done this early so the badge isn't ready yet. I'm hoping the guy who's drawing them for me will have them by early Feb.

Hello Gam,

Please put me down with a Tamiya 1/48 A6M5C Type 52 Zero Fighter. I don't have a work bench yet....so I'll use the Mrs. Dining room table. 

Sure enough Hunter, it's good to have you aboard again. I know what you mean about the table, been there, done that, got the t-shirt.

Gamera

My kit came in today's mail....I will be starting it in a few weeks, I have acouple of GB's to finish first.

Looking forward to this GB....really enjoyed the last one.

Very cool Hunter, I think you'll really enjoy that one!

I did get some work done, the Type 95 is pretty much together except for the muffler screen. I'm going to try to put down the yellow stripes over this as a primer and then move on the the three colour camo.

Gamera

I did get some work done, the Type 95 is pretty much together except for the muffler screen. I'm going to try to put down the yellow stripes over this as a primer and then move on the the three colour camo.

 

Thanks Hunter, wish I had more progress to report but I've building a B-17 airfield diorama for a vet and it's taking up most of my modeling time right now.

Hi all...here's an update on my Gekko. The wings and tailplanes are set, and there are a couple updates to the cockpit plus the guns are in place. I'm building tape & wire seat belts, a first for me (thank goodness this aircraft only has lap belts!) , and then I can glue in the seats, close things up and prep for paint.

Let's see if PB is happy tonight and will let us view a couple photos:

The answer is no. I'll try to get them downloaded soon. Gotta get another hosting site. Meantime hope everyone's having some good benchtime!

Mike

Hey Mike, good to hear you're making progress. And yeah PhotoBucket..... I use it, haven't (thankfully) had any big issues but it's really gone downhill from when I joined. 

Quick update: I still haven't heard from the guy I'd asked about the badge artwork. I'm going to pop him an email later this week and try to figure out what's going on. He's very reliable so I hope it's not some family issues that have come up. 

If at all possible I'd be interested in joining this build. I literally just started a project with the Limited Ed. 1/32 Hasegawa A6M5c Super Ace kit. I am well below 10% started on the kit. This build is also being done for a review on another site and will be completely built OOB.

Sure! I'll go put you down right now. I started Tamiya's 1/32nd Zero over a year ago and ended up really bogged down, hopefully you'll motivate me to get my rear in gear and finish mine! 

I know how that happens! I've had several projects that I intended to finish or start and something comes up and it never happened.

Thank you for adding me to this build! I have moved this project to the front of my list since I'm also doing it for the review. The kit is great so far, the parts fit wonderfully and the ejector pin marks (where there are some) are strategically placed on spots that will not be visible after construction.

Gamera, I can do a badge if the other person can't.

Awesome, thanks Jeaton! I'm going to try to catch up with him sometime before the end of the week. If he can't do it I'll be sure to take you up on that offer. 

Sure John, going to put you down right now. 

Hey Jeaton, thanks again for the badge offer. I just got in contact with the artist and it slipped his mind. He told me he's going to try to whip something in the next week or so. I may still need some work done on the colouring and captions. 

BTW: I think I need to call you guys by your handles, since we have two Johns in the build now 

Gamera, needed a break from the Lancaster I'm working on so here are three possibilities.  No hard feelings if you choose another, I like to noodle around with this stuff.

Oh, I like #2 followed closley by #1 IMO

Those are awesome Jeaton, love the vintage look. There's no reason to have one badge, I've had more than one before and I've seen other GBs go with multiples. So if you don't mind I'll throw one, two, or all three of these up as badges along with the one I'd planned on. Is there any more work you wanted to do on them? 

Unless you want some changes, I would just resize them all to 150 pixels high so the file size is reasonable for the purpose.

Hey Cliff,

Like to join up with Hasegawa's 1/700 Hikawa Maru. My first ship build so I thought it would be an ease in. However the more I look at it, the more I want to fiddle with.

I have bought some 1/700 PE railings, see if that ends in tears...

I will fit this in with the never ending MB 5 over in 1946.

For some reason I can't see John's pictures - can't see them in the FAA GB either, so I've got to dig a bit deeper there.

Piers

The three badges sized to 150 pixels high.

Very cool badges, John. Looking forward to earning one!

Mike