OK..just a quick stop to post an update on my CF-18.
As I feared, the Airfix kit is a dog. I've also managed to lose one of the three pieces that make up the right intake, so I will be attempting to carve a new one out of wood. I should be able to make it work; I "scratcbuilt" a few parts that way for my USS Oregon earlier this year. My other screwup was sanding too much of the ill-fitting speed brake off, so I had to fill in the aft end gap. I even found that the pilot has shifted a couple of vary obvios millimeters off center. I'm sure part of that is my fault, but the fault lies in not anticipating that the crappty kit mount for the pilot would break bad on me after I closed the fuselage!
That said, the fuselage is together and the gear parts are finished drying--I always let white paint dry for a long time, just to be safe. I need to finish filling and sanding along the nose and at the wing root. I also painted the dark gray on the inboard sides of the stabs and plane to paint the blue on the outboard sides tomorrow. So, the stab decals go on soon, and I've come up with a couple of snazzy maple leaf motif designs for the display stand. As long as I can fix that intake, this will be a cool-looking build.
But hey, I'm having fun and my son wants to build about a hundred F-18s, so life is good.
I'm working my way back through the past few pages of comments, and I just want to say all the builds look great so far, and that I hope we'll make this an annual event. See ya!