Thank-you all for your encouragement and kind words! I will most happily post progress pics after such a nice reception! Thank-you for that because I was nervous as to the reaction/criticism and you all have been most kind to me.
To answer your question anthony...yes, this indeed is my first model since I was11 (a purple Godzilla :) ... I would say results are more from, as my daddy used to say, brute strength and ignorance...but in this case, its more like brute time and ignorance. 10 months, many hours doing, and then doing over. Boards like cs.finescale.com were an INVALUABLE resource for me, as was google images.
My local hobbyshop guy (Scott, Elm City Hobbies) also provided experienced advice and sold me good equipment to start out with. I think the lionroar sets are works of quality engineering, expensive yes...but no one ever regretted buying quality. (also something my dad used to say ;) I use primarily Gator glue for PE attachment.
I AM a lil nervous about the upcoming airbrushing tho...I bought a nice Harder-Steenbeck brush from Scott but my skills need further refinement and I hope I dont ruin it with a bad paint job...but we'll see :) Its been fun learning so far and thank-you all again for the nice words... I cant tell you what that means to me.
Tim/Canada