Well after almost a year of not building a kit (some of you are already aware of why) I made a start on this today. I admit I did get tomcat to do the etched harness as I think that might have pushed me over the edge and back to square one.

Here it is so far (well in now has wings and tail plane on but camera battery died)







any yes that is a pink modelling knife (I hate the colour pink as well but it was the only colour left, well it wasn't Tomcat refused to own a pink knife )

Looking good Sam, A nice kit to get back on board with.

Andy

Good to see your jumping back into the plastic world Sam. So far she is looking great.

Don't worry about the pink knife, at least you know "someone" won't use it or at least put it back when he/she sneaks a cut or 2 from it. If he mocks you too much about it. Don't let him use the pink sanding stick in the picture as well.

After all pink is pink now isn't it.

Keep up the great work can't wait to see more of her

Paul

Great start Sam.
One of the best things about these Tamiya kits is that once the cockpits done they fly together and your at the really interesting stage very quickly.
Looking forward to seeing what scheme this one ends up wearing
Nige

D'oh forgot to say its going to be 'Darlin' Dottie' two tone blue camo with natural metal underside and leading edges. Just have to remember how to use the double action airbrush

Welcome back, Sam!

Terrific to see you building again - your blogs and models are always a right treat to view

Are those harnesses PE?

Rudi

Excellent choice of scheme! ( and uses up some more decals from the Miss Dallas sheet too )
Walter Flaggs "Darling Dottie/Shoot-Your Faded" is one of my favourite schemes.
Here, for inspiration, is UN-F(bar) getting its -50 cals harmonised at Boxted.

"Dottie" in the aircrafts name refers to Walter Flaggs wife and "Shoot-Your Faded" is a call from the dice game "Craps"
Nige

Im doing well its altogether and primed, the pic was taken before priming (yes that is a second Thunderbolt in the background and a Spitfire )

OMG at this rate i better hide the rest of my Thunderbolt stash

I'll store them for you Allen.
Looking good Sam!
Keep at it.
Nige

Not much done lately I did get the aluminium underside painted on last weekend and this weekend I got the light blue topside on. Allen kindly did the colour mix with Tamiya paints for me until he found a shade I liked.



I might try and get the darker blue on next weekend but after two weekends of airbrushing my enthusiasm for modelling is waning again so it may be a while until the next update

I managed to get the light blue masked off for spraying the dark blue.



and sprayed on the dark blue which was Tamiya XF-8



I have since de-masked and the next step is a couple of coats of Klear ready for the decals

Looking good Sam!
Nige

And it's finished at last. Sorry there hasn't been many updates but time at the bench has been limited recently so i was concentrating on building rather than photographing

Beautifully finished Sam, great work and thanks for posting all of the progress pics, they help me out a lot !!

Cheers, D