The mailman brought my kit today. Looks as if it will be the first to be built in the new hobbyshop....even if it isn't finished yet. Enough of the construction is done that I don't feel guilty about taking a little time off from carpentry to slash a little paper. I finshed the framing and electrical on the wall I will put the worktable against. One thing I have not stinted on is electrical outlets....the 18 foot length of wall has a grand total of eight duplex outlets, most of them over a meter above floor level. As the design is shaking down, there will be one distribution circuit per wall in the workspace area. Running me a small fortune in Romex wire, but hopefully worth it. I will spend tomorrow morning putting up insulation batts in the new framing, then start slicing paper. Pics to follow.
So far as the kit is concerned, it is typical 90's Maly. It is a recent enough release (1993) that the cardstock is white, not manila brown. However, the card texture is pretty rough....I expect to encounter some problems when I try rolling it. Color registration and printing are what one would expect from this vintage Maly....slight color registration mismatches (enough to notice up close), color voids, so-so draftsmanship, etc. As designed, the fuselage is comprised of body segments to be butt-joined together. I intend changing that to joining strip method...I think there is enough flexibility in the rules to allow that. So far as detail, there is a basic cockpit, but no wheel wells. I compared it to the Answer and Betexa Ki-61 kits in my stash. If this were not a shake-and-bake build, I would try kitbashing and inserting the Answer cockpit into the Maly model....which in a rational world would lead to questioning why do the Maly if one has the Answer kit?
By the way, the penny is dated 1883, and is at least good condition. I guess the difference between a good and fine classification would depend on whether one was selling or buying the coin.
