M829 if we are going to be pedantic.
1:1 scale and when assembled and painted should look something like this.
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You beat me to it! What a terrifying game
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We used to play a variant of that when I was at 1st Armd.
It was called - ‘Don’t look up’
This definitely falls into the category of ‘stupid shite that bored soldiers get up to’
Take one track end connector:
Gather in a circle wearing your steel helmet (at that stage only infantry had been issued Kevlar)
Take turns throwing the end connector straight up while yelling “Don’t look up”… You got bonus points for not flinching. I you got hit you were out of the game. The game continues until only one is left.
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That’s awesome. I remember being little at family parties playing lawn darts and being absolutely terrified I’d brain one of the grandparents/greatuncles sitting around.
Why did they have to sit so close? They would be lined up, watching in little lawn chairs, bald heads shining in the sun, ripe for an errant lawn dart. Pure fear had me pretty good at it
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I lost my lawn dart privileges right after I put a dent in the roof of my mother’s car. Luckily it did not go all the way through but I got reminded of my errant throw for quite some time afterwards whenever she rode in the passenger side of the car.
Wheels
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Finally some more time to put into the Tempest. Decals on, finished up the weathering. I overdid the paint chipping in a couple spots where it looks really unnatural. I should be a bit more careful with my application instead of doing my typical “random” application style.
Up next is top coat and final assembly.
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Nice job on the exhaust staining, looks good!
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Amazing work! Love the weathering and the cockpit! You got the specular map just right too! 
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thought this might be interesting
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That reminds me how bad I want to try one of their 1/24 kits, but they’re expensive, disappear quickly, and more importantly don’t fit on my work bench 
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It’s happening!!
I had forgotten just how relaxing and mind clearing it can be just to sit there and cut/sand/glue/obsess for an hour or two.
Some random notes after 10 years away-
1/72 is small! Like, really small. I had gone from 1/48 to 1/72 before taking a break, but was still taken off guard (especially with this little fighter).
There seems to be no rhyme or reason to why which glues/paints/etc are still usable, and which had to get tossed in the trash after a decade in the garage. Enamels, acrylics, thinners… some just needed a little shake and were good as new, some were goopy toxic sludge (or had just completely vanished into the ether somehow). My best guess is how tight I closed the lid the last time I used them?
Instructions still make me crazy, they are so vague half the time as to where things actually go - getting the cockpit framing together took forever, and even then I’m not sure it’s correct. Luckily in 1/72 once things are closed up you can barely see anything besides the instrument panels and the seat.
Getting to the airbrushing stage soon, the compressor turned right on like a champ, hopefully I did a good job cleaning the airbrush last time I used it!
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That pic screams Mach Loop! 
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Those canopies look great! I can’t believe that’s 1/144, you are certainly a braver man than I for tackling that - no matter what scale canopies give me the shakes with nerves, can’t image trying it that small.
Neat idea with that in-flight too
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I luv this. Awesome sauce. 
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Great to see more people building!
I somehow forgot to post the A6M5 I made after the Tempest. FineMolds 1/72, with aftermarket seatbelts and brass cannon barrels.
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That looks great! Do you know what the little tear drop shape things on the wings are? (and did you hand paint them?!)
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I airbrushed them after assembly (if I remember correctly).
English sources always refer to them as aileron balances, but Japanese sources call them aileron actuator rods. At any rate, I’m convinced they exist for the sole reason of ■■■■■■■ off modelers by flinging off of tweezers, never to be found again.
Or did you mean the four red/blue teardropped things?