Patrick Hagelstein
Joining in! Are you going for a VF-21 livery?

rvbuilder
No. I was in VF-154 (VF-21's sister squadron) from 72 through 75. I was able to find a set of VF-154 decals appropriate to that time frame.

Patrick Hagelstein
Also cool! There is a 1/48 set from that timeframe. Let me look that up…

rvbuilder
That's cool! I don't think I'm going to build one in 1/48 scale, even though that's the scale I normally build. I'm re-creating most of my old Carrier Air Group in 1/72 scale.

rvbuilder
Back to this kit. I bought it many years ago, either from a hobby show or from one of the swap'n'sells my IPMS chapter has. It's been well over 20 years. I wasn't too far into the build before I discovered that somebody had REMOVED the four parts that make up the fuselage and substituted a 2-part fuse. In addition, another part is missing, so the kit is virtually useless, other than for spare parts. I am getting another one from eBay...hope for the best. This is a warning to everybody to NOT buy a kit that is opened before checking that all parts are there. Usually the presence of sealed bags is a good indication, but maybe not always. Buyer beware.

Patrick Hagelstein
I might be one of those guys... I mix and match my parts to have certain details or vague variants of aircraft as projects. Opening a box in my stash with 100% genuine parts is rather a rarity...