The Little World

Sigh. So near and yet so far.

The F-82 has been completed, will be displayed, and will feel like gravel in my sandal all the days of its existence. The canopies arrived, were fitted, and the job was done.

But the canopies only fitted to a certain extent. They have converted a fine front-line model to the one that sits in the hangar and looks good in dim light.

I was more than pleased with what Special Hobby had done with the rest of the aircraft. The Alaska Red scheme was easier to paint than I had anticipated and the rest of the fit-out went well to plan. It is a handsome plane. Some find it quirky or decry it for a stop-gap measure, but I think it was a brilliant use of resources to put two men into a two-engine fighter with radar-intercept capability and a good long range. Were they backed up with adequate ground radar they would actually have been effective.

I will keep my eye out for this kit again, or for the Monogram version of it for conversion to a Korean War night fighter. It would make a good companion to the P-61 and the Skyknight.