"These are not dark days..."

Kind of a hodgepodge of a day modelling wise.  It was full of highs and lows and to be honest I could feel that I didn't make much progress today.  But I've got to remember that some progress was made which is much better than NO progress at all.

This was the starting point with the F-15 Eagle missing a decal and some prep work for painting on yellow tail stripes done.

I bought another F-15 kit from Hobby Lobby to use the decals.

Getting the decals was a definite plus for the day.

Got the tail stripes painted on.  Another point in the plus column.  But, removing the tape after painting further damaged/removed the remaining decals and even removed the paint down to bare plastic.  Grrrrr... :-(  2 points in the minus column.  I had to walk away for a little while after this and go do some yard work for a few hours to clear my head.

When I came back I removed the remaining decals and starting repainting the tails.

So that's where I'm at with the Eagle today.

I did get a great surprise in the post today.

The A-10 kit I had ordered through Amazon arrived from the UK today!  Hip! Hip! Hooray!  This was double plus good.

Working on the LaGG wasn't a good time today.  Installing one of the wing straps I had cut out showed that what I thought was an good job of cutting was actually horrible.  I am so embarrassed by it that I didn't take a picture of it.  I'm going have to rethink this.  Using Evergreen plastic card might be a better option.  Sanded the wings down to remove some inaccurate panel lines and the remains of glue.  I am going to try scribing the aileron's fabric and trim tab detail.  I was depressed by the failure of my efforts and left the shop and went back into the house.

Where I was greeted by wonderful smells of baking.

My oldest daughter had made some awesome blue berry and peach with cream cheese pastries!  This was exactly what I needed to improve my mood ;-)  The blue berries were fresh, picked from my mother-in-laws blue berry bushes today.  They were really sweet and were complemented perfectly by the tangy cream cheese and flaky texture of the pastry.  Reinvigorated by this tasty treat I returned to the shop.

Where the army men and I were able to finish out the day successfully by masking and painting the first of my uncompleted models with a coat of Dark Earth.  This Academy 1/72 P-40E is going to have a British camouflage scheme.

The day did not go like I had envisioned but I was able to make some progress.  So as Winston Churchill said, "These are not dark days; these are great days..."  More tomorrow.