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I'm sure that you've all heard the phrase "my eyes are bigger than my stomach"? Meaning don't bite off more than you can chew. I've always been intrigued by dioramas. The stories that they tell can be awesome. I've always felt that the best aspect of a good diorama is one that each new time that you look at it you find some new hidden detail that you missed the previous time. I finally decided, a few years back, that I was going to build my first diorama. Being a car guy it almost made sense that I would do a garage with vehicles, tools, supplies, etc. I also like nature so I wanted to incorporate some added outdoors scene as well. So, one thing led to another and the next thing you know my design is way out of control and taking up a tremendous amount of space. It was fun but finding somewhere to store it/display it when it was done was no easy task. I also only took this to one contest after it was done because of the size and weight. Here it is. I framed the garage completely out of wood. Removable roof, real shingles, opening garage door and as much detail as I could throw at it without it becoming too busy. It was great learning experience that mainly taught me that if I ever did any more dioramas, (which I have) to keep the size in check.

The new 1/72 Airfix Gladiator is a real sweetheart of a kit. No flash and any mold seams are slight and easily dealt with. Fit is as with all new Airfix kits, precise to the point that you need to be very careful during clean up not to remove too much anywhere before checking. I did mine OOTB with the exception of using the S.B.S. rigging wire set. (#72046). It gives you a complete set of rigging all pre-made to the correct lengths. You do, however, need to pre-drill holes to receive the wires, so advanced planning is necessary. As they are made in a silver metal, I painted mine a darker metallic color before cutting them from the fret. Almost all the wires fit spot on, but a few needed a slight bit of tweaking, probably due more to my assembly technique than any error on their part. The only thing missing is the antennae. It would have been nice to get that as well, but it's either easily made or can be omitted entirely from some versions on the a/c. I did mine in the camo of the Swedish volunteer unit that flew for the Finns during their war with Russia. (P.S. Notice how I forgot to remove one of the pieces of masking from the left rear of the canopy. What a twit. Problem has since been solved.)