My many thanks to First Tee, Martin, Rick, George and Bud for your very kind words.
Even with all of its misgivings this kit is starting to shape up as a very nice looking model, the Macchi has always been one of my favorite WW1 aircraft and the more I work on this model the more I can see why, it is a gorgeous shape, so perfectly proportioned, just a beautiful looking aeroplane.
Des.