This was a fairly easy and fairly quick kit to put together, though it does have a few fit issues. It comes with 2 variants, the P-82F and P-82G.

Step Zero - Taking note of the instructions and the sprue:

The the instructions were mostly clear on where everything went, but I wish that there were a few images depicting how certain things were supposed to go together , like the fuselage and cockpits. There were 2 different variants to chose from, the P-82F variant with that had a large radar nacelle and a P-82G that had a rocket rack. I opted to make the “G” variant, but only put on the drop tanks, not the rockets or bombs. I sprayed white primer on the parts while still on the sprue.

Step One - Assembling everything:

Everything fit into place nicely, but I could never get  the landing gear doors to have a strong enough connection, the plastic connection was just too thin.

Step Two - Painting:

I taped off the cockpit any overspray. A large portion of the the aluminum flakes and acryilc, about 1/4th of the bottle, had dried and basically thickened beyond use at the bottom of the bottle, but I thinned it with some airbrush thinner and. It came back, at least most of it, and after a quick stir it was fine in my airbrush. I sprayed the entire body first with the aluminum, then I taped off the parts that needed to be red. I forgot to tape off the part where the Boom ID String  goes, so I had to hand paint that part with some aluminum after I was done. I also hand painted the dark green section in front of the cockpit. I sprayed it with a gloss top coat then put on the decals. I then glued on the painted landing gears. After the decals had dried, I sealed them in with another gloss coat. I do need to pick up a paintable jar of flat top coat, because some parts, like the green panels, should be a flat color.

Step Three - Weathering and Final Thoughts:

I decided to only do minor weathering on this model. I used a thick mud wash for the wheels, a thin black wash for the exhaust and the grime, and a thin lighter brown wash for hydraulic fluid and to give some parts depth. I liked this model and overall there were no major issues when building it.