Progress on Bench Mk.II has been hindered somewhat over the past few days thanks to a resurgence of the sinus infection that hit me a few weeks ago, but I’m still planning to have things ready to go by Thanksgiving…and that leads me to a conundrum.

I’m planning to tackle Trumpeter’s 1/32 F4F-3 Wildcat in early December to mark the 70th anniversary of Wake Island…but I’m building it as part of a group build that doesn’t kick off until December 15th…so I need something to play with in the meantime.

I’m thinking, in part, of moving forward with some of the tanks I built to the painting stage while the bench was getting packed up for the move.

But…I’ve also been missing aircraft something fierce, so I’ve been leaning toward pulling something quick out of the stash.

That something?

Tamiya’s 1/48 Focke Wulf Fw-190A-3

With a low parts count (I believe this is one of Tamiya’s 2-sprue wonders) and Tamiya’s typical exemplary fit, I figure this one will make an exemplary “back in the saddle” build.

I’m still up in the air when it comes to markings, but I picked up a Kagero Topcolors book at the Austin SMS show in September that’s packed with Fw 190A profiles and corresponding decals, and I seem to remember seeing some interesting -3s in there. More to come as I get this one closer to the bench!