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I like a good Superman kit -- and this is a good Superman kit.

Interestingly, I didn't think much of this one as I was working on it. It wasn't until I did the final assembly and mounted Supes to the base that this one really came together. Definitely a case of the whole being more than the sum of the parts.

This was also an unusual kit in that the parts got painted first, and then assembled. Most garage kits require full assembly first, then lots of puttying and sanding, and then priming and painting. This one was constructed in such a way that the main parts, all of different colors, could be painted first, and then glued together. So there was the body, the head, the cape, and the hands -- each part a main part that could be painted separately.

The cape is propped off Supes' back by means of a short piece of metal that fits into a hole in his back. Unfortunately, the inside of the back is hollow, and the metal rod accidentally slid inside Supes' body! I had to construct my own rod to replace the one that was now rattling around inside Superman.

A second rod fits between Supes' right knee and the base, to provide necessary stability. I found that the hole in the base didn't align with the way Supes left foot was positioned, so I filled in the original hole and drilled a new one in the proper position.

Rod problems aside, not a lot of other issues with this kit. Fairly clean, very few pinholes or pits. The most difficult thing was assembling the cape, which came in two parts. (I understand the kit is now shipping with a single-piece cape, all for the better.) It's always tough to glue and putty a seamless cape, so some bit of work was required. I was pleased with the results, however.

Paint-wise, I went with a 1960s comic book theme. That meant a light, not-quite sky blue, bright red, and bright yellow. Supes' chest shield worked best with a black outline around the edges, primarily because of the shield engraving. For the shield on the cape, I went with the traditional comic-book yellow-on-yellow, although that's not my favorite color combination. Instead of black outlines, I went with red; I simply filled in the engraving with the cape color, and then brushed yellow over the rest of the insignia. Like I said, I really don't like yellow-on-yellow, but it worked better with red outlines than black, IMHO.

The color scheme for the base came together incredibly easy. It's all the same gray, dry-brushed over black, but I laid the paint on heavier on the "S" part. This made the "S" a lighter gray than the background of the shield, for a nice effect. 

Anytime you have a good flying Superman, there's the temptation to fake all sorts of flying photos. I didn't resist the temptation, hence a battery of shots with the Superman model against sky and cloud backgrounds, courtesy of Photoshop Elements. This is also my first opportunity to show off my new Nikon D70 digital SLR camera; the quality of the shots is much higher than what I was able to achieve previously.

Bottom line? A dynamic old-school flying Superman model. You can't have enough of these!