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I began building with Aurora's 'Famous Fighters' in about 1953; by 1958 had switched to cars -- but now I have the urge to do two more fighters: Canard fighters as jets: Kyushu Shiden and Curtiss XP-55 Ascender 'phantoms' project. I have a J-47 jet engine saved from the old (1:48 Revell?) Vought F7U Crusader kit, and made molds to resin-replicate it. I love the forward-looking appearance of the experimental swept-wing canard fighters from WWII, and know both the above were severly limited by their pusher piston engines/props. If nothing else, imagine needing to abandon quick with a big chopper behind you; even though both had means to jettison their airscrews, it would have been a disparaging element! The Japanese kite apparently was designed with a reaction-motor in mind, and the Curtiss design was s-canned without a thought to prototyping a new concept in fighter design. I sourced the Hasegawa Shiden and Czech Model Ascender kits (and not inexpensively, either!) for starters. Besides the obvious mods, there are a number of details I want to incorporate to 'update' the appearance, at least. Also, the Shinden will be in USAAF livery, as an Enemy Evaluation Aircraft to be 'flown off' versus my modified XP-55. Apparently the Ascender, as prototype, had some handling issues, and test pilot CPT Ben Kelsey hated flying it; gave it an "F-" grade (he was enraptured by the Lockheed P-38 anyway!), and with characteristic Curtiss dithering, it died on the vine. It remained for the N/A F-86 Sabre to sell the USAF on swept-wings for speed, whereas the '55 already had them! (Yes, numerous other A/C had true swept, going back to the Dunne Navy biplanes -- 1910-ish -- but like it, most were other canard/tailless prototypes.) The Me.262 had swept leading edges, but for that matter so did the Douglas DC-2/3 series! I want to show them together, both in natural metal finish, as if being 'flown off by AF testers. Also, if I pose them on a ramp, I note that the stalky landing-gears on both can be shortened since no big prop is causing clearnace problems; both originally req. take-off/landing in 'three point configuration' dut to runwa strikes! Haven't rec'd the XP-55 kit yet, as it comes from the Ukraine, apparently! PS/ I realize that the J-47 isn't exactly the shape of the early jet engines, but I'll mod it some, and delete the afterburner section for a simple metal tail pipe. I may donate the display to the Chico Air Museum, where I volunteer. Wick