Don't you just hate when you buy a kit on eBay, supposedly complete, only to go through it & find it's missing a major component? Yeah, it happened to me. I just so happened to run across a guy that had a partial kit of the same up for grabs & let me have it for just $3 USD. Not bad considering that the eBay seller didn't even bother saying anything to me & just refunded my money. I spent a lot more on resin & will spend yet more on decals.
Let it be a lesson to all other modelers out there. Don't take unfamiliar sellers' words at face value that a kit is complete. Double check to make certain EVERYTHING is there. And remember; Folks can easily shrink wrap stuff at home so that's not evidence that it's necessarily complete either.
My late great friend James "Jim" Marrs taught me that little pearl of wisdom while recalling a guy that frequented the model shows up & down the East Coast of the US with collectors kits, Aurora & the like, shrink wrapped. He got away with it for almost a whole year until someone opened it to find random sprues & junk parts in the box. I can never remember the name of that guy. Meh, for all I know he's getting magma swirlies from Jim down below as I type these words. If you knew either guy well you knew that neither of them would have any way of making it anywhere near the Pearly Gates!
