Phil,

I'm building a Stuka now from the Laser Lizard short kit and I like it a lot. First off, I've found a surprising number of errors on the plans and my first reaction was to assume that the parts were cut incorrectly. However, each time I placed the offending part over the template the match was 100% spot on the money and the fault was in the plans in either the side or top views.

As for the lite ply used in place of aircraft ply, yes, I can see where that could be a problem. Me? I'm partial to lite ply, though, and I merely laminated some 1/16" aircraft ply to the side of the lite ply piece rather than chuck out a perfectly good part. But that's just me. I also bought a Ziroli Hellcat short kit from him that I sold before building and it looked very nice indeed. My experience has been that considering what you get for the money, I think Jesse does a terrific job. But that doesn't mean I'm totally thrilled with doing business with him.

Jesse can be a bit hard to get a hold of at times. I had him make up a short kit for a Dave Platt Bf 109 a couple of years back and the workmanship was excellent. At the time, he said that he could generate the same kit in 1/4 scale with little effort. After about a year after getting the 1/5th scale short kit, I tried to reach him regarding making a 1/4 scale 109 from the Platt design. Email after email and nothing. Not a single reply. That wasn't a good thing and I haven't purchased anything from him since as customer service is very important to me.

Jesse has short kits available on eBay from time to time under "Ziroli" and they are priced much lower than what he posts on his website. Not too long ago you could get the Ziroli Stuka for under $90 and the SBD and Hellcat for about $155 each. That's a deal! Just remember, along with the quality comes lite ply and the possibility of no communication. It's your call whether or not that's important to you.

Al