Spruemeister

Maybe there was a ScaleMaster sheet in red? Seems vaguely familiar, but I don't have one in my inventory of sheets. There's the hard way: building from single letters from something like the Aeromaster sheets. Rick L.

I love it! It's another masterpiece! By all means, get yourself a good photo setup. You've certainly got some photo worthy material. Rick L.

Check this out. My White Ensign Colourcoats Flight Deck Stain 21 paint came in the mail today. I hand brushed some on a scrap piece and laid it on my deck. I think I came dang close! Not bad for an airplane guy. Rick L.

Ok. If you will permit me to resurrect this thread, I'll show you the display base I just finished for the little Hellcat. I made it using the DreamModels US WWII flight deck kit and a cheap 5x7 frame from Shopco. The kit has laser cut and etched plank strips, brass photo etched tie downs and styrene backing strips for the tie downs. I cut and glued these to a backing piece of .050 styrene roughed up with coarse grit sandpaper. I used Gator Grip Acrylic glue and I love that stuff. I mixed some MM Deck Blue 20B and Navy Blue Gray about 3:1 and came up with a color I liked. I have no idea if its close and I don't care. It's just a display. I intentionally shot the paint on thin and under applied so it would show the wear down into the wood. I put some black segmented lines on and wore them down with sandpaper. I added some tire marks with black pastel. A brass name tag ordered online finishes it. I'm happy with how it turned out. Rick L.

Hey, you got a Class 3 FFL for that thing buddy? Oh wait. Its a model. Never mind! This is all fabulous work, Pete. Keep it up! Rick L.

Rig that puppy! Just remember to put it in a sealed display case after it is finished because you are NEVER dusting it again. Rick L.

Really bummed at missing the Nationals and especially this event. I hope you are enormously successful with it; beyond your expectations even. Rick L.

That's what I think of when I hear, "ship model". Wow, that's nice! Rick L.

My models crash and burn with regularity. Sadly, their carcasses never survive to tell the story. Rick L.

Dog gone. Hate to hear that. Rick L.

Mark, the Dora is an impressive beast. Saw it in Colorado. Wish I had made contact with you there so you could divulge all its secrets before I someday dive into mine. Rick L.

For me, it has to be the 1/72 Eduard F6F-3 Hellcat. Second best, just because of the shear amount of effort it took, and the "just missed" results in a few places, is the Airfix 1/48 B2 Canberra. Rick L.

Very much interested in this. How is the attachment point for the main struts? Rick L.

That's "Sub" standard. Quite nice actually! Very inspiring. Rick L.

I hope to soon. I'm building for a local contest in June, but after that is a possibility. Several options to choose from. No pressure this year as I won't be headed to Nationals. Rick L.

Thanks for all the nice comments, guys. The colors are Tamiya NATO Black, and a 50/50 mix of NATO Black and German Gray. Rick L.

Just read through all the pages. Well done. Nice collective modeling effort to all! Rick L.

A neutrally buoyant thingy. At times anyway. This is the Riich Models 1/200 USS Gato SS-212 from 1942. It is a really nice kit, with good detail and pretty nice fit. The kit is also available as the 1944 refit Gato with the reworked tower and cut down shear plating. I liked this version because it is the way most early Gato class boats went to war right after Pearl Harbor. God Bless the men who go to war in submarines. It would have been about last on my list. The kit has a few options, but mostly they don't work so well. You can choose between photoetch railings, or make your own from stretched sprue. I opted to torture myself with the etch parts which are super fine and very delicate. The bow planes, stern planes, and rudder are all designed to be moving pieces but I don't think its possible to glue them without permanizing their location, so I gave up. I guess I've moved on from the time when I wanted to play with my models anyway. You have a choice between the 3" and the 4" deck gun. As the 3" was original equipment I went with that, and promptly messed it up. It too, is supposed to elevate and traverse, but that feature went away in a hurry as I managed to glue it solid and slightly askew in its cradle. This is what happens when you give an airplane guy a ship kit. And a 1/200 3" naval gun with (wait for it...) 19 SEPARATE PIECES! The 4" has 2. The color scheme for this is Measure 9. Black. Everywhere, black. The whole model is base coated with Tamiya NATO Black. I then airbrushed some random vertical lines of a 50% NATO black and 50% German Gray mix. I used gray and rust pastel chalks to further weather the hull in the areas where the limber holes flowed water out. The kit has two anchors, but I learned that the Gatos only had one. The Government yard built boats had one on the starboard, and Electric Boat built them with one on the port. So I filled the port well with Milliput. The open torpedo outer shutters on the center bow tubes can be build closed, but I elected to leave them open and show the torpedos (not yet installed in the pictures). I searched for a long time before I finally found an animated GIF online to show how the shutters and the tube doors are arranged and how they open. After I had glued the shutters on in the wrong manner. The kit has photoetched tube doors but with the shutters cut down and thinned for installation, there's no room for the tube doors. Bummer. Its the one thing I would do different if I ever build another one. The aft tubes are molded open, but they have no tubes showing. I layed down for a nap and the urge to modify them went away. The props are injection molded and are a little heavy in blade thickness. They would look better thinned. There is a nice photoetch name plate which I haven't installed on the base yet. I sprayed the supports with Alclad Gun Blue, then very thinly oversprayed them with Alclad Copper for a bit of a different look. This kit also comes with a 1/200 OS2U Kingfisher airplane which I haven't built yet because I can't really draw much of a connection between the two subjects. Maybe the lifeguard missions picking up downed pilots. It's nice, but looks like a lot of work and I need to move on to other kits. And now the proof. And yes, I can hear the comments already: Bring it. I enjoyed building this. I know the scale is a bit odd, but it will make a nice companion to my 1/200 Arizona whenever I get around to building it. At 19" its a substantial addition to the display shelf, and not as much of a hog as the 1/144 or 1/72 kits. Rick L.

Scale them up to 1/350. Take my money. Please. Rick L.

Yeah, I like it too. I'm glad you aren't giving it the heave. Airplanes don't have wood decks. Just saying. Rick L.

Self Titled. Not. Rick L.

That's so cool! Rick L.

Its fabulous! All the little things add up to one BIG thing, and that's the cool part about modeling. All the hard work has paid off, Chris. It's truly something to be proud of now. Rick L.

Yup. By itself, was $45. Rick L.

Thrift store finds $80 total. Rick L.