Spruemeister

Nice to see this build. One of these came home with me from Nats. Rick L.

That just pushed this to the next level. Makes it really stand out now. Rick L.

That's modeling! Rick L.

Really coming along well. Rick L.

Nice! I just bought the Hobbycraft Axis Hawks 1/48 kit for the purpose of doing a Torch H.75! Looking forward to your work. Rick L.

18 "spark plugs" on the front faces of the two cylinder banks, ready to be trimmed to length and painted. Each is a short piece of 10lb monofilament glued into a #80 hole. Rick L.

The engine parts. Painted the cylinders with a very thin black enamel. Then dry brushed with equally thin aluminum enamel. Need to drill 18 holes for plug wires yet, then assemble. Not really making the kind of progress I had hoped for lately. Rick L.

Sure isn't anything wrong with that! Well, done. I like seeing older kits built. Rick L.

Oh, that's nice! This is really coming along well. You gonna make me dig out the C&H conversion set. Rick L.

Now you tell me! Rick L.

Similar treatment for the leading edge landing light, except I cut out the space with a micro file and then drilled into the wing. It's not nearly as noticeable, but still better than the nothing that was there. I've scribed three small circles under the fuselage for the three color signal lights, but these will be represented later with Tamiya clear tints over the white. I've also drilled out the shell casing ports under the wing. Shoulda done that before assembling the wing halves. Doh! Exhaust stubs are also drilled out. Working on the cowling now. Engine next. Rick L.

Very nice, Gil! Watching with interest. How about the skin reinforcement panels on the fuselage and wings? They were a late mod to the D, if I remember right. Rick L.

Drilling out 50 cal. gun barrels in 1/72 is nuts I'm nuts. Rick L.

Tri color with red surround insignia. My all time mostest favorite paint scheme on an airplane. Rick L.

I used a #74 bit to drill into the side of the clear piece of sprue, then put paint in the hole so it looked like a colored bulb. Glued it into the corner with CA. Left it over night, then taped around it to protect the fine engraved lines and rivet detail. Profile the tip down with the Dremel followed by sanding sticks to finish shaping, then polish it out with super fine sandpaper, and a few minutes later its done. Really one of the simplest ways to add detail. A little "light" modeling. Rick L.

Left wing light finished. Rick L.

This kit is really nice, but there is some room for improvements with a little light modeling. There are no clear wing tip position lights or landing light on the left wing leading edge. They will be made from some clear sprue as such: I've finished the cleanup of the major seams. No problems at all. It's just a bit tedious because of the stair step effect caused by the overlapping panels on the Hellcat fuselage. Rick L.

I think that went well! Sufficiently random in placement and intensity. I like it. Rick L.

Thought maybe I could breeze through this one fairly quickly and just have a nice relaxing no pressure build. Like they all should be! It's just a hobby... Great kit. Sufficiently extolled elsewhere on the interwebs. Work begins, as usual, in the cockpit with its tiny photoetch. Why do I continue to torture myself with this stuff? I modified the bars on the back bulkhead (the kit didn't have any) for a more authentic seatbelt attachment point. Some of the seatbelt bits were omitted for reasons of clarity and sanity. The kit instrument panel had a bogus gunsight which I cut the top part off, and used a disc punched out of clear bubble pack to represent the reflector. And now that its together and looking acceptable.. its completely hidden inside the fuselage. For not having any alignment tabs other than the small air outlet in the belly, it all fits together remarkably well. I just have to clean up the joints on the fuselage and the wing assemblies and I can have the major portion of building finished. Test fitting of the wings to the fuselage show it to be a very nice tight fit. Rick L.

Great looking model build. And such a great subject too. Just finished reading about the naval battles off Guadalcanal and was inspired by the sacrifices made. I had no idea how huge they were. This, along with the battle off Samar is some of the finest action of the USN. I have the Laffey kit too, along with the Gambier Bay. Someday they will get built as tribute to those who didn't return. Till then I get to watch your work! Looking forward to it all. Rick L.

Judge's Grand Award was the 1/9 scale Farmall F-20. Most popular was the USS Langley. Rick L.

Inbound. Don't start without me! Rick L.

But now how am I supposed to get to Namibia to claim the $14.90 Million that I rightfully am owed by Prince Anuthasuker without my fake passport? Rick L.

Brilliant! I love this model. Just finished a B.2 earlier this year and was thinking about another as a B-57A. Well done! Rick L.

Zero. It's simply not going to make it onto the build list until after the Nationals. I also need to figure out where I stashed my original copy of "The Antelope", the ships official newspaper. It was one of the first purchases I made off eBay back when I joined in 98, and I want to display it with the model. Rick L.