nmertes

Progress on the Banshee build. Picture 1 is the shelf behind the pilots seat. I added the cabling using .2mm wire & Elmer's glue. I'm tempted to remove the wires & redo it. There's too much glue around the wires. #2 is the instrument panel. I'm using the Eduard BIGSIN PE set to make detailing easier. #3-6 are the cockpit tub. I still need to paint the pedals. #7-8 are the nose mounted forward oblique camera. The nose camera is flush with the tip of the nose. The kit makes it look the plane has a wart on its nose. It will be easy to fix. Just a pain to have to do it. #9-10 are the camera platform. I don't understand how Kitty Hawk could screw up the camera bay parts as bad as they did. Photos in both the Detail & Scale book & Naval Fighters #73 have good detail shots of the camera installation.

Recce planes have for years used either 5" or 9" wide film. The RF-4C's that I'm most familiar with shot 5" normally. In Southeast Asia, a mission might run 200-300 feet. Training mission here in the states usually didn't run more than 100-150 feet. The OBC camera installed in the nose of an SR-71 had a 10,500' roll of film that took about 12 hours to process. The frames were 6' long. 74 frames would fit on a spool that held 500' of film. So a technician stayed at the end of the processor and cut the roll of processed as required. Too many days spent in a darkroom with a Houston-Fearless film processor. I hope to have some time to work on the Banshee this weekend. Will post some pictures next week.

Hi, Gil. I'm not planning to have the panels open. That would take a lot of work I'm not up to doing currently with the limited amount of time I have at the work bench. I bought the CMK resin camera set with plans to do something with an RF-4 or F9F-8P (which is also in my stash & I think has the same camera setup as the Banshee). The person who did the panel open model published in the D&S book on the Banshee did a very good job but anybody familiar with aerial cameras would notice the error. In addition, there's no reason to have 2 oblique cameras on the same side or both sides in the case of what's included in the kit. A mapping mission would have a right oblique in the forward station on the right side, a vertical camera in the center station & a left oblique in the 3rd station. I know; more information than you probably wanted. As for the windows, I'll probably use Krystal Klear or similar if the kit parts don't fit well. BTW the 3rd camera appears to be an infrared line scan camera. I haven't been able to confirm that from what is in the D&S book or what I've found online.

First an update. The Monogram F9F-5P Panther I had started suffered a fatal accident. It fell off my workbench & I didn't see where it landed. Rolled my chair back & heard the crunch everybody dreads. I'll keep it for airbrushing practice. So I started on the Kitty Hawk F2H-2P Banshee with plans to do it in VC-61/VFP-63 markings. The cockpit is almost complete so I started assembling the cameras. I'm not sure where Kitty Hawk got their information on what the cameras look like but, they don't look like any that I've ever seen. I spent 18 of my 22 years of military service working in & managing recce labs. I had the opportunity to get up close to the cameras in the RF-4, SR-71, & U-2. These look nothing like an aerial camera. The 1st photo is the camera set from the kit. The 2nd photo is CMK's resin set 4333 for the Tanmodel RF-84F. The RF-84 flew a couple years after the Banshee and would have had similar if not the same cameras. The kit cameras look like they have lenses on both sides in an oblique orientation. In normal operation, a mission might have had a left & right oblique and maybe a vertical camera. They would not have been mounted on the same station. If this is the biggest complaint I have about the kit, I'll be happy.

The blade is a #3 stitch cutter. I found a Chinese company that sells them for $4.90 each with free shipping. Ordered 10 but they won't be here for a couple weeks.

Cincinnati Surgical has the blade I'm looking for but, you have to spend a minimum of $100.00. That many blades would last 3 or 4 lifetimes. They sell 100 blades for $37.00.

I'm not looking for the bottom blade. I have plenty of those. I'm looking for the top one.

Looking for a source for a specific scalpel blade. I'm not sure where I got the top blade but, it has a different curve from the standard one below it. The bottom 1 has been cut off to fit my graphic arts handle. Anybody have an idea?

Welcome, Butch. The space & si-fi modeling folks are a growing group in IPMS. Hope to see some more of your work posted here.

Anybody know of a source for a 48th scale flightline tug. I'm playing with the idea of a ramp diorama as a "base" on which to display various aircraft. I thought Aerobonus would have a tug/tractor with all the trailer/support items they produce but can't find anything.

The ballot/survey isn't recognizing my username or password. I checked my login information & reset my password but it still says it's unrecognized. Anybody have an idea what I'm doing wrong?

Thanks for the recommendation Ralph & Gil. I'll look into them.

Some years ago Aeromaster & Microscale produced letter & number decal sheets. Does anybody know if those are still in production or if another company is doing something similar?

Good lookin' Scooters there, Gil.