ewahl

Well, Simon, this is another one of your jewels. I'm assuming that your main 9-volt power leads are running up one or more of the pod's legs very inconspicuously to the light sources inside the pod. The switches are also on the base? I saw there are both blue and green fiber optic light sources in the early in-progress photos, but I can only make out the blue light on the instrument panels, so where are the green ones? No offense intended; my computer monitor is a picture tube rather than a flat screen, so lighting and colors look different and I may not be picking up the green. Did you say you have another dozen of these on order (oh, yeah)? This client should be very pleased. Great job! Ed

Getting into the story of the scene, this was one very lucky pilot and crew. A moving fragile ship colliding with an immoveable stone cliff ususally loses that encounter; the cliff wins! To avoid massive structural damage to 60% of the hull and the corresponding interior and severe injuries to the crew, the ship would have been moving very slowly as it impacted, wedged, and partially buried itself in broken cliff rock. Any faster and the laws of momentum and inertia dictate there would only be shredded hull pieces the size of a handkerchief littered all over the base of the cliff. [Remember: The airliner that hit the Pentagon on 9/11/01 was reduced to unrecognizeable debris in a very short distance.] This is yet another example of "any landing is a good landing if you can walk away from it." Away from the story, this is still a great scene. I'm glad the client liked it. You did mention this is the Lunar Models vacuform kit, which in itself is a separate construction story. Ed

This is a very impressive build, Dick. The wingspan is more like 36" than 24". The real Enola Gay aircraft is now restored, highly polished, and on display by the Smithsonian. You could have done this in Alclad II Chrome and it would still be accurate. My only complaint when building this version of the Monogram kit is that Monogram did not provide flush plugs for the turret locations and side windows on the atomic bombers. When Martin Omaha built this batch of B-29's for the 509th Composite Group, the skin over those areas was flush with the fuselage sheet metal to reduce drag and increase speed. Imagine my surprise some years ago when I purchased an older kit box of the Monogram 1/72 B-52D at a Regional for $10. Inside the box when I opened it were no B-52 parts, but it was stuffed with two complete untouched Monogram 1/48 B-29 kits. That was one of my better deals at a vendor table after all. Ed

I've been driving myself crazy attempting to scratchbuild accurate manipulator arms for the 2001 Space Pod. The kit is an ancient Lunar Models resin offering whose accuracy can be described charitably as cartoonish at best. I carved so much resin to create a properly sized and shaped front window that I put the kit aside until recently. Comparing the kit to published scaled drawings, I believe the kit could be called 1/35 scale without too much argument. Reopening the box I knew the next step must be replacing the horrible resin pieces provided for the manipulators with entirely new scratchbuilt pieces. So, with Evergreen strip and rod, some copper wire, and tiny metal punching blanks, I've cut and carved and filed and bent to produce what you see in the following two photos. Super glue holds things together. The first photo shows the tiny scale. The second photo shows the originals next to their replacements. This all eventually gets painted white with some red bands on the rods. Ed

What I see so far are many fibre optic strands leading off toward instrumentation and exterior lighting yet to be installed. Are you using the kit's molded instrument panels, or are you correcting them from reference photos? Looks good so far. Don't you just fume over kits that are supposed to be simple builds that turn out to be anything but? Ed

Greg, that's a beautiful job on the staff car to go with the P-51D. I've long wanted such a staff car to replicate a scene from the Gregory Peck movie 12 O'Clock High where General Savage arrives at his new Archbury base and dresses down the gate guard for admitting him to the base without demanding to see the General's ID. The car could also be used on a flight line scene with a B-17F from the same film. Great work. Ed

I'll go with the A6M2. I posted the photo simply because not many captured Japanese aircraft had their public display pictures exist in mass distribution magazines, being considered a military secret. It appears the cockpit canopy is open, and you can see the legs of someone who has his head and upper body inside, even though the aircraft is roped off from crowd access (unlike the crowds invited into the Liberator Express and Commando). At the very least, we have documentation in color of a paint scheme and round star insignia used on the blue surfaces. The gray surface beneath can be seen as just a hint at the tail under the horizontal stabilizers. I suppose some artistic license is allowed with respect to the extent of the gray and the insignia on the undersides of the wings. Ed

In a 1943 issue of National Geographic Magazine, there was a full-color photo essay on the state of wartime Washington, D.C. I was sorting through a pile of old issues saved by my wife's parents after they had both passed away and found the following photo, which I removed and saved for possible use some day. I placed the page in the 1/48 Hasegawa Zero Fighter Type 52 (Kit SP 10). Looking at the canopy of the aircraft on display, this is not the A6M5 variant found in the kit box. The caption reads: "A Jap Zero Reaches Washington--Trophy of War from the Southwest Pacific The prize is one of the chief attractions at the airshow here at Washington National Airport in celebration of the 25th anniversary of air mail service. Beyond the captured plane is a Consolidated Liberator Express, four-engined transpost version of the Liberator bomber. Third in line is a Curtiss Commando transport." Is this the captured Zero that became the subject of Tim's kit in a different paint scheme? How many captured Zero aircraft were there in reality? I suspect this aircraft was tied down on the flight deck of a carrier, painted and marked to appear from a Jap observer flying overhead as just another damaged American plane heading away from the war zone. Hidden in plain sight, as they say. Ed

That's just plain beautiful! What did you say your annual production rate average is? From the subjects I can see, you appear to model many makes and models rather than specializing in a single type (e.g., all Mustangs). Keep it up. Ed

Hi, Rocketeer, Welcome aboard the DF. Some of your answers come quick and in great detail here. Others, well . . . Your best bet for British Royal Crest artwork is on a British Airways modern commercial jet. The 1/144 Revell 747-400 Kit #04204 has the crest printed separately on the decal sheet from the dark blue vertical fin color, but it is printed in SILVER. The 1/144 Revell Concorde Kit #04257 and some earlier issues of the same kit have the silver emblem printed on the blue background. The largest crest I could find was on the British Airways version of the Doyusha 747-200 in 1/100 scale, but the silver crest is again printed on the blue background color. I did not find any good crest examples on Superscale decal sheets, but then I can't claim to have them all. For size, the 747-400 kit is at the small end of your range at about a half inch. The 747-200 is larger but still under one inch. The Concorde is too small. You did not mention what color the crest must be for your project. If you can find a good black image in any size, it can be enlarged or reduced on a copier and a custom decal can then be printed. Good luck. Ed

Bending tubing is more difficult than bending rod because the thin walls collapse. Are you using a bending tool or just a rigid mandrel of some kind? The effect looks great, and the big open engine compartment is beginning to fill up. Ed

WOW! That is NICE. The actual vehicle would be 50 years old sometime this year. Ed

That's my box. Thanks for fishing it out of the archive, Dick. Ed

I have the same kit buried in my collection. I believe the source was Squadron Mail Order many years ago. It very clearly states on the end of the box and on a tab on the trees of parts that they were "Made in USSR." The instruction sheet is entirely in Russian. The kit represents a Boeing 707-321 in Pan Am livery, but the engines appear to be more like the British Rolls Royce Conways than the Pratts used on Pan Am aircraft. The decals are low quality and fuzzy (the opposite of "crisp"?). When comparison checking the source of the molds, look at the engineering of the main landing gear struts. They are unlike Airfix, Minicraft, Revell, etc., perhaps making this a uniquely Russian kit. I posted a picture of this box on Dick Montgomery's Box Art Archive. Ed

Unless it is a softskin of some type with inflated tires, I am at a loss as to why vinyl parts are needed for tanks. I remember back in the 1970's when AMT, after two decades of issuing car kits with rubber/vinyl tires, switched to split-half injection molded plastic tires. This was seemingly OK because it permitted mastering only one half of the tire and the "accuracy" of the tread and side wall lettering was better. The down side was that the draft angles required on the tires for the molds resulted in a crowned tire tread surface with a visible seam when the two halves were joined, making the tires look severely overinflated. The AMT truck kits suffered this change as well. After a few unpopular years, AMT rediscovered hollow vinyl tires and the plastic ones disappeared. I do not believe that either Revell, Monogram, MPC, ERTL, or Lindberg tried to issue car kits with hard plastic tires. The Italeri softskin I am working on in 1/35 has hard plastic tires. Ed

I've had a rattle can of Floquil Figure Primer around for many years. It worked great, and the details still showed through the fine grain of the primer. I've looked for more cans at the LHS, but to no avail. I painted the figure, then, with Windsor & Newton artists oils from the tubes. I like the working time I get with oils for blending, particularly on the flesh tones. The opposite side, of course, is the slow drying and curing time of the oils. I give that a week or more. The boots were painted with Model Master Gloss Black enamel. The gold and silver metallics are thinned Rub-n-Buff without rubbing when dry. Thanks for looking. After a month of no responses I was beginning to wonder if anyone liked it. Ed

Are you planning to keep this plane safe in your air force, or are you going to try again to display it in the ROTC cabinet at USC? Either way, you can be proud to honor the pilot(s) who flew the plane with such a great replica. The USC ROTC should be pleased you would duplicate your previous effort with a replacement for the stolen/lost model. Ed

I found the following unbuilt MPC Profile Series kits in my collection: Kit 2-2501 Boeing B-17G Kit 2-2004 B-26 Marauder Kit 2-2001-200 B-24 Liberator Kit 2-1506-150 B-25 Mitchell Kit 2-1507-150 P-61 Black Widow Kit 2-3001 B-29 Superfortress Kit 2-1512-150 Douglas DC-3 For those not old enough to have purchased these kits when they were on the shelves, the last three digits on the kit number were the number of pennies it took to buy the kit. Apparently I limited my selection to these aircraft because of my interest in them. Obviously I skipped many of the fighters and foreign-made aircraft in the series. MPC later reboxed many of these kits and dropped the Profile Series logo. Ed

Airfix created the kits first. All MPC aircraft kits were licensed reissues from the Airfix molds. The new decals sometimes were helpful, like when three different sets of markings came on the sheet (Profile Series). I am not aware of any aircraft kit tools that were originated by MPC (and please correct me with specifics if I am wrong). The fact that you are getting them for a couple of bucks each is a great deal. What you accomplish with the oldies is impressive. Ed

A favorite CA applicator tool was provided to me by a dentist in our club. He used this tool for minute applications of glues in his practice. It is a hand tool that tapers to wire thin at the end. the fine end is curved almost 90 degrees and has a tiny ball on the very tip. This ball can pick up a tiny drop of CA that is impossible with a toothpick or ordinary cut wire. Because it is made from tool steel, it is easy to remove any built up, dried CA later. Talk to your favorite dentist! Ed

Mark, When you say a kit has been "languishing on your bench for awhile," you must mean like five days instead of your usual three to produce an excellent model. I can't believe you've completed 18 models in 6.5 weeks of 2009. Keep up at this rate and you will have 144 models done this year. I'm in awe, man! Ed

Simon, Yes, it's a classic TV show, but I was in college at the time and did not have the time to spare getting into this Irwin Allen series. That said, your rendition of one of the show's icon vehicles is outstanding. I'm particularly interested in the lighting you used for the headlights. Are those incandescent bulbs or bright LED's? I'm trying to finish the 2001 space pod and need four headlights and a way to lightshield the surrounding resin body of the pod. Ed

I'll bet his wife would get mad if he parked his in the house!!! No wife; no kids; no problem! Ed

One of our chapter members recently completed restoration work on a real Dodge WWII ambulance. His looks just like yours, or is it the other way around? Nice model! The real one can be driven. Ed

Thanks for the low close-up of the interior and dash. Your paint and trim could pass for photos of the real thing in a Ford sales brochure. White lettering on the hoses under the hood makes a neat detail. The final result should be great. Ed