MikeOberholtzer

Gil, that is a beautiful RB-66! Makes me want to pull one of my many Collect-Aire kits off the shelf and give it a try. I will probably start smaller though! Very nice work. Mike

Gil, I saw your C-119 at the convention and wondered who had gone to all that trouble on a Combat Models kit. Great work, and thanks for posting it here too.

Beautiful model Gary. Thanks for posting the in progress photos. Some great inspiration! Mike

Herb, very nice models. I'm a big Reporter fan so I'll have to get that Lone Star conversion. You did a really good job on it. Thanks for posting these! Mike

Beautiful job Chris!

Mark, I've recently been visiting the forums more regularly, and I always look for your posts. I can't believe your model output! Not only high volume but high quality too! You are an inspiration. I've completed one model so far this year and have several nearing the finish line. I am in awe of your production line! Mike

Takes me back to my misspent youth! Riding around in cars like this with my buddies on warm summer evenings was the best. Great looking model!

Beautiful job. Thanks for sharing it with us.

Gary, I just came across your excellent build. I'm an aircraft guy myself, but many of your techniques will work great for any scratch building needs. Thanks for your photos and great explanations of your work! I can't wait to see the rest. Mike

Thanks for sharing Eric! Mike

Catdude, that is one gorgeous tank! Those wooden wheels look amazing.

Gil, Beautiful Hawk. That aluminum finish looks great. Mike

Just realized you want the AEW, not ASW. Those are not seen as often. :-(

Joe, There are almost always one or two Classic Airframes Gannets on eBay. One is listed at the moment for $99.99 plus $9.45 shipping. I guess it depends on how much you want it! :-) Mike

Joe, You got it! The other intakes in the kit do have raised panel lines. They are on a sprue with cockpit and gear well parts which were probably never changed when the kits were retooled. The change in size of the intakes must have something to do with the new wing. Thanks for clearing this up for me. Mike

That is a good looking F-18! It embarrasses me to say I started that kit after the 2008 Virginia Beach Convention but somehow got sidetracked and never finished it. Your build gives me inspiration to pull that kit back out and finish it!

Thanks Tim. My suspicion was that they are all the same. Thanks for the confirmation. It does make me wonder why Hasegawa thought differently! Mike

Thanks for the reply Gil. I wondered if I had used the wrong intakes but I used the correct ones, and all three of my E/G/EJ kits have the same instructions to use the larger intakes. I'm just baffled! Mike

I'm working on a Hasegawa F-4E and decided to replace the kit intakes with some KMC/True Details intakes I had on hand. The fit was good and the modifications to the fuselage were fairly easy. I brought the fuselage in to show my fellow club members with one kit intake and one KMC intake taped in place. Much to my surprise the KMC intake is much smaller than the kit intake! Back at home I pulled out the unused set of intakes from the kit and found out that they match up well with the KMC intakes. After much research I now understand that Hasega's F-4 E/G/F/EJ kits all include these extra larger intakes, and several aftermarket intake makers also follow along with the bigger replacements. So here is my question: can anyone point me to references that show that the E/F/G/EJ intakes are any different on the actual aircraft? I can't find a thing online or in my many reference books. None of the photos or drawings I've seen indicate a difference either. So what gives? Thanks for any light you can shed on this question! Mike

Most of my business goes to Sprue Bros. for all the reasons Dave Morrissette mentions. I seldom buy from Squadron anymore; they are almost always out of stock of the things I am looking for, and they have some big gaps in their product lines (type Kinetic in their search engine!). Since I also build some armor I use DragonUSA too. One place I wouldn't overlook is Roll Models up in Minnesota. They aren't as fast as others, but prices are good and they find a way to get the stuff I can't find at Sprue or Squadron. If I have a big order for Eduard stuff I will go direct. Their shipping is hit or miss though. Mike

Dave, There was an article on the Heater-Ferris F-4S scheme in the Decmeber 1992 FSM. There were several variations to the scheme with different colors of markings as well. It seems in all cases the upper wingtip was a different color than the lower wingtip on the same wing. Mike

I can send you a scan but it is too big to attach here. What I have is the Occidental Harvard; it has two rocket pods and two machine gun "bathtubs' for the Portugese version. Let me know if you want me to email it ot you. Mike