DaveDeLang

I concure with the description "work of art". That's some damn fine painting and weathering. I give it a 10!

Hmmm, I think I'd glue it in place. If you don't, the first time you rotate the turret the fairing will scrape all the paint off the sides of the turret.

Hi Mike, That actually occured to me but...I was thinking that an opponent wouldn't know "left wingtip blue" and that combined with the fact that as the aircraft rolled, the aformentioned wingtip would change from blue to gray. I was thinking that the sudden change in color as the aircraft rolled might be a bigger camoflage compromise than the change of left and right. But, on further reflection, if there were a number of aircraft in a formation all painted the same scheme, making the top and bottom the same pattern may lead to confusion as to which aircraft are rolling toward the observer and which are rolling away. Hmmm, still thinking on this....thanks Mike, you'll see what I decide in a week or so.

Hey all, I'm working on a 1/72 Italeri F-4S and I'm about to get into the painting stage and I'm doing the "Heater-Ferris #1" scheme on a VF-301 jet. The back of the box has a three view (top, bottom and one side) and I also got another four view off the web. It was done up by Afterburner decals. The color call-out is different on them and the demarcations aren't exatly the same but they both agree on one thing which I think may be in error: they both have a medium sea blue wing tip but it's shown as being on the top of the port wing and the bottom of the starboard wing. The corresponding reverse sides are light ghost gray, that is, the top of the port wing is blue and the bottom of the port wing is gray. Should the bottom diagram be mirror imaged to make the top and bottom colors match up - blue and blue on one side and gray and gray on the other? The rest of the colors are all what appear to me to be mirror imaged on the bottom plan view as well and I think it would cause weird transitions along the bottom of the fuselage. I plan to mirror image the bottom plan but I was just wondering if anyone else thought that was the correct way. This is a link to a thread at Aircraft Resource Center that I just found that has a Don Color image. It also has the (what I think is a) mismatch between the top and bottom plan. Or am I the one that's backwards? The image is in post 11. I'm also going to try an experiment when I lay out the scheme. Since it has straight lines that go over curved surfaces at an angle, the lines will need to curve somewhat on the sides to make them line up straight in the top plan view. I bought a cheap laser level from Home Despot and I'll see if that helps with laying out the demarcations. It's a cheapee so I don't know how well it will work. It appears to use some sort of curved lens to smear the laser light into a line. It's not very fine a line but I think it will get me close and I can eyeball the final border. It was only about 15 bucks so not much is lost if it doesn't work. Heck, maybe I can use it to lay out wood trim in the house or something!

1/12 Honda RC45 - Miguel Duhamel 1/12 Harley Davidson VR 1000 - Scott Russell

An even easier way is to paint the wheel and glue the spat together with the wheel free to turn. Do all the filling, priming and painting and then turn the wheel so the part that got the overspray on it is up inside the spat and then glue the wheel so it can't turn any more. The oversprayed part is hidden forever...or until the cat knocks the model off the shelf and the spat breaks open...

As earlier stated PaK is an abbreviation of "Panzer Abwehr Kannon" or "Tank defense cannon" The German's called the PaK 35 and 36 the Heeresanklopfgerät which translates roughly to "Army door knocker" since they were too small to use against much of anything the Russians had.

I've got a picture of a friend's '69 Superbee engine compartment that looks almost exactly like that somewhere. Race Hemi with a magnesium cross-ram intake, black crinkle painted valve covers, dual Holley 4bbl double-pumpers, MSD box and all. He had a single big air cleaner that fit over both carbs though. I'll see if I can find that photo and scan it in.

Rick, That model was done by a guy in my club Frank B. who was an actual Air Force pilot (ret.). He flew this aircraft as well as many more. The model shows how the pilot would have to release a nuke bomb. Basically the plane would do a complete turn upside down and at the right moment would release the bomb so that it cleared the aircraft and the plane would hall ass out of there. Cool and crazy at the same time. Chris Chris, I don't think Frank flew B-47s, he's old, but not THAT old. He flew AC-119s, B-52s and FB-111s.

Novo is/was a Russian company.

Brian, What are you going to be looking for? I'll be at the IPMS Champlain Valley club sale table - we inherited a stash that we're selling off and I can make sure to bring some stuff off of your wish list. We have quite a few kits and we won't be bringing all of them to the show (too many) so let me know what you want and I'll throw them in the box and set them aside for you to look at. We can probably make a deal that you'll be happy with. Dave

ME ME ME Here's the Emhar MkIV female: And here's the Revell (neé Matchbox) Krupp Protze: I"ve got a couple of others that I'll upload and post later. Ron, I just use the $20 drugstore reading glasses. I have the strongest ones that they had. They work fine for me and my 52 year old eyes. I have regular perscription reading glasses for when I'm actually reading but the drugstore version are stronger.

I give that film two thumbs up! :smiley20:

I had a bunch of the "3 in 1s" im the MPC boxing back in the day. Even then I realized the decals were crap. The first one applied had usually fallen off by the time you put the last one on. Matchbox was great for releasing kits of airplanes no-one else would, and in some cases, no-one has yet. Is there another injection molded 1/72 F3D Skyknight or Supermarine Stranraer?

No, PVA is PolyVinyl Acetate. PVC is PolyVinyl Chloride. PVA is white glue. PVC is rigid plastic. I use thin wire, about .004 inch, to sew vinyl tracks together. You can usually hide the 'stitch' behind armor or up under the fenders. Warning on painting the vinyl tracks, I did an old Airfix Panther and used some equally old Fujimi tracks on it. ('cause the Airfix tracks were just horrible). I painted them with regular enamel and used some enamel washes on them. Now, about 10 years down the line, they are so brittle that a hard glance will break pieces off of them.

I'm working on a PST KV2 in 1/72 and while I was painting it the other day I got to thinking, how come Russian armor doesn't have any stowage or unit markings? The only thing the KV2 has are tow cables and a slogan painted on the turret. No engineering tools or even basic maintenance tools, No division or regimental markings at all, just a slogan and the numeral 3. Is it because the Russians viewed armored vehicles more as "rounds of ammunition" to be expended than as a valuable item that needs to be kept track of and repaired?

Cs and Ds have the wide tires and wing bulges, the B, N and RF-4B (except for the last 10 or so) had the narrow wheels and flat wings. To change a C to a J at arm's length, you need to, in order of obviousness: use Navy style inner pylons (straight tops, not curved) fill the IFR receptical in the spine and scribe the door for the IFR probe on the right side of the fuselage use the correct burner cans add/remove any applicable/inapplicable antennas (later J's have ALQ-126 antenna on the intakes and on the belly, five in all, if you're doing a 'Nam era jet you don't need to worry about them - RWR setup may be different change the wheels, the Navy and Air Force wheels are both wide, but different styles add catapult bridle hooks under the wing roots scribe chaff/flare doors alter the cockpits to suit - the back seat of a J is quite a bit different than that of a C, but then, most J kits are wrong too. No console on the right side, radar scope and hand control in pedestal on floor between RIO's feet, no throttle or stick... It's up to you on how many of these changes to make, just using the correct colors and decals would convince 99% of the public. Another thing to note is that the Navy/Marines seldom flew with wing tanks and almost always flew with a centerline tank. The Air Force is just the opposite.

I can't get over how huge it is and only one engine. The pilot's head must be 20 feet above the ground! Strange coincidence: I was looking through a box of old magazines last night and in one of them was a card from the Airfix "how to build a model" series from six or eight years ago. It was the card on vacuum-formed kits, guess what one of the examples was?

How's this?

seconded

If a kit doesn't come with cables, only cable ends, does it violate OOB rules to make the cables out of wire using the kit supplied parts for the ends? Does this come under the catagory of "rigging and antennas"? I know most armor guys would never dream of building a kit OOB so it probably isn't much of an issue but I'm finding that my output is so low when I get all AMS about a kit that I might start going OOB on some portion so I have something to show for my time. I've got a PST 1/72 KV-2 that illustrates the question, cable ends but no cables. Thanks!