JohnRatzenberger

Yea !! for more British stuff, but I'm not sure about the invisible part ....

Mark, and all others. I made an error in my post about the calendar. If you add an event to the calendar, there is a setting to make it visible to everyone, or to yourself only. So yes, you can put personal items out there but be sure to find the option that makes it visible to yourself only. However, there is still only one calendar, so you, personally, will see all global events plus your personal events -- that is, it won't be a "you-only" calendar. Sorry for that error ...

Mark, I believe there is only a single, global calendar -- anyone can add events to it and everyone sees everything. We want members to plug in their chapter events, other local events that might be of interest (air shows, tank clanks, etc). It's probably not the best place to record a personal calendar but otherwise it's for things of IPMS & modeling interest. Check the Help topic at the top of the screen and scroll about 2/3 down the list of topics to find how to use it.

My library has many, many books on the B-17, 8th AF, BG histories, crew bio's, etc -- I've been in love with the B-17 since well, at least when the War Lover (the book) came out, if not before. Nonetheless, this is nuts ... Ain't gonna happen .... For one thing, I'd have nightmares thinking about preserving (or restoring) that rivet pattern -- that would take all the fun out of it.

Ouch ...

I suggest you Google for cummins 855 (then some of the others listed above) and follow the links and look at the images -- I found a lot of stuff out there that may give you what you need. I did see one statement that the N-14 was not an 855 but was based on it -- I don't know if that makes them look-alikes or not. Happy hunting !!!

I have linked their new SIG page to the album http://web.ipmsusa3.org/sigs

Oops, I just didn't connect the website dots -- questions answered, thanks. That is a nice looking instruction booklet .... sorta like the WNW ones, maybe a trend ?

If that cockpit's a sow's ear, you've made a silk purse out of it ... (whereas I usually go the other way) ... Absolutely unfamiliar with this kit, not surprising since I mainly build old British stuff, but is it 32nd scale ? The manuf is Zokei-Mura ? From Japan I guess, have they done anything else ? How about a box art shot ?

If you are a new member, then it will depend on the date you joined versus the mailing cycle. The Sep/Oct issue has been out a few weeks now, so you might have missed that. Your best bet is to contact MJ Kinney, our Office Manager, who can tell you your subscription dates and/or get a replacement in the mail to you. Her email is mj@ipmsusa.org

Steve Zaloga has said that Tamiya's XF-62 is the best match, lightened with some XF-60. But I also saw that XF-62 has changed recently, so I don't know. Here's the M4 HST where I used the XF-62/60 mix (look at pix at very end, there are lighting variations in the WIP pix) ... http://www.ipmsusa2.org/reviews2/mil-veh/d...-details_02.htm

And there were a couple similar looking aircraft, same fleet spotter role -- the A.W Atlas, the Avro Bison ...

Good, the system works !!

Roden kits have several reputations -- decals, soft detail, etc ... but they have an interesting range and the kits build up nicely. In my experience, their customer service is slow, but good. For along time, many US ISP's blocked email to them. If you could get past that, they might not respond quickly, but they did respond and correct the problem. Their 1/48 SE5a came out with the wrong # ribs and they fixed it, mailing new wings to anyone who asked. I found mold flaws in their 1/32 SE5a wings and they sent me new wings. I had bad decals on another (long ago) and got replacements. It's an adventure. I usually test a small piece of their decal sheet before I start putting too much time into the build.

IMHO, it's OK to kit the arty and prime movers separately ... sometimes I do firing, sometimes traveling ... some can be used elsewhere, etc .... Just produce them !!!

Hopefully they'll do a FAT (or two) to go with it .... Perhaps, just perhaps, they (& the modellers) have run out of interest in more German junk .... between Bronco & Vulcan, we've recently got the 2-pdr, Bofors, and 17-pdr .... some emphasis on Allied vehicles would be nice also ....

Most graceful -- the Spitfire, and I like the clip-wing versions most. Now, overall best looking aerial war machine -- has to be the Corsair.

The plot sickens …. I have a search running on E-bay for these kits, and lo, another Stage Coach popped up. However, I noticed that although the box was the same, the kit had more plastic parts than mine. I bid and got it for a song and FREE postage. The description said it was incomplete and I understood that. Sure enough, it was incomplete, but that's OK -- I wanted it for comparison. Now, there is no date, no version, no nothing on either kit or the plans to distinguish them -- they are both Frontier Manufacturing Kit #1 Stage Coach. I assume the wooden one is still the earlier kit of my memories. The "plastic" version does have nicer wheels -- perhaps you can see that the red wheel have wheel nuts whereas the yellow ones do not -- I may use the red ones instead of the yellow. Interesting …. I still have no real documentation on the company or the kit line.

Thanks, that's about the Death Valley Days Borax Wagon kit -- I already have this link. I thought (hoped) you had a link of the Frontier series of kits .... But, as you say, it is a cool link for the 20-mule team stuff ....

Welcome as both a new forum member and new IPMS member !!!! Seems like you've jumped right in with both feet, or you were too slow to get away, if they've got you on the Conv committee already -- Thanks for stepping up !!!

If so, they go pretty cheaply on E-bay .... Regardless, I buy nothing that isn't meant to be built .... sometime ...

What's the website ??

Making good fix-ups isn't always easy, but you've got it right !!! Good job !!!

I think we had a thread on this a while back .... I have long held the thought that my first kit was some kind of wooden stage coach, sometime about 1951-ish when I was 6-ish. I have a clear picture of me sitting at my little table in the kitchen of the house we moved from in 1952/53 so the time period is about right. But that is about all, until recently. I had made a few tries over the years to find that kit but not put much effort into it because I really had no specifics. At our chapter contest this year one of the vendors, Lance Bevins of Wilmington, NC, had a Old Ranger kit of a 20-Mule Team Borax Wagon, still in the original mailing box. Interestingly enough, it was mailed from Clinton, Iowa, where my Mom's sister and family lived for decades. Anyway, I bought the kit and took it home to do some research (and of course build it … sometime). These were promotional items -- send in a coupon and a dollar sort of thing. 20-Mule Team Borax was a famous laundry soap, sponsor of the radio and TV western series "Death Valley Days", hosted by several people including Ronald Reagan. But the longest running television host was "The Old Ranger", Stanley Andrews, from 1952-1963. Since the box features The Old Ranger, one has to assume the kit was produced in that time period, although the presence of zip codes on the box indicate it was mailed in 1963 or later. It's a great plastic (ABS) kit -- 2 borax wagons plus a water wagon, 2 drivers, 20 mules (actually 18 mules & 2 horses), complete instructions including how to turn a corner with a team of mules, which is an interesting problem once you think about it. But this isn't my first kit, although it did cause a couple blurry flashbacks that suggest I had one of these in my past, or maybe it's just the TV show. Anyway, in the course of my research, I ran across another Borax Wagon kit -- a wooden kit issued by Frontier Manufacturing Co, of Los Angeles, CA. Now here was a kit similar to the "Old Ranger" kit, but wooden -- a minor flashback triggered. Further searching over a few weeks produced two E-bay auctions -- one for the Frontier Borax Wagon kit, and one for a printed catalog. I bid early and high, and stayed on them, getting both for actually very little. When they both arrived, flashbacks went off all over the place. The Borax Wagon kit seemed to be familiar, particularly the yellow plastic wheels. The catalog was undated, but contained a 1954 price list, so it placed them approximately the time I was building my first model. Further research yielded nothing on the company, their history, or fate. Kit #1 in the catalog was a stage coach -- it had to be it. Size/scale, 1/2"= 1 foot, or 1/24, was about right. The yellow box clicks. I set an E-bay search for the product line. In a few weeks, I was rewarded with another wooden kit, the Ranch Wagon -- it wasn't complete, but had the instructions and the plastic wheels so the rest can be made from stock balsa to the full-size patterns on the instructions. Interestingly enough, the catalog says the ranch wagon was a plastic kit, but what I got is wooden. Then, a few weeks later, I scored the Surrey, this one an all-plastic kit, as the catalog said it was. Finally, one day, the search turned up a Stage Coach & I bid the rest-of-annual modeling budget. No sweat, no opposition, got it for a song. And here it is -- when I pulled it from the packing box, I became sure this was my first kit -- the flashbacks were popping all over. The kit is started -- it belonged to the seller's grandfather. He has done a very nice job on the body and the rest of the parts are present or can be made from balsa stock. So, here I am, almost 60 years later, with what I'm pretty sure was the first kit I ever had. Note "had" -- I know I worked on it, but I have no recollection about finishing it. Wherever our old family photos may be, I doubt there is one of little Johnny and his model stage coach .... I have no idea how or why it was given to me. You may think it odd that the first kit of a 6-year old was a rather complicated wooden kit -- no, I was not a child modeling prodigy, or if I was, it sure didn't carry along to my adult life. I'm sure I received some help from Dad on it, but that was also probably the last time, as he was never really supportive of my modeling and I suspect Mom had a lot to do with my getting a workspace in the basement of our new home. After that, I can remember a lot of models, at least vaguely, but that initial foray into wood stuck with me, because up through my teens probably 1/3 of everything I built was wood, most of it flying or floating, and I still have that love of wooden models, and a few in the stash.

These are all way behind builds, to be sent over to Telford for SMW, for SIG displays. - Hasegawa 1/72 B-24D as Liberator GR.V - Airfix 1/72 Sunderland - Matchbox 1/72 Heyford - Revell 1/72 DH-2 - Airfix HO/OO Meat Wagon - Airfix HO/OO Brake Van - and one more which hasn't made bench status These are way behind IPMS reviews - Pavla 1/72 Lysander - WNW 32 RNAS Pup