David M. Knights

Ron, I looked at Home Depot and couldn't find anything, at least in the paint dept.

Gil, I suspect you may be right, I just don't like what Testors does to some colors are far as its golden tint.

Put up a few more photos. Only one 72nd Mark. I though I'd taken more of the 72nd stuff. Photos here.

Oh, they talk alright. In the middle of the night, I hear them whisper, "Build me. Build me." I can't sleep anymore.

The Badger 200 is a very good, fairly inexpensive single action airbrush, made right here in the good ole USA. In addition, Badger will let you send one of their airbrushes in, no matter how old, and they will, clean it and put it back in factory specs for you at no charge. They even pay to ship it back to you. They reserve the right to charge you for parts if parts need replacement, but i just sent two in, one of which, 20 years old, had a broken air valve. They replaced parts in both brushes and sent them back no charge. You can't go wrong with a Badger 200 for a single action brush.

Didn't know there were flats available at home improvement stores. I'll have to look and pick one up. I have to go by tonight, so your timing is excellent.

In completing a recent project, I posted a question about what people use to achieve a dead flat. Previous thread is here. Well, for some reason, I got a bug to run a test to see what product out there would give me the best flat finish and would be durable. I've taken a sheet of plastic, painted it with Model Master RAF Dark Green (I had some lying around) and then gloss coated it with Future. Now I have started sectioning it off and applying different product's flat coats to see which flat IMHO works best. I'll let you know what I find. I'd post photos, but it is pretty hard to capture the "flattness" in photos. Right now I have the following products to test. Let me know if you think I've left an important one out Floquil Railroad colors Flat Coat PollyS (new formula) Flat Coat Lifecolor Flat Coat Tamiya Flat Base + Future Humbrol Flat Coat Testors Flat Coat Model Master Acrylic Flat Coat.

I'd deny being a collector, but the 1000 kits in my hobby room are shouting their disagreement. I've told them to shut up, but they just won't listen anymore. They know they outnumber me. :o

Right now, I'd say the companies doing it right are Revell/Germany and Airfix (minus the AWFUL decals) Their 72nd kits are very nice, detailed but not nuts (but they are a great starting point if you want to go nuts) and a real value at the $8 to $15 range for a 72nd kit. I like what Tamiya, Trumpeter and some of the Eastern European companies are doing, but dollar for value I don't think you can beat Revell/Germany and Airfix.

Very nice. I agree with you on the decals. All the recent Airfix kits are quite nice, but they are all let down by their decals.

Actually, I do have a few. Interestingly enough I spoke at the show with a cottage industry accessory manufacturer who told me his main focus for the future was on 72nd scale resin accessories. He thought it was the fastest growing part of the armor market. Interesting.

Mike, I want one of those Aki Firebrands. Best kit would probably be the Tamiya 72nd F4U-4. The kit absolutely fell together. Worst kit, I have several contenders, but they are all sitting in my "to be finished pile."

Got a few more up LATE last night. I'll try and work more in today.

I do think that both green and overall black were used. Japanese camo colors is a minefield that makes the German stuff look positiviely simple by comparision. BTW, this is a nice site for an academic approach to Japanese colors and markings.

I've posted the first 14 on my blog. I have about 200 in total I think. I'll keep rolling them out as I get a few minutes here and there over the next few days.

More photos up. Link here. I'll post more tonight and tomorrow as time allows.

The show was great. Even as an a/c guy, I have to say that AMPS Nats is one of my favorite shows. More photos on the blog around noon if all goes well.

I just wish I had gotten a better picture. My photo does not do justice to this nifty little scene. I'd love to get whoever did this to do an article on diorama composition. So many dioramas these days are just tons of stuff thrown on a base. This one was not exactly minimalist, but was very well focused. What needed to be there was, what wasn't needed, wasn't there. It was really nicely done.

OK guys. Sorry for the delay. I've gotten the first few photos up at my blog. I'll be putting up more throughout today and over the next few days. Check back. Here is the link.

That is a very nice looking kit. I've always thought that was an attractive tank.

I want to build the Hase version of that one.

Yes, I was sure you were.

That looks good. A lot of time wood from the yard looks like, well, wood from the yard, but that one does look like a stump.

I am truly sorry for getting you all excited. I'll post them as soon as I can tonight. BTW, the show was great and a record-setter to boot.

Very nice. Did you make the stump yourself or was it a resin piece?