Weedeater

Len, Regardless of all outcomes, I, as well as many others here I hope, deeply appreciate ALL of your efforts to make this work, work smoothly, and to keep as many of us Model Building Geeks as happy as possible. Thank you.

Ditto what Nick said. Smooth n easy. See yuz Guyz next August. Model on, Brothers of the Sprue. :smiley20:

Phil, _ Whadda ya mean, "....not the greatest quality"? It almost felt like I was there with you and Mike. That looked like an awesome experience that I might never get to have, except for your posting of the video. Thank you very much for sharing your time with us. And those props in the video look funky/cool. Something that Salvador Dali would be proud of.

James..... - Don't bother. I also have the Academy SB-17G kit and I checked it. It does include the G chin turret in addition to the extra "SB" chin radome thing, but (at least in my issue kit) the instructions don't show any clarification of the chin turret installation that I'm thinking Rob needs, just the radome installation.

Hello Rob, - I was all set to post a few digi's of my Airfix (Old 1975ish issue) B-17G kit parts and instructions, showing how they are supposed to go together.....when I came across this thread on an Airifx dedicated Discusion Site: Airfix B-17G, 8005 Blog - Basically, it has confirmed that your kit, number 8005, is a re-boxing/re-issue of the Academy 1/72 scale B-17G in an Airfix box and the two kits are totally different in design, detail, and construction layout. (The airfix kit has you assemble the chin turret and then mount it under the floor before you assemble it between the two fuselage halves. Whereas the Academy kit apparently has you assembly the fuselage halves first, then install the turret). Unfortunately, I don't have an Academy kit to look at to help out any further. Maybe another member here can take a look at their Academy kit for you and post a digi or two. Best of luck getting that turret inplace and Model on, Brother of the Sprue.

Jesse, - I'm really enjoying watching your progress here. I have this kit and Max also. IMHO your first "vents" were not bad, but these definitely look better. Also, in this last pic, the clear top isn't sitting too straight. If that's just a slip-up in the pic, no sweat, But if it's a fit problem, thought that you might like to take a closer look at it before your start painting. Please, keep the update pics coming, they are very inspirational. Rusty, - As a matter of fact, about 10 years ago, I used a "Black Light" (fluorescent tube type) fixed in the roof of a wood cabinet with closing doors and the decals laying on the next shelf about a foot away from it. They were Tamiya decals and it took about two weeks, but it worked! On that first attempt, I monitored the setup constantly, to make sure there was no "over-heating" issues. That light generated a fair amount of heat. I have kept the setup ready on hand for other decals ever since.

AWESOME news, Dick. Thanks for keeping us informed about the positive stuff. Model on, Plastic Slingin Coach. :smiley20:

Alllllright!!! The Dukinator strikes again, and comes out shining! Way to go, buddy. (Party Time. Teehee.)

Hi Steve, - A fair number of Albuquerque Scale Modelers are looking forward to attending your show. You should have received our sponsorship support by now. If not, please let me know so that I can give out Treasurer a whack in the side to git off his behind and take care of it. Also, FWIW when I clicked your link above, all I got was: "404 Error File Not Found The page you are looking for might have been removed, had its name changed, or is temporarily unavailable." It may be just temporary, but just in case, thought you'd like to know. Model on, Brother of the Sprue.

These look excellent Michael. Great job. :smiley20: Thanks for posting the pics.

Hi Richard, - It appears that your image didn't make it into the posting. I don't get anything when I click the "Posted Image". Annnnnd, I'm dying to see the image you have described. As far as I know, the Starfighter's tip tanks are "handed" with respect to the fin arrangement and while they shouldn't have been mounted the way you have described, I can see that it is possible. Ready ya later.

Hi Richard, - Perhaps these: ....will help. And I totally agree with Gil, whatever angle you settle on using, from a competitive/contest point-of-view, make certain that your tails are symetrical to one another. If you're building it for the fun of it, build it however you want so that you have fun. Model on, Brother of the Sprue.

Gil, - As usual, this is absolutely awesome looking. I have been ruminating about building one of my 1/48 109's in this early paint scheme, and your example is most inspiring. Now I just gotta figure out whether to build the Hasegawa kit or the Tamiya kit. Hmmmm, decisions, decisions. Thanks for posting these pics. Model on, Brother of the Sprue.

- Sorry Ed and Gary, but the Monogram Albatros review you are referring to is a "re-issue" of the original 1960's kit, in 1/72 scale. I WISH that monogram was issuing a 1/48 Albatros. Trumpeter has listed a 1/48 scale HU-16 kit release, but that is not a sure-thing solution to Gary's "1/48 aircrew-in-a-raft" request. Best of luck with your endeavour. Model on, Brothers of the Sprue.

- Was talking with the Model dudes at our usual Restaurant snack after our last club meeting and we were all wondering why Eduard and/or HobbyBoss still haven't issued a follow-up to their Mirage IIIC's as the slightly longer/re-engined and more widely used Mirage IIIE / 5??? If they were smart about it, their would engineer the kit to accommodate IIIB's, IIID's, Cheetah's, Pantera's, and perhaps the most popular of them all, the Kfir family. - Perhaps even more desirable, how about a new tool 1/32 scale Mirage III. You could easily engineer the modularization of that to accommodate all of the above. Mirage III's and it's variants could possibly have been used by just as many, even more Nations than the F-4 and MiG-21. There has got to be a market for new and updated releases of them. - And while we're at the Mirage table, how about a new tool 1/48 Mirage F.1.......and a 1/32 scale Mirage F.1? They are currently being used around the globe.

Gil, - As usual, this is looking awesome. The paint job looks sweet and I especially love the subtle highlights/filter visible across the wings. And the ingenuity on the decals is slick. Great work.. Model on, Brother of the Sprue.

Mark, - The box you're holder up in the pic IS a re-release from Revell (O-gram). Those nifty Shep Paine instructions came in the 70's issue of the Monogram B-17G and while I can't swear to it, they were not included in the Revell re-issue kit. Assuming the model you got there was not sealed in cello-wrap (and it wasn't a "re-seal") I imagine the ebay seller that Mrs. Treadhead got that kit from had scored the Shep sheet someplace else, and threw it in thinking he would one day use them to build that kit. Either way, you came outta this smellin like roses; Cool kit and a thoughtful wife that not only supports your habit, but now appears to be the primary "enabler"! - And I completely agree with David, you'd better get started on that puppy, cause as soon as you turn your head, Mrs. Treadhead will be loading up the airbrush to paint hers. They're tricky that way, I speak from experience.

Thanks Matt and Pete. I appreciate the kind comments. I am sooooo looking forward to gettin this one done to see how it all falls together (that is of course beyond just holding all of the pieces precariously together to see how it would look, LOL).

Kevin, these are righteous wants. Good call.

- Ah, yes, but Mark, the real question then becomes,"Where would ya put 'em all?" Nyuck, nyuck. - I'd like to see a: 1/12 ZRX-1200 (2004) 1/12 FZ600 1/12 FZR400 (88-90 USA issue, not what the lucky dogs in Europe have been getting since then) 1/12 EX250 (prefer 86-87, but any year will do) 1/12 YZR500 90 (Wayne Rainey. A model kit, not the Minichamps toy) 1/12 YZR500 88-89 (Eddie Lawson) 1/48 MiG-23 & 27 all new tooling 1/48 AH-1G, J, W all new tooling (Tamiygawa-ish) ......to start with.

WOW! Absolutely stunning job Michael. :smiley20: Love it. Special thanks for sharing your work with us here. Model on, Brother of the Sprue.

Back in May 2010, I posted pics of this body work that I was experimenting with: - The body work came out great (for the experiment) and then I ended up shelving the project. A little over a year later, I pulled it back out and started work back up on it and got this far: - This was as far as I got with it in the hotel room in Omaha: ........no where near done to enter, but I had a blast working on it while brother Keith was plugging away on his Super-Bug (sorry car guys, that's a plane thingie). I'm hoping to have this completed by our next club meeting in Sep and will post more pics then. Hope you enjoy it and thanks for lookin.

James, - Awesome masterpiece. I especially like the subtle weathering: dusted up windshield, scuffed tire treads, dirty trailer racks, oil stained trailer drip pan, and the dirtied midget rims. All of it is spectacular. :smiley20:

Rodolfo, - Spectacular work. I was following your in-progress thread with great anticipation in seeing the finished work. Outstanding! I especially like the way you were able to leave the top decks and turret as separate, removable components with virtually seamless separations.

- Not sure what you are referring to as different, the cockpit set you already have and the Legends set? I compared the Legends set to photos in the Detail & Scale Part #1, Vol 61 (Yes D & S on the P-40 has 2 parts) and it looks about as accurate as you can get (unless you're a "purist", then it will never be accurate, LOL). I suspect that the cockpit set you have is for an E/N. - The two pipe sets look good, but are different interpretations of the same thing. Again, there's that purist, never good enough view, but IMHO, I'd use either. - Also, as a side note, the P-40B/C is, in essense, an "in-lined engined" P-36A/C. So, from the firewall back, most all detail sets can be applied to both the P-36A/C and the P-40B/C, like photo-etched flap details, or wing and/or landing gear details, etc. (I here the purists coming, teeheee).