VonL

Another nice one, Gil! Well done paint-in-lieu-of-decals. My brother flew these with VP-19 (the Big Red). Kit decals for that colorful scheme are shot, so I may try one of their rare, lo-vis versions. He flew them with those markings for DESERT SHIELD 1990. The plane in the foreground appears to have the (then) new 3-tone gray camo. The one in back appears to have the older gray & white paint scheme, with a grayed-out tail-emblem. I've never found any other pix of these birds...have you?

Nice model! You also did a great job with the camera angles and the 'scale height ground-view'. Extra credit, for capturing the size and character of the airplane!

Age five...it begins...

IMHO, Nick nailed it with "Better to err on the side of discretion and the ordinary rules of good taste." An example comes to mind from WWII Army Cartoonist Bill Mauldin's autobiography, when he was asked why he didn't draw dead bodies in his otherwise authentic battlefield (humor) vignettes. His response was that if he did his job well, it was implicit that death was likely nearby (it is a battlefield), while allowing some space for a lighter moment or topic, in that historic context. I've done a couple of these cartoons as dioramas and it works. Regarding 'discretion'': The ubiquitous 1/35 WWII German soldiers, defecating, visiting hookers, etc, are just not on the same level as, say Michelangelo's Pieta, which is an iconic death scene. If that distinction requires further explanation...

IIRC, that's how FSM started out, in the mid-1980s (cue the nostalgic music).

Both on-site hotels indicate no availability/blocks full as of tonight (15OCT). So I made a provisional reservation with Embassy, with the caveat that if a block-room becomes available, I can roll into that (rate). QUESTION: Will additional blocks will open up, between now and JUL22-?

"The Journal Has Landed" in the northern Midwest, as of Wed. Still the happiest thing in my mailbox. Thanx, guys!

As a wise man once said: "If you wait 'til the last minute, it only takes a minute!"

Thanx for your looks at this, guys. Multiple queries to various rotorheads, photo galleries and aficionados indicate that the H-3 Jolly Greens did not do the aft-ramp gunner thing over Vietnam, although I did find a technical diagram showing provision for it. (Certainly, definitive photo evidence will surface just after the model gets finished.) Now, to hunt down some nice M60s for my door gunners...

Thanx for posting this, Gil! Am working an excruciatingly long-term canopy-replacement-quest for a 1/72 Anigrand C-124. It's a very nice resin kit -and expensive. But their canopy was unusable-bad. Your last pic of the tape/masking technique answers a question that I wasn't even smart enough to ask, regarding a vac replacement canopy. Elegant solution, there!

Love it! Your wooden prop is very convincing and the rigging is visually discrete at a distance, as it should be! ...and I didn't mention the war...

Lovely stuff. What scale(s)?

CAUTION - WHINEY COMMENT FOLLOWS: Been away from this forum for a bit, so apologies if I missed the answer to this question: Is it true that Revell is planning to fill the enamel-market void left by the departure of Modelmaster? Got some RUMINT on this at our brick-n-mortar LHS. Good news: I just saw some enamels listed with a Revell label on Kitlinx, which might be it. Bad news: Do they really have to sell it in (re-labeled?) Humbrol-style tinlets? Am trying to imagine a more cumbersome paint container. Maybe they should try the little blob-tube that Heller used for glue? Or fill up a ping-pong ball with paint? A thin, plastic craft-bag? Paint-ball ammo?

Howz'about a larger scale vacuform airplane kit, from cradle-to-uhhh...display stand. Maybe do one of those new-ish Tigger/ID Models kits, of a subject otherwise unique: How to strengthen & straighten structure & joints, making & using jigs, evaluating & using scale drawings to correct shape issues, considerations for adding detail, lights, etc. These are all skills transferable to very basic kits and to scratchbuilding. Display could also be flying: Consider a wall-mount diorama/display with structural support running through the wings, tail, or whatever. Personal request: Not another WWII German subject. I am not 'offended' by that stuff, just tired-to-death of seeing it everywhere, all the time. Cheers!

I usually clean it with acetone or lacquer thinner, as noted above and then let it sit overnight in vinegar, which micro-etches the surface...or so I've been told, giving it some tooth (key).

JOLLY GREEN research, cont'd: Correction - Am researching the USAF HH-3E Jolly Green CSAR bird as used in Vietnam, not the later Coast Guard HH-3F Pelican. None of the inflight pix that I've seen show the rear ramp down, nor an aft gunner's position. Did the HH-3's just not do this, and maybe it started with the bigger HH-53's? Possibly a weight & balance issue?

Am also researching a 1/72 HH-3F and would like to do it with the aft ramp open and a gunner's position there. That means I've gotta at least suggest some interior detail. Do either of you guys know any decent pix of that area, especially the gunner's position and the internal fuselage structure adjacent to it? Ditto on the Revell vs. Whirly': Gonna dance with the girl I brang. NMUSAF has a great photo spread of their restored HH-3 Jolly Green, including cockpit-360 views, but it doesn't appear to have an aft ramp-gunner set-up. Suggestions appreciated.

Joey: Look, I know you're hurtin' now, but in time you'll realize what you've achieved. Jimmy Rabbitte: I've achieved nothing! Joey: You're missin' the point. The success of the band was irrelevant - you raised their expectations of life, you lifted their horizons. Sure we could have been famous and made albums and stuff, but that would have been predictable. This way, it's poetry. - - epilogue from The Commitments (1991)

I recall seeing some LEO figures amongst "G-scale" model railroad stuff. It's officially 1/22.5 scale, but the actual scale of the figures appears to vary - a lot. Some are very nice, others toy-like. Master Box makes some LEOs in 1/24, but I've not seen a motorcycle cop in there. Good luck!

NICE! But...does this mean I have to actually finish something...?

That decal film solution may be the same thing as Micro-SuperFilm. If I only suspect that a kit's decal sheet may be old enough to have dried out as you describe, I'll take a wide, soft paintbrush and attempt to cover it in one stroke. It goes on thick, but flows out nicely and dries very thin, clear and very flexible. Multiple coats only make it thicker and less flexible...just keep the pet hair away from it. Love this stuff and I always apply a coat to protect newly printed, homemade decals, too. Have never used a clear-coat for this application, with concerns about its flexibility when dry. The comments from Nick & Gil above seem to allay these concerns, so...here we go... Am a huge fan of that very aggressive setting solution Solva-Set, in any case!

How early is early? I 'discovered' IPMS as a kid, c.1973 and first went to the Nats in DC, 1975. Can still remember some of the inspiring models from that one. And was stoked to get the Hasegawa 1/72 T-38 at the brick-n-mortar Squadron Shop on the way home, probably using a show coupon. I think that bird is still in a parts-box, somewhere nearby.

Otay...It's July 3rd and still no sign of the MAY/JUNE issue. How late does it go, before we need to relabel as the following issue and just kick everybody's subscription out a month...? Usually the late ones show up the day after I whine about it, so I'm working that superstition here, too. Cheers!

Fantastic piece of work!

That is just too cool!