jcorley

Yes, we will be having Mike "Pink Hat" Idacavage leading a judges forum.

Part of the info is from Vol 3 which covers the 50s. I hope to go to Phoenix. The plans are in flux cuz of the decision of our school board to start school on Aug 2nd, which scuttled our family vacation plans! Money is also a factor, of course.

According to Maj Elliot's Official Monogram of US Navy and Marine Corps Aircraft Color Guide there are several schemes in use: SR-2f (on 1/2/1947) directed the repainting of all Naval aircraft to be painted Glossy Sea Blue (A/N-623 later FS15042). Non-spectaular paint was to be applied to know down sun glare... so Flat Sea Blue (A/N-607 or FS35042) SR-202 (on 8/3/1953) allowed for the repainting of the tops of aircraft which operated in a predominantly tropical environment. This allowed for the application of a non-glare panel of either flat black (FS37038) or flat engine gray (FS36081). MIL-C-18263(Aer) (on 2/23/1955) dictated the painting of all seaplanes into "Seaplane Gray" (FS26081 - semigloss Engine Gray!) with the allowance for an anti-glare panel, once again in either black or flat engine gray. MIL-C-18263A(Aer) dictated the White over Gray/Blue established in the earlier order as a way to dimish solar heating of the aircraft. This order allows for the anti-glare panels using flat black (apparently to be applied at the discretion of the unit as it isn't universal). The S2F in the blue scheme has been much more documented and clear evidence of either a flat black or engine gray anti-glare panel. I had just looked up some other info and knew exactly where to find what you wanted. I was researching why F2Hs in a film had areas of bare metal... the answer was right in with your info. It was a test program to decide if natural metal aircraft would work on carriers.

I had inferred the suspension changes were coming from the resin conversions. Nevermind.... [Emily Latela: what's the big fuss over Russian jewelry?]

Not trying to sound critical, but why not build each tank with the suspension that comes with the kits. You have a VVSS and HVSS kit in the box - Don't the upper hulls swap pretty easily between the lower hulls? I've seen it done by guys in the local AMPS chapter. I'm so confused ?!?!

TESTING FLATS?! I thought this thread was about Bonneville...........

I'd generally agree with that. I just built three of the old revell Arizona kits to do a color experiment. I spent about 2 hours on each over two months, including painting and I built them in series (shoulda done a parallel build). They don't look great, but they are good enough to get my point across eventually. Most importantly, I enjoyed building them!

Duke, even though you're not one of my customers, I'd definitely list you in group I... you are one of the lucky guys who gets the most fun out of the hobby.

The racing boat or the plane? While you were in Iceland, did you chuck it in the volcano? Maybe now we know why it blew its top... it finally got around to looking at it and was displeased with the offering.

From the shop owners perspective, let me clue you all in to what my custoemrs are saying, that the industry is ignoring. Plus I have three types of customers. I. The Fun Builder: This guy is the guy who brings in one or two new models every weekend. We have various club meetings 3 weeks out of 4 in any month. The Builder will get a model built and have fun doing it. He is the guy who doesn't want to spend three months super detailing a kit, he want to just build for the joy of building. I have several of these, and they usually limit their spending to under $200 a month. For their $200, though, they can buy 8-10 kits maybe more if I have a collection on consignment or a scratch and dent table. These guys LOVE the older kits and the less expensive newer kits. They ABOSULTELY HATE the new Uberkits put out by the Chinese unless it is an abosulte must-have on their list. THese guys aren't cheap, but they budget and spend wisely for their goals. These are the guys with many more built kits than boxes in thier houses. II. The Serious Builder: This guy is the guy who has to make every last detail perfect and isnt shy about spending a lot to do it. It'll take this guy 2-3 months to finish a kit, but he spends about the same per month as the Fun Builder. These guys tend to love the new uberkits from China when they come out, but then I hear all the bitching and moaning about how everything doesn't fit great. This guy is also the guy on hyperscale/arc/armorama who pays attention to what everybody else says and demands more detail ine very kit thus driving the complexity & detail (and therefore the PRICE) ever higher. III. The Collector: This is the guy every hobby shop owner loves. He will buy one or two of every new kit in his particular area of interest. This guy builds one or two kits a year, but might have two dozen in various stages of completion at any time. Because the Collector is buying and not building, he can spend much more than many of the others. He doesn't complain about kit shortcomings and has a grand plan to build them all some day after he retires. A lot of companies have listened to the guys posting on other sites asking and demanding more detail, better accuracy, etc. This 'better' kit will cost much more to produce and results in a company putting out fewer kits per year because they only have so much capital to invest in tooling. I hear a lot of modelers blame IPMS for this trend, but the fact I have observed is that most of the more vocal ones posting these demands are very anti-IPMS in their other posts! We are getting blamed by the guys who don't like us! So what is the bottom line? There are some companies are producing kits that fewer and fewer can afford to buy. Most of my customers will not even consider a kit over $100, and ten years ago the price limit used to be $50. Times are tough and people have less money to spend, so they are buying the stuff on the sale table and the lower priced kits. What are my best selling lines in aircraft? The old Monogram kits, the old Tamiya kits and the Eduard weekend editions. Why? These are all kit generally under $40 and some are under $20. Even some of The Builders are now buying and building these kits instead of the new uberkits as they can no longer afford those. Who is my biggest competitor? Ironically, it is any IPMS event within 6 hours! Guys will save their money to go and buy other people's old unwanted kits, or even go to sell theirs. Oh,m and there is one other trend that is going on. The manufacturers seem to be aligning their releases to all hit at once. This month has seen very little new so sales have been down. This past week has seen several major new releases and now the shops are in a pinch to afford to buy the stock they need to survive. If these manufacturers would learn to spread their releases out (even in their own line) more evenly, everybody would sell more stuff because the modelers could afford to buy it in smaller chunks.

The best kit I have ever built is, by far, the Tamiya 1/32 Spitfire MkIX... not that I have finished it yet, but so far its a dream. The worst? Here are some contenders: 1/48 Vautour from HiTech/FM (same kit, different variants) - neither allows the resin detail to fit the horribly thick plastic Anything from Starfix! Classic Airframes 1/48 SBC Helldiver 1/48 Trumpeter RA-5C (by far the most disappointing) But the prize has to go to the A Model Miasischev M-50A 'Bounder' ... this kit was soooo poorly deisgned that nothing would dry fit together. I ended up selling it to a friend for less than half price ($150 for a $350 model), and he hasn't spoke to me since!! Not really, but he agrees its a total dog. He has actually worked on it a few times and put it away before he smashed it.

Ed, I would but I don't get time to build muchy with owning a hobby shop and running a resin biz... james

Gil, there's always the option of "going postal" ... but you wouldn't get to attend either as I doubt they'd let you make bail. See what you get, you moved and lost all that seniority. Bummer, dude.

I would like to invite the modeling world to visit the IPMS Metro Atlanta Model Expo 2010 on June 25th & 26th this summer. If you live on the east side of the Mississippi and cannot make it to the national convention in Phoenix because of distance, school conflicts (our local problem in Atlanta) or simply don't want to take the heat for going... Come see us instead. We have 125 tables full of goodies from many vendors who are usually at the Nationals, too. This year we are using an Open Judging style (the first time for a Regional in several years) and there is not a pesky no-sweeps rule to bother with. Our website is still undergoing modernization, but you can get most of the info at: http://ipmsmetroatlanta.org/ Y'all Come!

Better watch out, Al Sharpton will get all over your case if he see this!

BRAVO ZULU! Glad to see somebody has finally listened to what some of us have been saying for quite some time!

Gotcha! Haven't you been told not to eat & drink while driving? Same goes for computers! Why don't you come down Saturday for the club meeting at 2PM and we can duke it out for the new keyboard. Just remember, I never fight fair

Dang, I was hoping for a Canberra SPLICED WITH a F4U. Really disappointed now..... Awwww, they both look pretty good escept for that.

Yeah, Taz... and I might even have some for you at the meeting Saturday!

One of the local guys (who builds the things here in Marietta) added Testor square colors to Alclad II #101 and got amazing results! The problem, as he says, is that the paint formula is a state secret but appears to have a different shade depending on how the light is hitting it. He settled for a color that was 'close enough' to what they look like on the ramp on a dry & sunny day. Wet & dark are totally different colors. I don't know how well the Testor Metalizers would work, as they are notoriously bad for masking. The Alclad method is basically the same, but it can be masked in 30 minutes... not 'several days' as Mark S suggested. His results are nice too, but I'd want to see the two models side-by-side to judge which is a better effect.

What is a loss for the midwest is a huge gain for Georgia. Combined with the new Infantry Museum, the Armor Museum will make West Georgia a mecca for army guys.... perhaps even AMPS or IPMS will now consider holding a big event in Columbus, GA.

A quick google of the term "SM-62A Snark SAC" will reveal several images, including two of the vehicle in SAC colors. None of the images online clearly show a SAC band, but you can tell it's there in the smaller photos. I think the old SAC propagand book (circa 1965) by Martin Caiden may have a better photo of one with the SAC band. HTH, James

One of the local guys experimented with this a few years back. None of the traditional thinners, even theirs, seemed to work. He started trying everything he could think of. Windex sorta worked, but not for white for the obvious reasons. What he discovered was Hydrogen Peroxide (H2O2) but the only problem was decent adhesion. He never solved that problem for masking. Not a problem, it was reported, as he was only planing to use it for base coats. HTH,

Such agism! I resent that; even though I'm not 50 yet, I remember building many of these too.

It all depends on the kit number. 3670 - $40-60 3858.8 - $30-50 3861.1 - $25-35 These values are from the Burns guide, and are several years old now. It gives you a range of what to expect, though. Want to sell it? I might be interested.