mustang1989

Slow or not there's just something about 4 20's and a butt load of rockets that spells disaster for anything that's in front of it.

Now that..............is what tha hek I'm talkin' about!!!! Beautiful Corsair Gil!!!

Well the hard efforts have paid off finally. I've got the cut out cleaned up and ended up having to shave some plastic off of the bottom of the hood scoop so that the chrome air intake horn would clear the scoop. That thing is tight on the clearance!!! The scoop is only about .032" thick now in the center and I started with .058" !!!! I have the holes drilled in the hood and in the edges of the scoop so I will be able to pin it in place to make things easier to install later. Still gotta prime it and paint but here it is so far:

You, Mark, are a modeling madman!! Great work and awesome progress on all!

That IP and pit look awesome!!

LOL!!! Ed: Man you were one busy modeler before 20 years of age!! Wow! I hear you on "what the store carried" . Moses 5 and 10 cent store was my friend for a long time, then the local Gibsons got in on it some and then finally, Walmart. Rob: Those are awesome!!!! And they are special in the fact that they, however bad we all think they are now, were very instrumental in giving us the skills we have today. Models like that will never measure up to our current standard but are a show piece displaying how far we've all come in modeling. Bob: Now that....is cool! The ol' then and now pics. Love it!! Gil: That's a neat idea on the tribute build! And you are right about the "coming a long way" and about the rivet counters complaining about a few scale inches here and there..................especially on that Eduard 109G kit. I've got a Royal Class boxing of the G model and it's simply awesome!

..............and that, good sir, is exactly what the forums are all about! That's a great lookin' Tiger BTW!!

That's awesome Mark! You know I had dang near every 1/48 scale model Monogram made as a kid. A Dauntless, Hellcat, Wildcat, Avenger, Helldiver, Airacobra, Mustang, Thunderbolt, Zero, Bf109, Fw190, Stuka, and Me262 to name some. I remember one day as a kid looking at them and for some reason not being interested in 'em anymore and got a plastic trash bag, threw 'em all in there and tossed them in the trash. What tha hell was I thinkin'????? Jeez !!!! I needed a swift kick in the pants for that one!

Those are great Tom!!!! Awesome stuff!!

This is so true. I posted this on another forum where a beginner was getting an earfull from another, more experience builder who attempted to impose his beliefs on this kind fellow. The experienced builder had mentioned something against "Real Aircraft Builders" and their weird "Seat belt fetishim". I'll address this quoting the same response I gave the beginner to this imposing comment: And I quote " Anybody who has a conniption fit over something you're doing or not doing to your builds are commonly referred to as "jerks" and jerks are everywhere. It's your build and anybody who doesn't respect that can fly a kite. Advice and constructive criticism are welcome things but opinionated, intrusive and offensive comments are not. You'll know it when you see it and unfortunately , you will. There are, however, more good folks than there are idiots thankfully. Rock on brutha! " Keep doing what your doing and build to suit your own expectations there Chris. Sure there are things you'll pick up along the way that'll make you want to "raise the bar" but that's your choice bud. Lookin' forward to seeing some of your builds. :D

Here's that 74 'Cuda I was talking about earlier and is the 30+ year old range. I've thought seriously about re-doing this one................

Sounds great there Rob! I really like the rebuilding idea as I did the same with the Challenger. Got any pics of 'em? Same goes for this one Michael! The last Colonial Viper I saw was at a show and it looked awesome. I've been on this kick of building models that I built as a kid and I believe I've got one rebuild left in me for a 74 Pro Street 'Cuda that I still have. Now that is a great story Buck. Pictures of that would be really awesome to see. Who was the manufacturer of that kit?

I always run out of that stuff!!!! It's either that or RLM 02. Doncha just hate it when that happens?

I look at it this way. If I walk away with just one tip that I didn't know about beforehand, then it was worth it.

Now that is cool! I've got some of the same stuff going on with a couple of my other builds from the early years. I hear ya loud n' clear!

I guess I can post my "original " pic here. For the full story one can always go to the link in the previous post here. My 30+ year old Monogram 1970 Dodge Challenger T/A before the re-vamp:

I hear you on the serious modeling bit. My serious modeling came in stages , with a little encouragement of what I saw in magazines but mostly what I saw in one model show in Arlington, Texas and a model shop by the name of Phil's Hobbies in Farmers Branch in Dallas in the late 90's. My painting and detailing skills improved ok in back then when I built a Hasegawa Dauntless that is now long gone and then again in 06 with a Hasegawa Bf109G-10 that's now gone as well. Two models in 10 years wasn't what you would call serious modeling though. I'd say my biggest advance into modeling where I actually sought out all of those "serious" things you are talking about was three years ago when I joined the FSM forum. From there I began obtaining skills at a very rapid rate as my modeling replaced my drinking habit and Mr. I was good at that! My modeling now is not only really fun for me but also therapy to keep my mind straight. :D It's a funny story about how I still have a few models from childhood. I left home at age 19 headed for Basic Training in the Army and all of those models stayed back there in my room for all those years. I took about 3 or 4 from the display shelves about 11 years ago and had them on display as they were but those got demolished in a move so I just left the remaining 4 back there until this last year where I'm certain that I'll pack them away more carefully if we ever have to move again. I had them all in those old Jo-Han plastic cases and the wheels had melted into the bases!!! LOL. Actually, I have a 1970 Dodge Challenger from my youth that I took down from the shelf in November of this last year and totally revamped. I'd put it here but it's no longer an original build as the only parts that are still "original" are the body and all of the interior. I've got pics of that one here: http://forum.ipmsusa3.org/index.php?/topic/14862-30-year-old-monogram-1970-dodge-challenger-ta-detail-shots/ . Little did I know 30 years ago that this Challenger would go on to win 1st in it's category and then Best in Automotive at an IPMS show in Houston. LOL.

Man that Intruder looks great for its age Gil!!! How long had you been modeling at that point?

Looks like you did her proud Gil!!

Nice looking Hurricane Bill! As Gil said, it looks like Airfix has come a long ways.

I got this in the mail today. Only three more to get the whole bunch of 'em. (I built all of these as a kid so I'm anxious to get a second shot at them.)

I thought I'd start a topic regarding builds from childhood that some of us have that are still display worthy. Just curious to see what's out there. I built this kit when I was a youngster (about 14 or so) right around the 1983 time frame. It was my first car model I do remember that. Despite being a beginners build and a rough one at that, it has survived 31 years and is in my display case almost as it was when I built it. The engine is long gone and the passenger seat in the interior is loose but other than that it's all there. A couple of years after I built it I robbed a set of wheels from a "Street Demons" 41 Willys kit that I had just because I couldn't stand the rear wheels that came on it originally. Over the course of the last two days I took a break from my 56 Ford F-100 build(just needed a break!) and took this one out of the case and repaired the suspension so that the body doesn't rest on top of the rear tires any longer, re-adhered the rear bumper and "dolled her up" a little bit for some decent photo shots. Here's the one that started it all for automotive modeling for me:

I spent two days ironing the hood and body blemishes out from all of the ejector pin marks and sink holes. There were tons of these things present all over the body and hood!! This kit is not one of Revell's more stellar kits but the molds are pretty old so I have to remember that when I want to complain. I removed the badging from the front of the hood and have completed all the body work on it. My next two plans for it are to cut out the rectangle in the hood for the carburetors and now that the bottom of the hood is all nice and smooth I'll probably shoot some chrome Spaz Stix on the undersides for a show truck style effect. Hopefully it'll turn out good enough to give a nice reflection of the engine off of it after I polish it up. I've re-worked the newer firewall/ forward cab area both inside and out starting with the removal of , you guessed it, ejector pin marks on the cab side of the floor area. I moved on next to the firewall and removed all of the molded in wiring and component detail so I could install separate components and use real wire instead of the molded detail for a more realistic approach under the hood. I've still gotta fabricate brake and clutch pedals to make all that stuff work underneath. Firewall with molded detail: and the newer piece without the molded detail: Next, after priming, I shot the coat of paint on this thing. Although the picture doesn't depict the exact shade here ( just short of a blood red actually) ...something tells me that I'm really gonna like this paint ! It is the exact shade of red I was after.

I've got the Ju-88 / Fw 190 F-8 Mistel 2 combo and can see where you get the high quality rating from. I'm REALLY looking forward to that Mistel build!!!

Dang man! Nice score!!! Especially for less than 100 bucks!