Dreamsof51

I'm lucky enough to live north of Los Angeles on the approach pattern to Burbank and Van Nuys airports. I've seen everuthing from the daily Southwest 737s to a B-1 bomber when Van Nuys have open houses in July. Some of the more interesting are P-51, A-26, DC-3, T-6s (formation passes every memorial day,) L-29s, B-25 and fire drop helicopters, Hueys, Blackhawks and Skycranes. My wife thinks I'm nuts when I run out the door to see what kind of aircraft is making that noise. I've got my four old daughter doing it now. One of the cooler types is an Avanti two engine turboprop pusher that comes over quite a bit. It makes a very distinctive sound. The strangest time was after the 911 attacks, there was no air traffic except F-18s for a few weeks. I was surprised how much I missed hearing and seeing planes overhead.

Sure doesn't look basic form this perspective. The overall effect is very nice. Thanks for posting. Chris

I'm not worthy! Chris

Hey Gil Never done a full resin model before this should be fun to watch. I'll just continue the punishment with short run injection, resin accessories and PE parts thanks. Chris

Its amazing how well those airfix kits have stood the test of time. Once you get the rivets off, they usually capture the look of the real thing. My last one was the B-26 and it was a cool little kit. Full bombay detail and all. Great job Jeff. I think we should all build at least one old Airfix per year just to remember what its like. Chris

A timely tribute as Dom DeLuise passed on to the great beyond yesterday. Well done and R.I.P. Dom Chris

I think I like yours better than the Tamiya one. Excellant work on the engine bay ( in the other photos.) Whats your next project? Thanks for the photo diary of this build Chris

That does look like a good set up. Yours seems to do the job just us well. Thanks for the reply Chris

Given the scale involved, these are both very well done models. I've got to use my 3X glasses just to paint in this scale. Nice job guys. Chris

This is one great looking project. I like your jig for holding the body. How about a photo without the car on it so I can steal uh borrow the idea. I'm also one that follows some of my favorite bands from the past. Saw Queensryche last week. My wife joined the fan club and we were picked to go in for the sound check and to meet the band after the show. A lot of bands from our past have made music all these years. In some cases, the best music of thier careers. Music and modeling...makes perfect sense to me. Chris

Really nice work. It funny how an event or picture can set off a project quest. I get a lot of ideas and motivation from car and air shows. In this case you nailed the colors. If we could just make ourselves small enough to get in there.... Great job thanks for posting Chris

Hey Gil very nice project. I've got two biplanes half done because I dont want to deal with rigging. You really brought some life into an oldie. Thanks Chris

Saw a lot of skycranes last fire season here in southern California. Watching fire bombing aircraft is part of growing up here. Friend of mine was inspecting the construction of the new fire dept air operations center last year. The County and City of LA base aircraft and helos there. One of the County blackhawk pilots lives a few houses from me so we get imprompto airshows at least once a week. My favorite aerial firefighters are the Canadair CL 214 "super scoopers," They always fly in pairs and spent a lot of time over my house last year working fires nearby. Always interesting to watch in spite of the unfortunate reason for them being there. Thanks for the post Chris

There may have been better American WWII fighters, but the P-40 will always have a special place for me. That coming from an ex Flying Tiger circa 23rd Tactical Fighter Wing (1981-84). Great job on a great plane. Thanks, Chris

Who says you can't make an old kit look good. Nice job Thanks for posting. Chris

I really need to get to an airshow. Have to check the schedules. The best one close to me is Point Mugu NAS. I love that show. The flight line is close so when the jets take off its loud! Last time there saw the F-22 and it was mind blowing. Where was this show Gil? Chris

It is in fact the reissued Monogram kit. While the detail sets sound interesting, I decided to do this one out of the box since we have a shorter timeline on reissued as opposed to new kits. Its a fairly good build from what I can see so far. Stay tuned for the results on the review page. Thanks to all for your help/ Chris

Thats awesome! If you followed the kit directions it would all be gray. Now I get to use that cool blue green color the Soviets paint their cockpits in. Thanks for the link and photo. Chris

I reviewing the reissue from Revell and my references are a bit thin for this one. I've been all over the internet and have found a lot of great exterior photos but no cockpit shots. Can anyone out there point to where I might find some?

I would not want to fly anywhere near that! The weathering is spot on. Great job thanks for posting. Chris Smith

Looking good so far Mark. I have the same problem with big box kits. I would love to build the Monogram WWII bombers but I just don"t have the room. Working on the Airfix 1/48 Lightning and I have to put the box elsewhere and pull the parts out as needed. Someday when one of the kids moves out I'll have a model room. Till then its smaller projects. Keep it up. Chris

The later marks were a lot easier on the eye.

Mine would be the only one I've built. An X Wing Star wars fighter. I don`t recall the manufacturer but I do remember detailing it a lot. I had to open up window panels and the pilot figure needed some help. The fun part was weathering it up since you can do more than you can on aircraft which are my usual subjects. I really liked the ships in the newer Star Wars but never modeled any of them. Chris

Where did you get it? Chris

As it turned out Pledge with Future was at my local Walmart. Used it on the clear parts of the Firefly I just posted on the aircraft section. It worked fine. I did not realize it was so thin. My bottle must have been older than I thought! Another problem solved with the help of IPMS members. Thanks to all. Chris