Stikpusher

Mark, those are some mighty fine additions to your stash. And I have no doubt that you will build them all! I’ve had a few new acquisitions come in since my last update. For my 1/48 RAF & Fleet Air Arm, I picked up these both well discounted off of their list price on the evilBay and then these two items… scrambling for replacement decals on my recent Mig-3, I realized that I needed Red Stars in my decal stash… and the Tempest PE set will dress up the old Eduard kit in my stash For my 1/35 motor pool, I picked up these kits… last weekend at AMPS, some guys came in with partially built and unbuilt kits from a friend of theirs who had died recently. I picked up these two very well along and very well started kits.. and this un started early Jagdpanther… it is missing the rail flat car, but I’m not complaining. All three cost me $20!!!

Gil, all three are coming along quite well. The camo schemes turned out great!

Great finish on this! You can practically hear his whooping as he rides the bomb down.

Yesterday I went with a friend out to Luke AFB and during our visit, took him by the Air Park display of aircraft types that have been flown at the base. They could use a few more types from the early years at Luke, but it is still a very nice collection.

Time saved on painting is time that can be applied to another project. 😏

Beautiful collection! I remember seeing a few of those kits on store shelves long ago. Nice to see what can be done with those kits! 👍🏼👍🏼

That’s a good trio of armor builds Mark. I didn’t realize that the Japanese got into the AMTRAC users club. Now you know that saying you’ve built all 1/72 Leopard kits available means that somebody will come out with a new one. That’s just how the universe works. 😉

Thanks Mark. A simple technique that gave quick nice results.

Not bold in tackling a vacuform kit on its’ own, but bold in tackling one as part of a batch build. They just need more effort compared to a current standard injection molded kit.

You’re too funny Gil 😉 Those particular tanks are just packing some serious heat… 😏 Thanks for the kind words on this past year’s work. To be honest, I’m a little discouraged about posting WIPs on here with the lack of feedback or comments compared to other sites that I’m on. I’ll just keep posting finished work.

I’m with Gil and missed it too until today. Truly an excellent year of building for you! Bravo! 👍🏼

Thanks Mark. This old Monogram kit has its’ faults, but it will look like a P-40 when built, and can really shine with some TLC. I suppose that’s true of most model kits.

Not just two “normal” kits, but a vacuform build as well? Wow! That’s a bold move.

So I guess this is my first completion of 2023. Although it hardly counts as such. This is the old MPC snap together box scale, (1/54 per Scalemates) All Terrain Scout Transport. I had built the basic kit many years ago and started painting it for an April Fools theme at OC IPMS. But my painting skills at the time were not up to what was needed for the end result envisioned, so I just set it aside partially painted. So yesterday at IPMS Phoenix the theme was Star Wars/Star Trek/Battlestar Galactica and I remembered that I had this one sitting around and decided to finish it up. The kit comes with the armored flaps over the vision ports molded shut, so I created some new ones out of sheet plastic to match the shape, then drilled open the ports. Then I glued the new flaps in the open position and proceeded to do a rapid and complete exterior repaint into a standard Imperial look. Once the painting was done, I added some “glass” in the open vision ports using Micro Krystal Klear, and lastly followed up with some slight weathering. Thank goodness for quick drying Tamiya acrylics with lacquer thinner. Not bad for an afternoon’s work.

This is my last completion of 2022, Monogram’s classic 1/48 early P-40. This one has been sidelined on my shelf of doom for so long that I don’t remember when I started it. A rough guess is that I started it sometime around twenty years ago, give or take a couple of years, and finished it up on New Years Eve, my last completion of the year. I used Cutting Edge decals for Tommy Haywood’s mount, American Volunteer Group, 3rd Pursuit Squadron, early 1942. Paints are Vallejo Model Air that are supposed to be close match for Du Pont colors used on export P-40’s. Personally, based on period color photos, I think that the Earth color is too light and has too much contrast with the Dark Green. I did do a bit of work to add some missing details in the wheel wells and cockpit, as well as some drilling out of muzzles and exhaust stacks. It could sure use a bit more work in the cockpit and wheel wells, but I wanted to get it finished by the end of the year. Not to mention going back and opening up the fuselage again. and my 1/48 P-40 family so far… Thanks for looking