Jump to content

thevid

IPMS/USA Member
  • Posts

    179
  • Joined

  • Last visited

  • Days Won

    7

Everything posted by thevid

  1. Last year iModeler member Tom Bebout sent me some classic kits with the request I would build them. I told him I would and here is the first one of them. It is an older Airfix kit with the original first issued in 1963 as kit 386. As I began to build it I soon began to like this pudgy little fat fellow. First thing I did was sand down the rivets and second thing was to figure out how to improve the clear parts. Common with Airfix kits with cabin window is that there is always a nice big sink mark in the middle of the clear piece. For the nose windows I used Microset Clear window glue which worked OK. On the side fuselage windows I sanded and polished out the parts hoping to remove the sink mark. It worked on some and others it didn't. To seal the side windows I experimented with two kinds of clear glue on the inside to prevent them from popping off. Unfortunately the interaction between the clear gorilla glue and the other clear glue caused some white specks on the windows. Lesson learned. Practice on a test kit before using it on a build. I masked the fuselage windows with a mask ordered off eBay. The canopy frames are thin strips of decal painted with the correct color. The paints are from Tamiya (sky), AK (Dark Earth) and Mission Models (green). I used blue tac to mask the camo pattern and it worked well. The decals were slightly out of register so I replace the roundels, codes and fin flash markings with decals from my spares binder. I flattened the finish with Dullcote. The motto on the side of fuselage is supposed to be on each side. I screwed up the starboard side ones so only the port side has them. The nose cap, lower clear part and turret are glued in place with clear Elmer's glue. Somewhere on the floor or on my bench is a small landing gear door that popped off, but is not noticeable. The next one will be the Monogram 1/48 TBF.
  2. My condolences to his family and thank you for letting us know. David
  3. Hi John, Thanks! I think I began with simple Airfix kits 30 years ago when I realized that in their simplicity a decent model could be made with care and modern tools. Now I've regressed to much older kits that are as old or older than me.
  4. Thanks, after this I have no fear of attempting any more rebuilds.
  5. Thank you Gil! I really appreciate it.
  6. Thanks Carlos, it's not quite IPMS compatible but it sure was a pleasure to get it done. I have other rate kits that a club member gave me that will see the light of day. One is the Revell box scale P2 Nepture and the other is the Convair Tradewind. Both vintage 1950s kits.
  7. Man that's a nice model! The engines look so real and the crew really make the model stand out. Excellent work Gil.
  8. Lovely build there Duke. That wing is huge. I tried building it once but gave up on it. I have another that I will finish. Yours looks great. Did you use kit dekkels or replacements?
  9. I really like the collection of F/P-80s. Well done sir.
  10. Hey Fox, Thank for you very much. I'm happy with the results. I saw a better restoration in a now defunct retro modeling group, The best thing I did was fair the canopy to the rear spine. It was way too big. I used Magic Putty and it sanded smoothly.
  11. I put the photo of Amanda just on general principles. 🙂
  12. The annual show at the Military Aviation Museum in Pungo, Virginia took place on Oct 1-3. Here is the Skyraider on takeoff. I photographed other aircraft as well. I used my 1DX with 100-400mm f4.5-5.6 lens for this shot.
  13. I wanted to see if I could build a broken relic into something presentable. I learned about the P-38 when I build this kit as a child and I would fly it around outside shooting down me109s and what have you. The copy I had at that time was molded in glossy OD plastic. I decided to find a copy and I did. I found some busted up kits for sale on eBay. The P-38 was one of them and is molded in metallic blue. It was missing the tail plane, props and spinners and balance weights. I asked for parts from the club membership and a member sent me a complete Monogram P-38 kit for parts. So here are photos showing the progress. It is one of Aurora's more accurate 1/48 models and I wanted a simple stand build; but, there was lots and lots of sanding and filling. To my surprise the Monogram replacement parts fit perfectly. I carefully removed the yellowed canopy and polished it. There is no cockpit just a molded on pilot, and rudimentary instrument panel and radio. The canopy is more like a helmet in that it sits atop the cockpit and is oversized. The only thing I could do at this point was adding putty and sanding down the sides so that it fitted properly. I glued the canopy with clear Gorilla Glue and it made a good bond without crazing the plastic. The clear canopy is missing some frame lines so I used decal strips to create those missing frames. None of the intakes are open so I just used a large sharpie to paint them black. I painted the model with Tamiya Green Drab and Mission Models Neutral Gray. The markings are from an Aeromaster sheet on OD P-38s. The props are held in place with blue-tac putty. Thanks for looking. 12 additional images. Click to enlarge.
  14. That is a real nice model. The figures make the presentation. Excellent Sir.
  15. I have the sheet for his aircraft from the accurate miniatures release. I think it has markings for all his a/c. Trade you for an Airfix 1/72 P-40E (yes the old one) or older Revell 1/72 kits Let me know. David thevidgoo@gmail.com
  16. HI Gil, Thanks. I agree a standard OD-NG is kinda bland for us older modelers. I'm glad I found the decals.
  17. Thank you very much Mark. I really appreciate you comment.
  18. This kit was going into the dumpster and the hobby shop owner asked if I wanted it. It had been started with tube glue. The cockpit and nose guns were firmly glued in place. Yet I took this and another 1/32 kit home. Having never built one before I was looking forward to seeing what I could do with it. Lots of filler was used and in the case of the nose gap I used a plastic card shim. With all sanding most of the raised detail was lost. So I re-scribed the kit and it was not that hard at all. I knew I could not get a good natural metal finish with all the scratches on the plastic. So on went the OD and NG. The stripes were easy to do since the width in 1/32 was very close to a roll of Tamiya tape. Painting the wings was easy, but the booms took a bit longer. The biggest problem was getting the stripes aligned. Decals were hard to find for this scale and I settled on a print scale set from one of favorite eBay dealers. The decals were very thin and folded over easily and I lost a couple. I found a photo of the actual aircraft and I noticed the nose cap is a different tone in black and white photos. I could not get a definitive answer if they painted or just natural metal. The decals did not have the inboard letters on the rudder assembly so I cut out a mask and painted it on. It is out of box, or rather out of the dumpster.
  19. Phones have done a disservice to modelers simply because most don't know how to use them correctly when photographing models. Instead of backing away from the model and zooming in most just get close and end up with distorted images of their work. One can take good model photos with a phone but the use has to back away and then zoom in on the models. This gives a more normal perspective.
  20. Excellent work! Are you using an adapter on the camera? I like the black and white photos.
  21. thevid

    Airfix Stug III G

    And one more. I filled the lower hull with lead pellets to give some heft.
  22. thevid

    Airfix Stug III G

    Airfix Stug I've built this kit several times. This is the latest version; I suppose it should be painted dark yellow. It is out of box except for the machine gun, which I later learned were stored inside. I used to staple the tracks together but I did learn by trial and error that one can glue the tracks with brute force using superglue (CA glue) and a pair of needle nose pliers. Glue the two ends together with superglue and with a firm grip hold down the ends with the pliers for about 30 seconds. It works. On the kit the level of detail is quite good for such a tiny model and with careful and delicate weathering one can bring it out. I used the yellowed kit decals which worked well. The road wheels are a bit of unusual in that some seem to have slightly different detail. I think it's due to the age of the tooling. Well here's my little Stug ready to save a squad of infantry.
  23. Thank you Carlos. I was too chicken to paint it like the box art. You mean Panther's were'nt in North Africa? What? Inconceivable.
×
×
  • Create New...