JoeHegedus
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Posts posted by JoeHegedus
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The Skyraider is still the best kit in this scale IMHO. Nice to see it back as I can use another one or two.
That roller is interesting and those robot things look fun.
At $60 for a Skyraider, I'll pass. That's far too much coin for that kit, regardless of whether or not it's the best available.
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Looks good, Gil. Just wondering; did you do anything to reinforce the landing gear legs? I built that kit many years ago, and the weight required to get it to balance caused the MLG struts to start to bow outboard after a couple months. The easy fix was to use pieces of sprue between the bottom wing surface in the well and the unattached end of what is supposed to be the retraction pivot axle, to give a load path from there to the wing to counteract the bending moment that comes from the wheels being outboard of the struts.
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Invisible thread may be purchased at your local fabric store (JoAnn's, for example). Uschi thread is available online; do a google search for it. See my previous post, I described installation there.
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If you like the thin elastic thread, it is available on a spool under the brand name "EZ Line" - check a hobby shop or type that into google/ebay/amazon to find an online seller.
Don
Uschi thread is something I've heard good things about; just haven't managed to get my act together enough to buy some yet!
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The biggest problem I have with the Tamiya AS-12 spray cans is being able to GET IT here in town! I agree, it's great stuff!
GIL :smiley16:
Same here. I usually order it from Tower Hobbies 5 or 6 cans at a time.
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People use various things to make the antenna wire. Some like to use stretched sprue, others like to use fine nylon monofilament line, others prefer to use fine elastic thread, and some like to use actual wire. The choice somewhat depends on the scale as well as personal preference.
Stretched sprue is just what it says - take a piece of the parts tree from the kit about 3 inches or so in length, and hold it so that the center is a couple inches above a candle flame. Keep rotating the sprue like a roast on a spit until it starts to sag where it's being heated, then remove it from the heat source and smoothly pull the ends of the sprue apart. The soft center section will stretch out into a long, thin strand. It takes a bit of practice to get the feel, but one can vary the speed of pull to get different thickness of the strand.
Nylon monofilament is fishing line, essentially. The finer the better, usually. Fly-fishing leader material is often suggested, but if you go to your local fabric store you can get "invisible thread" that is really a fine nylon monofilament line. It comes in clear or smoke coloring; I prefer the smoke when I use it.
For 1/72 (my usual scale of choice), I normally prefer to use fine elastic thread. This one is a bit harder to obtain - it takes a bit of effort as my source is a section cut from an old pair of black nylon stockings (pantyhose). The idea is to pull thread strands out of the weave and use those. Tedious, and sometimes difficult to get a piece that is a consistent number of threads for the whole length, but very fine and quite forgiving when installed (it has a lot of stretch).
For larger scales, actual wire can be used. Fine copper wire can be obtained from the armature windings of an old toy electric motor.
As to how to install, that varies somewhat depending on how the wire is routed. If one end is anchored in the fuselage itself, drill a small hole and use CA glue to secure one end in that hole. When that has set, pull the wire material you've selected to the point where the other end is to be secured and use a small drop of CA to hold it in place. When that has set, use a razor blade or similar to trim the excess.
If both ends are secured to a mast or similar, then just do like the second end of what I just described twice.
Nylon thread and stretched sprue can both be tightened a bit once installed with heat; light a match, blow it out and hold the just-extinguished end under the line you want to tighten. The residual heat from the match will cause the line to shrink a bit and tighten up. Don't get the match head too close, though, as too much heat will cause the line to break.
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My 2 cents about Alclad. It does not NEED a primer over bare plastic for most of the shades in the line, if one is misting the coats on. I've used it on several projects without primer with good results. The solvent doesn't have enough time to react with the plastic before it evaporates unless one sprays it on in heavy, wet coats. However, if one has done any "body work" on the kit and used putty or other filler that is a different color from the plastic, a primer is a good idea so that one has a uniform base coat for the finish. The place where you NEED the primer is if the desired finish is a chrome or 'mirror' finish; in that case a dark (black), gloss undercoat is required.
Alclad is good stuff, though - a good looking finish that is tough and durable.
That said, Tamiya AS-12 "airframe aluminum" spray paint is awesome stuff as well. It's a lacquer, so one has to a bit careful not to apply it too heavily, but it has good coverage, and isVERY durable and tough - one can mask over it with no worries about paint pulling up. It is more of a dull aluminum shade, but works quite well for a used, in-service finish and it's very easy to mask panels and paint them with different shades if desired.
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If you want to make it even better, before you put the spring in, clamp the two "jaws" together back to back and drill a hole the size of the diameter of the coil mid-way between the two. Then put the spring in place and the "jaws" will sit parallel when closed instead of at the angle they do now
I've used reversed clamps like this for several years, and have found that having the sides converge when the clamp is empty is advantageous, as the jaws are more close to parallel when in use. This makes it less likely that jaws will slide off the part being clamped. Plus, if the jaws of the reversed clamp are parallel when closed, there isn't any movement available to open the jaws.
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Nothing to add the Pete's post, but I must say that I love the Senator Bedfellow avatar, Pete!
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I'm a little late to the party here, but my membership had lapsed and I had to reestablish it in order to post, as you know.
I have the following Estoteric kits:
Curtiss F Boat, NAF-14
Boeing Fighter 3, NAF-7
Grumman Goblin, NAF-22
Fiat C.R. 20, NAF-31
Fairey Flycatcher, NAF-23
Westland Walrus, NAF-36
Great Lakes BG-1
Parnall Panther, NAF-34
Sorry Joe, don't have the particular two Esoterics you mention.
I also have the following from Air Craft Models, same M.O. as Esoteric, vacuform plus white metal parts, also from England:
D.H. 91 (1/72 scale, this recently sold on eBay for $135),
Vickers Vimy Commercial (1/144 scale) ("City of London")
I have had under construction for practically forever the Esoteric Grumman "Flying Barrel" but am now close to completion. Showed me how difficult it is with my modest construction skills to handle the vacuformed kit. This fact, and my place on the mortality tables, indicates that as much as I love the idea of vacuform kits and the obscurity of many of the subjects, I am not going to come close to getting them done. Further, I'd like to get some of these into the hands of IPMS colleagues who are personally interested in the subject matter, as opposed to the purely "commercial" approach of sending them out to the eBay marketplace (plus, I haven't yet set up an eBay account and am not committed to the idea of being an eBay vendor).
I may pull the Great Lakes biplane off the table because I am a Cleveland native and I'd love to pay homage to both CLE and the manufacturer of the plane, now long gone of course.
Rick Green
Rick, that Flycatcher sounds interesting. What do you want for it?
Joe
Joe, will sell for $10 + shipping and shipped by any means you choose.
Sounds good to me. If you can shoot me an email to hegedus(at)md(dot)metrocast(dot)net we can work out the details. Thanks!
Joe
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I'm a little late to the party here, but my membership had lapsed and I had to reestablish it in order to post, as you know.
I have the following Estoteric kits:
Curtiss F Boat, NAF-14
Boeing Fighter 3, NAF-7
Grumman Goblin, NAF-22
Fiat C.R. 20, NAF-31
Fairey Flycatcher, NAF-23
Westland Walrus, NAF-36
Great Lakes BG-1
Parnall Panther, NAF-34
Sorry Joe, don't have the particular two Esoterics you mention.
I also have the following from Air Craft Models, same M.O. as Esoteric, vacuform plus white metal parts, also from England:
D.H. 91 (1/72 scale, this recently sold on eBay for $135),
Vickers Vimy Commercial (1/144 scale) ("City of London")
I have had under construction for practically forever the Esoteric Grumman "Flying Barrel" but am now close to completion. Showed me how difficult it is with my modest construction skills to handle the vacuformed kit. This fact, and my place on the mortality tables, indicates that as much as I love the idea of vacuform kits and the obscurity of many of the subjects, I am not going to come close to getting them done. Further, I'd like to get some of these into the hands of IPMS colleagues who are personally interested in the subject matter, as opposed to the purely "commercial" approach of sending them out to the eBay marketplace (plus, I haven't yet set up an eBay account and am not committed to the idea of being an eBay vendor).
I may pull the Great Lakes biplane off the table because I am a Cleveland native and I'd love to pay homage to both CLE and the manufacturer of the plane, now long gone of course.
Rick Green
Rick, that Flycatcher sounds interesting. What do you want for it?
Joe
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looks great, is this the kit currently on the shelves? I know there was an old Lindberg one that last saw life when the Independence Day movie came out.
It's a recent issue (last couple years) so it should be readily available. Sprue Brothers is showing it in stock ( http://store.spruebrothers.com/product_p/rmx855264.htm ) as does Tower Hobbies ( http://www3.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin/wti0001p?&I=LXDYXU&P=W ).
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I"m interested if you have an Esoteric Vought SBU scout bomber and/or 1/72 Esoteric Vought O3U Corsair, both in the "Naval Aircraft Factory/NAF" line.
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When Hasegawa started making 1/48 Phantoms back in the 80s, the first ones were the F-4J, B, and C/D (the ones that had raised panel lines). When they tooled up the F-4E kit, there were changes in the dimensions of the wing and fuselage in the kits around the area of the intakes - the F-4E kit was wider in the area than the previous kits. I know this because I used an original F-4J and an F-4E to build an F-4S before Hasegawa released that version, and the Sparrow wells on the F-4E wing did not line up with the wells in the J fuselage (when Hasegawa released the S, they retooled the fuselage to match up with the F-4E wings and add recessed panel lines).
So, it's possible that the different intakes reflect the different fuselage toolings from the original kits maybe? Does one set of intakes have raised panel lines?
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I checked my F7F-3N conversion set from Cobra - the forward cockpit is a full cockpit, including the floor, bulkheads, instrument panel, sidewalls, seat, stick, and I believe a gunsight as well.
Hope this helps you out.
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I don't recall offhand, but I think I have another conversion set at home so I can look this evening.
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I used the Cobra set on the Monogram Tigercat a while back. I don't recall having any problems with it; the end result can be seen here:
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=2699092693210&l=a611620eeb
I also used the QB engines and cowls on another kit, which can be seen here:
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=2271713689002&l=1cf06d3db7
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The brand name is, I think, just "Quickboost". Sprue Brothers carries them I know; that's where I got my set. Here's a link to a set on ebay so you can see what they look like:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Quickboost-72133-1-72-F7F-Cowlings-Engines-for-Revell-Monogram-/111646847988
Aside from some care required removing the cowls from the pour blocks to avoid messing up the leading edges, the set is pretty much a direct replacement for the kit cowls - no surgery is required to use them from what I recall.
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The Tigercat used 2 P&W R-2800s, the same engine used in the Hellcat, Corsair, and P-47. You should be able to find plenty of aftermarket engines to choose from, though I don't know which "dash" number (R2800-?) engine would be appropriate for the Tigercat. The basic difference was minor differences in the look of the engine crankcase on the front of the engine, if that's important to you. I'm sure others will chime in soon to help out more!
GIL
TIgercats used the R-2800 C-series with the cylindrical, bolted crankcase, like the F4U-4, F8F, and P-47M/N.
Quickboost does a set of engines and cowls designed for the Monogram Tigercat that are easy to use and look good.
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, we'll all have to carry jeweler's loupes or magnifying glasses with us when we need paint!
Yes, the labels are printed in very small letters. But don't the vast majority of us now routinely carry a cellphone, mostly with a camera attached? It's a bit of an inconvenience, but why not use said camera to either look at the label through a zoom function (if yours is capable), or snap a photo of the label and then view that enlarged? I've done this and it works.
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The Revell kit in the black/white scheme (NATC, not VX-4, by the way) from back then was Revell's own tooling, and is NOT the same kit as boxed by Revell today. The current kit began as the Monogram tooling back in the 80s, and is quite different from the Revell tooling so downloading the instructions won't really help you much. Monogram's kit was much more detailed overall than Revell's.
Having said that, since the only single-seat Hornets around when that kit was tooled were the FSD prototypes and the F-18A models, the kit is one of those. The major differences between the FSD and the production versions are the lack of a dogtooth on the wing leading edge and lack of the long LEX slots between the LEX and fuselage under the cockpit on the production airplanes. The FSD airplanes originally had a dogtooth on the wing leading edge at the fold joint (like one sees on the current FA-18E/F Super Hornets), a dogtooth on the stabilizer leading edge that was filled in early on in the program, and slots between the LEX and the forward fuselage that ran most of the length of the LEX. Production versions have a much smaller LEX slot, just above and slightly forward of the intake.
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1) If you have a -4 or -5 Corsair kit, use it instead of the -1. Those would probably have rocket rails/stubs, which the -1 did not use. This is also consitant with the IDF using late WWII planes (Mustangs, late model Spits, etc.). The -1 Corsair had been replaced by 1945 with the -4. If the -1 is the only one you have and want to use it...
2) The bombs mount to the same pylons as used for the drop tanks. There should be sway braces for either one.
3) The rockets don't seem to have any wires over the lengths of their bodies or the warhead, but do appear (some) to have a short wire hanging out of the rear of the rocket with a "plug" on the end of the wire. Since this is how it appears on the ground, perhaps they are "plugged in" before take-off to arm them, and you don't see that in flight pics?
Gil, the -4 was just coming on line in 1945. The majority of Corsair Ops in WWII were the -1 and its subvariants. In 1945, the F4U-1D/FG-1D (along with the F6F) were carrying the lion's share of the workload through most of the Okinawa campaign. The F4U-4 showed up toward the tail end of that operation. The F4U-1D was fitted early on with the zero-length rocket stubs. The firing lead ("pigtail") connected the back of the rocket to a receptacle in the wing behind the rear stub, and would not be connected until just before takeoff for safety. There is also an arming lanyard for the warhead fuze that would connect to the area of the forward stub, and run along the upper surface of the rocket/warhead to the fuze.
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A few years back, someone displayed at the Old Dominion Open in Richmond, VA, a collection of 18 Accurate Miniatures F3F models; one complete squadron of airplanes appropriately marked.
Surprised that no one has done a 1/32nd scale Kaydett Stearman
in I wish there was a kit of...
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Yes, they have a nice 1/32 Stearman. Unfortunately, I believe it is being discontinued. If you want one, better act soon.