ClareWentzel

Great job JT. Fantastic weathering. Of course, I can't imagine anyone letting such a great car rust that much.

Mark, have you been looking over my shoulder? A great set of rules. It is hard to choose my favorite rule. I love 27 D. For that reason, I have all of the Profiles, in Actions etc. "There might be a kit of that airplane sometime". Also, 27 E caused me to check my list of decals. I found out that I had 1342 decal records and only 547 kit records. I got rid of a bunch of kits a couple of years ago but the point is made about decals. A friend of mine called decals "Eye Candy for modelers. (Blush) I found that i actually had 69 sets of F-4 decals.

A question for you Lee, When is the last time that you actually used something from your collection of spare parts? I guess that I'm (and probably all of us) are like you to an extent in that we feel that "This thing is still good. I am sure that I can use it somewhere, sometime.". I firmly believe that we people of a given age (old) really tend to be pack rats. I am very painfully trying to break myself from keeping so much. I sold about 1000 kits three years ago but still many lifetimes left. Now, to answer your question, I have quite a few packages of photo-etched. I keep them in three old notebooks that were made for micro fiche (younger members need to ask older members what micro fiche were). I keep my resin parts, vacuformed canopiesm masks and other purchased parts in a big cardboard box. I keep like items in marked plastic bags. All of these items are recorded in an Access data base named "modelparts". Of course, I also have a couple of kit boxes full of extra armament and fuel tanks etc. I don't think that I have ever used anything out of these boxes but "these things are still good". Hope this helps.

When you add a decal, you add a thickness to the model. The only way to avoid this is to use a rub-on decal. Many, many years ago, Letraset offered some model markings. They were great!!! The problem was that they had a short shelf life - probably only a year of so. I think that some armor decals are offered in rub-on form but I don't think that anyone now makes them. Sorry. Clare

Great list Gil. If we want to get modern with the list, you can add; You will not see the flaw in your model until you have published some close-up photos of it on the web. Clare

Chris, it is a mean looking machine. Good job. Clare

Greeat job Ying. I love the various aces schemes with the Russian aircraft. How did you do the star on the spinner? Was it a decal or hand painted? It looks perfect. Clare

I have heard somewhere that Organization is a sign of a weak mind. I'm sure that that applies to all modelers.

Welcome back Indy.

Way to go Indy. I love them both, especially the Heyford. I have the kit buy have never had the nerve to start it. Well done.

As I look over my work bench, I see lots of items that are not normally associated with our hobby. Many are "borrowed" from the kitchen. Here is my list; Pledge with Future - the famous future. Used to bring a gloss to the surface for decals etc. Also can be used as an adhesive for PE and other small items. Liquid Ammonia - used to clean the air brush after spraying Future. Windex - used to clean the air brush after spraying acrylics. Glad Press 'n Seal - great for masking. Wad it up for general masking or place it over a 3-view and cut it out for specific patterns. Palmolive liquid soap - a drop will make oil paints used for highlighting panel lines etc. wipe off easier. This doesn't even include such items a Q-tips and Elmer's Glue. What other items do you guys use?

Welcome back to the hobby Tom. I am sure that you will find some good people in the SE Michigan area. There are good groups in Livonia and in Warren. If you get over the the Kalamazoo area look us up.

Great builds guys. Lots of very interesting Small Air Force markings available for the Sabre. I'll have to check out the Hobby Boss kit. Thanks.

Tim, I have been following the subject since way back. The old RAF Flying Reviews tried to define colors but were very general. Harleyford Publications were a little better but their expertise was on English aircraft mainly. The Ries book was the first generally available reference to start to use the official German names and reference numbers. He did not, however, get into the later war colors. The color chart that he published was a great reference for the time. The three Luftwaffe Camouflage & Markings books from Kookaburra really started to tie down some of the later colors and the loose-leaf Official Monogram Painting Color Chart, in my opinion, does a great job of tying everything together. There may have been some tweaks since then but this book will provide you the basic info. Beyond that, the list of books that Gil and Lee mentioned will provide more specific details. To me, it is really important to find a photo or photos of the plane that you are building. It may show you some unique effects that the overview books don't cover. In particular, Lynn's books are worth while for 109 builders while the Eagle Edition books help 190 fans.

Great job Michael. I am impressed. Did the mounting dolly come with the kit? Also, the tractor?

It seems to be working good Eric. I have added one comment to get it started. I noted that your programing did not include the article from the January 2008 Journal. I was impressed that past articles like this could be brought back from time to time. The article is really informative from the tips standpoint (at least to someone who doesn't normally build figures). I was wondering what was behind posting this article. As I said, I like the idea but was curious why it popped up.

Nice Phantom Kelly. I have always loved that scheme.

One additional item to consider and an airbrush to consider. I build 1/72 models and most times I really don't need a lot of paint for most jobs. I picked up a Sotar 20-20 at the Chicago Nats and love it. The Sotar is also produced by Badger. I like it because of the integral open gravity cup design. I can add a single drop of paint and use it for small areas. I use a Grex airbrush for larger areas.

Not sure what scale you are working with but for the smaller scales, you might look into invisible sewing thread. It is available from sewing shops and probably from Michaels or Hobby Lobby. It is about .005 dia. and can be easily glued using super glue or super glue. I use it for rigging and antennas. If it is somewhat slack, it can be tightened up with a little heat.

Mike, you can't go wrong. I use both of the tools. John is a great modeler and has a fine engineering mind when it comes to making our hobby easier. John's saw blades are the only way to cut resin parts in my opinion.

I too like Roden kits and have completed several. Maybe the secret is to use new kits. I am attaching a photo of my Junkers D.1 which was built about five years ago. It has corrugated skin and the decals set down ok. I had to use lots of Solvaset. Generally, when I have an older decal, I coat it with Future before working with it. Clare

Interesting. As far as I'm concerned it makes the close-ups of the model look all the more realistic. Also, I sympathize with you on decals. Yesterday, I was putting some stars on the top wing of an Su-27. After everything was lined up I set it aside to dry. One star "floated" about 30 degrees. When I noticed it, they were dry. Nothing would make it refloat. Finally, I tried to remove it. I started with scotch tape, then more tape, then more tape etc. Finally, I had to scrape it off. Therefore, the modeling Gods must have been against you when your decals came off. Maybe they just wanted to cause you to make it even better.

Great job Steve. Great detailing. It looks like you masked both sides of the two canopy side panels. Great detail. Why does it look black at the edges of the glass? Did you paint both sides black before the final colors? The belts including the tape look very realistic. Well done!!

My eyes!! My eyes!!! :D Wow, the gelb areas really stand out at this point. I know that they will not look so bright when you finish the model. Still looks really great CD. Keep us in the loop.

Hi Kurt. You are in good hands with that group. Look forward to meeting you. A group of the Warren guys were in Kalamazoo for our contest on the 11th.