bwillard

I'm a huge fan of Reaper, and you've really done justice to the sculpt.

I got a kick out of the little washer fluid reservoir. Nice touch!

Excellent tip on the seats! The true details F-101 seats look very similar to the Buff seats, particularly with the headrest. Squadron has 'em for 3.49 a pair. I'm going to get to work on this and post photos as I go. Thanks!

Ed: good to hear from you bro. I'll try the needle idea. VonL et al.: I think I will make new hatches and see how they turn out compared to the kit plastic. I definitely will make a go at lighting the crew cabin. There are number of instrument panels that would lend themselves well to fiber optics. I researched the seats a bit, and in 1/72nd scale, I think a good approximation would be ACES II seats, where the angle-of-attack sensors are removed and the cushions are red instead of sage green. I do not belong to the accuracy-gestapo, but I want to make an effort. (I view every model as an approximation, but that's another convesation.) ;) Thanks a bunch for the advice, and keep it comin'! :)

I was a 'Load Toad' on F-16s, and green hard bombs are dead flat while missiles are fairly smooth.

Hello all, I'm making a start on the AMT 1/72 B-52G, and am noticing a lot of real estate in the cockpit. I really enjoy cockpits, and am thinking about how to open up the hatches on top to show it off. I've got the Verlinden scribing template which has the squares with the rounded corners. I'm guessing I would just scribe the outline and slowly work my way down with an x-acto knife. What is not obvious is how to cut through the fuselage without removing so much material that the hatch is noticeably smaller than the opening. I suppose I could use the template to make hatches out of sheet styrene and do a little heat-forming to try and match the curvature. I've seen B-1 models with open hatches. Has anyone done this on a B-52? Any suggestions? Also, what kind of seats are in this guy? I also welcome suggestions for accuracy, so that it looks somewhat convincing. Thanks for reading and happy new year! Brian