Mark Deliduka

You would like me to review this? Okay, I guess I can, but I've already started it. Maybe I can drum something up. Thanks for the compliment.

Well, it's been awhile since I've posted but now that I have some progress done, here is my latest post. These are two of my 'big box' projects one armor one aircraft, so I can get the big boxes out of my stash and into the trash! Feel free to check out the aircraft Forum to see my latest progress on my aircraft. This first one is the Munitionspanzer that came with the Hasegawa 1/72 scale Karl Morser 54cm Mortar. I finally got the camo pattern on it: Now all that's left is some detail/touch up painting and then add the tracks to it and it'll be ready for finishing. I've gotten the tracks for both this munitionspanzer and the Karl already painted, so soon I'll be able to mount the tracks on both vehicles. These are looking close to done now. This next one is my 1/72 scale Dragon T-34/76 with cast turret. I've got all the plastic assembly done. Now it's waiting on the Photo-etch: Hopefully soon I'll get some more done on this. This final one is the GMC CCKW tractor trailer from the Australian Army in WWII. So far, I have only assembled the back trailer minus the wheels: I do have two other tractor-trailer trucks from PST to build as well. I will be building them along with this one to get them all done at the same time. Meanwhile thanks for looking, comments are welcome.

These are two of my 'big box' projects; one armor and one aircraft, so I can get the big boxes out of my stash and into the trash! Feel free to check out my Armor 'Big Box' project in the Armor Forum. Meanwhile, on to the pics...... This is the Trumpeter Tu-16 Badger in 1/72 scale, and I have the main cockpit module on, the tail surfaces on, and everything is sanded down. In these pics, the wings and the engine nacelles are only dry-fit. I want to make sure that there's no other sanding/filling necessary before I add them to the fuselage: You an see that I taped the turret guns down to hopefully keep them from breaking off. Also, I threw an Exacto knife in the one pic to show you how big this puppy is. Well, that's about all the progress I've made for today on this and a couple of other projects. Feel free to check out my latest progress on the Armor Forum. Thanks for looking and comments are welcome.

I read that story. It was actually an Italian-American pilot that defected to Italy during the War, taking his P-38 with him. He would then go up and offer to 'escort' damaged bombers home and then would ambush them, shooting them down. Finally a US crew got info on who this guy was. They took a B-17 gunship and painted a pic and the name of his wife in a risque pose on the nose and went hunting for him. When he finally showed up, they left the intercom open so he could overhear as they talked about his wife. This enraged him and when he attacked, the bomber crew blew him out of the sky. Sorry to go off topic. I won't do it again.

Thank you for the compliment Ed, and I apologize for answering so late. My E-mail notification never happened. I would probably display it again if they asked, however that display has been removed. It was only for the 50th anniversary of the Air Force anyway. This one will grace my shelf at home, unless I choose to take it to some shows. Thanks again for the compliment.

Rob, the more I've thought about it, the more I agree with your suggestion. I'll be leaving this on and just live with it. Thanks again!

Thanks for the compliments guys. Very appreciated. Glenn, I don't really know who they belong to. I'll have to see if I can find out. Thanks AC, I'll do my best!

Thanks for the compliments guys. Very appreciated. Jay, I have about as much time as almost everyone else. I work in construction, and since my wife works two jobs I'm stuck with running the errands and other 'honeydo' lists. That's what takes most of my time! Still, I know what you mean. Hey, enjoy the bench time when it comes! Thanks again guys!

Good idea Tim. I'll give it a try.

Yes folks, have a gander at my latest model. This is Italeri's 1/72 scale F-5B Freedom Fighter, replacing the one stolen from the USC Air Force ROTC building display case. Personally, I think this one came out better. Here she is ready for delivery to my US Air Force: My apologies for that last pic being slightly blurry. My camera just cannot focus on this bright silver plane! I took 17 photos and these three are the best of the best. Well, thanks all for looking and comments are welcome.

That's awesome seeing one of these up close! Thanks for the compliment and the post.

Yeah, ain't it great?! Did you notice the two kill markings too? That surprised me. Now check out my newest Thread: this one is finished!

Thank you Rob! I didn't know that was what the louver was for. I really appreciate your info on this. Hmmm, now I have to figure out if I can remove that louver from the model without destroying the model. Not sure if I can. It may have to stay and remain inaccurate. Thanks for the heads up on this; I'll be watching more closely to avoid this mistake in the future. Thanks again Rob.

Wow, that looks better than mine! Well done Nelson! I wasn't as good about getting the decals down over this corrugation, but apparently it was good enough for an OOB award at the Nats in 2007.

A quick update here for those still following this Thread. I got some more progress done on my F-5B Freedom Fighter. The decals are now on her and her landing gear are installed. I plan on letting it dry overnight and then applying a clearcoat and then finishing up adding all the fiddly detail parts. Hopefully I'll have this ready for the Friday night meeting. Anyway, here she is sporting her decals: That's all for now; I'd been pretty busy today so not much bench time. Thanks for looking and comments are welcome.

Sweet! Out of all those, I have the B-17 (ancient:built as a kid) and the B-25 (got recently, haven't started it). I also have built the O-2U Kingfisher, but I built it out of the Airfix box. Yeah, I remember those prices as well. Good times!

Thanks Ed, and thank you also for clearing that up about who it was that issued them first. Until now I'd never gotten a straight answer. I knew there was a reason I loved MPC kits! I also LOVED their Profile Series kits! One of m,y dreams as a kid was to get every one in the Series and build it; then cut off the box tops and post them on my bedroom wall as a montage. My first ever Profile Series model was the B-17. Ah, to get that one again and re-build it would be a dream! I recently (1 year ago or so) finished a Profile Series MPC Mosquito, and I have a Profile Series Hurricane sitting on my bench sans decals because when I coated them with a decal film, they broke all up! Thanks again for the great comments Ed, I love your posts!

Thanks Jeff!I'm glad you like it. You'd probably be amazed at how far 1/72 scale armor has come these days. It has definitely been a blast for me. I haven't had this much fun building small scale armor since the days I first discovered all those great ESCI kits so many years ago! LOL! Actually, this one had been on my bench for 5 months, not five days! I figured it was about time I got it finished. And if you aren't believing it, I'm glad I posted pics for proof! Now 144 models in one year would certainly beat my personal best! Hmmmmm...... You've given me an idea. Maybe I should try to see how close I come to that total by the end of the year..... Ah HA! I thought I saw someone rummaging around inside my APC looking for the beer cooler! Seriously though, thank you for the compliment. That is the 1/72 scale Trumpeter kit of the -A1. I have already built all of the ESCI variants from ages past. Next up: Trumpeter's 1/72 swcale M-113A2 battlefield ambulance. That will then be added to my "Evolution of the Battlefield Ambulance" Display I hope to complete. Thankls again to all who posted. I truly appreciate all your great comments!

Sweet! That looks great! I Also know what you mean about cleaning up the misfit models. I'm in the process of doing that as well. Keep going, you are making some outstanding models!

Steve, you just described this model I finished! I even got two sheets of the "Happy Nazi" decals (as someone called them) in this box too. I decided to use the decals you see on it! The Boston I built a couple of months earlier was also one of the old MPC kits with the crazy decal stripes and designs. I still kept them. Who knows, I may find a way to use them someday! Thanks for posting Steve, I appreciate your comments!

Thanks Dave! I even have some of the interior filled in too, but it was too hard trying to get the shot with the camera. Thanks again for posting!

Well, after finishing the M-113, I started to concentrate on getting my F-5B further along. After a couple of tries, I finally managed to get the silver coat on it smooth enough for my tastes. My apologies for the slightly blurry pics. My camera apparently has a hard time focusing on such shiny stuff. Thanks all for looking, comments are welcome.

That's right, I finally finished this M-113A1 that has been languishing on my bench for awhile. Now it's finished and I'm sending her for delivery to my US Army. Thanks all for looking, and comments are welcome.

T-bolt, thanks! Yeah, I love these old kits! It is such a blast going down Memory Lane with these old kits. Dreams, VonL, Glenn and Dave, thanks! I never used the crew before, but I figure, why not? I like the way these look with pilots and crew in them. Thanks Gil! It took what seems like gallons of Solvaset ( the 'Nuclear Option'!). I really 'nuked' these decals heavily with the Solvaset, and even used a semi-stiff brush to brush the softened decals into the grooves. They were still thick enough not to be torn or anything while I was doing it. I'll tell you, I was so relieved when this decaling job was over!! Yeah, someone else told me that it was an original MPC (sure looked like it with the white plastic, heavy flash and short-shot pieces!) that was re-boxed by by Airfix later. I don't know. I still enjoyed building this SO much!! Thanks for the compliment Paul! Oh, by the way, the Sabre Dog, the Ju-52 and the DH-2 I completed at the end of last year were all models I bought for 2-3 dollars each in my chapter's Distressed Kit Auction in December.

Here it is finally finished, my Ju-52 Transport. This is the ancient MPC model. It came molded in white and with a ton of flash. I even used the original decals on this model. It took copious amounts of Solvaset to get these decals to lay down in the ridges, but I'm satisfied with how they look now. After the dullcoat, I used some Tank Rats Black Soot weathering powders to stain the lower nose. Without further ado, here she is: An interesting thing happened when I pulled off the liquid mask from the main canopy: it pulled all my paint off too! I ended up having to repaint the canopy frames again. Oh well, I think they came out better the second time around. Thanks all for looking, comments are welcome.