WildBill50

Well, I finally finished a model this year. This is what I came up with. More pic's in the "on the bench" forum. Thank for looking. Comments more than welcome. Bill

Stick a fork in this build and call it done. After all of the problems, I think I learned alot on this build. Not so much the building, but the finishing. Hand painted markings, Alclad finish, stripping of bad decals; just a lot of little things. Is it perfect, no! But it is close. Perseverence paid off. I'm glad I stayed with it. Any and all comments welcome. Thanks for looking. Bill

Keep pushing them out Duke! How was the Valiant build wise? I still like the looks of the Victor and Vulcan better. It is nice that they are all available though. Nice job on your wide ranging projects. Bill

KA-BOOM! That is going to look stunning. You have to do the BIG guns...just have to. That looks like a great build, just seeing what come with it. Good luck. Bill

Thanks for the extra set of decals Ed. Your set worked just like they were supposed to. And thanks for the comments. Bill

Here are the photos of the painted on markings. If you look at the earlier pictures you will see where the front markings stop before the panel after the radome. The painted ones go all the way to the radome. Yellow band Painted, Black stripes decalled. Tail completed. Tail painted Decaling finished Here is the nose painted with the decal striping All taped up for paint. I hope the next pictures here will be of a completed model. Comments, questions more than welcome. Bill

Ok fellow modelers, here is an update on where this build is. The tail has been painted International orange with a chrome yellow band...just like the decals. I used 1/32 scale black decal stripes for the cheat lines between colors. I cut out the NASA from the Yellow part of the decal and placed that on the painted yellow stripe. For the markings on the front fuselage, again MM International orange and chrome yellow paint to the rescue. Black decal stripes along the edges. Looking at photos, I noticed the the original decals were not long enough. They stopped short of the panel before the nose cone, whilee the photos show the arrow going all the way to the radome. I taped the new length with Tamiya tape and sprayed away. I am now happy! While painting the wings, I ended up having to repaint them about 5 times as every time I would remove tape or even post-it notes, paint would peel up. Strip and repaint, strip and repaint...NOT HAPPY!! After finally getting them just about finished a spilled bottle of ALclad splashed up and caught the wing tip and also pooled around the wheels. Now I have to repaint one of the main landing gear wheels and the wing. I finally have the wings painted now and just need to place the black cheat line decals on them along with the NASA meatball and NASA markings. All of the fuelage decals are on and I just need to give that a clea coat. Small parts and the canopy are about all that's left. Pictures to follow, showing this trek soon. Bill

Kind of makes you feel old...but in a good way. Thanks, guys. Bill

Ouch! Isn't this a great hobby sometimes? Good luck with the repairs. Bill

A brief sidenote. My daughter is now in college, majoring in Space Science..astro biology. Models do help with dreams.

ROLO candy wrappers...perfect match for the gold foil. Bill

Maybe it's a manned UAV. In the words of George Kennedy, "I'm only an observer".

I thought it was the new Chinese Submarine eveybody is up in arms about. Great job...looks vey sharky. Bill

2 week on each Chris? lol Bill

A nice finale to that build. Looks great. Congrats, Bill

Glad you are eggcited for the new Osprey. Be a good egg and post some pics of it when you start it. Happy modeling. Bill

Here is an update on the decals from he##. I have stripped the arrow shaped decals from the front fuselage along with the orange tail markings. I have cut the orange bands from the wings and left the yellow an black stripes there. The NASA "meatballs were left on all places. I primed the tail with Tamiya white primer and am ready to paint the tail with MM enamel international orange...it is a perfect match for the decal color. The decals just did not want to snuggle down into the recesses anywhere. I am very disappointed in how they acted. I have now begun the act of painting on some of these markings. This had better work. Anyway, here are some pre and post pictures of a de-decaled pain in the you -know -where. Can't complain about the kit at all. Thanks for looking and comments more than welcome. Bill You can see the crack by the shock cone.

That is REALLY different. I love it. Are you going to arm it? Great job. Bill

My favorite T-Bird. I aways wanted a yellow and white one. Nice job on this one. Pretty rich looking color. Where is Suzanne Sommers?

Well, I thought this would be done by now. DISASTER has struck! I started putting the decals on and got the meatball and front yellow and orange triangle on the nose with no major problems, felt pretty good on how they came out in fact. I then decided to put on the orange tail decal. It came off the sheet ok but when trying to move it into position it broke up into way too many unuseable parts. The decals are thick and brittle and did not take kindly to being moved about. I took off all of the pieces and am now waiting for a replacement set from one of my fellow modelers from my club. If they don't work out again, I may have to try and paint them on. That is something that I am not looking forward to. Pic's to follow soon. Bill

Really looking good, Gil. Nice job explaining things along the way also. Thanks from all of us... Bill

Talk about landing on a postage stamp...absolutely no room for error. The photo-etch really highlights the build. I don't know about you, but I really like applying the stuff to the build. It requires concentration, yet it is very relaxing to me. You do it proud, sir. Bill

That is really interesting looking. Are the tails the same size as the wings? It looks that way from that picture. I'm looking in on this one with interest. Love it. Bill

Thanks. This is going to be Joe Walker's plane that did the slicing and dicing of the B-70 during the GE photo shoot. It just goes to show that even the pro's make mistakes. I think the F-104 is one of the sexiest looking planes. Thanks again.

Hi all, I've been tinkering around with this "Zipper" for quite awhile this year. After finally getting some time to model, this is what I've come up with. This is Hasegawa's 1/48 F-104G Starfighter with the 2001 IPMS decals for a NASA F-104N. I have only added a True Details bang seat. This is one of the best fitting kits I've built. Minor putty work and polishing and that's about it. The worst part of this kit is the rivet detail that is WAY overstated on the wings and horizontal stabilizer. The new seat is way too big in height for the kit. I had to sand down part of the bottom of the seat. If I would have kept sanding it down to fit, I would have had no seat to sit on; just a back rest. I eventually had to cut the floor from the kit to make it fit properly. This was OK though as I found out the G's did not have a floor in them anyway. A hold over from he A's with the downward firing ejection seat. Evrything else is OOB. Alclad and Tamiya white primer are the colors of choice for this scheme. I used MM grey primer for the base coat under the Alclad. The wing are painted with the white primer. So far, so good. More to follow. It feels odd to get something almost completed this year. Comments most certainly welcome. Bill True details MB seat