WildBill50

Thanks Chris. Yes, I was kind of disappointed when I opened the box and found it was the Panda kit. Oh well. I keep thinking about getting a Trumpeter kit of an early Flight Burke. Almost pulled the trigger a couple of times.

It's done! Very happy how it came out. Hope you like it. Comments welcome. Bill

I don't have a lot of built up ships. I am going to be starting another one very soon though. I like the looks of modern ships, they look clean but have a deadly look about them. The first is the Revell "Lockheed Sea Shadow". Darth Vader meets Stealth on Steroids. Cool model, lousy decals. The real one was just up for sale by the US Government. Number two is the Academy "USS Oliver Hazard Perry". This is a great kit. I used a WEM resin helicopter and their photoetch sheet on it. You can make a long hull or short hull ship. If you do the short hull you need the "Seasprite" helo on it. The third build is the Dragon "USS Momsen". Again using a WEM photoetch sheet, I added a remote mine sensing DRV in the DRV hanger bay. I used a piece of nylon stocking to replicate the screen door that is on the ship. I had to change the deck in one spot to be able to add the "Nulka" defense system also. I hand made props out of tin as the kit ones were not even close to what they should look like. Arleigh Burke's are just cool ships. On to the pics and thanks for looking. Bill

Good stuff Chris. Good topic for you. Keep them coming. Bill

Fantastic. Love it. Great job. Bill

Just finished with the decals on this baby. Had to do 007 nose #. It's too appropriate. Anyway thanks for looking and as always comments welcome. Bill

Hey Gil, What's going on with the B-45? No update, no pic's. Come on my friend, we're dying for some resin magic.

Decals going on...Looking good so far! Pictures to follow soon. Reaching the end of this bird.

Great job Bill. Love the Paint and decals. Bill

Extra cooling, like on the bottom of the plane. Those Spey engines put out a lot of heat. There are doors that will be partially open to cover the openings.

Opti-visor to the rescue. I think it will look good on the old Aurora stand. I'll paint the fuselage before I attrach the wings for good. It will be alot easier to handle that way. The picure shows the plane just pressed to gether ; no glue up yet. I want ot get the gray on today and start striping it over the weekend. Tomorrow is shot as it is my wife's birthday.

I've got the fuselage buttoned up now and I have decided on a paint scheme for it. I am going to paint the plane a very pale gray with maroon stripes and gold trim. I primed the plane tonight and have to clean up a few small spots and then onto its final painting. Pictures are of the interior and the primed aircraft that is described in the previous post. Again, thanks for looking. Bill Here is a grainy picture of the control wheels on the side of the interior that were made from a staple. Here you can make out the two tone seats and the seat belts that were fashioned from masking tape. Sorry for the quality of the interior shots.

Here's a quick post for tonight. I just finished taping and spraying Alclad Aluminum on the exhaust section of the fuselage. This Alclad stuff is great now that I am getting the hang of using it. All I need to do is give the plane a gloss coat and then onto the decaling. I must say that this is looking good. Can't wait to get it finished now. Comments welcome and thanks for looking. Bill

Great job Greg. Cool looking Jeep. Cammo looks fantastic. Bill

Boy, I remember building models just like this. No paint and then too much paint in some areas. Then the fingerprint in it because you had to play with it before it was completely dry. Great idea for your display. Good luck with it. Bill

Looks great Gil. Just wondering, is this the one that Jimmy Doolittle flew? Whose paints...the red is really bold. Again, nice job. Bill

That's it??? It seems like you've been slacking off a little bit. Duke, I get tired building just by watching all that you get done. Keep it up bud. I like those two train engines, and the CH-53 is a cool kit. I've got the Italeri MH-53 Sea Dragon, CH-53B in 72 scale to build. The E model is done and looks cool in 3 tone camo. Nice job on everything you've got going. Bill

Way cool, John.

I saw an aqua/sky blue paint scheme that looked pretty good...standard Cessna markings. What I may do is make a copy of a three view drawing and just color up some different schemes until one just pops. I like how the Cessna schemes look, so that may be a starting point and then just go with something a little more flashy. I've got the interior all painted up and put together now. I added seatbelts and the dual control wheels to the panel. The belts are made of tamiya tape and painted a darker shade of brown to complement the dark an light tan interior. I made the control wheels out of a small staple that I straightened out and cut and re-bent to get the proper size. Painted those black. I took pictures but everything is so darned small it's hard to see. Anyway they look good on the front of the instrument panel. All I've got to do is put in the glass side windows and I can close up the fuselage. I want to put some kind of engine block in the cowl just to fill in the area when you look in the air scoops in front. This is a great palate cleanser for the next big build to begin after the Phantom gets done...which should be very soon. Bill

Nice job Greg! Paint job is great. A question for you...What is the plate behind the ammo chutes for on your 1st picture? I've never seen that before. Bill

OK, after getting some dimensions, the length (29' 9") and wingspan (38' 0"), the kit comes in at roughly 4.75" length and 6.25" span= roughly 1/72 scale. Bill

Gil, it's a little smaller than 1/72. I don't have the directions or the box top. Small box scale, I guess. I'll measure it up and get a guesstimate. Bil

Pete, not a bad idea. I think I want to go civvie on this one. One of my friends owns one of these and he is thinking of getting his repainted some way. I might paint it up in a "what if" civillian scheme and give him a 3-D visual. Thanks for looking. Bill

My cousin came over last weekend for a visit and he brought me some models that were in his attic for a long while and asked me if I would be interested in them. Needless to say I took them all. I won't say what they all are, but I will be making them on and off in between larger builds. This is one of them...the Aurora Cessna 337. It was started by my cousin, so I sanded off the brush painted blue on the outer fuselage and wing and tail boom. Once they were smoothed out, I painted up the interior. I still need to detail the panel and seats. This kit goes together really nice. No fit issues. I'm not sure what color I am going to paint it yet. The inside will be the tan/leather look that was on alot of the Cessna products. This will not take a bunch of time to build but it should look pretty nice when finished up. Thanks for looking at this oldy but goody. Bill

Well, some more progress has been made. I've got the extra dark sea gray and the gloss white painted. The nose has been painted and some of the natural metal areas have been Alcladed. This is the first time using Alclad and I can say that it won't be the last. I misted it on over a gloss black enamel and it worked like a charm. All that's left to do is paint the exhaust area the natural metal. Then I can gloss coat the whole thing and start decaling. Here are a few new pics. The picture of the landing gear shows the extended length of the nose gear found on the F-4K next to the regular length of a US bird. The rubber wheels need some more work on them yet. Comments welcome. Bill