MikeMoore

Well, don't tell Mark, but I'm gonna take my copy of Boresight to Phoenix and manage to be "reading" it when I run into him! Who, me, Evil? Mischievous maybe, but not Evil.

I'd like credit for not jumpin' on the band wagon Dennis started. But I gotta tell you I had to bite my fingers pretty hard this morning to avoid jumping on! See you in a couple weeks Mark. Mike

The Raptor colors are tough. In most lighting conditions they have a distinct metallic sheen. I've seen one build where the guy used metallic car colors as the basis for is paint and another, I think Jim Rotrammel (I probably spelled that wrong) on ARC where I think he mixed Model Master metalizers with Model Masters standard colors to get there. And finally, I'm pretty sure that Gerald Voight at Hawkeye Hobbies has got some paints out in his acrylic SNJ line that are supposed to match the Raptor colors. I'd also suggest a search of Airliners.net for more operational pictures of Raptors to get a better idea of what the colors look like. But in the end, I really don't think you're going to end up where you want to be looking at the standard FS colors. Mike

You are a better man than I. I took a look at my Pavla Typhoon and placed an order of the CMR resin kit. Spectacular result from a very rough assemblage of styrene. As someone else put it recently, the one I have looks more like a carving exercise than modeling! Again, nicely done! Mike Moore

Hey Jim, Please do bring Derby. I'm pretty sure I'll make it in time with my rendition, and I think it would be fun to see them together. Mike

Hey Jim, I have to be honest. When I picked up all that wonderful resin from Rob he told me about your build. I've gone back to your write up on your website more than once to see how you handled things and to drool over your model. I didn't know you hung out here, but it's nice to be able to say thanks for the inspiration! Mike

That's a great question, and I have no answer for it. There isn't much detail of the rack visible in the picture I have: It kind of looks like all the packed gear holds it in. Or the invisible force field! Mike

Ok Mark, here it is. Just about ready for paint. See anything really wrong? If I can start painting soon, she just might make it to Phoenix with markings for "Derby" from the 2005 Convention sheet. She's 90% Formations (THANK YOU Rob for managing to get one last hull from the mold!), with a Drgon lower hull and wheels, AFV Club bogies, a bit of Aber etch and scratch built hand rails and bustle rack from soldered brass. The tracks will be Panda individual links. They go together GREAT, but I thought I'd die of boredom cutting them off the sprues and cleaning them up!

That looks great Keith. Now all it needs is a load of sheet rock in the back, on it's way to your house! Mike

Who'd ya have to pay for the press? Seriously, seems like pretty good press to me. See you Saturday, or maybe Friday at the shop. Mike

It looks like it's coming along really nicely Gil. I'm really looking forward to seeing the completed pictures. Mike

Surely you jest! You mean you tried something new? Seriously, I'm not a figure guy (one look at the 1/48 and 1/35 figs I've done to support aircraft and armor will prove that!) but I applaud you initiative and congratulate you for the warm reception your idea was met with. A little more thinking like that is just what this place need IMHO. Well done Mark! Mike Moore

Gil, If you make it, will you be coming Friday, or staying over Saturday? A few of us from Chattanooga are coming down Friday and staying the night. I can let you know where I end up making reservations. Mike

Can't say it any better than James did.... OH....MY...GOD That's amazing! Mike

I'm with David...a laptop and wireless works for me. If I need the computer near the bench, it can be there, otherwise it's downstairs in my office. Mike

Check Eduard's web site. They have the instructions for all their stuff available as PDF's. Mike

Looking good Gil. I can't wait to see the wings on it! Mike

Someday, you may regret this comment! Mike

And here is the completed build, ready for the paint shop: Getting the wing floats on was a bit fussy as the locating mark isn't real precise, but some guess work and lining them up with the old Mark I 47 eyeball seems to have worked out. And finally, to get a sense of scale, here's a picture of the model, with a 1/144 F-15 sitting on it. This was a BIG airplane: This thing should hit the paint shop this weekend. Hopefully the primer won't reveal too many problems that need to be addressed before the real fun starts...trying to make all that GSB look interesting! Mike Moore

What follows is an abbreviated build log of CRM's 1/144 JRM-1 Mars, or, as the boys in my club dubbed it last night, one big (explative deleted) hunk of resin! Overall, there's not too much to the kit. Aside from a couple seats, control yokes and an instrument panel no one will really see, there isn't an interior. Which just leaves some fit challenges to deal with, along with trying to get everything lined up with no locating pins, and those fit challenges! First up is fitting the stabalizers. The fit here was pretty bad, and being a butt join, I decided they should be pinned. But there wasn't much to pin to with the relatively thin fuselage walls. So I laminated up some card stock and CA's it into both fuse halves where the stabs mount: To get the stabs set with the proper 7 degrees of dihedral, I taped the fuselage halves to my bench and cut a template from foam core board: Which left me with this: You can just see one of I think 7 pins I used on each stabalizer. I knew the gaps were going to be huge, so I used a bunch of pins to help support the epoxy putty I filled most of the gap with (think rebar in concrete). I was hoping to avoid a lot of sanding, but still had to fill some final gaps with CA mixed with Baby Powder. All in all I think I spent a couple hours getting the stabs on, filled and sanded. When I cut them off the pour stubs and noticed the really poor fit, I thought I must have done something wrong, so I asked Rob Stevens at West Coast Hobbys if he could get me some replacements. When those arrived, I was really careful with cutting them away from the pour stubs and ended up just as bad off the second time. I still don't know if I did something wrong, or if there is a problem with the masters there. Here is what I ended up with: From there it was on to the tail. Again, the fit was a challenge and I used 5 minute epoxy again as well as pinning it. Here it is in the jig I built from foam core: Notice the relatively nicely masked canopy glass? Well, it was a little wide, and the raised detail for the framing was pretty heavy (pretty understandably so) so I decided to just sand it all off as I faired the glass in and I'll replace the canopy framing with decal strips at the end of the build. So I started sanding and ended up with this when I polished it back out: Note to self, make sure the canopy is competely sealed to the fuselage with NO GAPS BEFORE sanding, otherwise some sanding dust WILL work it's way under! Another email to Rob solved that problem. Then came the wings. Two issues. Getting them set square with no dihedral or anhedral (Jig to the rescue) and how to secure them. The fuselage halves are pretty thin castings, and there are again pretty big gaps where the wings fit. And the wings are each solid castings and heavy. I didn't think I wanted to trust just the glueing surface afforded where the wings met the fuselage edges. Long term, I didn't think it would be secure, and short term I knew I'd have some pretty heavy sanding to do. So I epoxied a piece of foam core into the fuselage and cut it off level with the opening for the wings: I also drilled holes through the wings that round tooth picks would fit through. As I set each wing into place with, here it comes again, 5 minute epoxy, I also pushed an epoxy slathered toothpick through the holes in the wings and into the foam core (I also made sure in advance that the epoxy wouldn't melt the foam core). It was then another couple hours filling and sanding CA mixed with Baby Powder to get to here, The beast in the jig, and you can see the tooth picks sticking up before I cut them off and sanded them flush: And out of the jig, looking like an airplane: Mike Moore

Other than some funky blue snow on the ground, looks fantastic! Mike

Oh great! Another one for the stash! Just what I need. The rate at which I build armor, my stash of 12 or so Shermans is going to last me a lifetime already! Mike

Looks great! As Keith said, one of these days I'll get to mine! Mike

I flew from Atlanta to LA for the OC nats in 2007. I managed to get 7 models in a clear plastic storage container that fit under the seat in front of me. All the aircraft were supported off their gear with foam blocks cut to fit, and additional foam blocks were cut to fit so they rested on top of the models someway. I could rotate the box in any direction, and the models were secure, and reasonably secure from shocks. I figured the clear plastic container would afford enough of a view that I could avoid having to open it for any of the TSA goofs. All went well, all models made it there and back with no damage. The camera that I made the mistake of packing in my checked baggage? Gone. The airline's response. Too bad. Oh well, it was time for a new camera anyway! Mike Moore

Another conspiracy engineered by the aircraft modelers...haven't you noticed that the managing editor is an aircraft guy? Looking for a REALLY deep hole now!