ghodges

Excellent Dauntless Mike! I really like the finish. It's faded just enough to look weathered without be too stark. That's a build to be proud of. Thanks for sharing! GIL

Got the touch-ups done. From this: To this: You can barely see the countershading on the red, but you can see there's fewer light spots on the green, especially along the wing leading edges. I also got the wheel wells painted, as well as more of the "fiddly bits". I'll gloss coat it tonight so it can be decaled tomorrow evening. That'll give me 2 evenings to finish it up before our meeting on Thursday night! GIL

I love checkertails! It's even more impressive since you painted them perfectly. What NMF did you use? It looks sharp! Nice 'Stang! GIL

Actually got the camo on today! As well as painting the prop blades and the wheels. All that's left is the chromate green in the main wells. Need to add a bit more dark drab to lessen the post shading, and add a little post shading to the red. The countershading is actually less stark in person than compared to the pic, but I think I'll tone it down anyway! GIL

Actually, yes! I used Floquil Signal Red for the tail and the nose. I've also applied the chromate green to the canopy so that the frame interiors will appear that color. The rest of the a/c will be the standard OD/gray scheme. I plan to apply the camo colors Sunday and finish it up by Thursday so that I can take it to our next meeting. Cheers! GIL

Those are COOL! Thanks for sharing them. By the way, that second one would make for a GREAT diorama! GIL

Hi Tony! If you cannot keep them for yourself (store for the future), I suggest contacting a local library or two to see if they might wish to display them. You might need to do a little work first yourself in dusting them off and repairing any obvious broken bits. If the models are military subjects, you might need to prepare a small card for each one conveying its history. If they're civil subjects you could do the same, or perhaps write the group up as examples of the hobby of plastic modeling, which many kids aren't aware of today (and if they are probably think it's faded away). Best of luck in finding a solution! GIL

Very glad to have you here with us Tom! Your story is like a lot of ours too, so I think you'll feel at home. Also glad to hear your hobby is a family experience with your sons. Post some of your work when you get time, and welcome! GIL

If you have his unit information, I'd start by Googling that. Many squadrons/wings have webpages and "associations" for their past members and their familes with pics and histories. If you happen to know any of the bases he flew from, then you can Google the base name also and see if there are period pics that might show his plane, or at least the general schemes for the Mustangs at that base during his time there. If you have the actual USAF serial number for the Mustang, you might be able to Google that and get a lucky hit, though you'd have to check the time period of the pics of that a/c to see if it coincided with his service time. There's tons of info out there. The trick is weeding through it all to find what you need. Best of luck! GIL

Thanks or the heads-up Ken. The link in my post above should now work properly. Wherever you get it, Weld-On 3 or 4 is the best stuff, IMHO. Cheers! GIL

One color and 8 decals makes for a fast build! Looks good Paul. Is that a camara window open on the fuselage? GIL

Eduard P-400, Weekend Edition. No nose weight in my box. As for finding the time to build, it's easy if you neglect the wife and kids! And congrats to Greggy! I lost count of the times I heard his name called as winner at the Space Coast show. Well done Mr. Wise! Loved seeing your stuff! GIL

And to completely answer your question James; "where's my cursor"? "I'm yer Huckleberry"..... GIL

Started this one last week as an OOTB build. I give the kit mixed reviews so far. The interior is more detailed than the old Monogram (duh), and equal to the Hasagawa kit; but is much harder to assemble due to lack of better locators. Looks good when done, but needs care to get it there. It takes a good amount of weight to balance the model on its gear. I HIGHLY recommend leaving that top forward fuselage cap (right behind the spinner) off until you have the wings and tailplanes on. That way, if you need to add more weight you can do so without having to pry up a glued piece (like me!). The fuselage and wing edge seams are "good", but not excellent. On the other hand, the wing roots and tailplanes fit excellently. I'm only building this because someone on Agapemodels.com posted a nice color profile of Bud Anderson's P-39Q "Old Crow". Since I have his P-51B, I figured I needed the P-39Q! I'm using the P-400 kit, but it has the Q parts in the box. I robbed the Old Crow markings from my dad's Accurate Miniatures Racing Airacobras release of the kit, since he plans on building one of those. More as soon as I get some paint on it next week! Cheers! GIL

Give it up! Go here: Visit My Website Order the Weld-On #4 in BULK. For $30-$50 you can get several CANS of weld cement, which translats into DOZENS of "bottles" of Tenax. This stuff is just as good (better in MHO) as Tenax. Take the stress out of worrying what glue you'll use and whether it''ll be available. Cheers! GIL

WOW! I was all set to help you and went running to my shelf to pull out these great plans I have only to realize they are the SAME plans you have up there, from the Aerodata International book! According to the walkaround pic at IPMSUSA.org (yep, one of our OWN!), it is BLUE! Go to IPMSUSA.org, click onto "Walkarounds", scroll down the a/c menu to Helldiver and then click onto the pg1 pics. There's a good shot of the rear spine/turtle deck that shows the light. Cheers! GIL

I'll add a DITTO to that! Great article! GIL

This is the 1/48 Academy P-38F/G, built OOTB. I built it for my Dad to represent the civil P-38 N25Y White Lightnin'. It has since been bought by Red Bull and fully restored into a beautiful NMF P-38F seen frequently at airshows. There are no commercially available decals for this airplane in 1/48. Model Master enamels were used for all of the painting, thinned with lacquer thinner to speed drying time. Future was the sprayed on for the gloss coats. The prop blades were done with Aclad Chrome, applied over a base of MM gloss black enamel (worked like a charm!). The black wingwalks and anti-glare shield were painted. The red/blue flashing, wingtips, and cheat lines are all painted. The red/black 13s are decals. The black outline on the numbers were made by tracing around a red number with a very fine point Sharpie marker. The decals were then sealed with a gloss coat before applying to the model. The civil codes (N25Y) were made by using dry transfer lettering onto clear decal sheet and then applying them to the tail. The red lightning bolts were sparyed onto clear decal sheet after making a sheet plastic template for their design. The stars/bars are from Experts Choice decals. There are several modifications to be made to do this plane properly. The most noticable are the scoops ahead of the supercharger intakes, which I made from a couple of missile nose halves. One modification I didn't find out about until yesterday is that the rear part of the superchargers (the rounded area) should be blanked off and covered over, while the rest of the supercharger forward of that is visible, as on the later P-38J/L. Another detail that can be added is a small antenna on the rear top of the right boom. Also note that this Lightning has the 2 wing leading edge lights instead of the earlier model underwing light. This thing is a real mix of early and late Lightning parts! This is also the first P-38 I've ever built with a closed canopy! There are 2 markings I could not do and missing from the model. The first is a large data "box" that would be just ahead of and by the left wingroot just below the windscreen. I believe it contains names of donors and restorers (etc.), as well as the pilot name and serial info. The other marking is some sort of commercial logo on the outside of each boom that goes over the small cargo hatch door. I couldn't find a good enough picture to tell exactly what it says, nor anything in my spares box that even halfway resembled it. Although my White Lightnin' is less than fully accurate, I believe my Dad will like it. He was simply inspired by seeing it on one of his calendars. I mentioned my oversights simply to help anyone else who wants to do this model and do it in a much more accurate fashion. Overall, the Academy P-38F is a good, but not great kit. I found the gear legs and their details to be fragile, and although I used the vynal tires, I didn't really like them. If you're DETAIL oriented, I'd advise starting with the Hasagawa kit instead. Cheers! GIL

I might ad that IF you come here, click onto a topic and see only the URL link instead of a posted picture, you need to LOG IN. It used to be that the log in page would pop up when I wasn't logged on. Now that the forums are open, and my screen doesn't show the "lower" IPMS topics unless I scroll down, I can pop in here and it would seem I'm logged on UNTIL I realize I'm seeing no pics and (if I scroll down) the business topics aren't up. What I thought was a technical problem (at first) was simply a need to log onto the site. Hope this helps! GIL

Nice trio Duke! That Beech V-tail is especially cute. And yes, I mean "cute" in a good way! Way to keep the ball rollin' and shame the rest of us! GIL

Very nice James! The stripes add some snazz to the scheme and the folded wings make it more interesting too! Congrats on another great build! GIL

Hi-howdy Ronald! Glad to have you here with us! GIL

That's looking SHARP Jay! Also glad to know that we airplane guys aren't the only nuts in the hooby. 22 parts PER brake, not including the calipers?? I feel better now about rolling Spandau barrels for WWI machine guns! I look forward to seing this stuff up close at our next meeting! GIL

AN FS fandeck is $158?? Heck, I'll sell ya mine for $50! GIL

You're right John! I've already built both of the CA Banshees and have the -8 Cougar in the stash. I'll only pick up the Twogar if I find a deal on it. GIL