snelson

That's because you never get the sound effects right! Steve (Mr. Mandie) Nelson IPMS #30925 Oh, and welcome to the forum, Dave!

The tool you're describing is usually called a "scribing tool." The best one I've ever found is from UMM models, available here. For making straight lines, I usually use "dymo tape." This is the tape used in label makers. It's made of stiff plastic, and has an adhesive back so you can stick it to the model to guide your scriber. You can usually find it in the office supply section of most stores. I'm not sure about the paper you're describing. Happy Modeling! Steve Nelson IPMS#30925

Looks good to me! Oh, and I find the term "Nippoholics" incredibly insulting..I prefer "Meatballer." Steve Nelson IPMS#30925

Here's one from this side of the pond: the ill-fated Ford "Air Pullman." Bill Stout designed it as the followup to his successful single-engine Ford 2-AT Air Transport. It made one flight, and the test pilot (sitting in the single open seat atop the nose) barely got it back on the ground in one piece. Henry Ford was on hand for the test flight, and the pilot told him to "forget it." Ford sent Stout on a speaking tour and had his engineers redesign the aircraft, resulting in the famous "Tin Goose." Steve Nelson IPMS#30925

Very nice! Steve Nelson IPMA #30925

Thanks all! I'm glad I managed to whip this one into submission, but I think I'm going to stick to nice flat camouflage schemes for awhile now, though! Clare: I did mask and paint both sides of the open canopy panels. Normally I would just mask the outside, and paint the interior color first, but I figured that since the inner side would be so visible it would look better if painted. The inside was just painted Interior Green, but the outside was primed with black first, then painted silver. The black is visible in the extreme closeup due to the thickness of the clear plastic. Steve Nelson IPMS #30925

I managed to finish my first "real" model in a year-and-a-half this afternoon. It's Academy's 1/72 P-51C built as Lee Archer's "Ina the Macon Belle." I originally started the project back in February..our club had a contest, and the theme was "something red." I figured a Red Tail Tuskegee P-51 would be perfect. Also, it was Black History Month, and Archer (America's only black Ace) died about that time. I tried to keep this project fairly "box stock." However, I couldn't resist cutting out and dropping the flaps (since you'd never see them up on a Mustang that's been parked for more than a few minutes.) I also added some tape seatbelts and resin wheels, and replaced the gun barrels with brass tube. Here's the cockpit before buttoning her up. A little drybrushing popped out the molded details. I went with Interior Green, but used Dull Dark Green on the seat for variety (apparently many "high back" Mustangs had DDG seats, made by a subcontractor.) The wood floorboards on Mustangs were painted with black not-skid paint. One reason this project took so long was that it fought me every single step of the way. First, I had problems with the paint. I used Floquil Bright Silver lacquer, but primed with Tamiya Gloss Black acrylic (cut with lacquer thinner.) I then masked off the red and yellow areas and shot them with Tamiya Flat White (again cut with lacquer thinner) which promptly became riddled with cracks. Fortunately I had only done the wing stripes, but I had to sand them down and repaint..stalling the project for awhile. Then I discovered that the silver didn't adhere very well to the primer. While adding decals I managed to rub it off in a few spots. I masked off the decals with post-it notes to touch up the paint. I'd heard all sorts of horror stories about Academy decals, but figured they couldn't be THAT bad. It took liberal amounts of Solvaset to get them to lay down, and I figured it would take a tactical nuke to remove them. BUT..when I pulled off the "low tac" post-its, this was the result.. I set the project aside in disgust, and considered trashing it. Fortunately, a fellow club member encouraged me not to let it beat me, and another provided some Aeromaster decals..so the project was back on. I finally got her finished this afternoon..warts and all. She's OK as a "shelf sitter," as long as you don't look too close. I flat-coated the portions of the wings that were puttied and painted on real Mustangs (although I didn't fill the panel lines) and applied some Bare Metal foil to the around the exhaust stacks to simulate the stainless steel panels. I made one slight deviation from historical accuracy. Archer was only officially credited with four kills before being rotated back to the States, even though he actually got five. It's widely speculated that there was an unwritten policy to remove the Tuskegee Airmen from combat before they made Ace. Black flyers were good for PR, but the "powers that be" didn't want them to be "too" successful. A few years ago, Archer was finally given official credit for his fifth kill, officially making him an Ace. So in his honor I put five kill marks on the model (Kermit Weeks did the same when he restored his P-51C in Archer's markings.) Cheers! Steve

Oh man...been there, and wanted to do that! And like David says, if you don't clear it immediately, that snow and slush left by the plow quickly freezes into a wall of concrete that requires a five-kiloton tactical nuke to break up. I was "up in da U.P." (Michigan's Upper Penninsula) a few years back in March (it was spring, so there were only three or four feet of snow on the ground) and I got a chuckle out of a sing in front of one business in Sault Ste. Marie. It had one of those built in message boards to advertise specials, but it read "Snowplow Man: This sign cost $500 to repair. DON'T HIT IT AGAIN!" Steve Nelson IPMS#30925

Didn't happen to me, but a freind required several stitches after the top of a glass Model Master bottle snapped off in his hand while he was trying to open a stuck lid. I'm not sure if he was using pliers or not. I've twisted off the tops of paint bottle myself, but only while they were chucked in a vice and I was using pliers. SN

I've had generally good luck with Milliput, except for the shelf life issue. As a 1/72 aircraft builder, I don't think I've ever used even half of a batch of the stuff before it went bad. I recently tried something called "Apoxy Sculpt" and love it. The stuff has similar properties to Milliput, but it comes in two plastic containers, and doesn't seem to be prone to drying out. As for two-part putty getting sticky while kneading, like Mark says, just dip your fingers in some water. SN

Looks like I'll be making an expedition to Michael's this weekend! I wonder if those are small enough to use as landing light lenses on 1/72 WWII aircraft. They're vastly cheaper than MV lenses, which I've used for years. MV lenses do tend to yellow a bit over the years..I wonder if these will have the same problem. SN

Bellisimo! Looks like I'll have to replace that ancient SuperModel kit that's languishing in The Stash. SN

For Aotake, I usually paint the area silver, then use a thinned-out 50-50 mix of Tamiya Clear Blue and Clear Green, applied either as a brush-on wash, or a light airbrush coat. As mentioned above, Aotake was an anti-corrosive coating, and like American Zinc Chromate, it really didn't have a specific shade. The blue-green color was added just so workers would know what areas had been primed, and could be lighter or darker depending on how heavily or how many coats had been applied. As for the cockpit, it was a light green..but Mitsubishi and Nakajima used different shades (even though the Zero was a Mitsubishi design, most were actually built by Nakajima.) For specifics, I recommend visiting j-aircraft.com. That's the "one stop shop" for WWII Japanese aircraft info. As for the exterior color, that's still a bone of contention. The current general consensus seems to be something like a light tannish-grayish-green. I used Gunze RLM 02 on my 1/72 Hasegawa A6M2, and like the result. Cheers! Steve Nelson IPMS#30925

I suppose I should chime in here, although I'll post my own bio separately. I'm Steve, Mandie's husband. We actually met on a modeling forum back in 2002, and even though this year's Nats is our de facto honeymoon, we've actually been to six of the last seven Nats together. Confession time..I have "borrowed" things from her workbench on occasion... Steve Nelson IPMS#30925

Yep, the Academy/Minicraft kit is the only B-24M in any scale. It was re-released two or three years ago, but I don't know if it's currently in production. As for markings, I'd consult www.b24bestweb.com. It's my first stop for B-24 markings info. SN

Here are a couple of AT-11 cockpit shots I found on the interweb..can't vouch for how "stock" the configuration is. And here are some detail shots I took of the AT-11 at the U.S. Air Force Museum. First up, the bombay... And here's the belly. I believe the circular opening is a strike camera port, and the aft opening is for reeling out a sleeve target. Enjoy! Steve Nelson IPMS#30925

Great pics! Here are a few I shot of the aircraft 50 years later, at the NASM Udvar-Hazy center.. Steve Nelson IPMS#30925

Great work, even on the old conversion. It's amazing just how far both the aftermarket and mainstream kits in the past couple of decades. SN

Looks great..especially those checkers! One minor thing..the areas under the rear windows on P-40s should be the exterior color, rather than interior green. Steve Nelson IPMS#30925

Thanks guys! I've got all the WWII eggies..I've been toying with trying to convert the Avenger into a Wildcat. SN

Here's the latest product of my mad scientist's lair..the Hasegawa Eggplane Zero. She took third in Miscellaneous at the Toledo show last weekend. A made a bunch of "improvements" to the kit (check the "most outrageous kit" thread in General Discussion.) Markings are for the Yokosuka Naval Air Group, naturally. SN

I'll usually wipe down the area with alcohol to remove any residue from the polishing compound. In this case, I think I used a cotton swab dipped in mineral spirits, since the wings had already been painted with acrylics. Usually, I'm smart enough to do the wingtip lights before I paint the model (and some days, I can even tie my own shoes!) SN

I've heard good things about the Novus as well..a lot of fellow club members swear by it. I just use the Blue Magic because it's what I have and it works well. SN

I got them down to the general shape with a course sanding stick, then finished them with 400 and then 600 grit sanpaper, and finally poished them with Blue Magic polishing compound (I've been using the same tube for some 15 years, and it's still almost full.) Then after everything was finished, I carefully brushed them with Future. SN

Here's my latest project; Tamiya's 1/72 Mosquito B.IV. I built her for our club's bi-annual "challenge build"..this month's theme was "09," and the kit actually had decals for 109 Sq RAF. I had her more or less finished in time for last week's meeting, but decided to go back and tweak a few things I wasn't happy with (as usual, the result of trying to take some shortcuts to beat a deadline.) The biggest issue was the wingtip lights. The kit parts didn't fit well, and had sink marks to boot, so I popped them out and redid the lights using my tried-and-true method (which I should have done in the first place..would have save myself a lot of time and headaches!) I cut some clear stock to fit the openings, drilled a hole in the edge and painted it to simulated the "coloured" light bulb, then painted the inner edges silver. Here are the "raw" parts grafted into place.. ..and here is the final result, after sanding to shape and polishing, and repainting the wingtips. And here's the finished product in its entirety. This is definately the last predominently black scheme I'll do for awhile. It's as unforgiving as natural metal! Hopefully my various boo-boos and touch-ups won't be as glaringly obvious to the judges as they are to me. Cheers! Steve Nelson IPMS#30925