Disco58

Well sh** -- I suppose there are pics of a Luftwaffe marked 'Tony' or Zero too?

I was digging through my stash and came up with an idea. Since I'm real short on time I needed a 'throw together. How about a Tony in Luftwaffe markings, or a 109 in Japanese? I'm not going to bother with a backstory, just 'git 'er done'. The airframes are similar enough to look off but not instantly recognizable, and I think the Tony would outperform the 109 in combat. It would have been an interesting battle scenario where ETO allied aircraft are suddenly facing a Japanese aircraft (with a German pilot), or PTO allies are pitting say Wildcats or Corsairs against 109s. The Brits had our Wildcats and Corsairs for awhile, but they were used to facing 109's and Focke-Wulfs. Our PTO Navy/Marine pilots weren't. Work with me here... This is the first aircraft build I've done in a few years, and probably my last.

Now that's a rather interesting repurpose. I wonder what a B-17 would look like as an airliner? Hmmmm.... Unfortunately, either would take far more time than I have, but thanks for the idea.

Does anyone know if British Lancasters were ever painted in US or Luftwaffe markings?

Anyone know a Mark Losasso in any of the Chitown area clubs?

Steve - Yea, I was afraid that's all it was going to say. Guess I'll have to take a pass on this one. Thanks anyway.

No Korean restaurants around here. No Filipino restaurants either unfortunately. I haven't had any Lumpia since I left the Navy/San Diego.

I was looking at buying some figure kits, and the seller freely admits to being a recaster. I'd rather not deal with recasters, as the quality is frequently less than stellar, and unless they have the rights to the original product, I don't want to help their business survive. If I can figure out who the original company is/was, I'd buy it from them, not the recaster. I emailed the recaster, and I was told the text on the instruction sheet appears to be Korean, but they can't read it, and don't know who the original company is. Apparently the file is too big to attach, so I'd have to email it.

While some may not believe it, I have a friend, and he is attempting the AMT Chevy Titan 90. Have any of you built it, and can you hook him up with some idea of what he has to look forward to, good or bad? He is currently working on the engine, and he said it's a really bad fit already.

Here are a few videos I have on airbrushing flames, smoke and lightning. They're on 1:1 subjects, but I think the technique would scale down just fine. http://www.youtube.c...feature=related (Ed Hubbs is good at this!) http://www.youtube.c...feature=channel (airbrushing lightning) (airbrushing smoke) This is a tutorial on making the 'true flame' stencils, rather than buying the expensive premade pieces. I have no idea who this guy is, so I have no vested interest in the endorsement. I ran across it purely by accident, but after watching it, I realized the guy has a valid point. Hope this helps.

I will pass on the info, thanks!

I sold an H to a guy, and now he's asking some questions I can't answer. I haven't used one in years ('93 maybe?), and I was just kind of playing around with one that was allready adjusted. This one a new one I had bought and never used, so I just sold it. He's asking how to adjust spray pattern, paint flow, etc. Some of the basics I know, like opening and closing the tip to adjust paint flow, but adjusting pattern I have no idea, I don't remember. Do you loosen the allen screw and move the whole needle/tip ass'y back and forth into and out of the air cap? I need someone who has a lot of experience with an H and really knows it's pros and cons and quirks if any. Thanks.

I'm not familiar with that particular liquid mask, but I do know all latex masking agents do indeed have ammonia for the solvent. Ammonia will eat into acrylic paints (and Future floor finish) guaranteed. If your Testors Glosscote is acrylic, there's your answer. I know masking liquids/ammonia won't touch Testors Dullkote because it's lacquer. Hope that helps.

That would be him.

And therein lies the problem..... This is why I'm letting others do the modeling from now on. I'll watch quietly from the sidelines, help out a new guy once in awhile...it's all good..

I've been helping a guy long distance with a Monogram Skyraider. He's having issues too, but initially I wrote them off to his being a complete newbie. Then out of curiosity and frustration I went through my stash and dug out the relic that I had buried away. From what he has described, he and I have different boxes i think, but probably the same kit. Mine says 1980, and by what he is going through, and what I see, I'm thinking Monogram was still going strong in the FUBAR business. One of the biggies is the right fuselage half. Instead of being separate add-on parts, there are two blade antennas molded in, and as they are full thickness, they extend across the seam parting line. Not knowing this, I had been instructing him to lay the whole fuselage half flat on a sheet of sandpaper to get seam surfaces flat and smooth. He told me this wasn't going to work, which didn't make sense until I pulled out my Skyraider ("Excuse me while I whip this out!"). Somebody was smokin' something that day.... The other WTH?! is two inboard wing rack mounted items that I can't identify. They almost appear to be aux fuel tanks, but the box art and instructions would have you paint them red or reddish orange. Aside from not knowing what they are, they have the rack mount molded with them, making them more than a little difficult to paint. He has mentioned liking Monogram kits so I think I'll send him this one as well. After the lessons learned from the first one, this should go much more smoothly.

Addendum -- After I posted I went back to look at the scan he sent me. It has the preface with all the warnings, tools needed, etc, etc, and the paint legend. Interesting note: XF-3 (flat yellow) is listed, XF-5 (flat green) is not even listed, nor are there any instructions relative to mixing ratios, so.... It does list XF-4 however, which it says is "flat yellow/green. Last time I looked, Zinc Chromate was kinda, well, flat yellow/green. As an aside to all this, I'm going to sneak one foot kinda up on the soapbox and ask, "If the 'F' in Tamiya colors denotes 'flat', wouldn't XF-4 logically just be the flat version of X-4"? Unfortunately, it snot. -- while X-4 is blue, it's flat counterpart is XF-8, while plain old X-8 is back to yellow. Is it really just me, or...? There's a little 'smiley' from another forum I use occasionally, of a little guy banging his head against the wall in frustration. I need that one right here.

Rob, Mark, thanks guys, I appreciate the replies. It was a bit late when I posted that, and I had a sneaking suspicion it was a mixing ratio. The information isn't even for me, it's for a guy out in UT who is new to modeling, and I'm doing some long distance tutoring. He had scanned and emailed me just the one page about interior painting, so Mark, you could very well be right, the information might be there but he just missed it. If it's explained somewhere, OK, but I wonder if XF-3:XF-5=2:1 or something along those lines might have been more obvious. I have an AMT/ERTL kit that had mixed colors, and I can't remember how they did it, but it was blatantly obvious what they were getting at -- no head scratching required. Yea, he's definitely going to have to just get some Zinc Chromate. He's having serious newbie frustration issues already from basic assembly, and three other kits have been started and set aside. I don't think he's ready for worrying about color mixing. He had mentioned the high number of different colors on the pilot (9 I think for various things), and he said, "That's not gonna happen". But, but.....<sigh>

Anyone ever dealt with a Tamiya kit that has a paint callout like XF-3:2 + XF-5:1? FWIW, this is for interior parts on a P-51 kit.

Yea, sounds like my last marriage.... I think we've all had those...Looks like it's going to be great, something to be proud of, then little things start happening, but you think, I can get past this glitch and make it work. So you keep plugging away, then it's just one thing right after another, then it's What the hell was I thinking..... Then next thing you know you're putting it aside looking for something else. Yep, been there, done that. There are about twenty boxes of frustrating plastic in my stash right now. there's really not much chance of going back to them either.

I live on the eastern side of the 'corn patch' (Iowa) , in the MIssissippi valley, and while we don't have "air you can wear" like in NC, it do get a bit sticky. I've been using acrylics for a long time now, and I don't have any painting problems.

Good job Ron! Now if we can get kids to come to meetings here in the Quad Cities.... I have that Kingfisher in my pile if you really need the nostalgic fix (It's not the one with the PE though, sorry).. Drop the top on the 'Vette and you can fly it while you cruise down the highway....

Ed, buddy! Haven't seen your face in the Quad Cities in way too long; I do hope all is well. Man, I couldn't begin to guess which kits these might be. It never crossed my mind that both companies made them before the merger (should have known I guess). I could tell they were Revellograms by the silver plastic, but beyond that....you might as well be trying to guess how many kits Ronbo has in his stash. I'll do some looking -- maybe they'll have a date molded in somewhere. I think I still may need the P-38 instructions. Dick sent them to me as a scan/pdf file, which is essentially fine, but they're for someone else, so I'll have to print them and piece it back together like a jigsaw puzzle. The guy I'm sending the kits and instructions to is a complete modeling virgin, so the instructions will have to be reassembled well enough for him to understand. He has a serious case of newbie fear, so I'm trying to send him some kits that will go together easily enough, but really won't matter when he makes mistakes. Where's a pile of Starfix kits when you need them?