Disco58

Got it Mark, thanks. The kit I have is in a bag of mixed up parts with the P-38, which is why I needed both sets of instructions, and by the looks of it, have been around since Christ was a kid. The instructions in the link are from 2010. You don't suppose there were any changes over the years, do you?

Scans will work fine Dick, thanks.

Oh yea, sorry, forgot that part. Yes, 1/48

Mark -- I think it would be easier trying to explain politics to a 3 yr old, or teaching a pig to sing..

This is for the old beasties that were molded in silver plastic (or are they still?). Anybody?

Brian __ I also have a Paasche VL, use it all the time. I had similar issues with mine. I have no idea what the problem was, but I sent it to Paasche, they fixed it and sent it back, no charge. I would suggest you do likewise. I also have the Badger 150 that was mentioned, and yes it's also a dual action, and if anyone wants it, let me know. I don't particularly like Badgers, so......

Well, yea, but... Like I was told, and like I told others, there are other assignments I could give you, take your pick. And when the question arose of what the "other assignments" might entail, I and they were told that answer would come after the choice was made. I don't recall those other assignments being anywhere near as pleasant as the current task. Nor do I recall the same person posing that question again.

Actually, I thought of that too, right after I posted my other idea. If we had a schedule of sat flyovers we could set out a whole buttload of the cutouts (15-20), then for the next flyover, drag them all inside . They would have thought we had whole squadrons of them, then when they saw them gone they'd think they were out on missions somewhere. Like I said, the ones we actually did have, paint the tops concrete gray with tar stripes and oil stains, or paint the runways splotchy grass green and brown, then paint general aviation planes on top and more green and brown splotches. It would look like just an old uncontrolled field out in the middle of nowhere. Or, or....the hole place shades of brown with painted rows, then in a couple weeks add some light green dots in the rows, then bigger dots, and bigger dots, then slowly paint over the whole thing shades of green with goldish spots, then in August/September start painting it splotchy tan, then late September go back to rows of darker brown and tan lines..... Planes? What planes? There are no planes out here, just cornfields.

Remember the camouflage B-58 Hustler feud? It brings back memories. That's why I don't go the RMS any longer. I missed that one, but I think a camo B-58 would be kinda cool, and not only a 'what-if' but a 'why not?'. I can think of all kinds of bizarre ideas for that one. Personally, I think we should have painted the tops of the Blackbirds like old tarmac. Could have left them sit outside and the Roosky satellites wouldn't have seen 'em....

Ahh yes, Dave Merriman, I do remember his opinion of those of us who apparently lacked the talent to actually "build", and merely glued pre-molded bits together and had the audacity to call ourselves 'modelers'.... I was just reading a post about him the other day on Starship Modeler. Whoever posted wasn't berating his modeling talent (at least when it came to scratchbuilding 'real space' vehicles), but his interpersonal skills were mentioned as being less than stellar (no pun intended). To quote a line from 'Desiderata, "If you compare yourself with others, you may become vain or bitter; for always there will be greater and lesser persons than yourself". No matter what skill is the subject at hand, I'm more talented and less talented all at once, and the beauty in that is that it allows me to learn and teach, both of which I enjoy a great deal.

Mark -- Here is a pretty little box I've found, someone named Pandora left it upon my step, would you care to take a peek :( inside....? Rob --Oh man, now you're bringing back some memories. I remember the 'killfile' thing, but I never could figure out how to use it. And trolls, oh yea.... One that comes to mind was AZHoser-- proved you actually could polish a turd or some damn thing. Took it to a Nats or something? Unfortunately(?) my modeling hasn't changed a lot since those days; I read magazines and forums, and look at pretty pictures 50 to 1 over what I might paint and glue. You don't get beat up as much that way.

Mark -- I must be losing my memory -- I would have sworn I saw you there back in the day, I know Rob Gronovious was/is, thought you were too. Anyway, RMS is Rec.Model.Scale Couldn't tell you last time I was there (8-10 years maybe), no idea if it even exists anymore.

I don't know if he was the originator, but the copy of 'Rules of Acquisition' I have saved from a few years back were posted on RMS by one Al Superczynski. That name should be familiar to a few.

Precisely why I haven't been to RMS in a number of years (and don't miss it). I don't even remember the issue now, but I was getting beat up about something, and I said screw it, see ya. Rob, as I recall you were one of the peacekeepers (or tried to be).

I was watching an episode of 20/20 last night (1 April), and the one cop who helped catch the bad guy (serious bad guy) was from Miami area. In the closing sequences of the show there was a shot of him at home, and he was working on what appeared to be a 1/48 B-25. The guy's name was Alan Foot (sp?). Don't know if he's part of a chapter or not, just thought ti was kinda neat. If he's a chapter member, best guess would be Davie or Ft. Lauderdale

deleted, sort of

I'm building large figures, this one in particular is a skull with a WWII era US leather flight helmet. It's about the size of a tennis ball, and the detail is pretty good, so it needs to be realistic looking. No matter what I do I can't seem to get the colors right, and I'm not colorblind by any means. Are there any online videos that really show how to do this? The magazine articles I've read presume an existing level of experience and expertise, and I have neither. I've never claimed to be the sharpest knife in the drawer, so all the layering back and forth covering up what you just painted then drybrushing it right back on doesn't make a lot of sense to me. Any help is appreciated. Thanks.

Not bad really, but maybe you should have....and....and then there's the.... Know what I mean? The ...looks pretty good though, except for that one part, but I'll let you go on that, since this was your first (common mistake, no biggie). Oh, and on that version there are only.... Most people don't know that, and it is a bit obscure, but I found it when I did some research on mine, so i thought I'd pass it along. All in all, yea, and I see a lot of potential.

Mark - Tank you, tank you very much :P Now it makes more sense. Gotta love the military acronyms for everything. In an F-14, one of the front seat displays is a TID (Tactical Information Display). In the back seat, there is what we lovingly refer to as the RIO's (Radar Intercept Officer) "puke bowl", which gives targeting data. On it is a control switch with different display modes, one of which is TID Repeat, so the RIO can see what the pilot sees on the TID. After a flight aircrews go through the maintenance area for a debrief. One of the RIOs handed the Maintenance Officer a maintenance form, the MO looked at it, snickered, handed it to the CO who happened to be on that flight who shook his head and asked, "Tell me again why we trust you with a $50 million airplane"? The RIO (a FNG) had written "No TID repeat in OFF mode". Les -- I like that idea, tanks do make good targets, don't they... Ya know, back in the day we didn't need radar guided whatever. SBD and TBM pilots had a big red ball to line up on, Thud, Spad and Skyhawk pilots figured, "hmm, that looks like a good spot...." Roll in, pickle off and "It's Miller Time baby!"

MERDEC? ACU? How and why would you name a barrel? Ju gonna ha' to 'splain dat one to me Lucy cuz I don' unnastan'.... Did I mention I'm ex NAVY, the guys with ships, and the largest air force in the world? B) To me, chevrons are those V-shaped stripes under the crow on an enlisted rank patch (for some reason Army folks keep putting them on upside down <shrug>). And as far as unit/vehicle numbers and vehicle names, where do they go? As a FWIW, the vehicle I'm building is a StarWars Droid tank, so there's no turret, and essentially no front or rear surfaces for any sort of placarding.

Didn't think that far into it Mark, thanks. Yea, I guess I would need both since I had planned on sticking some figures in there too. I was planning on 1/72 figures to make the vehicle appear larger than it actually is (I think it's supposed to be 1/48) so I don't know if an individual soldier's markings might be a bit more than my eyeballs can handle. And really, since it's a 'what-if', and sci-fi to boot, I could fake the camo patterns, but I figured I should make it at least moderately believable. As much as anything it's the vehicle markings that hang me up. As I mentioned, I have no clue... If I had a decal sheet, a string of numbers wouldn't mean anything to me--is it a vehicle number, unit ID number, vehicle type designation....? And what does the US insignia look like these days? See what I mean? No clue <hanging head in shame>. If I had a decal sheet for a US Navy plane, I could tell you which go together, and where on the plane they go, but....

Doing a 'what-if' and I need some info on modern US markings. I'm ex Naval aviation (F-14 squadrons) from the 80's and have no idea whatsoever what markings modern armor carries. Even if I had a decal sheet in front of me I wouldn't know what goes where, so I need all the help I can get. Ironically, my ex used to tell me the same thing.... Anyway, any help (and decals) I can get would be greatly appreciated. FWIW, it will be a tracked vehicle if that matters, and will be purely sci-fi, so there will be room for some artistic license. Tanks guys....

No one volunteered because everyone knew they couldn't do it the justice it deserved, like you can! Hope to see you in the Quad Cities for the Christmas party.

Any sci-fi ships (or anything else I suppose) in particular you're looking for? I don't have any DropShips, but I have some AMT Star Trek stuff. I'm a tightwad, so most everything I have is of the lower end brand (Revell, Monogram, Glencoe, etc, with a few Pegasus, Trumpeter, Academy, TriMaster, Tamiya thrown in for good measure). What issues are you having with vinyl kits? I have a half dozen or so of various subjects, just haven't gotten around to them yet--never really saw them as unnecessarily difficult.