Roktman

Very nice job. Looks great!

There are plenty of seats around - http://www.amazon.com/True-Details-SJU-5-Ejection-A-18B/dp/B00HEDLOP6 Canopy may be a little more difficult... Edit: Here's one - https://www.hannants.co.uk/product/BRL144095 HTH

Thanks. He didn't come with a pipe, so I gave him one with styrene rod and some Aves. Just waiting for it to dry and splash some paint on it. Will have a final pic later tonight or tomorrow, then on to something else.

Looks good! For a 1:144 it still looks like a beefy kit. I just finished a Mikr MIR kit (show elsewhere) and it was a pretty good kit. For a Co. I never really heard of, they're not bad in my book.

Agreed. despite renewing in June, I just got my renewal pack today. So if it's not on the way it should be soon.

I had a sculpted bust of Popeye. My guess is that the sculptor was going for a 'What would he look like if he was a real person?' He was pretty cheap when I got him at one of the NJ cons a year or two ago. Really looking it over I know why. It's pretty crude. As usual I forgot to take a before pic. Both the sculpting and the casting is only fair at best. For instance instead of wrinkles, there's gouges in his face that make him look like a slasher victim. Then there's the problem of him having only one eyebrow sculpted in. Next is his sailor hat. Popeye didn't wear the typical hat, he worn more of a Cap'ns cap. Ok, I can see that to avoid any copyrights problems. The next one can go into that category too. He didn't have an anchor sewn onto his shirt. The anchor was a tattoo on his arm. If it were me I would have just left it off (but I'm not about to start grinding it off). Then there's the thing of having fingerprints and some kind of mechanical marks on the sculpt. Dude, get rid of the marks. Lastly is the face has a look like he should have his corncob pipe hanging out of his mouth, only -- no pipe. I'll have to scratch build that. Onto the casting. Bubbles everywhere. Being that on a 1 to 10 this kit is a 4 at best, I didn't bother doing anything to fix it - just primed him up and started painting. Here's where I am so far. I figure I have another hour or three to put into it -- Thanks for looking. :D

My first model (Hawk's Vanguard satellite) was from DeVita's Dept Store, a local mom and pop store in Midland Beach, Staten Island NY. They had a little bit of everything. My next model was the US Moon Ship. This was probably around 1967. Then I somehow discovered across the street was a *tiny* Candy Store operated by a woman who looked about 90! ;) At the time the neighborhood was still mostly a summer community and became a ghost town after Labor Day. Even the bar that was next door to the candy store closed. But the bar owner let the woman bring her "store" in and set it up on the bar, as the one room candy store had no heat. It was there that I saw Aurora's Frankenstein. Oh boy!! I ran home and talked my Mom into giving me prolly $2 and ran all the way back hoping that someone didn't come in and by it while I was gone. (Yeah right). In the end I ended up with all the Aurora Monsters and Dinosaurs but also remember my shelves were filled with everything else too - planes, tanks, figures. Good times.

What!? Thats very cool. You need to make a little video showing what you're doing. :D

Very nice job! Looks great!

Thanks guys. I think I got lucky. The author of the SAMI article had a tough time with his. The only thing I changed on mine was the two "brace bars" holding the arm in the front. The parts with the kit were too thin for me to get off the sprue without breaking. The guy in the article got his off the sprue but the parts were too short. Besides that, it was fairly effortless. I would say that if anyone comes across the kit and wants t try it - go ahead. Re: how the boom etc... works. I have no idea. MIKR-MIR has a whole page about the craft (I guess) - but I can't read it, nor tried to get it translated -- If someone can read it, I'd like to hear the story.

I remember a local in NJ last year where the judges filled out critique sheets as they went along. If the modeller wanted to see what they said, you could ask for the sheet. Sadly the event was *very* poorly attended, so they had time to do it. Too many times times after a Con, there's grumbling how the model was "Great" but didn't place. I wouldn't know how you could do it on a National or even large Regional level. But I personally would love to see it happen.

Very nice paint job!

Very nice paint ups! A number of years ago the Mongolian dinosaurs exhibit came to the AMNH in NYC and their Velocirapitors (and others) were all feathered up.

Being one of the fans of "oddball" aircraft I recently took this gem out of my To Do pile - This was featured in a SAMI article. As the author mentioned it's hard to get any info from the instructions as it's all written in Russian. There is also very little on this on the net. One thought it might be a trainer. Another went a little further and said "It seems this was a proposed ground attack/support aircraft with a unique twist. The rear wheel was on a long arm running the length of the fuselage. In flight, it was extended down to the ground and the concept was it would be a crude terrain following device. Somehow a secondary arm attached to the main arm was directly linked to the elevator. When the wheel rolling on the ground compressed as the terrain changed upward, it would cause the elevator to automatically adjust the plane’s height to keep it at a constant ground hugging level." Lets get started. First, this model is tiny. Here we have the simple cockpit built. I even drilled out the lightening holes. The other pieces shown are all that there is of the fuselage -- The fuselage is really small - To end this session, here's the fuselage and the wing with the engine nacelle being held on while the glue dries - Next, the tail went on as did the the boom underneath the fuselage - Today I got out the colors and started painting. The color call outs on the instructions listed "AMT" paints. Here's where I had my problem. I use Vallejo paints, and there are no conversions from AMT to Vallejo. Online, I found an AMT to RLM conversion. Then on the Vallejo website, I was able to look up the RLM to Vallejo conversion. As a sidebar between V's Model Color and Model Air, all the RLM colors are carried. My color for the top of the plane turned out to be MC098 Bronze Green (RLM 70) and the bottom is MC064 Pale Blue (RLM 65). BTW, When I refer the MC number - that's the Position number as it's much easier to ID than the stock number. The Pale Blue is the typical underneath color that is seen on a number of WW2 planes. The Bronze Green was a little weird. It goes on looking a deep gray, but then dries with a greenish tone. I masked off the top of the fuselage to paint the bottom and the boom and then removed the masking to prepare for the next day. when I got to painting all it took was one shot of the ab to help me remember that I never masked off the painted bottom. DOH! -- Oh well I just kept going, and then masked to top again and repainted the bottom. I then hit it with some Vallejo glass and added the decals - Oh yeah, I also added those pistons - or whatever they are supposed to be on the engine nacelle. The edges of the decals showed a little silvering which I will need to take care of. Finally, I took some MIG pigments and mixed it with some water and then ran the mix into the panel lines on the green surfaces. Since I can't find out if this is an experimental plane or not, I didn't want it too beat up looking. For the Light Blue on the bottom I tried a little trick that I saw on You Tube in that I traced the panel lines with a 4B pencil and then smudged it with a cotton bud. I then airbrushed another layer of Vallejo's Matt Clear and the silvering around the decals finally disappeared. With that done I added the wheels, the canopy which needed a little Kristal Klear, and the propeller. Then there was two little spots on the boom that I painted on some Vallejo Air Steel, and highlighted the pistons (or whatever) with some VA Aluminum. Its done. Weird, the lights are making my Bronze Green paint look a blue color. Hmmm... Thanks for looking.

I find these historical thread really interesting. As this info is uncovered "someone" should be writing this all down before it disappears again. Also Local club e-Boards should be talking/interviewing their most veteran members before they retire to the Model Room in the Sky.

Thanks guys!

There's always this --- http://www.kitsworld.co.uk/index.php?CATEGORY=5&SUB=17&THISPAGE=1&RADIOSORT=4&PICFILE=102&STKNR=102&STRH=3332&ORDN=2538&RNZ=123805 HTH

An outstanding build. I'm sure he loved it.

For me it was Unicraft's Me. P. 1092/3. This is what it should look like - Unicraft does a lot of Luft '46 stuff, and the odd ball designs are what drew my interest. Being kind, their kits need A LOT of TLC. Looking thru Allen from Fantastic Plastic's collection, he always made them look nice. So I figure I'd give it a shot. Ugh, there's sections that appear on his drawings that he never casted in to the plane. No option for wheels down, no decals, pieces of flash larger and thicker than the part... After 3 days of cutting and sanding, back into the box it went. I never threw it out, but I haven't looked at it in years.

Great story. I don't remember if I even knew to use the decals. But the tube glue... haha thats when I knew the model was done- when the tube was empty. :lol:

Mine was the Hawk Vanguard satellite. I probably built it around 1967-68 on my kitchen table, and got it from a tiny Mom & Pop dept. store in the neighborhood. My next was the US Moon Ship from the same little dept Store. The one that basically spheres in a frame. Then I went on to build whatever I could - planes, tanks, before I saw my first Aurora Monster and dinosaur kits. Then I built just them. Sadly it's all gone. As I got older (13-14) Dad thought it a good idea to give the "toys" to my younger cousins. So that was the last I saw of them. Luckily the Vanguard and the Moon Ship were both repopped within the last year or so. You know I have 'em both on the top of my To Do pile.

I agree with Robin and a few others. As a child of the 60's I too miss the LHSs, but access to kits, supplies and information are better than before. Since I build Real Space models I used to have a choice of 3 or 4 models to choose from. Now with these garage kit businesses popping up, I have dozens of choices. The resin garage kits are also important in that I have a chance to get a kit of something obscure that would never pass the accountants attention in some of these BIG model Co.'s. I can order a kit (that never would have been on the shelf of a little hobby shop) from the Czech Republic,or Japan have have it at my door in a week or so. Buying from Amazon I can order my Vallejo paints or some 1/4 round styrene rods on a Monday afternoon and the box is on my doorstep Wednesday morning. If I need information I don't have to wade thru magazines to see if there's an article about it in a back issue of FSM, or other the like. I can simply go to one of the many online forums and get the info I need. I f I want to see how a technique is done, You Tube is my friend. Put what you're looking for in the search box and you'll find at least 10 modeler's videos all willing to show you how it's done. Oops it's a video from Germany?! No problem, hit the cc: button and the audio is automatically translated. So while the brick and mortar stores are going away, I think the hobby is as strong as ever. What we *need* to figure out is how to get the kids to put down the electronics and pick up a model!

Maybe some of these pics might help? http://www.helmo.gr/index.php?option=com_deeppockets&task=catContShow&cat=24&id=2092&Itemid=35

The decals coming out of the water will be wet, and just make sure that there is some water on the model where you want them to go. This should give you plenty of time to get it where you want. Then I always take a Q-Tip and not rub, but roll it over the decal to get the excess water out. Anyway, just my 2 ¢.

Thanks. Shane's kits are very easy to work with. All the parts slot into place and the seam lines - if you can find 'em - are tiny. Shane likes the larger sizes - 1:15 + , so you'll need a bit of shelf space. :D