ghodges Posted October 2, 2013 Report Share Posted October 2, 2013 Most of mine fall into the category of stuff that OTHER modelers wouldn't touch with a 10ft pole....vacs, resin kits, and moldy oldies from Aurora and such. I'll only post the ones that put up a significant fight, since my standards for a "sows ear" are so much lower to begin with! Considering I started with this: The ID 1/48 vac P-3C Orion qualifies... This 1/32 F-84E is also an ID vac, requiring almost as much work (though a much older build) Although I screwed the pooch on final alignment, considering I had to make a jig and heat bend the one piece, straight resin tracks, and build this kit without instructions (just an exploded view) or much reference; I felt I "tamed" this 1/48 M-16 all resin pig! Ancient 1/48 Aurora Sopwith Triplane, with scratch built interior and corrected fuselage bottom 1/32 all resin CollectAire T-28C Trojan. Besides scratch building almost everything, the main wing (solid, tip to tip) had to be broken, heated, and bent to add the proper dihedral! The 1/48 Czech Models F3D Skynight, which has a deserved reputation as a dog. The intakes don't just bark, they bite! I built this on commission. The first Skynight was so bad that I opted to build THIS one for myself: the 1/48 vacuform from Golden Wings. It was NO harder, and many ways easier since I controlled most of the engineering of the build, though most all of the details and the wing fold were scratched! This a conversion of the 1/48 Monogram -5 Panther to a -6 Cougar. I've (thankfully) forgotten who's resin I used, but it was SO bad that the intakes had been molded solid, and had to be routed out with a motor tool! I chose to do a "six" with the regular nose due to the supplied small wing and in the hope that a -8 (larger wing and bulged nose) will be the most likely release in 1/48, if it ever does get done. This is an A-5A Vigilante bomber, converted from the CollectAire resin RA-5C. It took a TON of grinding on the spine and the tail cone to make the backdate. Another resin kit, I got this 1/48 S2F Tracker as a started model. I had to break the tail fin to correct a bad warpage, as well as breaking both assembled nacelles since they'd had the wrong halves glued together! THEN, I could start the build, fold the wings, and detail it. I also recall having to order another set of decals as the first ones shattered! It also had to be rebuilt a SECOND time, after it was broken in shipping it to the client! This 1/32 F-86D Saberdog is a vac conversion from the Hasagawa F-86F. As I recall, I had to split the Has. windscreen in half, widen it with strip plastic to fit the new fuselage, and then vac a new copy from that "mold". Besides the cockpit work, where a main panel with a scope had to be made, it also required cutting up the kit canopy to convert it to the clamshell configuration. There's many more vacs and resin kits I could post (that others consider sows ears), but since they came with interiors and detail parts, and pretty much went together as I expected, I don't consider them as anything but exercises in model building. Also, like Duke, I consider these to be anything but silk purses! They're more aptly tributes to persistence! Cheers! GIL Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest PetrolGator Posted October 3, 2013 Report Share Posted October 3, 2013 Gil, Get over it. These ARE silk purses. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ewahl Posted October 3, 2013 Report Share Posted October 3, 2013 To paraphrase President John F. Kennedy (when announcing the decision to send men to the Moon and bring them back safely): "We choose to build these models not because they are easy, but because they are hard." Gil, well done on yours. Ed Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark Deliduka Posted October 22, 2013 Report Share Posted October 22, 2013 I don't know Gil, these sure look like Masterpieces to me. I'm not quite as skilled as you are, I certainly can't make any of these look as good as you have! After all, mine are built..... yours are built VERY WELL! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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