Finished no3 today with the Revell of Germany 1.72 Stearman. It's based off of a picture on McKellar-Sipes airport's website, included below. I left the serial off as it would have been a wild guess, but marked it up as I have seen others from around the same time frame. Scratch built the cockpit, but used the kit engine until I can get a proper one together. I made the rigging from .015 wire, but it looks too thick for the scale, and it's not 100% correct, but it's there. Thanks for looking!

Excellent job on the F model, but you need to add a 1 in front of the serial number as the first F-1 was from Fiscal Year 1941 appropriations.  It should be 124340 instead of 24340 which denote FY 42-4340 which is the serial for a P-39K-1.

Rich, thanks for the feedback. I forgot about the one being mentioned as part of the tail code at this site: http://www.aerovintage.com/b17news13.htm. I couldn't make it out that it was there, and these aircraft from the same base had a 5 digit code  I do believe you are correct on that point, and I have some decals to fix it. Thanks again.

Thanks.  I use Joe Baugher's site, joebaugher.com, to track aircraft serials.  The second photo is of a F-55-DL, meaning it is a Douglas built block 55, serial Fiscal Year 1942 serial 42-3419.  The 4 is dropped.

Finished my fourth build. A B-52G based at Blytheville, AR in 1980.

After a half year of doing other things, I'm coming back to this. It is Sword's 1.72 T2V-1, which comes with markings for a Millington trainer. It was twenty dollars at the lhs, and it has resin seats and photo etch! The metal is quite tricky for me to line up properly as this is my first pe cockpit,  but it provides fine detail. I really wanted the C-17 for the ANG unit in Memphis, but it eludes me still. I may get Roden's C-141 instead. I also found information on a P-63 from Dyersburg  that crashed southwest of Hernando, MS in October, 1944. I know the serial number and the colors and markings, but there is no information about the buzz number on the nose. I hate to leave it off.

This is a nice diverse collection!

Yeah really nice and diverse collection and great to see you still adding to it. 

I was stationed at NAS Memphis in 1966-1969, Thats where I learned to fly Cessna 150's, Memphis had the largest Military flying club in US Military at that time. We used the old WWII Wagon Wheel east of the base as our call in point for Memphis tower. These WWII Wagon wheels were all around and were used during WWII to train pilots. I was also briefly assigned to NARTU Memphis where we had the following ac. P2V Neptunes, T-33,C-54, A4a & A4C, C45J. Back then the Memphis Bell was parked inside the fence in Memphis near the BSA Headquarters building. Learning to fly there was a trip because the Crop Duster pilots were something you had to keep aware of. I later served at NAMTRAGRU HQ, then finally moved on to my second flat top USS America CVA-66 back then.

Thank you for sharing that! A Skyhawk was in the far future plan, but a Neptune would be awesome to build. I have to admit ignorance about the wagon wheels, would you explain what those were, and where they were located?

Remember loading her many times. Where did you get the razorback decal?

I found an Internet image that I resized and printed on white decal paper. That took a few tries! 

stikpusher

well it looked just like this one... 

'except they had the side doors open to get rid of us in flight without the courtesy of stopping off somewhere on the ground... 

 

Hey, stik! Is that the actual picture of the actual C-130 as you jumped from it?  

Just finished this one. It is the 1.72 Sword T-1A Seastar. It's in the markings of VT-9 in 1962 at Millington. Thank you, Sword, for putting these markings in their box! It comes with photo etch for the cockpit, antennas, and landing gear. It was fun to play with. 

I also updated the Fortress serial number. Thanks to Richs26 for the feedback!

I finally found the last piece of the puzzle! Was in Flowood, MS last month and ran into a Hobbytown, which had, gasp, an original RoG C-17 kit! Been waiting all this time for me. Now that I look at it, the interior has those light fixtures in the loading bay that a set of microdot lights would really play up. This could be fun.

Finally decided to get this going, the last major piece of the puzzle. The open cargo bay is fantastic, and it lends to some extra detailing. The areas around the ramp can use it more than the areas at the front of the aircraft. So far, it consists of some basic shapes to give it some depth. Here's what I have:

And here's where it got to. Pretty much done, I didn't get too crazy, just some detail at the door. I did hang a flag up, came from a decal sheet. I hope it' big enough. Noticed a crooked decal, oh well, looks better closed up!

It's been quite a journey, and the final missing piece is complete. This is The Memphis Belle XI of the Tennessee Air National Guard in Memphis, circa 2017. Big shout out to Draw decals for producing this sheet, it was terrific. I will contradict them as to removing the bulges off the front fuselage sides, the Belle has them. Some touch up left to do, but, whew!

photo hosting

Nice work! I really like the C-17.

One more of the family together. I'l try to get better pics next week

Thanks, Stik!

Thank you, sir! 

New year, new additions for 2019! Found this Toko P-63 kit at a contest for $5. Now I can start building serial number 42-69442, which crashed just southwest of Hernando, MS, our county seat, in October, 1944. From what I can tell, it was from the 269 BU at Strother airfield in Kansas. It was flying out of Dyersburg, TN to help with B-17 gunnery training. A sister a/c bellied into Dyersburg two days later,  and there is a great pic of that one, but....anyway, here's the box:

I had to cut the rudder off so I could get the fuselage to line up. I also blocked in the nose gear well. Not too much detail, but it looks better:

One thing is for sure, when you're building by subject, manufacturer preferences take a back seat on a very long bus. I finally got the pit painted and together enough to put the fuselage together. I added an angle piece with lightening holes to the seat, seat belts coming later. I also added a ribbed panel to the radio deck to add some interest. Filling and sanding now, and I'll sand the body smooth, then rescribe as the kit has a very uneven and rough surface texture. The wings are too thick, but I may cause more problems correcting it; I'm still mulling over it.

Thank you for that! To be honest, I was doing an Elmer Fudd over that hole; I think that I'll take your advice and walk away...