Gamera, today everything is coming out just fine on IE here. Everything stacked vertically nice and pretty just like I like it... Must be a Monday thing... who knows?

Draken, your four Lockheeds are added to the front page. But I missed who made the F-80 kit. Nice work on them. The family resemblance is quite obvious especially in the group shot. Very sweet!

What is next here? I know for my next Korean War build subject I am eyeballing a couple Marine Corps items... either the Dragon's 1/35 M4A3 HVSS POA, or an AMT/ERTL 1/48 F7F-3N as a night interdictor. I am kinda leaning towards the Tigercat right now. My father caught one look at the kit in my stash, and being an old aircrewman on the B-26 Invader, thought the Tigercat looked like, in his words, "A real Hot Rod". He was not familiar with the Grumman twin at all, but it appealed to him and his lifelong assiciation with aviation. What do you guys think?

stikpusher

Draken, your four Lockheed's are added to the front page. But I missed who made the F-80 kit. Nice work on them. The family resemblance is quite obvious especially in the group shot. Very sweet!

 What do you guys think?

Great work on the Lockheed's, draken ...

Stik - go for the Tigercat if you like black ... might be a great change from shiny airplanes ...

My next 3 are the Mig-15 I've almost finished - then, the Bell 47 helo, which too is almost finished and then - gasp - I'm going to try another tank - this time, a Patton (M 48) ...

WIP progress photos on the first 2 builds in the next day or so ...

pepper

SP: Think it's the office computer here, it does it the weird format thing every now and again.

I'd love to see the F7F. Love the looks of the plane- she's one that looks like she's flying six-hundred mph just standing still.

Sorry I haven't done much of anything on the M46, I've been diverted on the Char B1 on Tigerman's Blitzbuild.

Stik,

The F-80 is by a East European company called Gran.  Definitely an inferior kit for the price.  I've built the Airfix already and it's still on my shelf (built before I joined the group build).  It didn't turn out too bad, and provided a lot of necessary experience for the Gran kit.  But it eventually went downhill fast when the decals went on.  The Airfix decals were so thick that the wouldn't conform to anything with the slightest bend.  I used Microsol and everything I could to work on them.  Eventually I ended up using white glue on them after they dried, holding them in place until it set enough that I thought things werepermanent.  Maybe the OLD Airfix decals are okay, but the recent ones are absolute garbage!

I still haven't decided on 'the next thing' myself.  I'd also like to see a Tigercat on the group.  I've got the Two Italeri/Rev-Germ. Invader kits as well as more FAA stuff in the stash.  I want to do my Privateer, but I'm waiting on my Academy B-24 in the states to arrive here so I can scrounge good detail parts from it.  Hmmm...  Maybe that Avenger ambulance?  We'll see what happens.

Draken, the last new Airfix kit I built, a 1/30 submarine late last year, had good decals. No issues whatsoever. I have no quarrel with their decals. But it sounds like you had quite the goat rope there.

Gamera, I still keep peeking in over at the Battle of France GB. All those Chars are really eye catching. I will have to know one of mine out next year.

So far it looks like everyone is rooting for the Tigercat as my next KW build. I will keep that in mind here

Stik, tough choice, a Marine flame-throwing Sherman, or a Tigercat???  Hmm.... Both!  Personally, I don't think you can go wrong with either one.  They both rate way high on the coolness factor.

Draken, love the little Lockheed collection!  I would love to duplicate those for my own collection.

Cheers,

Greg

Hi All:

1 WIP shot of the Mig ... note the high tech model stand it's sitting on :-) ...

I rubbed down the entire airframe with 0000 steel wool, which solved a lot of the paint issues I'd had with the first shots  ... I then shot it again and it turned out nicely (not really seen in this 1 photos) ...

It started raining early last evening and has been ever since, so no painting today but for stuff I can do inside ...

pepper

Super job Pepper, I can imagine the day-glow orange was as big a pain to get right as the NM.

Gamera

Super job Pepper, I can imagine the day-glow orange was as big a pain to get right as the NM.

Actually, the color is Ferrari Red Gloss and surprsingly enough from my experience, was a piece o'cake to shoot on the tail and nose ... I normally use acrylic for just about everything, but this just begged for the gloss (as did the instruction sheet) ...

Of course, after it's all finished up and decaled, I'll be shooting it with a matte coat if the decals show any signs of silvering ... if that happens, the gloss is certainly going to flatten a great deal ...

All the little fiddly pieces are painted and ready to install and the last thing needed is to paint the canopy and windscreen ...

Finish photos soon ... Bell 47 WIP photos up in a day or so ...

And then - another try at an armored vehicle ... might have a better experience this time than I did with the crappy Hobby Boss 'Herman the Sherman' :-) ...

pepper

Andy , Awesome work on the Lockheed jets ;

I particulary like the weathering on the nose cone of the F-94B ....."nice touch" .

They all look great ...

Pepper , the mig-15 is looking great too and nice fix using 0000 steel wool to smooth out the first coat of paint ...

Stik , I vote for the F7F-3N for your next build , I think a few of us have them in our stash but no one's built one yet . I have both the 1/72 and 1/48 scale kits , it would be great to follow your '48 scale build to see how she goes together .

As for me , I'm still working on the new display cabinets and I'm making pretty good progress .

I have the bulk of four cabinets finished with just one more to build ;

Here's the new Navy / Marine cabinet under the window on the far left ;

Close up ;

Today I got these two together after spending three day's cutting and routering the shelving board to size ;

Tomorrow (friday) I'll start on the centre cabinet and should have it installed by saturday morning

Great work on your builds everyone .

                         John .

John, those cabinets are looking great! And your Navy/Marine Corps birds are very impressive to see all displayed together And you have a flat screen video system in between your shelves? Boy I would have little need to leave that roon once its all up and running...

As far as my next Korean War build goes, it sounds like the Tigercat will be it. Black USMC of course. We need some black birds here. so early next year I will start that one. I wanna wrap up more near completion builds before I start anything else for this one. And the Tigercat kit begs for proper 'tricking out' treatment to consider it for the upcoming "weekend madness" GB.

stikpusher

the upcoming "weekend madness" GB.

Did I miss something ? ... what 'weekend madness' ? ...

pepper

Enlist here PK...

/forums/t/142074.aspx

So, I've decided that my next build will be the Italeri/Rev Germ. B-26B and B-26C done side by side.

On another note...  Did anybody notice in the recent FSM review of the Landrover with WPIK that the author captioned a picture of the DIESEL engine that all it need was IGNITION WIRES?  Funny, 'cause that's one of the pranks we'd play on the new oil change guys at thge auto shop.  We'd send them out to the shop truck (a diesel) with a set of plugs, plug wires, and distributor cap/rotor kit and tell them to give it a tune up.  For those unaware, Diesels are COMPRESSION ignition.

Helo- I  D-I-G your cave man!  I have to show this to my wife so she will let me expand my cave one day...

Pepper- MIG looking good... I like the red tail! 

Draken- This is my favorite... just because of the nose art.  It was fun following all of your builds.

Earlier today I took some pics of my most recent completion, a Monogram 1/48 PCF "Swift Boat" for von Hammers Monogram Mafia GB. Since that GB required two builds, my other was the F9F I also entered here. anyways I took a pic of those two togther for the GB...

anyways that got me thinking... how about some pics of my other Korean War1/48 warbirds built prior to this GB to keep things visually interesting on my part here...

so I paired up my recent Panther with the other Korea Vets

with Monogram's F-80C

with Revell's F-84E

with Monogram's MiG-15

all three US straight wing fast mud movers

and the MiG with its first jet opponent

and its' second

I need to get my Sabre off the build stall and completed...

Very impressive Korean War Aircraft builds Stikpusher ...

The camouflage finish on your previous built Mig-15 is awesome and I must say the canopy frame lines on all your aircraft are extremely neat .

I struggle a little with my canopy maskings , so I alway's look at other modelers work and admire their efforts .

The PCF Swift Boat looks great and again I like the black and silver frame lines around the windows . I bought Mach 2's 1/72 PBR River Boat and it looks like a fun build ,

was your Swift Boat used in the Korean war and / or Vietnam conflict ?

I have the center display cabinet installed and all three cabinets are screwed together ;

Today I'll fit the plastic door tracks in place and then measure up for the glass sliding doors .

                             John .

Thank you John. The Swift Boat was a Vietnam War craft. It was developed off of a civilian oil platform service boat design to fill a gap in the USN capabilites for small shallow draft patrol boats. The next step up from a PBR essentially. I learned a bit about them while doing research for the build. I kind of would like to build another and really dressit up with cabin interior, etc.

That MiG-15 is one of my favorite camo jobs I have done. It sems to be quite the crowd pleaser. Not bad for a mid 70s vintage kit. I am really starting to like these Korean Wabirds...

 As far as canopy masking goes, my top choice is Tamiya masking tape on a canopy dipped in Future. After it has cured for a day or more I apply the tape. Since my hand is not always steady when cutting, I try to use the straight edge of the tape along the frame edge as much as possible. I trim up excess tape using a new or fairly new#11 X-Acto. While trimming, I like to hold up the canopy to a open window or other bright light source to backlight the frame thru the tape. This usually helps my hand/eye co ordination. I also like using Parafilm M for canopy masking, but it adds to the trimming complications with larger straight edges.

What is your next build nearing completion?

Hi, haven't been on Finescale for a while, mostly modelling ;P But I have finished my 1st (May be more) Korean War GB Build! I can finally claim that badge WOOT! This Academy P-51D (CA-18) has been in the works for 10 Weeks and is finally done! My first attempt at panel variations on a NMF scheme! This aircraft served with 77 Squadron RAAF in Korea, after being kept in storage with 81 Wing in Japan between 1947 and 1949. It was later transferred to the ROKAF (Republic of Korea Air Force) in 1952 and continued to serve until the end of the Korean War in 1953, where it was disposed of. I am quite pleased with this, as I'm really a beginner of about 25 models over the past 1.5yrs... I used a silver rattle can for the basecoat, with Humbrol enamels used for the varied panels. The decals I used, one stretched and tore, so I used a slightly out of whack replacement, though the rest responded well with Micro-Set/Sol. I hope you guys like and appreciate it!
Pics:

AWESOMME WORK!

And thanks for joining the build!    In personal news, I've done two loads of laundry, emptied the cat box, done dishes, gone to dinner with friends, and order more stuff offa e-Bay...  A C-121 and a water tank trailer.  I've also done some bidding on things that I want that most likely won't be won and if they do probably aren't part of the build.  The B-26's are progressing!

No WIP Pics at the moment, but the interiors are painted, and the decals of one of them have been lacquered with clear gloss.  I have no clue WTF happened!  I bought the kit here in Korea and it was beautiful when I opened it, I looked at it two days ago and the decal sheet looks like it's water damaged?!?!  No idea what's going on there...  No, it wasn't sealed in plastic, but I've had absolutely no problems with ANY other decals and moisture no matter what it's like outside.  Strange...  I've coated them with a couple sprays of Tamiya clear gloss and I'll hope for the best.  If I still have problems when I get the kit done I'll burn that bridge when I cross it.

Strangely enough the two kits call for different paint schemes.  The Italeri says gloss black and the Rev Ger, kit says flat black.  I'm going to do what they say...  One will be with yellow squadron markings, one with red.  Just to kick it up a notch, "BAM!" 

What do you folks think, should I hollow out the areas of the main gear that are filled?  There's areas that should be completely open between struts and I'm giving thought to opening them up with my motor tool.  I really don't want to damage the integrity of the gear's strength, though.  I'm not sure if they put that plastic there for engineering purposes or moulding purposes.  What say you?!?!

stikpusher

 I trim up excess tape using a new or fairly new#11 X-Acto. While trimming, I like to hold up the canopy to a open window or other bright light source to backlight the frame thru the tape.

I use both a #11 and a #10 blade ... the #10 has a lot of surface area and a rounded 'nose and I use it to 'roll along'  the canopy lines, using the sharp point of the #11 to get the corners and such ...

pepper

Military Aircraft 101, take your GB badge and display it with pride! It's good to see another first timer here. At this point the extended GB is a place of repeat offenders, I mean buiders . We are at 172 pages of posts and work here thanks to all of everyones participation. Pretty good is you ask me about a subject that is considered "forgotten". Very nice little Mustang there. I think Humbrol's aluminum shade is the best out there for making an aged exposed NMF aircraft. Tahts the primary base color on my F-84 above. 

Draken, I would suspect the areas on the landing gear you are talking about hollowing out (the oleo scissors?) is done for molding purposes primarily and not engineered for added strength. As far as your Flat Black vs Gloss Black debate goes, meet in the middle and go with either Satin or Semi Gloss. In any case the Gloss is way to shiny for a proper scale effect so I prefer the Satin or Semi Gloss. I do know that the B-26s had a hard service life and IIRC started out Gloss, but photos show most of them to be well worn to satin finish at best. Heavy exhaust staining on the engine nacelles, which against the black base color is more of a medium gray from the lead in the avaition gas.

stikpusher

Thank you John. The Swift Boat was a Vietnam War craft. It was developed off of a civilian oil platform service boat design to fill a gap in the USN capabilites for small shallow draft patrol boats. The next step up from a PBR essentially. I learned a bit about them while doing research for the build. I kind of would like to build another and really dressit up with cabin interior, etc.

That MiG-15 is one of my favorite camo jobs I have done. It sems to be quite the crowd pleaser. Not bad for a mid 70s vintage kit. I am really starting to like these Korean Wabirds...

 As far as canopy masking goes, my top choice is Tamiya masking tape on a canopy dipped in Future. After it has cured for a day or more I apply the tape. Since my hand is not always steady when cutting, I try to use the straight edge of the tape along the frame edge as much as possible. I trim up excess tape using a new or fairly new#11 X-Acto. While trimming, I like to hold up the canopy to a open window or other bright light source to backlight the frame thru the tape. This usually helps my hand/eye co ordination. I also like using Parafilm M for canopy masking, but it adds to the trimming complications with larger straight edges.

What is your next build nearing completion?

Thank's Stik and Pepper for the tip on using the #11 X-Acto blade on canopy masks .

Another question for the group is related to old decals , in that some of the older Airfix kits I've picked up of ebay , the protective paper that covers the face of the decal sheet has become stuck on . I f I try and peel the paper away it starts to tear the decals as well . Anyone had a similar experiance ?

I picked up two more 1/72 Airfix F2H -2 Banshee's for the U.S navy and both decal sheets have the protective paper stuck on the face and the same with a Matchbox EA-6B prowler . The decal sheets haven't faded or yellowed at all , just the paper has stuck itself to face of the decal sheet .......'What to do' ???

BTW , Excellent  work on the P-51D Build , MA-101

Tomorrow I'll start masking the second PB-1W AEW Fortress , I probably should mask the Panther and Banshee while I'm at it as well , seeing I'm going to be spraying Gloss Sea Blue .

                    John .

Helo H-34

Thank's Stik and Pepper for the tip on using the #11 X-Acto blade on canopy masks .

Hey, John - you're more than welcome ...

I decided to repaint the Mig, using Floquil paint  for the base color... here are 2 shots of it, after painting, while drying, anchored by a hemostat up it's tailpipe and a couplea spools of solder on the handle hand of the instrument to hold it off my bench ... when dry and I pull the tape off, I'll then finish up with the red paint and add all the fiddly, llittle bits and pieces ... almost done !! ...

As you can probably tell from the photos, my bench is a Class A disaster area - just enough room to spray and clean up ... hard to believe that it's 22" deep and 6 feet wide :-) ...

Soaring through the air in Garland, TX ...

Still soaring through the air in Garland, TX ...

pepper

Oooops !! ...

Here's a shot of my 'kit' bench ... I also have another, similar in size, on the other side of the garage ... it's for HO scale trains and looks as bad as this one ...

That's what happens when Grandma decided to sell her house and move her entire household to my garage and 2 large (14' x 20') outbuildings ... I have to move stuff right and left, here and there, to get room to do anything ...

But, with the weather getting cooler, i'll be spending most of my 'build time' at the kitchen table (both disciplines) and only to the garage to paint ...

pepper

Floquil... There is a RR shop near me that stocks that line of paints.... Thanks for the idea PK. I need to do something with my F-86 to get it rolling again... And your MiG is coming along nicely I might add. Your smaller work area looks a lot like my old desk prior to my move.

stikpusher

Floquil... There is a RR shop near me that stocks that line of paints.... Thanks for the idea PK. I need to do something with my F-86 to get it rolling again... And your MiG is coming along nicely I might add. Your smaller work area looks a lot like my old desk prior to my move.

Hi Stik:

From the RR shop, also look for Scalecoat and Badger paints as well ... they come in a ton of colors and are just about evenly split between enamel and water based ...

The silver I used is Floqui Bright Silver straight from the rattle can ... I wanted to see how it would look and now that the paint is dry, I'm going to tape off all the red and spray the otherside of the Mig with the Floquil as well ... it's a much brighter color - seems to be much tougher than the Tamiya silver I've been using - takes tape extremely well and dries to pass the 'sniff' test in 30 minutes or less ...

My past experience with it leads me to believe that a gloss coat is not needed prior to decaling, but as I start that process on the Mig, I'll know for sure ... if so, that eliminates another step in the build process .. and, if so, than it should take a 'wash' as well  ... details on both to follow ....

pepper

Yes, if you use gloss paints, no coat is needed before decalling. That is the whole idea that XtraColour runs on. I hve seen the Badger paints at the RR shop, but do not recall seeing Scalecoat. No matter, they also carry Polly Scale so most of my needs are filled. But they are a tad bit pricier than the model LHSs that I frequent. I know that Floquil has a color Old Silver that might be just what I need for my Saber. And a few other metallics.

I was going through my Korean War 1/72 decal stash and came across this sheet ...

I bought it off ebay with a whole bunch of other decals and kits a while back but for the life of me I can't remember what aircraft it is for ;

Here's a pic of the back of the sheet ;

I'm thinking , perhaps a C-47 / R4D -1 Skytrain but I'm not sure ???????

                        John .

John, all I can think of is that it has to be for an MPC C-47 kit.  That's the only thing that makes sense.  I don't recall any from the 70's/80's having USAF markings, but that doesn't mean anything.

On another note:  It's been really interesting here over the last few days.  We've had F-16's and A-10's doing practice bomb runs on my burg.  Really cool to listen to the difference in the engines and see the birds down low.  The only things that I'm curious about is that they all do the EXACT SAME RUN every single time.  If I remember correctly, this is referred to as a 'not good thing' and is what brought down the F-117 over Kosovo.  Also, in other news, the DPRK is reinforcing its coastal artillery along the Northern Line Limit, the defacto sea boarder between the north and south on the west coast.  The eastern portion has many island that are part of the RoK.  This is approximately one year after the shelling of Yeongpyeong island.  Probably not a smart idea.  I've been hearing the rifle ranges a lot lately near my school an near my apartment, this is typical and happes regularly.  The one near my apartment apparently did a night mortar exercise on Tuesday.  All of my friends were texting me to find out what was going on, if we were at war, etc..  Funny as heck!  And just recently I got to see a series of five transporters hauling K-1A2 tanks!  impressive as heck!

I've so far only done the interior colour on the A-26's.  Just haven't been able to get into modeling this week, for some reason.  I did purchase an AJ-2 Savage, a few books, and a Heller A-1 from ebay.  The Heller kit is the only one that comes with USN markings for overall dark blue.  All of the other A-1's on the market that are blue have Aeronaval markings, or they're going to be USN with gull grey for Vietnam.  And there's only one set of aftermarket with a single a/c for the KW...  I have no idea why...  Although there are TWO sets of Skyraider decals for African nations.  I think that the KW is seriously shorted in this arena.

What's everyone else up to?