Saw the news last night after a long day at Universal Studio amusement park in Orlando and I thought about our friend Andy in SK.  Wondered about SK folks reaction to the news... out partying or on high alert like Andy said. 

Hopefully one day we can finally withdraw our troops from SK... we have one too many military bases around the world at American taxpayers' expense.   Right now there is 28,000 American troops in SK if I am correct. 

Glad things are going good for you over there Andy! 

One less weirdo dictator in the world.  That can't be a bad thing.  At least we don't have to worry about NK becoming a radical islamic state.

Cheers,

Greg

Gregbbear

Thanks John!  What my plans were for the F-86A, would be to use the wings from Matchbox, possibly wheel wells from Airfix, use the Airfix fuse and modify like in the FSM article.  Since I want to display with canopy open, I want to cut off the Matchbox windscreen, so I don't have to modify the Airfix one.

Andy, and John, you guys have used Falcon conversions before?  What do you think?  I am interested in the triple conversion with the AD-5W (along with a FJ-3 Fury!).  Has anybody had any experience or seen one before?  The Falcon site doesn't have a picture of it.

Thanks guys.

Cheers,

Greg

It's interesting that you mention Vacuform kits Greg , These past couple of months I have stocked up on quite a few Vacuform sets .

I've had a couple of successful RF-8 Crusader builds and some others that didn't quite work out ...

Falcon provide two complete fuselage front sections for the RF-8 , however I decided to try and use as much of the Hasegawa F-8 front intake , nose wheel well and cockpit section as possible ;

This ment there was some fancy cutting and filing and I used lots of sanding sticks but because the vacuform plastic in quite thin , I thought I would have trouble with the fuselage join under the front intake ,

Lots of plastic and glue on the inside to hold everything together .

I tried to keep everything flush on the outside to minimize the amount of tamiya putty needed ,

It came together okay in the end ;

Finished results ...

Underside view ...

Second RF-8 Build...

The C-2 Grayhound didn't quite work out as there appears to be some issue with the tail section . I think everything should be flush across the top of the rear stabilizers , Falcon has the top of the fuselage sitting higher , I don't think this is correct . With the C-1 Trader I only use the bottom section of the vacuform fuselage halves but I made the small round fuselage windows slightly too big , so it doesn't look quite right .

I really should of use both fuselage halves on the two seat Corsair , I tried making plugs to extend the length of the  fuselage and it didn't work out all that well .

I've since bought all three of those vacuform conversions to do again along with the TF-102 , F-106B , TF-8A and F8U-3 , two C-117(RD4-8) , C-140 and the two Korean War vacuform sets of the P2V-5 Neptune and AF-2W Guardian .

So basically the vacuform plastic is quite thin compared to the injected molded kit plastic  , this can make it a little difficult sometimes getting both sections glued together . I wasn't  too upset with myself about the two Navy COD builds not working out , it was a good learning curve despite putting a few hours into both builds.

Some plastic strip in various widths and thickness will help a lot , such as Evergreen Strip Styrene , not just for where the vacuform plastic joins the kit plastic but also for the long fuselage joins on both vacufom fuselage halves .

Masking the vacuform canopies is even more of a challenge , I'm struggling a little with a Yak-9P vacuform canopy , I've been cutting the masking tape into thin strips and fitting into position but I can't cut the tape while it's sitting in position for fear of cutting into the plastic , so I have had to mark the tape with a pencil and remove the strip , cut it to length and re-place it back on the canopy ; I'ts a little frustrating so far .

Andy may have had some more successful vacuform builds , it would be interesting to know what projects you have tackled Andy .

                                                     John .

John, thanks for the information.  While I was searching the net for information on Falcon sets, I found your original thread on the Greyhound.  That is the set I am thinking about ordering.  How do the FJ-3 and AD-5W parts look? 

The Skyraider book I bought is really nice.  I just wish it had some scale drawings of the ECM, radar, and searchlight pods the AD carried.  When I finally get to my AD builds, it will be invaluable!  I still plan on building the AD-4N from VMC-1 USMC Korea, with the Hase kit, and a AD-3 of VMA-121 USMC using my newly aquired Tsukuda kit.  Last night, a treasure trove of Korea era kits went for pennies on the dollar on ebay.  I wish I would have put in a bid before I went to bed.

Hobbyboss re-released their Panther as an F9F-3.  Only $10,99USD from Luckymodel.  That is less than an old Hase.  Blackbird decals has a cool F9F sheet out.  A -2(USMC Korea), a -2P(Navy Korea), -8 Cougar, and a yellow -2KD drone controller.

Anything else new in the modeling world????

Cheers,

Greg

Greg ,

Sorry for not posting pic's of the set you were asking about  ; I selfishly indulged and posted pic's about my other builds .

Here's what Falcon offer with their Triple Conversion FJ-3 Fury , C-2A Greyhound and AD-5W Skyraider ;

With the AD-5W vacuform conversion all you get are the two radom halves and the rear canopy section .

My build only stalled because I couldn't find any tail marking decals to suit .

I started a Korean War AD-4D Drone controller , I'll go back and see if I can find those WIP pic's

Don't hesitate to ask about any of the other Vacuform sets I have , I'm all too happy to post pic's of what Falcon and Airmodel offer .

                                                        John .

Gregbbear

Glad things are going good for you over there Andy! 

One less weirdo dictator in the world.  That can't be a bad thing.  At least we don't have to worry about NK becoming a radical islamic state.

Cheers,

Greg

Well I hope he's a little more stable than his father. I was watching one of the news shows and an US general was commenting on Jong-Il making his son a four star general at the age of 27.  The US general  said it took him 30 years of service to make it to his own rank.

John: Great job on the RF-8, I've done a few small conversions but nothing that drastic!

Well now, things have been kind of quiet around here. But after New Years, I suspect they will perk up again. Helo, nice job on the RF-8s. I have been wanting to build one ever since I saw "13 Days". But I don't know of any in 1/48, my preferred scale.

Draken, I do hope that the heir apparent is not so much of a PITA as his father and grandfather were. I can understand posturing to placate the old hard liners, but perhaps... just maybe, a new possibility for a better future exists there.

Gamera, I would not place too much stock in on screen generals. It all depends upon time, place, and opportunity. After all Jim Gavin became a General and commanded the 82nd Airborne at age 36. Mind you nepotism was not at play there, but... I am sure he is no Jim Gavin.

Anyways, during my Christmas shopping today,I did make a side stop by a LHS Train shop that carries Floquil paints. Tonite, I picked up some Floquil Old Silver to try out and pulled my F-86 off the shelf and began cleaning up the paint errors on my initial NMF attempt. So now my F-86 is now off the sidelines and back on the bench. She wont be done this year, but some time in January is quite possible.

Good news everyone!

I've not only finished the Matchbox F-86A-5 in OOB decals, but also made the Matchbox/Fujimi RF-86A with Hobbycraft and Microscale decals.  I'll get pics and post them when all of my Sabres are done.  I've just started and completed the building of the ancient Frog F-86F in one evening.  It's incredibly basic having a plank piece for the cockpit tub, a see through nose to tail fuselage, a pilot molded as part of the ejection seat, and basic gear with no gear bays.  The gear and bay doors stick straight out of the solid wing.fuselage.  I took one pic of the project before starting and forgot to take WIPs because it went so danged fast!  On another note:  Both Heller and Hasegawa took over this mold, Heller adding open gear bays with no detail and a basic tub interior and seat, while Hasegawa simply added the open gear bays.  Nothing else was added on the Hasegawa side.  So, if you're looking for an incredibly basic airframe to use as a finishing project/slammer/airbrush tester these things usually only run about a buck or so on eBay.  Mine was done essentially OOB with the only detail change being that I cut the side fins off of the fuel tanks (also part of the Hasegawa and Heller kits) as this was only on the later model post war Sabres.  I painted the tanks an OD green to represent tanks made in Japan.  These tanks had such a totally different separation characteristic that they were painted OD green so that pilots would easily recognise them.

I've got two Academy/HobbyCraft kits of the E/F and two Fujimi/Testors kits of the E/F left to build.  I'm going to have one with checker board tail, one with a stars on blue band tail, and one with yellow fin flashes.  Should be a NICE set of colourful birds when all are done!

Have fun and happy modeling, dudes!  

It is now Christmas in the ROK. A Christmas that can still be celebrated there thanks to the sacrifices of United Nations forces on that peninsula so long ago. Who still stand guard to prevent a repeat combat. Merry Christmas to all here and take a moment to think about, and if you do, pray for, those troops on the DMZ and elsewhere in the world who are unable to celebrate this holiday with their loved ones. At best they have their comrades in arms with them.

Merry Christmas to all.

Well said Stik.

John, thanks for the photos.  And I am always glad to see your other builds.  The RF-8 shots are great.  So far I have chickened out on buying the Falcon set.  Well, that and the money I was going to spend at Hannant's, I spent on ebay.  Oops.  I found a lot of 7, 1/72 Hasegawa planes for $50 shipped, to include a couple that I have been wanting for awhile:  F9F-8 Cougar, S2F-1 Tracker, F9F-2 Panther, EA-6B Prowler, A-10A T-bolt II, F-5, and an Mi-24 Hind E.  Still nothing compared to the mega-deal somebody got last week that I missed! 

Since I have no tests this week, I might try and break out something to work on.  It would be nice to be able to put the LVT in the finished column.  I need to finish some stuff, so I can start some new stuff.  I have aquired way to many cool things since school started!  Just call me John the second!  Except he actually builds (and finishes) stuff.  Off topic, but I saw a really cool 1/72 set of armor decals from Bison.  It was UK and French armor in Suez '56 to include:  Centurions, Bren Carriers, and even French LVT-4's.

I hope all of you have a Merry Christmas.

Cheers,

Greg

Merry Christmas everyone ;

And I echo those wonderful words Stik posted about all the Service Men and Women serving around the world .

Thank's for the kind words everyone on those RF-8 builds ; Obviously not Korean War related but It's been ages since I posted a pic of a completed model aircraft , you guy's would probably fall of your chairs if you saw how many builds I have started over the past two years that are 50% to 70% built . I catalouged my kit  stash again the other day ....800+ and I have justed started going through the stash of Aftermarket decals , Resin and PE . There's stuff there I forgot I had .

Nice score on that Lot 7 , 1/72 kits Greg , those F9F-8 Cougers don't come along that often , the F11F-1 tiger is even a rare'r kit to find , good luck if your looking for one of those .

I'm putting together some 1/72 Vietnam War Huey's at the moment along with an USAF HH-3E , it's a bit of a change from the Korean War and I'm looking to have them done by New Years .

So I'm looking forward to getting back into KW come 1st January ;

BTW , I built those new display cabinets a few weeks back to display my next generation of finished builds but there now chock full of all my recent kit purchases , I now need another cupboard.......

All the best everyone

                    John .

And it's now Xmas in the western world! 

Teh waifu and I spent the day with a friend who works with the Cp Casey MWR.  We went to a wonderful Xmas dinner buffet at the officers' club on post.  I paid for all five of us. Said Merry Xmas to a bunch of soldiers and a Marine or two.  Had a wonderful Christmas dinner that couldn't be beat (insert Alice's Restaurant music), and then it was back home to a nap and more reading about the DPRK.  I'm currently reading a 2000 edition of what used to be someone's text book about the DPRK.  Really interesting info about how daddy Kim and Li'l Kim keep the populace down.  At the same time I've got a book by Gen. Matt Ridgway about the Korean War that I read in the throne room.

For Xmas from teh In-Laws I received a Visa gift card for $90 which I spent at the COEX ASEM Academy hobby shop!  Picked up a T-6 for the decals, an F6F Hellcat for a drone, and a poop-load of paints.  Only two bottle paints, but each spray can costs about $10 USD.  I spent nearly all $90 at the hobby shop!  I also stopped at the monster book store in the mall and picked up a couple English language books (both Stephen King.  I'm a masochist, I MUST be to keep reading his tripe) and ALMOST got another book about the Koreas.  Glad that I didn't, I already had it at home.

Tomorrow I'll be going to Itaewan (the major western tourist shopping district near Yongsan Garrison in Seoul) to check out the used book store, have some lunch at a wonderful Thai restaurant and then hit the War Memorial Museum.  They've got that traveling human body exhibit there, as well as having finished the remodeling stuff on the different services.  I'm told that they even have the 'rifle range' operational again!  If anyone has requests for pictures, now's the time!

Happy holidays, and happy modeling to all!

Hi Andy ,

I missed your earlier post about finishing the F-86A and RF-86 Sabres ; Good stuff and I look forward to the pic's .

I'm glad to hear you had a great Christmas dinner and the upcoming trip to the War Memorial sounds great too . I'm happy to see pic's of anything that you may be able to photograph , I hope the weather is fine for your day out .

All the best Andy ;

               John .

Merry Christmas to one and all!

Yeah I couldn't agree more with a big THANK YOU and God bless you guys and gals that though your sacrifice and service away from your families and friends I can be safe from harm while celebrating with mine.

John: You don't want to even know about all the stuff I've started and not followed though. I've looked though internet lists of phobias several times for a 'afraid to finish things' phobia but never found one.

Merry Christmas everyone!  I hope all is well.

Stik, when you do some build-ups of those tanks on the Bison sheet, please share! 

Andy, glad you are having/had a good Christmas over in Korea.  I too am looking forward to your Sabres.

John, I wouldn't fret, you still finish way more than most, and as long as you are having fun, who cares?  I was getting really down on myself for not finishing anything, and then I realized that it is "my" hobby, and as long as I'm having fun, that is what matters.  I guess that is why I was a "vacuform coward".  That Falcon set didn't look like much fun!  Except now, I want the two seat cougar also.....

Merry Christmas all!

Greg

Greg, I certainly will share the Suez builds on here. Although I doubt either one I plan on will be during the run of this GB. I have another Tamiya Centurion that I will modify to a Mk.5 at Suez, along with an Italeri M47 that I will do in French Suez markings. And possibly an airborne Jeep off the sheet as well.

Okay, here's some up-date pictures of the Sabres I'm building.  Three of the seven are 'done'...

The Frog/Heller/Hasegawa E/F leads the Matchbox F-86A5(OOB) and the Matchbox/Fujimi kit-bash for an RF-86A.  The second pic shows good details on the cameras of the RF kit.

The Matchobx kit is OOB and includes the radio compass aerial behind the pilot!

The atchobx RF kit with Hobbycraft decals.  The decals were HORRIBLE!  They were thick, wouldn't conform to any surface, wouldn't stick to anything, and wouldn't respond to ANY setting solution!

Except for the horrible sea at the intake, the Frog kit wasn't all that bad!  The fit was pretty good, the exterior detail was acceptable.  Too bad they didn't have the slightest bit of interior detail, including actually having gear bays!

Don't bother putting these on the front page yet, Stik!  I want to get the entire collection of Sabres built and in my classroom before you bother.

Cool looking trio of Sabres!  Neat stuff as always Andy!

Cheers,

Greg

Excellent WIP on the Sabre's Andy , particulary the RF-86A

Greg , I just noticed over at ARC , on the front page a modeler built the Vacuform Airmodel/ Hasegawa F9F -8T Couger . The finished model looks awesome .

                 John .

I forgot to mention that I have Falcon's Triple conversion #3 F-106B , F9F-8T and Mirage IIID .

I can post some pic's of what Falcon offer and you could compare it to the Airmodel kit over at ARC .

                   John .

Nice flight of Sabers Draken. All you need to do is put something on your laptop that looks like PSP and you'll have a 1/72 ramp for them  I will respect your request and hold off adding them to the front page until all seven are done.... If I may throw a request in there when all seven are complete for an individual shot of each, plus a group shot.

Well here is my F-86 back on the assembly line... looking pretty rough after I removed the bad old screwed up areas and redid a couple seams on the fuselage. I polished the edges as smooth as I could so the transition wont be too stark in the paint. No major step.

close up of the seam work... super glue polishes as smooth as glass... much better than putty,,,

and overall with the repaint and close up of the same area...

Heya Helo!

This post reminded me, I'd not replied to your much earlier post on building vac-forms.  I've only built a few and they results are pleasing to me.  My first was the Airmodel RB-57F which I bashed with a Testors'/Italeri B-57 to get a cockpit, landing gear, engines, and external details like antennae.  It didn't win anything in a contest, but I was quite proud of my first full vac build.  I'm sorry that I don't have any pictures at the moment, as all of my vacs are back home in the states.

I've also built the F-106B which turned out beautifully, except that I forgot to include the interior weapons bay.  Everything was great, fit nearly perfect except for the radome.  I decided to add a radar and electronics boxes in the nose and leave the radome off for maintenance.  I also robbed details from another Hasegawa F-106 to have the second seat and scratch built the details for the extra seat.  The control yokes were fun to build, no really!  It doesn't have a standard control stick, it has a T with a handle coming out of either side of the branches of the T.  One is for controling the aircraft and firing weapons/radio switches.  The other is for controling the radar.  This is the same system as used in the F/TF-102.  I scratched both control yokes, added the radar screens with hoods, and throttles.  Also really nice of Falcon, was that they had both of the spines possible, I used the add-in for the aerial refueling port.  I've added it to my collection of North Dakota Fighters.  I'm building a collection of every aircraft type flown in North Dakota.  Starting with the ND Air Guard and Minot AFB.  Minot had the 5th FIS "Spitten Kittens" flying F-94's then F-106A's and B's with T-33's and T-38's as support, then transitioning to F-15A and B's with T-38's before being moved to Reese  AFB and transitioning to a training role with only T-38's.  The 5th BW flew B-52H's the entire time and wer supported by KC-135A's.  At Grand Forks AFB they were flying B-52G's supported by KC-135A's. The BUFF's wer replaced by a fleet of Bones before the base transitioned to KC-135R's.  The NDANG started out with F-51's supported by B-26's and C-47's.  Then they transitioned to F-94B's then C's, followed by F-89D's then J's.  Their support transitioned to C-131's at this time.  Then they moved on to F-101B's and then F-4C's then D's.  I've built all of the different paint schemes of the Phantoms (SEA Camo which they arrived in, ADC Grey [which required buying a half dozen custom made spray cans at a auto body shop], the Hill scheme they retired in and the one-off ND Centennial scheme as provided by Fujimi).  They also had a C-130A for support at this time.  The F-4's transitioned to F-16ADF's with two different tail schemes.  I have detail pics and decals of one of the a/c that overflew the pentagon on Sept. 11, 2001.  They have since transitioned to C-21's and drones.  The only drone that I DON'T have is the Global Hawk which is available but is quite spendy at $50!!!

Anyway, the other vacs that I've done have all been conversions, but no where near as much as the Falcon F-106B.  Overall, I'm pretty happy with my work on vacs.

Sorry about the digression on ND aircraft...

Hmm, I might rethink my ordering some Falcon sets???  I would like to build the TF-9J (post '62 name) fast fac of the USMC in Vietnam.  There is a rendering of one in a Squadron Air War Southeast Asia that has always intrigued me.  SAMI had an article about this conversion earlier this year.  I am going to have to order a back issue.  I'm not sure how I missed that one?  It has a hellcat on the cover.  Usually, I just blow those magazines off because there is nothing but Luftwaffe stuff in it.  No offense to Luftwaffe builders, the Luft overkill has made me kind of sick it for now (except for NF's and heavies of course!).

Sorry if I keep bringing up other conflicts.  I just like tapping into the knowledge base of you guys, and I trust your opinions.

Stik, the Sabre is gonna be great.  The "old silver" is supposed to be a good alternative to metalizers.  I have a bottle, but I haven't tried it yet. 

Andy, very interesting about the ND ANG stuff.  And I appreciate your perspective on the Vac Forms.

John, thanks as always buddy! 

Cheers,

Greg

Greg- PM incoming re the FAC article.

Stik- sorry to take so long but I've got the 84 G out and on the ramp.

BTW- mention Suez and I'm all for a GB. Only place the Valiant saw action.

(2) BTW- Azur has finally released the Vautour.

Andy- very excellent stuff on the ND ANG.

Very much ignored in modeling are the missile squadrons of SAC/ USAF. Curious, since they probably won the (cold) war. Again, good stuff.

bondoman

Very much ignored in modeling are the missile squadrons of SAC/ USAF. Curious, since they probably won the (cold) war. Again, good stuff.

Actually...

I've got an old Estes 1/72 Titan II that I modified to be a non-flying version, scratchbuilt the engines, and it's now painted.  I'm PLANNING to make a Titan II LCF with silo.  It's been a project that's been going on for decades on the back burner.

The plan is to get it all together and display it at the local air museum.

bondoman

(2) BTW- Azur has finally released the Vautour.

Yep , I snapped up three of them in the one hit ; I like how the kit comes with 3 decal options ( Metal , two tone and three tone camouflage) .

I also picked up some Valom MD 450 Ouragans , the kits only have one IAF/IDF decal option and camo paint scheme , I think it's around the time frame '67 , although the same sharks mouth decal seems to appear on the earlier all metal Ouragans from '56 ; I would need to do some more research to be certain .

Just finished cataloging my stash including Decals , Resin and PE ; "OH MY" have I spent (invested) some money these past two years .

                      John .

Thanks Bondoman, I appreciate it.

A Suez '56 GB would be cool.....

I pulled out my LVT-(a)5 to see where I left off,  I need a flat coat and weathering.  Closer to the finish line than I thought.  I am going to try and get it done this weekend if it doesn't rain.

Interesting idea Draken, about using an Estes as a basis for a static model.

Cheers,

Greg

I will report  back and show results on the Floquil Old Silver. Today I will be masking up for the panel effect with that color, but I want to give the Testors Aluminum time to cure as I know how stong Floquil paints are.

Bondo, I am happy to hear that your Thunderjet is back on the assembly line. I look forward to progress pics.

Gregbbear

A Suez '56 GB would be cool.....

Well I have two ideas for Group Builds I want to run this year... first up is Summer of '42 which would run June thru September- summer months, and be to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the history changing battles of that momentous summer. Any subject from that time period, Axis or Allied.

The second GB would start in October and would be the Arab Israeli Wars, including Suez and run October 2012 thru June 2013....

I will be floating feelers in late Spring and late Summer respectively...