Looking forward to seeing your F-4D come together Casper .

I'm just blown away at the level of skill and detail you are able to accomplish with your builds Sir  ...

John .

Time to look at the F4-D. This is a BIG kit. As you would expect, the F-4s in 1/48 are about the size of a 1/32 BF-109 so in 1/32 it's a monster.

I'm adding the Eduard interior and exterior sets. I'll be retaining the Tamiya IP decals and using Eduard colour PE for the rest. I see no point in spoiling the effect of the decals by hand paining the other dials. I'm also adding Brassin ejector seat set The amazing detail on these seats should help sell the rest of the office.

As mentioned before, this is a big kit! So here's a comparison shout of the fuselage (without the nose BTW) next to my recently completed Sea Harrier in 1/24

Apart fro the Harriers front aerial, these two will be the exact same length. The F-4 is truly a large bird.

Cheers

I forgot to mention , amazon.com had some of these books on the AC-119G Shadow and AC-119K stinger listed and I found a seller who ships internationally

The book was a little expensive at $40 but I saw the same one on ebay for $75 ....OUCH

Anyway I ordered a copy from amazon and it should arrive in two weeks .

John .

Thank you kindly Greg , for taking the time to scan some info on the AP-2H Neptune and send it to me ; It is very much appreciated , thanks buddy ...

I was looking at the Hasegawa Neptune kit today and the falcon vac sheet and there's not a lot of info on the coversion provided by Falcon , just a side profile drawing . There are two halves of the LLTV on the sheet although it's not marked on the drawing . In any case the build looks fairly straight forward and I'm keen to start once I finish the Stinger and the B-57G .

My Stinger build is starting to look like a Gunship now

The center wing section is a nice neat fit , although the front right corner over the fuselage kept lifting a tiny bit , so I applied some super glue with a tooth pic and clamped the fuselage and wing section with my hand while I sat at the bench drinking a cup of coffee .

I'll still need to add some putty along the fuselage center join but I'm very pleased how the Stinger has gone together so far . I've also cleaned up all the seperate pieces and have them ready for painting .

John .

Trey, you are really moving along good.  The nav lights are a nice touch.  I would give that a try, but I dont think I have the dexterity to do that in 72nd scale.  Probably not even in 48th, 

John, you too are really moving along on your Stinger.  As for the Neptune, it was very much a nocturnal hunter.  It had a FLIR, LLTV, and the rear gunner had a night scope instead of a gunsight.  I'm sending you an email with some scans I think you will like.

I haven't made any progress myself.  I have been too busy with chores. 

Cheers,

Greg

A little more progress on the Stinger Gunship .

Just before I glued the fuselage halves together , I added some plastic strip to the top roof section just forward of the wings and another piece of plastic strip along the bottom of the fuselage join

This helps provide some additional strength to the fuselage join , especially given my clumsy heavy handed style of sanding and cracking open joins .

So lot's of pieces puttied and ready for sanding first thing tomorrow

John .

Trey , awesome WIP and fix on the Hobbycraft F4U-2

I've made some more progress on my Stinger

The cockpit and guns are glued in place , so the fuselage halves are ready to glue together .

There are a couple of issues with the cockpit , firstly the table at the rear of the cockpit sits too high and the edge of the table can be seen through the right side of the fuselage cockpit window . I originally discovered this while building the C-119C and G models recently and here's a pic from my files as to what i did to fix the error

I filed down some of the raised detail on the rear cockpit wall so I could lower the table and aslo you will notice that I filed the sides of the main instrument panel . I had difficulty trying to close the nose section on my first C-119C build and the join kept opening up until I realised what the problem was and pulled the instrument panel out . So those two issue's seem to be standard fix's with the C-119 build and I did accordingly with my Stinger build

The guns look okay glued in position

And the Flare Launcher and xenon light seem to fit in place okay

I'm not sure as to leave the rear clamshell doors off and paint them seperatly ; I will have them in the close position once finished . The Flare Launcher is a tiny bit wider than the door opening and it can't be fitted in from the outside , so painting the rear doors seperatly might be the way to go .

I'll glue the fuselage together next followed by the center wing section , tail booms and outer wings .

I was looking at the Zoltz decal sheet and have taken a liking to the AP-2H Neptune "Naplam Nellie"

I have the Facon vacuform conversion set for the Hasegawa P2V-7 neptune kit , It looks  a fairly straight forward conversion . I'm just not sure if the AP-2H was used extensively at night ?

Anyway , I'll continue on with the Stinger .

John .

Greg thanks so much for the kind compliment,really appreciate it. The  dark colors are difficult to get the 'look' right on,you pulled it off nicely on the Corsair. Yes they did get pretty beat up some good leading edge chipping in this pic I found on line

John very cool subject ,love the old Gunships!

I've made some headway on the wing. The kit has been made like the Dragon Ju-88 so that various versions can be done off a single main mold. This does present fit issues,the main ones being gaps around the intakes and gun ports. I used some sheet to back fill the worst gun port on the port wing and green squadron for the rest as they were'nt to severe.

I also tried Fermis method for the nav lights using some clear sprue

After several dry fits I secured the wing in place and finish sanded all the seams

Then fitted up the flaps,there was not a real good fit with these and mounting them up was a tad tricky as you have to 'geuss at the proper angle. Also no solid attach point so they move around a lot while the gue sets,very aggravating indeed

Almost ready for some paint now!

Thanks for the pictures John.  That will help me out quite a bit.  Luckily, all I will need to build will be the flare launcher, searchlight, and night observation sight.  The measurements will help make that easier too.  If I get lucky and find a Stinger reasonably priced, I will try and make resin copies of those pieces and add them to my G Shadow.

Cheers,

Greg

I thought it might be a good idea for my own reference if I took some measurements and photo's of the unique weapons that are on the Italeri AC-119K Stinger , although most of the parts would probably be difficult to scratch build , I figured I would take some pic's anyway as I would no doubt kick myself later on if I didn't . Anyway I thought I would post them here , I'm not sure if they will be of any use to anyone else , but what the heck ...

These are the main guns in the cabin of the AC-119K

Here's two pic's of  the flare launcher and illuminator pieces

Here's two pic's of the AN/APQ-133 Beacon Tracking Radar dome

Next are the jet engine pods , which would probably be difficult to scratch build

Here's a couple of pic's of the nose cone and under fuselage AN/AAD-4 Flir Turret

Finally , the left fuselage side showing the square openings for the guns

As I said , it's mainly for my reference and if anyone wants some closer pic's of any of the parts , I'm only too happy to post them .

I'll glue the small round windows into the fuselage halves next , paint the cockpit seat cushions and then start glueing the cockpit in place .

John .

Looking good John.  I like those Zotz decals, I am definetely going to order a set.  A pregnant Lucy, good grief!  That is funny!  And thanks for the -5N pictures.  That is an excellent build.  I might have to look around for that book.

Cheers,

Greg

I got some airbrushing done this evening of the fuselage interior pieces

The wing halves are glued together along with the two tail booms and stabilizer piece and the main wheel well inserts are glued into the lower center wing pieces . The kit plastic has a soft feel about it and is easierly scratched . I've been working on two newer release Flying  Boxcar's , a C-119C and C-119G and the gray plastic on those builds definitly feels firmer . I bought my AC-119K from a seller on amazon.com , the kit was almost $150. which included shipping to Australia .So I'm determined to make a good effort in getting it together and looking fairly reasonable .

More progress pic's tomorrow .

John .

Greg , your -5N is looking great . I was recently reading through the Osprey Modelling book , "Modelling the F4U Corsair " by Brett Green and there is a chapter on building the High Planes 1/72 F4U-5N . I've been using the book as my main reference for my Korean War F4U-5N build , although I only used the High Planes front end and grafted it onto a Italeri F4U-5N . I'm still yet to get the fuselage halves glued together , so your way ahead of me Greg .

Here's several pic's from the book of the F4U-5N Corsair that Brett Green built ...

The exhaust stainning is excellent as with the overall build I hope mine can look half as good as Mr Greens and yours Greg .

As for my stalled Night Fighter builds , I'm finally back working on the B-57G Canberra and I'm looking to finish the painting this weekend . I had started a C-123K Provider Flare Ship . P-70 and KA-50 Soviet helicopter but nothing has progressed passed airbrushing the interior pieces .

I'm now thinking and are quite keen to start the 1/72 Testors/Italeri AC-119K Stinger Gunship kit ;

Except for the additional weapons sprue , everything else is the same as the Italeri C-119G kit ;

For the markings , I have Zoltz's Gunships Over Vietnam Decal sheet ;

Mine will be "the Pea-nut Special" .

I'll trim the fuselage halves and interior pieces from the sprue and airbrush those , with more progress pic's tomorrow .

John .

Trey, looking good!  I am always so impressed by your skill with washes and detailing.  You always give such great depth, and realism. 

For the black on the -5N, I used Floquil grimy black with a few drops of flat black, to darken it some.  I am going to try and get some weathering done on it later today.  From all the photos I've seen, they have a lot of exhaust staining down the sides, and a tremendous amount of chipping.

Cheers,

Greg

Office got a second wash and then joined up the fuse halves along with the wings

Greg the Mig came out great, need to post more pics of it! I'm really liking the finish on the Corsair what did you use? I agree about the Corsair interior colors they are all over the board,thats why I just played it safe with what I did. Would be intresting if the Bird cage Corsair they just pulled from Lake Michigan has any surving pigment to be seen!

I scratched up a harness for the pilot and set the engine in. I 'm doing a wash now with some thinned devlan mud and its toning things down nicely .

Looking good Trey!  It is amazing how many variations, and presumptions of variations when it comes to the Corsair interior colors.  It seems like every source says something different.  I'll bet a safe bet would be what you did.  It sure looks convincing!  Any rivet counters out there, bring color photos, or be quiet!

I managed to finish the Mig 15, and the -5N Corsair isn't far behind.

Another GB jogged my memory about a long dormant build of mine.  I started a B-57 Canberra (1/72 Airfix) years ago, and I dug it back up.  So far, all I had done was a box stock cockpit, and glued the fuselage halves together.  I did a lousy job, and had super glue slathered all over the joint.  Where I had started sanding, I had sanded away most of the detail.  With the cockpit sealed, there isn't much to do other than dress up the ejection seats, but the fuse is going to need a total rescribe.  Anyways, it is up next for me after the -5N Corsair get finished.

I managed to get some zinc and interior green on

The upper parts of the office were interior green while the floor and areas forward of the bulkheads remain zinc on most but all interor green is also a possiblilty

some side panel details but not much else in the kit for the office

The IP had no real detail so I drilled it out and added some instrument faces

From what I can find a lot of the zinc primer in the landing gear bays were painted white in the field,I'll not mask them when I paint the wing bottom white and what ever overspray winds up in there should tone it down and look more authentic. Some Corsair wheel bay areas were a Salmon color but that seems to be a base primer so not sure how many made it to combat units with that not painted over with something else.

Greg thanks for your vote of confidence hope it lives up to the standards here ! Gotta love the ole bent wings ,looking forward to seeing yours cross the finish line too! I really need a fun build after the nightmare X-35 flying wing so thoroughly kicked my butt!!!

Awesome Trey!  The -2 Corsair is one of my favorites.  I am really looking forward to seeing you work your magic on it.  I forgot to mention earlier, I finally got your Lysander on the front page.

Cheers,

Greg

Greg great looking pair of night fighters really diggin' the Migs cammo treatment!  Squeezing in a Corsair myself, can you put me down for a 1/48 Hobby Craft F4U-2 please? Thanks!

The dry fit looks reaaly tight no major gaps so far!

I finally made some progress on my pair of Korean War night fighters.  I took these pictures the other day, and since, I have finished decaling.  I am hoping to get the clear on in the next day, so I can finish them up.

Cheers,

Greg

Gee, I should check this tread more often...

Greg: Big congrads on graduating paramedic school

Trey: Great job on the Lysander, beautiful work!

HE: The 190 is looking sharp!

Yeah Greg, the markings in the box include "Terrible Tyke" which features a black underside in the F4-D variant.

Tyke

I'll definitely be doing this version for this and the Rhino III GB.

Cheers

Greg thanks , sorry forgot the details! Testors/Italeri kit in 1/48. I've got a 1/48 Corsair F4 U-2 Night Fighter was thinking of squeezen that in,would be cool if you pulled the trigger on the Night Owl Corsair along with it!

Heavens Eagle that Fw190 is looking awesome !

p38jl

congrats on Paremedic school !

Thanks, I appreciate it!

The "lizzy" looks great Trey.  What kit and scale was that?  That was cool that you recruited some "help" on the engine.  He did a good job.

Caspar, I was thinking of an F-4D myself, albeit in 72nd scale.  There was a squadron during the Vietnam War called the "night owls" that had black painted bellies and ruined a lot of NVA's nights on the Ho Chi Minh Trail.

Cheers,

Greg

Thanks again to everybody for keeping this GB alive.

congrats on Paremedic school !

Looking nice there TREYZX10R !!

Still been working on my night fighter.  Have done a lot of work and taken a lot of pics.  Just have not made the time to put together some more build notes.

However here is a photo of where it is currently.  Spotted a number of things I need to touch up on the paint.  Really like Humbrol better but Testors has the colors.  

Have a LOT of in process stuff to put together and post.  

Will try to get on that soon.  Have to do the monthly newsletter for the local club first and of course the IRS needs it's paperwork.  Geez I hate paperwork!!!  It will take 3 hours to do and should get back about $500 as usual.  ICK!  

Hey I didn't realise this GB was extended! I think I have two crossovers that can qualify...

I'm doing an Academy F-22B Raptor 1/48 and a Tamiya F4-D Phantom II in 1/32

Cheers

Thanks Greg,yep the Lizzy did actually carry small bombs on the wheel spat winglettes. Congratulations ,thats really great that you passed paramedic school! Good luck on the Nats. Hope you get the Meteor sorted out!

I finished up the Lizzy so heres a quick run down,pretty clunky old kit with some glaring accuracey issues but some scratching and tweaking made it at least passable.

Replaced the IP

Connor did the engine

Major sinks repaired with sprue

added the lights in the spats

some minor filler ,the fit on this old kit was'nt terribly bad

scratched the carry thru wing spars

masked and painted the 'metal' areas

and the finished Lizzy. The winglettes on the spats were removed on the full scale version but Iliked the look so left them on.