Official Ground Attack Group Build

What area you from Dre? I live in Monongahela. Big Pens fan!

yeah the Pack just needs to actually keep their offensive linemen healthy and use all the weapons they have on defense... there is no excuse for our defense to finish 32nd overall with the players we have. im geting way of f track lol, back to building! lol

im a big casey hampton fan (linemen cheer for linemen lol) but im not a big fa of the steelers otherwise... their linebacking corps plays kinda dirty (or at least James Harrison does) but they are always dangerous.

TroyH, I'm from Fairfax, VA,- the Washington 'burbs- hence the effort at supporting the Redskins, but I currently live down in Bristol, VA- right in the heart of Titans and Carolina (spit, spit, spit) TV  territory.   But I remember the Steel Curtain back in the day, so I have fondness for the Steelers (and Da Burgh is a pretty nice town to visit- there's a great hobby shop up there).

<homer/on>The defense ain't dirty, they're just playing to win.   I've always loved how Hines Ward would smile, laugh and then take some poor fool's head off.  Harrison got hosed in fines last year... <homer/off>

i spose so. i gotta admit, i had my fair share of dirty hits, both dealing them out and being on the recieveing end of them.... being the hamer is fun, being the nail, however, not so much lol. the NFL really is making too big a deal about the hits. its a violent game, there is no way to avoid violent hits. its just the nature of the beast.

I've had my share of bad concussions (3) from bicycle wrecks with the Big One in '83 that truly and permanently messed up my head, so I can understand the current concern about them in the various leagues but what are you gonna do- wear flags?  Like you said, it is the nature of the beast.  Sadly, many of the problems don't manifest themselves until way later down the road so it's hard to know when to say "that's enough for me".  

It is what it is, and man do I love it.

indeed. America seems to have a great love affair with violence so its easy to see how its become the most poular sport in the U.S.  not sure what it rather face though, an a ttacking A-10 or a full on hit by Ray Lewis..... pretty good chance your dead either way lol.

Finished the painting on the A-7. I was quite happy with the way the gloss white and grey turned out. Also the canopy turned out great and heaps of details pop through the large bubbles.

Hey Wildchild, I was hoping to enter a Hasegawa Dragonfly A-37A/B in 1/72 for my next entry.

Cheers

Casper, man, the A-7 is coming along great! Lovin' the paintwork!

Logan, happy to be on board! Been making slow progress on the IL-2 (it's been a great summer up here weatherwise, so still lots to do in the yard, and now the wife wants a second patio deck built, this one right off of our kitchen - only 10'x12', but it'll still take up a lot of modeling time). Still hope to have at least a few pics of the 'vick posted soon.

...and I love football talk!! After 40 years of rootin' for 'em, I've recently changed my mantra from "Just win baby" to "Please, just win occasionally!"

Nice job Casper.  The A-7s lookin' sharp!

Casper, that's coming along beautifully!   Seeing that still tempts me to get one as that aircraft 'just looks right'.

Casper, i will add the A-37 momentarily, great work on the A-7 so far!

Rudd, no worries on the slow progress..... i have yet to make any progress on the bird i planned on building lol

Decaling done and greeblies attached. Next for some weathering...

Cheers

That looks even better now, Casper.   What's that hanging on the inboard pylon between the TER's and the fuselage-mounted Sidewinders?   A targeting pod?

I could never do that many decals in a weekend....

Looks great Casper!

Dre, i was wondering the same thing.... but if it was a targeting pod wouldnt there be a lense on the front? i was thinking a jammer of some sort maybe... i could be wrong though. at any rate, it looks great!

It's a FLIR pod, Forward Looking Infrared system. There is a lens pointing down if you zoom into the photo a little bit. Apparently that is the correct pylon to fit it as well despite the tight fit next to the AIM.

Cheers

Great looking Corsair Casper!

well, as promised, i took a few pics of my B-25, and although its not as far along as i had remembered it to be, here it is:

I started this bird with my little brother to get him into the hobby(from some of the masking lines he did, you can see an 11 year old had a big hand in this lol, but for sentimental value, im finishing it with them as is), he quickly lost interest in planes and started cars. i have ALOT of clean up to do in this beast, and quite a bit more to do to make it passable as a shelf queen. other than the OD basecoat, all the painting is done with a brush, i dont own an airbrush at the moment. whatcha think fellas?

Looks good to me- add some stray chips here and there and it ought to be good to go.

This is another aircraft i ought to add to my collection, I haven't had one of these since I was a kid.

Cars... it's race week in Bristol and starting tomorrow I'll be at the track for the remainder of the week- yay, woo and huzzuh....  

Lookin good Wild Child.  

Here's a little more progress on the Superbug.  Thenus, you can reach through the monitor and slap me if you want to since I told you not to do panel line washes cause I didn't take my own advise and washed this build.  

I used Mr. Super Clear for the first time and this stuff created a rock hard super glossy surface.  Since its lacquer based I wanted to see if I could use acrylic paint instead of the traditional oil paint to wash the lines.  I used Games Workshop Citadel acrylic paint and carefully wiped it off with Tamiya thinner.  That, coupled with the fact that I resribed all the panel lines produced good results...if you're into panel line washes.

Having said all of that...I wish I had just left it alone.  It looks sort of cartooney now.  Oh well.

I screwed up both "NAVY" decals on the back sides of the fuselage during the panel line wash.  I was able to fix them by cutting up the spare black stripe decals that are provided in the kit for the missiles.  I always keep unused decals for just such occasions.

I just noticed in the following pic that I forgot to paint the bottoms of the slotted parts of the flaps!  No worries, though. That's an easy fix:

The white "mace" decals on the tails are actually side specific.  Notice how one is a right hand and one is a left?  I originally put these on the wrong parts.  Fortunately, since I caught the error right after I applied them, I was able to lift them off and reapply them to the correct parts:

Thanks fellas! but the pics hide alot of flaws lol.

Dre- Its a great kit for a reboxing of old molds.... still has great detail and only one bad fit. Im more of a dirt track guy myself, but if they are bring dirt back into Bristol and run the World of Outlaws or dirt late models there again i'd like to try and make my way down.

Fly-n-hi, the panel lines may look a bit dark, but at the same time, hornets are notorious for getting filthy.... you could have hammered it with some serious color changes in the greys that would really hide the panel lines. but IMHO, it looks great! there is always something classic about black and yellow.

WC, thanks.  Once I dull coat the grey areas and apply the final weathering it wont be quite so contrasted.  And once all the "stuff" is attached your eyes will be drawn towards the bigger picture.

Very true, ive always liked the hornet. not as much as the tomcat, but it sure is a mean lookin bird.

By the way fellas, im kinda stumped as to what i should do for a name on the B-25..... any suggestions?

Fly-n-hi- that is awesome!!  I really like that fresh look over heavily weathered anyhow, but a dullcoat mixed with a tiny amount of light grey might lessen the contrast.  

How were you able to lift the decals to fix them?  I might need to know that down the line somewhere.

WildChild, I think that it's safe to say that BMS will never do that again- it took about a year to get all the dirt out of the stands, off the roof and everywhere else.  But it was a sight to see the outlaws running dirt there.   Faster laps than NASCAR stockers too!

darn shame they wont, the Outlaws really fit the title "The Greatest Show on Dirt" to a T. last time i saw them they were clipping off times of 11.3-12.0 in the half mile trace in New Richmond, WI.... takes a different breed to drive them. i was scared out of my mind just sitting in one, lets just say a driveshaft between the legs does not make one feel comfortable!

yeah, that driveshaft.....  scary indeed.   It takes more man than I to do that, lol.   Muy macho.

Enough about football, racing and other stuff- I'm making progress on the Frogfoot!!  I need to get this one done for a local contest in November, so I gotta hustle it along.

Left and right avionics bays were finished some time back... all kit parts here, no resin or PE.

I added a metric butt-ton of lead fishing weights to the nose- probably a little overkill but there's a lot of plastic that hangs aft of the CoG on this kit...

Also finished off the remaining IP and have CA'd those into place and then put the IP shrouds onto the resin tubs... there's a few decals that went askew, but they'll have to stand as I've wasted enough time in the cockpits!

Now I'm waiting for the CA that's holding the cockpit tubs in place to dry before I close the fuselage up this afternoon..  it's going to require some sectional gluing and lots of clamping to close some of the seams but the fit and alignment is pretty darned good (so far).  All finished it will be right around 18" long.

That's it for now, but it ought to go fairly quickly after I get the fuselage closed up as I've got pretty much everything else ready to glue on once I clean the seams.

Dre-

Lifting the decals after they've been placed isn't hard...its just time consuming.

What I do is constantly brush fresh water over and around the decal for about 10-15 minutes.  Then I start to try to work the bristles under the decal after it has softened up a bit.  Do this part slowly and gently so that you don't crunch the decal up.  After doing this for a few minutes and constantly wetting the brush the decal will begin to lift.  For a large decal this ends up being 15-25 minutes...but well worth it.

Have a spare decal paper carrier scrap laying nearby (preferably the one that the decal came off of in the first place) so that you can slide the decal back onto it.

I've done this several times so there's no doubt it works.

Contest in Nov?  Where are you at?

Fly-n-hi, thanks for that decal info- I hope that I never need to do that but it's good to know how it works!  Does it work on decals that have been sealed in with either Future or a dulling spray?

I'm in Bristol, VA and the contest is at the Bays Mountain Park in Kingsport, TN (November 3).  The majority of entries are in Autos, but there's a few aircraft and armor builders around to make for a good local contest.

Dre...just so you know I've always done the decal lifting within a short amount of time after putting them on.  That's usually when I notice the mistakes.   A couple of hours is the longest I've let them sit before trying to lift them.  I think if there is any kind of coating on them they are locked in.

Anywho, here's some pics of the boarding ladder.  I don't like the kit parts because they are very thick and bulky so I sanded them down and thinned them and I replaced the steps with the thinnest styrene sheet I had. The Pyrex baking dish is my cutting board:

I drilled out the holes on the ladder frame:

Got the Corsair finished. Will definitely try my hand at another HobbyBoss kit in the future. Perhaps something in 1/32...

Cheers

Casper, that looks better each time I see it.   I've got an A-8D on the way.... in 1/32.