First off Jim, I feel for you on how long it seems to take for goodies to arrive; as Tom Petty lamented: "The waiting is the hardest part". However I must say, ironically, somehow it makes it all that much sweeter when it does arrive. Might be Freudian but it's true for me.

 Secondly, I'm sorry to hear about more fluffy stuff coming your way preventing new pics of the illustrious A7D out-of-doors. Where I live it's forecasted to be in the mid 60's F...... at least you won't have to cut the grass as I will! BTW, the Corsair II is outstanding!

mikeymize

First off Jim, I feel for you on how long it seems to take for goodies to arrive; as Tom Petty lamented: "The waiting is the hardest part". However I must say, ironically, somehow it makes it all that much sweeter when it does arrive. Might be Freudian but it's true for me.

 Secondly, I'm sorry to hear about more fluffy stuff coming your way preventing new pics of the illustrious A7D out-of-doors. Where I live it's forecasted to be in the mid 60's F...... at least you won't have to cut the grass as I will! BTW, the Corsair II is outstanding!

Sweating it out on a hot summer day for that cool drink of water.....

Getting past that day the kit was supposed to arrive, but it didn't, and then counting the days......

Well, I was a fan of True Grit, and if I could, I would move to Colorado, and take all the fluffy stuff they could throw...lol

Jim: Great bird you've chosen, I just wish the folks up here would realize what a great  plane the Hornet is, and move on. The Super Hornet is what we need up here, I wish it were my decision.

If the weather does change Jim, I would love to see the Colorado background for your Corsair shoot.

Tx

Dom.

PS: Say Hi to Rooster Cogburn for me.....lol....he's hanging out in Ouray.....lol....

Oh the weather....the newsies are predicting anywhere between 1" to 19" depending on which way things go. It's kinda a drag because everything just grinds to a halt.

jimbot58

Oh the weather....the newsies are predicting anywhere between 1" to 19" depending on which way things go. It's kinda a drag because everything just grinds to a halt.

I know what you mean Jim.  We just had the biggest snow of the winter a couple of days ago.  Fortunately it didn't turn out as bad as they were predicting.  But at least we have our models to keep us busy while we are stuck inside.

Ken

Hi Everyone,

Well I just couldn't wait any longer.  So I decided to see if Hobby Lobby (the only local hobby store in town that carries any plastic model supplies) had the Metalizer in stock.  I was 50% lucky.  They did have Model Master Metalizer.  But they only had one color.  But the color they had would work, "Stainless Steel (buffing)".  But they only had it in a rattle can.  At this point I am ready to get moving on this because I can't stand waiting anymore so I went ahead and bought it.  I will let you know how it turns out.

Ken

Sounds good, Ken! We'll be looking forward to see how it turns out.

Russ

Hi Everyone,

Since we have had the discussion of tricycle landing gear aircraft and problems with them sitting on their tail, I have discovered a line of  products that is really cool.  A guy named Terry Dean makes custom nose weights that are drop in solutions.  Apparently he was selling them directly by email but now is selling them through TS Hobbies.

I have ordered some and they are really nice.  He has a pretty good selection for 1/32, 1/48, and 1/72 scale.

Here is a link to a review:

http://modelingmadness.com/scott/accessories/terryweights.htm 

And here is a link to TS Hobbies:

http://www.tshobbies.com/main.sc 

Ken

Well, my wait is nearly over. USPS tracking shows my shipment hit Denver sorting facility about 2 1/2 hours ago-scheduled delivery Sat. 3/9...but with the weather anything might happen.

Trying to get some photos for the wall of fame and the first build. Lighting in my hobby room sucks and I hate waiting for the weather to co-operate. How about one of these for now?

Larger size: (when clicked)

Slightly smaller:

I had a couple of other figures, but I couldn't find them. They may have jumped to their deaths from the shelf....

Jim:

That's a great image of your build, any size.

I like the oil stains on the tarmac.

hey, hope you find those little guys on the floor and give them

a decent burial....lol

Dom

jimbot58

Well, my wait is nearly over. USPS tracking shows my shipment hit Denver sorting facility about 2 1/2 hours ago-scheduled delivery Sat. 3/9...but with the weather anything might happen.

Hi Jim,

At least your order is actually making better progress than mine.  The company I ordered my paint from, Wondertrail through Amazon, is a lying bunch of thieves.  They assured me that they mailed the order on Monday even though the tracking information showed it had not been dropped off yet.  I was giving them the benefit of the doubt because I have seen USPS tracking sometimes not update correctly.

But last night the tracking showed it as the package finally being dropped off to be shipped!  I cannot stand being lied to!    I will never order from Wondertrail again!

Ken

Son Of Medicine Man

 Hi Jim,

At least your order is actually making better progress than mine.  The company I ordered my paint from, Wondertrail through Amazon, is a lying bunch of thieves.  They assured me that they mailed the order on Monday even though the tracking information showed it had not been dropped off yet.  I was giving them the benefit of the doubt because I have seen USPS tracking sometimes not update correctly.

But last night the tracking showed it as the package finally being dropped off to be shipped!  I cannot stand being lied to!    I will never order from Wondertrail again!

Ken

Hi Everyone,

Well I am completely embarrassed!    After looking closer at the tracking information, it showed the package going from Mountain Home, Idaho to Denver, Colorado in an hour and 15 minutes.  That is a distance of 789 miles!  And since it is paint, it has to be travelling by ground.  So of course that is impossible.  So Wondertrail was telling the truth.  Stupid USPS tracking!

Ken

Hi Everyone,

On another note, today is my birthday!

Ken

Hey, Congratulations, Ken! Happy Birthday!

Russ

First off Ken, A VERY HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

Hoping your having a good day in spite of your shipping woes!

Striker8241

Hey, Congratulations, Ken! Happy Birthday!

Russ

Thank you Russ!

Ken

jimbot58

First off Ken, A VERY HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

Hoping your having a good day in spite of your shipping woes!

Thank you Jim!

Ken

jimbot58

First off Ken, A VERY HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

Hoping your having a good day in spite of your shipping woes!

I assume Ken, that it is turning out to be normal, just not what you were hoping for? Hope you get your order soon.

USPS may not update their tracking as quickly as we might hope. Case in point-

As of 5:25pm my time, tracking is still showing "Out For Delivery" on my package, at 9:46am this morning. However, I have here this:

Yea! Opening it was like Cracker Jacks, only the peanuts are missing and the popcorn is it made of Styrofoam, that isn't even candy-coated! There does seem to be a prize! (I hate styrofoam packing! It gets everywhere and I dropped the box on the way to the trash!)

Here are my prizes! The Growler set in the middle, plus sets for an F-15C and an F-16C. Both Hasegawa kits are out of production for the most part, so this were fairly in expensive-I couldn't resist. The future F-16 build is also going to be a Colorado ANG  bird! I couldn't resist!

I also had to venture out into the snow today, as I discovered the MM paint I needed to start the interior for the Growler had thickened into a paste-like goo in the bottom of the bottle. I tried thinning and mixing it, but I just couldn't push it through the airbrush without it clogging! I also decided to pick up the other main colors I need, just to be safe! (And I always thought of grey was grey, not dozens of variations!)

Congratulations Jim on your prizes!    That is awesome!

I learned a good while back that there are dozens of shades of grey available.  It does make it handy for when you want to do some tricks with shadowing (aka washing).  I have every shade that Model Master makes.

Ken

Jim: She looks sweet! Nice work! And nice haul there. Btw: I must own about 50-100 shades of grey by now.

Ken: Happy birthday sir!!! I wouldn't go too much with what UPS tracking says, I've gotten orders when when they still said it was in Denver (I live on the east coast)!

Gamera

Jim: She looks sweet! Nice work! And nice haul there. Btw: I must own about 50-100 shades of grey by now.

Ken: Happy birthday sir!!! I wouldn't go too much with what UPS tracking says, I've gotten orders when when they still said it was in Denver (I live on the east coast)!

Thank you Cliff for the birthday wish!

Yes, I knew that USPS tracking was flakey, but when I looked at the tracking I only looked at the first line which was the accpetance date and time, which turned out to be wrong.  It seems the West Coast USPS tracking has the most problems.

Ken

I was funning a bit about the shades of grey! Just as I have found that there different shades of black (my truck is an example-it's obvious where the previous owner had some body work done and it is black) and white comes in different shades!

Anywho, I worked a bit on the prep for the PE parts:

And thank goodness there are no avionics bays to do-only 39 teeny-tiny parts (well, actually a few more if you count the duplicated ones)  to install for the cockpit and seats.

As I did some sub assembly, I found that the intakes ended in a flat wall barely 1/2 inch or so in, and it would be fairly visible I think to even the casual viewer, so I began to cut away some of the visible areas inside the intake.

I figure if I cut away most of the obvious stuff, add a block further back, then darken the interior, it will be less obvious to that same casual viewer.

I don't plan on getting too technical with this one, and I am not going to try to add trunking, compressors or anything like that. Just clean up the obvious, esp. since it bugged me! (Could you tell?) I'm going to try and remove at least this area and see how it looks. Any more and it would involve the landing gear bay:

Very cool Jim, you are off to a great start already!

Ken

I was going to mention something interesting: during my trip to Hobbytown, I browsed around a bit at their limited supply of models kits. I picked up an F-8 Crusader made by Academy, and one of the photos on the side of the box showed a completed model, with its tail on the ground and nose gear dangling in the air! I wonder if kit instructions mention weights in the nose of if you are left to discover this on your own. I just find it amusing that the box would picture it this way...

jimbot58

I was going to mention something interesting: during my trip to Hobbytown, I browsed around a bit at their limited supply of models kits. I picked up an F-8 Crusader made by Academy, and one of the photos on the side of the box showed a completed model, with its tail on the ground and nose gear dangling in the air! I wonder if kit instructions mention weights in the nose of if you are left to discover this on your own. I just find it amusing that the box would picture it this way...

That is funny!    If it is documented, it's a feature!

Ken

Hi Everyone,

After considerable thought I came up with a plan on how I am going to apply the Metalizer to the auxiliary air intakes and the avionics bay.

For the auxiliary air intakes I will mask off the engine which will be painted with the Metalizer and paint the green zinc chromate (enamel) with an air brush on the inside walls.  Then after the green cures I will mask that off and apply the Metalizer with an air brush to the engine.

For the avionics bay there is so little area that will need to be green I will paint it by hand with a brush.  So I will paint it first with the Metalizer (spray bomb, since that is all I have on hand at the moment) and hand paint the green afterwards.

Here in these first pictures are the auxiliary air intakes with the engine masked off:

And here they are with the green zinc chromate sprayed on:

 Here is how they turned out with the masking tape removed:

 And here is the avionics bay with the Metalizer painted on:

According to the directions, it is supposed to be sprayed on as a mist.  But that spray bomb only comes out as a water fall!  It is already pretty shiny without buffing it.  The directions say to buff it after it dries which is suposed to only take an hour.  But as thick as it came out I will wait until tomorrow night.

Ken 

That's looking great, Ken!  

Nice, Ken!

Hello all!

First, I found my little dudes hanging out in a box above my desk, and they are well! Perhaps when I want to get a better shot of the A-7, I will have them pose with it. I don't think I could get the pilot in there though,  as I would probably have to saw off his legs. I don't think he would find that to be very pleasant at all!

I cut out the rest of or the intake as I wanted and improved it. I tapered the edge as well to make it less visible. I also rounded off any edges to ease the sharp lines they would make.

Now something that really has me puzzled...I thought about a Hasagawa F/A-18E I had startd some time ago and dug it out of the "started and never continued" area to look it over. Several things I found were: the pilots seat is MIA, some of the PE parts from inside the cockpit seem to be missing-most likely knocked off in handing along the way, but the most disturbing thing I noticed was that I had cut out the intakes just like I did with the Growler, plus I see that I had put in some rudimentary ducting and at the back were compressor faces! The questions I have are, where did I scavenge the compressor faces from, and most importantly is this: WHY THE HECK DON'T I RECALL DOING ALL THIS WORK ON THE SUPER HORNET?

The F/A-18E:

I should have directed a bit more light in there-

I tried to get a photo up the intake, but there was no way to get light in there and have the camera there in the way.

**An update since I typed the above: I searched around a bit a before I posted this and I found the seat and the missing cockpit parts-again, I don't recall doing this. I know I have been in a bit of a fog at times with all that has happened over the last few years; Laid off 3 times, loosing 3 of my sisters, plus my Mom, a bankruptcy and everything else that happened in my personal life and out in the world, I guess it seems it wouldn't be too odd to lose track of a few things along the way.**

I'm considering if I should also continue to see what I can do with the "E". Might be intersting to have them as a pair, no?

Time for bed I guess with the new time change....

Striker8241

That's looking great, Ken!  

Thank you Russ for the compliment!  I am looking forward to buffing it tonight and seeing how bringing out the highlights make it look.

Ken

jimbot58

Nice, Ken!

Hello all!

First, I found my little dudes hanging out in a box above my desk, and they are well! Perhaps when I want to get a better shot of the A-7, I will have them pose with it. I don't think I could get the pilot in there though,  as I would probably have to saw off his legs. I don't think he would find that to be very pleasant at all!

I cut out the rest of or the intake as I wanted and improved it. I tapered the edge as well to make it less visible. I also rounded off any edges to ease the sharp lines they would make.

Now something that really has me puzzled...I thought about a Hasagawa F/A-18E I had startd some time ago and dug it out of the "started and never continued" area to look it over. Several things I found were: the pilots seat is MIA, some of the PE parts from inside the cockpit seem to be missing-most likely knocked off in handing along the way, but the most disturbing thing I noticed was that I had cut out the intakes just like I did with the Growler, plus I see that I had put in some rudimentary ducting and at the back were compressor faces! The questions I have are, where did I scavenge the compressor faces from, and most importantly is this: WHY THE HECK DON'T I RECALL DOING ALL THIS WORK ON THE SUPER HORNET?

The F/A-18E:

I should have directed a bit more light in there-

I tried to get a photo up the intake, but there was no way to get light in there and have the camera there in the way.

**An update since I typed the above: I searched around a bit a before I posted this and I found the seat and the missing cockpit parts-again, I don't recall doing this. I know I have been in a bit of a fog at times with all that has happened over the last few years; Laid off 3 times, loosing 3 of my sisters, plus my Mom, a bankruptcy and everything else that happened in my personal life and out in the world, I guess it seems it wouldn't be too odd to lose track of a few things along the way.**

I'm considering if I should also continue to see what I can do with the "E". Might be intersting to have them as a pair, no?

Time for bed I guess with the new time change....

Nice work Jim!     

I have done that myself.  Found pictures of myself with people that I totally don't remember or recognize.  But it was obvious that I was pretty good friends with the people in the picture.

In fact, just replacing that dishwasher last week I couldn't remember how I installed the old one.  It had been several years but the details were completely gone.

Ken