So provocative, in fact, I've neglected including any further "Max Facts." Here's a couple more.
3. The second and third novels about Stachel are titled The Blood Order (1979) and The Tin Cravat (1981).
4. George Peppard was 37 years old when he played Stachel. Stachel in the novel is apparently much younger. By the end of the book, we find is but 19 years old.
5. To enhance the film’s believability, George learned to fly, obtained his pilot’s license and is actually at the controls of his aircraft, flying in some of the scenes; but not the scene where he flies under the bridge!
Some further progress photos:
I "eyeballed" the aircraft from the front, to try and get the landing gear to hold everything straight. Looks pretty good, I guess. The tail looks perpendicular; the starboard wing maybe a little low.
Here's the thing painted up and waiting for it's decals, for which I have to wait for MicroSet. The undersurfaces are painted in USN's "Intermediate Blue," according to the FS numbers in the kit. Since I don't know how far down the decals will cover, I painted the whole fuselage blue, aft of the black radiator.
Then these decals, still in their bag, are supposed to cover the plane.
Kind of psychedelic. And groovy.
A final shot of the cockpit. I added some instruments chopped from an old B-17 IP decal. I still have to paint the leather cockpit coaming with a brush, but I'll have plenty of time to see to the remaining parts, before I can start decaling.
In the meantime, I'm enjoying looking at the other builds. Nice-looking sub and BatWing, guys!!