First Annual USAF Vietnam Group Build

Ken glad you can get back on the forum

Thanks for the link on improving the the F-4. I've had an awful cold most of this week and haven't looked over the kit that well yet. What I have looked over on it is really impressive. Only problem now is that I want a 1/32 F-14 As for planning a build together why not? I just have to secure a lot of space for it!

David

Hi Everyone,

For the last several days I have not been able to access the Group Build section of FineScale Modeler.  I have found the problem and solution, at least for what was happening for me.  The FineScale website is not compatible with Internet Explorer 11. If you have installed Internet Explorer 11 it is now a little more difficult to turn on the compatibility mode for a website than it was for Internet Explorer 10.

First, open Internet Explorer 11 and go to the FineScale website.  Next press your "Alt" key to bring up the menu bar if it is not already showing.  Next click "Tools" and then in the drop down menu click on "Compatibility View Settings".  "Finescale.com" should already be in the "Add this website" text box, so just click the "Add" button.  Now click the "Close" button.  You may have to reload the page or close Internet Explorer and open it again.  But you should be able to access everything on the website after you make this change.

Ken

GreySnake

Ken, I'm glad you came out OK from the storm. I lived in Ohio for two years and hated it whenever the sirens would start blaring. Glad you got the compressor up and running also.

Kiwi, nice work on that cockpit. Like Ken said those instruments look great!

As for me I've finally bought something I've been wanting for awhile.

 

No idea where I'll put a 1/32 Phantom I'll wait till my skills improve before tackling it since its the most expensive model I've ever bought.

David

Hi David,

Thank you for your thoughts about me and the storm.  There are still a lot of people without homes which at this time of year has to be really rough.  The last I heard there was a grand total of 28 tornados in our state.  There was a small town not too far from here with a population of 200 that pretty much got wiped out.  Very sobering.

BIG congratulations on scoring that kit!!    I also have that in my stash.  We will have to plan to build them together!  From what I understood from another good friend, it is a very good kit.  In fact, he told me if you want to build an F-4D, this is the best kit!

Here is a link to a list of things to help build the kit more authentic and tips to building it.  It is a pdf so you can save it for later reference:

http://www.largescaleplanes.com/Marketplace/Tweaks/F-4CD.pdf 

Ken

Ken, I'm glad you came out OK from the storm. I lived in Ohio for two years and hated it whenever the sirens would start blaring. Glad you got the compressor up and running also.

Kiwi, nice work on that cockpit. Like Ken said those instruments look great!

As for me I've finally bought something I've been wanting for awhile.

No idea where I'll put a 1/32 Phantom I'll wait till my skills improve before tackling it since its the most expensive model I've ever bought.

David

Kiwi

Thanks Ken,

Any chance I could swap out my Franken-skyraider navy to USAF conversion and do this instead?



I picked this up this week and pretty excited about it whereas the skyraider has been very frustrating and needs some time out...

No problem Tim!  What version are you going to build it as?

Ken

Kiwi

Again, not really relevant but wanted to show you guys why I'm not working on my skyraider:

Nice work there Tim!  You are doing great detail work on the instruments!

Ken

Well it is official.  Our county had two tornados Sunday.  The one in the north was a category EF-1, and the one in the southern part (the closest to where I live) was a category EF-3.  I am so glad it missed my house and my Mom's house.  I feel so sorry for those people it did hit.  There are a lot of people still without power.

I will most likely be cutting down both the tree against my house and the tree limb in the back this weekend.  I have a $1,000.00 deductible insurance so I don't have that kind of money to just hand over to someone else with a chain saw.  I will also have to take a look at the fence once I get the tree limb off of it.

Ken

Scary stuff that Midwestern tornado scare; glad to hear that you weren't in the immediate path.  Seeing so much damage on the news.  You all will be in our thoughts and prayers.....

Ken,

Glad your house was not seriously damaged by those twisters and your family's ok. I've lived in Texas and Oklahoma so I know what it's like hunkering down during a tornado. Not a pleasant experience!

Take care,

Russ

Kiwi

Wow, Ken, glad that you and yours are okay. That is pretty close to home eh. Are you near Illinois where they touched down? My in-laws are west of Detroit and I know they were watching it closely. Seems late in the year for this to be happening? Like you said, good job by the forecasters, hope everyone had somewhere to go.

I live in Lafayette, IN, pretty close to the Illinois border.

Ken

Hi Everyone,

Today was a scary day.

First we had tornados rip through the area.  Great job to the U.S. National Weather Service for giving us enough advance warning to take cover.  I grabbed my wife and dog and we drove over to my Mom's house since she has a full basement.  (She only lives 2.5 miles away.)

We got there just minutes before the storms hit.  Then the electricity went out.  Fortunately we were using a battery operated weather radio so we knew when it was safe to come back up out of the basement.  Everything looked okay at my Mom's house, just a few small limbs blown off of the trees, which happens every time we have a lot of wind.

So we drove back home and found one of our trees in the back yard had lost a huge limb and crushed our chain linked fence.  The wind was still blowing pretty hard even though the storms were past.

Then about an hour later a tree in a different neighbor's yard fell into our house.  Nice!  Fortunately it didn't do enough damage to cause immediate attention, but now I have two different claims to deal with.

The storms rolled through around 2:30 PM EST.  We usually have my Mom over for dinner and so I thought I better give her a call to see if her electricity ever came back on.  If not, her garage door was not going to open and she would need my help.  Sure enough the electric was still off so I drove over to help.

After we had dinner, I figured there was no sense in having my Mom go back home to a dark house, so we waited until 9:30 PM before it came back on.  During that time we started learning about all the damage that was done to places just north and south of us.  That indicated there was at least two different tornados since the storms were traveling in a west to east direction.

So we were sandwiched between two!  That was too close.

Anyway, I was determined to get my air compressor fixed today so when I got back home I went straight to work on it.

Here is a picture of the beast:

 Here is looking down from the top at the cylinders with the head removed, all cleaned up and ready for reassembly:

 Here is the side view:

 Here is the top of the valve plate, cleaned up (you should have seen it before I cleaned it!):

 Here is the bottom of the cylinder head, also cleaned up:

 Here is the bottom of the valve plate:

 Here is the new valve plate gasket:

 And here is the cylinder head gasket:

 Here is the culprit.  The blown valve plate gasket:

 And here is the pump all fully reassembled:

 I flipped the switch and she pumped right up!  Just like brand new!  So I am back in business!

Ken

Tal Afar Dave

I'm an old Army Infantry guy myself; still kicking around in the reserves for a few more months.....then retirement and hopefully, more time building models again!!!  Hope to get started on this GB soon; great work by those showing their works!

Good to hear from you again Dave.  We will still be here when you are ready.

Ken

Kiwi

Ah I see Ken, that is frustrating eh, like you said, nothing some putty, a scalpel and a few beers ant make short work of!

I've totally lost interest in my skyraider and am thinking about acquiring a Dragonfly having just seen one in the local hobby shop.

I did win this last week after about a year of trying to get one at a reasonable price on evilbay.



I now have a complete flight line of 1/48 tamiya: Lancaster, mosquito, spitfire and hurricane. As soon as I have a typhoon kit I will build the five in tandem. The lanc was expensive but I turn 30 in January so I figured it was my early birthday present to myself, :-) perhaps there will be a Music of the Merlin's group build in our future Ken? ;-)

Hi Tim

Congratulations on scoring that Lancaster!  Wow!  That thing must be a monster of a kit at 1/48 scale!

Hey, I have a few Spitfires in my stash along with some Mustangs.  You never know, we could have a Merlin build sometime!

Ken

I'm an old Army Infantry guy myself; still kicking around in the reserves for a few more months.....then retirement and hopefully, more time building models again!!!  Hope to get started on this GB soon; great work by those showing their works!

Kiwi

Ken, this one on eBay looks like it has the part corrected that was faulty on your previous cockpits?

http://bit.ly/1bwymNB

Hi Tim,

That looks more filled in, but you can see that it is still open at the top.  Thank you for spotting it though!  It should be all boxed in.  It looks like the mold may have a piece stuck inside and the people making the parts don't realize it.  Here is a couple of links to pictures showing what it is supposed to look like:

http://www.cybermodeler.com/aircraft/sr-71/images/frouch_sr-pit_02.jpg 

http://www.cybermodeler.com/aircraft/sr-71/images/frouch_sr-pit_03.jpg 

It should be easy enough to make the part myself, as soon as I get enough time to make it!

Ken

Son Of Medicine Man

 

Hi Russ,

I am the same way.  I need a break every once in a while. You get so intense in doing these projects that you have to focus on something else for a while.  And that Arc Light project was a monster!  You put a lot of detail into the plane by itself, and then added a bunch more to the diorama!

By the way, very nice job there on galley and bunk area.  Great detail work!!     

Ken

 

Thanks for the good words, Ken!  

Sorry to hear about your problems with your compressor, but it looks like you have things well in hand. Mine is still in the box. I have to remove a glass sliding door and wall it up before I'll have a place to spray paint. It will probably be after the first of the year before I can do it.

Cheers,

Russ

Hi Everyone,

I got some work done on my air compressor today.  I should be able to have it back online tomorrow.  I have the valve plate soaking in lacquer thinner tonight to loosen up the burnt oil.  It was the valve plate gasket that caused the problem.  It had blown between the two cylinders.  I am hoping that the new one is made better so that it doesn't happen again.

Ken

Striker8241

Hi, Guys,

I made a little progress, but frankly, I've lost interest in models lately - probably burned out after that Arc Light diorama. I'm sure the urge will come back but meanwhile, here are a couple of pictures.

Cheers,

Russ

 

This is the bunk area with the navigator's right console in place.

 

 This picture shows the galley equipment.

Hi Russ,

I am the same way.  I need a break every once in a while. You get so intense in doing these projects that you have to focus on something else for a while.  And that Arc Light project was a monster!  You put a lot of detail into the plane by itself, and then added a bunch more to the diorama!

By the way, very nice job there on galley and bunk area.  Great detail work!!     

Ken

Hi, Guys,

I made a little progress, but frankly, I've lost interest in models lately - probably burned out after that Arc Light diorama. I'm sure the urge will come back but meanwhile, here are a couple of pictures.

Cheers,

Russ

This is the bunk area with the navigator's right console in place.

 This picture shows the galley equipment.

Hi Everyone,

I used a new product, at least it is new to me, from Model Master last night.  It is from a line of Enamel Stains they have put out.  The color I used was "Natural".

Here is the instructions from Testors website:

CreateFX Enamel Natural Stain is easy to apply.  Stir well before applying as stains settle. Apply stain with a fine brush around detail, seams, recessed and standing detail or apply evenly over entire surface.  Stain will naturally concentrate in corners and pull up flat surfaces.   To blend, thin or remove use 79256 Enamel Thinner. Let dry for 15 minutes, remove excess with thinner using either a moistened cloth or fine brush. Leave 24 hours for full cure. Recoating before then may result in blending of colors. Seal with clear coat.   Always test surface compatibility with paint on hidden area or on same type of surface that is not your finished project.

• Thin paint 3 parts paint to 2 parts thinner
• Adjust compressor to 20-25 PSI.

Of course you have to use this on a gloss acrylic surface.  I really liked the results and it worked pretty good.

Ken

GreySnake

Thanks Ken.

Russ, unfortunately the kit doesn't come with the 469th decals. They've been replaced 44th Tactical Fighter Squadron markings for Polish Glider. I'm going to see how the decals look when it comes. If they don't look good I am going to buy a Superscale sheet that does have the JV tail code. And thanks for that link very helpful!

David

You're most welcome, David! Looking forward to seeing that bird on its feet!

Russ

Son Of Medicine Man

Striker8241

Thanks, Guys, on behalf of veterans everywhere!

David: You got yourself a nice model there! "JV" was the tail code for the 469th TFS based at Korat, Thailand. We had some Ds at Takhli as well. BTW, if you don't already have it, here's a link to a list of F-105 tail codes:  www.burrusspta.org/105tailcodes.html

Cheers,

Russ

Very cool Russ!  Thank you for that link!  I made special note of the "ZA" tail code for Kadena AFB!

Ken

You're welcome, Ken!   I also came across this list which covers most aircraft types in the AF:  http://www.au.af.mil/au/awc/awcgate/af/tail_markings.pdf

Cheers,

Russ

Thanks Ken.

Russ, unfortunately the kit doesn't come with the 469th decals. They've been replaced 44th Tactical Fighter Squadron markings for Polish Glider. I'm going to see how the decals look when it comes. If they don't look good I am going to buy a Superscale sheet that does have the JV tail code. And thanks for that link very helpful!

David

Striker8241

Thanks, Guys, on behalf of veterans everywhere!

David: You got yourself a nice model there! "JV" was the tail code for the 469th TFS based at Korat, Thailand. We had some Ds at Takhli as well. BTW, if you don't already have it, here's a link to a list of F-105 tail codes:  www.burrusspta.org/105tailcodes.html

Cheers,

Russ

Very cool Russ!  Thank you for that link!  I made special note of the "ZA" tail code for Kadena AFB!

Ken