Monogram Mafia III

Yes I am, but if it's not possible ok. I just thought...

"The end date for the GB depends upon the members. A good family allows for time to finish the job..."

Surely you can't be serious

Can I still join?

Heeeyyyyyyyyyyy!! Now THAT"S an idea......... I might just do that. Thanks, Stik!

Of course you could start and finish another kit within the 6 months of starting this one... ;)

I'm happy to have helped in some small way. I was in a bit of a rut myself earlier so I know how you feel.

stikpusher

Sim, it's good to see you here again. This GB is winding down. But there are plenty more great ones going on or coming up soon.

Dawg, you are making great rapid progress. That is always a plus!

Thanks a bunch, Stik! I know I no longer qualify for the Group Build badge, but I'm determined to finish this obligation. Can hardly believe I took over a year to finish the Hun....... But, this Skyhawk seems to be a much better kit than the Super Sabre. The fit is much better. Still a lot of raised panel lines, but even those are better than what was on the Super Sabre. I'm glad you started this Group Build - got me out of my modeling rut.

Okey, dokey... Got the wings glued on today (Sunday 28 June), along with the horizontal stabilizers. Had to put a thin sliver of plastic shim under the forward part of the wing to get the cannon holes on each side of the wing roots to line up properly. Tried using super glue to attach the wings, but, for some reason, it didn't want to work, so I used the trusty standby - Testor's non-toxic glue in the blue tube (has that nice citrusy smell). It might take a while to set, but that stuff ALWAYS works.

I'm trying my best to remove/sand away as few panel lines as possible, but that's really hard to do along the seams. I tried to rescribe using the raised panel lines as my guide, but that wasn't working as well as I thought (you'll probably notice my feeble attempts along the left fuselage half in the below photos). Next time, I will try to use some Dymo label tape to mark off the panel lines and use as a scribing guide. For now, I'll settle for the ones that survived the sanding, and won't worry about the lost ones. 

I also filled the gaps where the intakes joined to the fuselage using Squadron Green Putty. Squadron White Putty was used elsewhere.

You can see the gaps at the front and rear of where the wing assembly attaches to the bottom of the fuselage. Don't think I'll fill these, either - too much raised panel line detail to lose. Besides, it's on the bottom, and it ain't gonna be a contest model, so it won't be noticed.....much.

Let me know whatcha think, folks....

Sim, it's good to see you here again. This GB is winding down. But there are plenty more great ones going on or coming up soon.

Dawg, you are making great rapid progress. That is always a plus!

Know exactly whatcha mean, simpilot. Been there myself quite a bit lately.

Heyyy guys! Builds are awesome as always! Hope to get one started but cant commit to anything atm! checking in with some GB's to say hey to old mates and hope to make new ones! I need a plastic injection HELP!! lol

Went ahead and assembled the fuselage halves tonight. Not too bad, I guess. Had to remove some of the molded-on antennae, as they were almost broken off anyway. Hopefully, I'll remember to glue them back on before I finish this thing. Got some sanding to do, so I'm sure that I'll be removing some of the raised panel lines along with the sanding. This is looking to be one of my quicker builds...........

Ok, more pictures of my OA-4M. Been working a little on it each night this past week. Got the cockpit components assembled & painted. Filled ejector pin holes in the MER-TER and some of the other pylons, plus the drop tanks. Hoping to get the fuselage together this weekend. Almost got the airbrush out to paint the cockpit stuff, but decided against it as it was a small area, and I just didn't feel like going through all the after-painting clean up to use the airbrush. So, it's all hand-painted (so far).

Hope to have her together and ready for camouflage very soon. I'm doing my best to NOT let this one go for a whole year before she's finished..........

Gary Mason

cbaltrin

Great looking Hun DD! Very sharp looking!

Thanks a bunch, cbaltrin!!

Really itching to get back at the bench. Hopefully next week. Too much going on...

Great looking Hun DD! Very sharp looking!

stikpusher

My roommate in the Army in '86 built this one. Once upon a time. I have the same kit in my stash. I will enjoy watching you build this one my friend. When I build mine I plan on putting a couple Zuni pods with the drop tanks and not much else for the loadout. After all, the OA-4M was supposed to be a fast FAC.

Hmmmmmm......Zunis......Might have to give those some consideration. I do remember seeing our H&MS/MALS birds loaded with those occasionally.

Found some aftermarket decals for it, too. Furball Aero-Design (https://www.furballaero-design.com/)  makes a set that includes the markings for MALS-32, my old squadron. I will soon be ordering that set.

Incidentally, the H&MS (Headquarters & Maintenance Squadron) changed to MALS (Marine Aviation Logistics Squadron) sometime around 1987 or 1988. Same squadron & function, just a different designation.

Greg

Dawg, for all the troubles and frustrations you had, would never know it by looking at your finished kit. It looks good!

Thanks a bunch, Greg! Gotta admit, it does look ok when I'm standing about 10 feet away from it!

Tal Afar Dave

DD,

You might not like it much, but I think you did a superb job of putting some nice lipstick on your 'pig!'  I've got a pair of these partially built somewhere; last seen about 20 years ago, and a couple more of the newer molds......I'll get to them one day.  If I do complete one, I hope it's half as good as yours!!

The original Skyhawk kit was a fun build if I remember correctly.  Looks like it keeps a lot of the same components.  Hope you  can find the decals for it; I've got one of these somewhere in my stash; it's location is known only by God!!  LOL..........it sucks being a kit collector (hoarder) with a bad memory!!

TAD

Hopefully you have the kits that are much older than the one I just built. According to Stik, the one I built was a reissue that used the older molds. If you have the older issues, then the molds probably weren't as worn as they were when used to make my kit, so hopefully you won't have the issues that I did. Hope that all made sense!

And thanks a bunch for the nice comments. Greatly appreciated!

Dawg, for all the troubles and frustrations you had, would never know it by looking at your finished kit. It looks good!

DD,

You might not like it much, but I think you did a superb job of putting some nice lipstick on your 'pig!'  I've got a pair of these partially built somewhere; last seen about 20 years ago, and a couple more of the newer molds......I'll get to them one day.  If I do complete one, I hope it's half as good as yours!!

The original Skyhawk kit was a fun build if I remember correctly.  Looks like it keeps a lot of the same components.  Hope you  can find the decals for it; I've got one of these somewhere in my stash; it's location is known only by God!!  LOL..........it sucks being a kit collector (hoarder) with a bad memory!!

TAD

My roommate in the Army in '86 built this one. Once upon a time. I have the same kit in my stash. I will enjoy watching you build this one my friend. When I build mine I plan on putting a couple Zuni pods with the drop tanks and not much else for the loadout. After all, the OA-4M was supposed to be a fast FAC.

Now that the above Super Sabre is finished, I will now begin my second project for this Group Build: the Monogram 1/48th McDonnell-Douglas OA-4M Skyhawk II. I guess adding the Monogram part was a bit redundant, wasn't it?

.

The box art. I don't remember when I acquired this kit. I do know that I didn't buy it new. The box is in worse shape than it looks in this picture, but the sprues all came out ok. It's a 1985 kit, so it's as old as my oldest son.

.

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All the parts that I'll be working with/on. I was happy to see that the mounts for the leading edge slats were still intact. Those are usually the first things to break on a kit that has them. The decals have faded with age, so I'll do my best to find an aftermarket set. I've got a couple of aftermarket decal sets for A-4Ms, but those won't do here, unfortunately. The clear stuff looks good, too, with no scratches. They'll still get a good polishing, though, then a coat of Alclad Clear Gloss. Instruction sheet is faded and yellowed on the top half, which is what was exposed when they were correctly folded and still in the box. Not sure if I'll do a weapons load-out on this one. Most of the H&MS/MALS OA-4Ms weren't used in a combat scenario, but more so as a squadron hack aircraft (most H&MS/MALS usually had only one or two birds assigned). So, it'll probably have the drop tanks and that's all. If any of you modelers have built this kit before, what can I expect?

I just hope that this one doesn't turn into the pig the Hun became.....

And now, without further ado, here she is - my F-100D is finally complete (well, as complete as I'm ever gonna make it). I'm am SO GLAD I'm done with this build. Can't say that I enjoyed it. Never had a kit frustrate me like this one did. One thing you'll notice in the pictures is that the horizontal stabilizers are movable. BUT, when I made them that way, I made the holes that they fit into just a tad bit bigger than they needed to be, so now the stabilizers want to sag severely in the "nose down" position. Oh well. Some of my reference photos show them that way, too............

A few things that went wrong since last night after the decaling: On the top of the right wing, near the fuselage, a HUGE blemish that looks as though I had spilled something on it, and them tried to seal it with Alclad Gloss Coat. I didn't even notice until after I had let my final sealing coat dry today. I was just too far along and too frustrated to even try to fix it. Not sure why it doesn't show in the photos, but it sticks out like a swollen sore thumb from any angle that you look at it, except from the bottom; the pitot tube has a slight bend in it near the tip. This was a result of a pour stub being there, and I nearly broke the pitot tube in removing it from the sprue. As it sits now is the straightest I could get it; the little black square that should be on the upper intake lip (the radar gunsight) is missing. I couldn't find a decal that would work, and I didn't try to paint it on.

Hope you folks enjoy the pictures. Any comments are greatly appreciated. 

Tal Afar Dave

Devil Dawg,

You're Hun looks pretty darn good; and the mixed lightning bolts are pretty cool.  Like Stik says, that Skyhawk is a solid kit and shouldn't be too much of an issue.  Good luck with it!

TAD

Thanks, Dave. You should be seeing pictures of the final product pretty soon.

mississippivol

Good to see her almost complete, Double D. I don't think you'll have any issues with the Skyhawk apart from the decals; I'd like to convert mine to a "J" and put some Hi-Vis markings on it.

Thanks for the kind words, Mississippi. Yeah, those Skyhawks always looked great with the high-vis stuff on 'em. All the combat squadrons in MAG-32 at Cherry Point had the A-4Ms when I first arrived there in 1984. They were all converted to AV-8Bs by 1987. Miss those planes. Just loved the way they looked.

silentbob33

DD it's looking pretty good to me, especially considering all the problems you've had with this kit.  I agree with you though, the red lightning bolts look good with the yellow ones.

Thanks a bunch, Silent Bob! You're my new best friend!! 

stikpusher

I think that the OA-4M 's quality all depends upon the age of the boxing. The Hun kit you are building (same one I did in '12) is a later re issue. Thus the molds have been around and used many more times & years. As far as I know, the OA-4M was only issued once by Monogram, albeit for a long production run, but the molds should be in better shape. But the decals from that time... best replaced by AM due to the quality of the printing. The only real fit problems that i had with my Hun build were on the fuselage top and bottom join seam. Nothing a little filler and sanding did not fix.

Definitely gonna use aftermarket decals on that one. It's the 1985 issue, so the decals are at least 30 years old! I'm hoping to find some decals of my old squadron back at Cherry Point - H&MS-32. If I can't find any for H&MS-32 (Headquarters & Maintenance Squadron 32), I'll go for anything based at Cherry Point at the time. The kit decals are for H&MS-12, which was based at Iwakuni, Japan. I'm just hoping that the Skyhawk isn't the pig the Hun turned out to be.

Devil Dawg,

You're Hun looks pretty darn good; and the mixed lightning bolts are pretty cool.  Like Stik says, that Skyhawk is a solid kit and shouldn't be too much of an issue.  Good luck with it!

TAD

Good to see her almost complete, Double D. I don't think you'll have any issues with the Skyhawk apart from the decals; I'd like to convert mine to a "J" and put some Hi-Vis markings on it.