tculotta

I have been able to get a little paint on her. I have used Model Master 02 for interior areas and landing gear, 65 for the underside, 66 for the wheels, and 70/71 for the splinter scheme. The color in the photos doesn't look great, but it looks okay in person. Still more touch up (tires!) and details to add, in addition to decals..... Ted Culotta

Go here FSA/OWI and type "Consolidated Aircraft" into the search field. There are a few color images that may be of use. Regards, Ted Culotta

Here are Holden's pictures of his seat and cockpit. Holden wanted to take a few pics of the seat before it was installed. He has tried to use black to shade in the "openings" in the seat. He is very proud of his newly discovered drybrushing skills (everything in this is new to a six-year old!) We'll be putting the wings on the fuselages today. More updates to follow! Holden & Ted Culotta

Here are some images of where I am with the Wildcat. My son wanted to take his own pictures, so those will be added later. I have also moved the Boomerang into its own thread to keep things separate and distinct. Here are some images of the cockpit. I really like the way Tamiya engineered the cockpit. The assembly method allows for a lot of detail. The seat is from Ultracast. Here is the gear retraction equipment in front of the cockpit. The instructions call for white, but this area and the inside of the cowling are both supposed to be a light gray. That's all for now an

Here are some images of the Boomerang build. This is a really fun model. There are tons of fiddly little things to be added to the cockpit, but everything seems to have been thought out by Special Hobby when they designed the kit. Given the complexity of the cockpit, I am amazed at how little I have had to do to get things to fit. Once completed, everything from the engine all the way back through the cockpit will be one assembly. Here are some images of the cockpit: Here is the instrument panel. The detail inside the dials was a little soft, so rather than dry brush it, I a

My six year old son and I are each doing the Tamiya Wildcat. He gave me two of them for my birthday - one for me and one for him so we could do a group build. The PACAIR theme fits us. We're doing them OOB except for Ultracast seats. The other build is just me and it's the Special Hobby Boomerang. I started it and it is a really enjoyable project. Lots of detail and an unusual subject. Photos to follow of progress as soon as I can shoot them (we've started all of the builds already.) Holden and Ted Culotta

White Ensign makes a very good yellow chromate that you can buy directly (the shipping is quick even though they are in the UK and I also recommend their other colors, as well) or from Great Models. Visit www.whiteensignmodels.com or www.greatmodels.com. Also, I saw some pretty convincing data recently on Hyperscale (www.hyperscale.com - go to Forums) indicating that the armor behind the seat was black on P-51s. The thread started 27 March 2008 at 1:27 PM. You can track it down that way in "Plane Talking." It has some great photos. Regards, Ted Culotta

I think that if someone joins the build within the first month, four months is a good amount of time that would even allow one to recover from a minor distraction, such as a busy couple of weeks at work, and still finish in time. I can see how momentum begins to be lost after four months. Regards, Ted Culotta

I am building two of these currently. One is more of a test bed for the second (and a third down the road.) I am just about ready to paint the first and thought I'd share some of what I am doing. I'll add the cockpit and some other modification photos later. Here's what I have for now. First, the stiffeners in the wheel well are not "square" in one well. So, I rubbed this one on sandpaper until it basically fell out of the well. I then glued it to a 0.005" styrene backing and glued it back in the well so that the stiffeners were parallel to everything else. I also found from experience

There is one pic on the Sprue Bros. site, although the item is not in stock. Ted Culotta

Ian, Having one of these on the shelf, I greatly appreciate all the guidance from your posts over at britmodeler. Thank you. Regards, Ted Culotta

Owl makes some conversion parts. See: http://www.owl-czech.eu/ and look under "Resins" for OWLR48003 Regards, Ted Culotta

Here you go: http://www.eagle-editions.com/decal107.htm Regards, Ted Culotta

Actually, it was a Revell (pre-Monogram merger) kit that was released along with the P-40E and the Spit Mk. II. Here's the original box art: http://www.arcforums.com/forums/air/index....howtopic=147541 Regards, Ted Culotta

The Ultracast tires and wheels will work. I had to open the hole more with a no. 52 drill bit, if I remember correctly. By the way, I have built the Eduard model and found it extremely enjoyable. I am in the weathering process right now. I will post pics. I will note that there are some issues that I want to change and my intention is to follow this "trial" build (for my son's bedroom ceiling) with a "full-blown" build that corrects the errors in the kit and adds or enhances much of the detail that is missing that I desire. Regards, Ted Culotta