Propellerhead

Thanks! It was not exactly the "slammer build" I was looking for - because Kitty Hawk. But it was liberating nonetheless.

That sounds cool! It was fun deciding which tail symbols I was going to choose for it even though at this fictional point in the war the USN would've been using letter codes on the tail. But where's the fun in that?

Fantastic! I also have the strategic bombing trio sitting in my stash (Academy B-1B & B-52H and the AMP B-2A).

"And now for something completely different..." You have paper panzers and Luft '46. Why not BuAer '46? This is Kitty Hawk's 1/48 scale Chance Vought XF5U-1 done up as if it was serving on the Hornet, CV-12 and the invasion of the home islands was underway. This was meant to be a fun build where I didn't need to stress about accuracy or perfection. As Kitty Hawk kits go, it's not bad, but it certainly still has the KH "aroma" (sprue gates badly located, odd part breakdown, fit was difficult in p

When I bought most of my stock of Evergreen I had no idea where it would end up or what I'd need. It's amazing what one can do. The base for this 2001 EVA pod is pretty much all Evergreen sheet, strip and rod. The raised platforms are foam core boxed out with Evergreen sheet and the box is half of a wristwatch box. The "lid" is thick Evergreen sheet. The walkway is 400 grit sandpaper with strip stock cut on The Chopper and "painted" with a silver Sharpie. And the accumulating stockpile that creates the new and helps stuff fit...

Thanks! Yeah, I practically rebuilt the S-IVB on Realspace's Saturn IB years ago. Learned a lot with that one. I'm doing work to their Saturn I Block 2 as well. It's almost like sculpting an elephant. Just remove the stuff that doesn't look like an elephant until it's done.

And the fabrication hits keep on coming... I'm building the later version of the X-2 with the nozzles. The kit has none of that and none of the associated plumbing. I thermoformed the nozzles using Evergreen tubing, the burner on my gas range and the end of an appropriately sized steel nail set. I held the nail set in a set a Vise-Grips, heated it up and pushed a section of tubing onto the pointy end to form truncated cones. Some cutting, sanding and "lathe" work using a drill gave a number of them that would work. I also laminated Evergreen

Another thing to add to the list of wrong on this kit...the canopy. It should interface to the cockpit something like this: It doesn't so I got out the tools... I don't think I can replicate all of the detail in the Mel Apt/Ivan Kincheloe photo, but I'd like it to be removable and fit into the fuselage. After trimming and extending the canopy I realized that the canopy glass is engraved wrong. It would end up too low and there would be no frame below it after I worked on the lower edges to make it fit. Look

I switched the photos over to Photobucket. Let me know if they play better for you now. Thanks!

The Landis and Jenkins books are simply the pinnacle of X-Plane porn. The X-Planes Photo Scrapbook also provides more X-15 goodness plus other X-Planes and non-X coded aircraft (i.e. lifting bodies).

Sweet! Great builds. I really like the stencil font you used on the base.

October, bummer. I suppose he has to do a major rework to get it out of the Haynes format into however Crecy's titles look. This may give me an excuse to keep my shelf queen RealSpace build of the IB Block II on ice.

A long time ago in a stash far, far, away... I bought the 1995 boxing of this kit and the aftermarket sometime back then. I finally decided it was far too long since I built something swinging a propeller. There are some things I wished had worked out better, but many lessons were learned - and relearned. True Details cockpit True Details diamond tread wheels Eduard canopy masks SuperScale Decals - 48-555 P-51B Mustang Aces, Hovde, O'Brien, Meyer Alclad II Metallics

And...we're back. I had to drop this and all other projects to prepare our house for sale, relocate ourselves and the modeling cave. Sow's ear projects like these can crush the mojo, so to christen the new cave I decided to finish a P-51B project first and then unbox Project X-2. Here's part 1 to catch-up what happened before I boxed it up last year. The theme of this post is “one of these things is not like the other.” The main landing skid bay consists of…well…just a mounting plate for the white metal landing skid gear. So I boxed it in with Evergreen and putty to

I've had the RealSpace Models Block II in progress for a while now. I've had similar challenges, but it's better than starting from scratch...maybe. Anyway, that's the delusion I'll operate under for the time being.

Once things looked busy enough I painted and installed the cockpit. I chopped up some thick Evergreen strip into blocks to establish its fore and aft position. Things get hot at Mach 3. The sidewalls have quilted insulation that I simulated with wine bottle lead foil, embossed with the end of a rounded putty knife and washed with gray panel liner. OCD pays off once again... I had an acetate sheet from Eduard's Profipack X-1 that had unused instrument panels on it. I punched those out and applied them to the in

As always, it starts with the cockpit... The cockpit tub detail is not exactly accurate and has only engraved details. If built all closed up one could get away with paint and cannibalized decals for the instrument panel, I suppose. I didn’t like how the resin cockpit tub fit in the fuselage and used Milliput putty to bulk it out and close up some gaps in the nose wheel well. I used the cockpit tub from the 1/48 Hasagawa F-104 to detail the left and right sides of the resin tub. I fabricated a new instrument panel in styrene

I’ve always loved the muscle car looks of the tragic, short-lived Bell X-2 and decided it was time to pull the 1/48 scale Fonderie Miniatures kit from the shelf of doom. It landed there years ago after I did some “reconnaissance in force" style preliminary construction. As often happens, I found myself stumped on which version to build and how to address its (many) flaws or omissions. As time passed, I picked up Cutting Edge’s excellent decal sheet and more references became available. Why only have one “sow’s ear” project going when one can compound the pain? As delivered, the ki

Yeah, the David Weeks drawings are the bees knees. Whether one uses them for a project or just to “nerd out” on. Some kits need more work than others. Mostly due to manufacturing (tired molds or other issues). So far the MR was the most trouble free.

I’ve built 4: Mercury-Redstone, Mercury-Atlas, Gemini-Titan II (all in 1/72) and Saturn IB (1/144). The Saturn is the most multi of multi-media kits I’ve ever built (resin, brass tubes, styrene strips, white metal, photo etch). I’ve got their Saturn I Block 2 and progress and other launch vehicles and correction sets in the stash.

Here’s another question re: appropriate subjects in this forum. What about NACA/NASA rocket planes, lifting bodies or other non-jet research vehicles? To my mind they’re closer in “flavor” to this forum than in Jet Modeling. Thoughts?

Wowzers! That is the "busy-ness!"

And, finally, my ode to Stanley shots.... And rear to front... Thanks for tuning in!

A details fly by... Please forgive the "Here's Uncle Ted in front of the house...here's Uncle Ted in front of the house, but you can see the side of the house" nature of this scroll violation. 😉

Slightly elevated side view. Elevated front third. I took screen caps from the DVD and used my photo printer for the images. The United States Astronautics Agency badge is from the Paragrafix photo etch. The middle with that pesky communications unit. Elevated view of the rear third.