ALF18

Do get the Quinta cockpit. I’ve built multiples of these kits. Sometimes like Phantom, with kit cockpit and resin seats. One with Eduard PE (which looked great). I bought 3 sets of Quinta for future builds, and have used their products on other kits. Fantastic cockpits. ALF

I am awestruck by your landing gear detailing. Tiny parts, beautifully done. Soon I hope to tackle some F-35 models, and yours will serve as a great reference build. ALF

Same here! I was about to start opening up Tamiya boxes, when I realized that maybe, just maybe, Dai's definition of intermediate didn't matter to me. 🙂 Personally, I've never had a problem with Tamiya decals. ALF

Again I'm late to the party, but have tried to catch up on what's going on with ARC when I stumbled on this. I have mixed feelings about this. On the one hand, I now feel very lucky to have gotten to visit this museum back in the early 90s. I was actively flying CF-18s, and was sent to Pensacola for a Spatial Disorientation course after we had some of our pilots die due to disorientation in cloud. That course was FAR more fun and interesting than the centrifuge training I had to do in Toronto as part of the training we all got. 1.5 minutes at 9 G was no fun at all. While I was on ba

Incredible. That dolt had no business being an instructor. I realized over the years as I left the military and got into civil aviation that having responsible, competent instructors was NOT a given in the civvy world. Sheesh. Makes for a good story, though. ALF

I suspect night vision has made spotlights obsolete. ALF

Wow, that's ugly. I hope Kinetic can help you. Early in the series of 1/48 F-5A/B from Kinetic, the main canopy had similar defects. They quickly mailed out replacements after modellers asked. ALF

This is a link to the Plastic Models Store in Kyiv, Ukraine. They just announced it with free shipping. If you sign up for the newsletter, you get 8% off. I've bought from them a few times - their profit goes to buy much-needed kit for the Ukrainian forces. Worth supporting them by buying from this store. https://plastic-models-store.com/icm-53054-135-sikorsky-ch-54a-tarhe-us-heavy-helicopter?utm_source=sendpulse&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=sendpulse-dec-report ALF

Well said, as usual, Mike. The resin set was absolutely required. Even buying the resin and the HC kit new, without a 3rd-person markup, the cost would run up close to $100. Now, for a much more reasonable price (Kinetic makes great products at decent prices), we'll have a better kit that already includes many more extras than Rick Chin's resin. The gods have heard our prayers, buddy! ALF

Putty time! I like to use nail polish remover and a Q-Tip to shape it before it dries. This works for most applications. Will need a second coat, but better already. Remember how horrible the bottom was? Lots of putty required here. Coming along. I will be using Leading Edge decals for this one. I had a look at the colour scheme to see what needed to be red or black. Since I'm using a brush, I wanted to do the first trials on the underside, and make sure that the red paint w

Nice souvenir! I gave my father's logbooks away to a museum, so can't check - but there's a good chance one or both of them flew that tail number. I love hearing about well-preserved aviation relics. ALF

Thanks Geoff. I wish I shared your confidence... 🙂 Somehow, I will force it to work.

As part of the intake dry-fitting, I saw that the lower wing didn't fit at all because of those huge intake trunks. That's why I chopped the things. I think part of the problem is that the cockpit is sitting a bit too low, pushing everything down. I finally got things to fit a little better, but there are still some big problems. The aft fuselage to wing join is odd. The arc is different on each, leaving a huge step. I got it all together after lots of chopping and dry-fitting. Putty will be required!!! Tops of the wings glued in plac

Some of the gaps are incredible on this beast. I will try to clamp, etc, to minimize this one. In the meantime, I am working on those intakes. Looks to me like the trunking causes the outer covers to fail to seat properly. I am not a trunking fan, given that these intakes on the real thing just kind of terminate in a large screen that keeps the rocks out of the huge vacuum-cleaner style impeller (for the centrifugal-flow engine, not axial-flow like modern jets). Notice that I don't care about the mould leftovers much either. Here, I've chopped up that large assembly that was

Wow, major gaps to fill! You're on the right track, buddy. ALF