Jay Chladek

I was working on one last year. The Revell kits are nice since for awhile you could acquire them for less than the Fujimi originals. Only differences were the decals provided, which were Revell printed instead of Fujimi. I am about halfway done with a #98 Miles/Ruby Daytona 24 winner. But you can't do that car out of the box as it had a few minor differences from the Le Mans car. Plus the Revell issued the kit body with the Gurney bulge. The cars that Ken Miles drove never had the bulge, but finding one of the Fujimi boxings without the bulge is very difficult. Deletion of the bulge from the r

Aeromaster did those. I have sets. I believe they are mainly WW2 style. I keep them around for doing "Hollywood" MiGs which don't necessarily use the exact same stars as what the Soviet forces use with the white and red border.

One thing that is nice about this kit, if you mess up the landing gear the main struts and wheels are the standard Monogram F/A-18 tooling. The nose gear is from an F-5E. Also worth considering if you opt to try and put landing gear on the 1/72 Monogram snap tite F-19A kit which was offered for a longer period than the 1/48 kit (even though it came out after the 1/48 kit).

It may have been overlooked, but they are a fun kit to build. I did mine a few years back and decided to do up the coloring in something resembling the EDI UCAV from the 2006 movie "Stealth".

Those look excellent! Now if only I could find an unbuilt Dragon kit set.

To my knowledge they never did a kit version of the A-2, just the pre-builds. Dragon kit issues are a bit funny. On some kits like the Mercury Redstone, they deleted the capsule heatshield so you wouldn't have a complete kit if all you wanted was the capsule. Then on others they do many extra bits you may or may not need and don't tell you about them. The X-15 falls into this as I had no idea it had the XLR-99 parts or the Q ball nose as all the box art showed was ship one with the XLR-11s. But of course you didn't get fuselage bits for the A2. But they of course did the A2 parts for the pre-b

This kit was originally done by Imai back in the day and it was the only way to do a 1/72 Super Valkyrie for the longest time. It also builds A LOT faster than the Hasegawa kit (which is technically more accurate, but a pain in the you know what due to the numerous seams in it). Very nice job based on what I am seeing.

If I had known the Dragon kit had the XLR-99 parts, I would have gotten it when it was out. These are practically non existant on the secondary market now. Very nice work!

Certainly the flying weather was better in Lubbock than back in Canada depending on the time of year. 😉

You also want to be very careful to not get within the crosshairs of his widow/last wife Virginia. She is apparently money mad and caused a few waves a few years back threatening to sue for royalties on products that contained markings that Chuck flew. A prime example was the Pegasus 1/18 X-1 kit they did. The first issues have Glamorous Glennis on the box art and on the decal sheet. But she apparently got in touch with them, so many of the late issues had a Sharpie taken to the box art and the nose art might have been cut from them. Of course, with Revell doing a Glamorous Glennis B

Hello, Kind of a long shot, but this version of the kit seems scarce. I am hoping somebody has the decal sheet from Revell's 2011 edition of the Bell X-1 in 1/32 scale, kit number 85-5862. Specifically I am looking for the NACA markings for jet 6063. None of the other offerings of the kit (including the current Revell of Germany offering) have those markings, just ones for the USAF bird flown by Yeager. Or I am willing to buy a complete kit with those markings if one were offered for sale and the price was reasonable. Thanks.

I am pretty sure a Gemini Titan is next in the cards from Horizon. In addition to Agena, Horizon could also potentially do a Project Fire Atlas, which tested a sub-scale Apollo capsule heatshield design. I only ever read about it in one book and it sounds fascinating.

I'm with you Hotdog, I am encouraged by what I see. I have enough resources and references to fill out all the lumps and bumps on this bird. If I can do it on an Estes/Semroc 1/70 flying rocket kit (which used combinations of cut cardboard and sanded balsa for its lumps and bumps) I can certainly do it here. I'm not too worried about the anemic J2 engine on the S-IVB as the majority of my rockets tend to stay stacked when on display anyway.

In case you hadn't heard... a Saturn 1B in 1/72 is coming out from Dragon. https://www.culttvmanshop.com/Saturn-1B-172-scale-model-kit-from-Dragon-Models--9799-EARLY-BIRD-PRICE--PREORDER-RESERVATION-25-deposit-required_p_5126.html

Mmmmm, interesting! Thanks for the video link.

The TA-4J was equipped with a less powerful engine than the F as Navy training command figured a nugget pilot was less likely to get into trouble with a "de-tuned" engine as it were. But if necessary, TA-4Js could be brought up to TA-4F spec in a time of need very easily as it would take an engine swap, installation of the Colt guns (a few TA-4Js had single Colt guns for gunnery range practice) and the addition of wiring to make the aircraft capable of being armed. I believe some of the countries who operated Skyhawks got some of the J models after they were retired from USN/USMC service and h

Man that is looking very good!

Nice!

That depends on if the birds are used for demos. Airshow displays don't pay what they used to and usually if the US Government is footing the bill, the companies involved try not to rock the boat and do anything extra. So you might see a jet at an open house or two, but not a flying display.

Does the new kit include any other BA specific parts besides the Superfox intakes?

Nice! Any idea when it will be offered?

I was able to get a True Details F-4C pit to fit into an Esci kit fine, taking into account that crazy deep nose gear well. The pit was for the most part a Hasegawa F-4E pit with resin sidewalls anyway. I figure the True Details F-4J pit will probably fit in the Esci kit as well with some coaxing.

Not so much a Fujimi rebox as a copy of a Fujimi from Academy's early days. They did the same thing with the T-38/F-5B kit. At best, it would probably work as an experimental paint exercise or a quick slap together.

Yeah, those cruise ships are dangerous. 😉

ET coloring starts out off white when the foam is first applied. Then it rather quickly darkens to a pancake batter colored tan. Over time it goes more yellow, then burnt orange and finally more of a brown shade. No two ETs were quite the same shade as the color can vary depending on how long the stack was on the pad. Some flights looked more orange while a couple missions that had an abort requiring SSME replacements ended up with a tank that looked chocolate brown at the end of a couple months. Lighter colored areas are either later applications of foam or the surface rind was sa