bashace

I've seen the Tamiya F-14 as low as $80 recently on Amazon, I have all the manufacturers 1/48 F-14's offered except for AMK, just cant pull the trigger on it.

The only Indy hobby shop I've been to is the Hobby Town in Castleton, they have very little that interests me there, I do most of my shopping online anymore.

It's tough to compete with the Tamiya F-14D, especially when you have some obvious inaccuracies in your offering. The Mig-31 is a cool plane, but I don't see a lot of people wanting to build it, I think the Mig-25 is probably the preferred choice for that aircraft type. I do have the Delphin kit, looks like a real nice kit. The past year and a half has put a huge strain on a lot of small businesses around the world, I'm sure these model kit manufacturers are feeling the same pain.

Didn't mean to trigger any negative snipes here, as an avid collector of AM resin, I know how difficult and or expensive procuring long OOP resin items can be, was only sharing information on currently available suitable items. I understand there seems to be a personal connection with the manufacturer here, but the fact is, he is no longer making these items, and there are better offerings out there for most of it. Drifterdon, if I come accross any of those parts I'll let you know, I have a huge Phantom collection and always picking AM stuff up for them, haven't seen the Benchwork

I have a few Putty Hawk kits in my stash, am I happy to have them...yes, do I look forward to building them...no, will I ever part with them...probably not. I was very excited to get their first Voodoo release, even ordered a couple out the gate, I should've waited, because they had short shot sprues, had to use a lot of plastic card and putty to button up the fuselage on the first one I started building, sold the second kit shortly after. I do applaud Kitty Hawk for bringing long sought after types to market, I know it was a huge undertaking. I hope they will resurface in the future.

Kirrey does intake ramps for the Academy Phantoms and exhausts for Hasegawa Phantoms, RESKIT does some pretty nice Phantom exhausts, Long and Short, and there is Aires and Eduard options for exhausts. None of them are cheap unfortunately.

PM sent

I use Mr Color C319, seems to be a pretty good match.

I have 22 Hasegawa, 4 Academy, and 1 ZM Phantom kits, with ZM's dorked rear fuselage requiring AM to fix, it will be an expensive shelf queen for a while, so I am always interested to see what others are building when it comes to the previously meantioned Phantom kits.

Is this sheet still available?

I've had good success with Vallejo's Airbrush Flow Improver, even with brush painting, it seems to thin a little and retard the drying time. 1 drop to 10 drops of paint is the standard ratio, for $3 or so, it's worth a try.

Airbrush (the Iwata Revolution CR is perfect IMO), Acrylics (Vallejo to start, easy options and user friendly), Tamiya 1/48 WW2 kits to start (the P-51's and Zero's are pretty much shake and bake kits with little hassle and make into nice models). You need to use a good primer for the acrylics to really bite, I use Tamiya spray primer (lacquer based), and Ammo by Mig One Shot Primer (acrylicish), both yield great bonding if used properly. Also with acrylics, get used to doing all your final seam and putty work before laying down the acrylics, they don't sand out as well

Get a cheap compressor with an airtank and spend the good money on the airbrush. I have run them cheap compressors for more than 12 years without a problem, and they are fairly quiet. Grexx or Iwata is where I would spend my cash on an airbrush personally.

I have held one but not used it, felt a bit clunky in the hand compared to my Iwata, plus the detailed craftsmentship wasn't as good IMO.

I think people are opting more for the social media based Group Builds, seems to be easier to post pics and such for the tech challenged, and it's usually a page already in their favorite go-to social media platform.

I'm not nitpicky, I love Phantoms and have kits from all the different manufacturers, they all look like a Phantom in the display case. In a judging environment, one would have to be an F-4 expert to spot any of the shortfalls between the kits. If I could get Monogram's lines, Hasegawa's simplicity, and Tamiya's detail...it would be a perfect Phantom kit IMO.

Had a friend kitbash both kits together to overcome the shortfalls. I chose the Academy kit with a ton of AM over the HB, just seemed like the way to go at the time, either way it is a lot of work to get a semi accurate bird out of them.

I had it in my shopping cart heading for checkout and the wife caught me!

Top dollar...sounds like it could be an ugly number!

I store mine inside sealed ziploc bags and non have dried out, they are going on 6 years old now. But, I did have one color that I shot on an SU-27 that took forever to dry, may still be a bit tacky, haven't checked in a while. Painted the Flanker 5 years ago.

Kit found, thanks Dutch!

Hasegawa has a nice line of rivet tools and spacing guides, they are a bit costly and tough to source outside Japan, but are well worth it. The Mr Hobby GT70 Mr Rivet tool is also a great asset, comes with 3 different sized tips, also costly and tough to scource but worth the effort.

Coke and a smile! Get a fresh bottle of coca-cola, soak your chrome parts in overnight or so, and wallah!

I like Bob Dively liquid mask, it's a little thicker than the usual scale model mask because it's designed for Radio Contolled aircraft masking needs. It also comes in a bigger jar!

I use the medical tape for sensitive areas when I mask over decals, when pulling the tape off, pull it back over itself slowly and closely, haven't pulled a decal off yet.