Camus272

Since I voulnteered at the St Cloud airshow this year, I got five days of behind-the-scenees. On Thursday they do several flights, one in the early afternoon where they fly all over town and get to know their points, and then the solos do a practice in late afternoon. On Friday they do the full routine at standard show time - about 3:00. BTW, not an odd question. I was wondering the same thing - that's why I decided to volunteer, to see every flight they made. Brian

My tracking number does show progress through the postal system. If it's right the package should be delivered today (here in MN). Brian Edit: package did arrive (AFV F-5Es are looking good), ordered on 7/1 - so 42 days. Given the low prices and the free shipping I think that was a reasonable transaction, I wouldn't have a problem doing it again.

I still have a number of the Academy kits ready to go. Adding a resin cockpit and intake helps quite a bit, the rest of the kit isn't too bad, although the weapons are pretty weak. I believe that kit came out in 1990, so Hasegawa had already put out a top-end F-16 kit. This new one is obviously different plastic though. I guess it's just the Kinetic kit, but isn't Italeri already boxing the Kinetic plastic? I wouldn't mind picking up another one for the weapons. I recently got the Hasegawa KF-16, nice kit - would be better if they added another weapons sprue. Brian

The Raptor sheen actually gets mixed 50/50 with the paint. I just got some from Sprue Brothers, but haven't had a chance to try it. Brian

Nice shots! Thanks for the link. Even though we had the Thunderbirds over here in Duluth that weekend, it looks like you got a pretty good show. Brian

Presto! Nice addition, just waiting for 8/27 in St Paul. Brian

I just heard about this. The C-17 demo is quite impressive, but does look dangerous. I really feel bad about this, my condolences to the families. Brian

I know the original F-15E test platform was loaded with AGM-88s and I've seen artist conceptions of them with AGM-65s. I suppose they figured that is what the F-16 is for and didn't bother to pay for integration. Still wondering about the EF-111s. Maybe its time the USAF bought some EA-18s. There's a lot of other things I wonder about too. Like why we don't have block 60 F-16s, but then many things in the military don't make sense. Brian

Well, it does look like the Mod Eagle scheme to me, which would be 36251 Aggresor Gray and 36176 blue-gray - which does look like the blue-gray here. I don't believe there is any Dark Gull Gray. I hope this helps. Brian

Thanks for the responses! The weather was all over the place. It rained during the F-22 practice, but then cleared up for the Blue Angels. Just as they finished a massive severe storm passed by with heavy lightning. At that point the F-18s folded up the wings and went into the National Gaurd hangar with the F-22s. Saturday was completely overcast with a strong haze in the air. Sunday had good sunlight, but some clouds which forced the Blue Angels to do a low show. I think I got the bugs worked out of my new camera, so shots from Duluth should be better. Brian

I would say the number one thing a modeler can do is give up brush painting and go with an airbrush. Even if you can just find one of the Testor's plastic airbrushes that use canned air, painting improves considerably. They used to be around $20, back when Walmart carried them, and I think they work pretty well. Combining those and spray cans covers the painting. Then work on the filling and sanding, and then some more filling and sanding. That's the tedious part, but some time and effort during construction really pays off with the finished result. Welcome, and I look forward to seeing h

I thought I would put up a few pictures from the first St Cloud Air Show - 6/25 & 6/26. Besides the Blue Angels, we were lucky to get the Zeke & the F-22. Hopefully, we'll get more shows in the future. More at St Cloud Air Show Album Brian

Luckily, most of the shows I get to have the Thunderbirds and an ACC demo. Next week I'll see the Thunderbirds and the F-15E at Duluth, Of course there's not much chance of an F-22 demo at a T-birds show. Other than Nellis, that is. Aviation Nation is an incredible show. Last year was great, and this year will probably be better. Oshkosh is the big show, but I'm not interested in much of the civilian stuff, so Aviation Nation seems to be the one for military aircraft. Both teams have performed together a handful of times, and there should be another one next year at Andrews AFB May 21-2

I really hope this doesn't happen. I thought the retiring of the F-117 was premature, and the retirement of usable fighters over the last year was unnecessary, but this just seems too extreme. The B-1 seems to fill a uniquely valuable role that won't be replaced anytime soon. And the notion that the Block 40 F-16s should be scrapped is crazy, they certainly have some value left. All of these aircraft have filled needed roles in the current conflict, and even if they didn't, we still need to maintain a full defense force. If I believed in conspiracy theories, I would think someone is tryin

You should probably be more worried if you were actually out of town. While you're gone it probably wouldn't be a bad idea to leave a radio on at a decent volume, and double check all doors, windows, etc. Other than that I wouldn't worry too much. Brian

I want to see one of those "Air Force" F-14 Tomcats. Brian

Most from Great Models Also Sprue Brothers and Lucky Model, with a few from Ebay and Scale Model Supplies in St Paul. Brian

Of the ~200 kits in the stash, all are planned as far as what project they will end up being. I have a database for what kit goes to what project, as well as aftermarket decals waiting and what armament or extra resin parts are needed. Of those, around two dozen are on deck as priorites and from there about six are candidates for the "next" project, which is chosen by my mood when an opening arises. As others have said, planning is easy - finishing is the hard part. My rule is to only start 1 kit for every 2 finished, so I don't move up the list quickly. Given how quickly kits, resin add

I still have some on my shelf going back to 1987 (1/72 F-16XL). I just rebuilt an F-18 first built in 1988 (getting ready for this month's Blue Angels performance). So, I never really get rid of any - I'm looking to finish a very large collection which I hope will be impressive all together. Lower quality builds are in storage waiting for a rebuild when I someday get inspiration or a need for that particular kit. Brian

That wasn't what happened, as explained in dialogue in the finale which stated that it was all real and what happened, happened. They all died when they died, and met in a timeless place. The writers have said all along the island wasn't purgatory, but apparently they ran with that idea for the last 10 minutes. Brian

Well, I have a list of 2-3 dozen questions I wanted answered. I saw one person had a list of 62, all of which seemed reasonable. Some of them could have been left alone , but there were big ones like what would happen if MIB left the island. They never got close to answering that. Also , the omniscient ability of Eloise was never explained. There were also scenes the writers threw in knowing we would expect them to return to it, Libby's story & the outrigger shootout for example. I could go on and on. As for life and death, I'm all for the redemption elements of the storyline. But

One of the best shows ever made. The finale was absolutely terrible, I wished I had stopped at last week's episode. I just wanted some answers, not a made-up, feel-good, inconsistent theology. Brian

Thanks for the pics. It seems like we just got the 25s to replace the ADFs, but I'm glad we get to stay in the fighter business here in MN. I'm looking forward to seeings these at the airshow in July. Brian

Yeah, it wil be quite exciting to get the Raptor here in St Cloud. I've got my tickets already. I'm not sure why there are now so few ACC demos. With six teams, you would think they could get to at least two shows every weekend. Same thing with Duluth - Thunderbirds only. Brian

The light blue was straight model master 35183. Brian