giles

I have just been in Shanghai over the weekend. Only Model Zealot is left standing. And, it is perfectly walkable from the Beixinjing Metro Station.

Moritz, Your swing wing F-105 is so cool, I signed it just to say so! Giles

m n A timley update... all 1/48 3 X Mirage IIIC 2 X Mirage 2000D 6 X Mirage F-1C/CR/CT 3 X SAAB Draken 2 X SAAB Viggen 2 X SAAB Gripen 10+ X Phantom (actually lost count) 8X F-14 6 X F-15 6 X F-16 8 X A-4 Found my Vietnam collection... multiple AC47, AC-119, AC-130 gunships in 1/72 Growing fleet of airliners in 1/144 6 X Airbus A319/320/321 4 X Airbus A330/340 2 X Boeing 737 5 X Boeing 777 And, I started buying early US Navy jets GIles

The Blackbird is at this stage right now I glued the pieces together on a tropical island resort two weekends ago. It was supposed to be an easy build... except I did not bargain for fit issues. Nothing major but annoying enough. I also opened up the recon officer's canopy windows and installed two facsimile crew members (not that you could see them now that the fuselage is closed). Giles

I did not realise that Heller kitted a J-35. I only have the newer Hasegawa kit but want to build the Danish FT-35 two-seat trainer. If you have the Heller kit and have build the single seat version, or plan to do the single seater and do not need the twin seater, would you consider selling, trading, or giving :wub: me the parts for the twin seater? cheers, Giles

Right on the dollar! I started on 1/72 when I was a kid. Moved on to 1/48 when I was able to afford them. Gave them all (mostly 1/48 jets) away twenty years later . Some how found myself building vintage 1/72 left over that no kid wanted (luckily I did not offer all of my stash to a real hobbist!) And, nowadays I am buy (too much of that) and occassionally build 1/144, 1/72, 1/48 and 1/32! The most extreme I have done are Dragon and Hasegawa 1/400 airliners! My main concern is (the lack of) space. I enjoy scratching oddball or oneoff a/c. In general, 1/72 is a good compromise. I dabble

Thanks Gary and Paolo! I didn't know about the Heller kit, althought I had the Viggen and Mitrage F-1B (yes!) somewhere in my parents' attic. I figure my odds of getting one now is pretty I wanted to build the Danish TF-35, so I am inclined to use the Hasegawa standard late Draken boxing as the base to start. The cockpits are easy enough to scratch in 1/72. I will probably use Pavla's resin ejection seats in any case. May be Maestro Models would have released a twin conversion in 1/72 by the time I get round to the canopy problem. Giles

I will take a photo of the SR-71 over the weekend. I am afraid it is probably too much past the post even though I actually only started it in February. The FACs are in the Britmodeler Vietnam GB. http://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=61932 The two dinky kits were started earlier in January. They are kinda slow moving because I am not really looking forward to repairing self inflicted damage from my zeal to thin the fuselage sides.... Giles

Some close up of the cockpit bits. They look rough, but should be OK after a clean up and proper paint job. I have not figured out how to do the IPs because Italeri's IPs do not resemble the real instrumentation on the Canadian Hawks. I have also deepened the nose undercarriage well. I am aiming for an approximate effect - not sure how much can be seen once the bird on its landing gears. The main undercarriage wells I butchered earlier have been "kinda" fixed... they still need a lot of finishing work. Don't you love puttying and sanding :blink: . I am not really that keen to

I was looking at my twin seater collection the other day, trying to decide which of Viggen or Gripen I should start on first. I know there is a following for Hasegawa's family of Drakens (in 1/48) and there is a conversion kit from Maestro (also in 1/48) for the Sk356C. I could not find an equivalent for 1/72. I have the Hasegawa 1/72 version (Austrian boxing) and realised that Hasegawa has deliberately engineered the kit with a future option of offering a twin seaters. Has anyone attempted a twin Draken?? I think it is feasible without having to wait for mr Hasegawa to rejig their mold.The

I didn't realise this GB runs until 1st July. I am hesitant to enter another GB, since I started "too many" GBs here but have only completed one so far before the dateline. I cobbled together a SR-71 at a beach resort during the family Chinese New Year getaway a couple of weeks ago. Unfortunately, I have already passed the closing fuselage stage (it is a dinky vintage LS 1/144 afterall). I am currently stalled at the sanding stage . Planned to do it in NASA markings (if I could fidn the right decals) or alternatively a Habu. I could post photos if the mods wish to consider this. I also hav

@AX365, Italeri kit with Cutting Edge decals for RCAF/NATO joint training squadron. @ ALF18, Thanks for the offer. PM sent. No photos for today, but I have "more or less" repaired the undercarriage wells I have butchered earlier. To complicate things, I thought of scratching my own seamless intakes so that I could leave the FOD off... So much for OOB. I will post photos when have figured out how to us a new camera. Giles

Thanks. I knew that, but I am not in Canada. I am in Singapore and it seems that modelers here only like warplanes... My CT-155 is an Italeri kit. I also have the Airfix Red Arrow (new mold) boxing. I must be in the minority who prefers the Italeri kit. The Italeri has better detail but seems more fiddly to build. We'll see.... Giles

Sorry to disappoint you, Norbert. I think this is lost in translation . What I meant was this was my first coat of putty and surface for this build. I had experience with the green Squadron stuff when I was a kid, and was never really good with it :lol: . The Tamiya putty is much better IMHO. I really just got back into this hobby. Recently tried super glue as a filler. Was doubtful before I tried, but I think it worked really well! Giles

I am surprised no one has proposed the CT-155. So, here is my contribution. I packed the tiny kit for our annual Chinese New Year get away. Thought it was a nice little kit to do a quick OOB after the kids have gone to bed. After researching other people's builds online (I don't own any Hawk reference in my defence), things quickly took a turn towards OTT... This is what I did to the cockpit with "research" based largely on Neomega's Resin 1/48 pit. More time was spent online than gluing a few stretched sprue! I also butchered (rather badly... more about the salvage job later) the wi

The Revell kits seems to be OOP :lol: I am changing to a CT-155 for this GB. Giles

Was traveling for the last two week of January and then we went away for a short R&R in Bali while everything shut down for Chinese New Year in this part of the world, so there isn't much to update. @ joachim, it is actually a dinky Revell. I corrected the drooping tail boom and also cut the correct openings for the Caracal's transparencies. Here is my first attempt at puttying (Tamiya) and surfacing (Mr Surfacer 1000). I was reasonably happy with how things looked… until I noticed (while sanding) that one fuselage half still had a pronounced drooping tail boom! I am very sure I

Hey thanks Austin! I enjoyed your diaromas This disease... er... hobby comes in many guise. I ought to have my head examined at some point. But, first I must show you this... Using Norbet's Plan as an improvised jig, I broke the tail again. I made the cut at the Caracal's new fuselage section - I reckon I might as well do it in a place where I need to putty and sand (and where there is minimal engraved details to lose in that process). This is how the Caracal lined up, actually matching the profile of Norbert's Plan rather well. Giles

Thorsten, thanks for the flower! I did the correction to the doghouse. The correction is small but significant. The corrected fuselage length matches. When superimposed on Norbert's plan, the tail boom looked positively off! The tail boom looked straight on Norbert's plan. But my Caracal's tail boom looked like it is drooping. I am a little puzzle because I measured the (original) cut to the tail correctly, so the skewing is not from the cut and paste. Furthermore, the tail boom in Heller's painting diagram seemed to have a slight downward slope (droop) compared to that in Norbert's

Danke Thorsten, I will try the flower! Oui Norbert, 2mm in 1/144 is almost a foot! So I reckon we will need round two plastic surgery. I did check the accuracy of the Revell 1/144 kit against the Puma (SA330) scaled plan. From what I remembered (don't have the parts with me), the tail is not actually right sized, but the angle of the tail is slightly off, so when superimposed on the scaled plan, the Revell tail looked small (you can see the plan falling outside the Revell tail) . Of course the Super Puma/Cougar/Caracal have a new broader tail. In fact, I think the whole Revell tail b

I am looking for this. http://modelingmadness.com/reviews/viet/can/zamdhc6.htm Not much luck so far... Giles

I took some photos over the weekend. Unfortunately, I have not figured out how to take proper pictures of models! Apologies in advance for the poor photo quality. This was done before Norbert posted his comparison. Although the fuselage and tail length on my cut and paste Mini Puma matched Norbert's plans, the curved profile at the fuselage and tailboom juncture is slightly off (you can also see the notch at the fuselage tailboom joint). I corrected the compound curve at the fuselage and tailboom joint with another piece of cut and paste (the great advantage of having two kits of t

Thanks guys for the encouragement! I know it might turn out to be a flight of fancy... quite likely given my started build to completed build ratio :) On the plus side, a 1/144 Caracal has some serious advantages: 1) one does not need to sweat the small details; 2) no many are insane enough to try, so there aren't many yardsticks for comparison; 3) the Revell Puma is actually a very good kit; 4) I better do this before I need reading glasses! Norbert, Thanks for your comparison of the long and short. Your helicopter builds have been my inspiration. I read your original post @ master1

I had wanted to build France's newest dedicated Resco/Special Ops helicopter for sometime. All I could find here in Singapore is the rather uninspiring Heller Cougar kit. I would have preferred the Italeri version. I know the conversion has been attempted in 1/32 scale using the Matchbox/Revell Puma kit. http://www.arcforums.com/forums/air/index....&hl=caracal So, instead of waiting for the better Italeri Cougar kit to fall into my lap, I decided to take a walk on the wild side... Afterall, New Year = new start! Without much ado, I shall introduce my little project. The Revell Pu

I would like to contiribute a DHC-6 Twin Otter in Tara Air livery. You might find this an interesting read. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tara_Air I flew on one of their DHC-6 a few weeks ago (two days after one crashed into the hills) while on holiday in Nepal. Giles