Rick De Smet

Wow nice collection! Love the A-7 Were did you get tiger those decals from? Home made? Greetz Rick

HI everybody. Back from the death I would say. After the completion of the airshow season I can finally proceed with my modeling. My Eagle is as good as ready, I just need to glue the canopy to the canopy frame and varnish my AIM-9X. But I'll try to do my best to put up a little overview. We finished with the cockpit last time so it's time for the airframe now. Some additional hydraulic lines were added, the scissors were hollowed and everything received a little paint. The Regenerative Heat Exchanger was deleted, this is no longer installed on my Eagle. I also chose to rework the sc

Some of these are already available or will be in the near future. ACMI pods ===> see TwoMikes F-16 parapack vertical fins - both A and C model ===> See PWMP Greetz Rick

Hi guys, I'm currently doing a 1/32nd F-15C from the 65th Aggressors and I have a question about the MSIP II upgrade. Did the Aggressor F-15's receive the full MSIP II update? I've ordered the new wolfpack-d update set but its hard to tell from the available pictures on the net if all of the stiffner panels are installed or not. Do the Aggressor Eagles have any other special features or reinforcements that I need to take care of to be accurate? Things I've already done are the rescribing of the starter vents, the removal of the rudder bulges, changed the starter exhaust and I closed the

Thanks for the info guys! I'll try to find isopropyl alcohol somewhere around here and give it a try. Greetings Rick

Hi guys, Maybe a very stupid question but what do you guys use to degrease your model before you paint it? Whats best? I just want to be sure I don't use anything that would damage the model. Thanks Rick

Hi everyone, Long time no see I know but hopefully thats gonna change. Last month I bought myself a new desktop and I must say my flightsim addiction took over for a few weeks. So were did we end last time? Right, the cockpit. As you've noticed in my first post I've decided to use the Aires cockpit set for the late F-15C. I must say I'm really floored from the detail they've put in this set, its a real piece of art on its own! If I were to compare this set to the one I've used on my Crusader project I must say this one comes out as the better set. The buttons and switches one the IP's are o

Thanks for the very nice comments guys! The basic paints I used for the cockpit ( the gray & the black ) were painted with Mr Color laquers. I really like to work with the lacquers for the base layer. Its very strong paint that sticks wonderfully to resin. The smaller details and the drybrush are all done with acrylic paints. I found my maskol in my local hobby shop but you can get it quite easely on most online hobby shops. Thanks for watching. Greetings Rick

Hi guys, Today the Belgian Air Force unveiled the new livery for the 2010 F-16 Demo Team. After years of grey tones we finally got some colours approved! THE NEW DEMO BIRD Greetz Rick

I'm planning to do the brown Eagle as you almost never see those. I've seen quite some blues in the past but the brown ones are more eyecatching for me. This is the one provided by Afterburner on their sheet. http://img339.imageshack.us/i/117506111024.jpg/ Thanks for the comments! I'm currently tackling the Aires pit. A magnificent piece of resin but not that easy to install. Greetz Rick

Hi fellows, After building quite some Trumpeter & Academy kits in a row I really wanted to taste the quality of Tamiya again. So what did I find in my stockpile? One of Tamiya's big F-15C Eagles . I don't think I'm the only one obsessed by the colorfull aggressor birds but as I don't have a single one of them in my collection its time to change that. Finding the kit was one thing, finding the decals was way harder as the decals are out of production now. In the end I found an example of it at a e-store in Australia. The first things to start with was to fill al the ejection holes. I mus

The hole in the 1/32nd F-4 aftermarket stuff is just crazy. Since long I've been looking out for an F-4G conversion in 1/32nd. But maybe there is a little hope. About a month ago on Z5 I asked Gustav from wolfpack-d if he wasn't interested in some F-4 updates. This is his answer : Maybe Aires could make a nice cockpit set? So lets keep our fingers crossed. Greetz Rick

Hi guys, I'm kind of confused about the colour of the F-15 pit. According to Squadron the front part of the cockpit shoud be painted Dark Gull Gray (FS36231). But it looks like a lot of people say that Dark Gull Gray is to dark for an F-15. Can anybody clear this out? Thanks in advance! Greetings Rick

Hi fellows, A few months ago when I posted my big Flanker I've told you I was going to do the same with some of my other kits. This time up is my big Aussie Hornet. I was sold from the first picture I saw from this Hornet. The Australians really applied a magnificent painting on this bird to celebrate the 20th Anniversary of the F/A-18. And when I found myself a copy of the decals for it the game was on. I've based myself on the Academy F/A-18C kit but this kit needed some modifications to present an accurate F/A-18A from the RAAF. This involved the removal of some of the tail & fuselag

Hi Guys, I just finished up my 1/32nd F-8C Crusader from the Jolly Rogers. Greetings Rick

Hi Fellows! I'm back with my the Final report for my Crusader. She's totally finished now and I must say I very much enjoyed building her There were a lot of "first" for me in this one and I really learned a lot and my way of researching changed a lot to with many thanks to all of you who gave me some great tips. I also really want to thank you guys for the nice comments during my build The reason it took me so long to get my final post together was the fact that I wanted to get me some better photo corner. I like to take a nice series of photos once a model is complete but in the past

They shoud have given the Tomcats to the Blues instead of making beer cans from them! :) Strip all the sensitive offensive equipement from 6 of them and make them pure performance birds, the rest could have been used for spare parts. Imagine the sight! Greetz Rick

Hi Fellows, I'm back with some major progres this time. I must say this is the most enjoyable part of the whole project. The last week my big gray Crusader transformed into one big mean US Navy HOT ROD! :D The decals sheet is just incredible, the colors and the quality of the decals is just perfect. A real joy to apply them I must say. The only issue you could say is that maybe the data decals are a little bit to big for 1/32nd scale. But I don't have any real references to prove it. Lets get started : The major eyecatcher from the VF-84 Crusaders, the flaming intake! I must say I was a l

Hi guys, After entering my F-8 in the ARC group build I'll post some of my older stuff to. First up is my big Flanker. Accept for the Black Box cockpit this one was completly build OOB. Painted with Mr. Color laquers and showing my first was ever. This one pleased me well last year as it scored 2 golden medals during modeling contests over here in Belgium. Thanks for watching. Greetings Rick

Nice process Don! Really like the sharpness of your camo paint job. I still have a lot to learn when it comes to camo. Can't wait to see it decalled :) Greetz Rick

Another thing, and a really visual one, Trumpeter forgot are the the afterburner cooling holes. From the F-8C on, all Crusader had these 4 cooling doors added to the rear fuselage just before the cooling scoops. I know they may be a little to big but I'm happy with the result as this was the first time I scribed a round panel... So that's it for the sanding, lets get some paint on this lady! First up was a Primer from Tamiya. Again some sanding followed by the usual preshading. I used black for the upper fuselage and a light gray for it belly. And the final coat with Mr.color laq

Hi guys! It's been a while since I posted some of my progres as I just couldn't find the time to get behind my computer. I was way to busy building my Crusader in my free time :) Once I was ready with the cockpit like you saw in my previous post I finished up al the loose parts and sub-assemblies. The front wheel is finished now, I took the metal parts from the conversion set and modified them to the early standard. This involved the removal of the wire deflector. After some grinding and sanding it now looks as follows : (the lower part is the one modified) So finally al the loos

Lovely job Don! Really like the way you finished it up; Great weathering & decals! Looking forward to your A-7D :) Greetz Rick

Looking good so far! I found this great site with some very nice pictures from the Strike Eagle demo at Dubai this year. Looks like the jet was flown hard lately, have a look at those top shots. Lots of paint missing F-15E pictures Dubai 2009 Hope these help you a bit. Looking forward to your progress. Greetz Rick

Hi guys, I'm back with the cockpit for my F-8C. Last time I've already shown you the modifications I've done to the instrument panel but now the rest of the cockpit. I was very happy that I had the Aires pit at my disposal for this one. It really adds that extra detail thats is easily seen on 1/32nd builds. The Aires pit has some very nice sharp details and is beautifully casted without any bubbles. Various lever like the one for the gear and wing lock are provided ar PE part. The person from who I bought the kit had already started on the cockpit from the kit so first a comparison of the