Skyraider Maniac

Tom (tomthegrom) from New Zealand is an awesome trader! Great transaction, and I got my stuff quicker from him than other things I've bought from Great Britain (no kidding, last time I ordered some Land Rover related coffee cups and a t-shirt - it took almost a month; most of that time it was in customs!!!). Tom is a great guy, and someone with whom you can deal confidently! Thanks again Tom!

Wow! That's intense.

The pics for both your Wisconsin and Pennsylvania 102s appear whenever I click on their threads; it's got to be some sort of setting in the web browser; or maybe you just need to clear your cache? Seems like some folks see them, while others don't. I'm no computer whiz, but I suspect the individual browser settings as opposed to the picture link in the thread to be the culprit. Hope you get it figured out! Justin

Ron, They've been there every time I've clicked on your thread. Does the pic I shared of your thread in my previous post appear for you? It must be some sort of browser setting; maybe try clearing the cache for starters? It's just weird cause I can see them no problem (and they look great by the way, good work!). Justin

working on my end - browser settings maybe?

Ron, Every time I look at the thread, the pics are there. Justin

haha, yep. May take a trip back to hobby lobby at those rates.

Very nice work!

Geeze, could've sworn that was $29 at hobby lobby when I was in there the other day... That's ridiculous.

So quick update: I got a lot of the major sections finished, right now I'm just performing the tedious task of masking to get ready to apply RLM 02 in the interior sections. So here's what I've gotten so far: Tail MG151 position: Pretty simple; I like how it turned out. The resin cannon is a nice touch. Left wing assembly: The wheel bay alignment proved troublesome on this side; but I think it had more to do with the aftermarket spar assembly than the kit itself. Left wing is also now attached to the left fuselage half: Lots of wood glue used for the spar; I'd say it dried nicely. Left side landing gear: I was ready for the shenanigans this time, as I suspected, the instructions were at fault: you see, parts number J26 and J12 are mislabeled in the directions: Those physical parts are sitting next to their paper numbers, note the difference.... knew it wasn't me, haha the gear and their "correct" lay out: and final product: much better than last time! installation in the bays went a little easier this time as well, now that I knew what to expect. Gear alignment looks a lot better this time around too: And now she's capable of standing on her own; can't wait to get the interior painted so I can glue the halves together! Anyway, that's it for now. Hopefully interior can get painted this weekend!

Glad ya'll are ok; I'm down in south alabama and besides a lot of wind and rain, we didn't see much else. We had a small tornado touch down near my house over the summer; some houses in my neighborhood are still getting repairs from it. Hope the recovery process is a speedy one for you. Justin

Very Nice! Definitely following this build!

Very nice! Honestly, not what I expected when I saw the headline "RM Chopper" (Monogram/revell's ol' UH-1 came to mind, haha), but that is a darn good looking bike! I really like the rust effect, and the wheel details. The wheels really stand out to me. Excellent work!

Thanks! And so true. I think it was a great pity the americans, brits and french scrapped the remaining ones after the war - would've been cool to see one up close. Heck, I didn't know they existed till I saw the kit for sale on the forums about 8 or 9 years ago, back when I bought it. Made me do some research, cause even though I've read a bunch of luftwaffe books, never saw this plane referenced till I went looking for it. Thanks! and it is pretty beefy. I like the look of the plane in general - I think its one of their better looking bombers (if only the engines worked as good as it looked, haha). I always worked on my kits after they went to bed, and put them (where I thought) they were out of sight, out of mind; but then I'd come home and find them trashed 😕. Lost my B-58, A-6E, He 219, Do 335, Mosquito, and my captured P-51D all the same. I still have the A-6E as I think it's salvageable, but boy I haven't worked up the courage to go back to it yet... saddens me every time I look at it 😞. That being said, I totally understand where they're coming from... models are really cool! I'm totally glad though they're willing and able to help now, instead of accidentally destroying them from wanting to play with them, lol. Heck, they almost fight over getting their opportunity to help daddy - I have to remind them I have more models from where these came from, and take turns. Makes me happy 🙂 The hobby is certainly still alive in this house!

On the subject of not following MPM's directions to the letter... There's a lot of little nuances with their directions... like, they were in a rush and didn't bother to proof read or something before heading off to the printer. The landing gear numbering is backasswards. I didn't bother to dry fit the landing gear (my bad), and just put it together per the directions... well, I went to install the gear aaaaaand..... it was backwards - which was confusing as heck as I literally applied the numbered parts as identified in the directions. Applied glue to loosen and swapped out the parts between the legs - talk about a pain in the butt... I'm just glad I caught it in time. Anyways, Dry fit, Dry fit, Dry fit with this kit, cause just because it goes together on paper, doesn't mean it will on plastic... I can't say dry fit enough. Though, the saving grace is it's a soft plastic. Gaps really aren't bad, stuff just doesn't quite like to go together as intended. The old monogram B-58 plastic was far worse to deal with, and a bigger gap-queen. So, issues with the gear... so these struts... ...these struts don't work as designed. They're the ones in the shadow (the red lines are the approximate shape of said strut) that actually support the gear in the bays. The instructions tell you to put them on prior to mating the wings together.... No, don't do that, because they can't sit flush in the spot they were designed to go in order for the gear to sit right. I literally had to break them and reset them just to get them to sit properly. So anyone attempting this subject in the future... note to self. These struts... ...these struts can't sit in their support struts as designed either, and attach to the gear as shown in the instructions (we'll just say they're more like guidlines at this point). I had to apply more glue to make them plyable in order to twist them to some degree in order for them to sit in place, and attach to the gear. Probably could install that support strut at the time of the gear too... probably would work out best. so they have these nifty little grooves for the rear portion of the gear to sit in to get the right angle.... only they don't, so again, dry fit. I felt quite exacperated by the gear. So more on these goofy directions... The directions had these inlet guide vanes for the intake installed BACKWARDS in the instructions... oh, and they're a little bit short, but at least they're going the right direction.... The way they had them, the narrow end would've been at the front..... and it would've looked worse... One of my favorite instruction gaffs, is this: This is both vague, and wrong. Thankfully, there's google, and it helped me get the placement right. It's not rocket science... at least I don't think so... The funny part is that the plastic is at least correct to the airframe, regardless of the instructions, haha. I do think it's neat how it lines up properly with the bomb sight inside the cockpit! I think in plastic, they pulled it off well. So even with my misgivings about the gear so far, she is capable of standing on her own! The wing is pretty much done - these little joints are a pain in that they only marked the location of 2 out of the 4, so you had to guesstimate the distance (I could've broken out a ruler, but I felt eyeballing was good enough in this instance). I probably should've mentioned this in the original post, but for color options - Option B all the way 😄 I know I've griped a bunch about this kit so far in this post - it is a pain that the instructions seem to have arrived on the short bus - But I still really like this kit - it has good detail (for the most part), and I'm not dealing with frankenplastic. Honestly, I'm not even done with this one and I want to do another (that green looks good too...). Aside from it's quirks, it's a pretty solid kit. Anyhoo, that's it for now.