Andrew D. the Jolly Rogers guy

Sold, thanks!

From a non-smoking home, looking for more appreciative homes. Contact at jollyrogers 5 at hotmail. Thanks folks! See photos following text! Astra Decals 1/72 F-16B Netherlands AF "Orange Jumper" flight testbed decals plus molded test pod. Missing standard early F-16 data markings. $6, free shipping within USA. Add $1 for international. 1/72 MiG-3 Package. Lots of stuff! Asking $24, Free shipping within the USA. Ask about international. Package includes: - 1/72 RPM MiG-3 kit, complete/unstarted with most decals (SEE NOTES BELOW) -

Absolutely. Except, as you point out, in the kit items, the hubcaps are molded on, putting me out of luck. If you can tell me an alternative, I'd love to know!

Unfortunately, those were the closest I could find after much searching. None of the 3 kits had anything remotely similar. I was very fortunate that someone overseas offered the ones you see as a gift, even though I could see minor differences. If I ever find anything better, believe me, I'll get them....

Ever notice how often the kit vinyl tires come nice and glossy, when the real ones are usually quite the opposite? A good treatment of sandpaper all over helps, then later a scraping of the tread through sand-dirt outside the front door. The wheel hubs are painted, then detailed including a light wash of watercolor sludge with soap to make it stick.

Here's the next problem: The Aoshima Super Beetle has the super-modern dashboard and steering wheel, while both the Revell kits had the older, classic style dash and larger wheel. Which to use? I sorted through all the footage I could from all six episodes it appears in, and almost no clues....except a couple views like the one below. Definitely the classic dashboard. Looks to be the large wheel, I'm mostly certain. Had to widen the classic dashboard to fit the wider Super Beetle, though.

Thank you! What an unbelievable battle with the body of this little beastie! I thought it would be so simple; get a beetle and chop the top off as per the TV show. Ha!! Finally just about have it straightened out with the myriad of alterations. Then to add the (presumably) canvas cover over the area behind the back seat. Used 0.015" strip for the edging, then 0.005" sheet for the rest. Then, following photos of the actual thing, mark where the bolts/snaps/whatever they used are located, drill holes with a #74 drill bit, insert .020" rod, trim and sand

On to the wheels. I had a choice of 4 different sets of Beetle tires, all of varying widths. I thought the closest to what I see on the TV show was the ones from the Revell Cabriolet Beetle. The outer wheel hubs came from a most generous overseas donor (thanks Les!). However, they needed some work to fit the selected tires. As for the inner wheel hubs, they needed their center holes enlarged to fit the suspension I used.

Noticed that more of the back end had to be totally redone. Fenders are totally curved, as the tail lights are not embedded in the structure. So, they have to be totally altered. Also the panel below the engine door, has to be totally flat and not contoured.

Now the interior. The Classic's side panels seemed best, except I liked some of the details on the Revel Cabriolet better. Solution: graft the details onto the better panels. The Classic's seat bottoms are terrific, but the Revell Cabriolet's seat backs are the closest to the real thing out of the 3 kit choices. Again, graft them together.

Man, what a comparison, my friend! 😄 Got to splice the chopped door posts from the classic body onto the Super's convertible body. Always better to cut and graft too much, then cut it down to size. Then a bit of grinding and sanding to blend it all in.

Hey there, Discovered the Super is wider and squatter, and the front fenders a more stylish curve. Classic is much more narrow, almost felt my claustrophobia when I finally could see it between the two. Apparently the '71 and '72 original supers had the flat windscreen, which this build apparently is. After that they went to the curve.

Okay y'all, I must apologize for shelving this for a couple of years, but I've had a LOT to deal with, including a wedding, some health stuff, plus just got totally burned out on this due to the intensity of what I had to do to it (FAR more than I originally planned). Time to get this thing done. Major body modifications. Had to take pieces from the two Revell bodies and graft them to the Aoshima to reflect the correct vents, trims and such. Flat windscreen framing on the hardtop was too narrow, so I widened it with an insert of plastic, above and below. I'll worry a

Ya know what, that makes more sense, that they were allowed to choose their colors in the era when ship camouflage was no longer an issue. So, prewar it would be extremely light gray like the rest of the ship, and during the war it would simply match whatever camouflage was applied to the ship in question. Now, as far as Dec 7 colors go, THAT'S a whole different kettle of fish, as they say.... 😄 You mentioned the locations when the attack began; from the famous view of Battleship Row at the start of the attack, it appears that both captain's and admiral's barges may have bee

I was blessed to spend many years with the Arizona's last survivors, and while our conversations didn't usually tend toward the small launches, my understanding from the dedicated ship modelers over at modelwarships.com was that the launches were painted to match the camouflage of the rest of the ship. Never heard of personal paint schemes before, although I'm not an expert. I'd say head to modelwarships.com to ask more. Great folks there! As far as Admiral Kidd, yes, he was aboard and was probably incinerated on the bridge as opposed to still entombed. Some of the survivors I

Almost nothing at all, totally out of business... ...except one, over near the base. It's connected with a rather unique Ace Hardware store, called "The Hobby Place at Ace". 7071 E 22nd St.

So, what I need for mainwheels is something smaller than real F-111 wheels, but a bit larger than a Tomcat's....

I've been using your book and your extras Tommy, I was just tricked when I saw the wheels for sale...I shoulda known better that I hadn't found a solution for the wheels for a production type....

So, basically when the aforementioned ResKit aftermarket wheels say they're for the "A,B, C & D" versions, they're referring to the AF ones used just at the beginning, yes?

Well, my real interest is what they would've had if they'd gone into production and out to the carrier air wings.

Ah, but which AF tires? A/C/D, or F/FB, assuming there's a difference?

Just making sure here...were the B's wheels the same as for the A/C/D series? And would that include the later preproduction examples vs the first few?

Yep, that would've been my backup. Was trying to avoid....

Suits me, yes please!

P.S. They don't have to be totally fresh, I'd gladly take a set off a junked model....