Vidar_710

Showed up in Dallas today for some specialized training that has my annual training and check ride tacked on for an 8 day stay. On my way to the sim this afternoon, what I had assumed to be another Airbus sim, turned out to be the new 787 sim close to being completed. American Airlines instructors and pilots will begin qualifying on the 78 within the next 2 weeks. With that said, a new American Airlines livery decal sheet is needed for my Zvesda 787 kit! ;-) Tracy

Wow... And I thought I was bad about being accurate with starships! See my Excelsior thread to see what I mean. ;-) I love building airliners... I should be because I fly'em for a living, but I just don't get this deep into the complete minute details. I like the KMC kit because to me it looks like that old dinosaur, the 72. I'm more worried about making things look to scale, I.e. Trailing edge wing thicknesses, antenna sizes and positions, and the over all recreation or representation of the subject. If I allowed myself to be deterred by that level of detail and accuracy, I'ld never build a

OOB Gil.. Displaying it on its side? Evie and I took a lot of pics during her space camp trip last summer. I'll get them to you. The F1s are unbatted. Make sure you find a scaled human figure to put on the base so the kids will have an idea how big it was. Tracy

I'm going with the flashing navs. There's a whole bunch of steady on lights all over the ship. The nav lights will be LEDs milled down to 1/16" dia. Thnx for the input folks. When I get home I will start a build thread on this project. For those not familiar with the 43" Lunar Models Excelsior, this project has been intensely focused on correcting all the inaccuracies of this kit. Reshaping major hull sections for new vacu form pulls and A LOT of scratch building. Looking forward to sharing it here. Tracy

PERFECT! Aves is what I need. Thanks for the input. It was on the tip of my tongue. I have Milliput, but getting it mixed is a bit of a pain. Aves is much more pliable and has good characteristics for blending with a decent working time. on order... ;-) Tracy

I need to reshape a vacu formed ship hull at the bow. It's too narrow and I want to build it up to the right shape and profile. When fixed, I will vacu form a new hull. I'm looking at build up as deep as a quarter to a half inch then feathering back into the original shape. Easy to sand and fill would be a great help. Any suggestions please. Thnx, Tracy

Starship Modeler has some in their tech library... http://www.starshipmodeler.com/starwars/smith_sw.htm Tracy

Little more help please. It takes less time to click on an option than to read it! ;-) Tracy

Yes.. Grid lines were also penciled in on the bottom of the saucer, Tracy

I'm going strong on the 43" Lunar Models Excelsior. TrekModeler at TrekModeler.com is designing the plug n play lighting system for me and he's about ready to construct it. I'm at an impasse on which way to go. In my research, I have found that the Nav lights at the edge of the primary hull (10 in all) vary from scene to scene. In one scene, they are all steady-on... Then the next they are all flashing. There is all ways a flashing strobe on the bottom of the secondary hull. I don't want it to come off as cheesy. Maybe you guys can give me an consensus on what you would like to see.

Looking great Gil. You're catching up! You'll probably pass me by the time my BA blue paint and RR fans get here. Tracy

Thank you Timo5! I broke down and ordered a set of BraZ RB211's on line. I also found Extra Color's British Airways One World Blue there and got a couple as a bonus find. Tracy

This is some nice work!

I've put a lot of effort into the GE engines to make look great, but the Speed Bird I want to do has Rolls Royce fans. Who out there makes after market engines for this kit? Thnx, Tracy

Airframe is primed with Tamiya's Fine Primer White out of the can and buffed to a gloss.... NO SEAMS. 8-D Top http://s676.photobucket.com/user/Tracy_Mann/media/Works%20in%20Progress/Revell%20Boeing%20747-400/20130824_122910.jpg.html?sort=6&o=12 Bottom http://s676.photobucket.com/user/Tracy_Mann/media/Works%20in%20Progress/Revell%20Boeing%20747-400/20130824_123011.jpg.html?sort=6&o=11 I found my stash of Boeing Grey and will be painting the wings and stabs soon. The Coroguard decals are here! Tracy

I've decided on a Livery! I'll be doing a Speed Bird with the Chelsea Rose tail. I picked up the decals last weekend in the vendors room at the IPMS Nat's in Denver. Tracy

I have one in my hobbyroom. I even have the twin-globe aftermarket TWA decals for it. Now to just have the courage to get a pair and build it! Tracy

Tracy at FedMod and Tom at PNT/ThomasModels work closely together now days. FedMod is PNT's primary distributor. Tom got tired of the hassles of being his own garage company. I also do box art builds for FedMod when I can. As for the upcoming decals, Tom ran into a snag due to his copy of the kit having a badly distorted starboard side secondary hull half. Not to worry, I gave him mine to finish. ;-) Tracy

Inspiring build! Tracy

That is a beauty of a build! Like to know where you got the after market turbofans. I've actually seen that "Speed Bird" both in DFW and MIA while at work. My personal biggies beef with this kit is the thickness of the wings and stab trailing edges. I just finished priming, then buffing out the imperfections. Getting ready to metalize the leading edges, and apply the Boeing Grey - Coroguard decals are on the way. I'm trying to decide between 5 liveries... United 'Grey-n-Blue' fusalage Anesett Australia: Sydney 2000 Virgin Atlantic, Cathay Pacific: city sky-line Quantas Formula 1 M

You misunderstood what I was saying. Of course the ship was correct throughout the Second Pilot episode. The Production version updates had not been done yet. They only had footage of the 11ft second pilot version at that time. This was the first time the 11ft model was on-screen. The Cage used the 3ft model exclusively and none of that footage of the 3ft model was used in the Second Pilot. What I said was... By the time we get to season 3 in the original release, you could see all three versions of the ship in a single episode based on stock footage used over and over again. The Remaster

After you get the kit, Make sure you buy the PNT models decal set coming out with a hull plating and accurate markings based on the files from the actual CGI model. Primary hull is purdy much done and he's getting starting on the secondary hull. http://www.starshipmodeler.net/talk/viewtopic.php?t=106949 Tracy

Yup, As I surmised... gluing the wings on first with a complete meld to the fuselage before the gluing the Belly Pan on took the flexibility away. The base of the wing assemblies themselves provide for the needed support. Two options for those with a prospective build on their workbench. Tracy

Thnx! I stumbled across the technique while assembling general purpose Mk series bombs for a 1/32 Navy jet project. I wanted to recreate the thermal coating by softening the surface of the plastic, then rough sanding to get the texture then applying light coats of Tenex to keep the rough texture in place. It resulted in the perfect fill of the halves to the point you could not even see where the two halves were cemented together. The bomb looked cast as one piece of plastic. I just discovered that while looking at my pics, click twice on the magnifying glass icon at the bottom right till it

No problem with the "belly pan" on my end. After gluing the fuselage halves together, the wings went on to ensure that they got a good tack to the entire surface of the wing root plates on the fuselage. They seemed too flimsy to trust good contact after that belly piece being glued into place. After the wings were attached and cured, I added pieces of styrene in the fuselage rendering tabs to obtain more gluing surface for the "belly pan" part. It's not going anywhere! ;-) Sorry I didn't get pics of that before everything went together. DutyCat ended up taking his belly part off to add supp