Joe Hegedus

Since I don't enter contests any more, I don't have to worry about it. I've kept, I think, a total of 2 (National level awards) and either tossed the rest or used the plaque to make a base for another model.

What Dave said, but honestly, for something as simple as a Hornet canopy, I'm not convinced that it saves any time over the old-fashioned method. I think that it takes longer to line up the precut masks on simple shapes than it does to cover the canopy and cut along the frames. Even more so if the precut are in multiple pieces for one surface.

They stall when the level of frustration/pain/aggravation exceeds either the tolerance level (if it's a subject that one simply has to have), or the fun threshold of the builder, generally.

I'd have figured that, other than for "in-theater" ops, it would be whatever the squadron's usual call sign was followed by the Modex. At least that's the normal procedure around here; Double Down 876, Salty Dog 123, Tester 22, etc. So yes, they would correspond to an aircraft. But I'm not sure how easy it would be to ID a specific BuNo that was tied to a specific Modex at any given date, as the Modex can and does change and there may or may not be a record of what it was at a given time unless you find a clear photo. The only number that really matters is the BuNo as that's the official ID; the Modex is just the squadron's number for the jet.

The current consensus seems to be that the Airfix Hawk 81 (P-40B/C) is the best early version and the Hasegawa kits are the best for everything else, with the possible exceptions of the F and L. I'm not sure that anyone other than AMT (or whoever got the molds) ever tooled the Merlin nose other than resin conversions. There are probably some people who will argue that, though.

I use either Tamiya Neutral Gray or Model Master Gunship Gray for WWII Neutral Gray. Which particular OD shade I use varies. Sometimes MM OD, sometimes Tamiya OD, sometimes Gunze OD, sometimes MMII OD 613. Sometimes more than one.

I ended up printing an outline on yellow decal paper, then hand painting the red outline and green background, and using generic numbers for the serial. The $ for the couple things I needed was a bit more than I was able to justify for the project. The end result turned out reasonably well for me:

PA ANG 146FIS (Pittsburgh). Both the orange target tow as in the RS kit, and standard markings. 56FG (62FS), Selfridge Field -yellow spinner and fin, red/white/blue rudder

FWIW, I rather like the idea of an electric car. But for anything other than running around town here, it's not practical. Range is one issue (300ish-miles max on the Tesla, according to the company rep I talked with), which is marginal for the normal travel we do. Then there is the lack of a charging network (not exactly thick on the ground between my house and our usual destination, and located off the normal travel route we take); none locally (within a 50-mile radius that I"m aware of). Battery life is another concern, and the associated replacement cost when necessary (I tend to keep cars for 10+ years or more), along with how much does the range degrade when one is running the AC in the middle of a DC summer, or, while sitting in DC traffic in the summer? How much does the residential electric bill go up when one is charging a car at least a couple times a week, vs. how much do I pay in gas? How much is it to install the charging equipment in my garage? Not insurmountable challenges, but things that need to be addressed before electric cars can really have an influence. Currently, they seem to be more of a wealthy novelty rather than a practical alternative for the middle class. I do like the idea of no oil changes, regenerative braking, and the additional cargo space since there's no engine up front.

Again, using PA as an example, the state Turnpike Commission recently raised tolls again. I think it was because of declining revenue and needing more $ for maintenance. There may have been some $ siphoned off by the legislature for something else, too, but I'm not sure on that. Anyway, I recently saw an article about this, where the gist was that since the toll rates went up again, use of the road is declining because travellers don't want to pay higher tolls. They just take alternate routes now and avoid I-76. I kwow I don't use the Turnpike anymore. It used to be the most convenient route to get from here in MD to where my wife and I grew up around Pittsburgh, but with it costing almost $20 to get from where we would normally pick up the Turnpike to where we'd get off to get to my MIL's house, it's worth the extra 15 minutes or so to take one of the alternates and save the toll. That $20 is 2/3 of a tank of gas anymore, so it costs nearly as much use the toll road as to make the drive from our house to our parents.

Well, you can always move to Pennsylvania. Their state tax on a gallon of gas is, I believe, the highest in the nation.

What grit you use is mostly driven by what you need to accomplish. If you have parts that have a significant step at the seam, you''re not going to want to try and tackle that with 1200-grit paper; you'll be sanding at it for weeks. The only real way to not obscure details by sanding, is to not sand. You can take steps to minimize the detail loss, but you might as well either get used to restoring detail, or learn to live with the loss. There is a place for pretty much any grit from maybe 200ish and up in most modelers' toolboxes, I'd say, especially if you're going to be working with larger resin pieces or vacuform parts. My normal go-to is 400 grit, moving to 600 and higher afterward if necessary, but starting with a coarser grit is necessary on occasion.

Finished a couple days ago.

Well, the OP asked for opinions on what kit people got the most pleasure building. Not the best fitting, not the best detailed; the ones that they found most pleasurable. Obviously, some people have a lot of fun building the Hasegawa Scooters. Mine are: Tamiya P-47s, any and/or all Eduard 1/72 Hellcat Hasegawa 1/32 P-47 And after consideration, I'll add the Monogram P-47 Razorback as well. I've built a bunch of those and enjoyed every one.