Joe Hegedus

INterested in that Hasegawa 1/32 TA-4J; PM inbound.

No alcoholic beverages at the bench. No computer in the shop (too much distraction from actual building).

Off the top of my head, a boxing of the Revell 1/32 WIldcat included a book on WWII USN Fighters, the 1/48 TBD Devastator had a book on WWII USN bombers, the 1/48 F9F Panther had part 1 of USN Jets. There was also a part 2 USN Jets that I t hink was in a 1/72 F-14 boxing of the newer Revell AG kit, one on the Century Series that I think was in a 1/48 F-105 kit, and one on the Blue Angels. I don't know what kit the Blue Angel one came with. All were from written by Bert Kinzey.

That WAS the rollout scheme. It was painted over the white/orange flight test markings, I believe. The white/orange ships had ejection seats, basically the same seat as an FA-18A/B (not NACES).

Other than the rollout scheme that was in the first Italeri kit, I don't think they exist. That said, it's not hard to put together a set from the spares box and dry-transfer letters for the "Bell-Boeing" on the fuselage side.

QF-4N is based on the F-4B kit, which was never retooled with recessed panel lines. It is raised.

Fairey Barracuda. Royal Navy dive/torpedo plane.

I still think that "How to Build Plastic Aircraft Models", by Roscoe Creed and published by Kalmbach, to be a very good basic instruction manual on what it takes to build a decent model. It's not completely up-to-date with the latest products and fad techniques, but is strong on the basics. It was published back in the 80s, but shouldn't be too hard to find a copy second hand. The ISBN is 0-89024-065-5.

Differences in color/shade can be due to several things: new paint against old paint that has been weathered/stained, different lots of paint that are labled the same color, or use of a different shade because that's all that was available.

That would be something!

AF1 (or Marine1, or Navy1) is whatever the President is riding in. If for some reason he was flying in a T-41 (Cessna 172), that airplane would be AF1. Same with AF2 and the VP. The name is usually associated with the VC-25 (747), or another of the executive transports like the C-32 out of Andrews AFB though.

FS35109 is the correct color, I believe.

A model Hornets were not compatible with MIL-STD-1760 weapons (like JDAM, JSOW, AMRAAM). The A+ upgrade added this capability, so an FA-18A+ would be capable of using JDAM or JSOW. Whether they did or not is a separate question.

That's one that I've used successfully.

I've noticed that thinning Testors enamels with mineral spirits (i.e. paint thinner) will cause them to react in this way. I've also found that using a decent quality lacquer thinner (thinner, not paint stripper) to thin them does not result in them separating and coagulating for some reason. The lacquer thinner thins the paint, but if it evaporates and the paint thickens up again adding more lacquer thinner restores it. Gunze Mr Color thinner works a treat with Testors and MM enamels, as does their leveling thinner.

Probably not. The British Navy F-4 (F-4K/FG.1) had a unique nose strut that had two sections that extended for launch, giving a more nose-up stance on the catapult. This provided additional angle of attach at launch, which I think was because the Brit carriers had shorter catapults. Extended, I believe it was longer than the U.S. ones by the length of the fully extended oleo. Note that the RN Phantoms had 2 sets of scissors on the nose strut vs. just one on the US and RAF versions.

I don't have any to give you, but I think there were a pair of SLAM-ER in the 1/72 Italeri FA-18E kits.

I wouldn't worry about it too much, as photos of parked airplanes with the flaps at least partially extended are out there. But the vast majority have the flaps up.

P-47Ms were delivered unpainted, and the area under the wing where the flap retracts into, and the surface of the flap that retracts into that space, would be unpainted aluminum. Those areas were normally the same color as the surrounding exterior surfaces, and since P-47s normally parked with the flaps up, any field applied camo painted on NMF airplanes would only cover the part of the flap that was exposed.

Of course, unlike many other CAG jets, Showtime 100 wasn't all that differently marked than the regular squadron jets. Just the addition of the bee and the six colored stars on the fuselage sides.

Monogram's Cessna 180 was in 1/41; that's larger than 1/48, and it was available in a floatplane version. But I'm not aware of any larger-scale Cessna singles other than the Roden O-1 (I think Roden did it, at least) in 1/32. With some modeling skills applied, you can make that into a Cessna 170 with a bit of effort. Floats can be found in either a Revell Piper Super Cub or the Matchbox Tiger Moth, but I'm not sure how they would work out size-wise on a 4-place Cessna.

It's your model, and you're free to do whatever you want with it, but in reality the X-47 was completely incapable of carrying any type of weapon, and the "weapon" bays were filled with orange test instrumentation boxes. I'm not sure that they even had doors, per se, but rather access panels that were held closed with a bunch of screws.

Bump...

Still need a canopy. Anyone? Willing to pay a reasonable fee.

As the title says, I need the canopy for the 1/32 Hasegawa single-seat Skyhawk. Thanks, Joe