viking73

Here's a quick update from today. I've got the tail pipe, cockpit, front instrument panel coaming, nose gear well, and intake splinter plates all in glued in place. I've also added some lead fishing sinkers in the nose. I used a little blue play-doh to keep it in place even though I super-glued the lead down. I don't like my lead to rattle around I then super-glued the resin main gear/speed brake well piece into the wing bottom. When that set I carefully lined up the wings halves and glued the wings together. Next up will be to getting the fuselage halves together. -Derek

Thanks for the kind words guys. MiG31 - no I didn't bother with rescribing the panel lines. For the main gear doors and airbrakes, I sanded off the raised lines and I used a pencil to restore them, the rest I left raised as per the kit molding. The kit is buildable but just be ready for lots of filling and sanding as the kit is pretty bad fit-wise. One other thing that I forgot to mention is that I also opened up the kit exhaust (it's blanked off) and I used a piece of brass tubing to simulate the engine exhaust pipe. -Derek

Thanks guys. No updates yet as I went out of town this weekend and didn't get any work done... I'll have another update this week sometime. Fab, I'm planning on doing a USAF machine - why their aren't more USAF decals out there I don't know I bought the Mark I Guide with the book and decal sheet at the same time as I bought the kit. I was going to do the New York ANG scheme from that sheet but I recently realized that the rainbow rudder strips aren't included in decal sheet, grrrh. The high viz artic scheme on that sheet is eye catching but masking and painting the orange for that scheme

I was able to track down a copy of the new Sword 1/72 T-33 kit last week. I've been painting the interior bits this week and I'm about ready to get the nose well, cockpit (minus sticks and seats of course), and tail pipe glued in place so the fuselage halves can be joined. Here's the landing gear wells and wings along with some other bits and pieces. I've been very happy with this kit and it's level of detail. The resin bits are nicely cast. There are many tall ejector pins on the plastic that have to be removed from the wings and fuselage. A few passes with the Dremel tool

Wow, nice work! Can't wait to see more. -Derek

Hi, Here are some shots of my finally completed 1/72 Emhar FJ-4B Fury. This kit was a bear to tackle – tons of filling and sanding and many corrections to make (aided by the great Ginter “Naval Fighters†book on the FJ-4 Fury and also the “Detail & Scale†Fury volume). A list of the corrections I made follows, in no particular order. The cockpit was a total mess – it was fixed with the Airwaves photo etch set for the instrument panel and sidewalls. The floor and rear deck are sheet styrene. The ejection seat is a metal replacement from Aeroclub (good thing too as I didn’t h

Hi, has anyone here finished a Sword 1/72 T-33 build yet? I just picked one up along with the neat looking Mark 1 book/decal sheet to go with it. Any areas to watch out for? How bad does the intake seam look when assembled? Thanks for your comments. -Derek

Hi, I have the following Ginter "Naval Fighters" series books available for trade: #06 F7U Cutlass #43 Douglas Skyshark #65 Boeing XF8B-1 I'm looking to trade some/all of these for any of the following Ginter books: #16 F-8 Crusader (part 1) #40 F11F Tiger #42 T-1A Seastar #50 A-4A/B (USMC/USMCR/USNR) #55 A-4M #66 F9F Cougar (part 1) #78 TA-7C "Twosair" Thanks, shoot me a PM if you have any of the titles I'm looking for and would like to trade. -Derek

Hi Peter, I've got both kits and as far as I know at the moment, there are no aftermarket items at all for them. It would be nice to have some decent aftermarket 1/144 BUFF items - -D/-F conversion, decals for -D/-F/-G/-H, etc., etc. but I'm not going to hold my breath... -Derek

Bump. Anyone? Please?!

What about all the live bootlegs out there toadwbg - have you checked any of them out? They are all over the internet now if you know where to look... :) It's a great way to get your live SRV fix. There's tons of stuff out there from his early days up until his last Alpine Valley show. To me it really adds another dimension to his legacy. RIP Stevie, we miss you here in Texas. -Derek

I ordered a missing horizontal stab. from Revell USA for my 1/72 T-2C Buckeye on 8/13. My order status on Revell's website says "DE-Fulfillment" so I guess it's in process. I still haven't gotten it yet and I know it's only been a couple of weeks but I sure hope I don't have to wait 3 or 4 months for it like you did EZhotshot511 since it is a RoG kit! That would suck... Do they ship the parts via UPS or the post office? I'll post here once it shows up. -Derek

Subject says it all, I'm looking for the EA-7L VAQ-34 decals from Wolfpak sheet 72-006. Please let me know if you have a spare set for sale. Thanks, -Derek

Hi, I just finished this up today, a 1/72 Hasagawa F-100D Super Sabre. I built mine as a QF-100D target drone. I saw a picture of this bird in one of my reference books and on F-100.org. I thought it would be a perfect choice for the Hasagawa kit due to its lack of cockpit detail. I built it pretty much stock from the box. I made the nose FOD cover, exhaust cover (I had to disguise the fact that the Hasagawa kit only has the earty AB nozzle and not the later F-102 style that this bird had), and pitot tube cover all from aluminum foil. The piping for smoke system on the rear and the fast

YES YES!! We do need decals for multi-engine aircraft in 1/144!! I'd love to see decals for these 1/144 scale subjects: - B-47E - RB-47E/H - B-52D/F/G/H - KC-97G/L - B-29A - C-123B/K These are just the ones I can think of off the top of my head You could fit lots of markings for these birds on one sheet! I sure hope someone would hear our pleas for 1/144 decals. Thanks, -Derek

Thanks for everyone's help. I've got a replacement part on order from Revell. -Derek

Thanks for the info. Mike. What is the Revell kit number? -Derek

Thanks Andre, that might work. Can anyone tell me what the Revell part number is? It is part number 21 from the Matchbox instructions (the horizontal stab with the 2 tabs on it). And the Revell kit number as well would be great to know too. Also, can I contact Revell in the USA for this part being that I'm in the USA or would I have to contact Revell in Germany per your link? Thanks for your help. -Derek

I found an old (15+ years) box of models I had from way back when. I was very happy to see a Matchbox T-2C Buckeye in the find. However, when I inspected the contents, it seems that I'm missing one of the horizontal stabs :( The original kit part number is 21 or 22. If you have an extra, junked Buckeye kit laying around and you can spare a horizontal stab, please drop me a line. Thanks in advance for your help!!!!! -Derek

While on a trip visiting family in northern California I stopped at a hobby shop and bought an old OOP 1/48 Microscale sheet with a colorful VU-7 TBM-3U decal option for $5 (engine gray fuselage/yellow wings with the orange strip). I think that this scheme would look great on my Accurate TBM-3 kit that I'm going to do at some point but first I'd like to know if anyone makes a 1/48 -3U conversion set? I'm still here in California so I'm away from my books but I know that the -3U does have an extended canopy that covers the former ball turret area. I think this would be tough to duplicate wi

That's why I haven't built mine yet. I'm waiting on the Two Mikes resin burner cans that are supposed to be out in September! -Derek

Ha!! I know, I know. You warned me. But I really wanted to add a T-29/C-131 to my collection and there aren't many options out there. Unless of course you have some inside scoop that Amodel or Minicraft are producing a 1/144 line of Convair 240/340/440 kits. I'm not going to hold my breath for them! I forgot to mention that it's also a bummer that the kit provides markings for a C-131A which you can't produce out of the box, grrrhhh... -Derek

Cool pic Dave thanks for sharing it. It's even cooler that your dad was crew chief on them during his time in the USAF. Please post more photos if you have them as I'd like to see them. I too have a few T-29/C-131 manuals in my collection including a massive 1000+ page C-131A parts list. Well I did get the vac pieces cut out yesterday and I checked the length with the drawings in the Ginter book. The fuselage length does check right on with the drawing of the Convair 340/440 series so the T-29 option is out unless one was crazy enough to chop up the fuselage and shorten it. I'll skip tha

Okay, here's some photos of what's in the box: Notice the long nose and the supplied resin short nose. I want to cut the fuselage halves out so I can see what we have here - a Convair 240 or 340. I'll be fine with it either way. If it's a 240, I sure wish they would have supplied a T-29 belly radome and astrodomes! I think I might start on this today... -Derek

Hey Sarge, Funny you should mention that as I just bought a 1/144 EC-121 sheet from Hannants that is put out by Welsh Models. It has one silver/gray USAF bird and 2 gray Navy birds on it. Here's the link for it on Hannants: http://www.hannants.co.uk/product/WHD4419 Looks like I bought the last one however... Maybe it's available elsewhere - anyone? -Derek