Caesar Alexius

Hi everyone, The latest project I've been working on is Hasegawa's 1/72 scale F/A-18D which I'm doing as a RAAF B model. I decided to go all out and buy resin air intakes and landing gear wells. The more I've shaved the fuselage and resin well down, the better it fits but I've run into a problem. The top of the well is still far too high to allow me to install the cockpit and I've only got around 2mm of shaving to go until it reaches the bottom of the fuselage. It's a bit hard to explain in text so hopefully these photos show what I'm talking about. The red line represents the top of the resi

Thanks for that photo! I was so focussed on looking at the angle in my reference photos that I ignored the actual location of the pylon.

Thanks Ken. Your build was one of the ones I looked at before posting here. Excellent work, especially on the XF-89! I've just snapped off one of the pylons and moved it forward a bit. It does help with the angle a lot, so thanks for that suggestion! Unfortunately the pylon's contour is very different to the wing's now that it's further forward but it's nothing that a small file can't handle. If the competition organisers say that level of surgery is too much for the Single Medium category then I'll just enter it in the Modified category instead.

Hi everyone. A few weeks ago I began work on Academy's 72 scale F-89J Scorpion. I was hoping to build this as my first competition entry but I've run into a bit of a problem. After gluing the outermost hardpoints on (the ones that carry the AIR-2 Genie rocket), I noticed that they angle downwards quite a lot. I checked my reference photos and the hardpoints seem to angle down a little bit, but nowhere near as much as the kit's. I then checked the instructions several times and found that all the hardpoints are in the correct location and facing the right way. Here are some examples of what I'

Coat of glass black (Humbrol 21) was then done before the application of silver. I'm not sure if gloss black has any advantages over other colours. I just use it before applying metallic paints because of what I've read about Alclad II. Works fine enough for me. And that was when the problems started. I decided to use Humbrol 11 thinned with mineral turpentine. I stopped fairly quickly once I saw how the paint was turning out. It had the texture of a really bad skin disease. :(/> Seeing this I decided to take the heartbreaking move of stripping all the paint off with oven cleaner

Hi guys. Thanks for the feedback! If all goes to plan I hope to submit this into the Queensland Model Hobby Expo (QMHE) competition this year. It's not really award-winning material but I'd definitely like the experience of having my work judges by others. Well, a lot has happened since I last updated this. Unfortunately, I've suffered quite a lot of setbacks with this build. However, as I always do with these projects, I shall continue. Here's what's happened. After I glued on the air intakes I found that there was a gap between them and the air ducts. However, one of the perks of working

More progress has been made. I glued the gunsights on and painted them black like the rest of the cockpit. There's a bit of flash on top of the sights that I attempted to take off but considering the scale and the fact thay they're behind another layer of glass I'm not worrying too much about that. Next step, add the cockpit to the fuselage. I decided to do this before gluing in the instrument panel so I could avoid any potential misalignment issues it may have had with the fuselage. Yes, I know there's a lot of flash in the photo, that's why I try to take my photos on black backgrounds and

Hi all. Been visiting this site for years now and have received a lot of useful information from the forums but I've never actually posted any of my own work. I intend to change that now. I also figured that if I'm posting in a public forum then that will create an incentive to actually finish something for once. So, here it is. Airfix's 1/72 scale De Havilland Vampire T.11. I'm going to do this mostly OOB. Instead of building a T.11, I'll be doing this as a T.35. What's the difference? None, apart from the fact that T.35s were manufactured here in Australia. Not certain about exactly what

Most of the work I do involves messing with finished kits, just like you described. The thing is though, these kits are ones that I build years ago and didn't do a very good job on. I usually cut them apart, strip the paint of with oven cleaner and put them back together just like a brand new kit. The only things I usually change about the kit are markings and payload.

Thanks for the suggestions everyone! I particularly like andrew.deboer's idea. I've actually considered buying Airfix's new A-4B Skyhawk. Hanging a nuke on the centreline hardpoint with two external fuel tanks would make it look different from most other A-4s that I've seen. Thanks very much for that link Rex. I think I'll definitely buy that victor alert set. As for the legalities of having a nuke. Well, I also happen to have a 1/72 scale U.N. Security Council P5 ambassador who is under instructions to veto any resolution that restricts my stockpile or how I choose to use it. I knew my int

Hi all. Currently on the workbench is Trumpeter's 1/72 RA-5C Vigilante. Pretty good model on the whole. One thing that's a bit odd about it though is that it comes with four nuclear bombs, two B28EXs and two B43s to be precise (odd because I've never heard of recon Vigilantes carrying these). Because I now have these four bombs in my spares box, I'm now wondering what I should do with them. So, do you guys have any suggestions? The only thing I've thought of so far is to load one or two of them onto an FB-111 if I can find that kit for sale somewhere. Any other suggestions are welcome. Alex.

Thanks for that Jari. My Skyraider reference folder has tripled in size now. And Otto, I remember skimming over that thread when doing my initial research. Interesting point you raise about the cowling. As for the prices of kits, I know exactly what you mean. When it comes to ebay, I'm at a disadvantage in that I live in Australia, meaning that I have to put up with enormous shipping costs. That's why when I saw this kit for $25 at the hobby expo, I immediately bought it.

Actually, now that I've read the description of those pictures, it appears that those planes are "Loaded with a representative collection of weapons for display purposes only." Hmmm.

Thanks for that Andre. No matter how obscure a topic, the members on this site are always able to point me in the right direction. The problem now is that I don't actually have any of the aircraft mentioned in your link in my kit stash. This means I have two options. My first is to see if anyone has said fuel tank lying around in their spares box and would be prepared to mail it to me. The second is to just have one fuel tank on the centreline hardpoint which has been seen in many of my reference photos. I prefer the look of two fuel tanks (I've hardly ever seen three used) but as they say, be

Thanks for the responses everybody! I've gone through a few more photos and right now, a combination of HVARs and WW2-era GP bombs is the most likely combination to put on my Skyraider. Thankfully I have a Monogram 48 scale F9F-5P Recon Panther in my stash which still came with a weapons sprue, containing six 250lb, two 500lb bombs and six HVARs, so I'll be using these. And Jari, thanks for that photo. I've never actually seen extended fuzes on the older bombs before and I'm very tempted to add them to my own. The fact that the kit contains wing-mounted napalm bombs instead of fuel tanks throw

Hi everyone, A few weeks ago I picked up a Monogram AD-6 Skyraider at the Queensland Model Hobby Expo and I must say that I'm very happy with my purchase. However, me being me, I'm not content with building it OOB so I thought I should ask a few questions before commencing work. For starters, I'm going to make this a U.S. Navy aircraft from Vietnam, most likely by making my own decals. Finding a scheme shouldn't be difficult. What is proving to be difficult is choosing a loadout. The kit comes with 8 Mk.82s with daisy cutter fuzes (it is spelled with a z in this instance right?), 4 rocket pod

Hi all, I am currently re-building Academy's B-29 Enola Gay kit. For this second time round build, I have decided to do something less usual and make it a USAF (i.e. post-September 1947) Silverplate/Saddletree B-29 based at Roswell. Internet searching has come up with a few pictures of B-29s from the 509th, the most interesting one being 'Dave's Dream' that took part in Operation Crossroads (nuclear testing at Bikini Atoll in '46). This aircraft had large black and yellow bands on it (just enter "b-29 operation crossroads" into google images and you'll see what I mean). What I'm wondering is

Worst fitting kit I've ever come across is Classic Airframes' 48 scale Vampire NF.10. There was a gap of about 3mm in some places between the fuselage and the wing, the gun access panel sat proud of the fuselage and I've just discovered that the right wing is 2 or 3mm behind the left, meaning that I'm going to have the shorten the left boom by that distance. HOWEVER, this is the first short-run kit I've ever built and before this I've had zero experience with resin parts, so my diffuculties with this kit probably have more to do with my lack of experience than the kit itself. I'd also like to

Thank you very much! They are a help indeed.

Hi guys. As the topic suggests, I'm about to (re-)commence work on my stratocruiser kit. There are many useful threads about the kit on this site but the one piece of information I'm still struggling to find is what colours to paint the cockpit with. Unfortunately most images of stratocruiser cockpits I've found on the internet are in black-and-white. The one colour photograph I've found was on airliners.net and it's of a super suppie. The cockpit appears to be a mixture of ghost grey and black. Would the colours in this super guppie cockpit be an accurate representation of what the original

First of all, nice job on those figures! I had a look at OKB Grigorov and after seeing how you've done them, I think I'll go with those. They have some Steyrs with M-203s, so I might get myself some of those. Thanks Austin.

"If I use the kit decals (which I probably will unless someone convinces me otherwise)". Well, looks like someone just did convince me. Thanks for those pictures Ray! I think I'll go with the H camo scheme. I figured that if SASR were being deployed on exercise (or real war if somebody decided to invade us in the 1980s), the RAAF would probably send a camo'd herc to insert them instead of a white and grey one. And if the kit represents an E model, well, hopefully the lights and rest of the diorama should distract it's spectators from that fact. Also, thanks for the offer of those decals. I'll

Cairns is originally where I'm from. I moved back down to Brisbane (where I attend uni) two weeks ago, just after the floods receded. Now that I leave Cairns, this mega-cyclone decides to hit. It seems kind of unfair that I managed to avoid both natural disasters, seeing as my friends in both cities have deal with them (unfair on my friends that is).

A while ago I bought Italeri's 1/72 C-130 E/H and after sitting in my stash for around 6 months, I suddenly realised that I could make a diorama out of it. This is my plan - my diorama will be of the Herc that's just landed in a desert at night (meaning I'll rig it with LEDs), inserting some SAS soldiers and vehicles. If I use the kit decals (which I probably will unless someone convinces me otherwise), I'll be building a silver Herc from the 1980s, meaning that any vehicles coming out of the herc will have to be ones that the Australian army used in the 1980s. I've done a bit of research and

Just bought the 1/48 Ju-87-B, so count me in!