ESzczesniak

Personally, I’d fill the really large gaps with some plastic stock cemented in with you favorite plastic glue (I personally like Tamiya), and use superglue over the top. Putty has its role, but I find it to be limited these days. It also doesn’t have much strength itself and it looks like some of that area on the left (inboard) flap insert doesn’t have a lot of foundation for putty. Superglue will blend in rather well with plastic, although I still find a primer coat helpful to unify the different smoothness/porosity of superglue and plastic. It scribes fairly well too. I find cutting scribers

Tamiya is an “acrylic lacquer”. Acrylic technically refers to the binder in the paint. It’s water soluble, but the case of Tamiya, the solvent isn’t water. So, yes, it can be rough on some “solvent” sensitive paints. These tend to be more the water based acrylics. There tends to be fewer issues spraying “hot” paints. They’re definitely still can be, but it’s safer due to thinner coats and less physical abrading than a brush. In general, the simplest way to avoid paint compatibility issues would be stay in the same paint line. So I’d you could find the Gunze Aqueous clear fl

Thank you! I guess I'm not particularly choosy on a particular time. I just want to make sure I model an accurate air frame that would have really existed at some time.

As best I can tell, there were no DECM antennas on the VX-4 F-4J (specifically Vandy 1/Black Bunny). However, I have no good pictures of the underside and I'm worried these could easily hide in the all black paint. Does anyone have any better knowledge of either this specific airframe, or some generalizations about what F-4J's would have them? Thank you in advance!

That is an interesting bit of information and I might like that idea. I had a gray bird pictured in my head, but do like the euro camo pattern too. I already have the Heavenly Hogs sheet that I will be using for the IN ANG bird. But could maybe use it for both.

917th FW

Yes, it seems like almost every hit I find through Google is “Barksdale Says Farewell to the A-10”…in 2014. Their nose is pretty distinctive, so fairly easily identified in photographs. But even in a generic Google images search for “A-10”, everything seems to be a TGP and two Mavericks with the blue stripes.

I've long loved the A-10, but am only now starting to build one. I'm starting the 1/48 Hobby Boss with a load of extras...Aires pit and wheels, GT intakes, etc. I've been partial to the particular "Hog Mouth" of the Barksdale A-10's. I also typically build combat birds. So from what I've read, the only time Barksdale deployed was 93-96 in Bosnia. Would anyone be able to point me to a good picture source for reference? I'm looking for reference for paint schemes, weapons loads, weathering, etc. All the Barksdale photos I feel like I'm finding are more recent photos of them stateside.

The 2k is a two part polyurethane used by a lot of car guys. Similar to epoxy glue, it’s mixed in two parts starting a chemical reaction. So it hardens by a chemical reaction, no a solvent evaporating. They have excellent leveling properties and dry very hard. So they’re great for high gloss car finishes.

I've had great results with rag wheels, but I would be cautious with the hard felt wheels. These will be easy to sand through paint and even in to plastic. The "cotton" wheels are more similar to the felt in my mind. I would use fairly low speeds, 5-10k RPM. And the other caution point is to have the wheel spinning away from the edges so it doesn't catch and fling the part somewhere. Polishing vs wax depends on how perfect your clear coat is. On 2k clear gloss car finishes, I haven't found polishing to add much. But these are absolutely glass smooth. On simpler g

I wouldn't expect any problems. It is common in the car world to use lacquers and 2k clears. Gravity Colors, Zero Paints, Splash, etc of the car world are lacquer based and all have 2k clears. As always, it pays to test. But I can attest that Zero Paints 2k clear worked without problems over Tamiya lacquer spray bombs on my SF70H. I'm not sure if their LP line is much different or not.

Is there a quick easy way you could share to tell the differences? I like the looks and history of the F-4, but am very, errr...stupid regarding them. I believe I had read that they also should have the Mk. 5 seats? Is that correct?

That's an interesting note. Any one have any ideas where I could find BuNo's? Seems I should be able to use F-4N markings from the 'Dem Bones sheets, but maybe change the BuNo.

Didn’t look at the exhaust much, but looked at the intake when I was getting ready to build a WA aggressor bird. Just from looking at the instructions for the Hasegawa and Revell, it didn’t look terribly straightforward to patch on to the Tamiya kit.