Jonathan

the wing is longer and a different shape. you would pretty much need to scratch build new wings outboard of the engine. the leading edge profile appears to be about the same. you could probobly use most of the PV1 wings. could be quite challenging. Another significant difference is the tail. the PV1 had eliptical vertical fins located inboard of the round tips of the horizontal stabilizer. the PV2 had larger somewhat squarish fins located at the outboard ends of the stabilizer. edit to add this nice drawing

not for everyone - but cutting thin strips of colored decal film has worked for me. using a 00 brush to nudge the pieces in to place, and set with Microsol. 4.8x magnivisor is required for work on this scale. B)

Revell just recently re-boxed the 1/144 Eduard Ju-52.

CA glue really only bonds in very narrow spaces, so a sphere will only be attached to a flat area by a tiny spot. two part 5-minute epoxy is indeed the way to stick an odd shape into a space. Also, you can hammer lead balls flat or pound them into an old tea spoon to get a more fitted curve. I bought a slab of lead 3/8" thick, years ago, for an unrelated purpose, and I nip off little squares of that for airplane models now. I tap them int shape with a small hammer, if you are careful you can get a close fit.

I cant be bothered with pre-shading. I dont even think it looks good when it looks good.

I never have gotten good results with brush painting, though some do. I always use airbrush. gets done quick! two or three shots, then walk away while it dries before before going back for second coat. cutting and placing tiny, TINY bits of masking tape might just put you over the edge!

Hello Captain, it is gratifying to hear of your "conversion". B) I think many people share the disregard you described for smaller scales. I work mainly in 1:144, for the reasons others have mentioned, you can build models of BIG planes, and lots of planes, and full blown dioramas and yet keep them out on shelves in a small room. The kits (some of them) are fairly inexpensive (some of them are freekin expensive!), and yet as you observe, one can invest some effort and make them look really good. I look forward to seeing your new endeavor. I do not claim to be an artist, but I'd be glad

Time Machine is wonderful. if you have a second opportunity you might enjoy Amato's in Middletown

yes, DC-8-61/71 - span 43.41m (142ft 5in), length 57.12m (187ft 5in) DC-8-62/72 - Span 45.23m (148ft 5in), length 47.98m (157ft 5in)

http://replicainscale.blogspot.com/ has written a number of entries on ANG units with many fine pictures.

this is a pretty good 45degree font http://www.dafont.com/font.php?file=usaaf_stencil there are other airforce and navy fonts in that site. I ve never bothered to install any font. just put the number you want in the preview box, PtrSc the page, paste into Paint, crop and save as a PNG. then that image can be inserted into a Word doc, resized appropriately and printed.

I just spent a fair while searching this site for vacuform how-to's, as Im sure you did, and didnt find any, so I'll take th liberty of directing you to a thread on another board that contains a precise explanation, at the bottom of the fist page, as well as several interesting start-to-finish builds.

Hobby Search has the Fujimi kit for a decent price.

here is the image in PNG format, a very light color, dropped into Word and scaled to a few random sizes here are some markings for some 1:144 fuel trucks, very small, word FLAMMABLE" is clear, but my camera is not very good

A non-Alps-printer method for a white-on-blue number or whatever, is to paint or decal a patch of white where the image will go, then for the printed decal, draw a rectangle big enough to cover your white patch, fill it with a color which will match the painted model, and place the white number in the middle. Printed on clear film, the "white" will be clear, and once applied, the white patch will appear through the number. This is how I did the stars and white-on-blue numbers on the tails of my AMI planes shown in post #9. Matching the color is a trial-and-error process. You make 10 copie