Unglued

I'd like to go back to the original question of whether hunting and fishing for "sport" is immoral. The question can't help but make you think about how you feel about certain aspects of hunting and fishing. It also raises the question, What is "sport?" You won't find "sport" on the definitions page of the hunting and fishing regulations. Questions of morality, we have to decide for ourselves. And I think most of us would prefer that the government stay out of legislating morality. I've found that, even though I get great self-pleasure in doing some things, I've noticed that my doing the

[quote name='Jennings' timestamp='1435931416' post='2723163' I don't tell anyone they shouldn't do something, but I still believe it's wrong. I don't do it anymore. I'm not as silent about some things as you apparently are, Jennings. If I see someone doing something that's just not morally right, I let them know why I oppose what they're doing in hopes that they might think about it, see the issue from another angle and change what they're doing. Back to fishing, even if it's legal to do so, catching and releasing a salmon—traditionally and presently a food fish—is just not right, espec

What a great museum Evergreen is! My wife and I spent a day there (McMinnville, Oregon) last January. Not often you can walk right up and touch a war plane in a museum, but you can there. I think I enjoyed that display more than the one at the U.S.A.F. Museum. It was nowhere near as complete, but just being able to get up close and personal with some of the aircraft I've modeled was really cool.

I'm 77, grew up in Western Washington, spent the last 51 years living in Alaska, and have hunted and fished all my life. I stopped hunting about 10 years ago, and slowed a lot in the years up to that. Never hunted just for "sport." Only for the meat. Even when the snowshoe hares were at the peak of their last 11-year cycle, when I was snaring them in my backyard, I ate the meat of every one I shot or trapped. I've never hunted for a "trophy," and have never understood trophy hunting, even though some of my friends have mounts and skins on their walls. As for fishing (which is just anothe

Thank you, gentlemen! You've given me enough to chew on for a while. This is the biggest airplane in my 1/72 collection, and it's made me a little hesitant to apply glue. Probably a good thing. Thanks again.

I'm building a 1/72-scale KC-135A of the Vietnam era using the AMT/ERTL Kit #8048. I've run into a couple of snags that someone with experience can probably help me with. 1. Both wings are warped (assuming that they weren't meant to appear to be sagging.) Fortunately, I caught it before gluing them together or onto the fuselage. Sighting along the leading edge, the center appears to be about 1/8-inch higher than the end. This would give the wings a decided sag when installed. I considered gluing a 1/8 inch square brass rod inside the wing, but I'm not sure that would be a good fix. For

Thanks, Jennings. Looks like a plan. I'd like to see that photo of "nasty looking" aircraft. Without even trying, I'm usually able to master that look. :D

I guess my "oops" in reply to camou wasn't specific enough. I should've pointed out that I started this thread late at night, after spending hours on the Internet looking for Vietnam-era KC-135s, and that I was spending just as much time looking at B-52s, because a B-52D is next on my list to build, and that I was making notes on both, and that my mind, or what's left of it, was barely functioning when I started this thread (which is why I started a new one). So, to be perfectly clear on this, I have neither seen nor heard of a KC-135 in SEA camo with a black belly and a black fin. However,

Thank you Devilleader501 and Jennings! Now I'm getting somewhere (he said, just before falling off the cliff). If I had looked a little further, I would've seen that the modeling paint names for FS 17178 aren't gray, but are "silver," "gloss silver," "chrome silver" and "chrome metallic." Jennings, I was so happy when I read in your reply that Corroguard had a "very rough surface." I've become quite good at creating those, but never thought I'd be doing one on purpose. OK, what paint do you suggest I use, and do you have any tips for giving it a used look? I usually use acrylics, but

I'm building a 1/72-scale KC-135A of the Vietnam era and unsure of the color of the exterior. As near as I can tell from photos, most were painted a light gray overall, except for some natural metal on the engines and some flat-black on the nose. The paint instructions for the kit I'm building (AMT/ERTL 8048) are for 2 later-period tankers. One, 71423, is supposed to be painted "Light gray" FS 16473 overall, according to the kit instructions. According to TO 1-1-4 (page B-16), FS 16473 is the color No. listed for the C-135 under "Standard System" for "All exterior areas except as specified

About the camou, oops. That's what happens when I have my mind on two builds, in this case, a KC-135 and a B-52D. The photos of KC-135As that I've seen on the Internet seem mostly to have an aluminum painted finish. What would be a good paint for this?

I'm building the AMT/ertl KC-135A in 1/72 (kit 8048) for my Vietnam-era collection, and haven't been able to find any appropriate decals for the period. I'd like to do one in the SE Asia camou, with the glossy-black bottom and tail fin. One possibility that occurs to me, if I knew that a certain KC-135R had been an "A" in Vietnam, and that it wore the same numbers and markings at that time, several decals of the KC-135R variant are available. Does anyone have any ideas of how I might go about finding the history of tankers by their tail numbers? Or any other ideas? Thank you.

Where could that blinkety-blank part have gone? After it flew out of my tweezers, I heard it go "ding" somewhere, and that was it.

This Group Build fits right in with the motif of the airspace of my man cave: anything that flew during the war(s) in Southeast Asia. I'm in for a C-123B Provider, 1/72 Roden kit. My build will depict an Air America Provider that operated in Southeast Asia from 1965 until 9 Feb 73, when it was brought down by a SAM in Laos. Its Air America tail number was 374. It's Air Force number was C-123B-18-FA, 56-4374. This aircraft was converted to a C-123K in 1969, but I'm building it as a "B." Interestingly, a Royal Lao AF T-28D landed without flaps and rolled into “374” while it was parked at

I'm starting on a 1/72 Huey HU-1B and would like to know the FS number for the olive drab used on the aircraft that were painted in olive drab. I find an "olive drab" and a "US Army helodrab." Is there a difference? I intend to use Model Master acryl. I also have builds going on an Australian Army Pilatus Porter PC-6 and a US Army Grumman OV-1A Mohawk, both of which also will be painted olive drab. Any olive drab experts out there?

OK, guys, I think we've about exhausted the subject of what to do with boxes. I'm going to sleep on it a couple of days, and then go to work on whatever I decide. Right now, I kind of like the idea of keeping the flattened box cover of the smaller models, which 90 percent of them are. With those, I can determine about when the model was made, which would be useful when I get around to replacing some of my earlier efforts. I have a couple of file cabinets, so I think I'll use legal-size file folders, so I can file them with a system, for easy locating. Right now, I have to dig through a bu

Good stuff. Keep it coming, guys. I'm taking notes. Don't know why I waited this long to do something.

After finishing and displaying my builds of 1/72 model aircraft, I've been keeping all the boxes, in which I also keep the instructions, sprues with leftover parts and leftover decals. But now, even though I've limited my obsession to Vietnam-era (1955-1975) aircraft, the boxes are taking over. Seems like there must be a better way for those of us whose man-cave storage space is limited. Here are my own thoughts on the subject: Disadvantage of keeping boxes: They're starting to eat up a lot of space. To make matters worse, I'm getting into some larger aircraft now (C-123, B-52, KC-135, C-

Thanks for these links, Whitey. As for the United States Army decals, I notice that United States Air Force is available, so the Unites States part of that can be coupled with the Army part of U.S. Army. Sometimes it seems as if there is a conspiratorial group out there whose mission is to make modeling difficult. They (capital T) certainly have succeeded. Thanks again.

Gee, was it something I said? 91 views and no replies. Maybe this will be a record. Anyhow, I found and ordered a sheet at Fireball Modelworks for a Huey Cobra that has four United States Army decals and enough numbers to do this airplane, providing they all go on properly. I wish more generic number and letter sheets were available. The lack of them makes it a real challenge to make a unique model. This is the third one I've done, and I intend to do a few more. One of my "uniques" has $30 in decals and only $15 in the model kit. It just don't seem right.

The doc shoved a high-E string in there?

I'm in the final throes of building a 1/72 RU-6A Beaver. The fun started with the Hobbycraft DHC-2 Beaver (U6A/L-20) kit (HC1398). The basic kit has no antennas, so I've scratch-built a few. The real thing bristled with them. I'm modeling mine as a Beaver that served with the 146th RR Co. in Vietnam, tail no. 41071. It was one of several Beavers used by the Army for Airborne Radio Frequency Detection, aka "taking the night away from Charlie." I figured the decals would be simple as they were just "UNITED STATES ARMY" in black, block letters on both sides of the fuselage, and the tail num

I'm almost 78, and thought I was having the same problem, but after thinking about it, I realized that I wasn't "missing" mistakes, but purposely ignoring things that were no longer important. If I can no longer see mistakes, there are none. I like to think of it as another advantage to getting old. As time goes by, it just gets better and better. On the same subject, (which is getting older, in case you've forgotten) a recent study found that older people aren't as forgetful as previously thought. It turns out that our brains — which are pretty much computers made of meat — have accumu

I must put a word in for Festivus, the holiday "for the rest of us," with it's Feats of Strength and its Airing of Grievances, both of which are guaranteed to provide indelible, if not warm, memories of the season. Happy Festivus!

IMHO, skill in anything waxes and wanes. For example, I play Boggle on the Pogo Web site daily. Having loved word games and played them all my life, I'm an "above average" player. Some days, I can beat almost everyone. My fingers just fly over the keys. Other days, I can't get going. Almost anyone can beat me. Though I always wonder why this is so, I've never been able to figure out the reason. It's just the way it is. And sometimes these hot/cold spells continue for weeks. The same thing is true in my modeling. Sometimes I wonder if it's mainly attitude. If I open a kit and see a