oortiz10

Hey ARC, I hope everyone is safe and well. Since I've been hunkered down at home, I used the time to slap together another 3-footer for my shelf. I pulled out Monogram's venerable F-84F (circa 1983) and built it mostly OOB. I say "mostly" because I had to replace the pitot using some styrene rod, and the flimsy tube/rod on the nose gear using some fine wire. Fit was decent, but there was some issues with the canopy parts. They were all different widths and none of them lined up with the fuselage halves. I did what I could. For finishing, I used the kit's decals, and they worked OK. Paint was MM enamels, and weathering was Flory's washes and pastels. Comments, questions, and criticisms welcome. Feel free to share your two cents. Stay well and happy modeling! Cheers, -O

Hey ARC, Here's a moldy-oldie I built (mostly) OOB. This is Monogram's Skyraider circa 1983. I picked up this boxing at a kit swap meet for just a few bucks. The kit was complete, but many of the parts were broken or loose in the box. I say this kit is mostly OOB because there were a few things I had to scratch to replace. I used an old Microscale decal sheet to build a grey-over-white scheme from the '60s. The chevron on the C/L tank, the forward part of the cowling's chevron, and the rudder stripes were all painted. As far as the paint is concerned, I used Testors' little square bottles and MM enamels throughout the build. All ordnance and tanks were cut from the pylons. Speaking of pylons, I had to take about 1/8" off the centerline pylon because the tank would contact the "ground." I found this out AFTER I had already glued on the landing gear and C/L tank. I had to pry off the tank after all the glue had set. (*sigh*) Anyway, the exhaust tubes and baffles on the fuselage sides were scratched, as were the boarding steps, pitot, triangular dorsal antenna, and canopy slider (?). The gun barrels were replaced with Master's turned brass (awesome!) barrels. All the rebuilt/replaced parts were broken in the box. One thing I didn't fix/replace was one of the wing fences that broke during assembly. The kit's plastic was VERY brittle. The kit, warts and all, was a fun build. I know it has it's shortcomings, but I would build another. I do have Tamiya's USN and USAF Skyraiders in the stash that I'll get to someday. Until then, his was a fun (and I use that term loosely) way to get a Skyraider on my shelf. How about some pictures...? Hey gang, comments, questions, and criticisms welcomed. Thanks for looking! -O

Hey ARC, Thanksgiving vacation and rainy SoCal weather was the perfect combination for getting this Shelf Queen finished. This kit was built as a WIF for the wife. My wife's a redhead and my nickname for her is "Red," hence, the noseart. The markings were inspired by the 19th FS, with a little artistic license taken here-and-there. I used a pin-up and numbers from the spares-drawer to personalize the airframe. I made her birthday into the plane's serial and plane number. "RED-E" came from Aztec Models' sheet for RED-E RUTH. Also, to add a little more pizzazz, I painted a spiral onto the spinner and painted the wingtips too. Now, about the build itself. It's OOB except for the decals I already mentioned, some paper seatbelts in the cockpit, and resin wheels. It's painted with Alclad and MM enamels. Weathered with pastels and Flory washes. The plastic went together almost perfectly. I can't remember using any filler. The only tricky part of the build was the windscreen. Overall, it was a pretty fun build. There's another one of these in my stash that I'll get to one of these days. Anyway, on to the pictures... Thanks for stopping by! Questions, comments, and criticisms are welcome. Cheers, -O

Hey ARC, I know that the dual antennas on PTO VLR Mustangs were wooden, but what about on P-47Ns? Were the dual dorsal antennas on P-47N spines wooden too? I'm working on a P-47N, and I'm wondering what color to paint the antennas. Thanks, -O

Hey 11bee, By no means am I a master modeler, but I have an idea about replicating the wear on the markings. What about painting them on and sanding through to the paint underneath? The USAF should be easy enough to mask. If you protect the NMF with a clear coat then spray on the markings with super thin passes, you might be able to use fine sandpaper or steel wool and rub off some of the covering paint. Sort of like I did with the prop blades of my Corsair and the rotors on my Cobra. Just a thought. Cheers, -O

Thanks for the info ARC. I went ahead and made an educated guess. I tinted the windows on my -53 when I built up mine. Cheers! -O

Hey Eli, I used Revell's 1/48 boxing. Cheers, -O

Greetings ARC, OK, so, report cards are done, parent conferences are done, benchmark testing's done...and so is my Cobra! This is my first attempt at a kitbash. I took Fujimi's AH-1S Tow boxing and mashed it with their AH-1J release. The undernose armament is mostly scratched except for the turret and minigun. The turret is the -J's but modified to fit the "thumper." The minigun is from my spares box. I did some minor mods in the cockpit. Namely, scratching some ECS hoses, a small sighting glass, and some seat belts made from tape. Some other additions are the intake screens made from some spare PE and strips of Tamiya tape. The model's painted with MM enamels, weathered with Flory washes and pastels, and decalled with Fireball markings. A few detail shots. Here's my Cobra and a couple of shelfmates... First, a brother-in-arms from SEA. Second, a younger cousin from a different branch of the armed services. Thanks for stopping by and having a look. Feel free to share your comments, questions, or criticisms. Stay tuned for the next AH-1 installment... -O **I have to thank Mig for saving my bacon with a spare canopy after I ruined my original. If it wasn't for him, this build would be collecting dust in the closet.

OK ARC, I'm putting a fork in my Jolly Green. This was built mostly OOB with only a couple of small additions. It's painted with MM enamels then weathered with Flory washes and pastels. It's not perfect, but it's a solid 3-footer. It's a beast, and I think it looks cool on my shelf. Here are a few detail shots: I wrapped a thicker piece of wire in fine wire and put a tie down from my spares box on the end to simulate the hoist assembly. I found a refueling probe in my spares box and added it to the end of the refueling probe for a little detail. I made heated and smashed some clear sprue to make some lights for both sponsons and the belly (not shown). Anyway, thanks for stopping by and taking a look-see. Feel free to share your comments, questions, and criticisms. Cheers! -O

Howdy ARC, Just a little progress to share on my Corbra. Got it all glossed and decalled. Now that the airframe is mostly done, I'll be focusing on the minor assemblies (ordnance and rotors) and final assembly. Stay tuned! Comments, questions, and criticisms welcome! Cheers, -O

Good to know... I don't pour anything back into the original jar. As a habit, if I've thinned it, I use it or dump it. Interesting that it still sprays and dries clear. I'll give it a shot (pun intended) on some scrap. Not that I don't trust you all... Thanks for the responses! -O

Just like the title says. I'm wondering if X-22 goes bad. I have about 1/3 of the "large" jar that can't be more than a year old. When I went to use it earlier this week, I noticed that it had a yellow tint to it. Has this happened to anyone else? Does anyone know if it'd dry clear if I tried using it? Thanks in advance, -O

OK gang, I got a little more done on my Jolly Green. Not a lot, but every little bit of progress counts, right? Hajo mentioned that the demarcation lines between my camo colors were a little "blurry." I didn't think so at first, but the more I looked at it, the more I thought he was right. I looked at a bunch of pictures online and saw that the borders between the colors were pretty sharp. So, I went back and tightened up my lines. It's not terribly noticeable, but I think it looks better. Besides that, I started decaling too. The engines were mounted because I still need to go back and clean up some paint, and I'm going to touch up the engine to fuselage joint. Still quite a bit to do, but I'm happy with my progress. As usual, comments, questions, and criticisms are welcome. Thanks for looking! -O

TRAGEDY AVERTED! First and foremost, I have to thank Mig for saving this build. If it wasn't for him, this project would be on the shelf. Let me explain... After I got the doghouse cut to accept the -J canopy, I noticed that the canopy itself was about 2mms too wide. Well, I went back and forth about how to attack this. I tried heating the plastic and slowly squeezing it to lessen the gap, but the plastic was very thick and that idea didn't work too well. I decided I'd glue one side down, and after that side was dry and solid, I'd clamp and glue the heck out of the other side. As I was dry-fitting and squeezing the canopy...CRACK! My canopy was ruined. Lucky for me, Mig had an extra canopy and generously donated it, thus saving my build. THANKS MIG! As it turns out, the canopy Mig gave me fit much better. It was still about 1mm too wide, but it was much more forgiving. A little filling, shimming, and sanding got me a pretty good fit. Here's what it looks like under an initial coat of primer. A little more clean-up, and I think it'll look just fine under the final coat of paint. Another small problem I encountered was with the skids. One skid (port side) was "tip high." That is, it didn't want to lay flat when installed. As I was tinkering with its fit, I broke that part too. Luckily, I had the skids from the -S that I was planning on using. That explains the green skid. Unfortunately, it, too, is tip high. I wonder if it's the mounting holes. Oh well, I can live with it. I don't want to risk snapping another skid...especially since I have no more to spare. Anyway, here's where my -G is at. Comments, questions, and criticisms are welcome. Cheers, -O

WHOA! I can't believe it's been 9 months since I fondled this plastic! Well, I'm back with some progress to share. Another project that I was working on hit an unexpected roadblock, so I figured I'd get back to this beast... First, thanks for the feedback on the sanding. It looked a lot worse than it really was. You'll see in the pictures that it wasn't that bad. When I last posted, the fuselage halves were just about to go together. I got the fuselage and sponsons pieces glued together. Unfortunately, the fit wasn't perfect. I had to use some Mr. Surfacer to smooth things out. Then, when sanding to get a flush finish, I lost some of the raised surface detail. I tried to use some tape to protect some of the raised detail on the sponsons. Some creative masking and thick layers of Mr. Surfacer replaced some of the lost detail on the top of the fuselage. After the fuselage went together, I attached and masked the clear parts. I was also able to start on the painting. This is a simple kit and I'm doing it OOB, but I really wanted to focus on my painting skills. I wanted to try to replicate a patchy, worn paint job. The camo was free-handed. I hope it looks alright. Let me know if the demarcation lines should be "tighter" or if it looks OK as is. In the following pictures, everything is just dry-fitted together. With most of the big pieces ready to go together, I started looking at some of the smaller stuff. One assembly I needed to tackle was the recue winch. The instructions were really vague about its attachment point, and the whole assembly was super-fiddly with just butt-joints to hold it all together. So, I decided, I'd just eliminate the kit attachment parts and use some wire. Two simple holes in the winch with corresponding holes in the fuselage give me a much stronger bond. When the engine assembly's in place, you don't even notice the difference. Once everything is assembled and painted, things will look just fine. Anyway, that's where things stand now. Thanks for stopping by to take a look. Feel free to share your comments, criticisms, and questions. Cheers, -O