oortiz10

Uh...yeah! Watch out for the landing gear! The way the instructions have you install them would leave them backwards with the oleo scissors (torque links) facing forward. Problem is, the landing gear legs are "keyed" and installing as instructed would leave your struts at a strange angle. I had to cut off the mounting tabs and find an alternate mating solution. If you have any questions...don't hesitate to ask. Good luck with the build! Cheers, -O

Hey ARC, I know that, with the release of Airfix's P-40, there's been a number of early P-40s being built. I picked up Academy's boxing at a swap meet for just a few dollars and figured I'd build it up. I decided to build it OOB with some Starfighter decals. The Starfighter markings were customized, and the kit's sharkmouth was used, to represent a P-40B from the 54th Pursuit Group around 1943. I wanted to do something a little different than an AVG airframe. The Carpet Monster got the pitot tube, but I'll be scratch building a replacement. The kit is pretty simple with little detail, but it builds up nicely. There was no filler used on this kit. All paint is MM enamels, and it's weathered with Flory washes and pastels. Anyway, feel free to share your thoughts. Thanks for looking! Cheers, -O

Planes of Fame Airshow - 2017 by oortiz10, on Flickr

Hey ARC, Here's another rescue from the Shelf of Doom. It started off as Hasegawa's F-16C Night Falcon, but I was able to steal some parts from a different F-16 to get the parts I needed (except the correct wheels) to build it as a -A. The resin bits are from Steel Beach, the decals are Two Bobs, and the exhaust cover is made from masking tape. Everything else is plastic out of the box. The paint is Alclad's White Primer as the main color and metalizers for the exhaust, and MM enamels for everything else. I used Flory's washes for the (light) weathering. Thanks for looking! Feel free to share your comments and criticisms. Your feedback is welcome. Cheers! -O

Hey Classic Modelers, Here is a couple of pix of my finished build. You can see more in my thread in the Display Case forum. Cheers! -O

Hey ARC, Here's Monogram's venerable white boxing of their F-86 that I built for the Classic Kits GB. I built the kit to represent the F-86 flown by Burgess Meredith's character in the movie The Last Chase. I've never seen a Sabre built up in these markings, so I thought it'd be a nice change from the usual NMF Sabres. It was tough finding info about the airframe, but I was able to find this: "The aircraft was indeed loaned from Flight Systems - it was a Canadair Sabre 6, c/n 1600, built for the Luftwaffe. It first flew on 17Jun57, and served first with WaffenSchule 10 at Oldenburg, then as a civilian target tug as D9538 with Condor Flugdienst at Westerland on Sylt Island. After its flying career was finished it moved to technical school TSLw 3 at Fassberg. It was one of a number bought by Ormond Haydon Baillie in 1978, and after dismantling was stored briefly at Wroughton, UK. Haydon-Baillie was killed in a P-51 crash that year and the whole lot were sold to Flight Systems Inc., of Mojave CA. C/n 1600 was registered to them as N1039C in Apr79, and its appearance in film 'The Last Chase' came around November that year. The aircraft was re-registered N82FS in Oct81, and served FSI as a target tug for a while. It was then registered to Gerald A Smith & Connie L Smith/Smith & Sons Aircraft, Paso Robles, CA and was re-registered again, this time as N186JC in Jun93, and painted in Skyblazers c/s as '31186'. It was then sold to Steve Snyder, Lumberton NJ, who flew it at many airshows. Sadly Snyder was killed in the aircraft on 19 June 1999 at South Jersey Regional Airport during a low-level pass." (Source) Finding pictures that weren't screen shots was difficult, but I was able to find one profile photo of the real thing. Anyway, let's take a look at some pictures of my build. Anyway, feel free to share your comments. Thanks for looking! Cheers, -O

IT'S DONE! I'll post some more pix in the Finished Builds thread and in the Display Case forum a little later when I have some time. For now, here's a teaser: Thanks for looking! Cheers, -O

Hey ARC, Thanks for stopping by. The canopy IS masked. The frames are taped off and the rest is covered with brush-on masking. The white "stripe" along the fuselage sides is tape, as is the dragon on the tail. Next, thin red stripes outlining the yellow will be masked before the final color is sprayed on. It's not a ANG bird, actually, it won't be wearing military markings when I'm done. I probably won't get anymore done until the weekend, so this will have to hold you over until then. Cheers! -O

Hey phantom and Kurt, thanks for the pats on the back. I've been able to make a little more progress on my build. After the yellow had dried, I masked... ...and sprayed the next color. It doesn't look like much more than a mess now, but I'm happy with the way things are progressing. Once the red has cured, I'll mask again before shooting the final color. Shouldn't be too long now! Cheers, -O

Yikes! I can't believe it's been almost 2 months since I last worked on this build. It would probably have been longer if it wasn't for a recent "late night." So, my wife went on a trip and was gone for a week. One night, the dog and I stayed up a little (too) late enjoying some adult beverages. While I was SUI (Surfing Under the Influence) I found the markings for my Sabre. Part of the reason this build stalled was that I wasn't sure what I wanted to do for its paint scheme. I had just finished a handful of NMF builds and I wasn't really feeling another one. Well, while I was up that night, I ran across some inspiration on YouTube. I don't think I've ever seen these particular markings built up before, so I'm excited to see how it turns out. I'm not going to tell you what the end product will be just yet, but I do have a couple of pictures of my progress. I started with some primer on some areas that are going to be "brightly colored." Then I laid down the first color. That's all I've got so far. I'm waiting for this first color to dry before I mask and spray the next. Wanna try to guess what it's gonna look like when it's done? Thanks for stopping by. Feel free to share your comments and criticisms. Stay tuned for more progress! -O

Thanks for that Chris. -O

Hey ARC, I'm hoping someone could help me out. I'm building Academy's P-40, and I'm curious about the wheel well color. The instructions call for the main and tail wheel wells to be painted interior green. I seem to remember reading that the wells were painted the same color as the underside camo (neutral gray). My Google searches all turn up info about the canvas covers and their colors, but nothing on the wells themselves. So, I have a few questions... Could someone please let me know if the wells are neutral gray, like the underside, or interior green? If they're painted, are the main wells and the tailwheel well painted? If the main wells are painted, is it the entire well or just the part that houses the wheel? (In other words, is the part of the well that accepts the strut painted too, or just the well that accepts the wheel?) What about the inside of the doors? Thanks in advance for the help. Cheers, -O

Hey there ARC, I've always been interested in photography, and I'm trying to learn how to shoot better pictures. What better way to combine two of my passions than dabble in aircraft photography? I'm nowhere close to being as good as some of the pros that post here on ARC, but I'm pretty happy with the way some of these came out. If you're interested, here are a few of FiFi's visit to the Commemorative Air Force in Camarillo, CA: FiFi at CAF Here are a bunch from the Planes of Fame airshow: PoF Airshow You can tell that some have been processed since I'm trying to learn how to use my editing software. I'm interested in hearing your comments and criticisms. Thanks for looking and feel free to share your thoughts. Cheers! -O

WOW! I wanna take pictures like this when I grow up! Awesome stuff!