Wolfman_63

I have opened up a store on my website to make it easier to purchase the U.S. Navy Aircraft Carrier Hangar Bay and Air Wing Decal Sets. The hangar bay decal sets cover U.S. Navy CV, CVN, LPD, LHD, and LHA class ships. These decal sets provide all the signs, logos, murals and stripes used on the ships. I have both 1:350 and 1:700/1:720 scales The air wing decal sets cover specific ships and a specific cruise in 1:350 scale. These sets cover all the aircraft that were aboard during that cruise including the tail designs, aircraft numbering, and squadrons. You can purchase these in my

This next build is the Revell 1/48 F/A-18E Super Hornet. For this build I will be using the Eduard cockpit detail set, a QuickBoost resin ejection seat, and Ares resin exhaust. The scheme I have chosen to do is VFA-37. The decal set is from Furball Decals for CVW-8 in 2017. The squadron was actually flying F/A-18C’s at the time and transitioned to the F/A-18E in 2018. However since I served with VA-37 (with A-7E’s) in the 1980’s and the squadron designation changed to VFA-37 when they went to the F/A-18’s, I am using the 2017 scheme on this Super Hornet to honor my squadron. Starting off

The MQ-8B Fire Scout is complete. This week I applied the kit decals for HSM-35. The decals were very nice. They went down nicely. The kit does not come with clear parts for the navigation lights. I used some scrap clear styrene and made the four lights. (One on top, one under, and the two side lights). Finally I worked on the rotors. The tail rotor is all photo etch and fits perfectly into its resin mount. The main rotor is a little tricky. There is a cup at the end to attach it to the hub. This cup is larger than the pin on the hub so there is a lot of play. Getting the rotor blades aligned

Thank you, As for the island, it was all brush painted by hand due to not only the PE but the island details itself. I used Scale Colors paints. I painted right out of the bottle. The paints are a little on the thin side so I painted on 3 thin coats. The paint does a great job of leveling itself out and leaves no brush marks.

Next up is an interesting subject. This is the 1/48 Brengun MQ-8B Fire Scout. This is a helicopter drone built by Northrop Grumman and is used by the U.S. Navy. It is typically deployed on FFG’s and LCS ships. The reason I chose this is I am a member of the International Plastic Modeler Society (IPMS). I belong to the Mckinstry Chapter and we have monthly meetings. Typically each month we have a theme. One of the upcoming themes is “Missiles and Drones”. I looked over the available model kits of drones and thought this would be a little different than the combat drones many are used to seeing

Will you be reprinting the 1/48 Scale Fat Albert decal set? Been looking for 6 months and cannot locate any sets.

[img]https://davidsscalemodels.files.wordpress.com/2022/03/dscn6871.jpg[/img] It is on the navigators table Yes it is a real issue. Air Force Magazine March 1950 issue.

Welcome to scene 3 of the R4D-5 conversion. This week I detailed the starboard fuselage interior. I used .02” X .04” styrene square rods to frame in the area. I also removed the bubble window atop the fuselage. The R4D did not have the bubble window. After removing the frame on the outside I used a thin sheet of styrene on the inside then filled the hole with white putty. Once cured I wet sanded it to contour the fuselage. I then went back to the interior details. I used .03” rods for the area across from the cargo door. From the reference photos these are larger than the upper section as they

Moving forward to the next scene in the R4D-5 TFAW build, I continued with the forward cabin details. The bulkhead behind the cockpit was detailed using cloth tape to replicate the padded section. In the next section where the radio/navigator sits I added a lens to the light and detailed the seat. In the movie is a scene where a crewman reads from a magazine article on how the Air Force states UFO’s do not exist. After some research I identified the magazine as the March 1950 edition of the “Air Force” magazine. I decided to take a photo of the cover, scale it, print it out on paper, and place

This next build is going to be a little different. I have always been a fan of the 1950’s and 1960’s horror and sci-fi movies. One of my favorites is the Howard Hawks 1951 movie “The Thing From Another World”. The movie is set in the arctic at an outpost that ends up fighting an alien invasion. With that in mind, I will be using the Trumpeter 1/48 C-47 and converting it to a R4D-5 for arctic service. The scheme will be the “Tropical Tilly” used in the movie. For the conversion I will be using Lone Star Models (LSM) arctic C-47 conversion set. The LSM conversion kit includes numerous resin part

Week 29 – One week closer to completing this project! The B-25B’s are now complete. I spent the early part of the week painting the aircraft, building the propellers and painting them, applying the decals and installing the canopy and nose. They are then set on a grid so I can place them on the ship in order. It was a little time consuming as I had to let the paint dry then the decals set. During these little breaks I started to layout the base. I needed to do this so I can get the exact measurements to order the display case. The case ended up being 33” long, 12” wide and 10” tall to accommod

Week 28 - This week has been spent building the B-25B’s. I made an assembly line so I could open up the fuselages for the cockpits. Once all the aircraft fuselages were built I placed them on the flight deck just to see placement. I placed them as they were staged when they pulled out of San Francisco Bay and then how they were staged for the launching just to give you an idea on how much space they had to work with to get perform this mission. I will be staging them as they were on deck as the ship left San Francisco Bay on April 1, 1942. I then made all the landing gear using the PE str

Week 26 on the USS Hornet – I have hit the 6 month mark! First, I want to say I hope everyone had a great holiday. With the holiday season here I have a few days off from my regular job and was able to get a lot of work on the Hornet. To start with I added crew members to the bow and hull. There are a few standing near doorways as well. Once they were placed I moved onto the flight deck catwalks. For the bow end I added the catwalks and rails. They were then painted and mounted to the flight deck. For the aft section there are also four 20mm AA guns as well. I cut off the gun sections from the

The 25th week covers assembling and installing all the anti-aircraft and 5” guns. The Oerlikon 20 mm cannons took some time to assemble. There are only 4 photo etch parts as well as the kit part modified for the mount. Assembling all 28 of them took three evenings but they are all built, painted and mounted. I then painted the 5” guns and mounted them. I then added the few remaining ladders for the catwalks. For the one ladder that goes up to the catwalk on the port side I added one of the 3-D printed crew members that are positioned walking up a ladder. Right now I am painting many of t

Here we are at week 24 – This week I have all the catwalks installed and all the railings installed. Before I get into the details of the hull I need to make a correction from last week. The AA guns are not .50 cal. The reference book, as well as some online sources, states they used .50 cal for AA on the Hornet. As it turns out the US Navy found the .50 cal was not very effective. So in February before the Hornet sailed out of the shipyard they removed the .50 cal AA guns and replaced them with Oerlikon 20 mm cannons. The photo etch gun I previously built was the ones that came with the detai