swimmer25k

Berkut, I got one from Airwaves mail order about a year ago and it is up to date with some of Amodel's newer stuff. The fiberglass parts are much more smooth and a lot less flash on the plastic parts. I used to have one of the early An-22 and it was dogged by comparison. Lots of elbow grease to get that one finished. It shouldn't have the problems like on Terry's example (sorry, Buddy.) Yefim Gordon did a book on Soviet X-Planes with a couple of good color shots of the T-4 in its heyday. There is even one with the nose cranked up. Try to get your hands on a copy. Good luck and keep us

I picked the paint up at a Wal Mart in the model car section. There is a Wal Mart about 2 miles from my house and they didn't carry the stuff, so I found one about 20 miles away that had it (along with the 21st Century models). You will probably be hit and miss when it comes to finding it. I'd call ahead (good luck with that!) I think it is lacquer based, but not sure. I cracked the bottle in the store to get a whiff and it smelled very different than anything I had used before. Because of this I opted to buy their thinner as well. It went on really smooth, but needed some thinning as t

Thanks. I dabbled with another Tamiya F-16, an A-4M, and an S-3 before settling with the F-104. I used to do a lot of NMF, but it has been a few years. I traded in every shade of Gunze gray for Alclad metal. How are the sheep?! Baaaaaa. Chris

Enough of my model... Took this photo here in Texas about a year ago. It is a L-Martin test F-16 from their factory.

Some more pics. The front canopy is just sitting there and the rear needs to be painted (again) since being fared in with Miliput.

A few months back I was working on a 1/48 F-15A Streak Eagle and hoped to have it finished by now for an upcoming show. Well, I screwed it up and it is now in my garage with about half of the paint stripped off. The old saying goes, "There's never enough time to do it right, but always enough time to do it over." A few weeks ago I started this F-104 with the intentions of building it as the Red Baron. I painted it red and then within a half hour had it stripped off. It looked too much like a toy and weird to boot. So..... I got out my NASA F-104 markings and got to work on the NMF. I us

David, First of all, thanks for the scans. They'll come in handy (one day) when it comes time to paint. My disaster was my own fault. I used Gunze primer out of the spray can. On one wing I sprayed Alclad clear base and then aluminum on top. Things were fine. The next day, I sprayed Alclad clear over part of the metalized area and it was spiderwebs by morning. I tried sanding and polishing things out, but by then I was only fooling myself. I gave it a wipe down with brake fluid. When its not 110 degrees in my garage, I'll go out there and finish stripping it, salvage for parts, and/o

DISASTER! I started to paint my Streak Eagle and the base coat cracked under the Alclad. It is currently in my garage in the process of being stripped clean with brake fluid. Unfortunately, much of my putty work was used utilizing Gunze 500 out of the jar and the brake fluid ripped that off as well. So, when my garage gets under 100 degrees, I'll think about going out there and finish the job and resurect the project. So for now, it is dead. In a fit of rage, I took out my razor saw and started cutting up an AMT Viking to fold the wings and add the Goffy Models cockpit and bomb bay. Tha

Thanks for the nice replies. I greatly appreciate them. I got impatient and started polishing things up last night. It is amazing how smooth the Gunze primer is. I started out with a 3600 polishing cloth to knock off the orange peel and things were moving swimmingly. I have to find out if my Alcad is good or if I have a skunked batch. Thanks, Chris

I'm kind of tired of looking at this thread and only seeing a white F-15. Here's a F-15I I built a little over a year ago.

Cyrus, How do you get your scribed lines so smooth, straight, and perfect? Fantastic job! Chris

I finally exorcised most of my panel line and construction demons. I still have some rescribing and filling to do on some small areas. I tried Alclad primer the other day, but it didn't want to airbrush. So, I blasted it with Gunze 1000. That stuff went on really smooth, but a little thick in some places. I'll have to rescribe some of the lines. Most of them are on top and pretty straight forward. I'm going to give the primer coat a day or two to harden up before I start to fix some small flaws and polish things out. As of now, it isn't much to look at, but hopefully I'll get some pane

Thanks for picture. I think that this picture was taken before all of the record flights were flown. The verticle stabs still have the stock antennae on the tips. The record flight configuration had the skinny little anti-flutter (?) devices installed instead. Also, check out the Eagle logo on the nose. When the record flights were going on, a panel was removed from under the logo, pulled off somehow, and then replaced without the artwork. I have some pictures highlighting this. Thanks again, Chris

Thanks for your help. I have about 50 shots that were taken by Doug Slowiak when the Streaker was breaking records. Check out my first post, and you can see some. I am looking for photos of top and bottom views if any are out there. I saw what Guy was talking about referncing the shoulders on the brake, but I'm too far along to make any changes like that. Most of all, it is too much work and the probability of FUBAR is in favor of the house.

I need some help from the Accuracy Police. I noticed in some pictures that the early A's (with the short speed-brake) had a pronounced ridge on the spine and/or the entire area is shaped differently than what the kit has to offer. I'm probably not going to be able to fix this, but did I miss something? Chris

Lastly, most of my rescribing is finished. I still have to scribe the areas around the horizontal stabs. The intakes proved to be the most troublesome, and I'll probably spend some more time on them as I go along. I started adding some of the Eduard photoetching and will get on the vents and grills next. The model was sprayed with 1000 surfacer. It fills in the panels, but they get gouged out pretty easy. Mr. Surfacer has been extremely useful for filling tiny scratches that cover most of the model.

I spent a majority of Sunday getting the data probe situated. Hasegawa would have you filling two large holes on the side of the probe with to monstrous vanes, and the hole on the bottom with the same. Reference photos show one downward vane, with two canted about 45 degrees down from the horizontal just behind. I filled in the kit holes with CA and sanded smooth. The bottom hole was used as a guide to drill holes for the canted parts. I used a .015" bit and filled with wire. The downward wire will have a vane attached to it (most likely built from styrene), and the sides will each have

I was out of town last week, so I didn't get a whole lot done on the Streak Eagle. Here are two primed pictures of the ejection seat. It was stolen from an Aires A-7D set. I've got a photo of the pilot climbing out of the plane and it shows the head-rest really well, so I'm pretty confident that I have the right seat in there. If anyone knows otherwise, please let me know before I paint and glue this sucker in.

Thanks. I just hope I don't punk out an paint it gray or Edwards white! I took a break from rescribing today because I wansn't in the mood to continue screwing up. Did easy work on it today instead.

Yes, I do. I wasn't completely intent on building the Streak Eagle so I left them in. Also, if I screw up the nmf, I can always go back to making it a regular A/C if I want to. Most likely an Edwards A.

Thanks. I tried some rescribing on the intakes and wasn't doing such a good job so filled in my goof-ups and quit for the day. I built the F-104 about 4 years ago. Hasegawa kit with the Cutting Edge NF conversion and cockpit. I love doing nm finishes, but I'm not so sure about this one! Kind of an ill fitting kit with lots of panels to mask and paint. I have some Hobby Decal dry transfers I want to try out, but I don't know how they will work on the Alclad. I'm going to have to try it out on some scrap pieces before I commit. I'd like to get it done for the Ft. Worth show in September

Thanks JanMan. I've never seen one at a show before, which is pretty much why I am building it. I like to build subjects that are a little off the wall, different, and something people would like to see (kind of like a Prowler). Until recently, I had never finished an F-16 in the 15 years I've been modelling. I also like to build models that are challenging so I can further develop my skills and get better at the hobby. I know this makes no sense because I have yet not to screw up a kit that was built OOB. But, to shoe-horn and shove an over-sized aftermarket, and overpriced resin and br

I plan on using Alclad for about 90% of the model. I will use some Testors metalizer shades. Right now I'm planning on shooting the entire model with duraluminum and then the other big areas (check out the box art above) with modified mixtures of their pale burnt metal, pale gold, and copper. Other panels will be done with shades of aluminum, dark aluminum, steel, and/or titanium. There are some areas that photos suggest are painted the 5 Bay blue/green such as just below the front windscreen, the panels around the lights (collision?) on the tail, and even one of the large doors on the for

Thanks Willie. I can't believe how fast you got your Super Horent finished. Looks very good. Great scheme. I languished on mine for about 4-5 months. How are the sheep?

There's the love!