volzj

Gorgeous build!

Good to hear. I was able to pick up two Academy 1/72 F/A-18D kits just last week in the sale room sale for the low, low price of just $9.00 each!

Living about 25 minutes away from Trenton, across the river in PA, I can tell you no, there is nothing worth your time in the area. I won't even mention the name of the one lousy shop in the area... About 45 minutes south in Magnolia, NJ is AAA Hobbies, which has a pretty good kit selection, all at full retail price. As they are the storefront for the distributor Stevens International, they have a large inventory that is in the warehouse in back, not on the shelves. So if there is a specific kit you are looking for just ask and they may have it. AAA Hobbies

I use Tamiya putty. I overfill heavily and wait at least three days for it to shrink and cure and then sand.

Two Six decals did an America West A320 sheet. You may be able to modify that. CLICK HERE

Because they already had the 737 molded in 1/200, and nearly all of their airliner kits are in that scale. The KC-10 conversion from the DC-10 kit is another example. Very nice build. May have to pick one up myself...

You could try adding some Tamiya Flat base to help make it more matte. And it's not you; the MM acryl flat is much more of a semi-gloss.

Leave the lip piece of the intake off until the end and paint it off the model. Perfect line every time. I've done at least six Hasegawa Skyhawks that way. See here:My link

Aaaron, I also own the Canon 10-22. It is a good lens, although it is not without a fair amount of distortion. That being said, you get what you pay for, and it is a decent way to get really wide on a crop body like the 70D. Ideally for buildings/real estate you want tilt/shift lenses to avoid converging lines on taller structures where you have to tilt the camera up to get the entire building in the frame, but then you're getting into big $$.

Steve, I've been to "Ye Olde Trip to Jerusalem", the pub built into the hill under Nottingham castle, and indeed it is well worth the visit if you are in town. So many little rooms, all unique. The locals and my UK co-workers had this American playing the Ringing the Bull game there, which was quite interestingly fun. It claims (as do several other pubs) to be the oldest in England. Worth the visit either way... Enjoy the trip.

If you are in the US you should request parts through MRC (they are in New Jersey), as they are the distributor in the States. I've needed Academy replacement parts twice, and MRC had them to me in one week both times, with no communication issues...

Very nice job on a tough kit. Nothing like the Scooter.

I'm with you as well. This is prime fly fishing time for trout. Nice Pickerel and Brownie.

Don't try to use the decals over un-filled openings as they likely won't line up perfectly and will also sink in. Run a piece of styrene along the inside of the fuselage behind the opening, then use appropriate sized rectangular stock placed vertically into opening from front, apply a little glue and trim flush. You'll still need a bit of filler but it is much easier than dealing with the shrinkage of trying to fill the whole opening with putty. Sand it all smooth and then use the decals.

Generally, the faster you pull the softened sprue the thinner the diameter you are able to achieve. I can get hair then, but if you get too fast you will break a few. Luckily, the process is pretty much cost-free, and we mostly all have an infinite supply of material...

I find it to be so low in tack that it is constantly lifting, no matter how ell you burnish it down. Tamiya does not do this. I've gone back to the 3M Blue tape for large areas, and stick with Tamiya for the rest.

Great start on the cockpit. Looking forward to seeing more.

I'm sorry to hear about your wife Steve. Best of luck to her with her treatment. My thoughts and prayers are with you.

Ah, OK. That will work!

If you do thin it this way with any of the liquid cements, be sure to let the area you putty is very fully cured, on the order of a week. All of that additional solvent tends to make it want to shrink, and you'll just end up back filling it again.

Very nice work!

If the flight was "downhill" than someone either changed the geography of the site, OR the markers of the first three flights are in the wrong spots. I've stood there on more than a few occasions and the ground where the flights were said to have taken place is dead flat for 600-700 yards. There's a good sized hill behind it where the monument is, but I've never seen anyone suggest remotely that they used that, and it is not a gradual slope, but fairly steep.

Interesting. I flew home from LAX Wednesday late (red-eye) and one of my co-workers who flew out earlier in the day called me to let me know of the computer problem. I guess they got things ironed out pretty quickly, because everything was back to normal by the early evening. Didn't know at the time that was the cause of the issue.

Well Steven, you know I enter them... ;) I took a different route this year and didn't build anything specifically for the purpose of entering in a contest, as i found that obsessing over minute detail was ruining my enjoyment. I still did pretty well overall with my entries. I really do go to see the work of others. I get a lot of motivation and inspiration that way, and usually discover a subject to model that I was unaware of or didn't think I was interested in previously.

If you don't care if it sticks to the plastic, MM acrylics brush nicely... Barring that, and with the best brushing paint, Polly Scale gone, I would say Vallejo is a decent choice. As Richard said above Tamiya and Gunze are just too fast to level properly, and tend to clump on the brush. They of course airbrush beautifully.