Salineated Michigander

I've built the Hypersonic Chevy block startcart; it's a very nice kit, lots of tiny P.E. and other details.

Super Cool, Jeffrey, these will look very cool in the flight deck. Thanks.

I'm nearing the end of mine; I wanted the digital camo set but could not get it so I went with a painted splinter camo scheme. I kinda phugged up the build tho; due to a massive brain fart I left off part of the bomb bay hatch superstructure and ended up boffo-ing the closure to conceal what I did wrong. Oh well; if you don't look at the bottom side of the aircraft you won't see my boo-boo. The rest of the build went very well and things fit quite nicely. Zvezda has upped their game; it was a superior experience compared to the YAK-130 I wrestled with a couple of years ago, alth

Jeffery, I just took delivery of your 1/48 start cart so my obvious question is, are you still planning on the SR-71 release?

Because of this blog, I got this kit.

Does anyone have an experience building this thing? It's damn big, although not quite as big as Trumpeter's same scale TU-160 Blackjack. If you've built it, what was your opinion of the kit? Well engineered or not?

I like your work, Dagon. I'm finishing this same kit, but in the Royal Dutch Air Force 70th Anniversary version. I, too, have been very impressed with Meng's engineering.

Oh, I will. I already looked to see if it was up.😷

Just watched Tutorial #3, John. Good work! I'm enjoying your erudition, your dedication and your skill. Keep them coming.

I picked up Hataka's Have Glass lacquer (comes from Poland, expect a long shipping wait if you're in the USA) to use on my current build, not a Dark Viper SEAD, but Meng's Royal Netherland's F-35 Lightening II 75th Anniversary version. So far, to my eye, the Hataka paint mimics at least one or two Alclad aluminum shades, not sure of their official title off the top of my head but almost interchangeable to my naked eye.

I have experience with only the Bobcat version and I thought it was a real dog.

I've essentially completed the build myself and ended up rattle can spray painting it with Tamiya white primer. It took two full cans! Flankerman's review and pictorial is spot-on in describing Trumpeter's rather whimsical notions of joins and connections; as big as this kit is, you'd think they would've engineered more functional joining processes. The only acknowledegment is reinforced landing gear struts that are metal; otherwise get ready to fiddle with it as it is very large, flexible, and handling it was a big challenge. And forget using a painting booth; this thing was WA

Of course it's an essential business!! I mean, look how many people on 'model makers' on reddit label their most recent build 'my quarantine build'! Just about every new entry is labeled as such! How much more essential do you have to be to assuage the mental anguish of MILLIONS of people across the globe?

Gents: Have any of you assembled this kit, the Trumpeter SU-160 Blackjack (or White Swan)? If so, due to its massive size, how did you handle painting it? Overall, was it a desirable project for you? Any opinions on the construction, the execution, and the results of your labor would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.

It certainly is unfortunate that the TANmodel guy is dealing with illness, but speaking solely as someone who has experience building one of their products I have to admit it was quite a dog of a kit. I'm talking about their 1/48 scale rF-84f Thunderflash. I have absolutely no experience with anything else they've produced but my experience with this kit gives me pause as to whether I'd buy another one from them.