SBDguy

As I will turn 72 in June and have 70+ kits in the stash, there's not a snowball's chance in a hot fire I will build them all. I'm trying hard not to buy another one, but I will probably fail.

Thanks to all who answered, and thanks Alternative 4 for the link. There sure is a lot to digest here, and I guess I will buy a box of plastic spoons and do some experimenting along the various lines suggested by you all. Cheers!

I have never in my long on-again, off again modeling career painted a bare metal finish. As I am starting back up with an old T-33 kit as a first project, I'm wondering if applying a varnish over a bare aluminum paint is OK, or not? If it is OK, what varnish, gloss or semi-gloss, or whatever, is appropriate. If it is not OK, how does one seal decals on such a finish? All advice and opinions on the topic are thankfully welcome.

Sweet success!

OK, I wanted the text over the image, not next to it, so I'll try again.

First try to upload an image from IMGBB.

I haven't logged in in quite a while, so I'm posting this to test all the changes that have taken place since I last visited.

Points taken. However, bombs detonating while sitting on the flight deck, bad as they are, are far different critters than ones with delayed-fusing and steel nose plugs coming from the sky at hundreds of mph. Worse to my mind - and this one really gives me the willies, probably because I don't know anything about them - are these hyper-sonic anti-ship missiles one hears about. Can the old double-hull handle a fusillade of those? I hope my fears are unfounded, and these monster CVNs we are buying are more survivable than I think they are. Better still, I hope we never get into another conf

Well, you're one -up on me; I never served on a CVN, thus cannot imagine the cushy aspects. So, I'll take your word for it. I did spend many, many long hours on a CVA flight deck, however, most of them on combat ops (Tonkin Gulf). After 16 hours straight on flight ops, I don't remember ever being unable to shower. I also don't remember any cold cats, but I wasn't on the cat crew and maybe just missed all the hooplah (don't think so, but that was 50 years ago, so who knows?). Those things said, I will share my main concern about CVNs: In WW2, the Yorktown took devastating hi

What a sad state of affairs. Too much new tech at once in the Ford class, I think. And the Truman thing - ????? Just wow. Never been a fan of the nuclear-powered carrier (subs, yes, but that's an entirely different animal). The last pic I saw of the Kitty Hawk, she was sitting in brown water up at Bremerton next to the Connie and Indy. I know it would cost a lot, but relative to what they're shelling out for these new CVNs, seems to me that reworking and updating one or two of these would plug the gap(s) currently appearing in the carrier fleet with proven weapons systems until they get

I feel the same way. I love to hold them in my hands, see them on my shelf, etc.. Frankly, the only way I would buy an e-book is if it was the only way I could get a volume I really, really wanted. I tend to get headaches when reading from an electronic display for too long a period of time (I've been told it has to do with pixels, refresh rates and so on, but all I know is that it happens) - a couple of hours is about all I can do at one go. However, I can read print from a paper page all day long. I can also read my books if the electricity goes down for a few days, all my batteries di

No. I've never even heard of Merit. A new-tool 1/48 Duck is great news - where might I buy one?

Favorites (non-exclusive): Genre: WWII aircraft (predominantly naval subjects, USA & Japan) Scale: 1/48 Manufacturer: Revell/Monogram, Tamiya (this is still an open category for me - there are many manufacturers whose kits I haven't built yet in the modern era ... ) Kit: Douglas SBD Dauntless (what else?)

Excellent! I'll get on over to ebay and see what I can dig up. Thanks 😊

Thanks for the good news! I haven't been there for several years, so this trip will be extra-interesting - I just might start taking my camera there again 😊. Worth a try, anyway. (I'll be making my first pilgrimage to the Memphis Belle.)