Skyking

HI-ya Guy and Rev, thanks for the comments. Guy your Mudhen's burner cans look like the real thing. How you and Pete pull them off is amazing. I guess it's one of the reasons I shy away from jets, as I don't think I could replicate that part of the airplane. I'm afraid they would look like painted plastic, not weathered and high temp metal. Rev your Viper is fun to watch also. I think after this, and one other project I have in mind, I'll be switching to larger scales. The old eye sight demands it.. :lol: The last couple of days I've got some color on it, and the fuselage decaled. The tail fe

The last two weeks have been interesting. The more I looked over this thing, the more nits I found that were bugging me. It's no secret I was not happy with the scribing on the cowl. There were also some nits on the fuselage that were bugging me. What tipped me over the edge was the wings. When I carved the blanks, I did it as one solid wing, then cut each section free and then skinned them separately. They looked great until I mated them together. Each outter panel did not line up with the center sections, and my airfoil shapes were different, the top wing center section was thicker in sectio

Cheers Mike

Hey Pete, Bring some of that Southern Hemi Sunshine back with you. Right now it's 45 and raining, and by tomorrow dipping back down into the low 30's with snow. Gotta love Upstate NY weather. If you don;t like it, wait five minutes... it'll change. Your Dad was a wise man. I wish I would have had the chance to meet him. I am going through that with the Truck. I'm on my 3rd repaint of the fuselage. The Alclad on the schnoz never fully cured, so I wrote to Tony at Alclad and he was super. Three replacement bottles and I am back in business. I reshot the nose, looks great. Then I noticed a fe

Wow wow wow Chris. All I can say is wow. I wouldn't know a YF-23 if it ran me over (being stealth at least I wouldn't know it was coming) but I sure know upper echelon modeling when I see it. Now if I could just talk you into doing some double winged string bags the world would be perfect Cheers Mike

Hi Guy Between you and Pete F., I'm always amazed at the attention to the little details, like not weathering the areas where the flaps would be. It's something that's seen on the real aircraft but seldom captured correctly on a model. You two teach me something every time I look at one of your threads. Taking this to Telford perchance? Cheers Mike

Hi Jeff, Thanks for the comments. I am glad you are enjoying the progress. Hiya Regevmo, Sure no problem. It's an old Mattel vacuform, one of two that I got on Ebay. I use it for small parts, as the table is only about 2.5 x 3 inches, if that. It saves plastic that I would have to use on my larger home made machine. On this particular one, the vacuum pump diaphragm was so dry rotted that it would no longer work, so I removed the diaphragm and handle, and found that the plastic vacuum cylinder was almost the same diameter as my Shop-Vac's hose. A simple adapter I made allows me to use m

Thanks Dave, appreciate it. The louvers were the biggest of two hurdles, today I tackled the second, the cooling shutters on the front of the engine. The T4M used two distinct styles. One was smaller in diameter, matching the diameter of the crankcase. The second style is larger in diameter with a lip all the way around, with no baffles going around each cylinder. I choose to do the latter, as it would be less work than trying to make a full cowl to go around each individual cylinder. The photos you see are of my 4th and final succesful attempt. The first one was too shallow :) , the second

I am facinated by your technique of covering the wood form with liquified plastic. I don't think I've ever seen that done before. What solvent did you cut the plastic with, and how long does it take to cure? I've tried making my own filler from liquid cement and plastic scraps in the past but it took days for all the solvent to evaporate, usually leaving a big sink area after. Very nice work. I'll be watching this one. Cheers Mike

Thanks for the comments everyone. I appreciate them. I hope so Pete. the flip side is it could become my magnum oopsies... I've spent the last week of evenings figuring out my assembly jig. Because I'm doing a float plane, I need to make not only the wing struts, but also the float struts. My first intent was to make a double duty jig, but the more I looked at it and thought about it, I came to the conclusion that initially, it would be easier to make two. Here's the one I will use to get the lower wings set and aligned, and also to cut my wing struts on. I'll do the lower wings only

I knew you wouldn't be able to leave that alone..lol. Nice job fixing it too Guy. The weathering will blend it right in, although now it looks like a replaced panel, which wold be perfectly acceptable also. Nice job Guy. I wouldn't call it a problem, as it's not going to stop it from being finished, but it's a major inaccuracy that I didn't catch until it's too late. The center porthole on the right side of the fuselage is farther forward than the one on the left side. When I made the master for the fuselage I worked from the drawings, and there were no views of the left side, s

HI Guy, You and I are in the same boat, although I'm afraid mine is a bit more serious, so I've decided to leave it alone. I know it's bugging the bejeebers out of you, and from now on even though the model is the bees knees, you will always focus in on that one minor little nit and it'll annoy the snot out of you. I say fix it so you can sleep at night and not fret it. It's a ton easier to fill it in than to make one that's missing. That is a fantastic looking model. Cheers Mike

Looking great Pete. 4 colors on the canopy? Please humor the prop dude and explain. <_< <_< Cheers Mike

Outstanding Chukw. A miniature model going into a bigger model, that's what it's all about. Question again Chukw, I notive you use a paste flux for soldering. Do you pickle the brass after to neutralize the flux? In the past I've had problems with paint sticking to PE I've soldered, then a fellow club member told me to dunk my parts into vinegar after to neutralize the flux. Worked like a charm. I'm going to have to get one of these Coldheat irons and try it out. Do they have replacable tips? Cheers Mike

Hi Jon, Paul Matt's Scale Airplane Drawings, Volume 2 has 3 views of the MB-3 and MB-3A. Scale Aircraft Drawings Volume One also have plans drawn by Joseph Nieto. Both are available at www.aviation-heritage.com, I have both Volumes. If you have trouble getting them let me know. Cheers Mike

Several have asked how I finally overcame the louvers, so I thought I'd toss up a few pictures and quickie explanation of each step. First of all it wouldn't have been possible without the help from Fred at Foto-Cut. His PE is still arguably some of the best there is, and the fact he's a good person to work with makes it worthwhile to have him do your custom PE work. He had a few equipment failures over the course of the summer that held things up a bit, but he communicated the problems to me, and besides, I wasn't really in a huge hurry to tackle these things anyways. Looking back now I frett

Thanks Chukw, OM, regevmo, Far and Donnico. I appreciate the comments. They are keeping me motivated to finish this thing. I've spent the last couple of sessions at the bench refining the louvers, priming it, and actually got a coat or two of paint on it. I used Pactra Aerogloss Silvaire Aluminum Dope for the silver doped fabric areas, (whatta concept... using silver dope for silver dope :wacko: ) and Alclad Dark Aluminum for the metal lacquered cowl areas. I don't mean to sound obnoxiously bragging, but I'm really happy with the louvers and how they look. The only thing I wish my panel lines

Chuck I have to tell youI am enjoying your updates. Not only are they informative, but entertaining to boot. I think what you are doing is more difficult than scratchbuilding an entire model, as you are forced to work with something designed and molded by someone else, and have to work around their limitations. My T4M is a piece of cake in comparison because I made everythingto fit as I go. I can understand why your little charicature you draw is bald... lol. Just a quick question regarding your soldering iron. I use a small tipped unit for better control. How does the big tip on the Coldsold

Hi Chappie, Yes you can accomplish the conversion. All of the Vega derivatives (Vega, Air Express, Explorer, Sirius, Altair, and Orion) shared, with relatively few modifications, the same wing and fuselage. Lindberg also made a Vega seaplane in 48th. I have several of both kits in the stash, one was for the same reason you have in mind. GMTA eh? If you want to save some work you can always go this route: http://www.orionminiatures.com/model.php?mUID=1006 It's a bit pricey, and I've never seen one built up, but it has decals for Turner's aircraft. I've thought of getting one and saving my

Thanks Guy, appreciate the comments. Stick a fork in it, the louvers are DONE. The part of this build I was most worried about actually wasn't nearly as much trouble as I was afraid it would be. The PE louvers were definately the way to go. The pictures here show them roughed in and primed. I have to do some minor filling around them, scribe the panel lines for the cowl panels and I can move on to other areas of the model. I can't believe I've been fretting these things for 6 months and they are finally over. Thanks for looking. Cheers Mike

Chappie, OM, hazzmat and Bob, thanks for the comments regarding the new galley. Maggie is thrilled with it and that's all that matters. And yes OM, I did enjoy it more than I am letting on. I am, however, glad it's over so I can get back to modeling. And speaking of which.... I got back to the bench today and fiddled with some test shots of the louvers. I've had plenty of time to plan these things out and what approach I would use, so today I made my forming jig and tooling and gave my ideas a test run. I formed my forming jig from a scrap of 1/8th tempered hardboard. I cut a 4mm kerf in it

The prettiest Cessna ever designed IMHO. The later variants with the swept tail, an later on, longer nose are nice, but nothing beats a square tail 310 for looks. It's where I got my nic inspiration from, watching old episodes of Skyking. Looking back at it now, the show was corny as all get out, the acting lame, Penny was annoying, but the in-flight shots of Songbird still raise goosebumps. This exceptionally attractive NM 310 is owned by Brant Aero, based in Brantford Ontario Canada. I snagged the picture from their website http://www.brantaero.com/about/ . Ross just a side note on your

Hi OldMan. Thanks for the welcome back. It hasn't died, just been put on the back burner while I worked on this for SWMBO... Before... View from Dining area into tiny kitchen. from tiny kitchen into tiny Dining area. When your wife and oldest stepdaughter are both 6 feet in hieght, it got pretty tight when we were all in there together. After... Take out wall in between, move door into garage into living area and seal wall, build new cabinets from cherry and baltic birch ply, a maple T&G floor, new recessed ceiling, under cabinet lighting, spots in the ceiling for the counte

I wish I had your eagle-eyes Pete. So if I bring my 10x loupe I should be able to read them right? :lol: I am sure this will be up to your usual high standards. Looking forward to the finished item. Cheers Mike By the way did you get the screen yet? It went out in Wednesday's mail.

Yo Pete, Easy. Plunge a sharpened peice of wood or plastic into some soft plastic warmed on your vac machine. Trim it to length and presto... cone shaped flash hider thingie. Cheers Mike