f5guy

Hi Dutch! Well I will certainly do my best with the kits, but whether they'll see a contest or not remains to be seen. I generally don't build for contests as it takes the fun away for me, but if something turns out well enough, it might get entered. I'm mainly building these two just to hang some neat weapons on 😉 Regards, Fred.

Thanks! But don't look too closely 😆 Fred.

Hi everyone, Time for an update. I got all of the internal parts painted up and installed on both jets. I cut the rear end of the intake trunks out to allow me to sand the inside of the intake from both ends. For the EA-7L the interior of the intake is white. A big hole at the end of it might be noticeable, so I took half of a Hasegawa S-3 intake fan, and glued it to the rear of the trunk , so when you look in, you can see fan blades. For the A-7K the interior color is the same as the exterior paint scheme.... gunship grey. Once painted up its so dark in there that you can't s

PM sent Fred K.

Hi, It's already listed in the list of goodies that I intend to use for the EA-7L. Definitely a big miss by HB! Thanks, Fred.

Here's a VAQ-34 EA-7L with the ALQ-170 pod, and an ANG A-7K with MERs and BDU-33s.

And here's the weapons.

Hello everyone, Like I really need to start another In Progress thread, but here goes! Last week I received some custom really nicely done 3D printed goodies in the mail. For the several EA-7L's that I wish to build I got some AN/ALE-41 chaff dispensing pods, and ALQ-170 Missile Simulator Pods. For the A-7K (and just about everything else), I got some BDU-33 practice bombs. I was so impressed with them that I had to hang them on something! Two of Hobby Boss's TA-7C kits will fit the bill. The kit is well known, as are its short comings. Mainly a somewhat squashed inta

Very nice build! Those Titan kits are really well done too, and not much more difficult than a regular injection molded kit. In some ways they're easier. I'm slowly working on their 757-200 kit now, which is largely the same kit with a few external differences. Great job! Fred K.

Yes, thanks for sharing 😉 Great stuff! Fred K.

As a little side note gentlemen, for those of us interested in VAQ-33/34 aircraft, I just had a guy 3D print me up some AN/ALE-41 chaff pods, and the ALQ-170 missile simulator pod in 72nd scale. The ALQ-170 pod is the big one near the centerline of the P-3 in the pic that Dutch posted. If anyone is interested in these items, shoot me a PM, and I'll pass the info on to him. They really look great, and I've been waiting for these to come out for years and years! Surely I'm not the only one? Fred K.

I totally agree with Steve and Dutch on this one Kursad. A sheet of Snooper P-3s would be great. I'd especially like to add a VAQ-33 bird to my growing collection of VAQ-33/34 subjects. Fred K.

I'll definitely be getting one of these! Thanks for giving us decals for the instrument panels. Decals over the photo etch looks quit convincing in 72nd scale. There's few things that I hate more than trying to paint one of those tiny instrument panels 🤣 I'm looking forward to this kit 👍 Fred K.

Very nice! I just finished up a 72nd Hasegawa kit in this units earlier "Marksmen" markings a week ago. It's always nice to see a Guard Viper! Well done! Fred K.

Hello again everyone, I really had the itch to build this kit, but told myself that I wasn't going to do it until I finished the 737-800 build. One day I was checking out the kits plastic and decided that I'm going to separate the large parts from the backer "just to see what it looks like"..... This accomplished by the old tried and true method of using a black sharpie pen to trace around the edge of the parts. Then you run a new Xacto blade around the same edges with moderate pressure. Once that is done you simply bend the plastic at the edges and the plastic will separate with a

Hi everyone, Several ARCer's saw this kit in progress on my bench in photo's of my Eastern Airlines 737-800 "In Progress" thread, and encouraged me to do a thread on the Titan Model's 1/72nd scale 757-200 as well, so here goes! For those of you unfamiliar with them, Titan Models is a small one man outfit based in York, Pa. USA. Owner Chris has stated that he got tired of waiting for mainstream model companies to put out the big kits that he wanted to build, so he decided to just put the kits out himself. I'm glad that he did, as his line of kits is just awesome! Titan speci

Hi everyone, I made a little more progress on the 737 over the last few days. I got the entire airframe primed with Mr. Surfacer 1500 White, which did a fantastic job. I am quite impressed with this stuff! However, my joy was short lived as those *%#!ing window strips continue to cause problems. I found several more problem spots that will need filling and sanding AGAIN (seventh time now). Hopefully this time does the trick. The next time I build another one of these, I will try something different to get those window strips in , as my usual superglue method clearly didn't do the j

Agreed! Nice looking kit, and WAY better boxes! Fred.

Look what Santa Hannant's brought today! If only I had some decals.... 😆 Wink wink nudge nudge 😉 Thanks Kursad! Fred.

I don't know.... That colorful tail kind of kills it for me. It's like the VFC-111 F-5s with the high vis sunburst on the tail. They never did a thing for me. I much prefer the brief period when they had low vis sunburst markings. Maybe its jut me 😆 Thanks for posting this! Fred K.

Hi Steve, Thanks, I saw those AK lens, and might order some. They are a bit pricey for what you get though, but since when has modeling been cheap? 🤣🤣 I had a minor disaster while painting one of the engines last night that I will detail in a later post. I'm racking my brain now trying to come up with an easy fix, but I don't think there is one. However, the blue paint on the engines came out beautiful! Stay tuned... Fred.

Hi Steve, Huh.... I didn't know that finding tooth brushes with that type of handle was a problem these days, but it doesn't surprise me. It seems like a lot of things that we modelers use are becoming tough to find. I needed a certain size MV Light for my 72nd 757-200 build recently. I had one lens, but needed one more. No problem, right? Problem! MV Lights apparently went out of business some 10 years ago, and their lens are very difficult to find these days. I found one on ebay, but the guy wanted $10 shipped for ONE lens! No thanks! So I went to the local craft store hoping to fi

Hi Dutch, So it's not just me with the Krylon problems huh?? I still may give it another shot and just shoot it heavily thinned down through my airbrush on a paint dummy and see. Interestingly enough, their black from the rattle can is awesome! I use it all of the time, which is why I was hoping that their white would be the same way. Not so much thus far though. As for the -800..... I'm in the process of adding some final details. I'm hoping to get some primer down in the coming week as time allows. On another note.... Last night I was checking out that

Hi everyone, Yesterday I decided to tackle the wingtips lights. The kits instructions make no mention of them at all, but they are there. References were hard to come by, and to make things worse, apparently there is a difference between closely related versions of the 737. As an example, the lights are different between the -700 and -800, which are externally largely the same jet with the biggest difference being that the -700 is shorter. To further muddy the water, there are several light variations on the -800 too. The -800 light configuration is different between the factory buil

Hi Steve, I'll probably end up doing that, but I've decided that I am going to give the Tamiya white a test drive on a paint dummy and just see. I am getting excited to get this project done though. Mojo can be a fickle thing 😂 Thanks, Fred.