f5guy

It's looking good Steve! Fred.

They sure did melt the gun pod! I'll post a pic when I get to that point. If you look closely at the pics that I posted of Coalers from the right side you'll see a gray tube just ahead of the main gear sponson. That is a double barrel GSh-23L cannon pod mounted on a stub pylon. Let me see if I can find a pic to attach. I'm not sure what it used for though. Fred.

Thanks for the vote of confidence Dutch! Considering that I let it collect dust for decades, I'm having a lot of fun with it now. Mojo indeed! Fred.

So here's where I'm restarting at. The cockpit is largely done. Having built these "airliner" type jets before, you can see virtually nothing in the cockpit once its done, so its usually pointless to go crazy with the detail. The kits control columes are grossly oversized, being more like 1/48th scale. But again, you won't be able to see much, so I'll use them anyway. The rear cabin door will be closed, so I didn't even bother to paint its interior. However, the kit detail in that area is surprisingly good should you choose to leave it open. There is an APU unit located in the righ

Hello again! So here's some pics of subjects that I am considering. Unfortunately, to my knowledge, none of these aircraft have been represented in decal form. Being one of those kits that one seldom sees built, there is virtually no aftermarket for this kit other than a few decal sheets from BS Model. Some resin wheels would be most welcome. Hello, Res-Kit, Armory?! All of the aircraft pictured I am considering as my subject. The biggest problem is going to be finding sufficient reference pics for the camo.... specifically I'll need a left and right side shot, and at least

Hello everyone! My recent completion of the BPK 1/72nd T-43A kit as the highly modified "Rat 55" test bed aircraft has spurred me on to finish off another long shelved project. Okay, a REALLY long shelved project: Toko's 1/72nd An-72 Coaler kit. I started this kit 23 years ago (!) when I first made the switch from 48th scale to 72nd scale. I barely got the cockpit done, and rescribed a few panel lines before the reality of what awaited me hit home. It then immediately went into "stored serviceable" status at my personal Boneyard for an extended period. However, I do pride myself on

I'm thinking about doing some 72nd scale airliner wheels, so they'd be big for wheels, but not necessarily big overall.

Hi everyone, I'm thinking of having some 3D items printed up, and am considering using them to cast up some resin clones. I know that resin shrinks slightly when cast, so I'm considering having the originals made slightly larger to compensate for this. But how much larger? Any ideas? Thanks, Fred K.

Very nicely done, and definitely different! Great job ;0) Fred.

Hi, I'm building one of the Heller E-3B kits. It's largely built, but I just started working on the replacing the engines with the Flightpath resin ones. The E-3B has what I'm assuming to be, some sort of IR suppressor at the base of the engine pylon just above the exhaust section. You can see them clearly in the attached pic. It's round and pointed at the pylon end, but hollow. I've been scratching my head trying to figure out the best way to tackle it. Any ideas? Fred.

Thanks! It certainly is eye catching alright 👍 Fred. I love the Cone of Silence reference! Classic stuff!

Very cool! I especially dig the airliners. It's nice to see someone building something other than the "norm". I'm working on the Minicraft 1/144th 737-300 now myself. I plan on doing it as Delta Airlines, and putting it inflight on a stand that my buddy is making. When it's done I'm going to give it to my uncle who worked for Delta for 40 years. He'll be thrilled to get it 😉 Great work! Fred.

Very cool! Nicely done! I've got one of these kits in the works now, but am struggling to figure out how to make the IR suppressors (I think??) on the rear of the engine pylons. Fred K.

Here she is after an extended build process. A full build link can be found here: Despite its ups and downs, this has been one of my most gratifying builds. It seems like the tougher ones always are 🤪 Regards, Fred K.

Thanks Steve! It certainly is eye catching! Fred.

You've got that right my friend 😉! Fred.

All right! Here she is 😃! Rat 55 is done! Despite all of the ups and downs with this project it has been a very gratifying build, and definitely a not often seen subject. A big thank you to everyone that has checked in or has been following this build. Your comments, photo's and suggestions are very much appreciated 👍 Also, thanks to OOB Models for the decals, and lastly to BPK for having the apples to produce a kit that isn't a WWII single engine fighter or yet another Teen series jet redone for the millionth time. I learned a lot about what to do, and what not to do with this bu

I also had to fix one of the main gear legs that broke off while I was masking the engines. A combination of a pin inserted into holes drilled in each half of the leg and glued, along with more glue was enough to secure the leg in place solidly. I also had to reattach the nose gear leg for the fifth time. It had been broken so many times that I had to take a small piece of plastic tube and insert each part of the broken leg into opposites ends of the tube and superglue them. It made the gear leg a bit thicker than it should be, but I was out of options, so it will have to do. I really like the

Hi folks! Well the decals are on! They are a combination of the Out of Box decals set, and Draw Decals 737-200 basic markings sheet. I thought that the escape pathways for the wings on the OOB sheet were a bit small, so I went with the Draw Decals pathway. I made masks slightly smaller than the pathways out of yellow tape, and masked off the existing white on the wings. My concern was that the Draw Decals pathways might be a bit translucent, and the gray would show through. This turned out to be a good plan as the pathways were indeed translucent. For the most part the decals went

Alright! After finishing up a couple of other projects, the majority of the painting of Rat 55 is finally done! I swear that I used an entire roll of Tamiya tape, and half a roll of blue painters tape on this one. There's a couple of minor spots to be touched up, and I still need to do the chrome around the cockpit glass, but its mostly done. I'm hoping to be doing the decals in a day or two. I'm almost there 👍 Fred.

The last time that I spoke to the folks at Res-Kit, they mentioned that intake trunking was coming, as were cockpits for the F-5E and F. Also pylons and fuel tanks if I remember correctly. Hopefully these kits coming back out will spur them on, as those kits really need new cockpits to fix their too shallow depth. Fred K.

Thanks Dutch! I haven't persued it that far yet. Call me lazy! Fred.

Hi Dutch, Thanks for the intel. As of now I haven't gotten any communication at all from Hannants regarding my order. We'll see indeed 😉 Fred.

I'm in the same boat.... I placed an order with Hannants on the 8th. Wonderful..... Fred K.

Me?? Make excuses?? Never ! 🤣 Fred.