AX 365

Here's a few photos of my recently completed Hasegawa CF-104. Box markings are for the Tiger Meet scheme. I tried the Leading Edge 421 Squadron commemorative "Toothbrush" markings. The only trouble was with the front end of the 'toothbrush' on both sides. They cracked and split into several pieces upon immersing them in very warm water. I was able to pretty well salvage them and this is the end result. Not a bad kit at all. A few fiddly bits with the landing gear. Virtually no filler required. Thanks for looking. Mike

As promised, here are a few photos of what's been done so far. Pardon the quality of the pics. I'm using a brick that doubles for a Kodak DC3400... Fuselage... Wings... Tails... Engine Pylons... A few other things have been glued together (centre line fuel tank, rockets, ECM pod, wheels, etc) Will post more details later. Mike

Once I finish the A-10 GB, I'll play in this one too. Either a 1/48 Hasegawa FGR 2 or a 1/48 Revell F4-J. OOB. Not sure what markings will be applied. Mike

Update #2: Got the engine pylons pretty well completed with the help of some Tamiya putty and a little elbow grease. They turned out OK but I'll work on them a bit more. Some rescribing (something I've never done) will be required and hopefully I don't hoop that too much. Patience will be the key... Cockpit assembly was pretty good also and it fit into the right fuselage half quite nicely. Will post some pics later. It's going to need a bunch of weight in the nose to keep its keester off the ground. When I dryfit everything prior to assembly, I taped 4 x 3/8 oz steel sinkers into the n

Well, the cursing has started. The horizontal and vertical stabs went together extremely well. Very nicely engineered. Too bad I can't say the same thing for the engine nacelles. With the last few kits I've completed being Tamiya and Hasegawa offerings, I've been a little spoiled. There will be much dryfitting, sanding / filing, dryfitting, fitting, puttying, and sanding (with the occasional expletive thrown in for good measure within those steps! :) ) undertaken to get the nacelles and engines to look ok. Let the games begin...

Here's what I'm starting with... Pardon the shadows but I just put the box on the floor to use the sunlight through the window...

Never participated in a group build before and I thought I might take this opportunity to start. I have the a/m kit that I just opened today. Will post photos of unstarted kit later. Mike

More photos and a couple of Swords I've completed. My uncle was killed flying AX 365 at Grostenquin in '53.

Here are some photos, among a whole boatload of them, from the website at www.grostenquin.org

I have a 1:48 HB F-18A on order from one of our LHS's. A couple of separate independent reviews rate the 1:48 version as quite nice in comparison with the Hasegawa kits. Hopefully the 1:72 version will be able to hold its own.

Here's a couple of crude photos from Freeman's The Mighty Eighth referred to above...

Bought a Kinetics 1:32 Sabre and ordered a Hobby Boss 1:48 F-18A Hornet. I'll get to them eventually.

A 1/32 Hasegawa Canadair Sabre along with a set of Leading Edge 1 Wing 1st Canadian Air Division markings courtesy of Don Gerard (DONG). Thanks, Don.

I have to thank Don for enduring my stupidity of putting my payment for our deal in the mail without a stamp. After realizing the error of my way, I sent Don a message apologizing for my brain fart and told him I was still interested in the deal. I got a message from Don on Monday 25 Feb 08 informing me that my payment had arrived and he'd mail my parcel on Tuesday 26. At 13:30 hrs today, Wednesday 27 Feb 08, Canada Post showed up at my front door with Don's parcel. Now that's service. Thanks, Don! Mike

I forgot about this thread. The missus and I were in Fort Meyers Beach 2 weeks ago and we took a trip to Naples on Jan 29th. While sitting in a friend's backyard, I hear the unmistakable noise of large radial engines. I looked up and saw a B-17. It was a fair piece up so I couldn't tell what model or markings but the large tail was a dead giveaway. Same thing happened while we were back at the condo in Fort Myers Beach the next day. We were having lunch and I heard the same aircraft engines and lo and behold it was a B-17. Again, I couldn't make out colours, etc but the tail gave it awa

I'm not taking sides but...

On Thursday morning I picked up a 1/48 Hasegawa Phantom FGR MkII. No idea why, but I did because I can...

Well done, maestro! What squadron? Can't make out the insignia on the tail.

I'm EXTREMELY impressed with Bill and CanMilAir decals. Bill designed the 421 Squadron Sabre markings for a project I'm working on. Through trial and error, he's reworking the red and white nose band to make it right. He's now on version 4 of this band. He has redesigned V2 and V3 and shipped them to me at no cost, even though I've offered to pay for them to help offset his costs for his time, ink and postage. The communication process through our entire collaboration has been superior. I've received replies from Bill almost instantaneously. The longest I've had to wait for a reply from

Here's a couple of photos from page 148 of Roger Freeman's The Mighty Eighth "Col. Hough prepares to climb into the cockpit of the Droop Snoot while Col. Don Ostrander enters the nose through the top hatch." "Interior of the Droop Snoot nose. Stand for bomb sight forward of bombardier's couch. Instruments and control panel on right side. Note shadow of entrance hatch." These are digital photos of the photos in the book. I hope they help. Mike

Jason: Your cat has had enough fritters! You and your behemoth get abused on that other "Sherman-based" site so I didn't want you and kitty cat to feel left out here. Murph (on that other site)

...that all the captives be... FREED

Thanks for the offer, Kev. I sent Dave a note just before our last big snow storm at the start of December. He confirmed he had them in stock. I was going to send you an e-mail but Her Majesty needed me to do some banking which necessitated the services of a teller so I figured that while I was in the bank I might as well pick up a money order. I sent it on 04 December but I haven't received anything (decals or return correspondence acknowledging receipt of said Royal Bank money order) from Dave yet. Strange thing is, I sent Bill Burns an order and cheque the same day - 04 December. I go

Nothing today but a few days ago I picked up an Academy T-33 and a Hobbycraft Tutor. A few weeks ago I had the priviledge of meeting Mr. Bill Slaughter (his daughter works with me) and Bill was The Red Knight in 1964 and the lead solo for the Golden Centennaires in 1967. Dave Koss at Leading Edge Models makes decals for both these aircraft. I will be presenting them to him some time in the new year.

Just finished a 1:48 scale Hasegawa RCAF Sabre V using kit decals (413 'Tusker' Sqdn - 3 Wing, Zweibrucken). I made a few errors while spraying the Alclad Aluminum but it turned out pretty good, all the same. I wanted to build a sample Sabre prior to completing a second Hasegawa 1:48 Sabre. I plan to learn from the errors discovered during construction of the first one. Fit is good but some filler and sanding required. Mistakes were mine. On this second one, I plan to use the custom decals Bill at CanMilAir made for me. Just set up a photobucket account so here goes nothin'...