Jaypack44

I work at the Museum of Flight, and the Boeing military ramp is right next door- they've had the F-22 testbed out on the ramp for the past couple weeks, so I wouldn't be completely surprised if they'd flown it (though I wish I'd been able to see it fly!)

The prop contrails on that C-130 are awesome! What settings did you shoot those at? Today was another exciting day at the Museum of Flight- this guy took off from the museum's end of the field, and the noise alone set off around 10 car alarms! Also, a few days ago these two were at the other end of the field- they took off from that end, so this was the closest shot I could get of them with my crummy little point-and-shoot. Anybody know what unit any of these three are from?

I recently got a job at the Museum of Flight in Seattle, WA, and just in the last three days, I've gotten to see all of this: We had a 777 in the main parking lot for the ceremony for its delivery to American Airlines: Then, yesterday, I saw a C-26 take off and land twice: And today, I arrived at work to see a CH-124A sitting on the ramp. I was extremely glad I arrived 20 minutes early- I actually got to meet the crew, and they gave me a tour of the interior! (no photos, though). The tour had to be cut short because I had to get to work, but it was still pretty darn cool! A

I live under the pattern at McChord AFB in Washington, and today's visitor was this: Wikipedia tells me it's a C-9B or VC-9C, but I haven't the foggiest what it's being used for- it shows up from time to time, does 10 or so touch-and-gos, and disappears. I've grown to kinda resent it, because it sounds so much different from the usual C-17s that I'm usually running outside with my camera hoping for an F-15, or something similarly exciting... Another one from last fall: A couple other recent visitors: McChord is a C-17 base, so these guys are pretty consistently overhead: We also get

Thanks Brian, I may have made my mind up for myself... the metallic blue was bugging me because it looked too blue, compared to most surviving examples of Aotake I've seen. I tried to change that by giving the paint a light overcoat of MM "IJN Green" (the glossy one). The glossy paint is somewhat translucent, so I just applied it using a very heavy dry-brushing technique. The good news is, the color is now much closer to the darker green Aotake I was looking for. The bad news is that I'm still not sure I like the color. It seems too dark when everything's closed up. The one color photo i can

ok, thanks- I checked there, but couldn't find these sets. Must not be stocking them yet... :/

Anyone know of a U.S. distributor for CMK? I went on their site to order a set, but the shipping cost more than the kit itself! Over 50 bucks for one detail set isn't worth it, in my book...

Quick update: Real life has gotten in the way of things, however, I did make some minor progress a couple days ago: I started painting the cockpit! After coming up with inconclusive research regarding the cockpit color, I was faced with a few options. What I'd found was that the Ki-84 went through three different colors: "green" for early production aircraft, aotake for mid-production, and natural metal for very late aircraft. My findings seemed to suggest that Aotake was the best choice, because I'm still not sure which markings I'll be doing (though I'm leaning toward something from the 104t

I can't remember where I got the info, but I believe they were painted, from left to right (e.g. rear of the cockpit to the front) black, black, yellow, blue, red.

Hi all, I recently started this kit, and wanted to share some of my progress. This is the second Hasegawa "Frank" I've built, but the first was several years ago, built straight OOB. My skills have improved significantly since then, so I wanted to give this one a little extra detailing, particularly in the cockpit. References have been hard to find, but I've managed to get a decent idea of what to add. The following pictures show what I've done so far. I started with the cockpit floor- Hasegawa has done a good job on this part, so all I did was drill out a couple of holes in the structure. I

*Accidental duplicate post- Moderators please delete this one!

Gah! I literally just finished the last little bits on my Tamiya 1:48 Mustang's cockpit! I should've waited awhile, and just lurked on here to glean some of the inevitable information that would crop up... ah well, there's always next time, and I'll still REALLY be looking forward to this one! I loved the CF-18 and the F-4, but WWII is where my heart lies, so I'm excited to see what you can do to this mustang!

Ooh! I just received another 48th B-17 kit in the mail, and was bummed that I'd missed the chance to get in on this, since my build speed is usually pretty slow, but I might just have to start a thread, seeing that we're extended... I've got plans to do the kit I just got as "2nd Patches," and I've got another that I was planning on doing as an SB-17G that crashed back in '51 in the mountains near my house- I've even visited the site a couple times! It was stalled because I botched the relocation of the staggered waist window, and because of insufficient references, but I may just have to try

PM sent about the 1:48 Hasegawa P-40E and 1:48 B-17G

So... I don't exactly have an update on the -1D kit, but I do have a related update: I managed to make it home for Easter weekend, and as such, finally got the chance to go through the "partially built box" of corsair stuff I scored on eBay awhile back. This is what I found: So, in short, I have one kit that's about 75% assembled that can be built as a -1D, and enough parts to build TWO -1s (or a -1 and a -2, depending on what I decide) However, there are a few issues: The cockpit painting/detailing on the assembled -1D is nowhere near up to my standards, so I'm now faced with whethe

Cool! I got to have a similar experience last weekend- PLU (the University I attend) is right next to McChord AFB, and so there's an almost constant stream of C-17s flying overhead, along with lots of P-3s and the occasional KC-135. Every now and then, i get lucky and see an F-15 or two, and I saw a couple of F-16s for the first time a couple weeks ago. But last weekend, I heard a sound I didn't recognize, and looked up to see an Osprey coming in at pretty low level, followed by another a couple minutes later- definitely made my afternoon! They're such an odd-looking aircraft, but strangely gr

Hi all, I just have one quick update today- I haven't had much free time to do any work on this kit lately, and it's not looking good in that respect for at least another week, but I thought I'd post the one thing I have done, which was detailing the pilot's left side console. I may end up rebuilding the landing gear control assembly (the large lever at the front of the console) because it's slightly over-scale, but we'll see how that works out. Anyway, that's all for now, thanks for looking!

That's a pretty neat looking build, right there! really well done on the shading and weathering, and it's a scheme you don't see a 'Stang in every day... And the fact that the code letters are my initials... WELL!

Ok, time for update #3! I spent the better part of my free time yesterday and today gathering research and doing some work on the outer wing halves, as well as a little work on the tailwheel strut. The pictures are as follows: This photo shows the work required on the wing panels, namely: fill/remove the landing light on the left wing and the small teardrop-shaped depressions on both wingtips, and cut out the openings for the approach light and gun camera windows in the wing leading edges, and the navigation lights in the wingtips, and replace all of them with clear sprue sanded to shape.

Well, it's time for update #1. I managed to get quite a bit of work done yesterday, mostly concerning the pilot's seat and central fuselage. I started by removing the seat mounting "blocks" from the rear bulkhead and starting the tubular support framework with .020" evergreen rod: I also started working on the main gear bays. There were some nasty ejector pin marks to clean up, and some sidewall framing to remove. On the left is an unfinished well with the frames that need to be removed marked in black, and on the right is the finished item. I'll be adding more structural details and wirin

Hi all, i just thought I'd post my current planned project. I've decided to take a different approach with this WIP, and chronicle the whole thing from start to finish with a more detailed account. First, a little background: This will be the sixth iteration of the Tamiya kit that I've built, having previously done two F4U-1s, one F4U-1A, a -1D converted to an F4U-1C, and one F4U-1D. The kit itself happens to be one of my favorites I've ever worked with. The engineering on the kit is perfect, save for the flaps, and the detail OOB is excellent. However, having built the kit five times previo

*Update: just found a couple better pictures of the assembled A6M3 cockpit laying around on my memory card and thought I'd post them:

Thanks again for your replies and interest guys! I thought I'd pop in and give y'all another little update. As of this moment, the A6M3 is about 75% finished, but is stalled for the time being until I can get myself home to use my airbrush (I didn't bring it up to school with the rest of my modeling stuff). I had my first experience filling seams with CA glue on this model, and I have to say it was quite pleasant compared to some of the methods I've tried in the past. Definitely something I'll be doing more of in the future. All of the major assembly has been finished, but work can't really

Hi all, I'm currently planning on starting a 1:48 scale Academy MH-6, and I'm considering converting it to an AH-6. However, in order to do so, I need to find a pair of 1:48 scale miniguns and the rocket pods that the AH-6 carries (not sure what type they are. I was thinking that if someone has the 1:48 Monogram AC-47 and would be willing to part with the miniguns from that kit, or the rocket pods from the Monogram 1:48 UH-1 Gunship, they would fill the part nicely. I'm willing to pay or trade for any of the parts- any takers? Thanks, -Josh

Yeah, I've found that it's a pretty inexpensive kit. I managed to pick up an ASW version on eBay this morning, "just in case..." If worst comes to worst, I'll build the "MH-6" version as the TOW version with the tinted windows, and do the ASW version as a MELB, and if both end up having the clear parts, I might end up doing a MELB and an AH-6. They'd look pretty cool together on the shelf, I think... The missing collective shouldn't be a problem- I'm planning on doing quite a bit of scratchbuilding to get these birds up to snuff. So now the question is: just how bad are the skids? How much n