niart17

WOW! just....... i mean.....WOW! How do you guys do this sort of thing? i can't build that well with a kit much less starting with sheet plastic. I am in awe and will watch this one very close. Bill

Hey EDW, you work for NASA on this project? just wondering because my bro works there and i believe has started working around the new launch system. i know there are soooo many people, but might be a chance you guys know each other. His name is Zane (not a common name) Thanks, Bill

Don't we all? B) (this is going downhill really fast i assure you. )

THANKS-A-LOT tomcatter! you stole my design.....now i have to start over. that's 12 hours i'll never get back. should be fun, i'll have to play with this mayself. Bill

another source is the pilot figures themselves. i know it sounds pretty gruesome...but a little brain surgery is required. just carve out the dudes head and add detail if you'd like. i have done this with 1/48 scale pilots before (they have complained about severe headaches since) but i would think it would be easier with 1/32 scale. just a way to save some bucks but i'm sure it's not as good a quality as Master Details. Bill

AWESOME! i still have a hard time telling the relative size of these things. i know they are considerably bigger than the apollo ones, but because they are carrying a larger crew, will the roominess be about the same? keep posting this stuff. i may have to do a splashdown dio of the new one too just to show some comparision. Thanks, Bill

wow! impressive. .i could never attempt anything that detailed and small. ok......i guess it's wearing thin huh. :D

i tried to add more flash and bring it up to the current lot numbers, but i had a hard time with such thin sheet plastic. it just seemed to melt away no matter what type of adhesive i was using. maybe i should go with a resin update set.

Hey guys, just wanted to share my latest project. i decided to scratch build an exact 1:1 model of the Hasegawa 1/48 f/a-18b. The material i will be using is mostly evergreen sheet plastic of assorted thicknesses and various tubing. i think the hardest part of this build will getting the proper amount of mold separation lines and getting the part numbers to be consistent to make a convincing model. and now for a couple of pics. as i usually do, i started with the cockpit sprue. there are a few pieces i still need to add and i'm not sure i'm totally happy with the "Hasegawa" logo so i may try

Here's my not-so-complete build. i didn't know where you guys were wanting us to post the unfinished builds, so i just dropped it here. feel free to move it, delete it, or whatever needs to be done. i got a little further than what's shown here, but not much so.....failure was an option in this case. unfortunately. this is with the water just painted and dry and the mostly shaped diver in place this is after painting some of the white caps. my first attempt at water. it could be better but overall i'm happy with it. thanks everyone for all the help and comments. maybe next time i'll act

i will post my "finished build" tonight if i get the chance. of course now the title of it will have to change from "..And Return Him Safely To The Earth." to "Headless Scuba Diver Rescues Single Astronaut from Broken up Capsule....story at 11." which just doesn't have the same ring to it don't you think? Bill

i'm not really a sci-fi dude per se, i build some here and there, but i would think it depends on which specific subject you're building. or at least what type of cockpit you want to do. meaning that some spacecraft cockpits would be detailed just like aircraft cockpits, maybe a bit cleaner looking, with similar switches and MFD screens gauges and what not. then you have stuff like star trek type controls, where everything seems to be more flat touch panels, not so much switches, but just multi colored panels with some cool designs and little to no actual gauges. or you can go the other way an

http://www.arcforums.com/forums/air/index....howtopic=141767 this may have everything you are looking for. you may have tto read through it all to get your specific questions, but i believe it was all covered. Bill

ok, i'll add a few. this is my brother in law on his retirement flight. i hope he doesn't mind me posting them, but it's for a good cause. he was a t-38 pilot at bealle and got to fly a u-2 for his final flight. he was quite pumped up. unfortunately i wasn't able to make it out to california before he retired otherwise i would have had some great shots of the chase cars, and some landing shots from the chase car.......here ya go. Bill

i knew the military budget was somewhat in trouble, but geeesh man, that's some low tech gear there. Karl, don't you get cold on those high altitude flights? i mean, not that it's apparent in this photo , but in general...... Bill

something else to notice. the "gold" mylar material is actually a silver as Randy shows on his beautiful CSM he posted but does have a definite gold tint to some of it after re-entry. i believe it's something to do with the reaction of the material to such extreme heat. i think that's why monogram gold plated their capsule instead of chrome plated it, which would have been more accurate. here are a couple of really good shots of Apollo 13's recovery. they show all of the different colors and layered effect after re-entry. you can almost make out the honeycomb pattern i was speaking of. it's r

as far as the rust looking effect, that's something i'm playing around with as well. the actual color of the capsules appears to vary quite a bit from mission to mission or the different photos just make them look different. i've seen some pics that make it look really grey and some with more of a tan and brown pattern and others like the one you posted that look more rusty. so i don't know if they really are different or they are just under different lighting. one thing i have noticed on pretty much all of the close up shots is they have a composite pattern to them. kind of like a cross bet

i agree about micromesh..the stuff is great. the only thing to be careful of is you have to make sure you lay down enough paint otherwise, no matter how careful you are sanding, you can "burn" thru to the primer or plastic pretty fast and then you pretty much have to start over unless you're really good at spot painting. to me, it's the closest thing to how real show cars are painted. i am using it on a blue angel build right now.. pretty hard on an f-18 because of all the crevices. Bill

yes, you are correct. i thought he was referring to the wing fairing area below the red stripe. the nose front and rear fuse areas are definately NM. i wasn't sure about the new scheme grey. being that it's against a white instead of the NMF, it's hard to tell the difference. i just assumed (should never do that) they stayed with the same grey on the new scheme. i knew someone here would know much more that i would. Bill

in the old scheme, it is indeed grey. I don't know the exact color, and i've heard it called "boeing grey" but i don't know if that's an actual color or not. I'm sure someone here knows and you may want to ask in the space/sci-fi section as well. The newer scheme is white on top with the nasa blue stripe and i believe the same grey as the old on the bottom. if you google it, you can find alot of photos and even some build up articles of some models. one thing, if you're doing the old version, notice the ghosted "AMERICAN" airline logo still visible from when they removed the orignal markings

yes it does actually require quite a bit of sanding. in my first pic in that last post, you can see where i basically had to grind away the row of boxes at the base of bottom errr back err...front piece. i also should have thinned all of the parts before glueing them to the kit parts faces. i still need to file down the starboard to back joint to get that to fit correctly. in my case, most of the seams around the top and bottom won't be seen, so i'm not too worried, but if i were doing it with the clear parts, it would take alot of sanding to get it nice and smooth. i did have to scratch all t

i'm definately not trying to start up anything, i'm seriously curious about this. as far as accuracy, how do kits that are being produced today, such as dragon's p-51 or trumpeter's a-7 and such compare to the older monogram, hasegawa, hawk or whatever brand of choice from years ago? i know molding technologies have improved but it seems like accuracy is what is being shot down so often now days. were the kits of years before more accurate or are we just that much more aware of the true numbers that we can catch these things? again, i'm sorry if i'm hijaking the thread and i'm not intending t

well roundels upside down or not, these are some great builds. amazing when you consider they are all brush painted. I have a hard time getting natural metal looking that good with an airbrush much less brushes. Keep up the great work and don't sweat the upside down marking, i'm sure EVERYONE here has done something similar. Bill

very nice build. i've always liked the looks of the X-1. it looks like it was just fired from a rifle. thanks for sharing and yes, i'd love to see the in progress pics on this one. Bill

good point guys, thanks for the encouragement. i won't rush to get it done, but i do want to try to finish for the deadline otherwise it may be doomed to "The Pile Of Halfbuilt Kits" where there are waayyy too many occupants as it is. thanks again for everything. Bill