niart17

it's me again. one serious question about those pics. notice the yellow (canopy release???) markings. they are sooo much cleaner than everything else, are they changed periodically? it appears both sides are clean like that. anyone have thoughts as to why? just curious. Bill

so who knew, Fred Sanford was a Navy CAG? "bwahbwahh bwah bwahh bwah....." not only is the paint job not very convincing, look at the raised panel lines on the drop tanks....i'm thinking this is the old revell kit. :P Cool looking pics,i'd love to try something that dirty and make it convincing. Bill

don't know about AM, but testors put out a prototype hornet years ago, (Fujimi i believe) that came with the attractive blue gold and white scheme.....i had it but i'm sure the decals are toast by now.

can you imagine the faces of the arrestor cable crew when they first saw him lining up on approach? :o :) :(

no problem man. like i said, you may have to saw off the bottom of the legs to get it to fit, but it doesn't show up in a closed cockpit usually. i have managed to get them to fit into a sword t-38 with only having to take off the feet, it's one of those trial and error fitting things. should have it out to you soon. Bill

the earliest recorded successful in-flight refueling was in 1923 by a DH-4B. also, a b-24 was tested refueling a b-17 in WWII, although i don't know if that officially counts. The British also developed the drouge system, but i couldn't find any reference to what the first plane to use it was.

all of the Hasagawa f-18 kits come with pilots sitting. i have several extras lying around. if you PM me your address i can try to shoot one over to ya. HTH

awesome job!!! those vents/fairings/thingamajigs/doohickies at the back top between the tails, are those included in the Revell kit or is that something you had to scratch build? i know the Hasagawa kit has the older flush ones. awesome weathering too and i agree, not overdone at all on the NAVY, looks better. Bill

i hope he's a real good pilot, cause he lost his tail plane surfaces as well......may be a bit tricky to handle.....or is that the new vectored thrust f-16?

maybe i'm not getting the whole page or i'm missing something, but the plane at the bottom of the page you listed as i'm seeing it is a model. it's a second model he added the ALOTS pod on to. i believe he just used the standard AMT kc-135 kit. perhaps you could PM Ted Talor directly and ask for any info he has on the subject. Edit : okay, i'm stupid. i just re-read your question, you mean you found another picture of the real plane somewhere else. i misunderstood what you meant. forget my stupidity, but you still may ask Ted, he probably has references somewhere i would suppose. Bill

I'm sorry, i wasn't intending to insult anyone or hurt anyones feelings. obviously, i wasn't there and don't know if it's true or not. i was just making a blanket statement about how some of the stories you hear are just that. i know a guy from my model club that always had stories he'd tell. but usually they held little water. like how he was the only Army special forces Ranger that served on the Thunderbirds ground crew, and was in a joint service Air force/Navy detachment with the Blue Angels back in the 70's....(the guys been around) oh yea, he was a tanker boom operator as well. i assu

yea, i saw that episode....the one where Col Lard told pappy and the boys not to shoot those missles, so they traded the p-38 boys some cases of scotch for them. and pappy got in a fight. i think it was the same one where they stole a pig from the locals and after painting the planes pink, they cooked the pig and had a big party, until the germans came and shot up the base. then you would see a whole squadron of pink rf-4's flying over japan. one got shot down and he took his plane apart and used the vulcan cannon as a side arm and shot his way back to safety.....i think there was a preditor t

pre-order placed!!!! :blink: now, since you have payment thru pay-pal only, i have to figure out a good cover story for my wife for that unexplained charge on our credit card. THANKS ZACTOMAN!! oh well, hopefully the finished product will be worth the pain of hearing, "How much are you gonna spend on that stupid hobby?" can't wait til to postman drops it off. Bill

looks like some aeronautical engineer said "Sure, that 3/4" bolt should be more than enough to hold this pylon on."

i have to admit, i was a bit sceptical about the desert camo scheme actually working, but man, it blends in like crazy!

i put looks, only because there wasn't an "all of the above" choice. the first time i saw a p-51 wasn't even at an air show. i was at a Christmas Festival in Nachitoches La. and they had a guy doing really low runs over the bridges in town. Man oh man, hearing that thing coming screaming at you while on a bridge. i can only imagine the fear a german would have felt in that same situation some 60 years ago. it was a beautiful sight and sound. ahhhhhh.... Bill

what i meant is, if you see a person that you know is going to produce it, and do a good job, then you might pause a moment, and think of something else that said model needs. i think the reputation of the really good casters is pretty well known on this site. of course, if someone feels that the other person won't actually do the parts, or if they'll do sub-standard, then it would be wise to go ahead a cast what you want to. it's like going to the gym to play pick up basketball. if you see Michael Jordon on the other team, you may reconsider getting in that game. know what i mean vern?

Now now, there's plenty of room on the playground for everyone, no need to worry about what has and hasn't been posted before. i thought it was interesting, and i haven't seen it, so thanks for the post. let's just be a big happy family shall we? Bill

of course in the end, unless you have a perfectly calibrated printer and screen, and the paint batch you are trying to match is right on the money, the numbers are only going to get you close to what you want. what i like to do is to make multiple copies of most of the markings on the sheet, some slightly darker and some slightly lighter. it does waste ink and paper space, but generally it works out pretty well and in the end saves me heart-ache. just a suggestion. Bill

also as just a builder, not a resin caster, i think quality stands on it's own. if there are 3 different casters doing the same thing, i'll try to get the best for the buck. i could see one way that such a cooperative effort would benefit all envolved. let's say caster "a" announces he's working on plane "XYZ's" wheel wells. that would let caster "b" think "hey, he does good work, i think instead, i'll do the intake for that plane or the cockpit or gunbays or whatever". i think the variety of A.M. parts for the plane might help each caster sell something that may not have sold if it were on

imho, i would think he used some sort of masking around the rivet lines to keep that edge clean. looks like he did a wash on the rivets, masked them off, then did a weathering around that. perhaps some pinstriping tape? it is an awesome job regardless of how it was done. may not be what he did, but seems like it'd work. Bill

Is there any word as to what the price might be on this? I have the 1/48th scale one, and while it has it's flaws like most kits do, it's really not a bad kit at all. I'd love to have it in 1/32 scale. Bill

thanks guys. hopefully i'll have something to show ya'll. i just have to find the time to try it out. you all inspire me though. Bill

* Bill

Awesome job! <_< have you ever used photoshop to do this type of work? If so, how would you compare it to using Corel painter? i assume you prefer painter, but i would like to try digital painting, and i already have CS2. will it do or is it limited to the results i could get? i would really appreciate your opinion on this. Thanks, Bill