Geoff M

I think the technique you mention is for creating a chipped paint effect, not so much for faded paint. For the chipped effect you would need a coat of paint, whether primer or nat metal underneath the salt layer to bring out the chips. Geoff M

Pretty impressive list there. One correction I believe it should be Robinson Risner.

Here is the basic necessities: First up is the Grand Phoenix kit contents. A mixed media limited run kit. Plastic main parts, resin detail for the cockpit wheel wells, a metal nose gear leg, photoetch to add to the seat and cockpit, vinyl masks for the canopy and wheels, and a instrument panel film with dials. A nice selection on 3 aircraft represented on the decals by Eagle Strike. The plastic has petite engraved panel lines. Being limited run injection there is some clean up to do on the parts but overall it looks very nice. The resin parts are very detailed and separate easily from the pouring lugs. The photoetch is a flexible metal easy to work with. We will see how this kit holds up once we start assembling. Next is the Hobby Boss Kit. This kit is all plastic. Very similar break down of parts to the Grand Phoenix apart from the single piece bottom wing. 2 aircraft represented on the decals printed by Hobby Boss. I chose to start on the Grand Phoenix kit. I tend to deviate from the instructions so I started by checking the fit of the various resin pieces into the wings and fuselage. A quick check of the main gear wells showed they were too thick to fit in the wings. I sanded the edges of the wells to thin them but there Is not enough material here to remove to get them thin enough. So I resorted to removing material from the wings. I started by tracing around the wells to provide a guide to removing material. Once I got an acceptable thinness I glued the wings together. I also drilled out holes for the external stores and the refueling probe. Being a limited run kit this has none of the usual means of fixing the fuselage together so I added strips of plastic to aid in aligning the pieces and this worked well. The fuselage main gear well was a drop fit into the fuselage. The nose gear well also fits into the fuselage with no problems, but problems showed up later when the intake trunk was fitted. There is not enough room in the fuselage for it close up with the intake trunk, the cockpit and the wheel well installed. So a lot of sanding on the trunk and nose gear well was needed. I got the intake trunk and the wheel well paper thin and at that point had to stop sanding and hope that rubber bands would close up the nose. In the end I had use super glue to close up some small gaps. That's where I am at right now. I am enoying this kit. It pushes me beyond my limits in a good way. More to come. Geoff M

Next up will be the Grand Phoenix and Hobby Boss kits of the FJ-4B Fury. More to come. Geoff M

I will look for it. Thanks Geoff M

Sorry to hear about the decals, been there, done that. Still looking good! Geoff M

Same here, I built them both and prefer the Hasegawa too! Yours look great!

I build mostly 48th aircraft but I would build a jeep or 2 if they were available. I know Hasegawa and Tamiya have both done it, but they are never available and command pretty high prices when you can find them. Is there no interest in this iconic vehicle or am I missing something? Geoff M

I feel your pain Geoff M

My latest projects. A couple of Bird Dogs. Some pretty intrepid pilots flew these things around Viet Nam! Thanks for looking Geoff M

That is coming along nicely. Waiting for more. Geoff M

I have finally come to a conclusion on these kits. The front and rear windows on the Model USA kit are real problems which caused me to fill and sand multiple time to get something that looked remotely ok. I filled with Tamiya surface primer and sanded until I sanded through plastic which caused me to fill the holes with super glue and resand and refill. I ended up having to basically sand the clear parts to get a smooth transition as you can see in the pictures. At this point I was just hoping I could polish them back to something clear. After I spent as much time as wanted at this point I masked up the clear parts. The Roden kit is not any better with regard to the clear parts although I did not have to do as much filling but the front and rear windows were too large for the opening. This caused me to wonder if maybe I had switched the parts from the two kits inadvertently. Too late at this point if I did. I sanded down the clear parts and got an ok fit. Both kits were now masked and ready to paint. Here are both kits in the paint booth. MM aircraft gray sprayed. Came out nice and glossy for decaling. This is the Roden kit in the foreground. Roden kit again. Model USa kit. You can see how I had to build up the cowl area to fill the gap in the windscreen. Model USA kit Model USA kit all decaled and finished. I used the kit decals which were printed by Scalemaster. They worked well but the sheet is covered by a film of glue that is kind of messy and sticks to the decals Whe n they were dry I wiped them with some windex to get the excess glue off. You can see the rear windscreen is not very clear. It will have to do. Roden Kit finished with the kit decals. This is the first Roden kit I have built and the decals leave much to be desired. The carrier film on many of the decals is one piece so that each decal needs to be trimmed out to be able to use it. The smaller decals have very large area of carrier film around them. The decals are thin, but they are also very fragile. My conclusion on these kits. We are still in need of an up to date molding of this little plane. It will be along time before we see another kit of this plane. The Model USA kit is probably from the 90's and it was a solo release from a company trying to get into the model business so I will give it a pass. Their instructions even mention that things aren't the way they should be with regard to fit. The Roden kit looks very nice in the box. Fine panel lines, full engine, nice interior, etc. The problem lies again in the clear parts and their bad fit. Perhaps someone with a little more finesse and technique could do these justice. In the end I was glad to get these finished and off the workbench. They will go into my collection as 4 footers (they look fine from 4 feet away.) Geoff M

What the heck, Tamiya should do a complete P-40 line B-N for what it is worth. Geoff M

Caveat emptor! Geoff M

Glad I am not the only one who doesn't follow the instructions 😁 Nice save. Geoff M