Hi All

Finished my big gun M107

Hi, here is my entry, the F-4 Phantom. Started on 1st of May, but forgot the opener photo
So I hope you take my word that it wasn't started before..



I will put on the instrument panel decals tonight, next step will be mating the fuselage halves.
Good luck for you all!

@Linus - That's what I call a GUN congrats!
I fondly remember these things in Giessen/Germany when I
was a young man

Linus, great looking big gun!

Peter, we are doing the same airplane in different scales and from different manufacturers. How is the Italeri kit?

I am nearly done with the cockpit, air intakes and exhaust. Happy so far: Too many parts but they fit great, sink marks and seams here and there but nothing too bad.

Hi Carlos,
the kit goes together quite well yet, but it's still the cockpit section. I built one in the eighties, it was fun.
Hope this one will be, too!
Yours will be looking fine, I'm sure. Will follow your build! The cockpit is looking great so far

Cockpit's ready

OK, time (I hope) for one last change. Scaling it down a bit. I need to get my modelling mojo back on line and I've always loved the A-4 (also, Oliver inspired me). So, with a little less than two months left, I'm going to take a crack at:



Not really Vietnam War eligible, you say? Well, a quick comparison of instruction sheets with a half-done kit and I find:



The plastic in the A-4SU kit is the same as the plastic in the A-4C kit, which certainly DOES qualify! What about markings? Well, happily I happen to have:



The Victory Productions A-4 sheet! Plenty to choose from here, and with complete markings. I'm going for option A:



CO's aircraft of VA-94, the Mighty Shrikes. In December, 1965 the Shrikes led the first combat strike from a nuclear carrier, the Big E. Sounds right up my alley!

Michael

Michael, I will be watching your A4 build, it is my favorite airplane and it is the hardest kit for me to obtain where I live. But I can watch your progress and live vicariously.

I am ready to start paint on my A1 Skyraider finally.

Bob

@ Linus : I see Your not messing around, and have a nice M107 ready while the rest of us is still sitting on a pile of plastic.
@ Carlos : Great job on the cockpit, are those Photo Etch or did You paint it by hand ? Look great.

I have finally put the main parts together. Tried to address the issues with the shape of the intake and change it from "D" to a more oval shape with lot of putty and sanding. The AIRES wheel bays also didnt fit so that was additional "fun". There were so many issues with it I actualy decide to fit in just the fuselage part, the wing part was left as it is in the kit. I have noticed one more issue with the Trumpeter kit. Aside from Canopy, Intake, wheels and wheel bays, the wing is also sitting too high in the fuselage. This is however unfixable and I have to live with it. I dont know why this kit received favourable reviews back when released.

@ Jacob
You did a tremendous job so far, changing the intake and the wheel wells
The wheel wells look phantastic. Yes, sometimes I'm wondering, too, about the praise of a new kit when later people who have bought and built it, tell me about the mistakes of it
Go on and don't worry too much about the misplaced wings, in the end it will surely look great!
Cheers Peter

At least three Skyhawks on the way...

I applied decals as soon as possible, because I think these were the biggest risk of failure due their relative complexity. Almost everything went fine, although tail's blue comb-like decal required quite many solvent treatments. Would've designed that differently: vertical stabilizer painted blue and inserts as decals would've been easier. Obviously I'll need to touch up some decals with paint.



Probably three weeks and this is done.

Nice work Pasi! I think 40% of the Navy strike missions over Vietnam were flown by A-4s (or something like that), so I don't think three for the campaign is too many.

Michael

Linus: Wow, this is what I call big fun! Congrats on Your build!

Franck: Interesting plane, You are building!

Radek: Your Corsair comes along very nice!

Carlos and Peter: The cockpits of Your Phantoms look cool!

Michael: Nice choice! There cannot be enough Skyhawks!

Jacob: Awesome work to improve this kit. It will look fantastic!

Pasi: Your Scooter looks really good.

Finished my own Skyhawk this week. The smaller parts were a bit fiddly, but now I hope everything is in place.







Oliver

Very nice work Oliver. You have even made the back mirrors on the inside of the cockpit !

Jacob, that is amazing work. Regarding positive reviews, I have the feeling that most places that routinely review models tend to be over positive. My cockpit is Eduard photo-etch, I used a wash and dry-brushing to make it look a bit less like a eduard photo-etch interior.

Pasi, Decals looking perfect. I am always terrified with large decals.

Olivier, That looks stunning. I was thinking it was a 1/48 until I saw your hand! I have just added an A-4 to my stash...

Things going well, I will prime the whole model tonight.

I have been painting the metallic colours around the exhaust. I have used Vallejo Metal colour for first time and I love them. Sorry photos are not good, I will take camera out next time and stop messing with the phone.




Carlos

Not everything flies!

I’m in for a very late start with a M48A3 Patton in 1/72 scale!

This is the old but good (for its time, at least) ESCI/ERTL kit from 1983.

[quote]Linus: Wow, this is what I call big fun! Congrats on Your build!

Franck: Interesting plane, You are building!

Radek: Your Corsair comes along very nice!

Carlos and Peter: The cockpits of Your Phantoms look cool!

Michael: Nice choice! There cannot be enough Skyhawks!

Jacob: Awesome work to improve this kit. It will look fantastic!

Pasi: Your Scooter looks really good.

Finished my own Skyhawk this week. The smaller parts were a bit fiddly, but now I hope everything is in place. [quote]

I agree with Oliver. Plus Oliver your A4 looks really good also.

I need to set up a painting area and finish my A1.

Bob

A bit of progress on my Hueys.

The top of the cabin was barren so I mocked up a switch panel and made some sound insulation from a piece of paper.

Now on to some more assembly.

My skyraider has some paint on. Few stuff ups but it's mostly ok

Hi mates,
very impressive builds of you all

I'm working my way up to the paint job now

The solid molded plastic tracks on ESCI’s little Patton look nice, but the road wheels and return rollers are depicted as wide single units rather than as the thinner, paired wheels as they actually were...

Okay... the ESCI M48 bogie wheel problem CAN be solved – but it will be a bit of work! Making those one-piece Mag wheels into the correct paired sets is actually a simple (if tedious) procedure:

I started by taking two of the kit bogies and sanding the backs down half way. Then, adding a .030 inch thick plastic disc as a spacer between them, I glued them together. The width comes out exactly the same as the original single wheel but with a space between the two for the track guide horns.

The thing is, this approach will require twice as many bogey wheels as come with the kit; fortunately I also have a M48A5 kit to plunder for parts. Now to get cracking on all FOURTEEN pairs – and a further TEN return rollers needing the same treatment!

iain, what colors did you use on your A1? She looks good and I hope mine will look as good.

Bob

Jacob, Carlos and Bob: Glad You like my little scooter!

Carlos: Did You paint the colours on a black surface and are these acrylic ones?

Tim: I remember these old Esci kits. I built a lot of them as a boy. Great immprovement of those wheel. Really hard work to do this with all wheels of the tank. Keep up Your good job!

Mark: Nice progress on Your Hueys. How is the fitting and the detail of the Italeri kit? I think there is a UH-1D version of this kit, that I want to build in future.

Ian: The painting of Your Skyraider looks flawless. Did You use masks?

Peter: Seems Your pilot cannot expect the finish of his new plane! Looks good so far!

Oliver

I am thinking about a little diorama of the scooter, but I have few knowledge about ships:-?. Does anybody know the distance of the Tie-down points onto a carrier like the Kitty Hawk.

Oliver