kdeuser

I was thinking about my wife... LOL

Would love to see Tamiya do a 1/32 F4F or F6F. That would be sweet. Probably someone else has already chimed in with that, but I don't have the patience to flip through 39 pages.

It was quite an adventure laying those big decals down!

The early vs late comment got me thinking... I recall some difference among the "D" models with respect to the "chin" antenna. I believe some had the "C" radome with the same shape chin antenna, some had a radome like a "J" without any chin antenna and some later machines had someting with bumps all over it called a "herpes mod"? Corrections and clarifications from the experts?

I have been holding off on building this kit waiting for the cast brass landing gear from G-Factor to (eventually) become available. It has been off the market for a while and I heard/read that it would eventually be available again once the guys who produce them had time to do another run. I got a notice from Sprue Bros yesterday that it is back in stock. (Expensive, but my laziness has no concept of value!) I can't imagine putting in the time and effort to build this kit only to see it sag on the shelf. I also do not have the patience (ok, skills) to scratch or modify such a complex part. Get it while you can! Kurt

You might find this alignment jig useful to get the outer wings and stabs aligned at the correct angles. nautilusmodels.com The Eduard sets are useful as well.

I used the Eduard Big Edition and it was nice (also easy). I also thought the kit wheels/tires were fine... Comparing the kit + Eduard PE to photographs it looks pretty close. The biggest omission was that it did not provide for any of the wiring behind the instrument panel. I have seen some great examples of scratched wiring in the landing gear bays/fuselage area that look fantastic and better than the P/E. IMO, unless you are fanatical, any resin is a marginal improvement over what a little PE, fine wire and evergreen can accomplish with this particular kit. The supplied seat belt p/e was pretty crude compared to the Eduard part (and photographs). You will probably need to scratch a gun sight no matter which a/m parts you get - I was not happy with any of them and this is very visible in the cockpit. Were I to do it all over again, I would probably forsake the big edition (unless I could get it on sale) for a cockpit only P/E set and scratch everything else. I forgot to put weight in until after I had painted the darn thing. I had to slice off a panel next to the nose bay and shove some in...then repair/re-scribe/re-paint! (duh!) If you are building a fighter (vs fighter/bomber), one thing I noticed in the Eduard set is that it includes a bomb release lever. I did not know this is what the part was for until later, and the aircraft I was modeling was a fighter. I am not so sure the pure fighters had this installed... It seems like I ran into a few other minor things like this in the process of working on the kit. Good Luck! Kurt

1/32 F-106 I find it surprising this has never been done in 1/32. The coolness factor is indisputable (which is enhanced with a Genie in the weapons bay).

Mark - Yes it is sweet and it is Bar's plane! The color scheme is theoretically possible for an earlier production Me262 and was pointed out as such in a book on colors and markings for this particular plane. Even if the reference was wrong, this is without a doubt my favorite color scheme on a German plane from WWII. I think there are pictures of other planes in his unit with the green/green scheme, but I conveniently already had stocks of paint for the gray/green scheme! Martin, the colors for the interior of the fuselage will vary depending on when and where it was built. Pictures are rare, but those I could find showed natural metal with only the rivet lines sprayed with a gray (rlm02 I think) primer. The "heavily armed" versions were later-production IIRC from my reading, so silver is probably right. The tub itself I think was primed? BTW, those tabs on the tub and the sockets on the fuselage sides to mount the cockpit were not on the real thing. I removed them since they aren't really necessary and I found it easier to mount the cockpit without them. The cockpit attaches to bulkheads fore and aft, so I never understood why they are there to begin with? You'll see what I mean when you get there. No biggie as I don't exactly spend my nights peering into the wheel wells and openings of my completed kits (and don't do contests). I look forward to following your build as I've thought about building another one myself!

...and put some weight in the nose!!! I found out the hard way and had to cut a panel open, insert some weight, then glue-sand-scribe the panel! I also thought it was a nice kit, but all of the nose panels were fussy. Other than that, a lot of fun and it looks great with a big red "13" on my shelf!!! (Plus it was my first ever German a/c!)

The F-14 is on Greatmodel's website at $155.20 US. This retail price is in line with their other 1/32 jets, considering the size and parts count. After several months it will likely be under $100 on E-Bay and places like LuckyModel.

Aerospace Modeler #7 has an article by Roger Jackson building the 1/48 scale Hasegawa kit with the markings of that plane for the mission on that day. He goes into detail about the markings, various decals offered, and is worth reading. Looks like the tail code is FP and the # is 37-680.

I really want to see if anyone is bold enough to try this one in 1/32 on the next carrier GB...

Ah! I have to agree with everyone here, I also use other tools frequently. I bought the etch-mate several years ago in a buying frenzy after I scored a bonus at work... I use a plain old pair of small scissors to cut most of my parts along with an xacto blade on glass. My favorite all-time story with PE was, after cutting a bunch of parts required for an extensive cockpit build and laying them out carefully, I sneezed and blew them all away - most never to be found again. So cut only the parts you need! I also second the comment about holding off on the coffee (all caffeine) when working with PE. I have done this and literally laughed at myself when my hands started shaking. (I have had this happen after a good work-out or after some really intense yard work. Don't ever try to handle PE after pushing a lawn mower around for an hour! I find a glass of wine helps - cut, sip, cut, sip, glue, sip, cut, sip, sip, sip, glue, sip, sip, sip, sip...)

Go to E-Bay and do a search on "etch-mate" to get an idea of what you are looking at. If you do not do cars, ships or armor, the cheaper one is more than sufficient. If you do a lot of ships and armor, it might be worth investing in one of the longer tools and maybe even the associated kits with all the shapes and accessories.

I recall reading somewhere in one of my references that there was a different (blown?) canopy introduced late in production at the request of the pilots. All of my books are in the basement next to the model in progress, but I will look and see later when I get down there again.

I have almost the exact same photo of the F4U-1D at the Naval Air Museum and the interior of the cowling is identical to the one in your photograph.

I bought mine on E-Bay, they have loads of them for sale. I picked one with a rather large stainless steel tub. I have used water/detergent, windex and 409 to clean my airbrush and some resin parts. I believe it would be OK to use low-odor mineral spirits in a well-ventilated area, but you have to be careful since solvents can harm the seals on some airbrushes. My wife uses amonia to clean her jewelry (and for once approved of a purchase that supports my hobby!).

One more piece of the puzzle. I'm shortly about to start one as well. The Eduard set includes a bunch of wiring, but nothing for behind the instrument panel.