Smokey

We're for sure doing these in 1/48, but I need to gauge interest in a pared-down version in 1/32.  I've done a complete set of stencils and the various iterations (of which there is a surprising number) of hinomarus, which we will sell separately.  In 1/32 all of these won't be able to make the cut, but the more interesting ones definitely will.  The good news is that with your own refs (lots available online) and some creative paint work, you'll be able to do a bunch of differently camouflaged DACT birds from the 1970s and '80s.  The squadron markings and other stuff didn't change - just the camouflage.  This composite (which, again, represents what we'll be doing in 1/48) shows every JASDF unit that operated the F-104J/DJ.  Regarding the latter, with mixing and matching of serials, you'll be able to do them as well, since the markings are identical to the single seaters.  The stencils will have the extra stuff required for the DJ.
 
What think we?
 

Patch as Requested

 
 
 
 
And Now time to find the decal set.......

 
 
Jason

If you want to close the canopy, Aires recently released two Navy pilots strapped on their GRU-7 seats. 

Just spotted amongst some new photos on Trumpeter's Facebook page...
 
A 1:32 Douglas A-26 Invader?
 
Someone tell me my eyes aren't playing tricks? I've wanted one for donkeys years - and could bin the ID Models one I started wayback...
 

 
Iain

Some WIP pic's of the DACO Fouga Magister at the annual Belgian Scale Modellers Convention held this weekend. 
 
Good news : I took a look at the sprues and they look very crisp with minor flash, almost no flash. Details are sharp and very detailed. Here are some photo's i took today, still not all of the kit's content is seen here.
 

 

 

 

 

 

 
A guy from the IPMS Antwerp club is building this kit right now, still keeping in mind this is a test shot kit. No instructions or decals are in his disposal to help him build this Whistling Turtle. Still, it look's very promising.
 

 

 

 
Bad news now..........
 
The release is delayed to december this year.
 
Regards
 
Danny

You can't have enough aggressor aircraft decals either.  
 

More "photo-etched news" from Stan - if some one of us want to use the plastic engine nozzles, Stan will offers great etched set for plastic parts from trumpeter MIG-29 A/UB at 32 scale.:
 

 

 
Click on images to enlarge and see the excellent details and hexagonal rivets
 
 

Hello again friends with some update
The photo-etched parts for mig-29 A/UB 1/32 scale are done.
The set will include also a few resin parts and when they are ready this set will appear for order at CWS site. Here some new photos of etched parts:
 

 

 

 
Cheers guys
 

Hello guys
Some shots of test dry fit of new photo-etched parts for mig-29 1/32 :
 

 

 

 

 

 
And new 3d-printings:
 

 

 
Cheers friends
 

First test print for the MIG-29 wheel wells in 1/32 scale:
 

 
And some "WIP" pictures of how to take of the right measurements for new mig-21 1/32 goodies
 

 

 

 

 

Hello again friends The first sample of photo-etched set is already done.
Here are some pics of the product:
 

 

 

 

 
Well, the final product will be separated of two sets - for A and for UB, and will be ready for purchase after two/three weeks.
 
Cheers guys
 

Well here is a "beta" or "demo" version of photo-etched parts for interior/exterior of Mig-29 A/UB 1/32 scale for trumpeter kit:

 
When the final etched product is ready I will upload more pics
 
P.S.: Many Thanks Luca for your support   but for now this project is under "freezzz" because
new trump kits are much better than revell one . . .
 

just arrived you can't have two many books.  
 

 

just arrived you can't have two many books.  
 

 

You can't have enough aggressor aircraft decals either.  
 

You can't have enough aggressor aircraft decals either.  
 

Got some of the new plywood wood grain decals Proper Plane. They look very nice to me, not 'pixelated' in the printing, like some of the others I've tried.
It remains to be seen how they will behave when applied, but I'm already looking forward to be using these in my builds.
 
Thumbs up, Proper Plane!
 

 
Cheers: Kent
 

hello
 
I have updated the seat with an hopefully improved lower/center ejection handle, previous one was a bit rough. I took the opportuity to render the anti-slip coating.
 

 

 

 
 
And i now have started to work in the front wheel well.
 

 
bye
Fanch
 
 

Here is a little update:
 
I got the Tamiya gun muzzle to fit into the Academy kit pretty smoothly:

 
The Wolfpack resin pit is in. Note the area behind the back seat. As I was removing the casting block from the resin cockpit I accidentally cracked that area. I then decided to completely remove the panel behind the rear seat since I have read that the back seat of both the kit and the Wolfpack cockpit are excessively reclined, this will give me some leeway to correct this later on.

 
Overall view. I am finding the fit of the kit to be really challenging in parts. Not sure if all the resin I have added (intake and cockpit) have pulled the plastic or maybe I just somehow screwed up. There is about a 1mm step from the nosecone to the fuselage which I have had to now build up with plastic card. The wing/fuselage joints are not the nicest either and it will be pretty tricky to obtain a smooth joint while conserving the concave shape and not losing all the fine scribing.

 
And with that I am putting this build on hold. Although I have come really far by my standards in the last few weeks with this build, it really needs a lot of work (esp. compared to a Tamiya F-16) and I am fatigued with F-16 building at this point. Another big factor and notwithstanding the work that this kit requires is that I would still likely finish this build in the next 9 months (I have completed many sub-components) but my display cabinet is entirely at capacity. I will have a new one built but that will probably only happen early next year. So it makes more sense to get into a mega-project that will take considerably more time than 9 months to complete e.g. an F-14D!
 
I will close out the thread for now with a pic from last week. Necessary since most of the above pics are pretty ugly :-) This is on a mountain called Diavolezza.

 
Cheers,
 
Marcel
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

I should really be moving on to something else but I just can’t resist tackling my third F-16. I started on the Academy two-seater back when I was doing my F-16A and I have been building some subassemblies here and there as made synergistic sense with the other F-16’s. For example, the canopy is polished, Future-dipped and good to go. The (Tamiya) tanks are done with a first coat of paint on them, the ACMI pod is entirely complete, the AIM-9CATM is almost done, the Zacto intake is already painted white inside and the Aires wheel well is ready to be dropped in. In short, I think completing this model will take less than half the time it will take me to do the Legendary Grumman Product project I have lined up next.
 
 
Here is the exact aircraft I will be doing (pic has free for use rights):
 

 
 
I will be using the AFV Club F-16B kit, which is essentially the Academy kit with all the plastic that you would get with the various variants of that plus some resin parts. The most important parts for what will be an F-16D Block 30 are the correct wheels required for a Block 30 and also the non-bulged main landing gear doors. I will use the heavyweight legs when I should be using lightweight main gear but I honestly find it almost impossible to recognize the difference. More important is that I don’t need to use the bulged main gear doors of the kit, which look off from far away (more on that later).
 
 
I will be using the Two Bobs Arctic Aggressor sheet together with some custom serial number decals and a second red/yellow “6” from the spares box and that should be about it as far as turning this into a Block30 Aggressor.
 
 
The Tamiya F-16 kit is generally superior to the Academy kit but the Academy kit has some advantages. And of course it is the only two-seater in town. Here is my summary of the ADVANTAGES of the Academy kit (roughly in order of importance):
1.      Zacto makes beautiful small and big mouth intakes for the Academy F-16. These are drop-and-go and do away with the tedious seam-filling required for the Tamiya kit.
2.      The Aires wheel well fits absolutely perfectly into this kit. I would speculate that Aires designed the set for the Academy kit and then only modified the little panel between the bays for the Tamiya kit. I would strongly advise against using the Aires set on the Tamiya kit, the fit is poor requiring a chain reaction of modifications.
3.      The wing leading edge is molded as part of the wing. For the Tamiya kit, I find that the separately produced leading edge is difficult to glue in such that the gap, especially around the hinges, is perfectly neat and consistent. No such worries on the Academy kit.
4.      Academy added some nice detail in places where Tamiya didn’t provide any, e.g. on the underside of the center wing pylons.
 
And here are some of what I consider to be must-fix problems of the Academy kit. I am sure there are plenty of additional inaccuracies on the kit but these are the ones that I consider to be too glaring to ignore:
1.      The kit intake is spaced too close to the fuselage. Apparently the intake is also misshapen but I have a hard time recognizing that. This is a must-fix issue in my book but fortunately Zacto has turned vice into virtue with his fantastic intakes.
2.      The Academy gun muzzle has the slots vertical instead of being slightly slanted back. To my eye this makes the kit look wrong from across the room because this error is right in the focal point of the model. You can address this problem a few different ways and Academy supplies two muzzles so you can mess around a little to see what works. I ended up throwing money at the problem and bought the respective sprue from the Tamiya kit, the Tamiya muzzle fits into the Academy kit almost perfectly. Going the Tamiya route will also ensure a consistent look as my various F-16’s are displayed together.
3.      The Academy wingtip and outer wing launch rails (LAU-129) are far too skinny. Simple fix is to use some Tamiya LAU-129’s from the spares box.
4.      The bulged main gear doors look way too bulged. I didn’t need these anyway but I think these could just be sanded down to get a better look.
And with that, I am launching this thread! More to follow…
 
Cheers,
Marcel

The model will be made from Italiari's TF-104 duel control F-104:
 

 
 
 
 
 
The full lighting set up:
 

 
 
 
 
 
AM, plus a Master Model pitot tube, including two Nam era pilots. It was about as close as I could come for 1959/1960. I know their helmets may be a bit too up to date for late 1959, but hey ho, they were better than any of the other choices out there. AM also includes the gorgeous Eduard exhaust and a 7/8" by 12" clear acrylic rod for the base I have yet to purchase. No further AM really needed on this one since two pilots and some lighting will take the focus in the pit, and no need for AM wheels, gear or wells with none of that showing:
 

 
 
 
 
 
 

 

 
 
 
 
 
Lastly, I will supplement my build with the very nice Victory productions F-104 Starfighters Part 1 decals:
 

 

 
 
 
 
 
I will use custom made paint masks on my Silhouette cutter for the rest of the markings not included in the decal set, along with the stars and bars. Im really looking forward to a change of pace here with a jet, as well as getting back to my roots of foiling with kitchen foil!   yay! 
 
Cheers till the next episode! 
 

No rest for the driven! Ive been thinking about this one for quite some time now as it is going to contain some firsts for me. This one will be based on Italiari's new (ish) TF-104. The differences between the TF and D for my purposes are nil, so this is about the last time Ill likely worry about them. 
 
This will be modeled at F-104D 57-1315, flying out of the Air Force Flight Testing Center, based at Edwards AFB, in high visibility orange and NMF:
 

 
 

 
 
 
 
 
Here is a pic of 57-1314 at Edwards in 1960:
 
 

 
 
 
 
 
The florescent orange had a tendency to fade quite badly in the hot Edwards AFB sun, so I will probably incorporate some of that, but I will be making my model basically in the earliest days of the AFFTC, so it will be a  newish paint job, with less fading. 
 
The "firsts" for me on this model I mentioned previously will be 2 fold:

1 - This will be my first 1/32nd "in flight" or gear up model. Ive done many models, and many models for customers too, but have until now not ever done a full gear up in-flight model. The 104 seemed perfect for it, and Ill describe how it will be posed shortly.   I purchased a 12" long clear acrylic rod to mount the model on, just for this purpose. 
 
2 - This will be my first fully "lit" model. I purchased a full  lighting kit from "MagicScaleModeling" specifically designed for the dual seat F-14 that includes all exterior lighting, exhaust and cockpit lights:
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
I will  be using kitchen foil for the NMF, and will be using MRP white followed by MRP-194, Luminous Orange. 
 
Lets get on with what the build will contain shall we?

A 1:32 F-102 would really make my day.

Couldnt resist the great pre-order price, and I know Id kick myself later for not getting it now since I know Ill be buying one to go along with one of Vaughn's Jedha cities.   
 

 

 
 
 
 
 
It wont be out till August, but that's OK, it will give me time to acquire the city (and maybe some lighting too)

After doing some work here that was "above and beyond the call", my roommate decided to reward me with this book, as well as one other U-Boat reference that's on the way to me now.