mustang1989

Thanks Vaughn. The body turned out pretty good and still needs some cleaning up. I ended up clipping one of the rear tail light openings at the bottom and knocked the thin strip at the bottom of the opening out so I'll have to work some fancy foot work to get that back in line but it shouldn't be all that bad. There are some parts that are missing so I ordered a spare parts kit for fairly cheap. Body paint is all stripped and ready to go... I've got the wheels and tires picked out for it now after a few days of searching. started setting up two different stances but I like the second one alot better so I think we'll be going with that one. This isn't going to be a "numbers matching Camaro" as I'll be changing a few things up to more of a mild modified street car. I'm currently looking for a blank grille with no Z/28 or RS emblems in it. I had 'em on ebay just last night and forgot to visit when I was supposed to and lost it.

Thanks fellas! I really appreciate the good word..............on both fronts.

The results of that I've gotta see!

I love these Tamiya Corsair kits and this one just goes to show what kind of quality build can be made out of them Peter. Outstanding work bud. Thumbs up all the way here!

You already know I'm in.....................

Yeah. It even shocked me. I guess it was all in my planning throughout the build though. It was my most intense but one of my quickest builds in part because the base kit was a Tamiya and secondly because I knew exactly what parts I wanted to use from the Eduard boxings and I knew exactly what scheme I wanted from the get go.

Next: The fuselage assembly and wing installation. Here it is all buttoned up with the wings installed. No primer, no paint.....nothing. Had the gaps filled and all the panels buttoned down. As a first time for doing it this way I glued a spare canopy on and sealed it off. No paint inside you know...... Here she is primed and ready to go........using Tamiya "rattle can" primer. I had mixed feelings about the mottle effect. Looking back I rightfully should have faded the edges a little bit but this was my first time ever applying such a crazy camo pattern. I used an Eduard 1/48 scale mottle mask from a 109 masking kit. I would apply anywhere from 1 to 5 or 6 mottle patterns at a time. Hell my then 8 year old son even applied one!(and no I can't remember which one was his!!lol). Even without the fading I was decently pround of what I did. The scheme is just friggin wicked!. After I applied the basic camo theme and the mottling I moved on to the decals: Before this I knew nothing of really HOW to apply decals. I had the whole gloss coat thing down but never used decal set or Microsol until here. I will never NOT use them again!!! These decals were a dream too. They were Eagle Strike decals #24006. Moving along to the plane with a few more items on it and opened back up after the dull coat was applied I used after market wheels too. Can't remember the manufacturer but those turned out decent too. The dang tail wheel strut broke early on in the build so I had to wait till this stage to drill out the strut going up into the fuselage and the other half that was still attached to the tailwheel side of the strut. I then inserted a metal rod into both halves and pressed fit together using epoxy to secure the rod at both ends. It worked!!! And this is a heavy bird!! A little up close of the engine detail and weathering of the nose: I also weathered the engine here after I had learned some tricks on how to do it! And finally some finishing pics: This is the only picture I have with the cowlings closed. I should have taken a couple more this way. ..............and with the cowlings open. This next one below is outside and though it's unfinished, it shows the color off well. and then there's the scratch build deluxe for me on this whole build pictured below. I bought a 1/35 scale 3.7cm brass ammo kit and used the shells from it. I opened up one of the wing gun pod access covers, sanded the door and inside of the pod to scale and displayed the 20mm cannon. This was SCREAMING for something stoooopid in here so I cut the 3.7cm shells a little short so that they would fit into the ammo chute of the wing cannon. Then I used aluminum tape to scratchbuild the belt links and weathered the ammo and belt links. I weathered the cannon as well and drilled out the cannon barrels at the ends. Here's all that stuff in a picture: And that's that in a nutshell. All in all I was happy with it. It took me about 8-1/2 months to build largely because of my inexperience and my taking extra precautions as to not do double work or screw this thing up. I will say this: 1) I have gone back to building 1/48 scale stuff because that's where I belong , 2) that Trumpeter has to make some of the most over engineered stuff I have ever seen. You know, 8 parts to accomplish building something that should have only taken 2 or maybe 3 and finally, 3) the friggin ejector pin marks!!! Good Grief there were tons ......and all in the wrong places!! Really I got past this build ok. While looking back and knowing that there were some things I wished I could have done differently or better I also feel a sense of accomplishment.....and had fun doing it. Thanks for looking, Joe

I don't usually build 1/24 scale aircraft but there's a small story behind this one. While I was overseas in Iraq back in 2006/2007 , the recreation center stocked model kits for soldiers and contractors to build in their spare time off. I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw a Trumpeter Bf109K in 1/24th scale there in the mix. Wow ya know?!! I snagged it with every intention of building it. Instead I had built a Hasegawa Bf109G-10 while I was over there due to the fact that hauling a completed 1/24th scale build back on a plane internationally wouldn't have been a smart thing to do. Anyways, the G-10 got built and while it was better than my previous attempts at modeling, I still had no forums that I was a part of and didn't directly know anyone that could help me out. It was detailed out though as I've always liked the details. My 1/48 scale Hasegawa Bf109G-10 Bear with me one more paragraph while I tell you the rest of the story. Let's fast forward a couple of years to my return home from overseas. I'm not going into all the gory details but I developed a drinking problem starting when I was overseas and it was to continue for the next few years. One night at home in a drunken rage I ended up deliberately smashing that Hasegawa build along with some other stuff in the house before leaving the house. I scared my wife and son half to death and I drove off into the night not having anything to do but consume more alcohol. What a mess those days were. I went to a 30 day inpatient recovery where I started trying to beat alcoholism. Throughout the next 3 years the periods of sobriety kept getting longer and longer and I decided to replace drinking with something that had a more positive and productive outcome. Folks June 13, 2013 was the date of my last drink and me as well as my family are surely grateful for that. This build took place during the time that I was starting to come out of the vicious cycle of addiction in 2012 and is a symbol to me of my sobriety. It isn't a perfect build but the point of it was to replace that 1/48 scale Hasegawa Bf109G-10 with something BIGGER, BETTER and more satisfying than the one I smashed. In short , my worst day sober is one HELLUVA lot better than my best day drunk. Now on to the details of the model. There are some things throughout the model here and there I know could be better and have been working on those in the last few builds but I'm fairly proud of my first time creation using weathering effects and more proper painting techniques. I have built this as a Bf109G-14 and have it displayed as it was in May of 1945 with JG5. The pilot was Helmut Nuemann and with this machine he managed to achieve 62 aerial victories. The addition of the 20mm wing mounted cannon is incorrect for this particular aircraft but I couldn't help myself but to build one of these "up-gunned" beauties! So without further delay I'll turn to the presentation: Some of these pictures are either yellowed or too dark but they were taken at the start of my model photography career so please take that into consideration when viewing. The 1/24 scale Trumpy Bf109G-14 I built the engine first by painting and assembling all of the plastic kit parts. I used the Verlinden update set #2062 which has some engine updates and a few parts of the firewall and ammo boxes. It also has a bunch of stuff for the cockpit but we'll get to that later. The engine coolant pipe was a piece of copper wire that came in the update set. I used electrical wire heat shrink that I acquired from Radio Shack cut to the proper length to simulate the rubber hose sections and heated up to shrink and actually "look" like sections of rubber hose. The hose clamps were a combo of left over PE sprue and .015" solder that was flattened and formed in the shape of clamps. The supercharger inlet screen was taken from a Chevrolet 4.3 litre V-6 distributor that I removed as part of a GM service Recall at my dealership. (You just never know when youre gonna need stuff like that!! I weathered everything later when I started learning more about that. On to the cockpit: I then started on the cockpit floor. I painted it a coat of silver and then after that dried shot a coat of RLM 66. After that dried I chipped away the 66 from the high areas to allow the "aluminum" floor/skin to shine through. Then I started installing the aftermarket seat belts that I acquired (cant remember the brand but I bought em through Squadron). The rest of the goodies came from the Verlinden update. You know the stuff like rudder pedals, control stick, drive chains for the control pullies on the L/H side of the seat, cannon all that stuff! More completed shots of this coming up. Almost forgot that top view of the engine with the guns and coolant crossover pipe /hoses installed. So anyways back to the cockpit: I built the R/H wall first concentrating my attention on the oxygen apparatus and all that stuff. The hose came from the update set as did the guages on the wall. I used instrument panel decals from another kit in the guage holes with a drop of clear on top of them. The knob is from an aftermarket nitrous oxide bottle I had from a 1/24 scale car upgrade set. The chain/ sprocket arrangement in the foreground was a little off center but it doesn't show when viewed from the other side. Also have the shoulder harness seat belts installed here. Skipping to fuselage assembly I really hated to have to "button this thing up" because I couldn't get over the amount of detail that was in this thing. This was quickly turning out to be a favorite build of mine even though I was still learning all of the tricks of the trade at this point( and still am really).

Choices , choices, choices........ Whatever it's gonna be and if it's even half as good as that Dodge Charger build you had going on, it should turn out awesome!!

LOL! I started my automotive career off at around 11 years old working in the shop with my dad so I already had a little experience with spray painting. I was in charge of painting parts. lol

It's the first one in the line up on your in progress line in your signature. I saw that and HAD to look at it. Fw190's are the baddest prop planes ever!!

Well Kev looks like you're working on the third year since the last post here and this is such a cool project that it'd be a pity to see 'er go ta waste. Got any plans on continuing on with this bad boy?

So...............let's do this! Say good bye to the paint fellas. Here's the body in a bath of Dot 3 Brake Fluid: and the acquired PE Sheet:

I've got a couple like this Kevin. I'll post the completed transformation pics soon. lol

To be fair, I did take some glamour shots of the ol' girl before I did all of this to do 'er as much justice as I could. It's really not that bad looking for a 12 year old kid 35 years ago. It's withstood the test of time that's for sure:

I'm pretty much at a standstill on my current VW Pro Street bus build with trying to come up with a suitable seating arrangement and waiting on all the aftermarket engine items that I've ordered so I thought I'd throw something on the bench that's been catching my interest for some time now. I showed pictures of this bad boy last year after I did some repairs on it but thought it deserved more than that…………so here we are a year or so later to do it some real justice. Presented here for rebuild is my 35 year old Monogram 1969 Camaro Z-28 which some of you will know the boxing of this kit back in the late 70's/ early 80's: I'm going to go through this thing I don't even know how deep I'll go with it so I aint even going to say that this'll be a mild rebuild. Anything I touch can't be done in timely manner it seems like but I'm going to TRY to keep as many original parts as I can in this restoration/ upgrade. There'll be some definite changes in regards to the interior as well as the exterior. I'll be changing up the wheel and tire combo and will stay within the boundaries of a street machine using street tires with some Cragar SS wheels and a mildly upgraded Chevrolet 396 with a single four barrel carburetor to top things off. This isn't going to be an all #'s matching build either so while I'll stay within some boundaries of original equipment be looking for me to make a change or two here and there. Here's a picture of what we're going to start with as it sat on my bench this a few weeks ago: The options were wide open as there hasn't been anything in the engine compartment in 30 years now: A picture of the interior: (This has definitely ................GOT to go) Now apart on the bench: To start with I have managed to come up with another hood thanks to a friend on the forums: We'll be going with this 396 from Revell that I had in the parts stash:

Come on with it Kevin!

You've got your work cut out for you on this one Kev. That thing would be sensory overload for me.

Thanks Peter!

Another beautiful Tamiya Corsair kit in the makins............

I uh......well um...................That is totally...............

Hey man..................when it's good it's good............. ya know?

Thanks Hardcore and Kevin.

That's a good thing because that stuff scared tha hell out of me when I first shot it on. I tested it out on the hood and it looked terrible so I stripped everything down and started over it...........................three times before I decided to dispense it and let it air out in the paint jar for about 10 minutes. Sheesh! Talk about reinventing the wheel.

Both paints do very well when dispensed into an airbrush. For the Wet Look gloss you dang near HAVE to dispense it because out of the can there's so many air bubbles it looks like a dang bubble bath when it hits the model surface.