Dragon

since i started doing scale models again i thought i would concentrate on modern jets, but due to some other subjects becomming availible i started to do props too. first Korean war subjects, now WW 2 stuff too. i have a Liberator, a B-17, a Mistel and this
 

 
i want to do a Marine PBJ because i love the blue/blue/white cammo and lotsa guns 
i have some reference, but there are not many pics of these birds, maybe due to the short period thes were in action
there was a set from profimodeler that is oop, but i think i can do without it, the decals are wrong anyway
 
 

I think metal LG can be tremendously useful, but prefer metal-reinforced plastic.
 
Synthetic rubber tyres too: perfectly painted hub rims every time. 
I know, I know, it's a minority underdog thing and I must be a misguided weirdo; real modellers carve wheels from Scottish granite, just like miniature curling stones.
 
I do have Harold's sans-straps Mk.5 seats to dress up and early MLG wheels (with separate hubs, specially requested). Looking forward to building it after the planned house move. It looks to be such a great kit.
 
Tony 

Ha I might be up for that. I did just receive the "USAF A-6 landing gear set" I suppose I could start there

Here’s a few scenes from my Tamiya Netz conversion in progress
 
Aires main well

 
Mini Craft Collection seat


Tamiya pit, Aires Glareshield, scratch IP, Quinta details.
The Aires pit is actually atrocious. The entire thing sits way too far aft.


Vertical fin modified with Hasegawa fin base and Quick Boost flare dispensers 


Aft deck A model details/Archer rivets






MCC canopy internals


Bandit Resin Factory captive AIM-9


Flight Line Resin ACMI pod

 
Scratch IP with TopAces configuration. Set on Aires pit..which I did not use. Craptastic.

 
Final result there…minus HUD obviously

 
cheers
Pigfighter

So my cobbled together Zuni pods were kicking my rear-end. The decals for the yellow stripes weee an abject failure. Masks failed me too. Next up was chucking ‘em in a drill and painting them that way. Have never done that before and it worked a treat!
FYI, it’s tough to squeeze a drill, while holding a brush nearby and take a halfway decent pic!


And here they are in the LAU-10s


and the starboard side. As an aside, Shrikes can have a white or black nose cone. The color was a quick reference as to which type of radar it would track - AAA or SAM radars. I don’t remember which of course, but that’s the reason for the colors


Next up is remaking the UHF antenna that is behind the cockpit. Here’s Trumpeter’s offering…it’s a bit on the thick side…I’ll remake it from styrene instead.

 
More soon,
-Peter

I really need to finish my build of the A-6B I was working on before health issues hit. As noted it is a somewhat complicated kit but wow whatever else you can say about Trumpeter I am very thankful they released an A-6 in the best scale

@Zola25 I wish I had known that. I followed the instructions, and as you say, it goes together poorly at the nose.
 
But I also found a lot of fit problems amidships. I may get back to it someday, however life is too short to spend time fixing manufacturers' issues if I don't have to.

I built my A-6E gear down and it went together quite well. I found it to be one of the very best Trumpeter kits I have built in fact.
My biggest issue was that the nose, if assembled separately as per instructions, will not fit the fuselage without a bad step. This will result in a lot of sanding and lost detail. I decided to glue each half of the nose to the corresponding fuselage halfs before closing  them. This leaves a gap down the middle of the nose which is much easier to deal with.
The large panels shown above are a bit tricky to fit but with a lot of dry fitting and sanding they will go together fine..

 

Pleased to help
Here is a photo of the office, with the aluminium tubes that accept the brass pins of the canopies

 
Then the Canopies. Hope you can see them ok. Painted in Tamiya Nato Black XF69


 
Hope that helps......let me know if you need a specific angle
Cheers
Iggy

The sail at present. Still a bit more cleanup, then it'll be ready for paint. 
 

The scheme, "liberated" from a sim site of some sort. This represents one of the earliest iterations of the paint scheme, from what I can gather, and I like it a lot. 
 

 
 

For the eventual display. I have no idea why I ordered two. 
 

The state of the hull at present, though the con has had more work done since this photo was taken. 
 

About the only thing I had the foresight to do was to add some beefy stiffeners so I wouldn't get popped seams while sanding, which there was a lot of, with some still to do. 
 

 
 

While I was intending to wrap up a Meng Me 163B for the show here in September, I realize I just don't have the time. I do however have the time to finish this, the 1:144 Trumpeter Seawolf, which has already had most of the major work done. Since there is little detail involved, this will mostly be a painting exercise, which I love anyway. 
 

So it begins...This is the cockpit tub bottom glues to the firewall, with the cockpit sides taped in place. Quite a bit of fettling and filling to be done here, especially as the underside of the cockpit area is quite visible through the wheel well. Yes, I know you'd have to turn the model upside down to see it  but the gaps will still be visible through the canopy glazing..








The engines have been assembled, but in this case just more of a jig to hold the inlet fan and exhaust nozzle. There were just too many moulding issues to justify all the work to have it uncovered, and plus I prefer the lines when the engine nacelles are closed. 


The wheel wells have been assembled, I did this after gluing the lower sections of wing together. There are tabs on the lower wings that you need to fit into place, but the mounting holes need to be made a bit bigger for it all to fit, otherwise those tabs and pins will never line up properly.






Revell would have you build the nacelles around the engine in the instructions, but I've deviated from this quite significantly. After assembling the engines, I didn't glue the exhaust nozzles to the engines, but left them as a friction-fit. I then glued the nozzles to the nacelle halves with the engine in place, only applying glue to the underside of the nacelle where the exhaust nozzle is. The rest of the joint forward of those is still unglued. 
I then glued the rear fairing to the nacelle getting the best join I could. The engines can now be slid out from the front either before or after gluing the forward fairing - there is enough space  for it to come out.
I then taped the upper and lower wing halves together, popped the nacelles on and then glued the forward fairing in place




This still needs clean-up and all the sundry, but I think it's a way easier method of getting a decent fit onto the wing. As said, the added bonus is that you can still pop a detailed engine in the if you choose to do so. I'll finish gluing up the rest of the lower nacelle once I get everything in and need to attach the forward intake fairing. I think after a bit of dry-fitting both upper covers (the ones forward of the wing fairing) will need a bit of shim to get them to fit properly, but that can wait for now.

I've also joined the two fuselage halves, installed the nose gear bay and closed up the nose section, there wont be any of the gun bay visible. Cockpit coaming has been added, as there is no need to leave it off till later. Everything you need to do can be accessed from below.



I worked on dry-fitting and gluing everything from the nose portion backwards, in order to get the best fit I could. Although the instructions have a closed or open gun bay option, I think this kit was more deigned around the open option. I've had to add a bit of shim to the forward portion of the gun bay cover to make it fit a bit better. There is still a bit of filling to do though along the back portion





I forgot that this model will be a tail-sitter and forgot to add weights!!!!  Doh!!
However, there is still a way out, and that will be to glue some weights behind the gun bay/nose gear bulkhead (more than enough space), and I'll add some weight to the drop tanks before gluing them together...

PM Paul himself. He's looking to recover examples of all his work. 

Some progress
 

You know OBG is correct.
 
I was originally going to do this bird as Magic Stone 466 - flown by Lt Cdr Trent Powers on his Navy Cross mission in October 65. Short synopsis is that he led Air Force Thuds on an Iron Hand mission- 600NM through the goo, mountains and still hit the target to the exact second. Bombed an SA-2 site and got shot down immediately after bomb release. He survived the ejection, but was executed by a Chinese road working crew (was listed as MIA forever). 
 
I have a pretty good write up about it in Bloody Sixteen. It boggles my old aviator mind to think of flying 600 plus miles using old school dead-reckoning navigation (clock, chart, ground and all that). With an IMC decent in the mountains. And nailed it all. Legendary!
 
Here he is (on the left)earlier in 65, as the offload bags at the Cubi Point BOQ.


Memorial Day indeed.
-Peter

This is Memorial Day weekend in my country.  This guy is a prime example of why we remember:  Wings if gold; balls of steel.  Not ten percent of military age men walking around today would do what this guy did, not to mention his rolling out of the rack the next day to go do it again.  Probably wore the same flight suit.  Douglas made some truly great airplanes - I don’t think they ever made a dud.  The Scooter is a small airplane and this one is shot to shyte but someone forgot to tell it it was too hurt to fly so it just kept on keepin’ on.  To paraphrase a line from “The Bridges at Toko Ri”, where do we find such men and such airplanes?  Every model we build should be a tribute to them and their machines.

Before KH announced their F-5 family, I was working on a F-5F conversion using Hasegawa F-5E fuselage, so I spent a few years staring at photos, drawings, and 3D models of the F-5 family, including the T-38.  In the following composite of Northrop drawings, the yellow is the T-38A and the white is the F-5F.  I believe this shows the canopies are the same shape and size.
 

 
However, I believe the KH F-5F rear canopy is a bit too long.  Each square is 5 inches in the following comparison of the Northrop F-5F drawing and the KH F-5F forward fuselage.  I would estimate the gap to be about 5 scale inches or about 4mm in 1/32.  A simple trimming would probably work.


 
I was also planning on using Collect-Aires T-38A vac canopy at the time, but the shape seems off.  Many of the Collect-Aire T-38 kit parts look like resin copies of the Hasegawa F-5E parts.  Here's my Hasegawa F-5F.
 

 
SC
 

Hola Amigos
 
Have been in intake hell. These aren’t perfect, don’t look too closely…but they’ll do.




the intake lips actually have a bit of a lip which requires a bit of filler. Otherwise the fit isn’t that bad

 
I take that back…the rudder is a known issue. You have to cut the top off the fuselage halves, and add a bit to make it tall enough. Still need to fill out the bottom and add the actuator.

 
Here’s our intrepid aviator - he finally has a head.

 

 
Now that I look at his helmet, I realize I subconsciously painted it to be VA-164, so I guess that’s what we’re building!
Am debating how to display her. Maybe a small base with ground-blur similar to this?

 
Or maybe my standard plinths? Thoughts?
 
Was thinking of making it doing a low-level laydown of Snakeyes, but am now thinking of doing an Iron Hand jet - either Zunis and Shrike or all Shrike

 

 
More soon!
-Peter

This project started out mainly as an R&D effort to create the perfect shade of ANA 623 Gloss Sea Blue....
However, with the other Corsair done (#3) and with much of the subassembly work done (because i was in temporary housing where i could glue and sand, but not paint), This project started to gain momentum.
Presenting El Corsair Grande, Numero Quattro.
As many of you know, this time round i am using the Barracuda Studios resin seat.
However, i am not using the Barracuda Corsair cockpit placards this time  because it seems that they sold out. 
On one hand, they add a lot to the finished cockpit, but on the other they are time consuming and tedious to install, rapidly sucking joy from the project.
But with that aside, the cockpit is installed, the fuselage halves glued together and much of the supporting cast of fuselage parts are installed.
Prior to mounting the windscreen, of course i had to paint and mount the armor glass. The -1A incorporated a smaller, rectangle shaped piece of glass towards the top...
To attach this, i used a product called Micro Liquitape. Its sort of like 3M post it note adhesive in a bottle. You brush it on, give it a few minutes to dry, and once set it stays perpetually tacky. I was able to attach the little piece onto the bigger piece of glass with no mess. 
 
Value Added- DINGG!!
 
I cut the canopy masks using my customary method of sticking them to a piece of .010 sheet styrene, and then carefully trimmed and sanded the tape/plastic composite to final size. The Tamiya masks are quite accurately sized and fit well. Your results may vary, according to age and eyesight.
The windscreen was mounted using Mig AMMO acrylic glue and taped in place to dry overnight. It fit well.
Many of the components such as wings, flaps, empennage etc. are assembled, sanded, and ready to install. As usual, i will clean up all of the fuselage seams and attend to the wing center section joint first, before the other parts go on.
The last "Time-Sucky-Part" of the build is the R-2800 powerplant, but i'll put that off for a little while longer.
I'm hoping my model will look *something* like this...
That is all for now. Thanks for shopping!
-d-

Due to construction guide and finished examples, the open part should be on the left. It is impossible to place it upside down anyway.It does not fit. The shape of the top and bottom are different.