CANicoll

I'm still in awe at the big WNW kits and especially this bird. Karim looks to have done his usual bang-up job on the build but as usual his willingness to share his techniques is what drives this book, but also the LSP community as a whole - thanks! Ray super review - you hit the key points, and Kev - amazing job bringing reasonably priced resources to market for us. Well done!! Chris

Even though I have the extra Tamiya canopies, bought two of these for my Revell kits - they look amazing. Now the ultimate question, will they fit the Tamiya kit as well? I would expect open should not be a problem. Maybe even closed. Looking forward to getting them. Chris

Actually, since the Duster also had the small block V8 option, it was a simple matter of getting the V8 K member, of which there are (were) many available. Lots of people wrecking 340 Dusters and Darts in those days!

Ford: Found on Road Deserted... :-)

Love it! My dad had a 70 Duster, 340 with the 727 Torqueflite trans and 8 3/4 rear. I bought a 70 Duster Orange, with the slant 6 but dropped in a 318 (could not afford the 340) and 4 speed manual trans. Love the old Mopars....

CNN posted some new video found about the people working at Bletchley Park, from WWII. The CNN blurb is only 1:15 long, but the entire video is apparently 11 minutes long - would love to see the entire thing. Chris

Thanks Mark! I actually had one from another Barracuda stencil set that I used - fit perfectly and same font/etc as the one on the pad on the front of the gunsight. Cheers, Chris

Thanks Mike - I wondered about that too. Just ordered the 500 from SprueBrothers. I will give it one more go, thanks for the recommendation. Says a lot that I can actually puddle the 1500 on the surface (with 50% self leveling thinner) and there are no streaks or runs or anything. Perfectly flat and took a 12000 grid sanding pad to the wing and it polished up nicely. In the meantime will work on closing up the fuselage and playing with the flaps and landing gear. Still lots to do. Cheers, Chris

Hey Alistair - Just ordered two of your canopies. Thanks for making these! Chris

Latest update and tried something I have never tried before: Spraying Mr Surfacer. Trying to replicate the puttied wings on the Mustang I thought I'd give spraying Mr. Surfacer 1500 a try. Reading the thread on the topic on LSP, cutting it with 50% Mr Color Self Leveling Thinner seemed like the way to go. Here is the prep: I used Mr Hobby Mr Mask on the fuel caps and the inspection panel on the top of the wing as well as on the gun bay panels and the lights on the bottom of the wing. The 'strakes' (for lack of the correct term for what they are called) were not puttied so covered them in Tamiya tape. The Mr Surfacer went on heavy and wet but it leveled off amazingly well. Maybe too well!! Over three sessions I laid down about 20 coats of 50% Mr Surfacer 1500 and Mr Color Self Leveling Thinners. When it was wet, the rivets were completely covered. When it dried, I'm hard pressed to see that it made any difference. Does not look too bad in the Mr. Surfacer gray - wait till you see it back in Gloss Black Primer. I may have wasted half a bottle of Mr Surfacer... I literally puddled Mr Surfacer on the leading edge and top chords of the wing! No clue where it went off to. AMUR Flap vs Tamiya Flaps Next is working on using those terrific AMUR resin flaps. In my Lou IV build I showed the difference between the Revell, Tamiya and AMUR flaps. Both Revell and Tamiya have their issues but the AMUR flaps are amazing. I wanted to see if I could get the resin flaps to articulate the same way as the Tamiya flaps but that meant getting some pins into the resin flaps. (No clue why, but the photograph makes the resin flap look short, but it is perfectly the same size). I tried using a pin vise to drill into the AMUR sprue and found the resin is actually pretty soft and was very easy to drill into. I was concerned that if the resin was brittle that it might not take the pin very well as it had to go in very close to the edge of the flap. First I drilled a #64 hole, then used a larger drill for the final hole. I found that a pin from an interface connector (remember the V.35 interface?) is exactly the same diameter as the pin on the Tamiya flap - and I have maybe 15 of those pins. What I found is that I have the angle of the pin in the flap off by about 5 degrees so will have to see if I can finagle it into the slot. Worst case I'll just glue it in place. But thought I'd give this a try. Barracuda Resin Wheels and Tires Last up are those beautiful Barracuda wheels and tires. Used a pointed punch push the flash out from between the spokes which worked really well, as well as around the tires. First coat was Vallejo Gloss Black primer, followed by spraying the wheels in Vallejo Metal Flat Aluminum and then used my go-to color for tires which is Vallejo RLM66 Black Grey. Lots of building this weekend (and actually started a 1/144 B-58 Hustler as well!). Going to let this dry for a day and come back to it on Tuesday. Hope everyone had a good weekend - be safe! Chris

Love the camo versions but regardless, the lines on the 104 are just gorgeous. (Searching to see if I have one in the stash.....)... and the answer is... YES! Hasegawa 1/32 F-104G/S. $15 and it included 3 packs of WWII US and Allied Airscale Instrument Dial decals. I think I'm set on those for the rest of my life now...

We were just kidding and I don't see anyone taking the color comment seriously. Yes, COVID-19 is deadly, but bringing the child's death into this thread wasn't needed. Nobody is making fun of COVID-19 and also nobody was taking the color comment as seriously as the Mustang Putty discussion. De-stressing takes on many different forms, humor is one of them. I think that is all for this thread.

I am very late to this party, but following along with the general recommendation of 50/50 mix of Mr Surfacer (1500 in my case) and Mr Color Self Leveling Thinner I tried spraying on my Mustang's wings to replicate the puttying effect. It sprayed amazingly well and I laid on some very wet coats to fill in the rivets. 1000 probably would have worked better, but had no problem spraying it at about 18 psi. Even with some very heavy coats, the self leveling thinner worked its magic. I'll be putting pictures up on the build page for Duchess Arlene. Chris

No no Don, What you mean is 'Was Lou IV Blue or Green and what color Blue was it?'

One thing about the Tamiya kit is you get a number of different canopies to use, if you are not terribly choosy about Dallas hood, etc. I still have two of the Revell kits (from a couple of years ago) and both canopies are rippled. Still, love the Revell kits. Chris

LOL. Hope all is well in Florida. Hang in there! Chris

Ryan, where in North Florida are you? I went to school in Tallahassee... Chris

Gazzas, that is brilliant! Saving that one for later... Don't be surprised if you see that one on my Mustang build... I even have a few types of BMF...

Hang in there Steve. Good luck! Chris

I think we are into day 2 at least....

Sorry to start the mess again, but thanks for the info Jennings and Radu. Hope everyone is well and stays well. Chris

Hey Radu, By any chance do you have a diagram showing the puttied areas? Or a correction to Jennings' drawing? I'm a day away from working on my Mustang's wings so this is why I asked the question in the first place. Thanks, Chris

Thanks Jennings!! Chris

Jennings, I had saved somewhere the drawings you had that showed where the wings were puttied but now cannot find where I stuck them. The result of my (in)famous filing system. I'm sure I will find them in 2022 or there abouts. Would you mind reposting your diagrams or send them to me in a private message? Thank you! Chris

Hey Sean, That radial engine looks the bomb! Have the old Eduard FW 190 A-8 Master Class kit (two of them actually) and just.could.not figure out that radial engine and ended up just putting it away. The second kit is there waiting for me to get it sorted. Question, not being familiar with the Zero kit - when you masked the cockpit (such a clean job by the way) is the seat in there or you add that after painting everything? With all the levers and handles and such that I've already installed in my Mustang cockpit, I can't mask the same way as much as I would love to. I tend to just use a spare canopy with white glue to tack it into place and use that as the mask. Keep it coming - looks fantastic! Chris