Patrick HMD

I love those wavy demarcation lines. I'm sure it took a lot of effort to get them just right, and I appreciate that. Ask me how I know. lol All n all, a very lovely paint job.

Thanks Ray. I see what I did wrong. Also thanks for deleting all those extra blank posts. Quite embarrassing. I was just trying to post a couple of images for Ivan. Try again later.

Is there a tutorial on this here?

Sorry about that. Trying to post an image and this happens! It's been awhile since I've posted pictures and I done forgot.

file:///C:/Users/Patrick/Downloads/rr3.jpg

Good choce. Her's a link you might find interesting. https://pt103.gdinc.com/ Adios Amigo

You and me both. Although the Higgins does come in a close 2nd. What I'm about to tell you is based on a bunch of pictures in my folder. I prefer sleekness over cluter. Less is better IMHO. What I mean by that is gun boats were littered up with extra guns and rocket launchers giving it the clutered look. This gives the boat a very mean appearance which a lot of guys prefer. Not my cup of tea. These were mostly late production boats as in the ILove kits. I'm doing a sort of a hybrid consisting of early and late production boat parts. Hull numbers 498 to 521 were hybrids till the old production parts were used up. Most of these were assigned to the Euro theater, based in England to assist and support the D day invasion. The Pacific boats were mostly green, while the Euro boats were mostly blue with a big white star on the foredeck for aircraft recognition. There were incidents of Pacific boats being strafed by friendly fire. Lesson learned. MY boat will have only one 20mm up front. The rear 40mm being replaced with the old standard 20mm, adding to it's streamed lined appearance. Less is better, IMHO. So there. I hope I did'nt confuse too much. If you want to dig further, I have answers. Take care Amigo.

Back at ya Jeff. Thank you for your service. Very impressive. The elco PT kit is very well engineered with very few fit issues. Everything falls right into place. A very accurate representation of the original, and just as beautiful as the 1/1. I can't can't get enough of it's beauty. It's the P-51 of the open seas, gorgeous, and very deadly. The Japanese use to call them devil boats. Later, Grandpa.

Do I have to replete what I posted earlier? Read my last post that explains my situation with trumpy. No way I'll ever buy that sow's ear. I have 2 ILKits and yea it was a roll of the dice with both of them, and take it from a voice of experience, they both turned out to be a very, very present surprise. Highly recommend by me. They are the 1/16 sherman and the 1/48 elco pt boat. And guess what, there the only game in town. So what's a feller to do? Right?? And please, y'all don't need to lecture me on the pit falls of trumpeter. I know all about it. And also with all due respect, don't bull$hit this old grandpa. I've been building models since the 1950's. Names' Pat, cold war Navy veteran YN3 USS Wasp CVS18 '59-'61

Rodger on that. It's a dead horse that has been thoroughly beat to death on this forum. I don't know what that design team was thinking. I guess they thought they could put one over us. Wrong!! I mean, it was so obvious. But that was the early years. They have come a long way since then. Right now I am working on their 1/16 75mm M4A1 sherman I love kit, one that I have wished for years. And I must say, it's dead on with very,very few flaws. The tracks are a bit of a challenge though for my old fart shaky finger tips, but I have some after market rubber block resins on order. Other then that, It's an awesome kit. Just saying.

Every morning when I tune in I keep hoping there wil be an announcement of the release of a new P-51B/C, which the kit makers have been promising for god knows how long. But as usual, nothing, nothing, nothing! All I keep seeing is mostly 109, 109, 109 topics, of which I couldn't care less. It looks like the marketing people are asleep at the wheel and out of touch with us guys. Can't they see how well they would sell? Why is it taking so long? It's the 64 $ question. Keep it simple guys. We don't need all those wing spars. Jeezz! Rant off. Time for another cup.

I had the early 76, my favorite, with intentions of doing a full interior. When starting to do the turret interior and doing a lot of research, I find that it has the 85 interior. That took the wind right out of my sail, and it now sits on the shelf of doom. Up to that point, the build was going real nice without any issues. It was a big disappointment, me wanting to do the early, early versions that were rolling out of the Stalingrad assembly line unpainted, and sent directly to the war front. Of all the t-34's, this was the most interesting, the 85 being my least favorite. IMHO. Names' Pat

Ah yes, a P-40, I'm with you that, the "E" being my favorite. I can dream can't I ?

I remember these back in the 50's at Aloe field, an old abandoned WW2 army base at Victoria, Texas. They offered flying lessons there. It was the county airport at the time. Trans-Texas DC3's would fly in and out. Ahh, those were the days. Nice build Amigo.

Glade to see I'm not alone when it comes to PT boats. I'm a big fan. I'm currently working on the Merit 1/48 late version. I'm backdating it to the hull number 498-523 range assigned to Ron33 &34 serving in the English channel, assisting in the D day landings. The majority of these were blue with a big white star on the fore deck. as mine is. This number range is what I would call hybirds. The reason being that they were a mix of old and new parts. The side shields were old and new stock, and were the most noticeable difference, They would do this until all the old stock was used up. I highly recommend this kit. Very good fit on all parts. I have a folder with over 500 images, so I'm fairly well versed on this. BTW minor surgery required for the back date. Names' Pat, cold war sailor