John1

Glad to see that Anders is back. I check his blog periodically and had assumed he was done. On a side note, he's a great guy to deal with. He provide an immense amount of help when I built one of the Bf-109's featured on his blog.

I think one thing that is scaring me off are turnbuckles. However, in reading some of WNW's comments, they are pretty emphatic that you shouldn't be using turnbuckles since in 32nd scale, they aren't even visible. They suggest just going with basic stretched sprue. Wondering what the thoughts are here on pro's and con's of using turnbuckles. To me, they do seem to mostly be out of scale when you compare models to pictures of the real thing.

Why o why won't anyone offer a kit of the ultimate Cobra - the AH-1G? I gotta believe the market for that one would be substantially bigger than the one for the Zulu version.

They released decals for a kit that doesn’t exist? They must be optimistic that there are plenty of folks kitbashing these zeros. Alas, I guess I won’t be one of them.

Got it! That’s really too bad. Those mid-production Zeros are the most interesting to me. No interest in the earlier ones and the late War Model 52’s are too boring in their standard overall green / grey.

So could I build this variant from the Tamiya kit? I guess I really need to read up on Zero’s.

Looking for some guidance - I've always been interested in the Rabaul air campaign during WW2. It seemed to be one of the few times during the war that the US and Japan were evenly matched with regards to aircraft and quality of pilots. I also liked those overpainted IJN Zero's like these: Questions - I'm not really up on Zeros that much. Does Tamiya offer this version (not even sure what model it is) or of the clipped wing "Hamp"? Any aftermarket decals around? I did a quick Google search, really didn't seem much. On a paint related issue - any ideas what green was used to overpaint these? Was it brushed or sprayed on? I really can't tell from the pics i've seen. Any advice is appreciated.

Don't know if you guys have seen this but it's an interesting article over on HS about paint used on the Do335. According to the info in the article, when they made the transition from 70/71 to 81/82, it was specified that any remaining stocks of the older paints could be added to the new equivalents to maximize the inventories of these paints. worth a read... http://www.clubhyper.com/reference/do335camomu_1.htm

I’m down with the “not much rigging” approach. Waiting patiently for the Dr.I or for that matter a Fokker D.VIII. Or even better, eliminate all rigging and start popping out some interesting WW2 subjects.

You seem to have a great deal of inside knowledge of WNW as far as what kits made/lost money, what their financial goals are, etc. As such, can you let us know what their next release will be?

Another classic paint job coming up:

I bought a set of artists pastels at my local Michaels. All I do is take a knife and scrape off what I need. Got a lifetime supply, for under $10.

Having just wrapped up my build, I look forward to seeing someone else have the pleasure of building this awesome kit. Nice picks on the aftermarket stuff as well!

Lol... those videos are hilarious. Also Google “Out For a Rip”. Laughed so hard I spilled my Molson and dropped my dart!

Anyone have any tips for this? For the life of me, I can't get this to work. First time I almost had it but it was sagging. I applied a bit of heat but apparently too fast and the sprue pulled off one of the antenna posts. Now for some reason, I can't get the sprue to stick. I'm using superglue and despite how long I can manage to hold the sprue in place with a pair of tweezers, it inevitably slides off as soon as I release it. Should I try another type of glue? This is driving me nuts!!

Very nice, that's one of the more realistic NMF finishes I've seen. How did you do it?

Engines: Kit engines are practically 2-D and belong on a kit made in 1975. Some may be fine with this but in 32nd, to me - it's a major issue. The fix is available though, Vector (and I'm guessing other manufacturers) offer very nicely detailed resin engines. Cost will be significant as will the time to add hundreds of polystyrene pushrods but for those that want a realistic engine, there is a fix.

Lee, I'd say you are skimming the surface here. It's a bit more complex than just "everyone has the inherent talent to fix this problem, so just do it". I think I'm a decent modeler. Nothing compared to the masters on this site, but decent. I can tell you that maybe I could scratch-build a replacement turret (and to be honest, I'm not even sure on this) but two factors come into play: Time - my time is limited and mastering a brand new skill (that will probably never be needed again on anything I'm building) and getting the pieces done to my standards would be a huge investment of my time, one which I wouldn't be prepared to commit to. Enjoyment - I build simply for enjoyment. From my personal viewpoint, I would get zero enjoyment from undertaking this task. In reality, I would probably end up putting the entire kit on hold. Even if I was able to bang out the parts, I suspect that they wouldn't be to my standards, which would result again in the entire kit being put on hold, and the enjoyment meter pegged at firmly at zero.

Yeah, most folks are just untalented or flat out lazy.

Hi David, I checked out your F4U-2 build (awesome job BTW) and didn't see anything, maybe I missed it. All the pics on your FG-1 build are gone. I thought this antenna was just a simple wire whip, sounds like it's a bit more involved. If you have any details, I'd love to learn more. Regards, John

Lol. I suppose it is in certain quarters. You can see the results of antics like that if you google the recent accidental cannon discharge that took out a couple of parked F-16’s.

Not even close to a real .50 cal.....

Where? I think that picture in the link has been there from Day 1?

I'll check my old yearbooks for her. We got out in late 76, by which time it was pretty apparent that bad things were about to happen. It was pretty surreal seeing the news clips of the US Embassy compound (where we spent a great deal of time shopping, hanging out, etc) being overrun. As a last ironic note - a few years back, I build an AH-6C Littlebird helicopter, based on info from one of the original TF160 pilots. After the Desert One fiasco, he was on deck for a follow up rescue mission and mentioned that he would have been flying his helo into the same compound! Sounded like he knew it as well as I did from all the pics he had studied. Getting back to the original topic, just saw that BA has another retro scheme coming up, I'm partial to BOAC but this one isn't too bad either! Undersides of the wings will be painted red as well. Might be some decal opportunities here!

Yup, TAS was my school! Looking back, I wonder if my dad had any involvement with that project, he'd routinely go away for a week or two up north, just said he was working near the Caspian Sea. Most of our military friends were US Army, based out of Ft Devens, MA (which until it closed, was home to the US Army's intelligence school). It was a great place to live, until it wasn't.