NFiler

Shawn is still very much active in the hydroplanes. The difference is that he is now concentrating on the 1/25 scale boats. Bardahl U-40 is done, Pay N Pak (1973-75) U-1 and U-25 is in the works, as are Slo Mo IV and Hawaii Kai. I am doing the decal artwork and the to-do list is rather impressive. Lots of stuff coming, but it is going to take some time. To my limited knowledge the only way to obtain these right now is through the Hydroplane museum in Kent, Wa. I'll check with Shawn about other options and post more later.

Let's not get confused here. The Yellow with Black lightning stripe is the factory J-3 Cub scheme. Not the Super Cub. The Cream and Maroon scheme shown on the float version box is the most common factory delivery Super Cub scheme. Of course in a long career both ended up with a lot of other paint too. I enjoyed my time in the Super Cub. Still one of my most favorable memories.

Both seats are there. The rear seat is not the same as the front. Just a canvas rectangular seat bottom and backrest. Both parts are in the same row as the front seat parts.Looks like the back seat parts might just plug into the fuselage sides. As I remember, that's pretty much how they were. Norm

I have a Silhouette Portrait cutter and have been buying my vinyl from them. I cut masks for the National Insignia for the T-28 and applied it to the lower wing. I left it on just long enough to spray the White over the decanted Tamiya Yellow wing. When I tried to remove the vinyl mask to apply another color it had bonded to the Yellow paint. I don't mean just a little bit. I mean totally bonded. I had to use an square tipped xacto blade to cut off the mask, then sand and totally repaint the area. Short answer is be careful and test the masking material and paint compatibility prior to extended use.I have been using this material on Gunze lacquers for a long time with no problems, but it clearly does not play well with Tamiya.

Dan, (and anybody else interested) Here are the two photos out of the IF-100C-1 Flight Manual. Photo One is taken from the right side rear; looking down into the compartment. You can see the curve of the a/c spine in the upper right corner. Photo Two is from the left side rear. Again the spine is in the upper left corner this time. The two big gauges are the two flight control hydraulic pressure gauges.

Dan, That access panel on the spine aft of the cockpit is where the no 1 and 2 hydraulic flight control air pressure gauges are located. That hatch remains open until after start up. The crew chief will check the gauges for proper operating pressure and then close the hatch. Some pilots wanted to see that area on pre flight inspections too. As a result during most activity around the bird that panel will usually be open. When the bird is put to bed all panels are usually closed. I have a couple of very small tech order photos of that area. I am not sure how good they will reproduce but if anybody wants them I can do it. Glad

David, I really don't know. I live in the upper left corner of the U.S. About as far from that museum as you can get and still be in the country. From what I have seen it looks really nice. Our A models had been around for a while and they sure were never that neat and polished looking. My experience has been that structurally most museum birds are good. It is in the little details that often are problems. Perhaps the best example would be what you see all the time on TV programs about the restoration of old cars. Look at the finished car and then go look at yours. Well maybe yours is cleaner and neater than mine ever is, but you probably get the picture. Crew Chiefs generally were a very prideful, hard working bunch of guys, but the daily (and often nightly) grind of keeping the very complex systems up and functional took priority over making it all look new. Norm

i did indeed intend to list those A items, Everything in that sentence should be applied to the A model only. And while some are put off by the somewhat misshapen intake lip, I find the oversize wheel and tires and extended main gear legs to be a bigger issue. It just throws off the whole "sit" of the finished model. Norm

Dan, Here is the comparison drawing. The Green is the D wing. The Blue is the C wing, and I think that big Red area is self evident. When just looking at it, it is confusing but with a little study it gets a little clearer. Bottom line is the whole darn thing is essentially different. This is what has stopped me on my project. If you understand the functional/engineering differences all this change makes sense. The C did not have single point refueling. Nor did it have any fuel in the wings. Also no pylons other than the two drop tanks. It also did not have air refueling capability. Later, in National Guard service it was revised to accept an inboard pylon with Sidewinder capability. I seem to remember Harold considering an early model seat. Did that ever happen? A lot of that seat's support structure is bars, so resin casting it would be a challenge. Norm

Dan, There really is only one way to do it. A complete rebuild of the whole trailing edge of the wings from the rear spar aft. Literally everything is different. Like the tail drawing, I have a wing comparison hidden somewhere in the innards of my computer. I will dig it out and see if it helps any. Norm

Mine is not far from paint. So far it has been an enjoyable build. fit has been outstanding everywhere. There are some omissions here and there that require some investigation and some small additions. *Nothing on the two throttle quadrants. Odd, but not a big deal to fix. *The background color of the instrument panels and side consoles decals is just goofy. *The control lock(s), parts B38 and B39; There should only be one in the front cockpit, and it should be Red. The Illustrated seat belt and cushion setup is strange. A military bird would not have a back cushion and only shoulder belts and seat belt. *The lack of color references on several parts is annoying. E43, the entire firewall. Some photos have it Black. Others Green. E13, the spacer at the back of the engine. Black * Nose wheel well, a buildup, has the ceiling White. But no color for the rest of it. And nothing about what color to paint that part that extends into the engine compartment. Probably Black. *The installation of the weights is not clear. If you install the left one too far forward it interferes with the air scoop on the lower left cowling. It needs to be at least a quarter inch back. *The flaps are really not designed to be extended. There should be daylight all the way through the leading edge of the flaps when they are extended. Normal flap extension is 37.5 degrees. But if the manual flap release (that little double rectangle on the left side under the rear canopy rail) is activated, the flaps go to 50 degree extension. That manual release is almost always pulled as it makes climbing up onto the wing easier. And that little double rectangle needs to have a couple slivers of plastic in them. It should be flush with the surrounding area. And that flap well on the trialing edge of the wing is somewhat complex. No ribs or any indications of what is there. That's fine as they clearly did not intend for us to lower them. But would have been nice to have that option and some detail there. *No mention anywhere that all that those pylon holes on the underside of the wing need to be filled for all but the D option. * No illustration showing the wing walk thin Black lines on the top of the wings, nor any decal to do them. They were quite prominent. All this stuff is really pretty minor really. Considering the complexity of the kit, I think some errors were bound to creep in. And the small things like the separate part for the tail hook area on what has to be a forthcoming C model is not detrimental at all. As an ex Air Force guy, I would really like to see an A model. There isn't anything in this kit that makes that not doable. It would only take a whole new front end!!!

Dan, I had a lot of incentive to do a D to C conversion. The magnitude of the task for both the wings and tail is daunting. Mine has been sitting on my shelf of doom for a couple years now. I enjoyed the D build but right now the C is just a pile of chopped up plastic. Keep at it and try to get it as close to right as you can and you should be happy. I think I still have the D to C wing drawings I was working from. I will try to find those and post them if they would help you. Norm

Dan, a subject near and dear. I built the D model as soon as the Trumpeter kit came out. We never flew the D model, converted directly from the C to the F-104C. So I started on a conversion from the F-100D to the F-100C. It is a major undertaking as I am sure you are figuring out. Some note that might help. First, the reason why the barrels of the guns don't stick out the front is because there is a blast tube between the end of the barrel and the gun barrel troughs. I will try to attach a comparison drawing I did from the T.O. station diagrams that compares the A (late) and C tail to the later D tail. Essentially everything changes. The drawing should be 1/32nd but who knows what it might be after all the little electrons have a shot at it. The Gray with Red lines is the kit D tail, the Yellow with Blue lines is what you're after. The wing is another matter entirely. In a nutshell, everything aft of the rear spar is different. Major visual difference is of course the wing trailing edge is a straight line from the wing tip to the fuselage. There are no flaps at all. All the panels are different too. Last, not as noticeable, is the ailerons are a lot different as well. The late A model and the C model are essentially the same visually. That means that you could choose from a wide range of color schemes. The A models did not stick around very long and the operational use was pretty limited. When I got to George in late 1956 the 479th still had a few A models. They didn't last long. Compared to the C it was a lot lighter and probably the best of the whole series as a day fighter. Just working from memory, the C model was several hundred pounds heavier than the A and the D was about 3K more still. Norm

Brian, Those look really good. I did use the decals for the instrument panels and like you said, they turned out just fine. The only fly in the ointment is the background color, the area that would be the panel itself, not the instruments, is a goofy lighter color than what is called out to paint that panel. I think it works out OK, as the finished panel is so far under the glare shield that the lighter color actually helps to see it. I did not try the decals on the side consoles because I did not think that light background color would look good at all there. Norm

Thanks Kevin, That makes me much more comfortable. Stand by please I will be trying this again with some flight manual scans in a little while and probably will screw it up again. Norm