Joel_W

Kent, Congrats on your article. It's certainly well deserved. Not many builds can come close to what you've achieved. Joel

Lee, Now that's stepping up to the plate big time Joel

Brian, ​ Excellent progress for sure. What I love most about your builds is both your thought process, and how you explain it to us in words and pictures. Well done. As for the update, outstanding as usual. Centering any hole for me is a major challenge that a one eyed half blind old guy al ways struggles with. Yours came out perfect. The dolly looks great. Your method for gluing the stanchions correctly in place is fool proof. BTW, I like the toothpick idea of securing those cups from spilling over. Joel

Shaka Hi, Yeah, I won this round, but it's the next one that always worries me. Joel

Bryan, Thanks buddy for the vote of confidence on this fix. I lucked out this time. Sure hope the rest of the build doesn't have this kind of surprises waiting for me. Joel

Don, Unfortunately, not so much so from the few KH kits I've tried to build in the past. Following build threads here, the quality of the KH kits has gotten better, but the engineering is still off in wackyland. What they do makes literally no sense other then create as many pcs as possible regardless of the fit issues that are a direct result of that philosophy. KH's best quality as far as I'm concerned is their choice of subject matter that keeps me coming back despite knowing better. Joel

Guys, I'm not sure either as to the reasons why, but the end results are sure evident. Compare my pictures to Brian's and it's like two different sets of molds were used. Moving on, and hopefully things will get better. Joel

Spyros, The weathering just continues to look better and better. At this point I'd call the top side and outer lower wing panels done. Wheel wells certainly have that operational look to them. And nice job on the pilot figure. Anyone who can paint one gets a from me, simply because I can't. Joel

Breaker, The Daco M47As really look great. used and abused for sure. Joel

Been a while since my last update due to a combination of work, bad back issues (once again), and my continuing battle with the main wing lower section fit. As I previously said in a post, I decided that I had to correct the issue of the one inner wing panel not matching up to the fuselage wing flaring to the point of actually being under it. This drove me nuts, as both the top center section and the lower sections are each one piece. there isn't any reason for this that I could think of, other then some change in the mold for the one inner wing section. The dihedral is just way to flat in cross section. Your also notice that to align the leading edge, the rear flap edge isn't flush with the top surface flap edge, while the dihedral is clearly to flat in cross section. Yet in Brian's build it's flush. I just can't figure it out. So the only solution I could think of was to cut a slit in the center of the inner panel, then using a plastic wedge to pry both sides up and try to keep them even. I also used some plastic strips to support the cut adjustments from the bottom Well I got close, but some sanding and blending in with Bondo was needed. After all the work, here's the fit on both sides. the other inner section still fits fine and now the other wing section that didn't fit, now does. Almost perfectly I might add. the slight issues on the leading edge joints is mostly from it being just a dry fit without any tape or clamping. Now I can finish painting the anti glare panel, mask, and install the front windscreen. Joel

Chuck, The gloss coat is simply amazing. I'm assuming that your rubbes and polished it out, or are you able to achieve that level of prefection straight from the AB? Joel

Jim, Just love those on location shots. Boy do they look real or what. Joel

Darren, Thanks so much for stopping by and leaving a post, it's really much appreciated. I'm not a fan of the Kitty Hawks philosophy of how many pieces they can make each sub assembly out of. multi piece fuselage halves, 4 piece cowls, overly complicated engines and engine mounts, only leads to excess frustration by those attempting the build, with what I'm betting is a higher percentage of SODs, and others that were contemplating buying the kits, just opting on taking a pass. While I'm still trying to find the time this week to take pictures of the wing/fuselage joints now, I've been frustrated by the anti-glare panel fit issues. Again, no real alignment points, coupled with a super tight fit inside the windscreen, I'd had to more then once remove it, and try again. I've done that so many times, that I now have to repaint the anti glare panel. Joel

Spyros, Thanks buddy for stopping by, it's much appreciated. While I'm very slowly making progress, I'm indeed making some. As for the wooden spars I lucked out, as they're very strong in the configuration I used. But the bottom line is that I had them in house, but didn't have any brass square tubing. Joel

Winnie, Thanks for stopping by and checking out the OV-10 build to date. I came across that picture after I finished the seats, so that they stayed the way they were with the packs on the right side of both seats. My goal right from the start was a busy enough cockpit to fool the viewers eye. The key to that without any question is the white wire bundles. So that's where I put my efforts. I added enough bundles to create the effect that I was looking for, and I still just might add another bundle or two. My concerns has for the last few weeks focused solely on the wing issues caused by the way over engineering of how many panels can we comprise to make the rather complicated wing especially with the twin engine booms. After looking at the short inner panel I've come to the conclusion that since the panel is one piece, and the upper middle section is one piece, and that the opposite panel fits correctly, the issue is that the short panel is indeed just molded a few mm to short. The missing female receptacles for the alignment pins for the center section is still a all time 1st for me. IMHO KH has gotten a lot better with this offering, but it still falls way short in execution of what a modeler really wants and expects. I'm 0 for 3 with KH kits. I'll just wait till they finally figure out the entire process before I buy another KH kit. Until then, my Kingfisher will continue to seat on a shelf in my stash gathering dust. Joel