Joel_W

Excellent job of color modulation and random fading. Joel

Brian, impressive to say the least. The windscreen and canopy really look like they fit perfectly. A few dunks in Pledge and you should be home free. Nice save on that scoop. Joel

Ron, 1st of all, congrats on getting back to the bench. the Ammo box looks fantastic. the linen plate once painted should fool one's eye for sure. Joel

Kent, I gotta admitt that I was hoping you were posting some kind of update. Joel

Mark, Just one rock solid build. Joel

As usual your work is in a class by itself Joel

Brian, Just exceptional built to date. And thanks for admitting how many times you had to fill and rescribe. At least I don't feel so bad when I'm stuck in that endless cycle. Joel

Tony, I see. Going to take work to make it a proper T-6 from what I've read and heard. Joel

Tony, Gotta be the T-28C. Both Ernie and Brian love it, so I'm 101% positive you'll build a perfect model. the fix actually worked out perfectly. go figure. Must have screwed it up in the opposite direction. Joel

Gary, words of wisdom for sure. Joel

Brian, thanks for the words of encouragement. I love the unusual more then the common place, so the Bronco is right up my alley. I'll give it my best to cross the finish line with a build worthy of a trip to next year's Noreastcon. Joel

Thor, No problem. I wouldn't consider this a high jacking at all. Gotta agree with you about HK's instructions as they're the typical hand drawn ambiguous Asian type. Been working on the wing assembly, and it actually looks near on perfect. Pics to follow in a few days. Joel

Marcel, Thanks so much my friend for stopping by and checking out the Bronco. Glad that you like the way that the cabling came out. it even surprised me. Joel

Don, Just because I had this issue, doesn't mean that it wasn't my fault. I just can't figure out what caused it. Brian built it twice and never had this issue. So I'd say buy it, build it, and enjoy the build. Joel

Thor, I feel you paint buddy. At least for now I can continue with my build. Joel

Well, as I just posted in response to Brian and Breaker, the cut and shim worked well enough to get a decent enough fit to continue on with the Bronco build. Joel

Breaker, Like I said, I cut a 1/2 inch cut down the centerline of the bottom section, then wedged it open with spring clamps. I glued in a .020 shim to fix the spread. Now I just made sheet plastic shims to force the cut sections up. I really lucked out as the fit is now equal to the other side. Not perfect, but certainly workable. There is a small hump that I can feel with my finger but nothing as bad as I thought it would be. Joel

Brian, If you got such a perfect fit, then somewhere I had to screw up, but for the life of me, i can't see where I did. I did have a very minor lip on the bottome of the fuselage section, but a little bit of Bondo and blending fixed it perfectly. I used an old friend's philosophy that if it's already broken, you can't break it any worse, so go for it. I cut the lower panel down the centerline about a 1/2 of an inch, the worked a shim in while pulling up each side till it leveled out. It's workable, but I'm not happy with these results. Like I said, I keep on trying to find out where the issue came from. the inner section is just to flat compared to all the other sections which makes no sense. I could have tried to increase the dehidrel by warping the section and leaving it short where the flaps meet the back of the wing. No one would have been the wiser, but I didn't realize the issue then. Joel

Well, what started out as a really enjoyable build with some enhancing of the cockpit, has taken the usual KH turn for the worse with the main wing assembly. My God, what a true nightmare due to complex over engineering for the sake of just how many pieces can they make a wing out of. As I said in an earlier post I decided to make the complete wing assembly prior to attaching it the fuselage just in case there was any alignment issues. And boy are there issues, at least in my build. As I said, I glued the top pieces together then using square Balsa wood rather then bass tubing as I didn't have any, and none of the big box craft stores carries it. I wasn't going to place an order online to two pieces and end up paying twice the price for just shipping. the Balsa is really strong, and once doubled up by the leading edge, and a single piece by the trailing edge, the wing became extremely stiff and strong. I sealed the Balsa with a few coats of an oil based wood sealer, but didn't bother to sand it smooth as no one will ever see it once the Bronco is in the books. I even filed recesses where the joints are so that the wing isn't warped out of alignment. Once the sealer dried for a few days I glued on the outer wing sections to the top of the wing which fit perfectly. Next came the dreaded inner wing sections. These fit between the fuselage and engine booms, so alignment is critical. Unfortunately, the engineers and designers at KH didn't feel it was necessary to have a single alignment pin. I used the leading edges, back flat sections with the square holes for the flaps, and a few raised plates along the leading edge for proper alignment. I made absolutely sure that I the leading and trailing surfaces were as close to perfect as possible before taping them to dry. Here is the Starboard side of the wing. both sections are aligned correctly, and have the proper contour and Dihedral. Next the port side. which the inner section's dihedral is way to flat. this now resulted in a horrendous fit issue. this is how the Starboard side aligns and fits. No tperfect, but close enough to work with and achieve the correct alignment. this is how the Port side turned out. the Results are as I said horrendous. The inner wing section is actually BELOW the fuselage joining surface!! this folks isn't a fixable option without having to cut the inner section in half and raise it. So before I did that, I taped up the engine boom and test fitted it. It does indeed fit with a small lip, nothing like the fuselage side. So raising one side, destroys the alignment on the boom side. Honestly, there isn't a workable solution that will end up with model that can be entered into next year's Noreastcon, which was the goal for the OV-10A. So at this point the build is stopped dead in its tracks. I can't see where I screwed up as Starboard side fits just fine. Yes, I had to do quite a bit of filing and sanding the cockpit rear bulkhead to get the wing to fit flush without any pressure on the wing. Which it now does just fine. I've had zero luck with 3 Kitty Hawk kits, and none ever made it to the primer stage. Needless to say, I'll never ever buy another KH kit, no matter the scale, no matter how cheap, or even for free as a review sample as the F9F Cougar was. Joel

Impressive to say the least. Outstanding build. Joel

Ben, Amazing, simply amazing Sure wish I could make the show, but finances, time, and Distance are all working against me. Joel

Guys, as Ron said a few pages ago, this thread has been going on for more then two years, and 39 pages. Just give it a rest already. We don't even know if Tamiya will be releasing a new 1/32 scale kit yet alone what and when. Joel

Hubert, Don't sell your skills short. The work your doing is top quality for sure. Your recovery for the interior ribbing sounds like a more hen acceptable solution. From that one limited pic, I'd say you're home free. That engine is super impressive. Well worth the added expense IMHO. Joel

Bryan, The Topside looks great. I really like how the pre-shading just barely comes through the green. Just enough so that one doesn't see a discernable pattern. Well done. Very well done. Joel

Sapper Six, Very nice job detailing the main gear struts with beading wire. I'll certainly be looking into that as I've been using Lead wire, which does has it's issues. Joel