Oldbaldguy

I noticed your avatar ‘way back and wondered about that myself. I’m thinking there might be a few more modelers here than in Rome, but who knows? Right now I’d be happy to find all my stuff amid the many unopened boxes that inhabit my house. We went from carefully noting on the outside the details of what each box contains to marking them with cryptic notes like, “Stuff”, “Various stuff”, and “Misc” to finally nothing at all. Makes every day an Easter egg hunt.

I dunno. Mig-29s are pretty old and tired. If you watch any of the Mach Loop vids, you’ll see the F-35s looking as good as anything else going thru the loop and pretty much holding their own.

Speechless. With all the other miserable crap going on in the world, we sure as hell do not need this. It’s like all the stars have suddenly fallen out of alignment and random suffering has become the rule of the day.

Wow! Eight hundred miles! I am a mere piker by comparison. I’d tip my OBG hat if I could find it.

I will, M. I promise. I have no doubt you are a lot more dependable than my previous neighbors.

BTW, OBG Jr is headed your way in July. Not much of a modeler but a big fan of Mosquitos.

Just FYI and for no particular reason, I thought I’d share the results of my recent move from one part of the southern United States to another, not that such a thing is particularly newsworthy. We’d lived in the northwest corner of Georgia in a small town bent on isolation for almost 20 years before realizing we’d probably be better off somewhere else. Down here, neighbors often will wave and say, “Holler if you need anything!” instead of saying goodbye, see you later or some such as that. When we were laid low by the great unpleasantness known as Covid last Fall, we hollered in our time of need, but our neighbors had more important things to do - like washing their car, mowing their grass or checking their emails. And so it came to pass that we decided to move closer to family and grand kids. This would not normally be a topic of interest to anyone on this site except moving house and home also involved hauling my built LSPs from there to here. It is a sad fact that no one loves your stuff like you do, especially professional movers who tend to pack with an eye toward gross tonnage per box than concern for the survivability of the things being packed. Enter my pickup truck, several years worth of styrofoam odds and ends and a box of toothpicks. I first lined the bed with foam sheets cut to fit so they couldn’t move, then skewered bits and bobs of styrofoam blocks strategically here and there with toothpicks to hold them in place on the sheets while they supported my models which were held in place with more toothpicks. It all looked like a bit like a porcupine trying to mate with a carrier flight deck, but it worked. The three hundred fifty mile road trip resulted in almost no damage at all: the canopy popped off one of my Hasegawa Scooters as did one of its canon and the Buckeye lost a main gear door. That was it. Not bad at all. Amazing what you can do these days with a good truck, some ingenuity and stuff your wife has been telling you to get rid of for years.

Not that I would ever build any at all (Yuck, phooie, no hook, etc), but was wondering this morning if there are reliable sources with decent photos of German, Italian and Japanese airplanes fresh off the assembly line during WW2. I’m curious about the level of fit and finish when these airplanes were new as opposed to how they looked after a couple of months in combat.

Okay, I’ll bite: Why does the University of Iowa feel like it needs an Air Force and how is it you became their chief pilot and what does Little Dude think about all this?

Sometimes things happen. Great learning experience for all of us, however. Imagine what the guys who painted the 1:1 jet went thru!

Way too much other stuff yet to come on this build. I move we take a vote. Settle the science, so to speak. I vote for a ribbed tail wheel with no dust covers. Jay gets to pick which one. Then he does the all the work while we all watch, wine glass in hand. Seems reasonable to me.

A US Navy Messerschmidt - who’d have ever thunk it? So where’s the hook?

And…….if I finally correctly read the drawing you posted earlier, it appears you would not have to drill a hole in the dust cover and create a valve stem after all because the dust cover, well, covers it up. No access without removing the cover. Which is probably why you also see photos of Corsairs without dust covers back there - too much to mess with whenever it needed airing up.

Since we all seem to be stuck on your tail wheel, to coin a phrase I would think if you like your dust covers you can keep your dust covers. Would save you a lot of work, deciding and fiddling down the road. Plus you have shown them to be historically correct for your airplane. Like you said, bigger flobzits to ream and all.

I love this. Makes me want to build Navy LSHs instead of Navy LSPs. And I know next to nothing about helos. I gotta get me one of these.

Easily the most accurate and believable depiction ever of an airplane none of us have ever seen. The accumulated dirt, mud, leaks, stains and wear and tear are dead-on and beyond reproach especially since it’s a fair bet that the builder has no first hand experience with fabric covered taildraggers operating in anything like WW1 conditions. This is an epic model.

Hmmmm. Are you absolutely 100% sure there are no gun fairings in that one photo? Cause I’m pretty sure I can see one right there beside the intake from all the way down here where I sit in Nowhere, Ga. Could be wrong and all, but I’m feeling pretty confident. Might be worth some closer perusal before you go much farther.

Oooo! I stand corrected. Visible panel lines!

Hmmm. Almost certainly painted red white and blue. Parked on the lawn of what looks like the ops building like a static display or gate guard. Very clean so it probably had not flown after being painted. Sometimes bases do/did things like this. I’ve seen gate guards with lit cockpits, working nav lights, turning props, weird paint - all kinds of things.

I would think scar tissue might be a problem as you heal up, but flexibility later more so. Lots of people don’t believe in them, but occupational/physical therapists can truly save your bacon - especially a good one - because they understand the physiology of your body and how to make it work normally again. Insist on the therapy. It’s gonna be painful and you will hate it, but you’ll happier in the long run. And, honestly, forcing yourself to build would be a great way to regain fine motor skills in that hand.

If you haven’t already, google Connecticut Corsair Restoration. It’s a Connecticut state gov site aimed at kids that outlines a restoration that someone there is doing. One of the photos shows a bunch of unrestored parts hanging from the ceiling, including a ratty drop tank and TWO unrestored oil tanks neither of which is yellow or silver although one still seems to be sporting a couple of stencils. That’s the best I can do; you must work your magic for the rest.

Not sure you will get a definitive answer on the oil tank color what with the fog of war, replacement parts, field conditions and all. The parts associated with engine oil on most of my 1:1 airplanes were painted yellow but the paint didn’t stick well because of heavy handling/use and exposure to heat, cleaners, etc., so the paint could get pretty spotty and unkempt. This might not apply to something like an F4U because the oil tank is not collocated with the hot, leaky motor and I wouldn’t think it was handled much except for the filler cap. A couple of pix I just googled up also show the tank painted yellow or at least something yellower than the rest of the stuff around it which seems reasonable based on my experience. I think a suitably subdued and maybe a little grimy yellow oil tank would look great.

So which is it: a landing accident or a close encounter while in flight? I vote for a landing accident - that looks like typical big arsed prop damage to me.

Truthfully? No idea. My wit was lost even on me.

And now we know why common hackers like me stick to regular kits. Given the way things have advanced in just the last couple of years, I’m certain there is a solution to the center section issue, but I have no idea what it will be other than to skin it. I know what I think I’d try, but I also think I could improve the Mona Lisa, so….