steinerman

Man, I'd grab up a 1/32 B-29 in an instant. I love big models, and a big B-29 would be absolutely awesome. That bomber had beautiful lines and, in my opinion, was the most graceful of all the WWII bombers. Now, if you want big, consider a 1/32 B-36!!! That sucker would be 60" long with a wingspan of a little over 7 feet! Now that would be an awesome build!!

Sounds to me like you lived in the upper midwest. Living here on the west side of Lake Michigan I certainly can relate to the cloudy sky all winter. That and "Lake effect" snow. And you're right about idiot drivers who seem to forget that driving a 4 wheel drive SUV doesn't mean that you can stop any better. But, aside from that, Fall is gorgeous with nice crisp days - if you don't mind the leaves, and summer is absolute pure heaven. We don't have the fires they do out west, no danger of hurricanes or Nor'easters. No drought, no floods, and only very rarely do we have a threat of a tornado. I love the change of seasons and the fact I can do different things at different times of the year. I don't like driving on slippery roads, but since I'm retired I can sit by the window with a cup of coffee and laugh at the poor souls out there. Truthfully, I don't think there is any place else I'd rather live. Lake Michigan is 30 miles away, Chicago, Detroit and "Up North" are all about 3 hours from here, and yes, I was raised "up north" - near Traverse City. Now, if you really want winter.........

I can log in fine. No problems whatsoever.

I have my Kindle nearby and am reading a couple paragraphs waiting for the pages to load. Slower than trying to pour molasses out of a bottle in January.

Hi Kev! Well, I'd say "Play with it". Since you didn't pay any money for it, let the kid in you out and have fun. Me, I'm using mine as sort of a test bed. Since my modeling to date has been mostly ships, I'm trying different things with this and kind of experimenting. Like now, I'm trying different metal finishes trying to find one I like. I'll never enter this in any contest or anything so I'm sort of "honing my skills" before I tackle my big, expensive Tomcat! It'll look OK when I'm done, but it will be far from perfect.

Hi Friends! Yeah, I know, I haven't been around much as of late. I do check this site out every day but since I don't do a lot of constructive modeling during the summer, I really don't have much to post. And, as I'm pretty sure you don't want to see pictures of me mowing the yard or painting the side of the house (Damn 1:1 scale modeling is for the birds!), I haven't much to report on. However, now that the weather has cooled off a bit and it isn't time to start raking the dang leaves yet, I've been spending a little time working on both my USS Missouri and also this B-17. Since I haven't updated this thread since June, I figured I'd start with this. Besides, I don't have a lot to show you on my ship yet - I'm not at a good stopping point yet. So, here's where I'm at on this bomber. First, I put the wings together and mounted the main landing gear struts. I had to do this before the wings were glued because I had Eduard PE glued in there that was in the way. The fit between the top and bottom was OK, but as any of you know who build this kit, the seams at the engine nacelles is a big pain in the a$$! Lots of filling and sanding before it starts to look right. The rear stabilizers went together fine with just a slight amount of sanding at the seams. Then I gave the wings and stabilizers a black spray to see how well I did on the seams. Not good! So, more sanding and filling, and sanding and filling and rechecking until I got it to where I liked what I saw - or couldn't see, rather! Then I shot all 4 pieces, along with the engine cowlings, with gloss black and Alclad aluminum. To be honest, I'm not 100% sold on Alclad paints. To me, they're too finicky and too hard to get to come out right. I don't think I'll use them on any more models I build. In addition to the Eduards exterior PE set, I also bought a set of resin wheels and tires. Right now I can't remember the vendor, but they look sharp and when sprayed with Tamiya "Rubber Black" they look great. Right now I'm working on the fuselage and I'm in the fill and sand phase. Fill, sand, spray and examine. Then do it all over again, and again - and again. I'm sure you all know the drill! Up until now I used Vallejo 100% acrylic plastic putty and had fairly good success with it. However, I was reading Chuck's latest "KIcked Up a Notch" thread on his F-5 last night where he mentioned that he used CA to fill seams, along with an accelerator. So, I decided to try it and see what success I have. I can't say for sure because I just tried it for the first time today and I won't spray the seams until tomorrow. I can say that it looks good under a bright light and it feels good when I run my fingernails over the seams. I do hope this works because when I'm done with this kit, I'm going to start on my old Monogram 1:48 B-29, and there are a lot of seams on that beast. So, there you have it. Not a lot to show for 4+ months, but hey, I have a house and a wife and both of them have a lot higher priority than my hobbies. I will try to post more often - with the key word being "try". Take care, friends, Larry

Thanks for the advice gents! I bought some "Incredible White Mask" Liquid Frisket.

Mel, for your information, decibels (db) is measured on a logarithmic scale. That means that for every 6 db roughly the noise level is double. For example, a unit that produces 46db is twice as noisy as a unit that is rated at 40db

Greetings friends, Got a question: What do you recommend as a liquid mask for clear areas that you don't want paint to adhere to. I'm looking at Amazon and there are all kinds and all prices. Have you ever used any and would you recommend it? And by they way, I'm using acrylic paints - Model Master and/or Tamiya. Thanks, Larry

I don't know if it would be something you would like or not, but I just bought a Badger Renegade Velocity and I love it. It comes with a .2mm needle and I bought a .3mm from Amazon for heavier work. This thing can spray an exceptionally fine line, but for models I want a broader pattern and I still mask. I used a Badger siphon feed for years and had excellent luck with it. I guess I'm partial to Badger because they're made in the USA and they have excellent customer service. I don't know what your budget is, but my Renegade Velocity was $125 from Amazon and the .3 needle kit was another $25. Larry

Howdy Mel! Welcome to the forum. I haven't been here all that long, but long enough to know that the people here are extremely friendly and willing to help in any way possible. The one thing I never expected to find is the incredible amount of knowledge and helpful hints you pickup as you read through the various build logs. It's already saved me from countless mistakes! . Oh. and one more thing - Don't be apologizing for your English. You do just fine. You're a lot more understandable than many of us here in the States! Larry

Hi Friends, Just a question here tonight. A while ago I bought Trumpy's 1:32 F-14D Super Tomcat. I haven't started on it yet but I want to donate this to the local Veteran's hospital here in Grand Rapids when I get it biult, so I am looking to make this as accurate and as detailed as possible. What I would like to know, is what all after-market goodies there are that I should have for this model? I already have, or are in the process of ordering, the following items for this aircraft: - Aires Resin Cockpit kit - Aires Landing Gear Bay Resin Kit - Aires Resin Weighted Wheelset Kit - Aires Exhaust Nozzle Set - Airscale Modern Cockpit Instruments - Airscale Instrument Bezels - Airscale Jet Cockpit Upgrade - Airscale Modern Cockpit Dataplate and Warning Decals - Eduard Big Ed Photo-Etch Kit - Wolfpack Corrected Chin Pod Set - Zactomodels Intake Correction Kit - Zactomodels Phoenix Pallet Correction Kit Are there other items that I should have for this aircraft? There are a couple areas that I'm concerned about - the landing gear and the weapons that this fighter carried? I've seen a real F-14D and have taken dozens of photos of the detail and in my opinion the Trumpeter kit front landing gear kinda sucks when it comes to the landing light. Is there a 3rd party company that sells a replacement? And as to the weapons, I'm not sure what I should have to fully populate this aircraft with accurate weapons. These are just two of the areas I'm not sure about. Anything else you could help me with would be greatly appreciated. Thanks, Friends, Larry

Hearty Congratulations to the new bride and groom! And thank you for letting us see pictures of your honeymoon. It looks like you had a fabulous time. The scenery is gorgeous!

OK, here are the last 6. Are you bored yet? There are over 80 separate parts mounted on this splinter shield including helmets, cooling tubes, spare gun barrels, phone boxes, and tool boxes. The long baskets alongside the shield (and on the backs of the big gun turrets) are floater net baskets. They contain netting with flotation around the perimeter and are used mostly in conflict to aid those fallen or knocked overboard. Overall view of the aft deck. View of the stern showing the catapults and recovery crane. The ship carried (2) "Spotter" float planes whose job it was to search out enemy ships and to also "spot" where the big 16" shells were landing. The big 16" guns could fire a 2300 pound projectile a distance of over 20 miles, meaning the gun crews could not see where their shells were landing. The float planes were shot off the catapult by dummy 5" shells and were retrieved by the crane at the stern. Close up view of one of the catapults. These two were nightmares to build! The cradles for the float planes are mounted, but I have not built the aircraft yet. Close-up of the stern. The crane was another %#$@ to build! All the framing had to be built up piece by piece. You might have noticed the rows of slotted racks around the insides of the 40mm gun tubs. These are ammo racks that hold the magazines for the 40mm guns. Here is the stern. I really don't like that ladder up the hull. It's not professional at all. That whole area looks tacky, plus, I need white letters, not black I have to do something about that - but not till later! OK, so that's what it looks like now. Thanks for looking! Larry

Here's post #2 of this set: A lot of people have asked me what I'm going to do with this ship when I finish it? Truthfully, I have no idea! I definitely am going to enclose it in a protective case to keep the dust off, but other than that, I haven't decided. I'm thinking of possibly displaying it for a while and them possibly donating it to the Veterans Home here in Grand Rapids. Who knows - that's a long ways down the road. The light gray deck is in place just so you can see where turret #2 is located. Nothing has been done to this part - it's just as it came out of the box. Aside from all the brass parts, the entire ship was this color. Everything except the decking (which is real wood, by the way) has to be painted either Haze Grey or Deck Blue. Here's a closer look at the foredeck and anchor chains Adding the 6 chain stops was a real pain in the you know what! The little red things with white handwheels are high pressure fire suppression water valves. As I said before, the deck railing has not been added, nor has the 20mm AA guns and flagstaff at the prow. This is a close-up view of the foredeck just behind the anchor chains, showing the various detail on the main deck. First are the windless and brake controls, then the (2) 20mm Oerlikon anti-aircraft guns, various hatches and vents, and then the (2) quad 40mm Bofors gun positions, along with their respective gun directors. The storage boxes are ammunition lockers for the respective guns, and the torpedo shaped things behind the 40mm gun tubs are the (2) paravanes This is a shot of turret #1. There is a structure that is located between turrets #1 and 2 on the main deck that has not been added yet. It won't be added until Deck #1 is glued in place. I glued fender washers under the deck and magnets inside the turrets to hold them into place. That way they can be rotated and removed if necessary. The gun barrels are brass, believe it or not. Yeah, I know, why would you pay for brass gun barrels and then paint over them. I'm sure all of you know why!!! This shot shows the back side of the breakwater and the equipment located there. Also, note the helmets for the gun crew and the loudspeakers mounted on the rear of the 40mm gun tubs. A lot of this detail was added by me and did not come with the kit. I have a set of plans for this ship that are 9 feet long that shows all this extra detail. Here is turret #2. It has a 40mm gun position on top of it where turret #1 does not. You can see why!! Also note the 20mm AA guns on either side of the ship. The small diagonal tubes mounted on the front of the splinter shield are spare gun barrels. Cooling tubes for hot expended gun barrels are located inside the splinter shield, as are more crew helmets. The two valves just aft of the splinter shield are refueling ports for when the ship is refueled at sea. all this is extra detail that does not come with the detail kits. Overall view of the starboard side of the fore main gun battery This is the part I'll be working on next. There is a ton of brass detail that gets added to the sides, along with wooden decking similar to the main deck. I also plan to grind off some of the doorways and show them open with brass doors. The (4) rectangular protrusions along the sides are where the 5" gun mounts are located. There are 10 of them on this deck and the one above. This is just astern of Deck #1 and the location of turret#3. There's a lot of detail around here including 20mm and 40mm gun positions, winches, hatches, vents, hose reels, and fire suppression equipment. The long, grey device on the side of the ship swings out and ladders lower to dock small boats that come alongside. OK, this is another 10 photos. There are 6 more which I will post in the next one - #3