Alex

Yes - I would expect that we'll see these things deploy with F-35's at some point well prior to the 6th-gen fighter being available. But IMO the 6th-gen machine will be built from the circuit boards up with the idea that it exists to quarterback a fleet of unmanned assets.

It’s either that or the gomer who put the lift kit in got some of the parts turned around. Seen that more than once too.

Great progress on a very different (and very DIY) project!

The next one after the F-35 will be the last manned fighter. And it will deploy with multiple AI-piloted wingmen (wing bots?) per human driven craft.

I dunno, I always thought that the F-16 was a great looking aircraft. Until those conformal fuel tanks. Blech. I know that they totally outperform drop tanks from the aerodynamic perspective, but aesthetically, meh.

If they're smart they are...

Looks great! That Tamiya Mustang is one great kit, no? The diorama looks really good in the natural sunlight.

Missiles look great!

Thanks! The quality of the seat is 100% down to the good folks at Special Hobby, who included that lovely piece of resin with the kit!

Nope, I haven't given up on this one - just was focused on wrapping up my last fast jet build. I should never start two kits at once because I can't seem to shift focus - I stay locked on one til it's done. That said, the singular focus is NOW getting this GB project done while I ponder what comes next. I've finished assembling and painting the interior structure. Photos follow. Note that I have not gone to great lengths to clean up parts of this owing to how little of it will be visible once the fuselage is closed up. Here's how it sits into the fuselage... And what you'll see once the build is done... According to the instructions, next up is building the engine. But I think I'm going to take a break from tiny pieces and attack the exterior. All the movable flying surfaces and empennage need additional pins to hold them securely, plus I'm going to need to fabricate anchors for all of the rigging, as the PE ones provided with the kit are just too small to fit the 0.2 mm rigging line I want to use.

Thank ALL of you vets for your service!

Hear, hear! A really good Hellcat would be amazing.

Thanks for the heads up John. Sorry to hear that they are closing. I'll be sure to head up there and check out the sale. Alex

Fond memories of those listserv days from back when I was in grad school (and had to log on to the campus mainframe to read them)!

Very nice, restrained use of color to get that patina. I really like the result. For some reason I also didn't realize that this aircraft had those duplex counter-rotating props. Wild-looking for sure. Congrats on a great build.

Thanks Matt! I hope I can live up to that expectation. Still mulling what the next significant project is going to be. I could continue the UAF series directly with A Frogfoot or Mi-24, but I'm contemplating doing something else first. Possibly a modern JSDF Apache (I just got the Meng kit) or I could crack open the Tamiya 1:32 Corsair I've had on the shelf for three years now. Who knows. Gotta finish my "Aces High" GB plane first.

It was actually easier than it looks once I realized that the thing to do was to put a small piece of tape on the back of the canopy section and down to the fuselage, so it acted like a hinge. This allowed me to get the canopy half perfectly positioned, then fold it back while I put a tiny drop of CA on each of the little posts that the canopy structure is supposed to touch. Then hinge it back forward, being careful to land it exactly on those drops of glue. Then walk away for a good hour, to be sure the glue was 100% cured before removing the tape.

Thanks guys. It’s been a process, for sure. After the last couple I’m thinking about going and building some nice Tamiya kit OOB, just to do something straightforward for a change. But that’s probably not what I’ll do

Cool - I look forward to seeing what you do with it. One suggestion, something that I failed to realize needed doing until it was too late - the splitter plates on the intakes are MUCH too thick. I should have sanded them down from the back to thin the leading edges before installing them. Suggest you do this - it will improve the realism of the intakes considerably.

Here you go, then - some photos of the completed bird before it goes on the shelf. Now to get back to my languishing GB project...

Jeez there’s a Trident now too? I suppose I’ll just order it straight from them…

Glad you are liking it. It's a bunch of work to paint, but I am pretty pleased with the outcome. I have a MiG-29 and an Su-25 in the stash that will both probably get their version of the UAF grey-tone digital camo, so it'll eventually be a nice little collection...

I was again "victimized" by HLJ Syndrome. I bought this kit from Hobby Link Japan because they were about the only place that has it, and Kev had mentioned it being available and having heard good things said about it. And of course I'm going to support a new Ukrainian model company trying to make a go of it. I'm not too excited about the Swissair scheme so am going to order classic blue meatball Pan Am decals for it. A quick peek inside the box confirms some really nice, subtle surface detail. But then the "Syndrome" hit - I was looking at the cost of shipping this thing all the way from Japan to Boston, which was almost the price of the kit, and thought "jeez, that's ridiculous, maybe I should get something else to at least amortize the expense." So casually flipping through the site, I ran into this, which I have also heard good things about: And had to get it, thus at least doubling my overall HLJ bill. Sigh. I also have a copy of the Tamiya quarterscale F-14, so at some point I'm going to have to do a head-to-head build of them. In all my free time.

Looking forward to visiting Wheels and Wings when I go up Toronto to to visit my daughter's family in a few weeks! Always a great place to go browse.

All bombed up. I glued the pylons on, but the Storm Shadows stay in place nicely just with their brass rods slipped into the pylons, so I'm leaving them that way in case I ever need to remove them. The only other ordnance is these characteristic dual-rail missile launchers on the outer wing pylons. At that point on the slender sweeping wing, the only ordnance that they can carry is the lightweight AA-8 Aphid heat seeker. Figured I'd give our guy a few of them in case any Russian Flankers show up to interfere (although an AAMRAM would be infinitely better in that situation, if only they had been integrated to date, but AFAIK no joy on that).