Collin

Small Update. Still need to do all the little things (paint the air refueling hatch, static wicks, gear and gear doors....you know, all the little things that take forever to get done!! Cheers Collin

I thinned the AK paints with Mr. Leveling Thinner to get the fine painting done (about 1/3 paint to 2/3rd thinner). Then shot un-deluted paint straight from the jar (maybe a touch of thinner ust to improve the flow) and that started to give the "blotchy" look that I was trying to replicate. Then I mixed in a touch or darker or lighter grey and added some touch up paint "blotches" as well. Thinned AK shot pencil think lines from both the 770 and 20/20 (both of them I think are .2mm). I shot some paint from my Tamiya .3mm tip, worked like a champ there as well. I just have to slow down and be patient with multi-color schemes. That really is my limiting factor. Took me about a week to get to this point from a dark grey primer coat. Decals went on yesterday ( there are very few of them). Weathering will be a very very light and non-contrasting panel line wash. Cheers Collin

OOB build. Wanted to try my hand at freehand airbrushing with the new AK paint line. Looks ok to me. Cheers Collin

All our jets got that dirty in AirWing FIVE. We were busy, but I do remember no-fly, all hand scrub down days. My first scrubdown was me and the Skipper on one particular jet in shorts, cranial and eye protection with scrub pads as the brown shirt kept telling us we missed a spot. A spotty, dirty, touched up bird meant it flew a lot, and birds that flew a lot were better with higher mission capability rates than the hangar queens that were clean. Just adding a little context. Collin VS-21/CVW-5 ‘95-‘99

Second tank build which is unfamiliar territory for me. Built this years ago but now just getting around to painting and weathering it to completion. It's a recovery build for me to get my mind off of aircraft models for a little bit….and it's worked. If you are in a rut and need something to get the model juices flowing again, these kits are super easy to build and finish. It worked for me. Off on a vacation for a week (look out Prague/Vienna/Budapest) and then back home to pull out an aircraft model. Now I just have to figure out which one :-I Cheers Collin

Actually built this back in 2013 while on deployment. Tamiya 1/48 JS-2 Out of the Box. Sat assembled but unpainted on a shelf for the last 6 years and after my recent Prowler build (see the "non-LSP" section)….I needed a break from aircraft and just do some painting and try out those fancy oils and pigments folks have these days. Great little kit (actually all the 1/48 Tamiya armor are fun and super easy builds with great detail for the scale). Highly recommended for a fun little break. Now.....lets look around the stash and see what big kit there is....ah maybe this Tempest....or that Ki-84...or maybe that P-47. Maybe just a beer to think it over. Cheers Collin

There are a few things I messed up. One being the canopy eyebrow section I missed. The other is I forgot to color in the AOA lights on the nose gear door. This kit fought me so much I have no desire to go back and correct (maybe I will get some mojo and correct the lights). Question asked about the tinting...that's a conversation I really should have with another beer in hand. Looking over photos and having flown next to these aircraft in the fleet....the canopies aren't yellow and the gold tint really only comes out in very specific light conditions. Normally it's a dull bronzey-dark(er) tint compared to the clear foward canopy (we had someting similar tint wise on the S-3). I spent about two weeks trying every type of Future bath with food coloring or other tinted paints and it just plain sucked. I couldn't get a smooth and clear (yet tinted) finish. The tinting color in whatever fliuid I had either was inconsistent or highligted particles in the mix. I was using pure Future, in a uber clean environment, and it took about 50 tries before I was somewhat happy with the results (what you see here)...which is basically a touch of Tamiya Smoke in Future dipped over and over. Very frustrating experience. Cheers Collin

A few more pics:

What variant?? J/L...or the earlier E/F/G/H?? Cheers Collin

Kinetic 1/48 EA-6B dressed up in VX-23 garb circa 1991-ish. You can dig around the in progress section to see the build in-progress...needless to say I am glad it's done and I'm ready for a beer. Cheers Collin

Yes...now that is going to make one awesome in-flight model. Cheers Collin

Excellent OOB build there. Are those the kit decals? Cheers Collin

1/24 is too large. We need a new Hellcat in 1/32, and later versions of Corsair types as well. Don’t get me wrong, the 1/24 Hellcat is impressive. Just too large for this builder. My my two cents for any developers out there listening. Cheers Collin

“No chance Paddles, take it around on the starboard side.” You said the above when you F’d up a carrier approach so bad you just cried uncle and spun out to try again. I mean grossly bad. This movie invokes this saying....”no chance”. FOD//