dmthamade

That about sums up my mental state!! 
Mean while back at the BAT CAVE.....Batman and his trusty???  Robin were trying to identify who stole all the rivets in Gotham City
 
Could it be there is a new Villain in town??  .................Stay Tuned  ..............Same Bat Time  ...........Same Bat Channel
 
I have them all fooled into thinking I'm sane  
 
Were was I???     Oh Yeah !!   Tops o'da  Flappie  Tink's       Enjoy  

John,
 
I could not agree more however if you want a modern jet with recessed panel lines and its not a Phantom, Eagle, Falcon, Hornet or a Saber (I may have missed one) your pretty much stuck with Trumpeter's less than stellar kits.
 
NO I am NOT bashing Trumpeter just stating the facts. I own just about every modern jet in Trumpeters line up! They just require a LOT of attention to detail to make up for their lack there of. I will be the first to admit that overall their quality has improved and the F-100 was one of their early efforts.
 
Barry

Helo Paul, been watching your great build. A question, did you find the panel lines on the fuselage, mostly the rear half too shallow? Just starting in on my build and had to redo them.
 
Don

This should be good ! Will be following your build Don.

Scooters for the win!!!!!!!!! 

Gotta love those A-4's - Nice choice Don.
 
Derek

Good Plan B Tom, you know I love scooters too!  I added your name and new project to the list, Good luck and  give a shout if you need any A-4 Help.
 Paul 

Way to go Don! Great choice, another scooter..........  Welcome on board, looking forward to your build.
 
Paul

I'm digging all of the Scooters, when we are all done, we should photo shop everyone's builds, and do a flight line style photo

Really enjoy the Crusader builds!!  IIRC when i did my 'sader build i used the kit intake and i  noticed how the fit was weak on the inside and had pin marks, but the outside the seam was good and there were no pin marks. Trumpy got that one backwards. I'm looking forward to see how you correct the fuselage Y pylons, all i did on mine was modify the left pylon by bending it IIRC.
 
Don

Thanks guys!
 
I'll have to see how it goes, but as far as total overall weight of the model, I don't think it will be too bad.  The compression strength of the front landing gear should be more than sufficient (nose weight and all), so the only concern might be the main gear.  Just for giggles, I think I'll weigh the kit later on in the build for comparison.
 
Great set of decals.  I'm tempted by more than one in this set- so many models, so little time...
 
I'll be taking a closer look at these today.  I'd love to compare notes though- is there a link someplace on this?
 
Spent a little time on the intake yesterday.  Bottom line is I don't think there's any free lunch when it comes to these.

Out of the box
 

Punch marks- 6 or 7 on each one
 

The ends are closed off on the kit parts.  I opened these up so I can get at the seam from both ends later on.
 

I also shaved off the locating pins and filled these as well.  This pic also shows the REALLY grainy finish on the lower intake half.  The upper half is relatively smooth though.
 

So far.  Will start sanding away next
 
Thanks for looking!
 
Kai
 

Going to try another build as my A-7E ditched early. I'm going to build an A-4E from VMA-211 Wake Island Avengers base at Chu Lai. They did a lot of short range CAS, with typical mud mover loadouts. I'm using Zotz decals 32-053 A-4E Skyhawk in the Vietnam war. Will do # 151147 with the avionics hump. Load out will hopefully be Snake 'n Nape, with AMS MK-77 napalm on outer wing pylons, and Mk-82 Snakeyes from the Academy F/A-18 on MERs from a Tamiya F-4C/D on the inner wing pylons. Belly tank from Hasegawa with AMS end cap. I'll also be using a AMS Escapac ejection seat. Nose gear will be replaced with a Scale Aircraft Conversions part with a separate wheel. If i don't use Snakeyes i'll use either Mk-82 slicks or Mk-20 Rockeyes. Should be fun, these aircraft kept a steady mission load, they got very dirty and grimy, with paint faded from the extreme weather. Some pics.
 



 
Don

Today was a great day to paint so far, so I took advantage and got some color on this Thang! The Light Gull Gray went down smooth and I'll give it a bit to properly cure, then I can mask off the anti- glare panel and tiny radome black, and start working on some detail painting before decals.  I am really happy with how this is turning out, I hope you like it too! 
 Thanks for looking in on my build,
 Paul  
 

 

 

 

 

Last week my goal was to get the intakes on. One day I'm going to order some intake covers!!  One good thing about the white intakes, just weather and install! I hate painting intake trunks. The Eduard exhaust set is a very detailed set but are based on USAF Phantoms. I added some round stock to push the blades back to get more depth and accuracy. With the inner ramp installed in went the intakes. Still I must say there is some work to get the intakes lined up depended on your resin and how true they are.
 



 
Lastnight I figured I would thin the wings down. Like mentioned before with resin, I wanted to keep as must of the kit wing as possable. I've seen this done before and is the better method. I rounded off the bumps over the gear strut and deleted lines that were Thick wing to those found on the thinner one. The resin wing half has the lines for the bigger wheel well. Hopefully these corrections are close enough LSP work! 
 



 
Paul

A little work on the bottom wing today. I was going to use the resin parts from the conversion set but may jump in with the F-4B I was originally going to build for this GB. This modification for the bottom wing and fuselage really is not to difficult. I start with a flat speed brake and work myself from that!
 


 
I plan on doing a little detail work on the gear wells with a new cross brase and gear locks. Just the little areas that are found for the thin wing. The side walls for the wells can easily be thinned. If you look at them you can see where to cut, like Tamiya had this planned!
 



 
Since I'll have to do this again soon and I feel like I'm far enough ahead I'll jump in with the VF-111 F-4B but with less detail!
 
Go Phantoms!
 
Paul

Hello all!! This is my second Group build on LSP, will build Trumpeters A-7E using decals from Victory Productions for a VA-25 CAG bird. Will be very colorful with green nose/tail and multi-colored diamonds on the rudder. I've wanted to build this for a while, group builds give me incentive to do long stalled/dreamed of projects.
 



 
I know the kit suffers from a inaccurate nose/canopy shape and there is a correction set available, but i'll be doing this without. The only aftermarket will be the decals from Victory Productions. I've used these decals before on a F-8E build, worked really well. I've built the A-7D from Trumpeter so i know some of the pitfalls.
 



 
Progress will be a little slow as building really slows with good summer weather approaching, good thing it's a six month GB.
 
Don

There's a bunch of tips for this kit. That Phantom jig that's popular is one. I use a homemade one that's past it's prime! Some of the things I do with this kit is.
 
I cut the splitter plates off and install Last! Help with painting behind them so the paint don't get grainy!
I also cut the stabilator in two so you can glue, fill or what ever to the bare metal exhaust area. I run a pin through when all done to line up the stabs later.
There's way too many raised panels that needs to be smoothed out. Ask Harv he's just went through this!!
The wing tips should be at 12 degrees and that jig helps with that! I found .5 stock on the top of the wing joint, not bottom, let the hinges line up and it will come out 12 or close!
There's some good work on this kit on this site if you look around. It's a great F-4 kit with tons of potential in the right hands. You'll enjoy it and build it again and hopefully hooked like us Phantom Phreaks here at LSP!!! There's a bunch!! Have fun and I'll be following your progress. Great choice
 
Paul

Hello all!! This is my second Group build on LSP, will build Trumpeters A-7E using decals from Victory Productions for a VA-25 CAG bird. Will be very colorful with green nose/tail and multi-colored diamonds on the rudder. I've wanted to build this for a while, group builds give me incentive to do long stalled/dreamed of projects.
 



 
I know the kit suffers from a inaccurate nose/canopy shape and there is a correction set available, but i'll be doing this without. The only aftermarket will be the decals from Victory Productions. I've used these decals before on a F-8E build, worked really well. I've built the A-7D from Trumpeter so i know some of the pitfalls.
 



 
Progress will be a little slow as building really slows with good summer weather approaching, good thing it's a six month GB.
 
Don

Hello all!! This is my second Group build on LSP, will build Trumpeters A-7E using decals from Victory Productions for a VA-25 CAG bird. Will be very colorful with green nose/tail and multi-colored diamonds on the rudder. I've wanted to build this for a while, group builds give me incentive to do long stalled/dreamed of projects.
 



 
I know the kit suffers from a inaccurate nose/canopy shape and there is a correction set available, but i'll be doing this without. The only aftermarket will be the decals from Victory Productions. I've used these decals before on a F-8E build, worked really well. I've built the A-7D from Trumpeter so i know some of the pitfalls.
 



 
Progress will be a little slow as building really slows with good summer weather approaching, good thing it's a six month GB.
 
Don

thank u  all for the intresd
Hey Jack i have taken a look at the pit and its not bad at all.
Like u said another seat and it ill be ok.
I have bought this in a pakage so im going to use it.
 
Me foiling?
 
Yes this wil be the third one im going to foil
 
Mark

That is one great looking aggressor for sure...didnt consider Jap aggressors before seeing this one, now hm....

Absolutely Beautiful!
 
All those stencils would drive me nuts!
 
John

Agreed, lovely work, and an outstanding looking model!
 
Heres the FOC GB entry:
 
 
http://forum.largescaleplanes.com/index.php?showtopic=48300&do=findComment&comment=561988

Wow!  This is amazingly gooood~! The filth and metal effects is top notch. Of course, the rest of it is just as good.
 
Excellent job, Don.

That's awesome Don! So this one is ready for the GB Gallery too now?
 
Kev