Ben Brown

On the NASM web site, there is a note at the top of the page that says they're going to close the downtown wing from March 28 through fall 2022. I read somewhere that the renovations are so major, they couldn't do them while the museum was open. When you visit Udvar Hazy, bring a telephoto lens for your camera. There are a lot of things that you can't get close to, and the telephoto works like a charm for detail photos. Ben

That ejection system sounds similar to the Yankee ejection seat in the Skyraider. Ben

They’re usually my first stop for overseas purchases. Apparently, they dropped Tamiya recently. HobbyEasy is a good one out of Hong Kong. Ben

Agreed, although I’ve really been enjoying the backstory in each episode. Ben

Phil’s blog is great! Hours of good reading on it. Ben

Thanks for the link, Jari! Also, today I learned that the + on the radome of some A-7s was so the LSO could distinguish an A-7 from an F-8. Ben

Wow, beautiful! Well done, Chris! Ben

Awesome! Ben

Tom has a lot of good info in his build of Best’s plane here: LINK Ben

Very cool! Ben

Chris, after getting halfway through making 50 seat backs: "Maybe I should have built this as a -100 instead!" Ben

IIRC, the access panels on the sides of the nose didn’t stand proud of the fuselage. I like your fix for the cockpit clear parts. The way Hobbycraft has them really throws off the look of the forward half of the fuselage. Ben

Looking great! I didn’t know the -300 had white prop tips instead of yellow. Ben

More than likely, they used the same plain ol’ clear white bulb under a colored lens on both port and starboard positions, just like they do on airplanes today. Per the web site I linked above, the temperature (in Kelvins) of the incandescent bulb has a yellow component, so we see green when the light is turned on.This concept dates back to before airplanes. My grandfather had a brass and glass signal lantern from the 1800s that had a red and blue lens. I think it was originally used as a railroad signal. Ben

Here's more than you probably ever wanted to know about blue lenses showing green light. Ben

Looking great, Chris! Ben

Or a CRJ-200. The air conditioning outlets were on the floor, so on a hot day our passengers risked heat stroke and frost bitten feet at the same time! Did the Dash-8-300 have this set-up? On the -100s, we had upper and lower vents, with a two position upper/lower switch in the cabin. Some of the flight attendants couldn't seem to understand the whole hot air rises/cool air settles concept, so maintenance used a label maker to label the switch to "Summer" and "Winter." @chrish, looking good! Ben

You’re a brave soul, not only tackling the Hobbycrap kit but modifying it as well! The Dash-8 was one of my favorites. Not fast, but comfortable and fun to fly. Ben

Next time you're in the Norfolk area, head over to Hampton and check out the Virginia Air & Space Center. Lots of interesting aircraft on display. There is (was?) also the Air Power Park nearby, that had a bunch of jets sitting outside. They had an F-100D, F-105D, an RF-4C, and others. I don't know what kind of shape it's in, now. It's been about 30 years since I last visited. Ben

For my 1/48 Misty build, I robbed some 7-shot pods from the Tamiya A-1J Skyraider kit. One of the Hasegawa weapons sets also includes a set. Ben

When you succeed and fail at the same time. Ben

As far as I can tell, the only issue with the wings is they are too thin. This, combined with the too-tall main gear tires, causes the model to sit almost level, instead of with the F-100's characteristic nose-up attitude. It's easily fixed by replacing the kit wheels with resin replacements (I found Renaissance's to just be copies of the kit wheels) and cutting ~3 mm from the tops of the struts for the 1/32 kits. Ben

I think the recently-released Airfix kit is supposed to be the best early P-40 in any scale. I have one and it is very good. Ben

As was the gunsight; the Tamiya kit includes both. Ben

Yes, the A-10A would have that cover, too. All A-10s use the same GE TF-34 engine. Ben