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I haven't built a helicopter since I was a kid! This could be ugly. From the sound of it this Academy 1/35 kit should come with a cheat code to help me out - good engineering, a quality kit. The plastic sure looks beautiful. Excited about doing a Marine Zulu on the USS Boxer, Amphibious Ready Group. There's a couple BuNu on the Marine Skid Zulu sheet. The Evil Eyes Pirate appeals to me as i played Captain Red Beard the pirate at campouts for the Cub Scouts when my kids were growing up :-) I've really been trying not to spend any extra money on my builds but this one needs the full motion video mod and without the rotor fold not sure where it would fit so it may be time to spend a little on upgrades. What are the odds I won't use purchasing 1 upgrade to justify the full metal jacket?

She is all done and looking to throw down some ordnance! This is the Academy 1/35 Viper. I used the Flying Leathernecks decals, so many to choose from - I decided on the Red Skeleton Jolly Roger of VMM-163. I picked up the Werner Wings decals for all the stencils. And of course you have to use some of the kit decals as well. I ended up buying Eduard seatbelts to really match everything else done in the cockpit. Since i was spending money on shipping why not get more right, so i picked up DefModels 20mm gun barrels as well :-) And with my jolly roger choice I needed some full motion video which I got from Shapeways. The cockpit additions are all scratch built. My favorite add is the tiny wound cable behind the gunner’s seat. Lot’s to see in this one. All the plastic behind the PE vents was cut away and wiring and components were added. Hard to see with my camera skills tho but I did my best to show something ;-) The target sight system is custom built. You can just see the gold reflector behind the Flying Leathernecks iridescent decal while the the camera type components are more visible. The 4 sensors(plume maybe?) on the corners are hand painted and filled with testors window maker to try and simulate the glass. The pitot is brass tubing bent and sanded to shape. The seal where the stub wing meets the fuselage was painted and then coated with mask solution so upon final painting it could be uncovered for a little added detail. And lastly some inspiration from a local buddy of mine, goes by Bradley25mm over on the IPMS forum - fine detailing the tail rotor gear assembly with wiring, sensors, and wire clips. His looks awesome and he gave me lots of pointers on this build. The most recent of which was the base. The deck of the USS Boxer is 80grit sandpaper. Many thanks to Starfighter at Scale Navy Stuff for providing the awesome, to scale, padeyes you see on the base!! Well worth it. The hellfires are custom hand painted. My kids love Rick & Morty cartoon and the main character turns himself into a hellfire so a set of missiles is a tribute to the show. The other set is from pics I found online of what looks like a winged Komodo Dragon. Paint was my usual mix of MCW with 1 addition this time. Thanks to Starfighter for the recommendation on color choices for the upper bluish gray on these birds. I ended up with Mission Models as they were available locally. Primer is Citadel Chaos Black (satin). Color coats are Mission Model and MCW acrylic lacquer. Cockpit is all done in Vallejo colors. Weathering is all Flory Models washes. And the final flat clear is MCW to close it out. I’ve been looking forward to building this model for some time and am excited to show these pics. adding one more...my wife loved this one most, btw check out those padeyes!

Every year the IPMS FAME CITIES Ed Kinney Chapter sponsors a contest theme for – ‘Anything USMC ‘- in memory of Ed Kinney. This year I'm determined to have an entry. With the parts from spares and the Academy kit supplied by red dog and Dragon plus a detailed review of The Designers page I think I'm ready to turn Hasegawa's prototype F-18 into a Desert Storm F/A-18A! I picked up an Avionix cockpit and tail modification kit, got some stainless screens from AMUR.Reaver, now I just have to decide which Flying Leathernecks decal sheet to buy. I've got to have it ready for the September meeting. I've spent the last couple weeks pouring over Pete's Scale Hornet guide so I'm totally psyched. This will also be my first big effort at weathering so please feel free to throw out any guidance as we build this one together 😆