Navy Bird

Hmmm...I don't know. I've always done it that way. Old habits die hard, or maybe old man is stubborn. I can't say that I've had problems breaking off the landing gear, but I do leave off stuff like gear doors, pitot tubes, ordnance, etc. Like your signature - Felix rules! One of my never-ending projects is to build an example of every aircraft type flown by VF-31 and its ancestors and descendants, all adorned with Felix. That's quite a long list, by the way. Felix has been carrying that bomb for a very long time! Cheers, Bill

IIRC, the cockpit colour depends on who manufactured the Zero, Mitsubishi or Nakajima. I used a lot of artistic license on this build, combining characteristics of both Mitsubishi and Nakajima built planes - my mind imagined that a well-worn training aircraft near the end of the war might have been rebuilt a few times with parts from who knows where. Pure speculation on my part! Personally, I think my choice of Gunze H303 for the cockpit is too dark...so I don't think you've borked your cockpit. The reason for the orange-yellow underside on my model is due to the fact that the unit markings in the Airfix kit belonged to a training unit, not a combat unit, and wouldn't normally have had a grey underside. There is a photo of this exact aircraft on Nick Millman's excellent Aviation of Japan blog, and you can clearly see a white surround to the hinomaru on the bottom of the wing - which was not done on planes with a grey bottom. Even if it was done for some reason, I don't think the contrast between the white ring and a grey underside would be as strong as it is in that photo. So goes my thinking anyway! I highly recommend Nick's blog - there is a LOT of great research data there, in addition to the other Japanese aircraft blogs that he links to in the sidebar. I spent hours combing through that stuff while I was building this kit. Cheers, Bill

Hi mates, I'm back among the living, and I've recovered enough from chemo blast number 5 that I've actually done some modelling. Woo hoo! Not a lot, mind you, but at least I'm out of bed. So, let's see, what have I done - painted the fuselage Gunze H315 Light Gull Gray and then touched up some between it and the white on the underside. The rudder was not white on the VF-302 Crusaders, so that saved me some masking. I then sprayed white on top of the engine tunnel. While I had the airbrush full of white, I also sprayed the wheels, stabilators, gear doors, some more landing gear parts - all that kind of stuff. Here is where she sits now: I'll probably do some weathering, but not a lot. I like my old fashioned colourful US Navy birds nice and clean. The Light Gull Gray didn't seem to get all splotchy and faded like the low visibility schemes of today. They must have switched to a low cost vendor of paint, and it doesn't hold up well. Probably Testors Acryl. For sure, I'll need to do a wash in the gear bays and the top of the engine tunnel. That's needed for proper shadowing, and will make the details pop out nicely. Next, I've got to mask the leading edges of the flying surfaces where the Corogard was applied. That's no fun, but it gotta be done. I think I'll wait until the end to do the natural metal around the exhaust, though. I plan on using a semi-gloss or satin clear, and would rather not spray that over the exhaust area. EDIT: This will come back to haunt me. The Quickboost flaps arrived, and they are much nicer than the ones I bought from Wolfpack. I'll end up using the droops (leading edge flaps) from Wolfpack, since they're double hinged as required for the F-8J, and the Quickboost flaps and ailerons. The Quickboost Martin Baker Mk. 7 bang seat arrived as well - very nicely detailed. I hope it fits! And I just may have a way of fixing that launch rail... Cheers, Bill PS. Blanik - thanks for the link on the Day Fighter proposal. I love that kind of stuff.

Is it the non-restored Tigercat that you'll have access to? https://www.scalemates.com/profiles/mate.php?id=10105&p=albums&album=11242#38 And if you have the time, crawl all over the rest of their collection, too. It's amazing! Cheers, Bill

You can ask as many questions as you like! I'd be honoured to help you out with your first model in 20 years. Have you started a WIP thread that you can point me to? Cheers, Bill

Edgar, is there anything you don't know, photograph you don't have, drawing you can't materialize, orders you can't catalouge, or in general any question you can't answer? You're the Miracle Man of Brittania, and we luv ya for it, governor!! Cheers, Bill

It's hard to say until I actually do it, but the Falcon vacuform set for the Mk IX looks close, and is what I will try. Cheers, Bill

Yeah, I like the way the main gear splays out a bit - looks like she's ready to pounce! As David says, most kits get this wrong - even the Academy kit has the main wheel more or less vertical. Luckily I don't have any any of those rubber grommet things to worry about. Cheers, Bill

Thanks, Nick! You have quite a knack for combining history and science in a way that makes it easy for this modeller to understand what is going on. I appreciate you taking the time to posting your reply. Thanks again! Cheers, Bill

Beautiful work Neil! I was lurking during the WIP, and I thoroughly enjoyed watching the transformation take shape. I think you have Avro blood (or maybe it's just machinist's ink) in your veins, so you can tackle any Lancaster or derivative at any time. Bravo! Cheers, Bill

Yeah, and our club now has some guys who use these little height gauges to measure and see if both wings are the same height off the floor - and same for the tailplanes. One guy even has a cool adjustable protractor that allows him to measure to see if the prop blades are evenly spaced. Yikes! Now, when I'm judging with one of those guys I have a secret. I have them stow their micro-devices and use their eyes. I'm usually the head judge for my group of categories, so I can do that. I guess I'm hopelessly old school, but I think that kind of stuff just doesn't belong at a local contest. I'll let them use their tiny torch, but that is it. My personal feeling is that if you can't see misalignment on the model, or an improper set of the model, just by using your eyes - you probably shouldn't be judging. Cheers, Bill

Like this? Cheers, Bill

I think white is correct for the underside. http://tailspintopics.blogspot.com/2009/12/changing-from-blue-to-graywhite.html I've never heard of 36622 in combination with light gull gray. What are the serial number and codes for the aircraft in question? Cheers, Bill

Ain't that the truth! Cheers, Bill PS. File for American/British English translation dictionary: Flashlight = torch. I knew that!

Well, I added some details to the forward portion on top of the engine tunnel. When the wing is in the up position, you'll just be able to see this stuff. That's IF you have a small flashlight and perhaps a micro-spy magnifying glass, and are good at peering into tight places. You can see that I've also painted the bottom of the fuselage white, and I've used that favourite of US Navy Aviation Structural Mechanics worldwide, RLM 21 Semi-Gloss White. Why a WWII Luftwaffe colour on the bottom of my cold war Crusader? Two reasons - I like semi-gloss, as it gives me a smooth surface without resorting to high-gloss paint, of which white is a nasty colour to spray. Second, it's a white white, neither cold nor warm. RLM 21 is just about the only Testors Model Master colour that I will allow through my airbrush. I don't like the paint, but I do like this colour. While I was at it, I also painted the gear doors, stabilators, speed brake, additional landing gear parts, wheel hubs, etc. Speaking of the wheels, I can confirm that the CMK resin wheels are a smaller diameter than the kit wheels. I read somewhere that the F-8J (and the French planes) had smaller wheels than the F-8E, but I can't remember where. Maybe that's why there is a difference in size. Next, I think I'll put down some Light Gull Gray on the fuselage. I've been letting the underside white cure for a couple of days now, but there is still a slight smell of out-gassing, indicating that the paint is not fully cured yet. Perhaps another day. Cheers, Bill

Stupid tolerances? Like microns? At work? For free? Sounds like fun to me! Cheers, Bill

Hey, I found a die clearance calculator on-line: http://www.toolanddie.com/~smgr2/Merchant2/merchant.mv?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=T&Product_Code=DICLI-DIE_CLEARANCE&Category_Code=DICLI It even lists plastic as a material. May be of some use? Cheers, Bill

You're right, I didn't follow that. Oops. I think the clearance required between the punch and the die depends on both the size of the punch AND the thickness of the material you're cutting. As both get larger, you need more clearance. This is why most hobby punch and die sets are only used on thin stock, otherwise everything becomes bespoke. Also, the "cutting" edges that do the shearing (on both the punch and die) are sharp - they're made from tool steel so they stay sharp for a long time. Dull scissors are no fun. As far as the shank being a smaller diameter than what the tip/flutes of a drill cuts, that's true - the amount is called the back taper. How that relates to the clearance required for a punch/die combination...uh, I don't know. Typically, though, for a common twist drill, the shank diameter is not what you would call "precision." We're lucky with our game because it's only styrene we're talking about blasting our way through. Like a knife through butter... Cheers, Bill PS. Well, have you built one of these five and dime punch sets yet?

A punch makes a hole by shearing the material around the edge; a common twist drill makes a hole by boring through the material. Therefore the direction and distribution of the forces are different. Both can be easy and effective for thin substrates. As the material get thicker, though, a drill is preferred. Here is something to consider - a punch makes not only a hole, but also a disc, both in the same operation. A drill will get you a hole, but the disc is destroyed during the drilling process. Punches can be shapes other than round (try that with a rotary drill). Yes, you can also do this with a milling machine, but they cost a bit more than a punch! Cheers, Bill

There was talk at one point about a short-run F7F Tigercat. Is this still planned? Cheers, Bill

+1 I received the Waldron punch and die set as a gift sometime back in the 1980s and I had no idea that I wanted or needed it at the time. My wife bought it from an advertisement in a modelling magazine. Now that I have it, I've found it's indispensable. Cheers, Bill

http://tailspintopics.blogspot.com/search?q=corogard It's what I was taught at an early age was "natural metal" on the leading edges of flying surfaces of US Navy aircraft. Except that it wasn't. Tommy's blog post at the link tells all! Cheers, Bill

Thanks - the Quickboost set that I have ordered is already separated into two on each side (flap, aileron). The reviews that I've seen online indicate that some sanding of the inner edge of the flap will be in order to make it fit. As far as the Wolfpack set that I already have, I was hoping that the reason they were short was because they have already been "adjusted" so they fit properly. But, even then it will leave a very considerable gap. Plus, they're bowed in a way that would be very difficult to fix. For example, the trailing edge should be straight, but instead it's concave. I think it's best to save these for some time when I need to re-use some resin. Cheers, Bill

Thanks for the reference photos and drawings, Tommy. Great stuff, as usual. Now that I see how thin the stripes of Corogard are on the F-8, I can now see it on some of my other photos. What I was interpreting as a reflection on the leading edge is in fact the Corogard area. Good to learn this now, as it's not always fun to paint the Corogard later after all the decals are on... I'm still kicking myself for buying the Wolfpack set without doing my proper research. If I had, I would have found this review, comparing the Wolfpack and Quickboost offerings: http://web.ipmsusa3.org/content/f-8-crusader-flaps-and-f-8-crusader-slats Just for giggles, I also purchased the Quickboost Martin Baker Mk.7 ejection seat for the Crusader. Yeah, I know, the Aires cockpit set already has one - but it's different. First, the Aires seat is for an F-8E (Mk.5 seat?) and has photoetch harnesses. The separate Mk.7 seat is correct for the F-8J and has the harnesses cast in resin with the seat. Even though they're sometimes a pain to paint, the harnesses look more natural when cast in resin. I'm starting to feel good enough that I may have a look at detailing the top of the engine tunnel. Once the wing is mounted, it won't be easy to see what's under there, but I think maybe we can tart it up a bit. Gotta put my mark on this model someplace - remember that for me OOB doesn't mean Out Of Box, it means Out On Bail. Cheers, Bill

I'm starting to think that someone doesn't want me to make this kit. At least with the flaps down... After cutting out the areas on the kit wings, and removing the Wolfpack resin flaps from their pour stubs, I noticed a problem - the resin flaps are bowed. But not in the direction you would normally think, the direction that is somewhat easy to fix. No, these babies are bowed 90 degrees to that (think of sighting along the trailing edge, or along the hinge surface - should be straight, no?). I decided to test fit and see just how bad they are, and issue number two showed up. They're too short! The bow is about 1.5mm, I tried to line up one end and the center so you could see how much the other end is off. (Yes, I know that exaggerates the effect, if I lined up both ends, then the middle would only be out by half what is seen here). Worse is that the flaps are 2.5mm short. No matter how I position this on the wing, there is going to be a big gap. This one is not so easy to fix. I've only tried to use Wolfpack resin one other time (F-4 Kai wingtips, I think). I ended up not using those, either. Strike Two. The leading edge flaps also have a bit of a bow, but they're not too short. I think I can deal with the small bow up front. For the flaps, I went online and bought the Quickboost flap set, at least the review is good! Last option is to use the flaps I cut out of the wing - heaven forbid! I probably should have done that in the first place... Cheers, Bill