Decoman

This looks like the one kit I have. I have no idea if the kit is a new'ish release or not myself. I like how the nose is a single piece that can be painted black and be nicely fitted to the fuselage, to make a crisp line between the gray and the black. I drilled holes in the gunpods and a hole in the rear of the sidewinder missile. I imagine one could also drill holes at the rear where (afaik) jet air is supposed to blow out. This kit has a few thin or small pieces that can easily break off if one is not particulary careful when handling the finished model. I liked this kit alot and want to model it again. The small numerous openings for the air intake was a little difficult to assemble imo.

For the knowledgable, I would like to inquire about the pressure regulator on the SilAir 15 A compressor. Q1: Does this pressure regulator lead to some noise when being adjusted? I suspect that the pressure regulator functions so that it releases air when the airpressure is lowered with the knob. I plan to buy this model and thought I shoud try to get as much information about it as possible. Q2: What kind of maintenance should I prepare myself for? I will guess that an oil change might be a good idea after some time/use, but I think someone told me in some other forum that this was hardly a concern with this model.

I guess it is fair to assume that at least the gunner and the pilot were injured somehow.

What went wrong? Was the speed too high for the pilot to pull up again? I would imagine that the helicopter had powerful engines so I thought initially it looked odd that the helicopter did not pull up.

@andyramone Do you say this is because more layers of paint are needed for covering the plastic color beneath the paint? I thinned some satin white color for a helicopter (light gray plastic) and discovered that I had to put on 4-5 layers to make it look fully white.

I noticed on a WW2 russian tank kit (1:72), that a wooden pole was included like with this model. What would a wooden pole be useful for?

I think CarLos is pointing out something very important, to not settle for one source where the result seem conspicuous in a negative way. The profiles shown here are flat on the bottom which seem odd to me. I know there are free software that might be helpful in showing the profiles, which might be helpful.

I like this twitter initiative alot. Looking forward to reading alot of kit reviews. I have recently begun keeping alot of twitter tabs open all day long to follow important or interesting twitter accounts that I come across every now and then.

I am no expert, but I remember reading that US planes had NACA wing profiles that afaik showed the cross section for the wing. So I was thinking that the British used the same standard perhaps. I found this webpage that might or might not be helpful: http://www.ae.illinois.edu/m-selig/ads/aircraft.html The short sunderland is listed there, indicating "Goettingen 436 mod" for the wing root. On the top there is a list where this is shown to be: "Gottingen - the AV Gottingen aerodynamics research center in Germany" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NACA_airfoil

I thought I should try using a piece of sprue to sand one end to a rounded one, and then cut off this rounded piece off the sprue. I will have to use a piece of sprue with a suitable diameter.

The decals are upside down. There is now an excuse to go buy another one. I know I will, having used my kit as an exercise in using masking tape. I managed to get the wheels line up correctly so I suspect OP did not let the glue dry properly before placing the model on the table. I think it is nice to see a mix of metal and bright coloring on aircraft. The white stripe decal is a very nice tought imo. The spinner looked odd on this kit and a little small. From photos of propeller aircraft I imagined it to be larger, so when I go buy this kit again I will try to scratchbuild a larger spinner.

The following is not a drill as such, but I thought it could be helpful to mention this product: I bought a small round file today (Tamiya Hard Coated File Pro) and found it useful for making nice holes in my Revell 1:144 Type VII Uboat kit. Apparantly this worked well with both the circular holes and the more rectangular drainage holes. I made a proper hole, then rotated the tool while subtly applying pressure to make it slide sideways for the rectangular drainage hole. Hm, actually I made two nice holes first, one hole on each end, and then slided the tool to clear out the center part. This thin tip is not really pointed and seem to be 1mm in width, with maximum diameter of 3mm further up the tool. A small hole probably has to be poked in the plastic first. Maybe it is possible to punch through if you apply enough pressure, but I wouldn't bet on it. This file has a chrome coating, a feature supposedly useful for something but I did not understand it when I read the tool description. Oh, yes I almost forgot, this tool seem very expensive. I guess you only would need one of these in ones entire lifetime.

@Simon The stuts are vertical, but the struts look perhaps angled to you on the photo because the upper wing is not positioned above the bottom one, but is shifted a little forward of the bottom one. Btw, I believe the Airfix kit is missing a small hinged part for the landing gear. It is barely seen on the front view drawing. I modeled this airplane in 3D on a computer once and when I built the plastic kit I just happened to notice this part was missing. I did not like the air intake below the engine on this kit and wondered if I should simply try drilling a large hole and fit some kind of tubular thingy as a replacement.

I found this. http://www.airliners.net/photo/Grumman-J2F-6-Duck/1692636/M/ http://www.kbvp.com/sites/default/files/im...uck.preview.jpg http://www.warbirdsdirectory.goodall.com.a...ds/duck-250.jpg Some nice images of real drawings: http://forum.largescaleplanes.com/index.ph...29286&st=15 (Paul R. Matt) (J2F-5)

That would be a purpose, since we could probably rule out vacuum cleaning the fragile plastic models. Anyway, I am willing to believe that blowing clean air onto models with an airbrush might be the best way to keep models clean, instead of swiping them with a piece of cloth.

Thanks for the tip!

Tips: (If this kit is the Airfix 1:72 Grumman Duck) - Pilot figure is too tall for the canopy glass, take care to somehow make this figure shorter or leave the canopy open - Don't trust the markings of the engine cowl for masking any paintwork - Might be a good idea to not glue the exhaust pipes to the fuselage and instead glue it to that large engine cowl - I think it should be possible to make the wings align properly horizontally with a little care and dryfitting - The stabilizing pole for each elevator at the tail area probably should be dryfitted and not glued on without getting a clue if they fit properly

Today I learned that I get the best results by taking care to painting (thinned humbrol 27002 polished aluminium) the paint wet-in-wet with every single stroke. Hm, the painted surface did end up looking a little different than what I expected. Obviously I would need some more practice. I have rarely painted with silver/aluminium colors on my models, because I always found the end result disappointing. Apparantly, when I used my largest flat brush and having made sure to use as little paint as possible on the brush, the painted surface would start to dry instantly making it difficult in achieving a smooth painted surface all over. Unfortunately, I also noticed that I ended up with tiny particles all over the paint for some unknown reason; perhaps because I sometimes accidentally drop my brush down my cleaning bottle, with the tip of the brush hitting the bottom where the old paint has fallen down. Seem silly of me to suspect the brush itself to contain small fibers. Else I also learned some time ago that most dust on a painted model of mine (then) was due to the dust being on the pre-painted model in the first place.

I was wondering, it seem like a good idea to use an airbrush to blow pure air onto finished models to keep the dust from setting, but would this really work as well as I would imagine it to be? In my computer case (has 8 x 120mm fans) I have noticed that some kind of dust is hardly "vaccumable" because this fine dust tend to keep sticking to the surface (some kind of particles), so I guess using a microfiber dust cloth on a model once in a while might be unavoidable.

I wonder if a strip of toilet paper could be used as seatbelts. Guessing that it might look better once the paint is put on. Or.. maybe that will not work.

That is such a great idea, having the propellars spin with the help of a fan while taking a photograph of the model.

To be honest, the only problem I imagined I had was that it was difficult for me to paint wet-in-wet with a brush. So I would not mind having the paint dry slower, so that the paint perhaps ended up looking more smooth. Room temperature is probably 20+ deg C. Sitting here in my underwear actually.

Does Humbrol have a retarder for the enamel paint? I could for google this, but I think it seem proper to create a thread about it, because I suspect others might find it interesting as well. I was painting a helicopter white with a second layer of coat (had added some thinner earlier) when I became annoyed at how quickly the satin white paint started to dry. I really hope there is some kind of retarder that can be used to make the Humbrol enamel paint take more time to dry.

I have the Atlantic version as well and I have to say I really enjoyed building that 1:144 kit. Recommended! Nice to the wires on OP's model. As for the accuracy of the kit itself I cannot say, but it seem to have all the nice details that make it all stand out. However, I have seen three kits now, where the deck on all three apparantly has flawed moulding on a stripe of flooring, or maybe it is supposed to look a little odd. Perhaps it could be fixed with putty. During the last part of the build I broke some tiny parts and some got lost in the carpet, so I went out and bought another kit of the same to play with later on. The things I tweaked were: - Made some holes for the drainage holes in the bow section of the uboat. Unfortunately, I did not have the tools to open up the rest of the holes. - I sanded the gunbarrels and drilled holes in the openings. The fragile plastic broke in two from simply being twirled with my fingertips. - I sanded the two propellers, so that they ended up with more sharp edges. Easy. I really wanted to buy another German WW2 sub, but alas it would not fit in my display case because it would be too long (50cm).

I have started to add some thinner to my tiny Humbrol enamel paint buckets. I used "dirty" white spirit at first (from bottles used to clean the brushes), but bought a bottle of Humbrol Enamel thinner and a pipette later on. Perhaps the paint would start to dry earlier if the paint was thinned out a bit. Might have to paint two layers of paint though. Until I can start using an airbrush, I console myself that the results are "ok", but keep noticing that painting with a brush seem to leave a poor finish, with an uneven shine to it all.