billn53

Yeah, where have you been Dennis. Did I catch you napping?

This weekend I painted the Phantom's walkways and have been stenciling & decaling the upper surfaces. First, I masked off the walkway areas: Then sprayed a base coat of Tamiya Nato Black: I added a few drops of flat black to the Nato black, and marbled in some variation to the walkways: Next, I created the impression of a well-trod surface using dark shades of ground chalk and a small brush: Unfortunately, when I applied a clear flat overcoat to protect the chalk, everything darkened up to the point that it couldn't be seen! So, I repeated the process using lighter shades. Here is the final result: Here's where I stand now. All stencils between the intake and wing trailing edge have been applied, as well as a couple of the larger decals for the wing: Stenciling and decaling of the nose and tail will have to wait for a while. For the nose, I want to get the fixed parts of the canopy in place first. And, I need to do some minor re-paint on the tail where the metallic coats have worn away.

The Deuce is still in the warming box, waiting for the red enamel to fully dry. In the meantime, I spent some time on the Dagger's weapons. The AIM-4 Falcons that come in the Meng kit are a bit of a disappointment, I will be using resin replacements from Eduard-Brassen in their place: I also have a pair of AIM-26 Falcons, to give the weapon bay some variety: Maestro's AIM-26s are composed of a resin body and PE fins, which must be glued in place. Thankfully, Maestro includes an alignment jig to make this task a bit easier: Here are the AIM-26 missiles completed and ready for paint: On the F-102, the missiles were mounted to a trapeze mechanism. The Eduard detail set includes PE pieces for the trapezes that look much better than the kit offerings: Installing the PE, however, is a challenge to say the least. More like wrestling an uncooperative octopus! I managed to build two before I ran out of steam. Here is what a trapeze looks like with the PE in place: Perhaps, after a good rest, I'll get up enough motivation to tackle the others. That's it for my weekend update!

That’s a colorful Jug!

Good job on getting the engine nacelles squared away. Now I’ve seen it done, I’m more likely to take mine off the stash pile and give it a go. -Bill

Could be worse... could be a bear

Lovely!

You’re moving out quickly on this one, and it’s looking great. - Bill

Looking mighty fine!

Thanks David. As you can tell, I really like the HGW transfers (and they make them for other aircraft as well, mostly WW2 and Russian jets). The Phantom transfers are designed for the Academy F-4s thus they are probably off position in some places. I’m not a rivet counter nor a stencil expert, so they’re good enough for me.

Here is a great video: - Bill

If in-flight, you’ll need only a pilot. The others won’t be visible through the tiny side windows.

Gotta love a Hustler. I’m in! - Bill

Same situation with my current builds. People look, maybe give a smiley, but not many comments. A noticeable change from a year ago.

Here’s a real quick update, not even any photos worth posting. I have received the Part 1 sheet of the HGW wet transfer stencils, and am applying them to the Aardvark’s upper surfaces now. I ran into a minor snag, however, when I went to add the gray walkway decals from Furball. It seems they are intended for the Academy Phantom, and don’t even come close to properly fitting the ZM kit. So, it looks like I’ll be painting the walkways (that’ll look better, anyway, so no loss there). But, before I can do that, I need to let the stencils I’ve just applied set up. About 4-hours. Guess I’ll go back to working on my Meng F-102. Hopefully, come Sunday I’ll have some good pics to show!