billn53

They’re available on eBay if you’re willing to shell out $35 for one.

The best in 1/72 would be the Dragon (DML) offering, but it can be a bear to build.

What are you using for the seat belts? They look very nice.

I got up early this morning to spray my base coat of XTreme Metal polished aluminum on the engine pods. Looks pretty good: I also found time last night to do the position lights on the wing leading edges. The biggest problem was determining exactly where to put them! I don't have a good drawing, and used instead some pics I found online to get the relative distance of the lights from the outer engine pod to the wing tip. First I carefully cut out a notch in the wing leading edge: Then I superglued a chunk of transparent acrylic in the notch. Red for the port wing, blue for starboard: After the CA had set, I carefully filed and sanded the acrylic to fit. I finished off by polishing the light with Tamiya polishing compound. Here's the result: That's it for now. I'm on my way to the airport and won't be back at the bench until the end of this week.

I used Parafilm "M" to mask the canopy on my P-61, and it worked out quite nicely. I don't know why I haven't used it more often. But, I take it you stretch the PM over your wing or fuselage, and use a sharp #11 to cut it away the panels you want to paint. That scares the bejeezus out of me!

I must have a half dozen different scribers, and each has its own idea of what a straight line is.

How impressive is this!!! Thanks for sharing, Witman61.

Last night I touched up the white paint on the intake trunks, and today I began painting the exterior of the engine pods. First, I primed with Alclad gray primer and micro-filler: The fine print on the label promises to fill in minor seams and scratches. That's exactly what I need... let's see if it holds up to its promise. I'm happy to report that it does! Note in the pic below that the kit's seams are completely invisible. You can also see how bad I am at scribing LOL! After the gray was fully set, I proceeded to apply gloss black Alclad in preparation for my base metallic coat: Alclad recommends letting the black dry for 24 hours. I'd really like to get my base coat of polished aluminum down before my flight out tomorrow afternoon. Hopefully, my toasty curing oven will accelerate the process: While waiting, I turned my attention back to the wings. I inserted brass pins in the elevons to help secure them in the appropriate droopy position when I do final assembly: Oops! moment -- I accidently drilled too deep on the starboard elevon. I'm confident that my magical concoction known as sprue goop will come to the rescue! That's all for now. Maybe later this evening, after I finish packing for my trip to Los Angeles, I'll be motivated to do the wing position lights.

Are the ejection seats part of your 737 Max build?

Like Martin said, no such thing as too many Thuds, and yours is a gem! Well done!

Half of solving a difficult problem is knowing that it CAN be solved. Witman61 painted his engine pods before assembly and his Hustler turned out magnificent! So I think I'm on firm ground, and it will be my own fault if I muck it up.

Perhaps. But on Monday when you’re on your way to work, I’ll be sleeping in late on Sunday lol!

Sure, no problem. The white intake walls are visible in many photos of operational Hustlers. Here's a great pic from the Air Force Museum:

It's Friday afternoon and time for another update. The engine pods are just about ready for re-scribing and paint. As best I can tell, the micro-seams between the pod halves have succumbed to treatment with thinned-down sprue goop. That done, I attacked the big gap between the inboard engine pods and their large pylons. Once again, I used stretched sprue to fill the joint. In the pic below, I'm in process of adding the stretched sprue -- see the difference between the forward and tail end of the pylon join: After the stretched sprue was in place, I overlaid it with sprue goop: After the goop hardened, I sanded the seam smooth. I'm still amazed at how well this technique works! Compare the above finished item to what I started with: The outboard engines have separate pylons that must be glued to the pod. I'll use the above technique on these as well: My next task was to fix the lack of attachment points between the engine pylons and the wing. I added brass rod to the pylons and drilled corresponding holes in the wing lower surface: My plan is to paint the engine pods before attaching them to the wings. This approach has its own issues, as the pylons do not fit well with the wing. But, I have faith that I'll be able to muddle through! Inboard engines: Outboard engines: That covers my progress to date. I'll be departing on another business trip this coming Monday afternoon. If I can finish up the engine pods to the point where I've sprayed my base coat of polished aluminum, I'll count this weekend a success! Slight change of subject: Eduard should soon be releasing some photoetch detail for this kit (I've already placed my pre-order with Hannants). Here are some sample pics (not complete) from Hannant's website: It's much too late for me to take advantage of the interior detailing set (although I do lust after those circuit breaker panels), but I'm expecting the exterior set to arrive in time to incorporate into this project. Thanks for viewing!

However you decide to cast them, I'll be placing an order fer sure!