billn53

That’s a beautiful Spitfire! Well done, sir!

Ah, the joys of working with Aires cockpits! They invariably require thinning both the resin tub, and the receiving fuselage, to within a micron of destruction.

Here are photos from the Italeri D-model in my stash: And yes, Italeri's D includes both early and late afterburner nozzles.

I want to see how you do this. I sacrificed a Trumpeter intake trunk for my ESCI F-100D, a method that doesn’t need a donor kit would be helpful.

So far, I’ve built just one 3D printed model (I’m not counting the SR-71 stairs, with just two pieces to assemble). That was a 1/72 Socata Tampico general aviation trainer (the plane I learned to fly in). I seriously doubt any mainstream producer would ever model a Socata. The crew ladder on my recent F-100 was 3D printed, and came ready-to-paint — I.e, no supporting structure to cut away, unlike the SR-71 stairs and most other 3D items I’ve seen. I wonder how they did that?

A few years back, I built Academy's 1/72 SR-71 Blackbird, which turned out very nicely and has even won a couple of awards in shows I've taken it to. At the time, I bought a set of photoetched brass crew access steps, made by Aircraft in Miniature (AIM) Ltd. Unhappily, Salvadore Dali could have done a better job than me of bending the photoetch, which ended up being trashed. Recently, AIM released a 3D printed set of Blackbird steps to replace their photoetched version, which I wasted no time in buying. Inside the box I found a nearly-complete set of steps -- the only assembly needed is to add the "bumper" that runs along the edge of the platform and protects the Blackbird's fuselage. The biggest job was in removing the steps/platform from its forest of supporting resin. Here's what it looked like when I was finished: Basically, all I had to do was add the bumper strip, and paint the bugger. Oh yes, I forgot to mention, no decals are provided so I printed up a set of my own based on photos I found on the web. I've not much else to say, so let's see how it looks when done: And yes, I think I may have gone a bit overboard on the weathering: That's it! A rewarding afternoon spent at the bench. p.s. If anyone's interested, here's the RFI to my Blackbird build from nearly 5-years ago:

Actually, I mis-spoke. I meant to include the Misty’s in my F-100F topic. I have plenty of spare stars&bars, in the sizes I’ll need for a camo scheme. What I don’t have are codes for the tail fin. Maybe I’ll look for a cheap Trumpeter “F”, as donor for both the decals, and other parts . . .

Excellent work (as always). You probably know this, but for the silvered decals you can try poking the silvered areas a few times with a needle, then coating the decal with your favorite decal softener (MicroSol, Mr Mark, SolvaSet, etc.). More than one application may be needed.

Excellent work, I’ll tag along if you don’t mind. Your use of dental powder got me looking for more info about it (I’m a sucker for new tools and techniques). I found this video and thought I’d share it:

Oh, yes! You should have been there. All the words I learned while in the Navy were used, and I think I made up some new ones, as well.

Thanks, Bob! Since I stole the decals from my Italeri F-100F kit, I'm thinking of making the 'F' as a "wild weasel" Hun. But, the only such decals in 1/72 I know of are (were) made by Caracal, and are no longer available. So, if anyone has spare camo'd F-100F decals in 1/72, I'd love to have them and will compensate appropriately.

Thank you, Erwin. This was certainly a learning build for me, as I knew very little about the F-100 when I began, and even less about the pros & cons of the various kits. Ed’s build was a great help on both accounts. I know I’ve made a few mistakes (discovered after it was too late to do anything) — nothing too serious but enough for me to think I could have done better.

Thank you! But I must give credit to @TheRealMrEd , whose excellent Hun build inspired me, and from whom I stole borrowed a few key techniques.

Thanks, Martin. I hadn’t intended for the Trumpeter kit to be an organ donor, but sometimes one must take drastic measures! Haha!

Oh! Very nice start on the Seaking. And, do you think your parents might adopt me?