billn53

So happy you smoked out how to get your photos posted, because your Dinah looks great!

Great project!

They’re both looking mighty fine!

This is my second time around, building two identical kits (one as per original, the other heavily re-built). Here's my previous one -- Aurora's USS Nautilus submarine: (I was a young officer on Nautilus in her final years of service)

I hear the Twilight Zone music playing!

The red you see is, I believe, a protective cover for the IR seeker optics. With the cover removed the optical window on front of the missile appears black.

This morning (before heading off to classes), I glued the "stone age" Ford's canopy in place, gaps and all, and proceeded to fill in the gaps with glue and paint. What I wouldn't give for proper putty and a sanding stick! I also painted and assembled the landing gear (what there is of it): For my other Ford, having glued the wingtips in place I was able to work some more on the leading edge slats. I had originally planned to scratch build the slats, but decided instead to steal yet some more pieces from my Airfix donor kit: So, here's where I stand now on this project. The "stone age" Skyray is just about finished. All that's left is to add the landing gear, final paint details, and decals. I'm hopeful I can finish this tomorrow or Saturday -- on Sunday I leave for a weeklong business trip and when I return, I'll have just a week's time before my club's group build is due. That should give me enough time to wrap up the "no holds barred" Ford.

Wonderful result, and a great first-time RFI post. Hope to see many more.

It wasn’t anything a little putty couldn’t fix. Putty is like the duct tape of modeling.

I sprayed my "no holds barred" Ford with white surfacer, looking for flaws in the joins and puttied areas. Other than a few pinholes near the nose (which you can see in the photo below), everything looked surprisingly good: I did the same for various bits-and-bobs: I next drilled a few "dimples" in the wingtips and dorsal fin. Later, I will turn these into position lights using the techniques described elsewhere for my ongoing P-47 project: Finally, I was ready to glue the wingtips and fin in place: A bit of stretched sprue and putty should take care of the minor gaps along the joins: While the putty was drying, I turned my attention to the Jurassic Ford. I wasn't happy with the hard boundary I had between the gray and white on the nose, so made an attempt to feather the colors. That's no mean task using a hairy stick! Using a 20/0 liner brush, I carefully painted the framing on the canopy. Note also that I painted the edges of the scale six-inch thick glazing with black paint. I've found that can help make the thickness of the canopy less noticeable. Nonetheless, a test fit of the canopy to the fuselage reveals serious gaps: I could try using plastic cement as filler, but there are some obvious risks involved with that . . . . Stay tuned!

Peru has Atoll missiles, so there's a high likelihood that's what you're looking at.

Not for me. I get a "404 Not Found" message.

Nicely done! I built this kit (alongside Monogram’s Phantom not too long ago) and enjoyed it immensely. Not as well engineered as more modern kits, but builds up well nonetheless.

This morning, I sanded back the first layer of putty around the inlet lips, and applied a second, thinner one. While that was drying, I tackled some smaller tasks. First, I added brass pins to the wingtips -- I want these to be totally secure once they go on. I also drilled holes for the various pylons I'll be adding (also to be pinned). These are for the underwing fuel tanks: As you can see, my drilling accuracy isn't always "on point" I realized that I haven't shown you this, yet. It's my attempt at adding a mount for the arresting hook and "bumper" wheel, totally absent from the Hawk kit: My first thought was to make this out of plastic stock and Apoxie Sculpt, but I took the lazy way out and sacrificed an old Airfix Skyray sitting in my stash: That's one Ford that won't be built! But, truth be told, it was only good for spare parts (since I have the much better Tamiya kit in my stash) . . . . . . such as these pylons: and these stores to go on them: So, that about wraps up where I am so far on the Skyrays for my local club's December group build: I'd better get hopping, as I've only a couple weeks left to work on them before they're due.