billn53

This was a quick build meant as a gift for a close friend. Also, it was my first venture into figure modeling, so way out of my comfort zone! The Bandai kit is press/snap together, fully articulated, and molded in various colors of plastic. I chose to paint my build using various shades of acrylics, weathered with pastels and enamel washes. Paint chipping from battle damage done with the 'hairspray' technique. My only real complaint about the kit (other than the lame 'fabric' provided) is that stickers are used for the markings, instead of waterslide decals. Please excuse my poor photography!

That does look good! Especially considering it’s 1/72 scale. What did you use for the rigging?

I agree about using kitchen foil. That’s how I made curtains for my 1/72 Lockheed Electra:

Here is my ‘go’ at HobbyBoss’s 335. As you can see, I took a few liberties with it 😁

Those “easy assembly” HobbyBoss kits have their pluses-and-minuses, but with a bit of attention they build up nicely. Nice job with the 355, it’s on of my favorites.

My oh my, that looks mighty fine!

Having built (poorly) a few vacuform kits in the past, I can appreciate the effort and skill needed to get a result as fine as yours.

Great news! Mika at Arctic Decals has (finally) completed the decals I'll need to finish this project! I admit that I'd just about given up hope on ever getting my Bobcat off of the 'Shelf of Doom'. Soon as the decals arrive, I'll get back to work on it ☺️ Stand by . . . .

Yeomanlike work going on here. I see many parallels with what I’m currently doing with Trumpeter’s 1/72 Thud, especially your work on the auxiliary air intake in the main gear bay 👍

Skillfully executed!

No. By “White Out” I mean correction fluid: Paint it over the rivet holes (or scratches, etc), let it dry a few seconds, and rub it off. Quick and easy!

I've done just about as much detailing on the gear bays as I'm going to do, so I'm calling these done. I boxed in the sides of the bays with sheet styrene (otherwise, one could see straight back into the wing): and added a few more details to the bays themselves: Before gluing the wings together, I need to decide if I want the flaps down or not. If I decide on 'down', then I'll want to droop the leading edge slats like I did with my Hanoi Special build (all photos I've seen with the flaps down have the leading edge slats down as well).

The past couple of days I've been adding detail to the main landing gear bays. Here is a photo from Detail & Scale looking upward and toward the fuselage: In addition to the usual electrical and hydraulic lines, the Thunderchief had an auxiliary air inlet (large circular aperture in the photo) for the engine in each main gear bay. I began by removing the wimpy detail from the Trumpeter parts and scratchbuilding the electrical lines and junction boxes from lead wire and styrene: Untitled by billn1953, on Flickr To model the auxiliary inlet, I drilled a hole in each side of the fuselage: Inserted a short length of brass tubing into each hole, and created a flange from wire wrapped around an appropriately-sized drill bit: Finally, I punched disks from 200-Mesh stainless steel filter cloth and inserted them into the openings: There are still more lines and other items to add in this area, but I'm pretty happy with how things are looking so far. Trumpeter molded a hydraulic actuator in the outboard section of each bay. In reality, this actuator does not lay flat across the top of the bay. I removed Trumpeter's molding and created new actuators from brass rod and tubing:

Looks great. That's an interesting scheme . . . almost like an F-16.

Then I highly recommend you review my previous build (link at the top of prior post). I surprised myself, reviewing it years after, at how much extra I did for that build.

My big project for the year (Trumpeter's 1/32 F-105) is temporarily on hold while waiting for aftermarket parts, so to fill the time I've begin a smaller version in the Gentlemen's Scale: I've actually built this kit once before, in markings for the Hanoi Special: I'll be using many of the same techniques in this current build. The main difference is that there's now a lot more aftermarket available to take advantage of! In addition to the Aires cockpit that I previously used: There's a bunch of nice resin and 3D printed stuff from Reskit: and a few other odds-and-ends: I haven't yet decided on markings for this build, other than that I want a Vietnam bird in SEA camo. My first task was to fill-in Trumpeter's overdone riveting using my 'White Out" technique: The White Out doesn't totally obliterate the rivets -- instead, they are substantially reduced in size and depth so they look more realistic under paint: I then opened up and deepened various vents and scoops on the fuselage: (Refer to my 1/32 build for more details -- https://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/235132476-go-big-or-go-home-trumpeters-132-f-105d-thunderchief-alices-joy) I thinned the fuselage openings for the air intakes -- this is probably overkill as little can be seen through the F-105's inlets, especially in 1/72 scale. (thinned on top, original on bottom) Even more of an overkill, I added fake intake trunking to each fuselage half: Next, I painted and assembled the Aires cockpit. I also used the AeroBonus pilot & seat and Eduard photoetch for the main instrument panel: A fair amount of fuselage thinning and fettling was needed to get the Aires cockpit to fit properly: Moving on to the opposite end of this bird, I completed Reskit's excellent afterburner + nozzle assembly: I'm now working on adding detail to the landing gear bays, starting with the nose gear: More to follow!

That is very cool! I just now looked up AeroBase Models and see they have a number of similar offerings. I’m especially tempted by their 1/160 scale Taube (wingspan a mere 3.5 in)

Niiiice!

Nicely done! Camo looks good to my eyes 👀

Yes, that’s exactly how I do an easy build!

That’s quite a variety of markings, and uncommon choices as well. Very nicely done!

It’s an interesting design. I have this in my stash, with the idea of doing it in Russian markings & missiles, perhaps even replacing/modifying the fins, etc. to look more like a MiG or Sukhoi product.

Very nice!

That’s quite a colorful combination.

Ooohhh! An oldie but goodie (the Monogram kit, I mean). I’m definitely in on this one!