Dennis_C

Hi Wulfman, Yeah - indeed Lightning is the #1 twin-boomer in aviation history! Probably followed by Cessna Skymaster or was the Vampire second? And in fact I have a Lightning in my trophy list. Nuance is that it was assembled probably 30 years ago from an ex-Frog kit, was not painted (though at some point it had paper red stars and number codes sticked with pva glue!) and survived several air battles over by bedroom It still does not look too bad. Maybe I should either restore it or buy a newer and better one...

You're always welcome to the WIP and let me know if you'll have any questions. In fact I would not say construction was challenging. Dry-fitting is a must of course. Special attention to main wheel bays as they are tricky. There are no pins or guides that help to align interior sections. But making sure those bits are attached symmetrically is crucial to sit your model parallel to the ground. And I also figured reinforcement with plastic pieces from inside the wing and boom is important to ensure those inserts do not detach. Also now I see that a better exhaust is a good idea. The SH provided one is too shallow. Do not look realistic at all which is perhaps the weakest aspect of the whole model. Something should be done there too. Kind regards, Dennis

Thank you, Alex. I find that such streaks look more realistic. And this allows to better highlight moving surfaces than e.g. typical preshading of panel joints.

Excellent execution and incredible result with decals!!! And strangely with blue base colour it looks very Su-30ishly! At first I did not realise it is a twin stick Eagle rather than Sukhoi

Thanks everyone for nice words and appreciation!!! Yeah, there is something about these beasts. They're surely making a difference in a cabinet. Just make sure you have enough lead in the nose!!! Unfortunately those times are over, when MPM was putting a decent fret and a handful of resin casts into each box. Now they put decals for instrument panel and sell resin separately And no-no to masking Fw-189 freehand!!! I challenged Vultee Vibrator a while back. Never again!!! Yeah that is true. Conversion was not simple engine replacement. Hopefully there will be a more decent model of Yak-15 - the only other serial production fighter redesigned from piston machine. And Tunnan is a B according to Tarangus instruction

Hi all, Just created an RFI for A21R here Thanks for looking!

Hi All, One new jet added into my collection! And this is the one I wanted to add for quite a long time because it's Swedish, it's from early jet age, it has centrifugal engine, and it's a twin-boomer. So win-win-win for me J21R was not super successful or super numerous aircraft. Neither it had a super long career. However this stands among those first generation jets that opened jet age for pilots and engineers in their native countries. I have a soft point to that era of aviation so very glad I now added this jet to the collection. I had a thread in WIP section on this project so there are some insights on construction. In general I did not find construction process too challenging. Even alignment of booms was not complex. Decent Czech short run with only reasonable dry-fitting required, nice perks in the box such as resin wheels, rich PE fret. In fact this can be called an OOB build as only contents from SH box were used except for manually added pitot tube (the kit's one was super-thick) and also an antenna on the starboard wing made with fishing line. Paints used for the scheme are Hobby Color H309 for green and H53 for grey. The scheme I used is for F7 Såtenas wing circa 1953-54. As far as I understand this was a fighter-bomber wing and J21Rs of that wing would normally be armed with gun pods or rockets which was making them A21R really. J21R is definitely not the most ordinarily looking aircraft. And honestly I was not perceiving this as 'beatuful'... But after putting this on wheels and placing it on the shelf - WOW! It is actually a very appealing bird! Look at these a little more 'artistic' photoes: And finally there are some group shots. With another Swede in my collection: ...with it's British stablemate ...and full collection of twin-boomers from my cabinet Hope you liked it! Kind regards, Dennis

Hey all, Finished A-21R today. Let's call it A-21 after Toad has been installed Several photos in the cabinet that I did on my cell phone camera under the electric light. Will later treat it with a decent photosession to post into RFI. One photo is with the younger brother - J29B. Sprayed it today with satin micro finish. Installed the gun pod and added antenna on the starboard wing made of fishing line. Next is the Lansen to be finished! Cheers, Dennis

Already filled. Not perfect as I wanted to minimise damage to surrounding paint but that's offset with beauty of the new pitot from brass tube and wire And now I have a plastic stick to use as a 30 mm caliber gun elsewhere

Some further work with J-21 All is on picture... Kit has a hole for pitot on the wrong side! Compare to actual photos. http://www.airwar.ru/image/idop/fighter/j21r/j21r-5.jpg And even instruction shows it correctly on the port side: Blind me... Okay. Some delicate sanding and very delicate brush painting now. Cheers Dennis

Hi, While my Lansen is approaching the decalling stage, I spend couple last nights killing my eyes with this: This is a rare example where undercarriage doors are supplied with microscopic p/e hinges. Some nervous job and of course carpet monster took its tribute! One of the L13 parts was lost... bit since it should have been somewhere under the gear no one will know I'm not yet 100% done but the intermediate result is below: Couple pe bits have to be added yet but overall seems not too bad so far. I was lazy to make a new pitot. Still kit's one is a bit machinegunny in size. So this is not final stage yet probably... Thanks for looking! Dennis.

Before... And after Wraparound painting with a single colour isn't fast but done after all! And I like a lot how it turned out. H309 for green FS34079 diluted with white. Same colour as on J-21R. Unpainted aluminium leading edges probably are a little wider than they should be but I like how this looks which is probably most important. Still have to cover the airframe with varnish. Regards, Dennis

Agree. Per what I know Academy's P-38 is the best in class. Probably Hobby2000 just do not have that relation.

Hi @Bob Hsieh, A very interesting subject and from an "interesting" kit! And great work on improvements so far! T-34 (airplane, not a tank!) deserves a better kit in 1/72... Cheers, Dennis

Hi Terry, This is how wheel bays look like after aluminium painting. Silver painting revealed couple places where I did not clean excessive glue, but otherwise looks fine. Regards, Dennis