TheRealMrEd

Beautiful work thus far. Did they get the front edge of the wing correct on this one? Hard to tell from the photos thus far. I'll be happy to look in on this one! Ed

Having built an F3H-1 from the Emhar kit, I can say that the prototype could be done, but that it would be a tough slog. The depth of the front fuselage being one major problem... F3H-1N Built Thread HERE Ed

Hello again. This next effort is actually a sort of "bucket list" thing. Since I first saw the following picture, I have wanted to build a model of this aircraft, a Vietnam warrior carrying a WWII era 2000 lb bomb, which by then was at least 25 year-old ordinance! In addition to the bomb, also noted is the fact that the Zuni launchers are empty. Whether this was due to a weight load issue (each wing station was rated for 2000 lbs.) or more likely, the Zuni's weren't suited for the intended mission(s), I don't know. Two things kept this project from maturing. First, the lack of a WWII M-66 variant 2000 pound bomb in this scale, and secondly, trying to find the bureau number of this #5 aircraft, or the #8 aircraft, both of which I have pictures with this load-out. The former problem was resolved, as will be discussed later, and the latter -- well, let's just say I took a dive! Normally I like to model specific aircraft at a specific point in time, where all the parts are captured together. In this case, I decided to model #19 aircraft of this unit, same place and time frame, simply because the numbers match, and I have the decals... Anyway, the usual starting components are these, the Academy kit and an Aires resin cockpit set: I originally started off to make this a normal WIP, with full photos, etc., but after a myriad of problems with this build (mostly self induced), and general distraction for me this time of year, I will just point out a few pitfalls or highlights, and some finished pictures, as the model is already completed... sorry about that. However, the Academy F8E has been extensively modeled by others, so probably no great deal. When using a resin cockpit set, the first order of business is to remove a lot of the molded-in detail on the kit. This build is no exception: The red arrows (above) show where the carnage was enacted on the right side. Next the intake trunking and main landing gear wheel are installed, taking care to see that all parts are correctly installed, but their precise fit makes it a bother to get everything to line up correctly. It will work, but takes (at least for me) a lot of patience! Next the orientation of the gear wells is shown, as the drawing were, for me, a little hard to interpret -- and I've built three of them... The kit directions would have you install the parts #3, which hold the gear doors open at this time. DON'T DO IT! Save these parts until final assembly stages, or they will probably break off (as happened to me on the first of these kits that I built). A test fit, shows that with a little fiddling and snapping into place, all the major parts will play nice, if handled properly: Also, don't forget to drill out the holes in the fuse for the rear add-on fins and the weapons pylons. I didn't need these when I built the F8A, and subsequently, when I built the F8C, I forgot to open them up, and what a thrill it was, trying to locate them from the outside, after the fact! Also, don't forget to open up the holes in the wings for the wing pylons, if you intend to use them. This aircraft would feature the empty Zuni launchers, so the missile noses had to be sawn off, and the tube fronts drilled, and the rear of the tubes need drilling out as well. No, I did NOT drill the tubes all the way through! Can you say "chicken"? Before the final assembly, the cockpit was glued in with CA. Them some lead weights (L) were glued in, and the whole thing was reinforced with White canopy glue, as sometimes, CA to join resin to plastic parts fails at the worst time.: Oops, sorry. Forgot to shrink the pic. After installing the rest of the cockpit, seat, gun sight etc., the fuselage halves are glued together, and the kit canopy parts added. When dry, I've masked the clear areas with Parafilm "M" masking material, and cut it to shape, following the very good engraved canopy lines with a new #$11 X-Acto blade. Parafilm "M" is my usual go-to when the lines are clearly defined. Next up, the bombs. Other modelers had kindly donated various larger scale bombs in an attempt to help me to modify some down to scale 1/72, as up until recently, no one made any in this scale. Fortunately, someone finally has, and I got some off E-Bay that are little jewels. Links to both the E-Bay site and their store on Amazon follow: B-Bay Amazon The picture doesn't do them justice, as they really are little jewels. That being said, that is also their major problem -- you cannot handle them by the fin ends, as they are too delicate there. I went through several before getting two (with crude repairs) to work for me. The bits of fin where they attach to the bombs could be made a little thicker, and they would hold up better. That being said, the were much better than having none at all, or than my previous attempts to modify larger scale bombs. That being said, the next problem with the bombs was the markings. Fortunately, this issue had already (presumably) been addressed by Print Scale, or is that Sprint Scale, who made exactly the markings needed, some years back: Sadly, while beautifully printed, the decals themselves are an utter disaster, as has been mentioned elsewhere. The carrier film is about as pliable as plastic cylinder that holds toothbrushes, and seems to lack any glue layer at all. They are also impervious to decal setting solutions, other than perhaps, a blow-torch. I eventually had to glue them down with thinned white glue, which probably only worked because these were the larger markings on the sheet; the smaller marking might be impossible to use. I wish they (or someone else) would re-issue these sheets (or similar). I would by them in a second. Does anyone know if these were every re-issued in a usable form? Any way, I won't even go into the various paint, airbrush and other issues I encountered along the way. This finally turned into one of those builds that could have easily ended up on the Shelf Of Doom, but I just wanted the agony to end, so I finished it anyway. It is neither the best, nor the worst kit I've ever built. For the latter, I suppose I should be grateful. In any event, here are a few pics of the finished plane, warts and all. There will be no RFI offerings! I wish the weathering were better. Perhaps I'll revisit it someday, as they are only pigments and can be fiddled around with a wet brush. Perhaps after I heal a bit. FOR NOW, THAT'S IT! Thanks for looking in, Ed

That's okay Giorgio, God knows who builds in The One True Scale! Ed

Thanks Marin. Off to a bit of a slower start this rear... Ed

Thanks, Bertie and Wulfman! Ed

Murph, the old hot water, not boiling hot - trick may work t straighten out those wings... Ed

Hello again. Since there wasn't much of particular interest going on, I took few pictures of the painting process. It was the usual prime coat of Alclad II Gray Primer, followed by a coat of MM FS 36492 gray, which Dana Bell believes is a very close match for he color used. Actually, he called for 16492, which is Gloss, but I had to use the flat version and the gloss coat it myself before adding the decals, using Alclad II Aqua Gloss clear. The decals were a bit more tricky. The kit decals were printed by Techmod, and are very sharp -- and very thin. The larger ones, like the wing roundels, weren't too bad (one split in half, but no large problem. All the smaller decals were problematic, very prone to fold over upon themselves, etc. Also, when I tried to apply the smaller ones using Micro Set, they didn't like to move around after the first few seconds. I ended up using water to float them on, and they did a little better. If I were to use the kit decals again, I might first give them a coat of Micro Superfilm first. Fortunately however, the kit decals give me all the needed decals for the aircraft I chose to build -- one of the two YP-80A's sent to Italy in 1945. Two were sent to England, but one crashed early on; the other was lent to the British for engine testing. Of the two that went to Italy, both survived, but neither is known to have engaged an enemy aircraft during WWII. The YP-80A's in Italy were sent to the 94th Fighter Squadron there, but while they were flown by USAAC pilots from the 94th, all the maintenance personnel were civilians - the Army wasn't allowed anywhere close to the super secret aircraft! Anyway, the kit decals had all I needed for the aircraft I chose, s/n 44-83028, by simply re-arranging provided serial numbers: It was possible, by manipulating the above picture in Photoshop, to see that at least some stenciling was applied. I have no idea rather the flap warning lines atop the wings were there on these aircraft, or not, so I just took a shot, figuring what the heck, they add a little color... The next minor irritation was with the landing gear. This limited-run kit had a fair amount of flash on the LG, and all of the holes in the wheels, as well as the gear leg mounting holes in the fuselage had to be drilled out. Not fatal, but annoying. All in all, this kit from Sword is sort of a love-hate thing. The added parts given to distinguish between the A and B models (such as bucket seat vs election seat) ALMOST makes up for their taking the financial dive to not issue a separate kit for the "A" version (with maybe the parts for the XP-80?). In fact, my "B" version(shown later for comparison) was actually made from their "C" kit, a few years back. Long story short, I'm glad they made the kit, but even if you build it stock, AND build it as a "B" model, it's not gonna be a walk in the park... The landing gear added: Above right, she's done at last. Since this wasn't a real major correction build, there will be no RFI pics. I'll simply give you a couple more pics here: Above right, a comparison with my P-80B (as stated earlier, actually made from the Sword P-80C kit). The only real difference is the point at which the windscreen sits, relative to the engine intakes. Below, my P-80 line-up so far: From the front, XP-80, YP-80A, P-80B, F-80C (I think the old Airfix kit, but not sure -- too many years ago!) Well, there you have it, my latest adventure in modeling. Were it not for the limited-run difficulties of the kit, I would probably recommend this as a first conversion attempt. But, your mileage may vary... Thanks for looking in. See you all next time around! Ed

Hang in there Ed. I'd like to see this one finished! Ed

So far, it looks really great. You may just inspire me to dig out one I started a few years ago and finish it up. I'll be looking in! Ed

Back again, with more YP-80A... Earlier, I had indicated that more sanding would be necessary. This is due to the fact that the lower fuse/bottom wing part is moulded 1-2 mm too long at the center section, fore-and-aft. Therefore, it is impossible to mate to the fuselage without a lot of fitting: Above left, the rear front gear well bulkhead must be cut down (A); the bottoms of the intakes proper (as well as the intake splitters) must be shortened (B); the rear ends of the intake pieces must be thinned (C). Also, the rear of the fuselage opening must be sanded off a bit (D). Careful here, as the entire goal is to make the front edge of the intake join lines (between the top and bottom fuselage parts) line up properly fore-and-aft (Above right). The trick here is slow and steady, constantly checking the fit everywhere, which if done properly, will result in just tiny gaps at (A) and (B) above right. The wing edges at the fuse will be a little off, but that's not too much of a bother... Next, before the lower wing is joined to the fuselage, the cockpit assembly is glued into place. Unlike the XP-80, THIS time, I glued the seat, belts, etc. all into place before installing the cockpit: Above left, I filled the tiny area under the windscreen with white glue (painted flat black after it had dried), because the kit part was never going to come even close to fitting now. The plastic card filling the front gap on the fuse has been sanded smooth. Above center, this is what the bucket seat (NOT THE EJECTION SEAT!) looked like before installation. The seat belts are tiny strips of aluminum foil, painted off-white on the shiny side, with the tip ends bent over to replicate buckles on the free end. These are glued to the seat with CA and then bent down into final shapes/positioned when dry. I could have added tiny squares to the shoulder harnesses, but I was too lazy... Above right, the gun sight has been added, along with it's leather pad, and the windscreen glued into place ( I recommend G-S watch cement for this. The filler piece aft of the armour plate has been tested to make certain it fits the canopy in the closed position. Had I chosen to model the canopy open, then this piece needs to be attached to the inside of the rear canopy, which when slid back, would reveal a big squarish empty hole behind the armour plating and seat, looking down into the fuselage. Again, too lazy. Also, not shown here, a tiny leather headrest was added to the front of the seat armour plating, made up of shaped sprue suitably painted. Below, the wing and horizontal stabilizer have been added, as well as the main canopy section. THIS time, I elected to sand the canopy to final length, removing more-or-less a scale 6-7 inches from the front end, rather than take the chance of shattering the small canopy by sawing it in two, as happened on my XP-80 build: Above right, the carefully sanded and fitted canopy is glued into place. The white areas are Vallejo filler. At the end of the day, not much was needed, to or bottom --- BUT this was only due to MUCH careful sanding and fitting. While the kit looks great, the fit is not great overall, and the lack of locating pins anywhere is a PITA. The last thing of note here is that the bottom wings are squared off, while the top wing is rounded. The ends of the squared-off lower wing need to be sanded a bit, to close the top wing to fuselage joint as much as possible. Oddly, one side is a hair longer than the other -- note the seam on the bottom of the lower right wingtip, which will need some filling also. Well, a little priming sanding and final checks, and she'll be off to the paint booth. Back later, Ed

Yup Jackson, Sword took a dive on the P-80 A/B kit, trying to save a buck, I suppose. Fortunately, it's not areal hard conversion. Welcome aboard Steve, but before you start one of these, don't forget you owe us a build on a certain Republic model... Ed

The Airfix one that I built years ago does i fact seem accurate for a "C" version, but did lack some of the detail. It still is a great kit. Ed

Yeah, Bill -- I hate it when modeling tries to imitate life! Ed

Hello again. After taking a few days off for the Holidays, here we go again! After completing the XP-80 last year, I determined that I needed a P-80A to round out the collection. So, I picked up a Sword P-80 A/B kit like so: A relatively new tool kit, optional parts for A vs B model -- good to go, right? Not so fast. While researching the build, once again, the Spectre of Tommy Thomason's Tailhook Topics blog reaches out to crush simplicity. See the link HERE In it is various quite useful information, along with one single "Dag Nab It!"; the cockpit for the A model is in the same location as on the XP-80, which means that the windscreen (not the whole cockpit) needs to be moved back around 1/8 inch, and the canopy needs shortening by a scale 6 - 7 inched, or a tad less than 1/8 inch. There goes the easy day, so let's get on with it. Below, the red lines indicate where the cuts need ti be made in each fuselage half: Above right, the cackpit wall is moved aft and glued onto the fuselage side in it's new position. It seemed a lot more simple to shorten here, since all the parts fit well. The mods being done on the fuse, the next step is to paint all needed interior parts with Interior Green (FS 34151), and add around 3 grams lead weight to the nose. The nose gear well fit to the fuselage is really poor, so a LOT of sanding and test fitting is required here: Above right, the intakes are fitted before the fuselage is closed up. The drill here is to try and get the best seam possible at the leading edge of the splitter plate (shiny white spot). Additional sanding will be needed at the rear as well as the splitter plate, which I will show later on. Meanwhile, the cockpit is painted. Fortunately the cockpit can be inserted from the bottom, after the fuselage halves are assembled, which makes life much easier: Above right, note that the cockpit has not yet been inserted. The gap in front of the windscreen is filled with scrap plastic sheet, which is much easier to manage than filler, and also adds strength to the structure. I use Weld-ON #3 for the construction. User's of other types of glue may have their mileage vary. While this dries, I'll step away and ponder steps to follow. Be well, Ed,