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TheRealMrEd

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  1. Hello, sorry to be late summarizing last years' efforts, but here they are, finally: First off, the Anigrand Curtis XP-60: A few more pics HERE.. Followed by a P-47B Double Twister conversion, using the 1/72 Academy P-47D kit: For those interested, the build thread is HERE.. Then, a P-47F conversion, with the laminar flow wing, also using the Academy P-47D kit: Build thread HERE.. Next up, one of my personal favorites, which I have seldom seen built, another conversion of the Academy kit, the P-47B: A few more pics HERE.. Next up, the Brengun A-36 Apache kit, but with so much work needed to make it accurate, it might as well have been a conversion: A LOT of detail changes and accuracy conversation HERE.. And last for the year, and one of my all-time favorites, the new 1/72 scale XB-51 bomber kit from Mikro Mir: Before starting one of these I would SERIOUSLY recommend that you read through the build thread (you'll see why) HERE.. Well, that's all. Not a lot for the year, compared to normal, but some fairly interesting ones, I think. Thanks, as always, for looking! Ed
  2. And yet again... Some Bondo primer/filler has been added to the plastic strip, and has been sanded a bit. The arrow points to the Italaeri trim tab, which will have to be removed, eventually.: Above right, as the Cockpit was already installed, I had no other resort than to sand both the front cockpit coaming and the cockpit itself down to a more level position. Since I had used G-S watch cement for the initial assembly, all I had to do was apply some 91% alcohol to dissolve the glue joint. If I were to do it again, I would saw a small horizontal wedge out of the front cockpit coaming, instead, before assembling the coaming to the Heller fuselage.. Next, a bunch more filler and sanding. Arrows point to the Italaeri trim tabs that also will have to be removed, later on: Above right, the tail-feathers have been added, filled, and sanded to shape. At this stage, the small amount of re-scribing that I will do has been done. Next, after removing the tape from the cockpit (only done to protect the canopy from sanding scratches), I re-masked the canopy with Bare Metal foil, sprayed on a coat of grey primer, and sanded and filled some more: Starting to take shape now, a slender filly of an F-84F, in contrast to the later, final "Hog" shape... Well, back later, after several reps of fill, sand, paint, repeat, etc. ... Ed
  3. Hello again: This time, the fuse halves have been joined, and the wings added, filled and partially sanded. The cockpit has been painted and installed, but there's still lots or work to do on the Hawk to Heller fuselage cockpit area insert: After gluing on the Hawk canopy, and fairing it in a bit, I checked it against another picture of the YF-96A, and promptly found two issues: The first, labeled "B" on the actual aircraft photo, was that the actual moulding of the Hawk kit canopy front windscreen area was way to high, giving the canopy to high a "sit" in the front. Have to figure out what to do about that!. After comparing the Italaeri vertical stabilizer, by blowing up the photo to the needed size, I found that the Italaeri fin was the correct height, but shaped slightly different at the top, but more importantly, the vertical stab wasn't broad enough in chord at the lower front edge ("A" in the photo). To fix this, I added a bit of plastic card to the front edge, and laying it atop the re-sized photo, sanded it down to the needed profile: Some filler and sanding will be needed here as well...sigh. I got some "firgurating" to do... More later, Ed
  4. Hello again Next, the cockpit area is removed from the Hawk kit: Above right, the glued-together halves of the Hawk kit cockpit are test fit. There will be some sanding to do. Also, the mount hole for the wing tabs of the Heller kit have been enlarged, allowing for proper fit of the Italaeri wings later on. This will allow them to be fitted at the proper height on the fuselage and the proper fore-and-aft location. Next, the Italaeri wings have been glued to the Heller fuselage halves, first with Weld-On #3 liquid glue, and after that was thoroughly dry, backed up with some CA glue and then filled and sanded. Above, "A" points out the Heller intake divider which is installed at this point. Care must be taken to assure that it is dead centered on the fuselage center-line. The fit is not dead-on, and it took me a couple of tries. "B" shows where some lead weight was added, and it took a little carving and sanding here so that the resin cockpit would fit properly. And last, "C" indicates where thick CA was slathered on inside the fuselage halves to help hold the wings on better. The Italaeri wing had to have their mounting stubs shortened also, to clear the resin cockpit tub. And that's it for this round! BTW if any moderator, or someone with more knowledge than I could add the "9" to the thread title (as in YF-96A), I would be grateful... Ed
  5. Hello again. As this is one gaping hole in my collection, I thought I'd take my turn at this ground-breaker. The first of these I ever saw built, was by Bill Dye, over on Cybermodeler, years ago: Here. Also, our own JohnR did one here on Britmodeler in 2011: Here. I don't know that mine will turn out as nice as theirs, but here goes: I will start with the makin's as they say, the Hawk F-84F (which actually depicts the F-96A, more or less accurately), the ubiquitous Heller F-84 kit, which is my first choice for F-84 mods, and an old, previously started Italaeri F-84F kit, stared years ago, then binned when the PJ Productions second release came out: The real thing looked like so: I had an old resin F-84 cockpit in the spares box, so I decided to use that. Also, the afore-mentioned PJ Productions 2nd release F-84F kit mentioned above had the early style ejection seat, so I'll use that also. I began by first dry-fitting the Heller fuselage, and determining how much of the kits cockpit coaming, etc. had to be cut away for the resin cockpit to fit: Above right, after ungluing the old Italaeri wings, I moved them around on the Heller kit fuselage to determine their correct position, using various pics and drawings. They were NOT installed at this time, as a LOT of figuring out was needed to attach the wings, allow room for the resin cockpit, etc. Next the vertical stabilizer is removed from the Italaeri kit, using first a scriber, then a sharp #11 X-Acto blade: Above right, the Hawk kit is marked to show the section of the fuselage/canopy area that would need to be removed. Good old eyeball guessing was used here, as there are no convenient panel lines. Then, the Heller kit halves are sawn where needed to accommodate the Hawk parts: Above right, the vertical stab parts are removed from the Heller kit fuse halves. Well, that's a fair start. More next time. Ed
  6. Sorry I'm a bit late to the party! A few of the old builds from the past... All these have build threads/rfi here on Britmodeller, so I won't bore you with any details here... Ed
  7. Been busy lately, with real life once again interrupting my fantasy modeling world... but, I'll try to cobble something up for this build, to go along with my other F-84 family efforts... Ed
  8. Gotta love a masochist! Always glad to see more slightly demented modelers around... Good job so far! Ed
  9. Here now -- better late than never, I suppose. Always good to see some resin kit-munching! Ed
  10. I don't know whether they got it wrong, or whether I got it wrong because of lack of positive location pins/holes/slots, etc.on the model itself. I was just glad to get something done. The perfect 1/72 XB-51 model has yet to be built. I look forward to the next modeler up! Ed
  11. Yeah, David, I figured that since I was only gonna ever build one of these, I might as well go all out! Ed
  12. Yep, John, I feel your pain! Have to rest uo bwfore tackling another from MM... Ed
  13. Finally completed this brand new kit. While not without a myriad of challenges, it is hands-down the best 1/72 kit of this aircraft I've seen, to date. For those interested in the details, the build thread is HERE. The pics: Thanks for looking! Ed
  14. Well, back again after many travails, travel, and other sundry obstacles! I have been plugging away on this beast, and running into all kinds of problems -- the wings fell off twice, the front engines twice, landing gear went on crooked and had to be re-installed a few times, etc. At this point, let me state that almost every problem with this kit is due to lack of locating pins and/or insufficient material with which to glue one thing. to another. Mostly the wings, engine pods and the landing gear. To anyone building this kit, I would recommend dry fitting EVERYTHING and thinking ahead as to where to add re-enforced attachment point. For the wings, I would simply tape the fuselage halves together, as well as the wings, and then first focus on how to re-enforce this joint with some sort of internal structure, before moving forward (do NOT attach the wing flap hinges until painting time!) with the build. Then assemble the main landing gear and figure out from the directions and whatever help my photos may bring, to drill little holes and add wire inserts that can be used during final assembly, to keep things lined up. The engine nacelle mounting "pylons" might be better glued to the fuselage, and the have the engines attached later also. Of course, gluing the wings on (with 5 degrees anhedral) to the fuselage before painting would help immensely, but would then make the painting job much harder. Dealer's choice... Anyway, I worked through it all, a little at a time, but due to frustration, a lot of photos did not get taken. Sorry about that. I decided to paint and decal the parts before assembly. The plane I was modeling is this one, later in it's career at Edwards AFB: The kit decals did not have all that I needed, and they also present some problems for the builder, particularly in the area of the wing/tail walk outlines. If you look at the decal sheet shown below, you will note that the wing/tail walk decals have other tiny decals situated within their boundaries. Since all the decals are very thin and have only a small margin of clear film surrounding them, everything must be cut out. In effect, this leaves you with four very deep, more-or-less "U" shaped decals, with no carrier film in between the arms. I will guarantee you will not install these as is without destroying some. I STRONGLY recommend cutting each walkway decal into three pieces, and install each straight piece at a time. If you can slide these straight stripes off the backing and onto the model carefully, you will be a much happier camper. This whole aggravation could have been avoided, had each walkway decal been printed onto the sheet with carrier film holding all the arms together as one piece, and the smaller decals placed elsewhere on a larger sheet. The decal film is thin enough that it wouldn't show, and I suppose that's why others do it that way. Also, I needed some period appropriate Flight Test Center decals: Feel free to use these images as you need. I think these will print at 1/72 scale, as IIRC, they are 320 dpi. I had to massage these in Photoshop, as I couldn't find the correct one on-line. The other needed decals were found in the spares box, the buzz numbers "XB-685", and the "U.S. AIR FORCE": Painting done, decals in place and wings/engines attached (which time, I don't remember): Above right, the main landing gear going on (the first time). Next the main gear doors and wing tip landing gear go on: Above right, two 2000 lb bombs go on the bomb bay, shown rotated open, along with some JATO units from the spares box. And finally, all the masking removed and standing on her legs, she's finally done: A labor of love and hate, joy and despair. I'll add a few pics soon, over on RFI. Thanks for looking, Ed
  15. Another brief update. A couple of sessions and all the larger decals are on. After each session, the applied decals were sealed with Alclad2 Aqua Gloss, to prevent my clumsy fingers from inadvertently damaging them: The "U.S. AIR FORCE" (A), the "XB-685" (B) and the very thin red stripe decals on the front of the nacelles were all from the spares box, not included in the kit. These markings were applied after the Air Force took over testing at Edwards AFB. The thin red stripes at the front of the nacelles were a bear, requiring thin decal stripes that were first over-coated with Microscale Decal Film, and then teased into place after application of some Walthers Solveaset. All the small decals, plus the Edwards badge, still need to be applied. Next the wing walkways: The wing walkway stripe decals were the hardest part on the wings, along with those atop the "T"-tail. Because these walkway decals were not done as large one piece (the tail walkway ones have other decals printed in between the walkway lines), they are very, very difficult to apply as is. After messing up one wing and one side of the "T"-tail stripes, I elected to cut the rest into just single stripe pieces, which worked much better. I heartily recommend to anyone building this kit to just start off by cutting these decals into their basic parts, that is, three straight lines per part, and apply them in that manner. The decals are all very thin, and will curl on you if you sneeze wrong. As thin as they are, had they been printed in complete larger walkway decals, they would have not shown any film on the final model anyway. Perhaps decal printers are charging by the square inch or centimeter now? The GOOD news is that all the decals will easily separate from their backing sheet in about four seconds, even if using cold water. Just be sure to slide them off in a straight line, and leave an extra bit of space when cutting apart, so that you can grab one end with very tiny tweasers while sliding them off! Another caution involves the main gear wheels assemblies: Each wheel consists of two wheel halves and a separate "electric or disc brake section on the inner part, ALL of which must be trimmed and sanded of molding sprue attachment points. In addition, the axles an the landing gear legs are not round, and I thought at first that they may have been shaped to "key" the backing plate or disc brakes to the axles. Not so, as the backing plates contain only partial (or no) holes in them. Therefore, it is best to round off the axle legs with a file, then bore the whole in the backing plates to fit, BEFORE gluing the wheel parts together. That my $.02 worth... More eventually, Ed
  16. And more... Masking and painting a couple more colors: Including the wings: Had to do some touch-up near the bomb-bay on one side. Masked with Parafilm "M" and old food service grade disposable gloves on the ends... Finally, I think the painting on the fuselage and wings is done: The front panels where the logos will go ended up being Alclad2 gray primer, as it is just a shade or two darker than the gray used on the nose cap, and above the rear jet intake. Finally time to start some decal application! I always like to start using any set of decals, by trying first either some un-needed decal manufacturer's info, or something I can replace from the spares box. In this case, I started with the underwing national star-and-bar marking. Oops. problem right off the bat. The kit decals are so thin, that when applied over the Fluorescent Red, too much red showed though. I quickly slid the kit decal back off and applied it to the upper wing, instead. It will pass muster (barely) there, and I had to fish a replacement decal of the same size out of the spares box: Not exactly the same, as the outline width is different, but since it's on the bottom and can't readily be compared to the rest, it'll do. For anyone else building this scheme, I would advise masking off the white undercoat with a bit of masking the same shape/size as the decal, and putting the decal over that. Just a heads up... This makes me glad that I went ahead and painted the areas behind where the logos will fit on the fuselage, I debated back and forth on this, but looks like a good move. In my case, I think I'll be needing the black logos vs the red, but the red ones will probably need this step also, if you go that route. Still not out of the woods on some smaller stuff, though. The dozen little bitty landing gear door hinges have to be cut from the PE fret, and bent, before being glued to the doors proper: After experimenting, I found that it worked best for me to clamp down on the major part of the hinge, and then just bend up the little gluing tab (arrows). Also, the little landing light holders have to be bent and glued to the forward gear doors. On the real aircraft, there is a glass lamp assembly there, but the kit provides nothing at all to fill these holes. Not sure yet whether I'll make something, or just stretch some Micro Kleer across the holes. Getting to the pont in the first photo below took me nearly 2.5 hours! : Oh, and fwiw, the gear bays etc. are indeed zinc chromate green: Courtesy of "Beyond The Unknown"... Later, Ed
  17. I had to look at all the pieces thru a magnifier, paying close attention to angles of attachments, many of which were not easily detected. I posted the pics so that later modelers of this kit can see what it;s supposed to look. If I make a mistake along the way, I'll post a later correction. Ed
  18. Still moving... Some Alclad2 White Aluminum, on the two panels of the sides of the fuselage, near the cockpit: Some Magnesium on the side panels near the wing, and the lower rear fuselage, ahead of the tailpipe: These panels are pretty subtle, but that's the way they look on the real aircraft, where they also appear to change, depending upon sun angle, etc. This is simply my best interpretation of photos. Getting ready to paint the nacelles a couple of colors, following same procedure as used on fuselage: In my case, it suddenly dawned on me that using rolled up bits of paper towels, crammed in with a paintbrush handle into my usual rolled up paper tubes used for masking the openings, would help them stay in place much better! The front landing gear doors, consist of two parts each. The parts are handed, an fit into each others' curves when oriented correctly: The rear land gear doors are also two parts for each side, but the smaller doors glue to the larger doors at an angle of just greater than 45 degrees. Sides marked "x" are slanted for this purpose. The rear landing gear consists of a lot of pieces: Which, above right, have to align properly in all dimensions. This part is up to the builder, as the instructions are not very illuminating! Also of importance is that the flat faces of parts "A" and both parts "B", align along the same plane: Above right, the front landing gear is much the same with careful fitting and alignment needed, above right. That's all for now, more next time. Ed
  19. A brief update. Now in the paint shop. I started by masking off the fluorescent red areas with tape and Parafilm "M". I then airbrushed just those areas with Alclad2 white primer. After that had dried, I airbrushed some Model Master FS28915 Fluorescent Red, which seems to match the few color photos of this scheme perfectly: Then, the masking was removed, and these areas were re-masked with Parafilm "M" overall, after which the panels were trimmed around along the panel lines with a sharp #11 X-Acto blade. Then the whole aircraft was painted with Alclad2 grey primer. Next, the darker panels on the upper wings and horizontal stabilizer were likewise masked off, along with, this time, the light gray areas above the #2 engine intake trunk, and the very tip nose cap of the airplane. These later areas will be painted FS# 36495, Light Gray: The darker panels were painted Alclad2 #103 Dark Aluminum. After these areas had dried, the masking was removed: And the same process was done for the underside dark panels of the wings and horizontal stab: Then, all the hereto-before painted areas were re-masked, and the whole aircraft was painted Alclad2 Aluminum #101: After the overall aluminum had dried, the anti-glare panel was masked and painted Alclad2 Black Primer. Then all the masking was removed, except for the bit on the far side of the nose, where a small portion of the fluorescent red needs touching up. At least two more shades of Aclad2 metallic paint will be used eventually, involving a lot of masking, painting, unmasking, and re-masking again, so stay tuned! Ed Ed
  20. Thanks Jason! When you build it, please post a thread, at least some RFI, so I can see someone else's efforts on this kit... Ed
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