silverkite211

By the way, it really is a trick of the camera flash, the exhaust doesn't look anywhere near that bright.

The radio could be set on a shelf that sat atop the fuselage fuel tank, depending on if the aircraft was equipped with one. I haven't seen the 1/72 kit for many years, does it have the fuel cap on the left upper side of the fuselage the way that Monogram's 1/48 scale P-51 does? When I recently built a 1/48 scale example I removed the molded in partial radio and scratched up a center fuselage tank and made a radio and mounting shelf from sheet stock.

I remember that the false bottom caught me off guard, when I initially opened the box, I remember thinking "Uh oh, it's missing the decals and clear parts." Italeri acquired the molds, if I recall correctly and I believe that you are correct that nobody else makes Allison engined Mustangs in 1/48 scale. I have a Mustang 1A kit still in the box to build sometime, I built one many years ago, the last I knew it is hanging from the ceiling of the bedroom of my best friend's grandson

Technically, this isn't a new build, I built this back when it was initially issued in the '90s. I was never very happy with the paint scheme, I went off some incorrect info about the colors and so it was tucked away in a corner, out of sight. I finally came to the point that I simply couldn't bear to gaze upon it, if only occasionally and decided to repaint it. I still had the kit decal sheet (it came with two choices of markings) and that is what I used on it. They went on very well, though they were impervious to Micro-Sol. Paints used were Model Master enamels. The markings represent a/c 284071/B of the 27th FG, 522nd FS, Italy, Spring of 1944. I chose not to use all the mission markings, there were another 32 hash marks that extended to just under the horizontal stabilizer. I'm not sure that I'm entirely happy with the exhaust staining, although the actual aircraft was rather heavily weathered. Also, it's an effect of the flash that makes the blue of the national insignia look lighter and brighter than it actually is. Still, it looks better than the first attempt and I'm not quite embarrassed to look at it now.

Then just imagine how you might feel to know that I acquired from my friend, when he passed away, a KAE Privateer AND a resin Privateer conversion WITH the B-24s that my friend had started doing the work on. I cannot tell you who manufactured the resin set, I'm sorry to report. I really need to consider getting the resin kit off the storage area of doom and actually doing something with it, then maybe the KAE conversion. But where in the world do I park two 1/48 scale Privateers!?!

When I was growing up there were three choices, if one wished to build a P-6E. There was the Monogram 1/72 scale offering and two 1/48 scale kits, the Aurora Models example and one produced by Crown Models. I built the Monogram example a few times and the Aurora kit, I remember that the Aurora kit cam molded in a metallic green color and, as was typical for them, it had the markings molded on the parts, in addition to having decals. I suppose it so one could paint the markings in lieu of the decals. I do not recall ever seeing the Crown Models example on the shelves of any store I frequented, though I do remember a kid who lived a couple of houses down from me had one on display that had been built by his father. The next time I would encounter a P-6E was in the nineties, in the form of a vacuform kit, the name of the manufacturer escapes me. I built it, using the wings and struts of a F-11C, even though they aren't correct for a Hawk. Unfortunately it befell an accident, however about this time the Lindberg kit showed up on the market and I salvaged the white metal, prop and exhausts along with the cockpit floor, control stick, seat and instrument panel. As it turns out the Lindberg kit is the old Crown Models offering, Lindberg bought up the molds from other makers when they went out out of business, such as Crown, Pyro, etc. Considering the vintage of the original molding it's not a bad kit, I'm glad that I saved the cockpit parts, however, the IP and seat left a lot to be desired, the vacuform kit parts along with some parts from the spares box and PE lap belts and shoulder harnesses made the cockpit much better. Another thing that needed to be addressed was the radiator, it had completely inaccurate crosshatched mesh for the intake and the rear was blanked off, so I opened those and replicated the fins of the grilles with thin plastic rod laid side by side. I think it worked well. I decided not to use the white metal exhausts, the kit molded ones look good enough. Flying wires came in the kit, it came with thin steel wire that is cut to length, for some reason they look thicker in the photos than they actually are, the aerial wires were made from stretched sprue. Decals are from the kit and went on very well, the markings represent the aircraft flown by the Commanding Officer of the 17th Pursuit Squadron 'Snow Owls' based at Selfridge Field. And so, on to the photos. Thanks, in advance, for looking.

That came out really great! Much more impressive than my Testors "Skysmasher"

Very nice!

Nicely done! I always liked those markings and I'm glad to see that somebody knows that not all Phantom II must be painted as 'Showtime 100'.

I built one of those Airfix kits, when it first came out, and I have a Model USA O-1 that I built a few years ago to go along with my Testors O-2. Unlike yours I stuck with the four marking rocket launchers setup. Yours came out very nice!

I built the Monogram 1/48 scale kit of that very same aircraft. Your A-37 came out looking very nice!

Very nicely done. Man, the stuff designers came up with in the fifties!

I can still remember so much about my beloved "Rivver", 401 ci, 365HP V-8 "Nailhead"engine, leather seats, power steering, power windows, AC, tilt steering wheel, listed top speed of 120 MPH, I had it to 100 once, only ONCE, I swear. It handled very well in the snow, just an amazing comfortable ride. Buick made just under 40,000 total in 1963 and sold every one of them, I think that stylistically it has held up well through the years. I loved, loved, LOVED my Riviera.

No, not my first model car, I've built a handful of automobile kits over the years, though I am much more a builder of aircraft. This represents the very first car I owned. In 1974 I purchased from my cousin her 1963 Buick Riviera, she was the original owner, at the time of her purchase it was one of only four Rivieras in the state of Kansas. To stimulate sales of the vehicle Buick started off with a relatively small production run and allocated just a few to some states, some states did not get any at all. She drove it for many years, I actually recall riding in it on more than one occasion. If someone had said that the day would come that I would own it I wouldn't have believed them. By the time that I thought I would like a scale model of the Riviera the kit was no longer available on the open market. AMT, the firm that produced the kit had made alterations to the molds, boxing it as the 1965 model. The problem for me was that major changes were made, when Buick brought the '65, they changed the location of the headlights and taillights and deleted the stylistic "scoops" on the sides of the body. I initially acquired a 1965 kit and was studying how I could make changes to it when I got my hands on a built 1963. It was painted a hideous metallic teal color and the interior was merely assembled with any paint work performed. Since the interiors of both kits were the same I was able to use the interior from the 1965 Riviera kit and strip the paint off the 1963 and paint it to represent the 'Artic White' that my car was painted. I added a rear view mirror, radio antenna and "Courtesy Lights" on the interior of the B pillars. There is also a gap to allow airflow between the bottom of the grille and the lower valance that was molded solid on the kit that I opened up. And so..., Thanks for looking.

Very nice, I think the final finish came out perfectly.

Along those same lines it is similar to the paint schemes that John Barley developed for RAF Phantoms. When the RAF complained that the scheme wasn't very effective he pointed out that he had stipulated that the colors needed to be gloss, not the semi-matte finish the RAF used. The reason for that was the same as the Army Air Corps discovered during WW2 when painting night fighters. In tests conducted off the coast of Florida it was found that not only did the gloss black used on US night fighters work better than Night, when lit by a searchlight, olive and grey, when applied with a glossy finish even performed better. The reason for this was that, with an aircraft painted using Night, the light reflection would stop at the edges of the aircraft, effectively outlining it, whereas with a gloss finish the light would continue past the edges and not make an outline. Back to Mr. Barley, that was his line of thinking, although now we are talking sunlight. It is also the reason his paint scheme called out for lighter colors along the spine and outboard sections of the wings and the inboard sections of the wing being painted in a darker shade, they reflect light back to the viewer differently, essentially making the aircraft appear the same tonal value. Which tended to match the type of lighting conditions one sees often around England, since that was the area of operations they were tasked with defending.

Because it didn't work. We may think the sky is blue, however it actually isn't, as they found out when they tried the Air Superiority Blue paint scheme. The aircraft REALLY stood out against the sky.

Methinks you doth protest too much. Very nice build!

The first USAF Phantom II to be equipped with slotted stabilators was the F-4E. In the event, F-4Cs were never retrofitted with slotted stabs.

Very nicely done models! And I appreciate the history lesson, as well.

This is the Fujimi kit of the F7U-3 Cutlass, using the kit supplied decals for 129601/D415 of VF-124. This model has a backstory. My friend had started this kit many years ago, like many of us it was a project that he had started and then put aside to start other projects. Guilty as charged, Your Honor. Life does what Life does sometimes and his health changed to the point that he eventually had to move out of his house and take up residence in a assisted living facility. He had a rather large kit collection that his sister was unsure what she was going to do with, she was considering a garage sale, selling the kits for one dollar apiece. I could not in good conscience allow that to happen and through the For Sale section of another modeling forum I participated in sold them for substantially more than his sister would have gotten. With the profits gained from that he was able to acquire a new personal computer with which to be able to be on the internet, send emails, etc. I found out from his sister later that he had named the new pc 'Gregg' (my name), we all got a laugh out of that. His sister gave me carte blanc to keep anything from his collection that I chose, and I did take a handful of unbuilt kits. I also kept some of the ones that he had started, the Gamma that I recently posted in RFI was one of the unbuilt ones, while the Mustang was a kit that had been started before it had come into my friend's possession. Sadly, my fiend Dennis passed away back in 2011. He was a gentleman in the truest sense of that word and I wish I were more like him. Back in the early '90s we attended a airshow being held at the local AFB (a common past time of ours) and we were allowed access to a PT-19 Cornell that was on static display, that is my friend in the forward cockpit, with me sitting behind. So, to my friend Dennis F. Clutter I say 'Fair winds and following seas'.

That came out very nice.

At the risk of sounding pedantic, the 184th was the 'Flying Jayhawks' of the Kansas Air National Guard, the 'Flying Razorbacks' are the 188th.

The copyright on the P-51 is 1986. (!)

First off, thank you for the compliments. And now, in response to requests for more views of the Gamma... It IS a rather elegant looking aircraft, isn't it? Jack Northrop, the designer, would be able to rightly claim that the DC-3 and SBD Dauntless were direct descendants, using structural techniques developed for the Gamma. If you have an ability to view the planview of the Dauntless, you can see that the wing and the horizontal stabilizers/elevators are the same, using the same technique of attaching the wing center section to the fuselage and establishing dihedral with the outer wing sections, the joint being covered with an aerodynamic strip. In the third photo down you can see another Northrop innovation, namely the large fillet at the wingroot. As can also be seen the aircraft was initially equipped with "Park Bench" ailerons, giving the Gamma almost full span flaps. While the aircraft had a top speed of 248 MPH, landing speed was reduced to 50-55 MPH, thanks to the flaps.