Chris Baer

I'm pleased to present my most recent build, the 1/48 Hasegawa A-4F, wearing the colorful test livery of BuNo 154175, assigned to the Naval Air Test Center at NAS Patuxent River, circa July 1969 (reference photo). Decals come from the Caracal Models' A-4E/F Skyhawk sheet, and a handful of aftermarket rounds out the presentation. The build itself was mostly pleasant. The Hasegawa A-4 tooling as been around for almost twenty-five years, so it's strengths and weaknesses are well-defined at this point. I opted not to fix the step at the back of the slat wells; any scratch repair job on my part would have been far more noticeable than a subtle geometry error you have to know to look for. The only really iffy issues for me were with the engine intakes and the rear fuselage air brakes. The intakes are a bit of a mini-model in their own right; I had to paint, assemble, and mask them prior to fairing them into the fuselage. Because my reference aircraft didn't have the stiffening plate, I was able to remove it, which let me line up the intake to the fuselage without much bother -- otherwise, the two halves of the stiffening plate weren't going to match up no matter how much I sanded or prayed. It's an adage that if a part can be opened, the kit maker probably expects you're going to pose it open, and the air brakes are no different here. It took some (mostly) judicious sanding to get them basically flush with the surrounding fuselage area. Full marks for any kit maker that includes a bespoke closed part for anything that can be opened! The aftermarket for this one includes an engine exhaust plug from Phase Hangar Resin; intake FOD covers from Quickboost; and most notably, brand new Aero 1D 300-gallon drop tanks from Flying Leatherneck. The kit drop tanks are frightfully basic, lacking any detail whatsoever. These tanks have detail to spare, particularly with the characteristic fuel-filler cap towards the left front of the tanks. I fumbled a bit with the tank assembly, thinking the joins where the nose and fin attach were meant to have a visible seam; they were most decidedly not, and much filling, sanding, and swearing ensued, but the final result isn't too bad. They required a bit of surgery to fit on the kit pylons, but nothing too radical, and they don't affect the center of gravity sufficiently to turn a properly-weighted Hasegawa A-4 into a tail-sitter. (I did manage to drop one and snap off the fin, alas, after painting, so the starboard tank has a slightly cracked fin.) I tried to use a LP Models crew ladder, but I just couldn't get the mounting rod to match up with the matching hole I drilled before I bought it. Shame, because it's very nice. The ladder on the ground in some of the pictures is the LP version; the mounted ladder is from the kit. The figures are from the very nice ICM US Pilots and Ground Personnel (Vietnam War) set, and the base is a pre-made Zoukei-Mura model, which remains the best $20 I've ever spent in the hobby. Decals went down like a dream, just as you'd expect from Caracal and Cartograf. The only iffy decal issue arose when it came time to place the US insignia over the wing vortex generators on the port wing, the bane of any US Navy or Marine Skyhawk build. I erred on the side of caution and hoped that prodigious applications of MicroSol would get the decal to conform, but I needed to have been more aggressive with actually pressing down on the decal during the initial application, I think, as it's not a "painted on" look, with slight bumpy contours visible between the strakes. To their credit, the Cartograf/Caracal decals held up to the MicroSol, only tearing when I tried to force the issue (literally). A tiny piece of white decal from a spare on the sheet covered most of my sins, but it's the one weak point with the decals on the build, all due to the user. Paints are a mixture of Mr. Paint and Mr. Color lacquers, laid down over black and pink Mr. Finishing Surfacer 1500. The red landing gear bay door outlines were applied with a red paint pen. I went for a black-basing technique on the light gull grey uppers and white lowers, and I opted against a glossy finish. I really wanted a worn-down aircraft in this one, so I used an off-white instead of an insignia white and put down a final dull coat using Winsor & Newton Galeria Matt. Indeed, it's a heavily weathered bird, probably not to everyone's taste, but I wanted to work on my weathering skills. I went for an overall uniformity of grub, using a warm grey oil wash. Though I'm sure no crew chief would let his or her aircraft out of the hangar quite so scuffed up, I'm envisioning the end of a series of grueling test flights in the frankly oppressive summer humidity of southern Maryland, as well as claiming a bit of artistic license. This particular airframe went through so many changes of scheme that I wager it was repainted as often as it was scrubbed down. On the whole, this was an enjoyable project, one that really stretched my skills. Thanks for reading and for taking a look.

Thanks, that's a huge help, Rich. Didn't even think of a PE option. I'll have to keep that in mind -- might even be able to find them on a sheet somewhere in the stash here. And those are great looking drop tanks. Appreciate your sharing the photos.

Brilliant, thank you for the help, Santti and Steve. I can definitely work with those details. (Or at least, I know what to shoot for! Whether my skills can completely pull it off are another matter, but that's why we build these things . . .)

I was wondering if anyone could share a reference image for the filler cap on the top of an Aero 1D 300-gallon drop tank? I've got the 1/48 Hasegawa A-4F on the bench, and the above tank from the kit has an uninspiring dent where the filler cap should be. I'm having a tough time finding pictures that isolate/focus on that area, either on the real drop tank or on built versions of the A-4, so any help appreciated. Thanks, Chris

I'm pleased to present my most recent build, a dual-build of Great Wall Hobby's 1/48 T-33A (Early) Shooting Star, and ICM's 1/48 KDA-1 Ryan Firebee. The T-33 represents a TV-2D drone controller aircraft of the US Navy's GMGRU-1, circa 1959-1960, using a scheme from the Iliad Design T-33 decal sheet. Though GMGRU-1 is better known for its support of the Navy's Regulus guided missile program, I was able to find a source indicating that they also flew the TV-2D with the KDA-1 Ryan Firebee. As my resin skills aren't quite up to the challenge of Belcher Bits' fine-looking Regulus I, I opted for the very nice ICM drone kit for this dual display. I'm not certain if the two paint schemes were in service together at the same time, so I acknowledge that I've taken a bit of license here. Figures come from ICM's US Pilots & Ground Personnel (Vietnam War) set, and the base is a pre-made by Zoukei-Mura, which remains the best $20 I ever spent in this hobby. If, as is often said, the perfect is the enemy of the good, then I would add that sometimes the good is the enemy of the finished! This was one of those builds that fought me, broadly through my own errors as opposed to any issue with the kits. I would note for anyone working on the GWH T-33 that the nosecone is too narrow for a seamless fit with the rest of the fuselage, which necessitated a fair bit of filling and sanding and occasional swearing to get an acceptable taper. I might have been better off with a shim to push the join out a bit, but the top and bottom of the cone were exact fits, so I opted for brute force. Too, the interconnection between the wing spar, fuselage, and engine intakes proved tricky, with small imperfections in the sub-assembly builds multiplying when it all came together. Many panel lines were sacrificed in the process, and inevitably I missed a few when I made a rescribing pass. Several small parts became victims of the carpet monster, including the T-33 front gear scissor torque link and several small vanes on the bottom of the fuselage. I managed to break the front gear when installing it after painting, and I fear the aircraft rides a bit higher than it should as a result. I also left off several smaller gear struts on the front and main gear bay doors, which proved beyond my capability to wrangle into place neatly. The extent of the yellow paint scheme on the bottom of the aircraft is conjectural, as I could not find good reference photos. As for the ICM KDA-1 kit, it went together in a very tidy and simple manner. The plastic is quite soft, so care is needed in fitting and sanding, but there were no significant issues to speak of, though I did manage to snap off the very pointy tail end of the drone. Paints are a combination of Mr. Color and Hataka Orange Line lacquers, sprayed over Mr. Finishing Surfacer 1500 -- black for the fuselage, pink for the wings and tail. I've come to very much appreciate using pink primer for anything that will wind up white, red, yellow, or orange, but I still needed several coats for the yellow to get the depth of color I wanted. Subsequent rounds of overspray touch-up on the yellow surfaces wound up requiring additional coats of the pink primer going down first, which greatly increased the time this build took, with the knock-on effect that not all of the yellow has the same hue, particularly the horizontal stabilizers. For reference, the yellow on both models is Mr. Color C329 Insignia Yellow; the red on both models is Mr. Color C327 Insignia Red; the orange is Hataka C062 International Orange; and the main fuselage grey is Mr. Color C339 Engine Grey. Some light washes with oils followed, topped off by a final dull coat of Winsor & Newton Galeria Matt sealing it all in. The main marking decals for the T-33 come from Iliad Design's Naval T-Birds sheet, and they behaved quite nicely. They are thin, but they are also reasonably durable, as I proved when I managed to fold a few of them during placement. A bit of propitiation to the modeling gods, plus some gentle coaxing with a soft wet brush, saw them good. The decals reacted well to MicroSet and MicroSol and bedded down on a gloss surface without any silvering. Iliad has some interesting sheets in their lineup, and I'm looking forward to using them again. The GWH stenciling decals from the box were fine, if a bit on the thick side. The KDA-1 decals are out of the box from ICM, and as with the build, they were simple enough to use, with no adverse reactions to MicroSet or MicroSol. As for the ICM figures, they built nicely, with ICM putting joins along natural breaks. I'm really not much of a figure painter, and I fear the mechanic has a touch of the dreaded "flesh wrench," but they do add to the overall effect of the vignette, plus I managed to position them so that they hide some spots that need yet more paint touch-ups. As noted, this was a build that just kept fighting me, mostly because of the constant need for paint correction. I really thought I had sealed all the painted areas, but somehow I've developed the ability to cause airbrushed paint to transmigrate through multiple layers of tape. It's an odd and unwelcome talent. Still, the paint schemes are striking, of that there can be little doubt. On the whole, I'm sufficiently pleased with the final result, and so long as a respectful viewing distance is maintained, this dual build should look colorful enough on a shelf dominated by the broadly monotonous hues to which military aircraft are prone. Thank you for reading and for taking a look.

Some exceptional pictures, Tiger331. Thank you. That's a tempting display method for the travel pods, on fairly simple wood planks. They show some signs of rough handling, too, which is good, since I had a devil of a time smoothing off the casting marks on the resin travel pods I picked up! The original linked image in the topmost post, my reference aircraft, is from 2005, so certainly dated. There's another really good picture of a different A-10 from the same ANG unit on the same day over the same live fire range showing the full ordnance loadout. I'm assuming my aircraft had the same load, so that's what I'm building. My only question is whether or not to attach some tiny BDU-33s (Eduard makes them in 1/48) to the two TERs just for a splash of color. I take the point that there wouldn't be explode-y things, even tiny explode-y things, on the wings at the same time as the travel pods -- it's notable that none of the images from that day have anything on the TERs -- so I might leave them off or pose them nearby on a trailer or some such. I appreciate all the help in this thread. Absurdly informative all around!

I had some success with the Eduard removable carrier film decals on my recent 1/48 Mustang Mk. IV (RFI post with pictures here), but I did have some issues with the underlying decal pulling and/or tearing when I removed the film in a few cases. I used my standard approach of laying down a gloss coat, then preparing the surface with MicroSet, placing the decal, tamping it down with a cotton bud, then hitting it with a healthy dollop of MIcroSol. The next day, I pushed all around the edges of the film with a toothpick until the film started to give, then I pulled it off gently (and painstakingly) with tweezers. When it worked, it the results were amazing, but when it didn't, well, at least the tears in the decals looked like natural paint chipping/tearing. I hit the decals with another gloss coat before weathering, since I wasn't sure how the now-exposed decals would react to white spirit and such. I had the best success when I put down a lot of MicroSet, didn't move the decals much, and pressed down intensively to get the decal to really adhere. More MicroSol than seems healthy, left overnight, also appears to have helped, though as with many things modeling, I can't always tell what is alchemy and what is science . . . I'll use the removable film decals again -- they look painted on when you can successfully remove the film -- but it's an anxious process, no doubt.

Another really sharp photo, and the airfield itself gives me some ideas for a base . . . I appreciate the insight into the flow of ordnance and racks on and off of pylons, Jari. My reference aircraft is from 2005, so I don't think the shark-fin high speed F-16 TER on the starboard wing above is suitable (thankfully -- I already have the Eduard standard TERs on the way!), but it's good to know that's an option for a later A-10. I had no idea just how many variables came into play with the otherwise unassuming Warthog. I'll be checking back to this thread frequently as the build progresses for sure.

Excellent pictures, Jari. Thanks for digging those up. Appreciate the insight on the lack of fins for the captive Maverick as well. Some surgery awaits! The travel pods are a real head-scratcher in that image I'm using as my main reference. I agree it wouldn't accord with standard practice -- I've read stories about the pods opening in flight due to excessive speed/g's! Oddly, though, the plane is clearly over the live-fire range and has the pods and (likely captive) ordnance, plus the empty TERs and what looks like an empty rocket launcher. I don't know if they'd leave the TERs or launcher on permanently if they weren't needed for a mission? Maybe a photo shoot as opposed to a live-fire shoot . . . I'm claiming the modeler's divine right of "the photo lets me do it" to throw the pods on with the Maverick/Sidewinder/Launcher, and the TERs would look empty without some bombs. So a bit of license, I suppose, and a mystery until the pilot or crew of 79-0170 from November 2005 comes forth with the story!

Appreciate the insight, Slater. I have a few other pictures from that same live-fire exercise/photo shoot, and that's the only one that shows the Maverick. I think I'll go for a full training/inert loadout, so blue bands on the CATM Sidewinder and Maverick, white/blue on what little you can see of the tips on the missiles in the LAU-68, and just for some color, blue body Mk. 82s, two hanging off each of the two TERs. Plus, of course, the two travel pods. And to think this started out as a quick build between more complicated projects . . .

Nice find on the picture of the training/practice loadout, Phixer. I appreciate the help. That A-10 is even from the same Pennsylvania ANG unit. That'll give me a good baseline to start with. I'll probably go with the blue practice bombs -- nice bit of color on an otherwise grey canvas. The range in question in my reference photo would have been a twenty minute flight from the ANG base, and the range airfield was pretty minimal. I would have to imagine that they armed at the home ANG base (Willow Grove, PA) and flew in loaded. I've been digging through the unit's archived newsletters trying to find info on their range days and whether they flew on to a further field thereafter to get the pilots their hours for the month, but no joy so far.

Brilliant, Murph. Thank you. Glad I didn't place the order for the aftermarket flare dispenser! I appreciate the guidance on the captive missile as well.

I was fortunate enough to finally find a set of TwoBob's "Philadelphia Freedom" A-10 decals, and I found a lovely shot of the airframe I'm planning on building, 79-0170, an A-10A, conducting live-fire at the Ft. Indiantown Gap range in 2005. I'd like to emulate that loadout, as seen in this quite evocative image (not hot linking for copyright reasons), but I was wondering if anyone better versed in the intricacies of ordnance could verify what I'm seeing in the image? My take is a single AIM-9L/M on the dual rail on pylon 11 (probably a CAP-9M -- are there visual differences from a regular -9L/M?); SUU-25 flare dispenser on pylon 10; a pair of MXU-648 travel pods (?!) on pylons 7 and 5; and an AGM-65 on pylon 3. It also has possibly dropped ordnance (6xMk 82?) from pylons 4 and 8. Thanks for any help on this admittedly obscure question. I'm most curious about whether those are actually travel pods on the A-10 in the near-center pylons during a live-fire. I'd hate to accidentally bomb a derelict tank with my pajamas . . .

The rudder is Mr. Color C34 Sky Blue, sprayed on top of a grey primer and covered with Winsor and Newton Galleria Matt. It's the color specified by Eduard, so it should be a close match to the color of the squadron codes on the fuselage.

Thank you for the kind words, all. I'd like to think I try to live by Boatie McB's tag line there, and "Model Bravely!" Definitely the right attitude to have with a hobby than can humble and inspire and amaze all within the same session at the workbench . . .

I've successfully used the Uschi brand airbrush weathering stencils as distributed by Ammo. They're of a similar metal as photo-etch, though a bit stiffer/thicker than what you might find in a typical PE set. I've only used them to create random patterns for the marble coat when I use the black basing technique, but I imagine they'd be good for surface weathering or mottle camo as well. Makes doing the black base marble coat a breeze. Since they're metal, I just use thinner to clean them after I spray. They bend a little bit to conform, but typically I just hold them on or near the surface depending on what I'm going for. The Ammo set has three sheets, 6 cm square, with different patterns, for €14.50, but they seem to be out of stock on the Ammo site.

I'm pleased to present my most recent build, Eduard's 1/48 Mustang Mk. IV in a natural metal scheme depicting KH716 as flown by Squadron Leader Murray P. Nash of No. 3 Squadron, Royal Australian Air Force, in Fano, Italy, January, 1945. The model is presented on a pre-made base by Zoukei-Mura, which remains the best $20 I ever spent in this hobby. The build overall was smooth, with only a couple difficult areas, all of my own doing. The Mk. IV version requires a few features to be removed from the base P-51 fuselage, and I made a right hash of excising an extraneous hatch under the air scoop, resulting in several rounds of filling (with putty and super glue) and some haphazard re-scribing. Please respect the rivets that were lost forever in the process and avoid too a close examination of the area. The propeller, spinner, and various flappy bits (elevators, ailerons, etc.) can all be added at the end of the build with no issues, making the painting easier. I used some, but not all, of the included PE parts, and after taking pictures I realized that the starboard gear bay landing light is still stuck to a piece of blue-tac atop a toothpick in my spray booth. The finish is a combination of Mr. Color C-8 Silver for the puttied/painted wings and fabric covered elevators and Mr. Color Super Metallic SM-201 Super Fine Silver 2 for the natural metal. Mr. Color lacquers are my go-to paints, so I opted this time for their metallics as opposed to the Alclad I used for my prior NMF build. I started with a primer base of Mr. Finishing Surfacer 1500 Grey, and then taped off a few fuselage panels to get some tonal variation on the cheap before covering the aircraft overall with Mr. Color GX-2 Ueno Black, a very durable and glossy base coat for the metallics to come. Since I view every new build as an opportunity to buy new stuff, I picked up Mr. Rapid Thinner, which Gunze recommends for their metallics. The C-8 Silver sprayed neat and true, and I thought the SM-201 Super Fine Silver did the same . . . until I masked over it to pick out the exhaust panels with dark iron paint. Sheets of the Super Fine Silver came off with the tape, down to the gloss black undercoat, as frightening display of paint lifting as you're likely to see. I sanded down the Super Fine Silver, which required distressingly little encouragement, and then resprayed and prayed, using my standard Mr. Levelling Thinner instead of the rapid thinner. I then sprayed a gloss coat -- Alclad Aqua Gloss -- on top as soon as it dried to protect it, which pretty much did the trick. A few areas still chipped on me with further handling, but they've been hidden as artfully as possible in the pictures. I'm not sure if the lifting came from not completely degreasing the black gloss undercoat after handling (I know, I know!), the rapid thinner, the paint/thinner ratio, the ambient temperature (on the cold side), or my just failing to properly propitiate the gremlins who live in my airbrush. I'm assuming it's a combination of all of those factors. The final colors look metal enough, but I think I might go back to Alclad for my NMF needs in the future. This build saw my first experience with Eduard's "removable film" decals. They were hit and miss for me. I wound up with some tearing/chipping on a few of the decals, including the "CV" code on the port fuselage and the red/blue flash on both sides of the stabilizer. The tears at least look sort of like organic paint chipping/wear. I'm an inveterate decal wiggler, trying to get them just right, and I think I didn't get the problem decals bedded down sufficiently. When they worked, though, they worked a treat. For the most part, I found that a nice dollop of MicroSol left overnight did the trick, and I just worried around the edges of the film with a toothpick until I peeled up enough to grab the film with tweezers. But it was nerve-racking. Can't argue with the results, though -- the decals with the removed film look sharp and almost painted on, both the main decals and the stencils, the latter of which I applied perhaps 80%. I covered over the decals with a further coat of Aqua Gloss, as I was uncertain how the exposed decals would react to the white spirit and oil paints in the next step. I wanted a fairly dirty finish, to reflect the wear and hard living of a plane in-theater, so I doused it with a wash of thinned Payne's Grey and Black oils. I tried to leave some build-up in panel corners, and I think the overall effect helped give some dimension and staining to the natural metal finish. Pencils and pigments rounded out the weather process. On the whole, I'm pleased enough with the final result. It should look good on a shelf with the striking red spinner and sky blue rudder adorned with the Southern Cross. I certainly learned a few things about working with a natural metal finish, and while it's nowhere near my best build -- the faults being my own rather than with the kit -- I'm no longer apprehensive about NMF schemes. (Though I still think I'll reward myself with an overall grey USAF bird next just to recover . . .) Thank you for reading and for taking a look.

I'm pleased to present my most recent build, Kinetic's 1/48 F-104G, their initial tool from 2019, representing aircraft 26+60 from Marinefliegergeschwader 2 towards the end of its service life, in the two-tone Norm 76 camouflage scheme. The Starfighter is displayed on a pre-made Zoukei-Mura base and features Eduard's resin Kormoran 1s. Like many of you, I imagine, when I sit down at the workbench, I just want to melt some plastic together, push some paint through an airbrush, and use some Japanese chemicals whose workings I don't entirely understand. But sometimes, my thoughts turn to that one kit in the stash. You know the one: filled with aftermarket goodies, with a full weathering approach and paint scheme already lovingly planned out, just waiting for the right moment, when you think your skills and confidence level can handle it. This is that kit for me. I wanted to just go for it. The build was mostly painless, though not without its quirks and hitches, most of which are my fault. Kinetic's engineering has really improved since my last kit of theirs, the 2013 tool Alpha Jet, which fought me severely a few years back. My main issue was with the wiggle room I had with the wing dihedral. I would have preferred a tighter fit with the wing tab inserts to avoid any uncertainty. I think I got the dihedral close to correct and, more importantly, set the same angle for both wings! I still find that if something can be posed open on a Kinetic kit, it's going to be work to show it closed. That said, I opted for closed airbrakes on this build, and it wasn't too bad; the interior brake detail just needed to be sanded down a bit, and I needed to build shelves from sheet styrene to keep them from falling into the openings. I kind of wish I had sealed up the electronics bay behind the cockpit, though. There's not enough detail on the included parts to really justify having it open without adding significant detail work. Too, the fuselage behind that bay is open to the hollow center of the model; I believe it's open on the real aircraft, leading to yet another bay, but I blanked it out with sheet styrene. I used a fair bit of aftermarket on this build: Eduard T-Face canopy masks; Eduard LooK instrument panel; Quinta 3D cockpit decals (for the close-enough F-104J, sourced before the invasion); Master Model metal pitot; Wolfpack resin Martin Baker Mk 7 ejection seat; and the aforementioned Eduard Kormoran 1s with launch pylons. The cockpit accessories were pretty much superfluous, since there's almost no visibility into the front office. The Eduard panel is fine; the Quinta 3D decals are a bit lackluster. I am, however, rather pleased with the Wolfpack ejection seat. My detail painting suffers from the harsh truth of the macro lens, but from RVD (respectful viewing distance) it looks the part. I used very thin strips of Tamiya tape, cut on an Infini cutting mat, to "paint" the yellow ejection handle stripes. I have a love-hate relationship with the Kormorans, I must confess. I hadn't worked with resin at all before this build, and though with the right tools (and proper safety precautions) I was able to wrestle them into shape, they're not actually both the same shape at this point. One is ever so slightly longer than the other, as they were rear-mounted on their casting blocks and I learned my resin sawing techniques on the fly. They look properly intimidating on the aircraft, but there's a catch. The Eduard Kormorans are, I believe, designed for the Hasegawa F-104; in fitting them to the Kinetic wing, I modified the existing hard point wing holes, with the result that the missiles sit too close to the main wheels, something I didn't anticipate while dry fitting everything. No way a crew chief lets my version of the Starfighter take off with the Kormorans' fins tearing into the tires. . . Paints were a mix of lacquers for overall coverage and acrylics for detail work. A black primer base of Mr. Finishing Surfacer 1500 Black went down first, and I used a black basing technique to attempt to create surface variation and the impression of wear. My source photos of 26+60 and its stablemates all show significant fading and scuffing of the paintwork, particularly the Basalt Grey (RAL 7012) top half. I used AK Real Colors Basalt Grey (RC212) for the upper color, and it thinned down very nicely for the mottle coat. I purposely tried to let more of the black primer show through in the blend coat to get that faded look from the source photos. The nose cone received a blend of Real Colors ADC Grey (RC211) mixed equally with Insignia White to represent heavy fading. The White Aluminum (RAL 9006) underside was painted with Hataka Orange Line White Aluminum (C190), and I used the same restrained mottle/blend approach as with the top color. One note about the Hataka version of RAL 9006, though -- I was under the impression that RAL 9006 was a color name rather than an actual metallic tone. The Hataka paint has metallic flakes, not so many as a "real" metallic lacquer but enough to be noticeable. The final dull coat with Winsor and Newton Galeria Matt knocked the shine down to a more or less acceptable level. For the high visibility RAL 2005 orange on the wing tip tanks, I used Real Colors Luminous Orange (RC207) with a hint of their Insignia White (RC222) for fading, laid down over my new favorite primer, Mr. Finishing Surfacer 1500 Pink. It's not just for anime figurines anymore! The pink primer covered the existing black primer quite readily, and the thin coat of orange I laid down on top of the pink really popped. I'm completely sold on using pink primer for yellows, reds, and oranges at this point. They'll be vivid, but I figure it's easier to tone down a too-bright red or orange than it is to pump up the visual volume of a dull and dark shade. I decided against an overall panel line wash for this build. I've certainly employed the technique before, but my source photos don't show significant panel line definition. I picked out a few significant panel lines using a thinned Paynes Grey oil wash. I used a slightly thinned Warm Grey oil paint to attempt additional fading and wear on the upper half of the aircraft. The effect turned out more like a filter than the Rinaldi "oil paint rendering" technique I was going for, but the end result is sufficiently run down for my purposes. The in-box decals come courtesy of Cartograf, and they behaved as one expects them to, given their provenance. Not too many stencils were provided, but there's still sufficient busy-ness about the aircraft to break up any surface monotony. I laid down an Alclad Aqua Gloss coat before placing the decals, and employed copious amounts of Micro Sol and Set, but I still got a bit of silvering on some of the smaller stencils, and I fully attribute that to my own error rather than the decals. The larger decals went down without much fuss, and artful photography and angles eliminate most of the unfortunate silvering issues for the smaller decals. If you've made it this far, thanks for reading and for taking a look! I'm pleased overall with the outcome. I feel like I stretched my skills a bit and I have to consider this one of my best efforts since I picked the hobby back up four years ago. Definitely room for improvement, but from an appropriate distance, it certainly looks the part of an imposing Baltic Sea enforcer, ready to complicate the day of a Warsaw Pact frigate, and it has nice shelf presence. To anyone associated with the Marineflieger, I apologize for the inaccuracies but hope you can see it as the earnest tribute I intend. Chris Baer

My current build -- Kinetic's 1/48 F-104G -- will require a thin red band around the rear fuselage. I'm debating whether or not to just paint it first and mask it off before putting on the other colors, or to use the kit supplied Cartograf printed red stripe decal. If I go the decal route, I'd like to get a backup stripe decal, since I'm equally likely to wrap the band around my finger as opposed to the fuselage. To that end, I was wondering if anyone had experience with XtraDecals' Red Parallel Stripes decals (XPS4), particularly if they are sufficiently opaque to stand up to a basalt grey (RAL 7012) color underneath? Product link on Hannants The similar Fantasy Printshop stripe decals indicate that their red might require a white backing, which caused me to wonder about the XtraDecals version. Thanks for any help. Chris Baer

That's very clear. Thanks, JayBee. That's one for the F-104 file! I was having trouble finding references that made clear the short fin's longer side was towards the back. It's amazing what you can convince yourself a photo shows . . . Chris Baer

Brilliant, thank you, Lusitanian and Andy. One fewer self-inflicted error to correct! And I appreciate the reminder about the wing tip tank fin/wing alignment. I'm keeping the tanks separate until after painting, since I want to do a luminous orange band on them -- going for a Norm 76 Marineflieger scheme. There seems to be enough wiggle room in the tank-to-wing fit to get the alignment correct without too much fuss. Chris Baer

I'm working on Kinetic's 1/48 F-104G, and the instructions for the wing tip tank fins are more along the lines of interpretive dance than technical manual. I've looked at photos of the real thing but keep second-guessing myself as to the orientation of the fins, particularly the short outer fin. I'd appreciate if the local brain trust could take a quick look and tell me whether my geometry is correct or if I have some recalibration in my future. This is a top down look at the port wing tip tank. Thanks for any assistance! Chris Baer

Long time listener, first time caller, as they say. I haven't seen many builds of Special Hobby's 1/72 Ki-54 Hei/Hickory here, so I thought I might share my just-completed version. I consider myself an enthusiastic novice when it comes to modeling, having gotten back in the hobby about three years ago after a very long hiatus from my well-distant grade school days. The build was mostly pleasant, and errors are broadly mine rather than the kit's. I'm still trying to get the hang of CA/superglue seam sealing, and I left a few marks that only became clear when I was much further along with the project. Lessons learned for the next build. The fuselage window clear parts were somewhat larger than the corresponding openings, and sanding the windows to fit quickly turned them from nicely rounded rectangles to, well, non-polygonal forms. Discretion, valor, and all that, so I stuck them in, admittedly haphazardly, before they got worse. My story is that the passengers on the last flight didn't close the windows tightly and I'm sticking to it . . . I did need to put a small styrene shim in to close up the join between the wing and fuselage on one side, and I had to build boxes for the wing lights out of sheet styrene to prevent them from falling into the wings. The wheel well/interior gear assembly does not bear mentioning -- it sees several tiny parts coming together mostly blind with far more accuracy than I'm able to muster. I chose an overall grey-green scheme, the aircraft on the box cover that was later salvaged from a lake. I used this build to experiment with black basing, so I laid down Mr. Finishing Surfacer 1500 Black as a primer coat and then did a mottle/marble with heavily thinned Mr. Color C128 Grey Green at 10psi or so through a 0.2mm nozzle, followed by a blend coat of the same. I think the black basing gave the surface enough variety that it doesn't look like a solid block of color. It doesn't show as well in pictures as in person, but it's noticeable enough for my purposes. The black basing definitely took longer than a typical base coat spray job, though -- hours, instead of minutes. The national insignia, wing identification stripes, and white fuselage band were painted on; the only decals are on the tail and rear fuselage for the serial numbers and unit insignia. The decals behaved very nicely and didn't silver at all. I added a panel line wash using a custom light grey oil paint mix and applied Tamiya weathering powders for some engine and exhaust grime. Final dull coat was with Winsor & Newton Acrylic Galeria Matt Varnish. I used the Eduard masks, which fit nicely other than being too small for the wing lights -- happily, a simple fix. Thanks for taking a look. This one should look fine on a shelf, so long as no World War II Japanese transport aircraft experts accidentally stumble into my apartment . . .

FS 36375 is Light Compass Ghost Grey. Hu127 is described as US Ghost Grey. I'm not able to find any reference to FS 36275, so I'd be inclined to say typo from the original source.

I've had good luck with Mr. Surfacer 1500 thinned in the 50% range with Mr. Color Leveling Thinner using a 0.35 needle at 20 psi or so. When I thinned too far (say 2/3 thinner), I had some issues with the primer peeling after masking, but I can't definitively put it down to the thinning ratio -- given the alchemy that is airbrushing, it could have been the phase of the moon. Can't speak to the retarder, though I believe that Mr. Color Leveling Thinner is pre-mixed with a retarding agent.