TheyJammedKenny!

Dear Ed, If you and RedRoo are prepared to produce these parts, I'm equally prepared to purchase them through Kitlinx or another outlet that has access to your products on the N. American market. Alex

I thought so! The camera plays all kinds of tricks with proportion, and I'm no camera expert.

Not to criticize, but maybe it's photographic distortion: your outboard engine pylon on the left side seems to be at a different angle relative to the wing than the inboard--hanging in the vertical rather than perpendicular to the undersurface of the wing.

I build almost exclusively in 1/72 and 1/76 (very similar), depending on whether it's aircraft or ground vehicles. I love heavy aircraft--anything multi-engined with "heavy" feel on the flight controls strikes my fancy. BTW: I've been to Wroclaw. Really pretty town, and worthy rival to Krakow (don't tell the Krakus people, though!). Is the hobby shop near the Old Rynek still there?

Excellent work on this build! It really looks the part! I only see a couple areas where you might have struggled with the fit--the top of the cockpit clear part as it meets the roof in the front, and the two, vertically stacked windows just below and forward of the cockpit transparency. Overall effect, especially the paint, is quite nice.

Very nice! I see what you mean about the temporary replacement canopy being a bit outsize, but the overall effect is great. I can't believe this is a 1/72 scale kit! Looks like 1/48!

This is coming along great! Will you apply the red soon? What's your experience with acrylic paint drying times, decal application, and clear-coats? I had Future crack on a recent project because I think the acrylic paint was still drying underneath, even after several weeks!

Thanks, Laurie! My plan is to remove / replace the cockpit masks before I apply the final coat of white paint and clear-coat. The rationale is simple: excessive paint build-up can result in the acrylic paint tearing off in strips. It's really delicate work to do this, but worthwhile.

Tell us more! Are you preparing something for production? I have the re-release of the Airfix kit and could quite easily be persuaded to do another.

Welcome, Uwe! When we lived in Germany in the mid-late 70's, my dad spent entire summers engaged in REFORGER exercises on the Grafenwoehr range. Several families of kids and our moms would go on vacation around the Low Countries and in parts of Germany, and therefore had a much better time of it! It was in Germany that I discovered Matchbox models and 1/144 Revell A.G. (Germany) kits. Good times!

Serdecznie Wytam! It's good to have another aircraft modeler here. In what scale do you prefer to work, or are you still experimenting with scales to find out which suits you best?

Here we are with the masks removed. I had to use a fresh hobby knife blade, gently applied along the tape edge, to ensure the masking would not remove the primer paint. I then carefully evened things out, left and right, to ensure some amount of symmetry, using the sharp blade to cut away excess paint. With wet 2000 grit sandpaper, I gently sanded away ridge lines that had formed along the masking tape. Whew! Next step is to carefully mask these white areas and apply the black gloss undercoat for the silver. I'll try and ensure the masking is lower tack this time to insure against lifting. I'm satisfied that the raised ridge along the dorsal spine is now completely gone--carefully sanded away. But I had to re-scribe some of the panel lines--very carefully! Profile looks pretty good, too:

Here are some close-ups of the engine and rear stabilizers:

I used AK Extreme Metal white aluminum over the engine intake lips, heat exchanger inlet, and APU trap-door. As you can imagine, this was a major pain to mask with all the bits attached, but it was the only way to get a satisfactory result. Sorry not to have any photos of the masking process. I used the Maketar brand of canopy masks to help me along, because they include rounded cuts of tape that easily handle complex curves. For the wing, vertical stabilizer, and horizontal stabilizer leading edges, I used AK Extreme Metal polished aluminum, airbrushed at low pressure, directly over the white gloss paint. Again, there was no other way. I decided I would gain little / no advantage by undercoating with gloss black, and the results are fine. Next is the part I really dread: decals.

Nicely done!

Very nice, Laurie! Those Bristol Hercules engines look really nice, despite being molded in resin. I don't know what to suggest as far as protecting fine resin parts against breakage while cutting them from backing.

This is looking great, and I'd recommend filling the yawning gaps around in the cargo door as it meets the surrounding "skin." Perhaps a bit of stretched sprue just to make it a fit a little tighter? I had to add some plastic to mine, otherwise it did not look right.

This is an amazing result on a really old kit! Your paint job is first-rate, and is the most attractive scheme ever applied to these aircraft, IMO. It just screams: "we can reach out and touch you, anytime, anywhere." Just looking at it causes my heart-rate to rise significantly. Where's Major Kong!?? LOL. Totally awesome question, and of course Kong was flying an early H model. "Stay on the bomb run boys....I'll get them bomb bay doors open if it hair-lips everyone on Bear Creek."

Sweet! This is really sharp. How did you build up the cowl aft of the canopy?

Paints finally came in! Leading edges and other things are all painted, but I think I need to refine the definition of the wing leading edge as it nears the fuselage. I always wait for the paint to dry at least 48 hours before attempting something really risky/stupid, though. I'll post new pics soon.

Wow! That's really nice. Looks like the real thing!

It definitely looks like it's coming along there. I believe what you sanded off on the right side were aluminum panels attached to the horizontal stabilizers themselves (on the real thing) that move with the entire stabilizer around its trim pivot point.

Wow! Really nice build and finish. It looks the part. Thanks for posing it with a 747 for comparison!

Nice work on this, Bill! It's looking great. What kind of putty are you using on the canopy join? I normally start with Zap 560, give it 48 hours to dry, then run liquid cement carefully along the edge, and if necessary, CA.

A few things to watch out for: 1) before you cement the wing halves, be sure to check them for warpage, especially when you look at the leading edge. Be sure to look at photos of the real aircraft to verify whether there's some dihedral outboard of the engines. 2) The kit's fuselage is the right length, but is one window short of what you need. You'll want to add it to the window line of the forward fuselage. How you do it depends entirely on you--decal, paint, or careful cutting. 3) The nose shape, particularly on a radar-equipped aircraft, needs some to be more conically shaped than what the kit gives you (even with the extra parts supplied by the most recent Airfix release), so you'll want to sand and reshape this area well. 4) You'll need a heat-exchanger intake on both sides of the fuselage. I'd cut off the kit-supplied monstrosity and replace it with halves from a similar-sized fuel tank. The link is @CarLos supplied is really good. I based my build on its contents and got excellent results many years ago. I also raided several never-to-be-built Esci kits to get the main landing gear and heat exchanger intakes. The Italeri re-release of the Esci kit is not an improvement, BTW.