David H

Another update on LOVEBUG, coming next week.

Amazing to think that some of the last B-52Hs built were assigned to Minot AFB in 1962 and are still based there. -d-

i love it. So nice to see a "Ford" in something other than VF (AW)-3, which has emerged as THE Skyray "Cliche" paint scheme. -d-

At the risk of repeating myself: Wowww.

This was never intended to be another build thread; i think i've covered that pretty well. However, here is an addendum to show the happy ending of the windscreen installation story. The windscreen was glued in place using MiG AMMO white acrylic glue. The liquid glue was rinsed away with a wet paint brush and allowed to dry overnight. The following morning, the dried excess that didn't rinse away was carefully sanded off. There was a little bit of filling and sanding done with Mr Dissolved Putty on the front end of the windscreen base. The windscreen periphery was then masked off and a coat of Tamiya LP-11 silver applied. Then i applied my customary mix of YZC primer. Removing the mask from the periphery showed there were one or two places where a little bit of filling was still needed, so i patched those areas up with Mr Dissolved Putty, sanded it out and charged on. Here's what it looks like now... So, All's Well that Ends Well.

And there you go! Neat choice of markings.

For some odd reason, you don't see many Hasegawa A3D Skywarriors or AD Skyraiders built up. I don't have a good explanation for this, since they're fundamentally solid kits that look good when built up. It's a shame because you can really do a lot with these kits when you let your imagination take over.

if you can find the direct equivalent locally, so much the better. It's pretty expensive stuff, but on the other hand it WAS meant to be used to wax your Ferrari....

i use Malm's liquid carnuba wax. The stuff looks like honey mustard salad dressing. You apply it with a wet brush, and when it dries it looks like clear flat. You then polish the dried wax away with a cotton bud or two. Very very fast, and eliminates the problematical aspect of dipping canopies in Future. I've been told that mineral spirits will remove it but for obvious reasons, i'm too afraid to try. if and when Seattle has a show, i guess....

Many of you recall a year or so back i built and finished the Airfix 72nd scale Buccaneer. Those of you who followed the build progression probably remember that i had fit issues between the instrument panel dash, and the windscreen. At the time, i thought it was something of an oversight and while i was able to make it work, i thought Airfix was asleep at the switch. Fast Forward to late 2022. I have a second Buccaneer going into paint (funny story), and time came to install the windscreen. In a nutshell... i was flat out wrong. The second instrument dash installed exactly per the kit instructions, and fit fine. At this point, while allowing the suspense to build.... i used the NewWare Models NWAM0742 mask set this time, instead of Eduard. This is just me, but based on my experience using both Eduard and NewWare masks, given the choice i'll use NewWare. If you haven't had a chance to compare them to some Eduard masks, you should. This is the inside of the windscreen, masked and painted with the NewWare set. And now... the big finish. The Airfix Windscreen fits as perfectly as anyone could expect. So, this experience just re-enforces my feelings towards the kit, which are very very positive. Airfix knew exactly what they were doing; i did not. Thought it was important to pass on my findings and set the record straight. -d-

yeah, it's why i wet sand the crap out of everything, before i paint it.

i love it!

Well, it's time to grapple with the one thing i dreaded- the canopy. It fits onto the fuselage okay, but if it fits well in one place, it fits kind of poorly elsewhere. First step was to get the canopy onto the fuselage and aligned properly. I actually pulled the canopy off once before i got it right in the second attempt. The canopy was glued on with MiG AMMO white acrylic glue, taped down in the back to keep it from shifting, and i tried to rinse as much of the excess glue away as i could with water and a wet paintbrush. What doesn't rinse away flows into the gap between the canopy and the fuselage, which is definitely a bonus- if you can keep it under control. I also put bits of Tamiya tape on the canopy so i could maneuver it around with my fingers, without accidentally tracking wet glue onto the clear parts. What you see here is the canopy glue in a semi-liquified state, while i'm rinsing away the excess. In this photo, the canopy glue has dried, and i've gone back with Tamiya sanding sponges to sand away some glue blobs. Aside from the intake bullets, the other nagging shape issue with the Hasegawa A3D is the canopy. On the real aircraft, the canopy framework was carefully integrated into the surrounding sheet metal, lending it a fluid, seamless appearance. On the Hasegawa kit, it's treated like a bubble canopy like you would find on something like an F-86 Sabre. It gives the appearance of being plopped on top of the fuselage as an expedient, almost an afterthought. What followed were several rounds of filling, sanding, checking, and re-filling to carefully blend the canopy base into the surrounding fuselage. My fillers of choice were Mr. Dissolved Putty, and Mr Surfacer 500, which over time has thickened and now more closely resembles Mr Surfacer 100.... if such a thing existed. In this photo, i sanded the layers of filler (3 so far) to blend the aft canopy into the upper rear fuselage. I had to remove the tape and sand around the edges of the canopy some. Here, i've sanded the canopy up through 12000 grit using micro mesh, but i have not yet polished it. The canopy *may* require one more layer of filler on the rear end, but i want to mask off the canopy frames and re-prime the area before i do that. In these 2 profile photos, hopefully you can see how the filler transition on the back end makes the canopy look more like a "fastback", and less like a "bubble top". The "blending" of the canopy framework on the A3D is most evident directly abeam the 2 forward facing crew members along the base of the canopy and especially on the back end. In my view, it's something worth fixing. Once i got the canopy blending and the shape more or less into the ballpark, i returned to the engine nacelles, where i went back and cleaned up a few areas on Number 2 engine, and painted up Number 1 engine. The nacelles will probably come more to life once the weathering stage begins, but this is as far as we're going on them, for now. I'm presently waiting on canopy masks, so at least for a little while, i'm gonna be tinkering with this... Yeah, it's another Buccaneer. That's all for now. Keep those letters and cards coming, and thanks for shopping!

I suspect this *is* The follow on to the first Eastern Express Trident release, which i have and is quite nice aside from the price tag. -d-

Nice looking F-4B, Viper. I'm one of those weirdos who thinks a Navy Phantom looks best with just a centerline drop tank, and minimal other stuff hanging off it... -d-