Steve Collins

I suppose he could be sad instead of miffed. I think the diorama is supposed to represent a 'final flight.' They did just recently retire the last of the Mirage IVs, didn't they? Even the book cited, "La fin d'un règne (Broché)" translates to the end of a reign. Dunno. Steve

Shaun, One could never tell this was your first year building. Outstanding work. You've gone from a terrific start to a brilliant finish for the year. And so many! Last year I finished five models. This year, zero (so far - I've still got Christmas week, but my daughter is visiting....). And apparently, you have the right attitude for doing it. Look at others' works, listen to advice, ask lots of questions. Then build what you want, the way you want, and, above all, have fun (as Al Superczynski always said). I suspect the modelers of the world are going to see a lot of good models over the Seamus signature for a lot of years to come. I look forward to it. Steve

Shaun, That's a real beauty. One can almost smell the jet fuel and hear the creaking and popping. Lovely Steve

Tim, I would suggest you contact our very own Mike Reeves from TwoMikes. He might have an interest (though I haven't spoken to him of it yet) and he certainly has the necessary equipment. Available time may be the issue, though. Steve

I've got several of the older 1/144 releases of the WWII kits and many are almost caricatures of the planes they're supposed to represent. Some of the more recent releases from Sweet and Platz and Eduard are gorgeous little models (Mustangs, Zeros, Wildcats, Hurricanes, Bf-109s, P-47s, SeaKings, ). The world could probably stand to have new models of the F4U Corsair, the TBF/TBM/Tarpon, the Hellcat (possibly coming from one of those guys above), a wider variety of the Japanese fighters other than Zeros, virtually all the WWII medium and heavy bombers. In modern aircraft, you could make a business just out of 1/144 variants of the MiG-21. Attack have done a few Soviet fighters that build into pretty good replicas, Trumpeter have quite a few larger aircraft and some modern Chinese (naturally) and US, but there are still plenty of good ones to be done. Just some suggestions... Steve

Um, ok, let me give this a try....it can be a bit confusing. Block 1 through Block 25 jets used the Pratt & Whitney F-100 engine with the small-mouth intake (Normal Shock Inlet - NSI). From Block 30 on, there were two engines used. Blocks ending in 0 (B30, 40, 50, 60) have GE F-110 engines of various versions and blocks ending in 2 (B32, 42, 52) have PW F-100 engines of various versions. On the B30 aircraft, from B30D on the inlet was changed to the large-mouth intake (Modular Common Inlet Duct - MCID). At least I think that's correct. So, for the B52+, you'd need the small-mouth intake and the PW exhaust. HTH. I found a picture on the web that shows the exhaust - the link is http://airbase.kr/bbs/zboard.php?id=gaga&a...desc&no=149 I guess I need to look up how to do the 'linky' thingy. Steve

Ah, my mistake. Missed the part where you said 1/48. Sorry. Steve

Julien, You are right. Typo on my part. It is a K. Fat-fingered the keyboard again. And yes, the nose should have more of a straight line to it than it does. Tapered it down some, but not enough. I think the decals may have been intended for the Heller kit (which is slightly more dimensionally accurate than the Hasegawa, I understand), as they overlap just a bit on the backbone. I made the mistake of not trimming them there and you can tell under certain light conditions. Thanks for the comments. Steve

Actually, PJ Productions produce a set of seated WWI pilots that Hannants does carry. Steve

Andy, Thanks for the comments. The first picture was taken with less flash, I think. The later ones are pretty much true color. For wargaming, the Staghound is pretty good. Leave out all the interior stuff if you're going to have the hatches closed (there's a ton of it in there, too - full turret, two engines, seats, etc). I didn't really have many fit issues except where the top fits on the sides of the body and getting the fenders to fit flush. Make sure to really clean up the mold seams both on the suspension hubs and inside the openings in the wheels. You'll get an easier fit that way. If you build the turret as shown, you'll have an opening under the gun in the mantlet. I filled mine with a scrap of sheet plastic. The coaxial machine gun fitted next to the breach of the cannon is fiddly to get in straight. Other than those things, it was just a matter of a lot of very small parts. I was pretty pleased with it when done, though. Mish, Next time I'll use larger photos. I just copied those straight from our club's website, so they were optimized for it. Thanks for the kind words. Steve

Thanks, Rich. Very interesting boat. Hopefully I'll get a tour in January.

Thanks, Seamus. The Academy kit will be such a nice build compared to this one. The Hasegawa kit goes together pretty well, but it's really showing its age and the raised panel lines bugged me too much to let go. Steve

Built for my daughter last year. Her fiance is a torpedoman aboard the Columbia. The boat is one of the last three Los Angeles class boats built. Yankee Modelworks kit. Patch is actual crew patch. Apparent angle of waterline paint and screw is due to wide-angle lens used during photo shoot. All comments gladly accepted. Photo credit Don Crowe. Steve

Thanks, Daz. Yeah, that's kinda what drew me to it in the first place. Not something you see in those marking every day. Steve

Woof. What a build. Sometimes less than a lot of fun, but I pushed through it. Done as Israeli Staghound in 1956 war. 2nd place in its category at 2007 IPMS-USA Nationals in Anaheim. Pretty lucky considering it was dropped the day prior to entry as I was going into my hotel room door and it blew up. Reinstalled the turret, put the pintle-mount .30 back on, shortened the antenna to take the kink out of it, straightened the bent-over grass out, glued it back to the road. Couldn't do much for the scratches caused by the base bouncing off the model after hitting the floor. All comments welcomed. Photos credit Don Crowe.

Here's my first post of a finished model on Britmodeller, so be gentle. It's the old Hasegawa 1/72 kit, rescribed, modified cockpit with some Airwaves photoetch added, landing gear changed to A-7 gear, all equipment in engine bay under wing scratchbuilt, wing flaps and droops dropped, electronics bulge over wing removed, strakes modified. Added MERs and Mk82 bombs from Hasegawa weapons set, scratchbuilt Zuni launchers on missile rails. Marked as VMF-321. All photos credit Don Crowe. Steve

Seamus, If you're having difficulties finding the pencil, send me your snail mail address and I'll shoot one off to you this week. I personally use the Berol pencils for lots of weathering. For worn areas over bare metal, I tend toward the aluminum (yes, I'm a Yank) one, rather than the steel one. Shows better. Let me know if you need one (or both). Steve