Gruntpa

It was amazing as a kid watching these "fighters" from the 50's through the 70's grow in size and weight to rival medium and even some heavy bombers of WWII like you said. We didn't see any "shrinkage" until the F-16 came along and reset the standard to "compact can still carry a big punch". McDonnell Douglas was a big one fan of Bigger is Better imo... Republic was no slouch either in that regard.

Good luck! She's coming out quite nicely.

💯

Nice, interesting tank recovery vehicle, had not seen a WWII version before just the modern one's used in my old SP Artillery unit. Looking forward to the built!

Should sub title this the much cliche'd "Grey Ghost"... After I passed my biennial flight review this week I primed "Iron Annie" inside and out, top and bottom this weekend. Then painted the control surfaces, cowls and fixed the left main strut on the main gear. Saw in one of the photos where I goofed and got some primer touch-up on the left elevator upper surface near the fuselage and some over spray on the left aileron Dang it... Beauty is but a can of (spray) paint away... Props come off as does the top for now until I have more painted. The kit is primitive compared to today's kits but this ole' girl has something the newfangled kits don't, things that move and make it fun to play with and a little bit of beefiness. Landing lights on the wings came out decently enough. Had a 1/8" hole punch so punched some masking tape and perfect fit. Painted over the cargo door windows since I was missing the cargo door option part along with the canopy. I found that clear UV resin makes an AWESOME filler, better than putty and flows into the cracks and crannies nicely. Once there zap it with the UV light and done deal.

Agreed, the extra crew is definitely nice to have. Seems model companies back in the day actually built these for kids to play with so they added the little things like that and other working features for us to play with.m With you on the interior and normally I do, I'll definitely be paying for it this morning for sure! Just wanted a quick side trip down memory lane last night. 😁

I was inspired by seeing @Ratch's rather beautifully done Ju 52 and a couple other folk's Ju 52's on Britmodeller. After that my wife and I went to go see the Eclipse in the path of totality and we watched the old Clint Eastwood movie Where Eagles Dare (only 55 years late apparently!) I had built one of these when I was 9 or 10 and wanted to relive some those memories this weekend. Amazing what Google can tell us! (I still need to confirm all this and am open to corrections) Since the kit is depicting tail number "Z1 BF" of the Stab IV/KGr zbV 1 from the Balkens to Southern Italy to Northern Africa I will be attempting the late scheme of dark and light green with RLM blue underside with yellow on the undersides of the wing tips with yellow cowls and rudder. This aircraft had three camouflage schemes in it's career with the Luftwaffe. Winter like Ratch's with Dark Green and Off White, the Balkans variant with (I think?) tan where the light green normally would be then the dark green with light green variant. From what I could find all variants had yellow engine cowls and the two non winter schemes had the RLM blue undersides I believe with the dark & light green scheme had insignia yellow on the undersides of the main wing's tips. Tracing it out on Google was a bit convoluted but did find an Eduard paint chart. Just had to get one and here we are YAKOMB (Yet Another Kit On My Bench)... This is MPC's version of the original kit from the venerable Airfix kit. Hopefully this will bring back some fond memories for some for our colleagues on Britmodeller. Definitely an old kit. Gaps, flash, mis-fitting/slightly warped parts and not quite aligned horizontal stabilizer or wings but tons of fun to build regardless. Nothing some putty and a coat of paint can't cure! Top set on but not glued on yet so I can go back in and paint the interior. No interior for the cabin and rudimentary cockpit with featureless instrument panel. Simple platform for the gunner with no details Plain jane and raised rivets Back side of the cockpit entrance Some gaps but manageable Didn't know they had drop down landing lights on the wings, sweet! More raised panel line details instead of etched. VERY simplistic motors and exhaust but the props spin and wheels turn! 😁 I think the seats should be on opposite sides but according to the instructions this is how they are "supposed" to go. Since I am doing OOB this what they will be! Old fashioned sprues with warped parts! Had to straighten out the ailerons they came off the sprues curved. On the MPC kit they give 8 extra crew, back in the day models were for playing with after you built them! MPC's instructions. ~Cheers!

Quite gorgeous, amazing work. Love the unusual underside color.

Curious, the kit he is demonstrating with looks suspiciously like Hawk Models Aluminum plated P-51D kit from a wee bit ago in 1967-ish...

With all that stenciling I wonder what the Wright Flyer would have looked like had they... 😝 Loving the build and the detail.

These decals are amazing and give that "painted on" look to them. Definitely going to investigate these.

No worries and thank you. I have a plan I'm going to try this weekend, I'll hold off on this option for now and see if my fingers are nimble enough to pull it off.

I saw that in my searches, looks really good. I bookmarked it into my Ju-52 folder and it is on my list of potential solutions. Also love the tutorial on painting corrugated surfaces, good to know these things.

Thanks @PatG, @stevehnz, @Work In Progress & @theplasticsurgeon for some excellent suggestions, you've given me several solid options to experiment with! I'll save as getting the extra "parts" kit as last option if needed and my fingers fail me. I promise I'll try to keep the artilleryman swearing to a minimum this weekend.

I saw that in my meanderings on the wild wild web. Didn't know they did a cockpit gun emplacement but not surprising! For now this coming weekend I'm leaning towards stretching my skills with the wire frame and some solder with carved block forming as backup just to torture myself with. (No drill sergeants here to do that for me, someone's gotta do it!) Hopefully I can respond back with some good news.