yardbird78

I masked off some panels and sprayed them slightly different shades of Alclad. The nose is burned metal and the fuselage panels are chrome aluminum. I was rather surprised when the masking tape pulled off a small amount of the first coat of Alclad in couple of places. Darwin masked and ready for paint done bottom view

This is the 1/48th Monogram F9F-5 that will be in the markings for VF-153. Two Panthers came back from combat missions with battle damage, one front and one rear. They swapped parts and came up with a NMF fuselage/wings with Gloss Sea Blue tail feathers. I finished my RF-84F for the Recce Group Build over at ARC a few days ago, so now it is back to the F9F-5 Panther. I painted the interior details, added nose weight, glued the fuselage halves together and added the wings and stabs. It needed some putty on the upper nose joint and one little spot underneath. I sanded everything smooth, down to 2400 grit sandpaper, meticulously cleaned everything and applied two coats of Future. I misted on a coat of Alclad II, Duraluminum and then after a couple minutes, came back with a heavier coat. It actually turned out rather well. It was dry to the touch after only about 15 minutes, but I plan to wait at least a couple of days before handling it anymore. It will have to be masked off for the Gloss Sea Blue tail, then the decals applied and the pylons & ordnance added. Darwin

Thanks for all the compliments. I really appreciate them. Darwin

I put the finishing touches on this plane a couple of hours ago and took some pictures. This is the first Heller kit that I have ever built and overall, I am quite pleased with it. The fit of all the parts was excellent with just a touch of putty in a couple of spots along the fuselage joint. It has raised panel lines and I left them that way because I am not masochistic enough for that rescribing routine. If someone did want to do that, it would be fairly easy because the raised lines are very fine and soft, so they sand off easily. That leaves a faintly darker line where the raised lines used to be that can be used as a guide to scribe the new lines. - The cockpit and instrument panel have moderately good detail that is very accurate for what there is. The seat is fair to good with no belts. I added red/green lights on the wing tips, the .50 calibre gun openings and the shell ejection chutes under the wing roots as well as photos of cameras behind the camera windows. There are 3 sets of double windows where one camera alternates taking photos from one then the other, so I only put one camera in each of those pairs. There is a window behind the nose gear that is the port for the pilot's viewfinder, so I put a very small lens there. - The balance seemed just a slight bit tail heavy so I put about 20 BBs in the nose to make sure that it would sit on all three wheels. The kit decals give you a choice of German, French or Belgian marks, but they were all unusable anyway. I used markings from Micro Scale for the 29th TRS at Shaw AFB, SC. - I noticed in the photos that the nose gear is a little crooked and a couple of other little flaws. I used Alclad II Duraluminum over Mr Surfacer 1200 primer. This is my first use of Alclad and the finished product leaves a lot to be desired, which is probably my fault for inadequate surface preparation. All of the joints were smooth and covered well, but I didn't clean the surface well enough of contaminates and the small pieces of crud show rather badly. Even after 4 days of drying, the paint was just slightly tacky and it was very easy to leave fingerprints. Darwin On to the photos: Marine Corps and Air Force reconnaissance for the 1950s

Really great work, especially on the figures. The paratrooper inside needs to have his boot on the posterior of the one in the door to add a little "encouragement" for his jump. Darwin

Very nice work on the re-scribing. I am hoping to do this same kit as a Misty FAC in the near future, so I will be following this build with much interest. Darwin

You are off to a nice start on the F-84. That basic kit has been around 20 or 30 years and has been re-issued several times with different box art and decals. I built two of them about 4 years ago and they turned out well. The kit has some minor shape and panel line issues, but "looks right" to any but the most nit picking rivet counter. Darwin

Very nice work on the RF-4. Those cameras bring back many memories of when I did imagery analysis and mission planning for the 460 TRS at Tan Son Nhut, Viet Nam. Darwin

Fantastic work so far. The seat and cockpit are superb. Darwin

Today's progress report Alclad II, Duraluminum paint applied. My first attempt at using Alclad is probably closer to the disaster end of the spectrum than the spectacular. I thought that I had the surface cleaned really well and ready for paint. WRONG! There are all kinds of little specks of foreign debris, etc that show up terribly well. I think I put too much paint on, (in several layers). I am not particularly impressed with Alclad, despite so many people extolling it's virtues and realism. I don't see the look as any better than Model Master metallics. The big advantage to Alclad is it's durability. You can mask over it without any damage. Model Master metallics require a coat of clear gloss paint or Future and that detracts from the looks of the natural metal. Seat & pilot aboard, temporarily Painted the red trim and gray fin tip. The pilot already abandoned the project. The landing gear wells painted interior green Darwin

I got all of the major pieces bolted together and put a coat of primer on it. The wings fit just beautifully and didn't require any filler at all. For primer, I used Mr Surfacer 1200 thinned 1 to 1 with laquer thinner. I tried 2 parts 1200 to 1 part thinner and it was too thick, forming "spider webs" around the edges of the wings, etc. I thinned it some more and the spider webs went away. A couple of small drops of water got past the moisture trap and they are visible if you look closely. I plan to let it dry overnight and give it very light sanding tomorrow. Darwin

I very rarely compare a model to plans for a couple of reasons. If there is a discrepancy, I am not sure if the plans are wrong or if the model is wrong and I am not overly concerned if a panel line, shape or size is slightly off. Nearly every kit has some errors somewhere. I will correct what is really obvious, if I can and just live with the rest. I admire those modelers that do go for absolute perfection, but I do my modeling for fun and relaxation, so getting hung up on minute details removes my motivation for modeling in the first place. I have both sides of the fuselage together as well as the top and bottom of both wings. Everything seems to fit pretty well with only a small bit of putty in a couple of spots on the fuselage joint. The canopy fits very well to it's sill. I need to permanently attach the wings and then get a coat of primer on it. I am tentatively planning to use Alclad II for the first time, so this may work out well or be a complete disaster. I have read several articles in magazines and on different modeling forums about perfect surface preparation, different primers and general procedures, so I guess it is just time to jump in and see what happens. Darwin

Next project up to bat is the 1/48th Heller model of the Republic RF-84F Thunderflash. I am planning to use Micro Scale sheet #48-113 to make aircraft # 52-7429 from the 29th Tactical Reconnaissance Squadron, 363rd Tactical Reconnaissance Wing, Shaw AFB, South Carolina. This is what it is supposed to look like when finished Well, at least I got it out of the box and sorted through the pieces trying to develop a plan of attack. The spoilerons on the upper/inboard portion of the wing have a bunch of holes in them. The model just has imbossed circles depicting these holes. I drilled them out to give the wing some depth. Darwin I built two of the 1/48 Monogram F-84F fighter bombers awhile back and I carefully compared the Heller vs Monogram kits. The Mono has MUCH more detail in the cockpit and gear wells plus the option of having the canopy open. I seriously considered sacrificing one of my still in the box Monogram kits to use the better parts in the recce version, but the parts are just enough different in size and shape that it won't work. I am going to have to make do with what comes in the kit. The Heller cockpit it OK, just not up to the Mono standard. Darwin I did some work on the cockpit and painted the driver, (oops, pilot). I didn't notice that nasty fingerprint on the side of the seat until I saw it in the photo. I'll have to fix that. Darwin