Dan Hayward

Actually now that I think about it, I did not vac- form them, I "smash molded" them by heating a square of plastic sheet over a candle flame and pulling it down over my wood master which was mounted on a stick.

The new kit really helps a lot, it is very nice. -Dan

Oh you're right- I hate it when the scale isn't mentioned and then I go ahead and do it myself. I've just edited the topic to include it, glad you pointed it out! -Dan

I apologize for the late reply, I somehow lost track of this thread. The gun ring was cut from sheet plastic to a width that would fit in the fuselage, then detailed with just a few pieces of plastic strip. The frame for the seat was made from a piece of bent brass rod and the seat itself was carved from plastic. I cheated and mounted it all to the floor on some plastic blocks so that it would sit at the right height to line up with the cockpit sills. The wheels wells posed a bit of a challenge since they were a rounded bowl on the real thing. I carved a piece of ba

Here's one I've been working on since last summer and finally got across the finish line. It is the newish Airfix kit of the Westland H.A.S. 3 helo modified to represent a U.S. Navy SH-3D with further details specific to "Old 66" which saw service on many of the Apollo missions. I followed Jodie Peeler's excellent article on Tommy Thomason's "Tailhook Topics" blog here- http://tailspintopics.blogspot.com/2016 ... irfix.html. I used Starfighter Decals' excellent set of markings to depict her as she would have appeared immediately after recovering the Apollo 11 astronauts. There are qui

Very nicely done!

Thank you John, Roger and Graeme! I believe it is true that this is the only kit he ever produced. I've read that a Gee Bee was to follow but it never happened. I was not aware of the Williams Bros. connection, that is interesting. As for the decals, the set in my kit still looked very good and possibly useable but I scanned them and printed a new set on clear decal film. Better safe than sorry! -Dan

I've been wanting to build one of these kits for quite a while and finally got ahold of one in a trade last summer. At first glance the kit looks a little crude but closer inspection reveals some very finely molded parts, especially the landing gear legs. The biggest problem with my kit was the main wing which had a lot of waviness and sinkholes due to the fact that it was molded in one piece. I decided to aggressively sand it to smooth it out which also removed all of the detail. That was replaced with plastic strip, rescribing, etc. Other than that is is basically "out-of-the-box", I d

Thanks for the info. I've been meaning to try the Hataka paints so this will be a good color to start with. Your thread sounds a lot like the smoke colored mono-poly invisible thread that I use from time to time. -Dan

Beautiful! There's nothing that gives away the fact that it is a 1/72 model. May I ask what paint you used? I need a good source for Polish khaki. Would also like to know what you rigged it with, it is very impressive. -Dan

I just finished this today. I admit I was intimidated by the way the lower wing attaches to the fuselage but I managed to get it together- twice, since I knocked it off due to clumsiness shortly after getting it together the first time. I used a set of old Airfix decals and rigged it with >005" Nitinol wire. -Dan

Thank you all for the nice comments! -Dan

This is another one of those kits that I never got around to building in my youth. Not that I didn't try once or twice! But now that I'm older and stupider, I decided to give it another go by tackling one step at a time to see how far I could get it. I started by tossing all of the interior parts and scratch-built new cockpits from plastic sheet. I did use a resin seat for the pilot. With that done, I assembled the rest of the kit and sanded all of the rivets on the wings and fuselage down until just a hint of them remained. I also drilled out the dive brakes and fil

Thank you! I'm a huge fan of your builds and felt I was channeling you from time to time while I was working on this. I will definitely post a WIP here the next time I build anything worthy. I never know what direction I will go in next but I'm intrigued by the interwar civil scene now and have an Airframe DeHavilland D.H. 34 that is looking interesting. Thanks again! -Dan

Thank you all for the nice comments! -Dan