trickyrich

I can resist...... until they release the E model that is........ though I maybe tempted by a J model if they release that too......

actually I did after I posted this..... noting of interest/funny humour showed up unfortunately........ other than some weird metal belt thing!!

I can't remember what scale you are thinking about but Maketar as mentioned is the place to go for 1/48th insignia masks, I have a set of these, https://shop.maketar.com/?nationality=australian You dod sometimes see RAAF modern decals sets show up on evilBay, but they ar hard to get. Stencilling is straight from the factory, so any good stencil decal set will do, they were covered in stencils just like their USAF counterparts! The RAAF Phantom's had no unique badging or markings. They just had the RAAF roundels and serial numbers, these serial number styles may have been a different style to the factory/USAF ones, I'm not 100% sure. These serial numbers will be the hardest to find, but they do show up on evilBay every so often. I'd personally go for the Novascale ones first (N-48036) , if you can find them, rather then the Hawkeye ones, but if either of them show up then grab then as I can't say when you'll see any more around. Both of these set have full roundels and serial numbers included. Just do a search every so often for them, that's what i had to do, Novascale sort of releases old sets every so often i think.

hahahaha.... Least I didn't mention your "disco ball sporran"!!! .... oh god I have to stop before I wet myself!!

you know Pat @JOCKNEY he probably still wears the same disco outfits on Saturday nights!!! Give all the local lassies a right treat, in his fluro polyester kilt!

that does look very nice!

looking good

not at the rate it's going at the moment!!!

strange you had issues with the Quinta. Both look good, the Quinta is the only way to go with the canopy open, with the cockpit so "open" when the canopy is closed then the Eduard ones are great. Having used both I do think the Quinta ones are the easiest to use, a bit more expensive but on the right model they are the only way to go.

Nice!! Yeah the U'c bay is a bit of a pain to mask on the F-16, especially if you fit the gear first.

Great o see this one off to a nice start! Mmmm Banh Mi!!!! The best in Sydney is from the Hong Ha Bakery in Mascot!!! They've been running for nearly 30 years, always long lines waiting....... thou probably not now with the lockdown.

I just bought a brand new BBQ on Sunday...... getting ready for the Ragnor Food Fest coming soon!!! I may even start a special thread just for our food adventures!

OK the decals are on……. and oh what 2 days of fun that was!!! The kit decals are by Cartograf and looked awesome, but the initial ones I did (on the weapons to test them) gave me some trouble. They didn’t really want to stick to anything other than my tweezers or fingers, and they were super thin. Needless to say, a couple of them died! (RIPieces little fella's ) Later on they then decided to stick to anything!! This was not helped by Academy getting the numbering and positioning wrong on a few decals, including those big red flashes on the tail. I used some decal setting solution with them and they eventually snuggled down really well, just a bit of softener used in places to help them conform. First up I just wasn’t happy with the Dark Grey line work on the flying surfaces, it was just too dark……. and I completely forgot to post/mention this other than this one photo!! The radome and sensor panels along with leading edges and strips on tail surfaces were all painted this dark grey. Going over all the photos of there areas, there is quite a bit of difference in the colour of this grey, it looks to lighten over time. But I wasn’t really happy with the colour on the flying surfaces, in a lot of the photos it was lighter than the colour on the sensors/radome. So more masking and a re-paint, am much happier with the colour now. So I started decaling on the weapons and over time moved between them and decaling the aircraft……. And what a job that was…. ….. there are more decals on one of those AIM-120’s than on most 1/72nd aircraft, something like 35 decals!! Each of those small GBU’s has 20! They’re ready for another clear coat before I start the panel lines. Luckily this aircraft doesn’t have the billions of stencils on the underside like an F-4 Phantom. Interesting things is the orange colour used for all the warning messages. Not too many issues with the ones on the upper surfaces, other than again they got some of the placements confused, the instructions showed the IFR marking halfway down the spine! I do like the Bat!!! The red flash was also shown to be on the wrong side…. Luckily I managed to remove the first one after I realized it was wrong. So next up will be another gloss coat then I can start the final panel line work and flat coat her. I reckon if I an get a little bit more done to her over the week then there’s a good chance I’ll finish her this weekend or almost will!

I've been using these and similar for years, they're awesome and so useful. Plus cheap if you get them from the $2 shop!

I love it!!!