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Supersonic Hotrods of the Wisconsin Air National Guard


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Excellent job on both Billin53. Always did like colourful tailed fighters. These are definitely being followed closely with notes being taken ,I know there will be a test somewhere along the line.

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Hello Bill,

 

Your attention to detail, not only with both kits ( Meng F-102 & Hasegawa F-16 ), but with this “Work In Progress” thread as well is nothing short of impressive.  I am very interested in keeping up with your progress and when both are complete for display.  

 

By the way, you know most people retire from the northern section of the U.S. to the southern part????🥶  Regardless, I wish you the very best not only with the kits, but for your long awaited “Golden Years!!!!!”  :clap:

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1 hour ago, Sky Keg said:

 

By the way, you know most people retire from the northern section of the U.S. to the southern part????🥶  

Thus far, I’ve lived in (in chronological order)

Virginia, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Iowa, Rhode Island, California, Idaho, Connecticut, back to California, Maryland, and currently Alabama. So, you can see that I’m not much of a southerner 😎

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2 hours ago, LorenSharp said:

Always did like colourful tailed fighters. 

The Wisconsin Air National Guard (also the Alabama ANG) have been selected for transition to the F-35. I guess it’s too much to hope for them to have red tails. But, wouldn’t that be cool?

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21 minutes ago, billn53 said:

The Wisconsin Air National Guard (also the Alabama ANG) have been selected for transition to the F-35. I guess it’s too much to hope for them to have red tails. But, wouldn’t that be cool?

That it would. Especially Alabama. Now that would make an awesome Tuskegee honor flight.

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1 hour ago, rob Lyttle said:

It's looking to me that each individual State's ANG has more equipment and firepower than the entire RAF!! 

I believe the ILANG only has C-130s, if it makes you feel better.

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9 minutes ago, Jackson Duvalier said:

Congratulations on completing the missiles, Bill.  Those Falcons look great.

Unfortunately I ran out of “US Air Force”’decals for the second AIM-26B, but it’ll be tucked away in the rear of the bay so it probably doesn’t matter. 

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A little more progress this evening. I'll be focusing on my ZM Phantom build over the weekend, and Monday I'm off on a business trip, so it may be a few days before I can get back to the Wisconsin ANG hotrods.

 

Painted the wing fences:

 

49437451057_3a564e34b6_z.jpg 

 

Tamiya black for the radome:

 

49436753478_8a9d82e976.jpg 

 

and Tamiya Nato black for the walkways either side of the cockpit:

 

49437727302_a027c85e94_c.jpg 

 

For the walkways, I made masks based on the photo above. The pic was not taken directly over the cockpit, so items appear foreshortened. But it was taken over the aircraft centerline, so the widths are mostly reliable. I'll also use this photo as reference when I do the anti-glare panel.

 

You might be wondering whatever happened to my 50th Anniversary F-16? I'm waiting for a key piece of aftermarket to arrive (CMK engine nozzle). It's actually more than just the nozzle... the part with the nozzle is also the rear section of the fuselage. I want to have the fuselage completed before adding the wings and elevators. Good news is, it should be waiting for me when I return from my trip! So, you can expect to see more work on the Falcon half of this project shortly thereafter.

 

 

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3 minutes ago, Corsairfoxfouruncle said:

Quick question you mentioned that you use True north paints ? Do you use there thinners ? Im looking to maybe purchase some paints soon ? 
 

Dennis

I’ve been using Testors enamel thinner, works fine. 

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16 hours ago, billn53 said:

It may not seem like much progress, but you're looking at 70 tiny decals here!

The missiles look great Bill. One of the reason why my Flanker projects are still pending is the applying decals to all tiny missiles...

949.jpg

952.jpg

 

Serkan

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1 hour ago, Serkan Sen said:

The missiles look great Bill. One of the reason why my Flanker projects are still pending is the applying decals to all tiny missiles...

Ha ha! The Russians do love their missiles!

In my case, it was fortunate that the decals that came with the missiles released very quickly with water. Within 2-3 seconds of being wetted, they came off the water and were ready to go on the missile. Thus, decal application moved along quickly. 

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I woke up before daybreak this morning and couldn't get back to sleep, so decided to do a bit more work on the Deuce.

 

Anti-glare panel painted:

 

49438873496_4bf94b2c6d_c.jpg 

 

Removed the masking fluid dots from the various nav & position lights. I'm really pleased at how well the nail-dotter worked to mask these tiny lights!

 

49439099932_ff569af4a0.jpg 

 

However, when zoomed-in to take the following pic, I noticed a some red overspray on the fuselage:

 

49439099912_7f3dfe7b14.jpg 

 

I'll re-mask the lights and repaint.

 

 

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On 1/11/2020 at 9:29 PM, billn53 said:

The fuselage went together with no problems at all

Followed by a photo of nearly every clamp in the world :D

 

I'm following this as I can see an F-102 in my future. I'm taking the after burner finishing technique on board. The F-16 tip is pure gold. Thank You

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Hi Bill, just caught up on this thread, great work, I am especially interested in your Deuce build as at the end of last year I started an old Hasegawa F102 in a FROG box for the FROG GB.  Unfortunately the SuperScale decals had problems, the red and black stripes did not fit, an important item for a "Red Striped Rascal".  I found that Fundekals also did a set of markings for this aircraft so I ordered some, plus they make a great set of stencils and national markings.  However there was a glitch and the decals took almost 6 weeks to arrive missing the deadline of the GB.  On comparing the Fundekals markings with those that I had already put on my Deuce it showed that the SuperScale decals are wrong, the checks are too small and the words "Red Striped Rascal" too big.  So my problem, strip off the inaccurate markings, repaint and apply the new decals or just use a Meng kit.  Thoughts?

IMG_1011

 

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1 hour ago, Retired Bob said:

...strip off the inaccurate markings, repaint and apply the new decals or just use a Meng kit.  Thoughts?

 

Hi Bob, good to have you here.

To answer your question, I guess it depends on how much you value the time you’ve already invested in the Frog/Hasegawa kit. Stripping & repainting is certainly doable (I’ve had to strip paint more times than I’d like to think). So that’s definitely an option. On the Meng side, you’d have to buy the kit (make sure you get the Case X wing version).  Building OOB should go quickly with little fuss (my biggest issue so far has been the gaps to fill around the intakes). Another consideration is, were the decals you have sized specifically for the Hasegawa kit? If so, you might have problems using them on the Meng. 

- Bill

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1 hour ago, Retired Bob said:

On comparing the Fundekals markings with those that I had already put on my Deuce it showed that the SuperScale decals are wrong, the checks are too small and the words "Red Striped Rascal" too big.  So my problem, strip off the inaccurate markings, repaint and apply the new decals or just use a Meng kit.  Thoughts?

Maybe finish the frog/hasegawa kit as a generic plane from the same unit, thus leaving everything you've done untouched ? Then use the Meng kit for “Red striped Rascal”. Only thing you’d have to do is change side #’s. 

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52 minutes ago, billn53 said:

To answer your question, I guess it depends on how much you value the time you’ve already invested in the Frog/Hasegawa kit. Stripping & repainting is certainly doable (I’ve had to strip paint more times than I’d like to think). So that’s definitely an option. On the Meng side, you’d have to buy the kit (make sure you get the Case X wing version).  Building OOB should go quickly with little fuss (my biggest issue so far has been the gaps to fill around the intakes). Another consideration is, were the decals you have sized specifically for the Hasegawa kit? If so, you might have problems using them on the Meng. 

Hi Bill, this is part of the problem, I have spent quite a bit of time cleaning up this old kit, the Fundekals do not say they are sized for either kit and as for obtaining the Meng kit, I already have 4 case X wing kits and 2 case XX wing kits in my stash.  I just wish the surface detail was a little restrained, looks like it was given to the Meng newbie to practice on!  I was a little suprised when you redid all the (missing) rivets on the engine exhaust side bumps (not the technical name)  Looking at photos of these bumps they are smooth with what looks like different colored lines on them, perhaps welds?  The photo from above the cockpit showing the anti-glare panels shows a thin line of ADC gray between the nose anti-glare panel and the radome, that is new to me.

 

1 hour ago, Corsairfoxfouruncle said:

Maybe finish the frog/hasegawa kit as a generic plane from the same unit, thus leaving everything you've done untouched ? Then use the Meng kit for “Red striped Rascal”. Only thing you’d have to do is change side #’s. 

This does have merit, Dennis.  But it still means stripping down most of the rear end to remove the "Red Striped Rascal" decal, the serial number and the buzz number.

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1 hour ago, Retired Bob said:

>> I already have 4 case X wing kits and 2 case XX wing kits in my stash. 

Wow. Half a squadron!

1 hour ago, Retired Bob said:

>> I just wish the surface detail was a little restrained, looks like it was given to the Meng newbie to practice on!  I was a little suprised when you redid all the (missing) rivets on the engine exhaust side bumps (not the technical name)  Looking at photos of these bumps they are smooth with what looks like different colored lines on them, perhaps welds? 

Yep, we're in agreement about Meng's panel lines. I was half tempted (well, maybe not so much) to fill them in. And as for my riveting, that's a case of following Meng instead of the photos I had at hand. My bad!

 

1 hour ago, Retired Bob said:

>> The photo from above the cockpit showing the anti-glare panels shows a thin line of ADC gray between the nose anti-glare panel and the radome, that is new to me.

I haven't seen that on other aircraft, and I didn't include the line on mine.

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