denders

Still working away. The last of the decals are on. I've been fighting with panel lines. The usual panel line 'paint' has not been working to satisfaction on this one. Despite letting it dry for a couple of hours, it all wipes off when I try to clean up the excess.

Okay, this one is done.

Thanks for checking Hubert. I was on my phone and really able to go searching.

Chris, thanks, the color is Tamiya lacquer Mica Red. Fullarmor, I got those blocks from MicroMark, years ago. The piece they’re sitting on is magnetic sheet on a piece of plywood. I used a white pen to make the grid. All from about ~30+ years ago. I saw the idea in a magazine.

It's getting there.

All the decals are on the main airframe. There are decals to go on the canopies and weapons. I wasn't sure whether I was going to put the '30 years, etc.' and the big spook on it, but I did.

I haven't posted much on this, but I've been working on it.

Hi Peter, thanks for the comment. I wasn't going to get carried away with all the stencils on this one. But I agree, they make it look great.

We spent last week at the NC shore. There is a nice hobby shop in Jacksonville, NC called Hobby Chest of Jacksonville. I bought this. I'll eventually be hunting information and decals for a Nimitz based aircraft. And the ladies wanted to go to Hobby Lobby. And Hobby Lobby was having 40% off boxed kits sale, so I bought this, it should be interesting.

So, I'll get back to this on now. We spent last week at the NC shore with friends.

Go to it, Carl. I’ll be watching.

Thanks, folks! Chris, that is a decal from the Z-M sheet.

Working on decals. The red fin-cap is painted.

Okay, working on the landing gear. The light gray gear on the left is the kit gear. The gear on the right is the 3D printed AM gear. The kit gear aren't really too bad. There is some nice detail and could be made to look as good as the AM gear with a little bit of work. The AM gear has some extra levers and lines. Some of which I messed up cutting off the 3D printing supports. Some sort of picture with them highlighting what to keep would of course be helpful. I have the AM mains turned the opposite of the kit mains, so you can't see that the loops for tying down the aircraft aren't there. They were until my big thumb pressed on them and broke them off while test fitting the main gear in the aircraft wheel wells. I've already shaped some brass wire to replace them. Next, the wheels. The wheels on the left (light gray) are from the AM landing gear set. The wheels and tires in the middle are the kit wheels and the nose wheels and mains tires on the right are the Z-M AM "flattened" or perhaps "pre-loaded" set. Personally, I like the Z-M parts. It's up to you whether you like the pre-loaded type or not. The kit supplied parts are plastic and the AM stuff is resin, whether 3D printed or cast. Now to do some research and decide which parts I'm going to use.

Thanks, Carl! It was MRP 180 Exhaust Soot sprayed with a Creos 771 with the needle limiter set really tight and 10 psi air.