Clunkmeister

Yeah we are that. Laid back, chillin’ out with an umbrella drink on a beach somewhere. But shake that vacation thought off and back to the truck.

Rog, with no second thought whatsoever, I’d say that Smitty is the big F-18 expert here on the forums. He lives and breathes the Hornet in its various guises.

Gazz, it’s not the best looking of birds, but it sure is cool. Looks like a lab rat after they dropped a couple drops of some suspected carcinogen on its skin.

I LOVE your signature! O M G !

Little details like that are what MAKE the build seem real, Jeroen. Stunning work!

And the instructions, plus the complete, full decal sheet. I don’t want to assume, and I surely hop it isn’t the case, but there is a chance that this may be the only complete Fisher Guppy set ever shipped with decals. Oh God I hope that isn’t true!

And we have some bibs and bobs, along with a nicely done sedan roof complete with sporty flip up doors.

The cockpit is done very, very nicely. The airframe is nicely assembled, and it’s straight.

So, back last winter sometime, I received a big box from Mike. Inside was a Trumpeter Korean War Skyraider kit, and the Fisher conversion, with much work done, just as Mike told me it would be. Special parts were bagged and boxed nicely, and all was well. Build quality was excellent. I’ve previously finished one or two of Mike’s stalled builds, so I’m aware of and quite comfortable with his build style

A bit of background here. My friend Mike Swinburne and I often get to texting. It sometimes leads to silliness, as in, “hey, let’s build a 1/48 An-225 or something along those lines”. That’s how the Lanc idea germinated, through much text modeling and hangar flying. Somewhere in there talk turned to AIMS conversions, and then to Fisher Fat Face conversions, of which we both own a few of each. Except for the Guppy. The AD-5W Guppy was an ASW conversion of the Family Model Skyraider, which itself was a modification of the original sporty single seat Skyraider. The Guppy conversion was just barely released by Fisher and my order barely received, when the fire happened and in the blink of an eye, the Fisher Models workshop along with all designs, drawings, molds, documentation, and 30+ years of modeling excellence ceased to exist. In the end, few to very few Guppy conversions were shipped, apparently from what I wast told, without decals. The decals were to follow later as they became available. I knew of only one complete set with a decal sheet that got out, and it was sent out to do a build review. And,........ I was talking to the person who had it. As happens to most of us, the build stalled due to life and work issues, and as we hit chatted, a deal was worked out where I would take possession of the Guppy and finish the model to completion. The only other completed model we knew of was Paul Fisher’s own model, and it was lost in the fire. So my plan is to take what Mike has done, which is of extremely high quality, by the way, and kick it up a notch with some cockpit super detailing and the moronic silliness I’m inclined to do. So I’d like to do one other thing here. My build threads tend to become gab feats and that’s cool. But let’s also celebrate Fisher Models. Our experiences, our builds, good, bad, and ugly. Think of your stories, and write them out. The Panther you built that loomed like it was built by a Chimp coming off a 10 day drunk. The first time you saw the Sea Fury and it took your breath away, etc, etc. I’m not sure yet, but I might start a thread up top for that stuff. This build will be here on LSM, and that’s it. So check back, this hopefully will get good. Anyway, let’s look at what we have here:

I’ve done some soul searching. As I’m now finishing my Lanc and working on my D-Day GB contributed, I’ve been looking for the perfect knockout build, as in one that’ll give me huge satisfaction to finish properly. I’ve looked at a Ryan STM, a Russian bomber (coming soon), September Fury (coming sooner), RCAF Dakota (coming soon enough), and in the end, decided on this.

I thought you snagged one of mine, Tony

You have one? You were able to pick one up?

That truck is VERY cool.