Clunkmeister

Me as well. 0100 here. Time for bed.

Just to be safe, Mike. Your work is brilliant, my friend, just brilliant. I think I’ll hit them with som Mr. Surfacer 1000 tomorrow, just to be sure. I highly recommend your work, man. Outstanding!

Well Gaz, I spent a few years of my life slogging one around the north country, trying desperately not to kill myself in it, so I guess I owe the freight haulers a bit of love for allowing me to live. I just like airplanes. I have that 1/48 Ju-52 looking at me, and I’ve spent years collecting all the goodies I need to make a killer 1936 airliner

Пастухов счастлив

So, gave them a quick sanding, followed by a degrease and a shot of Tamiya extra fine.

Well, I agree with you, Gaz. 1/32 was, is, and always will be my scale. But 1/48 has its place in the depiction of larger aircraft. As for 1/72, well, I agree with you for the most part. If it’s the biggest scale available, and if it’s a huge subject, and if it’s almost impossible to see inside, (think airliners), I’ll deal with 1/72. But it had better be a 3 foot model in 1/72.....

Belfast as well. And a Valiant in 32 would be outstanding. Postwar transports and V Bombers.... oh yeah

Not sure yet Bill, but I expect I will have to do a bit of smoothing

A couple more. A Twogar! Too bad the Sea Hornet apparently has shape issues.....

Yes, we find cool kits. Plus a neat racer shows up. I guess the secret’s out. I really love Czech aircraft. That Avia is made of unobtainium and is priceless, so I’m going to do the prudent thing: BUILD THE CRAP OUT OF IT!

Got these in the mail today from a member here.

Superb build as usual, Dave. Positively Brilliant!

Thanks y'all. Building this postwar Lanc means taking more stuff off than it means putting it on. No guns, no windows, no dorsal turret, no bomb aimer, nothing. Some say it loses it's Lanc look. Not me. To me the postwar patrol planes look stellar.

Ooooh, an IL-76. Me likee. Any purpose built "civilian" freight lifter is cool with me. The Russians had the right idea; if you're going to design a freight hauler with a clean piece of paper, make it an end loader with a ramp for a forklift. Trust me when I say that side loading freight is no picnic, especially when you have a long day of flying ahead of you. Yes, the end ramp limits the appearance and configuration of the final design, making it tougher to appeal to the enlightened civilian crowd, but utility wise, they can't be beat. I missed the Bristol Freighter era in Northern Canada by several years, but the load toads still sang the praises of that clamshell load door as loudly as the crews hated on them for their lack of landing manners. Back to the early IL-76 for a moment. Those engines send shivers down my back. It reminds me of the old stovepipe turbojets on the early DC-8s and CV-880s. I get all stirred up inside.

I regularly wear a tropical style lightweight feldmutze around here instead of a baseball cap. The first one I had cost me a Canadian green wool beret when I was posted to Germany in the early and mid 80s. I've bought a new one every time it wears out. To me, they're the finest baseball style caps ever made. They're lightweight, doesn't make my head sweat, holds it's shape, and, to me the most important part is that they actually perfectly fit my big square head. IMHO, it's the best lightweight cap design ever. Plus, they're different and have just a tiny bit of attitude, having a bit of the DAK field cap look to them. Massive thread shift here...

I’ll most definitely build this one, too. Huge contest table of grey plus some blue and white transports coming up. Might be a good idea to grab a 1/72 A400M while they’re still out there for semi reasonable prices, too...

Well, they’re never getting Antonov back, unless they invade the rest of Ukraine as well. Antonov’s old days are over, they’re future’s with the West, so swallow the pride and at least get some relevant legacy designs back in production.

Aaaand, after watching Nige’s video and being reminded about the stabilizer swap needed, we just went and did it. No big deal actually. The way the pins are attached makes it super easy to remove two and plant them into the correct half. I spent more time cutting off the bunches of little locator pins than I did swapping the attaching pins. After Smitty reminded me what side the inspection holes face I swapped them around.

I thought it was dead, too. Nice looking transport, though. She certainly has “the look”. Antonov’s got some serious issues even producing legacy designs these days, never mind new stuff. They need a western partner. If not Boeing, then what about Airbus or Bombardier? Or even Embraer?

A400M is one seriously cool bird

And they even put “Luftwaffe” on the side as a friendly hint. Just in case you needed an extra clue

Not as much luck with this wingtip. Out comes Radu’s magic wheel and scribes. I decided to watch Nige’s video for the second one. :-/

Meanwhile, in my part of Texas...

Brokeback Marine. That has a ring of truth to it....

Russian and Ukrainian transport aircraft have always been notoriously stiff winged. But just look at the flex in those huge wings! Antonov always used those twin nose landing lights. They’re absolutely unmistakable at night from miles away. Looked like automobile headlights in the sky.