Clunkmeister

Just study it. Start with the inside wires, work methodically. Do all the wires of the same style together. When doing wing bays: Landing wires always before flying wires. ALWAYS! It’s common sense, but guys sometimes don’t think, and afterwards they wonder why their plane is all misaligned.

I’m loving this. I’m going to pull the lever on mine in a week or so as soon as I wrap up all my Christmas obligations here. From what I can see, we Stateside are better off going through Hannants and paying the shipping. It’ll still land here 50 bucks cheaper than what it sells for here. I usually do 3 or 4 orders a year from Hannants, mostly cool Eastern European and Russian cottage industry stuff that’s hard to get here unless you want to spend days chasing down the hundreds of little garage A.M. manufacturers throughout Eastern Europe. Hannants make it easy.. all in one spot. The Big Lib gives me the excuse for one more order.

I told Radu he should set up a booth at the Nats. He’d sell a gazillion of the things. I’d even help him man the thing. Give me a place to park my more than ample behind....

Welcome Peter! There are some very gifted builders here, and most all are more than willing to discuss their techniques and secrets. I see the old Revell Tiffie and it brings back some fond memories. I remember one Christmas gift from my parents,.. the 1/32 Hurricane and 1/32 Spitty Mk.1. I was in Seventh Heaven. But never in my father’s wildest nightmares did he ever think that once finished, Bader and Stanford-Tuck would be battling it out to the death in nasty dogfights deep in this young boy’s mind... picking up the 1/32 109 ‘Gustav’ eased that somewhat. Reminiscing aside, it’s great to see you come alive here, and I truly look forward to seeing your work, Sir.

Nige, I ended up reriveting most of the back end of my Kitty Hawk F-5F with a tool that Radu passed to me at the Nationals, then sat on my bench unopened for months until on a lark, I decided to try it. I practiced on some discarded T-28parts for maybe 5 minutes then hit the F-5 with it. It works brilliantly. The only thing I can offer is to try it first on the type of styrene you’ll be using it on. Kitty Hawk styrene is very soft. HK styrene is extremely hard, almost brittle. Find some similar plastic and try it on that first to get your pressures right.. The fact that you’re using own handle makes all the difference in the world.

I never saw this till today, Tony. This is one big and super fast squirrel. You’ll do your normal exquisite, super clean work on this one as well, my friend. HPH kits have a built in power to amaze and absolutely frustrate you. Simultaneously. But when done, you’ll have an exquisite model of one of the world’s most beautiful jets. come to think of it, Aero Vodochody blessed us with what? 3,000 of these beautiful jets over the years? And improved versions of them are being produced today with no end in sight. And no mainstream IM kit in 1/32... Blasphemy! Treasonous! Conspiracy!

LOL. Nope. Simply because I can’t stand Tom Cruiser.

Thanks Carl. I’m so tempted on black... Mug-28 and all....

New National Markings. Cat’s Paw?

It works, believe me. Like a light came on for me. But Gaz, when I hang around the likes of y’all, I have no choice but to either improve or be left in the dust. You guys humble me.

Peter, my order is forthcoming. It is obviously a 100% improvement on the kit parts. I’m truly stunned. And James, amazing work as usual, sir.

Peter, please, take my money!

Just a quick scan shows a few areas that still need a bit of work. There’s been some some Hasegawa-like sink marks in places, and that join on the fin confounds me. But all in all, not so bad.

I’m really liking this little gem. I’ve never been a modern jet guy at all, but Cold War stuff lights my fire, and nothing says Cold War aggressor more than an F-5. So far, the only real serious pucker points have been self induced, like when I melted the tail end of the model. Other than that, a nice, mostly stress free build.

Yep, me too.

Gaz, I’d really like to knock out the HPH 410 as well, but the Helldiver’s gotta come before that.... It’s just those bloody dive flaps on the Helldiver that drive me to stupidity. Oh crikey I detest PE.

You could of course, just cast the entire forward interior in lead or, if you’re Martin, depleted uranium. That might help some.

It’s 0100! Off to bed! Been working on the F-5F.

Funny thing about canvas builds. I was and am VERY happy with the wings on my Felixstowe. I thought they really looked the part, sea weathered. Maybe too sea weathered for the Felix, which was the pride of the RNAS and treated as such, but for the look I was shooting for, I think I achieved it perfectly. I’ve seen plenty of well weathered salt water operated ragwing floatplanes in my days flying up north around Hudson Bay, and I copied that look exactly. But nobody else thought so, at least no IPMS judges do, so “look” is all subjective. The same Felix came within a vote of taking the Big Eage at this year’s Squadron EagleQuest, so like I said, it’s subjective... Your wings look great.

Honey I shurunk the Roland!

I know, but Drifter is a Colonial like me with a stiff upper lip. I had an empty hat, no idea how I missed him... so like it or not, he’s getting something. It’s how I roll. After all, it’s Christmas and all

That nose gear strut is gonna be hating life in a bit.... Nice work so far...

Oh crap. Ok. I’ll figure something out right quick.

That’s OK, last year, a newspaper in California ran a Fourth of July “Salute” to the Nation by snowing a military jet team flyover trailing red, white, and blue smoke. Problem was, they grabbed a stock photo off the internet of... a Russian team with Su-25s and the colors were the white, blue, and red of Russia, not red, white, and blue for the USA, OOPS! Knowing California reporters, they probably did it on purpose and did it proudly.

Please speak up....