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Clunkmeister

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Posts posted by Clunkmeister

  1. 11 hours ago, ScottsGT said:

    See, I’m thinking Christine.  I know, off by a year, but close enough. 
     

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    I’d love to rock one of these around town.  

    Well, it LOOKS like a 58…. The 58 has the quad headlights, they were still illegal in 57

    • Like 3
  2. I really want that Dodge.  That Plymouth can be quickly sold, but she wants them together. 
    I’ve owned a few 57-58 Plymouth Furies, and I’ll tell you this:  they are GREAT road cars with a decent set od radials and disc brakes. They have that Chrysler torsion bar front suspension, and they are fast and corner better than any full size car from back then. Back then, you couldn’t GIVE these gas guzzlers away. Literally nobody wanted them, and time wasn’t friendly to them. 
    The Dodge is the same underneath, but has the more crazy trim. And both cars only come up to my chin. They are low for a 50s car. 
    What’s wild is if you park the Plymouth next to a 57 Chevy, suddenly that Chevy looks totally archaic. 
    Plenty of misinformation out there about these.  With torsion bars, built low, big block Chrysler V8s with dual quad carbs, there’s nothing to hate. Plus, paint the Dodge red, and in a few years, Joy could be just like the “Little old Lady from Pasadena”.  😂
    Out on a Saturday night after baking cookies, and shutting down Mustang GTs, Vettes, Jags, and Ferraris with her Super Stock Dodge. 

    • Like 3
  3. 59 minutes ago, Martinnfb said:

    The new A-20 is miles away in terms of fit and finish. 
    Not saying that Mitchel is mediocre, we just got spoiled   Looking good Ernie. 

    Thanks. The good new is, that only about a half inch width of panel lines need rescribing after all this, and NO raised detail or access panels.  
    So the damage kept to a minimum.  
    The kit is really not for anyone who doesn’t like filling gaps.

     

    • Like 5
  4. At it again with old piles of junk. 
    Offered a 58 Dodge Regal Lancer and 58 Plymouth Fury today by a long time customer, and I’m sorely tempted.  The price is really decent, and even though I haven’t seen it in public in years, I’ve spent many hours doing service work on it in the lady’s garage.  Her husband and her bought two cars together in 1958:  the 58 Regal Lancer, and a 58 Fury.  The Regal has a special order Chrysler 354 hemisherical V8, what they call an “Super D-500”, and the Fury has a 350 big block wedge V8, what was called a “Golden Commando”.  WTH with the goofy names.  The 58 Ford retractable has a “Police Interceptor” V8, which is a bit more normal sounding, although the only thing it intercepts real well are speeding tickets.  Both drink premium through 8 barrels of Carter WCFB, both have Torqueflite push button automatics, and both are rare as his teeth, almost showroom perfect but ugly as sin.

    To give you an idea, Ford sold 12 times as many hardtop coupes as Dodge, and 10 times as many as Plymouth. They weren’t popular new, and just looking at them shows why.   They’re hideous to look at, and Joy immediately says she’ll never be seen in either one without a paper bag over her head. 
    Because they’re in the lady’s garage, here are some stock pics.  The Dodge is black with a white roof, and the Fury is identical to that one:  eggshell white, gold anodized trim, and manure brown interior. 
    Of the two, I much prefer the Dodge   The Fury just seems messed up.   Both run like scalded tail cats and each might get about 12 mpg at best when your foot’s on the floor.  And if I want one, I gotta take ‘em both  yikes   My Fords’ll revolt!

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    • Like 5
  5. The horizontal tail has similar gap issues, and there was a slight issue with the tail gunner’s hood.  Again, a bit of evergreen fixes all.  
    Nothing outrageous here, just some sanding and a wedge fill piece on the port side. The hood overhung the top edge on the port side by about 1/16”.  No biggie,.. literally 5 minutes work, and it’ll be another hour to smooth, rescribe and polish.

    No big deal, and easily handled by everyone here.  On other sites, some folks would lose their collective minds over this.

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    • Like 8
  6. 9 hours ago, DocRob said:

    Thanks for clearing this up Ernie. I haven´t started mine and did no further research until now. I will build mine as a PBJ 1H as well and got irritated as many period pictures show them having an armed turret. The ProfiModeler cover shows the same, but I found pictures of Love Bug without one. Hmm, seem I have to dig a bit deeper before I start and thankfully have your log as a reference.
    I have a lot of PE for mine along the PM-set and of course some resin wheels, but will decide about the engines before I start. This will not be too soon, as I chose the AEG G.IV for the GB, because I don´t like double entries and prefer as much diversity as possible.

    Cheers Rob 

    Yes, the power turrets were only removed after the threat of enemy air attack fell to nothing.  Most kept waist and tail guns for that purpose.  Unless you intend on doing yours with the waist windows removed, don’t worry about super detailing that area inside.  You’ll literally see nothing. 
    The kit isn’t anywhere near as refined as the A-20, but it’s still quite buildable. 

    • Like 3
    • Thanks 1
  7. 4 hours ago, DocRob said:

    What a shame about the zillion rivets gone through sanding and polishing, which HKM claimed to have distributed on that bird. Nice work to get it right though, Ernie. I would have thought it to be a relatively trouble free build, when I was about to choose mine for the GB.
    What is wrong about the kit astrodome (meaning the top turret, right?)?

    Cheers Rob 

    Rob, there was no astrodome.  The B-25 didn’t use them. They instead used the top turret as an astrodome, and when the turret was removed, some units, not all, cobbled a simple bubble in.  The top turrets were removed late in the war, as were all non forward firing fixed guns to save weight and add fuel.  

    The engines and cowls aren’t horrible, IF you use the kit parts.  Instead, I replaced the gearboxes with AMS Resin (now owned and operated by BiggTim)  castings and corrected propeller blades. 
    They are a complicated subassembly though and you have to be careful. The engine cowls are the only tricky part of the build. 
    If you build OOB, the rest of the kit falls together.  Very little detail in the main fuselage, but with the waist glass in place, you can’t see anything inside anyway. 
    Just remember, I’m building a modified version of the H. Plenty of Marine add ons and changes. 
    If you build mostly OOB, you can easily build one and finish in time.  
    Grab some 3D panel decals, corrected props, and resin wheels, and go for it!  

     

    I recommend the kit as they really look the part when complete. 

    • Like 5
    • Thanks 1
  8. A search for something to use as a suitable astrodome was unsuccessful, so a B-24 clear Sprue was sourced from eBay and the B-24 astrodome was liberated from the spare sprue. 
    It falls to reason that because the B-24 was well used by all Services in the PTO, replacement astrodomes were in stock at depots and some enterprising Gunny may have facilitate some 5 finger discounts followed by some semi unofficial midnight logistics operations.  

    • Like 5
  9. 13 hours ago, BlrwestSiR said:

    Ernie, the door is both sides. Three doors in total per nacelle. 

    I suspect they missed it because they only open when the gear retracts or extends. 

    One thing most folks forget is the B-25 and Meteor were both designed for another company but HK took them over. 

    There was a Dutch company involved which did the research and design but something went awry and HK took over the project under their own brand. 

    I did one nacelle so far, thanks.  It looks like they were VERY lightly scribed. The hinge covers look to be there as well.

    • Like 6
  10. 3 hours ago, BlrwestSiR said:

    Ernie, here's the pic I have from my build. Looks like they missed the large main doors. They just need to scribed in. Hopefully you can make them out in the pic. 

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    The seam between the nacelle halves should be  the door edge as well.

    Here's a link to my album with my build pics. Feel free to see if you can find anything else that's useful for your build. 

    https://carlkung.smugmug.com/Hobbies/HK-B-25J-

    HK definitely have come a long way since their first kits. 

    Excellent, Carl!  Thank You!!  That's a HUGE miss.  Not hard to fix, but if you assumed the design was finalized when places into production,. you'd have no clue about it.

    I take it the door is only on one side of the nacelle?

    Hard to believe I've never finished this kit.  It really is a glorious thing, although those engines kicked my butt.

    • Like 4
  11. 11 hours ago, BlrwestSiR said:

    All closed and getting closer to paint. 

    Yup, the radial engines are a bit of a pain but they look the business once they're done. 

    I think the nacelles need some re-scribing to correct the MLG doors if I recall? 

    Carl, I missed seeing any posts on that and don't recall what was missing or wrong.  Do you have any references on that?

    HK sure has come a long way since the B-25, back from when the design originally went into production. 

    • Like 1
  12. 17 hours ago, Peterpools said:

    Thanks Rob

    We grew up with such iconic B&W TV shows in the early 50's as: Sky King, The Lone Ranger, Rin Tin Tin and the Honeymooners.   Just a magical time. 

    Yup. way cooler then a Tomcat and every time I see the box, I can almost hear the announcer saying: Out of the clear blue western sky ... Hope I'm close)

    Back when family TV really was that. Wholesome shows where the good guys always won.

    • Like 4
    • Thanks 1
  13. On 2/10/2024 at 3:33 PM, Peterpools said:

    Seeing there are so many creative entries and mine entry was only going to be the Tamiya 1/48 F-14, I thought I need to pick up my game. First I thought  of doing a more challenging entry, the new HK 1/48 B-25J Strafer. I was getting ready to change my entry and then I found this gem in my not very local hobby shop - just happen to be in that neck of the woods this morning.  We Baby Boomers grew up with the birth of TV and so many of our shows have become classics and one of the classics was Sky King and his Song Bird. I found a long out of production Squadron Encore model of the Bamboo Bomber and one of the decals choices is for Sky King's Song Bird. This kit lacks the colorful PE set of the Czech kit but I can live with that.

    So, without further adieu, I present Sky King's first  Song Bird.    

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    How can I express my feelings about this? Well, let’s see….

    ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️

    When he traded in his Bamboo Bomber for a 310 (yes, Cessna was a major sponsor of the show, back when personal airplanes were actually affordable), I cried….

    But I did a lot of hours in 310s, so I get it..

    Looking forward to seeing the old Bamboo Bomber, or the “Useless 78”  is what I also remember, come together.

    As an aside with the Bamboo Bomber, the RCAF used a ton of these in its BCATP program through WW2, and many used wooden fixed pitch props.  On a nice, hot muggy Saskatchewan summer afternoon, an engine failure in one on takeoff  with full fuel and a plane load of trainees must have made for some interesting moments. 

    • Like 4
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