Clunkmeister

Peter, one other thing: I’m not smart enough to read the supplied corrections list included in the kit, so many of the surprises were avoidable for me. 😂

You can always go back and build it later. All the parts for an independent display are there. Plus, it’s a unique version of the Allison with that massive reduction gearbox and the itty bitty little single stage supercharger.

Not a mistake on your part, I was going the same way until I happened to remember the Eagle sets I had. I haven’t looked at the roundels size, but I do think they missed the mark on colors of the shark mouth on a couple of the birds. Jerry Crandall’s research is highly regarded, so I’ll take his word for it over some Government appointed Communist worker’s take on it. One thing I will definitely do is build up that engine and super detail it for display beside the model.

And your post on that during your build is why I left literally ALL of that junk out of my build. I am, by nature, a lazy SOB, so why go through all that effort for naught? Over engineered for sure. The elevator hinges made me chuckle a bit. PE? Really? That is an accident waiting to happen. Reminds me of Tamiya’s efforts to hinge everything on their 1/32 builds. If left to their own devices, made for an airplane that looked like the controls were unhooked. They finally wised up on their Corsair.

Peter, I’m following your build thread closely for mine. I read what you wrote on colors, and it makes sense. Your research on it all seems to be exactly how I’d interpret it as well. An interesting point is that Jerry Crandall at Eagle Editions also stated that the blue on the topside Chinese roundels faded very quickly in the harsh Chinese climate, but the lower ones stayed relatively clean and fresh. So yes, faded on top, but fresh underneath. But then you ask yourself: “Self, why aren’t the fuselage roundels following suit”? They’re in the sun as well….

One thing I will say about this kit is that I absolutely love the plastic used. It reminds me of WNW plastic, which was the best plastic I’ve ever experienced in kits. It bonds well, is soft without being greasy, and is flexible enough to be bent without disastrous results. I wonder if this Company didn’t do some of Wingnuts molding? This plastic is the exact opposite of Hasegawa’s hard as a rock plastic.

I hope th nose fits well, as I certainly don’t want to lose the nose Gun access panels hinge detail. That’s a prominent feature of there Tomahawks.

Chris, I used the clamps simply to keep the wing snugged up as far as it would go while the glue dried after I walked away for a bit. That fit seems to be critical and I want to see if I can avoid the issue Peter had with the nose fit. Peter says it was a mistake earlier in his build that caused it, and hopefully through blind luck I can avoid a similar fate. Descriptions of the paint fade from people who were there makes me want to try taking Peter’s mix, and then lightening it slightly followed by some weathering. The accounts back then said that the brown quickly faded to a sand tone and the green faded to spinach. As in British Sand and Spinach. Then use the faded Chinese roundels. You and Peter are 100% correct in that most people build clean AVG Tomahawks, while in practice, they’d be all beat up.

Great to see this! There seems to have been a black hole in Canadian armor builds between the WW2 Fireflies all up until the big Leo 2A6s in Asscrackistan. This Centurion is nice to see. Canada got much use out of theirs until the Germans brought them new Cats.

It was a short lived 1/32 resin kitmaker here in the 80s. They did a nice P-40C. Had a lot of white metal castings… I’m NOT a P-40 fan, although I should be. It was like the Hurricane; used and produced from start to finish of the war, and like several pilots said, was quite competent, and quite deadly with a skilled pilot, but always left you wishing you had a little bit more airplane to fight with. The Russians sure didn’t care for them, much preferring the P-39 for their style of fighting.

GusMac got the JetMads Viggen, the lucky sod. I hope to see it built here on LSM.

Good! We try to spice it up every year, and have a good time doing so. It’s a work in progress, but it’ll only get better.

So a million dollar missile to drop a plastic Chinese balloon? You think the gun might have been a bit less messy? No matter, the Chinese won BIG with this one as our people in charge dithered and wrung their hands for days on end while they sat there, wondering what to do. This could have been easily dropped over the Aleutians. The US looks positively stupid and weak, here.

Clamping power!

So far, the fit has been phenomenal. Better than Tamiya, as far as I can see.

Later, for 1st Pursuit, I’ll so Dick Rossi’s and for 2nd Pursuit, Tex Hill, of course. I met the man, and almost worshiped the ground he walked on. 3rd Pursuit this build, though. Most likely Chuck Older

Thanks Chris. Those are the kit barrels. I’m positively blowing through this one. Strictly OOB with no hanky pinky or game playing. I doctored up the kit barrels a bit, and they look fabulous. BUT, it’s a really crappy time to be adding gun barrels. 😡 Attrition may mean Master barrels, yet. 😂

Thanks! I really want to build one from each Squadron, but I think I’ll start with something from 3 Sqn, Hells Angels, I believe. Chuck Older is an obvious choice, but there is also one on the Eagle Editions sheet, Bill Reed’s ride, that still has the RAF roundels in place on the top wing. Tommy Haywood’s ride is cool as well, with the unfinished shark mouth. It seems no two birds were the same. One thing I’ve been contemplating, is that since the RAF roundels were painted over in theatre, wouldn’t the paint used there be a slightly different tone? Maybe even adding the RAF roundels, then painting over, allowing some to show vaguely through? For all that the AVG was documented and memorialized, there is precious little to show of its early days. Also, as to the Disney “flying tiger” decal. Wasn’t it varnished in place? Most decal sheets seem to show a black background, but I’ve also heard said that it wasn’t black, just a discoloration due to the clear varnish application affecting the film differently. Thoughts?

The worst part so far has been the gun fairings. They were “OK” but they sat slightly proud all around. So I simply taped them in place one at a time before inserting the buns, and sanded the front and top down flush, being careful to avoid surface detail. Then I inserted the guns and glued in the fairings. After it all sets up, I’ll attack the bottoms. Not a huge deal, all in all, it took me bout 10 minutes to clean them up. DON’T try to do it after the guns are in place.

We have the center section complete, and the fillets on the wing. Once the fillet joints set up, I’ll drop the wing in place. Preliminary fit looks great so far, although the wing will need to be clamped in place as it dries.

I owned that kit. For about 15 minutes. I built the Craftworks kit years ago, and it was an accurate model, but certainly was a lot of work.

And a member of the Caterpillar Club as well. J-79 reheat cans did their very best to snuff him out. Twice. Once, they contained it, the second time, it got the other side as well.

5 year cancer fight and it finally caught up. Charles couldn’t kill him in ‘Nam McDonnell-Douglas couldn’t kill him in the 70s and 80s Crazy C-46 maniacs couldn’t kill him in the 90s Herds of cattle couldn’t kill him all through his life But the Big C eventually got him. Fly West and I’ll see you soon, bud. Godspeed, callsign Flash.

John, you brought out the best in an almost, but not quite great kit. It looks stunning, and I just love a short nose Spitty. Sex on the wing.

Talk about blowing all our socks off, settling in, and making yourself at home! You, sir, are blowing my mind with this stuff. I’m ready to pack up all my armor and ship it to you to build for your collection. Armor is just so beyond me, but most of the members here are closet armor builders, so… Please, keep it up! Consider my tiny little mind officially blown.