Clunkmeister

OK, I remember. That’s the one where they totally butchered the restoration?

Can’t leave well enough alone. Let’s revisit those guns! Make some new armor plate for the rear guns, thinned appropriately to somewhat closer to scale thickness. Plus, some Master barrels. Once this is finished, it’s time for a new mat

That Czech bird looks incredibly cool! Martin, do you have any idea what happened to them after the Soviets moved in?

I’ve never heard about that P-40, but what a find. Question: was the pilot with the aircraft? Was he ever found? I’m sure he’s not the only guy still out there. US, British, German, I’m sure the desert will give up more secrets in the future

One more thing: the wingtip lights. Don’t assume they fit. (They don’t). I took about an hour per side sanding this things to shape. That might be a less heart stopping job is one test fits them BEFORE paint. 🤣 I was fixin’ to have kittens.

Infinity have both the Kate and the Val coming fairly soon. The Kate will be within 2 months, with the Val to follow after that. I’d venture a guess that both of those kits will be an absolute MUST build for me, as well as for many others.

I’m going to call this one done, at least for now. I’m still working on the PE lower dive brakes, but honestly, I’m burned out on them. There are literally 10 sections of upper and lower dive brakes, plus all actuators, and I’ve finished 6 and seeing cross eyed. So I rigged up the drilled out kit parts and put them in place for now. They look quite fine, but are nowhere near up to the quality of the rest of the build. So into the case it’ll go alongside my other finished stuff, and I’ll come back to the flaps in a month or so. There are a few minor touch ups to finish, but more or less of the type where after you step away for a few days, your eyes then see the obvious you missed before. A few observations: A. I’ll redo the rear gunner’s armor plate on his twin .50s. That plate is about 1 scale foot thick on the kit part. 2. Wireless antenna needs to be run. Masts are in place but I need to verify how it’s rigged. 3. Sliding canopy channels need weathering/chipping/wear. 4. Finish dive brakes and install. They MAKE the Helldiver, and in my opinion, unless mounted closed, the kit parts, while adequate, are nowhere up to the standard achievable throughout this kit 5. Find the various little missed things that pop out at you long after it’s done HPH did a great job on this kit. It’s a very complicated aircraft, much more than you’d think. They should be commended RFI pics to follow.

Excellent

TB-2? I’d gladly take a 1/32 Tu-2. Completely overlooked, very important type. Or a TB-3. 🤣

I had heard the ZM 190 was to be the A-5 and later style? And not the (really) short nose A-4? I truly hope not, because we really need the early version.

I like to tell people the Marines wouldn’t have me because both my mommy and daddy were married. 💩💩💩

If you are planning to come to the US IPMS Nationals this summer in Texas, a d find yourself passing through the Dallas area, you really owe it to yourselves to stop and visit this place. Audie Murphy, Soldier, actor, cowboy, Texan, was a small runt of a kid from the Greenville area, (rejected by the USMC because he was too small) who won every single possible medal available to be won in the US Army. Including the Medal of Honor. The museum in his honor isn’t a huge place as museums go, but it’s a very special place which honors all American Servicemen. It also contains the Texas cotton museum, of which Greenville was a huge hub.

Well we’re almost there. Wingtip lights, lower flaps, a. Purple touch ups, and a bit more powder should do it and I’ll call her done.

The US submarine fleet…. Never mind warships, but how many “Marus” did our pig boats send to the bottom? Hundreds, possibly thousands. Japanese cargo ships were target #1 for the pig boats, and no they didn’t completely strangle Japan, but they sure cut the supply of oil to the Home Islands to a trickle. Yamamoto was brilliant, prophetic, and 100% correct. Too American in his thinking and his ways for the military leadership at the time, he was a marked man and actually had to go to sea to avoid assassination! Crazy!

Yep. Almost 8:1 difference. Plus, the US had it’s entire continental land mass as well as Canada to rely on for oil and natural resources, where Japan had literally nothing past the immediate islands and parts of China, much of which was undeveloped and quite remote

One thing about 3D printed parts though. You need to be VERY careful how you decide to cut them because they definitely have a grain, and can literally peel, or even shatter if you don’t use a VERY sharp tool and an extremely delicate hand.

Well, my pathetic ham handed attempts were an abject failure. James is on the case!

Thanks Rob. I’m not sure, but my eyes may be telling me that those pushrods are waaay overscale, so they may need to go in favor of some fine wire. That alone may help access for painting.

Gaz, I agree. The USN had built up to a point where it was pretty much unstoppable. Even today, driving by some of the old inactive ship yards you can see literally hundreds of old ships tied together, either awaiting they day they’ll be needed again, or the scrapper’s torch. Yamamoto was right in his respect for and deep seated unwillingness to go to war with the US. He knew that it was only a matter of time before the US would grow into an unstoppable force. It happened even quicker than he dreamed. He’s one man I wish would have survived the war. His thoughts would have been interesting to hear. But Tojo was way too powerful and Yamamoto’s thoughts fell on deaf ears

A few more details added

Lukgraph are extremely high end resin kits, and are actually an offshoot of the old Silver Wings brand. As Silver Wings went more into WW2, a couple hardcore rag wing guys broke off to stay true to the original vision, and Lukgraph was born. Much of the kit is the typical super high quality resin with taped together fuselage halves, wire reinforced wings, struts, and landing gear. But here’s where it get’s interesting: no more 200 gazillion little resin parts to assemble an inline 6 cylinder German aircraft engine, instead, Lukgraph now gives you a stunning one piece, fully 3D printed exquisitely detailed engine, with an equally exquisite separate exhaust system. These are simply gorgeous! Just cut free, clean, prime, paint, and add plug wires.

As my SB2C-4 Helldiver build is drawing to a close, I will enter our GB with a genuine seaplane, a WW1 German patrol plane. I picked this kit up from my fellow intrepid Administrator Fran, who swapped me a GWH Flying Tigers Hawk. So building it is a foregone conclusion. I’m itching for some wood and wire, so this should be a nice break from short run IM. Short run resin… whoop whoop! My build will be one of these two schemes. CDL and wood. Rigging is simple enough, as usual, I’ll use mono line and 1/48 turnbuckles, with EZ Line for control lines. It’ll be a moment or two till I start, as I need to wrap up my Helldiver. The engine and many of the smaller parts are 3D printed, the main components are wire reinforced resin. My heart tells me it needs to be a Polish aircraft, but my head says black crosses, and as no Polish markings are included in this kit, black crosses it is.

Abso - F’ing - lutely!

Chris, I’m gonna need to build the Kittykawk CF-101 Voodoo just show you actually how GOOD you have it. That kit is an absolute bear to build. And you gain little except recessed panel lines.