Clunkmeister

The SBD is a brilliant kit. TBM/F? I’ve heard it is as well and was copied directly from the Accurate Miniatures 1/48 Avenger, which I DID build. This reminds me of typical Sword plastic: good fit of the airframe parts, but interior fit is “vague”. It’s actually making me work for it, which is nice because I’m in that kind of mood. I will say that this is probably the very first kit I’d say that some aftermarket parts aren’t nice, but are REQUIRED, assuming you want a build up to the standards LSM showcases. At LEAST a seat followed by some light scratching where needed. But even if you’re closing it up, the Resin2Detail cockpit adds a metric ton to the model.

I use the word loosely. After all, this IS a G-rated site. 🤬 😇

I’ve received several PMs from Members regarding this previous hacker that snuck in last weekend. There were several links in those posts, and more than a few Members worded their PM in such a way that sounded like they really really wanted to click on one…. I know it’s tempting, the unopened box syndrome and all, BUT Please don’t! If you receive a strange link from an unknown person, don’t click on it. OR, if you just really GOTTA, then please copy and paste it somewhere other than here before you click and that way, you only nuke your computer, not all of ours and potentially the entire modeling community’s. Just remember, this site is here for all of us, and there’s better things we all want to be doing on our time off work than us rebuilding a website and deleting crap posts, and y’all having to restore and repair your build threads. Thanks ahead of time 😄😄😄😄

The thing I’m finding on this is that the kit is actually pretty typical HPH. Absolutely gorgeous exterior moldings/castings, and some basic fit issue on the inside. So far, I’ve found that if you can build short run injected or full resin kits, (not including Silver Wings, Lukgraph, or Fisher, which fit as good as a Hasegawa kit) you won’t find any surprises here. With a bit, ok ALOT of care and attention, this appears like it’ll build up into a stunner. Obviously I have a ways to go yet, but the area I’m in now is where the major complaints occurred, so once the fuselage is together and the modifications complete, it should be semi smooth sailing. There have been several really nice builds of this kit so far, and yes, aim going a bit further down the road of idiocy than most, their kits all turned out awesome. And best of all? I have a resin type build, but ZERO resin dust.

And then guess what’s staring at me in disgust. First the Birdcage Corsair gives me hate, and now this one jumps out and says FINISH ME!

Placing a few more internal components tonight, and started scratching out a rear bulkhead because the kit part is closer to 1/48 than 1/32. It’s attached to the right side, but not glued on the bottom or to the left side. Some adjustment needed yet. But the good news is that other than a few rivets and such, it’s just a flat piece, so cardstock will work just fine. I’m looking forward to being able to hit the rear with some wear and tear so it looks like an actual workspace. Good LORD this is one UGLY aircraft.

Very nice and precise work. I love it, Sasha.

Nicely done and a great save.

So let’s finish up those builds and get them up on the RFI page. I need to heed my own advice…

Yeah I think I went down a long list of spam and yours may have been mixed in the middle of it. I don’t recall seeing it, but I can’t think of anything else that could have happened.

It was driving me crazy. I had a honey do list and an antique car show I had hanging over my head. Only one could be done and it certainly wasn’t the car show. LOL.

I’m not sure, but I MAY have accidentally deleted it in my panic when we were getting hit. Honestly, this is the first I heard about it. Just remember, I’m easily approachable and if something’s not right, reach out! I’m on FB as well and it’s sometimes easier during the day to reach me there on FB messenger. Glad you got your thread back, sorry about that Kevin if I was the guilty party.

On behalf of everyone here I will apologize for the spam invasion over the weekend. It appears that the last software update had messed with a few settings, allowing “Guests” to post on the forums. As a result, we were immediately overrun. It was fixed early this morning and all should be good now. Thanks for all y’all’s quick reporting of the issue and having it fixed sure beats spending all weekend deleting spam. 🤣 Build on, folks!

I have the -3 and -5. Thinking of doing one Grumman build and one GM. they are amazing kits

Beautiful build, John. Good go see you went with something different. I was planning an Army bird stationed in the Aleutians and possibly a Navy bird with an Atlantic scheme. Now you just need the big Grumman Turkey and you’ll have all three.

These were some seriously brave crews, and the B-24 was THE ship to do the job. But the political bungling seems to have been astronomical, and the CYA employed post raid by those in charge seems mind boggling to me. A treetop raid using B-24s? That’s by far the worst thing to do with that airplane. It’s a high altitude strategic bomber, not a treetop raider. Plus, not having the RAF do their standard high altitude pre raid recce flights with their Mossies is absolutely unforgivable.

We’ve had 105 F everyday now for 2 months. Truly miserable especially with a south wind of the Gulf.

Oh no!!! He left us doing what he loves

I’m starting to feel I’m getting a handle on the basic fuselage inner workings. Yes, the fit is extremely vague, but at least it’s oversized, not too small. I can nicely sand the edges until it all slides in place, but just know that forewarned is forearmed. If you approach assembly by following the instructions and assembling the entire interior first like a ZM kit or Tamiya, you will cuss the day the designer was born. But going carefully, one piece at a time takes longer, but will get you there faster and easier. Thank you Andy and John! You just need to be fearless and keep at it. I tossed a coat of sorta interior green on the areas, glued the pieces shown to the starboard side fuselage half and taped it all together to cure in place. Trust me, there was PLENTY of grinding and other hijinx behind the scene here to help coax this together. Tomorrow we pull the fuselage side off, finish the radio stack and forward floor, put on some placards, run some lead wires for interest, and weather the ever loving crap out of it. As for the engine, I’m using a Resin2Detail R2600 fast fix piece, which to me, is easily one of the nicest R2600s out there. The cowl was simple, although I’m honestly thinking of ditching the overly thick plastic cowl flaps and scratching something out of brass. Failing that, maybe thin the kit part to within an inch of their life. Thanks for looking! More updates tomorrow.

I heard it’s the molds. Full run kits use hardened steel molds and short runs use softer molds that need to be refreshed more often.

Oh it’s a pain, no doubt, Andy. Matter of fact it’s a Royal pain. What I’ve learned through watching your build will certainly help me avoid a few of the pitfalls out there But,.. it’s pretty much what I expected, quite honestly. I looked closely at yours and John’s builds before I jumped in, simply because I was quite concerned with how far I really wanted to chop this thing up for modifications. What y’all showed me was that it’s certainly doable, albeit with quite a bit of effort. I also knew it was a short run kit, so I was expecting the fit to be on the “vague” side, and if I was doing a buttoned up airplane, the surprises would have been negligible, but I seem to live for making my life interesting, so away we went with the razor saw. The kit is plagued with the bugaboo of all short run kits: vague, head scratching instructions, and small interior parts that could fit in 40 different spots, with the correct location actually being your last choice because that’s where fit is worst. 😬. But, it’ll get done, and I expect it’ll look awesome once finished. I opted for the open bomb bay, so now I’m cutting spars and fitting them in the wings even before I finish the fuselage. It all keys together right there below the cockpit floor. Fun. I’m actually starting to think the resin kit might actually be an easier build than the IM version. I fully expect to do another one of these kits as well, but that one being fully buttoned up with folded wings.

I thought about it, but I can’t. Mostly because I’ll forget where everything goes! It’s fresh in my mind and we continue on. Maybe once the airframe is back together all in one piece, we might take a break before paint.

This is getting worse and worse. The more I get into it, the more the razor saw gets used. What could possibly go wrong? I sure hope I can put Humpty Dumpty back together again. NOTHING here is by the book, and I think that when I’m done, only 2/3 of the thing will be original Infinity plastic. Needless to say, I’m only wee bit concerned. But tomorrow we do a couple washes over the nice, shiny Future, then start slapping it all together with baited breath

They’ll have a hot reception if they tried 😎 We’re very well protected around here, so they had better use a team.

The Corsair is destined to be a very early Bitdcage with badly beat paint. It will still have the earlier blue and grey scheme, two color, not three.