1to1scale

I always make work for myself. Not happy with just decals, I am painting and masking the bands. I used RLM04 for the yellow, and MRP Red Wood for the brown, followed by wrapping 2mm bands of Tamiya tape around, the hellfire are a bit more of a challenge since the bands go under the fins, luckily, the stripes trimmed to 3mm fit, and 1mm for the part with the rail. I will be painting and masking all the different metal bands as well, I already started by spraying a little burnt metal tonight, I’ll mask and move to the next color tomorrow, then do the body, followed by the thin silver bands. This is not necessary, but I wanted to learn how to do magnets for mounting breakable pieces and ordinance, a good place to start was the rotor and optics ball, as a nice feature is that they act like a bearing.

In all seriousness, I can churn out a 1/48 aircraft in a 1/3 the time it takes to build a 1/32, especially when it’s a high quality brand like Tamiya. And the since most of what I bought in 1/48 can’t be had had in 1/32, it’s an acceptable excuse. And sometimes you need an easy Tamiya build to get your mojo back. And to be fair, I’m working on and almost done with the 1/35 AH-1Z, that’s another easy and quick build. My next two builds will be the 1/48 F-14 and P-38, mostly because I have heard that both of these off the charts in ease of build and quality. And I’m not leaving 1/32 behind, but the last 4 out of 5 models I built were for other people, I want to build a couple for myself without taking too much time. I look at each build as a platform to learn a new technique, so I am refining my skills with grays and greens and weathering, and the two little Tamiya kits allow me to get to the paint stage quickly. And the following builds will be two epic projects, a 1/32 Frogfoot and a 1/16 Stuart tank, both of those will be 6 months each.

Because Putin says so!

I have a terrible confession to make, recently, I have....sigh. I have been lusting after, then now buying...1/48 scale kits. Oh the shame. It started with the Mig-25, then the F-22. But I told myself, it’s OK, as I can’t get them in 1/32. And I built an A-7E, that was for a commission, so I told myself it’s OK. ...but them the disease started to progress. Everyone talked about the New Tamiya P-38, and I had to do it, the hobby shop had one...and I didn’t. So I fixed that. Then I accidentally ordered The Tamiya F-14A, and then the Mk.1 Spitfire, the the BF-109 G6, tonight I looking at F4U porn. I have strayed down the dirty path, and I can’t turn back.

Happy belated birthday, keep sniffing that glue!

My marder was “almost” finished, basically, I just need to finish final assembly and weathering, but I definitely didn’t finish on time.

In a mere 3 hours today, I finished the cockpit, fabricated seatbelts, closed up the fuselage, and worked out a magnet system for attaching the optical ball and main rotor. This kit is awesome. I will be building another one!

Lol. This has wings! Actually, during the decade I spent working with the whole OH-58D fleet, we only lost 6 pilots due to mechanical issues, which is amazing when you considered they were in combat zones flying missions and racked up a total of 850,000 combat flight hours. But, yes, I would probably shit myself if I actually had to go up it one.

Yes, that’s pretty much what I need exactly.

I finally got the cockpit painted, now just need to figure out something for belts.

Actually, I read that the turquoise color kept pilots calm under stressful conditions.

I need some help for anyone experienced with vinyl cutters please? I have a Shillouette Curio with the software. I found the USAF font (Amarillo) and got it installed on my computer, however, I am still needing to find some US insignia, and while I’m at it, other countries, Israel for one. I’m so new I don’t even know what to call it and what to google. Help would be greatly appreciated. specifically I’m trying to find the Korean vintage insignia with the red bars.

I loved this build Rob, you inspired me to branch out to a 1/48 Mig 25. A friends dad once told me, a good carpenter is measured by his ability to hide and fix his f***-ups, without anyone knowing after it’s done. You have become a stronger modeler by learning what you learned from the floor product incident. Good job! A fantastic Mig!

Thanks guys, this model was a real turd, but I had so much fun painting it, I have a bug to build a bigger one in 1/32. However, I know that will be a very long term project, I have a Trumpeter A-6A waiting, I have been collecting Vietnam era Brassin weapons as I come across them. Someday...

This is the fastest building kit I have done in a long time. I think you could actually build this in a weekend without extensive weathering. If were to do a second one, build and paint the cockpit, seal up the fuselage, attach every thing that is gray, and start spraying. Use a fast drying paint like MRP, and you could do it. Three primary colors are light ghost gray, USN blue-gray, and black. A couple metal colors for exhaust and a few minor details, and red and white brush paints, and it’s done. Cartograph decals are guaranteed to work well, and quick blast with dull oat in a can, and you have a Sat/Sun build. I am going to do some more extensive weathering though, and the only aftermarket additions will be the brass mini gun barrels. I may have this done by next weekend.

Yes, I have gone back to working on a larger scale, this time it’s academy’s 1/35 AH-1Z Viper. I sat down this morning at 8:30 with a sealed and bagged kit, 6 hours later I have a mostly assembled (in subassemblies) kit. I have a few more things I can put together before I lay down some paint and get the interior detailed. As the interior is all black, it will be relatively easy. I will use a few shades to give it a little variance and I still have to figure out seat belts, but this thing is not going to take long. Much of that time was spent sanding burrs and about a dozen ejector pin marks off, none required filler, just sanding. A little CA was required to fill a sink Mark in the landing skid, but I’m happy to say this kit is almost to Tamiya quality, not quite, but close. Ejector pin marks in the armor cockpit plating were the biggest culprits. So far, so good.

Update: after the started sanding the seams the other day, it became apparent the the underside was going to require heavy amounts of filler. I slathered on the filler and am now waiting for a week to let it dry and shrink, before I get back to it. meanwhile.... I hear another helicopter calling my name, what could it be?

I have nothing good to say about this little lump of dog turd, 1960’s molds, crappy everything kit. Well, I do have one good thing to say “it’s finally finished!”

Shill bidding is a dangerous game if you are a seller, pros will ever do it because it will get you an instant lifetime ban from selling. Usually, it’s the “once in a while” seller that does this. It can be hard to track if they have a friend do it that lives elsewhere. They usually start an auction for $1.00 to have the lowest auction fees, then get nervous When it does not get any good bids and have someone, like a friend, throw in their “reserve” bid. What I don’t like is when people take advantage of the proxy bid system and put on bids to bring yours up, I believed i had this happen To me before.

I learned a quick way to improve a figures face is to use a thin brown wash, helps bring out the wrinkles, lines, and shadows. It’s my crutch when I make a good figure look bad. I suck at figure painting, so much so, I actually signed up for a figure painting class this fall from a master painter. I actually think your Mig turned out great, I would have given up on the canopy seals, but I admire that you went for it,

These look pretty good to me, I have used their pilot and seat combos a few times. My pilot looked like Putin.

Somebody will pay for this blunder with their head. A few thousand tons of this stuff stored for six year in an important port warehouse, next to the country’s Primary grain cache, in a highly populated area was simply idiotic. They had six years to move or dispose of it. If anything, it could have been used for food production or sold.

I agree, I recently won a great deal on a Trumpeter SU-25. Here is what I did. 1. I researched the off eBay selling prices and found that the cheapest I could buy it for was $130 + $16 shipping, this was an exceptionally good price for online as they were about $30 less than anyone else on eBay or retailer. Don’t forget to factor in taxes and shipping. 2. I found a couple different eBay auctions on two that were at The $50 point, so I made my plan of attack. One ended at 4:00 on Saturday and the other on Sunday. So I set a bid on the Saturday one, I figured the best I could buy it for was $146, so I figured for the auction, I would be willing to pay $125 shipped price. The auction was at $57 currently. Shipping was $18, so I put in my bid of $125-18=$107. I used the proxy bidder system built within eBay, so as soon as I put in bid of $107, it shot up to $76 as me being the high bidder. This meant that the previous bidders only bid up to $75, the system automatically set my bid as $1 above the highest bid. 3. As the week went along, my bid stayed steady, then I was unable to watch the end Saturday. When I checked back, the item was sold to another bidder for $129, as this was what I could buy one online for, I was not sad. I now turned my attention to the other one ending Sunday, it was still at $50, so I did the exact same bid and my bid shot up to $62, as I input my maximum, I left it alone. Sunday I logged in to check on it 5 min before the end of the auction and I saw my bid had gone up to $87, someone put in 4 bids a few hours ago, but must have got discouraged by my instant higher bids. I expected to have it go higher, so I left it alone and watched, knowing I was comfortable with. I ended up with it for $105, far less than I was prepared to pay, so what did I do? Yup, you guessed it, bought loads of AM for it! 4. One final note, ask yourself what is it REALLY worth to you when setting the maximum bid. About a year ago, I was bidding on a Hobbycraft A-36 Apache, but gave up at $105. Now, later, I have not seen one for sale again, and may never get another chance. So in hindsight, I would have paid double.

More clamps than open heart surgery.