1to1scale

The Corsair was crap, but this P-51 panel is unreal, even the individual toggles show up.

Still plugging away, I was delayed a few weeks waiting for my Look IP, also adding Barracuda cockpit stencils.

In anticipation of the Helldiver...

Looks great Ernie! Sometimes you just have to build one for fun with no extra bull crap.

That’s a good deal for anyone in Europe. I ordered mine from a seller in the UK, but at the time, Hannants didn’t have any yet. Unfortunately, the current GBP to USD isn’t as good as the EUR, and the long shipping times, make it even worse. We are starting to get some stores in the US that are carrying these. as a side note, a few months ago I ordered several things from overseas, and here are the shipping times I got. China = 11 weeks UK = 3-4 weeks Australia = 5 weeks and counting Germany = Order was cancelled as they could not ship to the US currently. Canada = 2 weeks and counting. Yes, even though we are connected by thousands of miles of terrain, the USPS told me Canada is overseas, I tried to show him a map on my iPhone, but he reasserted that in his system, Canada is overseas. I was not winning this battle, I left, my faith in humanity waning... MN to TN = 3 days

Amazing work!

When I started this project, I was going to build 10, I man aged to start 8, then it was down to the 5 best, now three are close to paint. I can tell anyone wanting to do this...don’t try! Do one at a time. There are just too many issues with Hasegawa modular construction. The sanding & filling has been a nightmare.

Actually, the three best planes I have completed so far, as far as zero filler and build issues, are the Tamiya F4U, Hasegawa Ki-84, and the Trumpeter P-40B. If you take away the accuracy issues, mostly cockpit, the build itself was very enjoyable, and issues were self induced. All three of these required zero seam filler. as far as filler, I used to use some high build sprayable filler for cars, but it’s nasty stuff that will give you headaches even while wearing a rated respirator, but that stuff was a dream to sand, and never shrank.

These little bastards pissed me off and I had to deal with seam lines and shrunken filler, so I slathered them with filler again and threw them back on the shelf again. Now, a month later, I picked up the three best and started sanding again. I got them pretty well evened out, and threw another coat of primer on them. At this point, other than describing a few seam lines, I’m leaving them as-is. I don’t feel like devoting another year to making them perfect. I am really going to have to find a better filler, Mr Surfacer 500 is on my shit list. I hope to start throwing down some paint in the next couple of days.

There have been a couple incidents of pilotless aircraft landing themselves. No joke!

Eject, eject, eject!

Dammit! I clicked on this for about 2 minutes expecting to hear this run.

I’m not sure how to order or if you can, apparently you can pay them $40 euro, but I’m not sure if this a preorder, deposit, etc. anybody read Czech that can decipher their page?

Yes, hurry, motivation tends to drop when new things are released.

I got evicted from my hobby room, it’s now my wife’s at home office for the time being. So I moved my work area down to the garage, which is OK, because I was going to be using lacquer paints for several builds..

Bad things happen to your best models. Proof I’m not kidding... repairing one gear, broke the other, knocked the prop, engine broke loose, had to remove the cowl, which was well glued. Then I went to pull the engine off, pulled the front cover off. I made it to the Nats, got photographed by FSM and made it into the Best Models issue. Don’t give up hope on the model!

Bill, I buggered up a couple planes, one of the things I do to fix them is to pin things. I break landing gear, pitot tubes, antennas on a monthly basis. First of all, grab all the struts and pair them up, mark a piece of cardboard and tape them to it. Walk away, give it a day or two. I literally was fixing the broken gear strut on my Ki-84 getting ready for the Nats, just as I finished fixing the damn thing, I broke the other one. I walked away for he night. Get some ultra fine piano wire, I have .0015 stuff, treat it with respect, this will make you bleed, keep track of clippings or your foot will find them. I suspect your struts are too small to drill, so here is what I would do. 1. Grab a sheet of parchment or wax paper. 2. Lay the struts down on the paper, align then carefully, either use extra thin or C/A glue to glue them back together in alignment and let them sit a while to set up. 3. If you have them in perfect alignment, then very gently saw a slot across the freshly glued break, try not to go all the way through. You are trying to create a slot about 1/2 long that you can lay a slightly shorter cut piece of the wire in. 4. Drop the wire in, and flow some medium C/A over the top, use some kicker over it. Let it set up a while, now you can sand the C/A glue and you have a repaired strut. It will be pretty strong, stronger than the rest of the strut.

A-6 Intruder.

Harv, you made me do it. I ordered an FT for myself.

There is evidence that they were many colors, some photos show a very bright yellow zinc, some show an aluminum with barely a light mist of yellow zinc dusted on, almost translucent, and then I found this photo. This shows a more green zinc color, possibly a yellow zinc over coated with interior green. as the wing stripes are yellow, you can see the gear doors are more green than yellow. Looks here like they were possibly painted interior green over the yellow, which is even more curious as this is a NMF bird and camouflage was no longer an issue.

Well...

If possible, solder the brass parts together, then the rest depends on the attaching points, if there is enough area, the CA would be ok. If the attachments are small, then try something stronger like epoxy, bondic, or VMS Flexy glue.

The only difference between the regular MK.II and the I.M. version are the decals and Eddie Figure. If the plastic is still good, then build it. I finished mine a couple months ago

I just could not let the IP go as it was, I put in an order for the Look Panel this morning. I’m going to keep working on the rest while I’m waiting for delivery.

Yes, my thoughts too. Might order the Look panel.