Bill_S

No experience with the Red Fox products here, but I just finished my Tamiya Tomcat cockpit with the Quinta Studios product. I was quite pleased with the product and its relative ease of application, though to me the gray background was a little too light (Think Light Gull Gray vs. Dark Gull Gray). I purchased the KitsWorld set for my Revell Tempest; the set was minimal (as was reflected in the price). To me, the pieces were soft as mentioned above. I would highly recommend the Quinta Studios stuff.

Freshly scribed panel lines. Time to get out the putty and tackle those seams!

Surface detail on the aft fuselage is faint and the white plastic makes it hard to see. I put some highly thinned Tamiya black down to highlight. I'll rescribe what's already there. A heavy layer of putty. Most of the putty is sanded off... It's going to require another application or three. In the meantime, I've started on the landing gear. Four PE parts for the mains, one for each nose wheel.

There was a noticeable step between the upper fuselage and the clear canopy (two are provided; one subsonic and one supersonic). I cemented a piece of sheet styrene to bring the fuselage up to the level of the glass. More filler and more sanding are in order, but I'm pleased with the result thus far. I glued the fuselage to the upper wing. There is a noticeable gap at the join. I hate sanding those inside corners. I pulled out some 0.030 inch (.75 mm) diameter rod from the supply box. It fits quite nicely in the gap and (hopefully) will minimize filling and sanding.

Impressive start (as always), John!

Playing with the Quinta Studios F-14 cockpit.

I've made plans to go to Noreastcon in Albany April 29-30. Might I see any LSM members there?

Cut out a couple of molded on scoops on the fuselage; they'll be replaced with PE. Right now, they're held in place with PVA; lots of filling and sanding to be done before they are attached permanently. Given the size of the delta wing, I thought for sure this beast would be a tail sitter. I've got it propped up at the main gear attachment points; there is no need for any nose weight.

Welcome to LSM, Mirage.

Fantastic work, Rob! This is way outside of my comfort zone.

This kit is a bit of a pig; I'm beginning to understand Nigel's rants on his youtube channel. I'm glad I didn't spend a lot of time on the cockpit. Not much will be seen, and I had to do some shaving to get the thing to fit into the forward fuselage halves. I had to clamp things very tight in order to close the fuselage. I still had a gap forward of the instrument panel. I'll fill that with styrene sheet. The spine of this section is a mess... I've begun the tedious process of rescribing, and I bought a new tube of Tamiya putty.

Thanks for the kind words, Ben. This plane will require lots of filler. I'm planning on sanding, then rescribing; the upper wing practically screams it. I'm also toying with the idea of an in-flight display too. The PE for the landing gear is quite complex.

A stiffener so I can hold the engines in the vise. Partitions milled off. Partitions removed from wing. Stock cut for new partitions. Lots of trimming to do. PE in place on the partitions. Not perfect, but it will do. Nose gear bay bulkhead in place. The damn thing sit way too high; no way the fairing will fit flush like this! I cut a slot in the roof of the gear bay to see if I could get it to sit low enough... It looks ugly, but not much of it will be seen. I had to trim the PE part anyway. I hope the rest of it fits better than this. And the fairing fits!

Martin, thanks for the link. Armory also makes a PE nozzle set. I ordered one, but they cancelled it. I assume they aren't shipping right now. Hopefully things will change soon.

I've always loved the lines of this plane. I never realized just how big it is until I saw the real one at the USAF Museum in Dayton, Ohio. The obligatory box pic... The parts count is not too high; the molding is a bit on the soft side when compared to kits of a more recent vintage. I hope to have this one enterred in my club's contest in September. I purchased a PE set from Brengun. Four frets, with some very fine parts. No cockpit enhancements were included in the frets. The PE is used on the exhaust area, landing gear, and various plates and scoops on the fuselage and wings. Assembly starts with the wings. Four parts, two upper and two lower. Upper: And lower: Exhaust nozzles fitted into the lower fuselage: Now the first problem arises. The fit is good between the nozzles and the lower fuselage, but when I fit them to the bottom wing I get this: The dividers between the individual nozzles are to be sandwiched between PE parts. Time to put on my thinking cap... Intakes with Tamiya putty... The next issue was an easy one. There was a noticeable step between fuselage parts on the starboard side. Nothing a couple of shims won't fix. I couldn't resist a mockup of the airframe. Even in 1/72 scale, this should be impressive; it's a hair under a meter long.

Great work so far, Carl! I got the Dambuster conversion for mine as well. Are you aware Iconicair also makes a correct nose blister for the Dambuster? http://www.iconicair.com/bombaimers/

It's the AMT/ERTL 1/72 Limited Edition kit, Harv. Everything I read said it's better than the Italeri offering.

It's not large scale, but it is pretty large. Waiting for a Brengun PE set to arrive from the UK.

This one literally fell into my lap at last month's club meeting...

John, I did a search on "Floquil thinner substitue" and this came up from TOS... Gregory, Your local hardware store should sell lacquer thinner by the quart or gallon for a very reasonable price. On the other hand, I prefer xylene (also known as xylol), which is the principal component of Dio-Sol and also is sold inexpensively by the quart or gallon at any good hardware store — wherever I've lived in the USA, at least — or via the Internet. Xylene/xylol is strong stuff, however, so be careful with it. A 2:1 mixture of xylene and lacquer thinner comes quite close to being home-made Dio-Sol. Charles Metz

I built this paint rack years ago; it's served me well. A piece of pegboard, some aluminum angle and some screws... you can make one as big as you need.

Hubert, Please add me to your list. Thanks!

Last one. Til the next one.

Two different sources, same color. I can't find any reference on the web as to mislabeled Alclad lacquers. I have no clue what the lighter colored one is. This was shipped from Japan via DHL. I've never seen a kit packed this way, but it got to me in pristine condition. Got this one at a very good price. The first this I did was put it in a conventional box.