ScottsGT

I also fiddled around with the G Factor legs. Short of bending these things wide open and hoping they don’t break or not bend back correctly, I cannot figure out how to use them without just cutting off the wheels axles and gluing them back on down inside the brass. And honestly, I just came up with that idea as I was putting this on paper.

Spent today assembling some of the larger sub assemblies. Probably be a week before I get my paint order in so I want to progress as much as I can. This was four sprue trees cleaned out. .

Yea, very old! Were talking 48 years ago. 😳

Ok. So far this is an interesting experience. As most kits, it starts out with the cockpit build. I’m getting a real steampunk vibe off the cockpit. I’ve gone about as far as I can without painting. Speaking of paint, made up my shopping list and went to my usual place, Sprue Brothers. Of all the colors for them to be out of, RLM 2. That Germany’s “interior green” primer and corrosion control paint color. Back to USAGundam since they’re a retailer of Gunze paint. This little detail caught me off guard with this kit. Bulkhead at cockpit is made up of three parts. What appears to be an outer panel with circuit breakers is to be glued directly to main bulkhead. They even have an outline of where it goes. Problem is, it doesn’t fit the outline. I had to sand it off to get the panel to fit the bulkhead. instructions pic: After I will add, I do like how there are 4 pages of parts call outs for every part in the kit. What I’m finding frustrating is that there is no order or rhyme or reason as to the parts layout on the sprues. I think the cockpit alone was scattered on 5 or 6 different sprues.

Priceless. I honestly have no idea, and really don’t want to know. Gave my wife the phone number to Squadron if I die since he resells collections and is a few hours away in Atlanta. Told her to tell them to just come get it all and send her a check if he feels he can make money after expenses. Otherwise, the county dumpsters are at the end of my street 5 miles down the road and I know that’s where they would end up.

Love the subject. I built that kit when I was an about 13. Always wanted another to do it right.

Wow. That looked like something out of a movie.

Well this is going to be fun! Been looking for the perfect excuse to rip off the shrink wrap and crack open the box. Just look at that huge fuselage! Off to read the instructions and sort through what paints I’ll be needing since I’ve switched over to lacquers since I’ve built anything with a swastika on it.

I built these loft shelves just to hold the stash from the move. Each box is numbered and I have a list I wrote up as I packed them for the move. Moving boxes are two deep on this shelf on the right. Smaller shelf, but holds 4 moving boxes full and then some stacked on top. There’s a lot more stacked on top now for some strange reason. 🤷🏻‍♂️ At the old house I had shelves with the stash on them. The wife thought this was just too much “clutter” to see.

I feel your pain. Our whole house is run off a heat pump winter and summer. Southern thing here since it rarely gets really cold. Are you running an additional heat source up there? We had a new unit installed back in September. When it dropped down below freezing and into the teens I noticed the heat pump was keeping up somewhat with the thermostat setting. Set at 69 degrees, only got down to 67 in the house. Last year it was 58 inside. Kicker was the power bill was $125 higher this year. My last system didn’t have auxiliary electric heat coils in the system, nor does my thermostats have the “emergency” heat setting that turns them on. I called my HVAC guy and asked if these have them and could they possibly be wired to come on with the hear. OOPS! He’s coming out next week to see if his guy wired them to turn on all the time. I’ll probably need a new thermostat for the upstairs where it really gets colder during the winter.

Okay, all kidding aside with a build from my nerd stash…. This is the perfect excuse for me to dig this one out of the stash just now. I’ve been looking for a reason ever since I scored it off Amazon for something like $40 a few years back. Good grief Charlie Brown…I had to shuffle moving boxes full of models around and up and down on the ladder to pull the moving box this was packed away in. Then I had to put them all away. 🤪 I also have the G-Factor brass gear for it as well. No ladder work, but a little digging to get to them in the morning. I bet y’all did nazi that coming, did ya??

You buy it for me and I’m in!

I’ve been sitting on wanting to build this for probably 15 years now. Figured I’m not getting any younger, so I started this on Dec. 1 last year. As usual, the build was a joy. This is Tamiya F4-J #4 for me, one being a B conversion. I still have 2 more in the stash. One is the Marine version I’ll probably build OOB. Other will be the VX-4 Bicentennial Eagle scheme. One of the major hurdles building a Blue Angels aircraft is the BA blue color. All the BAB colors from all the major suppliers is correct for very early builds like way back in the days of flying the Cougars. I bought every brand of paint in BAB I could find or anything close and started this project by patchwork painting an old 1/48 Phantom I used as a paint mule. My closest pick was Tamiya TS-15 blue. Of course Tamiya doesn’t offer a match of TS-15 in their LP lineup. Time to decant the spray bomb, and this is where the difficulty started. I tried airbrushing light coats building up, tried adding clear, tried adding leveling thinner, tried polishing after the paint dried. Nothing worked except hosing it on heavy and wet like it comes out of the spray can. No way I could have done this with my Iwata. Yea, I tried. I used the Grex with a fan attachment tip. Best results were painting heavy and wet, let it sit 48 hours then wet sand with 1200 grit and respray with two more heavy and wet coats. Cant wait to do that F-18 now! Yea, I know. I put the U.S.Navy decals about a 1/4” too low. Didn’t discover this until after the fact looking at the real airplanes on line. This is the second time I burned myself referring to the decal sheet and not looking at photos of the real thing.

This one showed up in the mail yesterday. Picked it up off LSP classifieds. I have the old Revell Stuka but always wanted the “tank buster” with the underwing cannons. Today I got my Hobby Zone building jig from Super Hobby in Poland. With the biplanes in the stash this should make things easier.

Actually, I just got it in the mail yesterday. I’m about to take a pic and post it with some other goodies the mailman brought me.

Yea, I remember a lot of us telling him don’t worry. We get it. And just how do you know what color drawers I’m wearing today? 😡 All kidding aside, I think my bench has been sending me subliminal messages to build this finally! Only been in the plans 15+ years.

Oh crap. Forgot why I came here. Derp! 🤪 Almost there! Finish up the seats and a good wipe down to remove all the decal residue and she’s done.

Speaking of Dale, I was researching something I’m working on and one of his threads popped up. I spent an hour rereading a lot of his posts. He certainly was a character, especially when he was trying a new med or got them out of whack. We’ve lost a lot of good people over the years.

Yea, but I’ve already done that one.

Man, that’s looking great. When I weathered mine I screwed the pooch when I shot on the final flat clear. When it dried it looked like I had sprinkled talc all over it. I had to start all over again. Lesson learned that day! One coat of flat clear at a time and let it dry!

🤔 hmm… It is a twin engine.

Hubert, I picked that book up as well. Dana did an amazing job on it. I got my copy directly from him.

Ok, odd scale. Too big for 1/48, smaller than 1/32 but the pilot is probably 1/8 scale. So I’ll stick it here with the big models. Just a fun build I jumped on to release stress from painting the Blue Angels Phantom. Honestly, it kept the big F-4 off the SOD. Notice I’m giving the glamour shots on a dirty bench? Yea, cleanup is after the Phantom- coming soon!

I knew you could do it! Looks great.