ScottsGT

Squeak, squeak…squeak… In all seriousness, I come from a family of hoarders. It scares the hell out of my wife thinking she’s going to have to deal with my 300+ kits stash if I kick off first. And she sees no reason to buy another kit (she doesn’t understand the modelers logical mindset) if I don’t have time to build all of my stash I have now. In the past two years I’ve bought over a dozen kits. I’ve only built 8 and half those were kits I already had before then. Edit: I could have $300 of supplies or aftermarket for kits roll up to the door and no words would be said. Just the kits. She did say when I build half the stash I could buy more.

Nope. No getting past it. Ring looks straight down the driveway. Gotta get a hookup with a neighbor that can take delivery.

Installed a new Ring doorbell last week. Wife wanted the app so she can have fun talking to people at the door like I did. So I downloaded the app on her phone. Her: What’s in the box the mailman just put on the porch? Me: 😳 crap. I didn’t think this one through. I just lost my ability to sneak things in. Gotta come up with a new plan.

We’re at 97 rest of the week with heat index up in the 101-105 range. It’s miserable. I can’t get anything done in the mornings because it takes hours for the bones to stop creaking, muscles to start flexing and pains to work themselves out. By then it’s just too damned hot to do anything outside. But this morning my wife is down at the shoreline running the weed eater. Last time she did it, she broke it. I told her the string does the cutting, not the spinning thing you keep slamming into the rocks.

I’d toss them in a pot of very hot, almost boiling water and see if they go back to the shape they were in the mold.

Masters have to be a slight bit larger due to shrinkage. Great thread over on LSP where Paul chimed in. In a nutshell, scan original kit, increase size a few percent in software and 3D print a new master.

Yea…thanks for posting those figures. Now I’m going to have to think about this really hard. I just got all my gear doors mounted today. Moving on to the 2-2-2 loadout as per the movie.

Those rectangles and funny shapes are supposed to be script? What a pile of 💩 BOO Trumpeter!

Love it! After my all yellow Texan, I might be doing something similar with one of my kits.

I bet during bench time you would have heard him making airplane noises zooming around.

And my Skyraider Guppy. This was a real fun build. I wish I had tried the Future canopy dip on this one like I did the Cougar. It really brings the clear resin to life.

Here’s my Cougar. I had to replace the cast splitters on the wings with sheet brass since they were paper thin and cracked. Had a few symmetry issues with the cast openings on the bottom I had to correct and a few pinholes that kept popping up during prep. Flaps were warped a little too. If I put them in the drooped position it would not have been noticeable. But they never parked in the down position. I also got a surprise when I glued on the front canopy. It didn’t match up with the molded in body lines and I had to add filler to blend it in. Rockets were also badly warped so I went with aftermarket. Oh, and the decals fell apart and even microsol decal film wouldn’t save them. I kind of made up generic decals.

Never had that pleasure!

Oh man, love that Cutlass!

Y’all need to do Paul a solid favor and build those kits! I’ve got three different Fishers, going to try and do one a year or every other year.

I’m gonna call the weathering done! Now on to the fiddly bits on the bottom.

This! Even better, sounds like his health has made a great comeback. When he signed off he made it sound terminal. obligatory Zotz decal build photo…..

I thought Hanoi Jane was a certain actress that cuddled up with the enemy and ratted out POW’s that slipped her notes?

I must retract this statement. I misread the thread title. I didn’t catch the GREAT part. We have grand baby #3 on the way. We a long way off for greats!

It’s back with a vengeance here. Can hardly see across the lake. Charlotte air quality is critical.

I have literally spent all day scouring the internet for weathering ideas and watched the dogfight scene yet again two or four times today to see what condition these birds were in during filming. Not sure if it’s a low resolution video thing, or were these aircraft really clean for this movie? Honestly, everything I could find of the A model around the time of these paint colors seems to be pretty clean. Just a few hydraulic leaks here and there on flap and aileron hinge points, little nasty behind drop tanks and the winglets that hang down. But this build isn’t getting the drop tanks. Hopefully I won’t have to spend too much time making it look used.

Laying down the semi-flat clear over everything to prep for weathering! FWIW, I’m using the Dupli-Color Paint Shop automotive clear I mentioned in the tips and techniques section on saving money. Highly thinned with Mr. Color Leveling Thinner. I used Mr. Color flat base to mix these up. And considering I really had to thin it out a LOT, a quart will be more than a lifetime supply of clear.

I tried going to his old website that still on his Sig line on LSP. Got all kinds of crap not associated with it. Anyone else try it yet?

And FWIW, I clipped off the edge of mine and soaked it to verify it’s not a decal.

Mike, I just pulled my kit out and did not even see that covered with the instructions. I remember when I built my fat face there was an online build article done by Paul, but I cannot find it now. I showed a lot of things the instructions didn’t. Might be an article on LSP? I was going to dig out my donor kit, but it’s buried deep in my garage loft. But I’m thinking you use the decals from it on the backer behind the gauge panel? Forget all that. I just figured it all out once my printed gauge face fell out of the decal bag. It’s a photo print that you trim and glue to the back of the instrument panel once you have it painted the way you want it. you can drip some clear epoxy into the gauge openings to look like glass lenses.