ScottsGT

Gotta be photoshopped, but funny.

Just stop it! You know how close I’ve come to setting up a lathe for turning pens? Go away evil hobby spreader!! I don’t need another hobby. Im just thankful I’m too broke to afford a big building to set up a wood shop. Of course then I’d have no time for models. BTW, beautiful work there!

I just assembled this upper from used parts I picked up online. The vintage DPMS handguard is actually off of my .22 upper I built years ago. Works better with my big fat silencer since it slips right into it, barely. Can’t wait to try it out with subsonics. But I have to be careful to not have too much fun. Ammo to feed this is a buck a round.

Let’s not forget some of the larger syfi releases too. The big Tie fighter is a doozie! While these may not be “our” cup of tea, it might introduce others into the hobby of plastic models. The more they look into things, they may take a liking to military modeling. Not to mention it’s a welcomed income flow to the manufacturer to keep the lights on. Im on several hobby mailing lists. New car kits, new Gundam stuff. A great time for the hobby for sure!

LOL! I read this as I’m sitting at the park with the grandkids. Of course I have no revolution to join in on…..today.

Sorry to hear about Moms condition. She’s a bit higher on the importance level than build time. I took a five year hiatus from life attending Moms needs in the end and another almost 2 years to settle her estate due to covid. Courts were shut down, “Work from home” employees at the VA didn’t care to get anything done on a timeline (worse than usual) trying to get documents needed, or the SC State Retirement system. Edit: Even worse, the IRS. I had forgot how horrible they were at getting her final returns processed. Apparently they were assigned to handing out free money to everyone with the “de-stimulate” the economy checks that we didn’t qualify for.

Well this was a bit of glass work! of course Revell shows mounting oxygen systems and machine gun drum mags directly to the window areas. Nope. I could not see anything halfway resembling this anywhere online. I just left them out. Yea, B team designed this cockpit probably using made up images from a video game. If any kit ever screamed for an accurate aftermarket cockpit and with all this glass, it would have to be this kit.

Ok. Cut the bottom of the wing glue joint open, dug out all the filler Evergreen I glued in and CA’d it shut. It’s still off a little by 3/16”. If I place a .030 shim under the low side LG, it now sits even. I feel shaving a slight bit off the high side tire will get it close enough for the eye to not pick it up.

Now you’re just trying to reel me in. Oh you….. But thanks for the compliment!

I love watching these WNW builds. Something I know I would not have the patience to attempt, but enjoy watching from the sidelines.

Wow, coming along nicely! I’m still waiting on that J/K release.

I’ve been known to do worse. Remember the F-14 build with the upside down wings I discovered after painting?

Hard to make out in this pic, but the left side (facing it) is about a 1/4”-5/16” higher. Doing careful measurements, I really cannot tell if it’s a landing gear difference of wing dihedral difference with the way it went together. All I know is taking about 1/16”-1/8” off the bottom of the tire should fix it. Crap. I just figured it out and I did it stupidly. When I went to glue that side wing half on there was a gap at the bottom joint. Instead of forcing it in place and holding it while the glue set up I simply filled the gap with Evergreen stock. I think I can saw that out and correct it with a little work. Stupid stock filler

And it’s standing on its own legs now!

Well, this took about an hour of my life! Hopefully now that I’m experienced the right side will go quicker. Have to brush touch up the “keepers” that hold things in place. I’ve found that installing main legs and the actuator free floating makes it easier to get the rest of the parts installed. I then hit the hinge joints with CA to take out the slop and lock things in place. To hold the hinge part I had to use ticky-tack on the end of a swab stick. And strategically placed Tamiya tape too!

Ok, got some primer and RLM65 around the gear holes. Back in the body shop we called this “cutting in” or “trimming in” a panel so it could be installed. It will make taping around the landing gear easier when the all over paint work takes place. Yea, I’ve gotta agree with y’all about the unique shape the flaps provide. I positioned them partially down and it still looked great. But straight down like the one pic I found just took away from its bat wing look.

Just got the flaps aligned and glued in place. I almost went with dropped flaps, but the one pic I could find of an actual real plane with dropped flaps shows them straight down. Looks broken. Just wrong looking and so many pics of aircraft sitting and flaps were up. Man, this huge glob of styrene is a static bomb! It’s covered in cat hair and I’ve already wiped it down with Endust once already.

Ernie, that’s amazing!

This makes me happy! My favorite Sherman.

I’m gonna need a bigger bench! This is giving me flashbacks of my RC days because it so big.

And done! primered It grew feathers!

Just an update. Went in for my third adjustment yesterday morning. I’m no longer feeling like I was in a bar fight afterwards and each day I have progressively felt better. One of my measuring sticks is feeling the road bumps and how my body was reacting with shooting pains vs. pot hole repair size. Aren’t SC roads great? Idjits fill a pot holes and leave it sticking up like a speed bump or just halfway fill the holes. I’m actually starting to feel my older back pains before the SI flair up. Sleeping all night in the bed has not happened yet. Spend a couple hours in the middle of the night in my recliner.

Thanks! I’m actually putting a lot of thought into my next steps. I’ve got the wings ready to glue on already, even had to correct a mistake I made on the center section joint. But I decided it would be a lot easier to work the fuselage seams now before I’m spinning around a huge bird in my hands. When I walked away from the bench last night, in my head I was planning on wing attachment. Went to bed and started rethinking which would be easier and save time in the long run. I have decided with the complex landing gear attachment points that I’m going to paint the bottom of the airplane first, then install the legs. It’s just going to be too hard to tape that busy area up with the gear in place. I like to think of the instructions as a suggestion. But trying to halfway follow these would has been total chaos.

Ugh….sanded the seams smooth before adding the huge wingspan. Got a flat top fuselage now. Tamiya putty applied. Let’s hope I can work some “roundness” into this like I have with my belly.

Soon to be hidden forever. All those hours spent detailing. See? Gone. A little peaking through the windows. Current status.