ScottsGT

Somewhere years ago I found brass landing gear for my Catalina kit. Not the usual suspects of G-Factor or Aerocraft models.

Jeff, you officially suck! Nice garage!!

Just showed up in my mailbox. First of my orders for the group build coming in a few weeks.

Those come in handy.

And of course you’ve gotta have the sexy split bumpers that they left off the kit. So I cut some corners. Literally. Found some left Over sprue from the F-16 project and snipped out the corners and doing a little shaping.

Well, ok…. The tape is to cut in T tops since I customized my ‘73 with a later model T top roof.

Oh, and right behind my bench, the staining process has begun….

Couldn’t stand seeing my bench empty waiting on the Dec 1 group build. Grabbed an oldie out of the stash. of course I can’t do anything simple. Trying to make it look like my old Z-28

Yep, that’s it.

How much of this is visible once it’s buttoned up inside the fuselage sides? I’d be tempted to build it as a cut away model. Can’t hide all that beautiful work!

I forgot to mention, after starting painting this scheme it dawned on me that the decals to go with it were 44 years old. My biggest fear was they would crumble when they got wet. Did a test of one not needed and they performed like a new kit. Man, that was a relief!

I think the consensus was Dec.1st. Bench is clear now and I have a couple of projects for my daughters and whatever the wife dreams up in the next few days, so timing is good for me.

I’ll admit, my heart really wasn’t into doing my best detailing after I started gluing parts together and knowing I have 4 more Academy kits and two Tamiya kits waiting. And this was a first using lacquers with a hard edge taped off. Had a little buildup on my tape lines and I’ve got to work on that. Paints were all lacquer using Mr. Color and MRP for the white. Mr. Color has a better gloss, so MRP was used as the first few coats after a complete white primer using Tamiya in the bottle. The blue is from MCW and it’s their Thunderbird blue. Red is from SMS out of Australia. The blue dried to a very deep gloss, although a shade too dark. The SMS red RAAF Red. It dried to a semi-gloss, almost hazy like it blushed from humidity. A quick rub down with Nu-Finish car polish really made it pop. Hasegawa’s reference info was horrible. Decal placement shown incorrectly, colors wrong and instructions that looked like they came off the mimeograph machine we had when I was in the third grade. Baby, we have come a long way since this kit came out 44 years ago. I think it’s been in my stash 15-20 years. Oh well, enough rambling. On to a few pics. I think one reason Hasegawa had the wrong FS numbers listed might because they used this “Tribute” build to 50745 I think was painted by the Dutch for an air show years ago. And if anyone is interested, the original first production F-16, 50745, is now a gate guard painted up as a Thunderbird in Texas I believe.

Last pic here. Head over to completed LSM’s.

Done! sneak peek until I get the bench cleaned off.

Me three! 🤪

It’s on deck! Ordered all the aftermarket stuff last night and this morning. As you can see I’m putting the wraps on the F-16. Should be done today. Dec 1 start will give me time to clean up and knock out a few other honey-do’s in the meantime.

My sons GSD when she went through her Velociraptor stage of life BTW, that was an awesome La Z Boy with a built in fridge in one of the arm rests. Was…..

Her latest is wanting me to cut down the kitchen countertop “bar” area. It is stupid high. But we’ll have a tile matching issue on the backsplash and I’ve got a bad feeling this will lead to a new backsplash which will require Sheetrock replacement and of course if we’re going that far, might as well do countertops and paint the cabinets too. BTW, all new appliances are on order too. Told her nothing but appliances before the holidays.

Yet another decal/stencil set for an F-16. I must be losing my damned mind since I’m currently trying to wrap up F-16 build #9.

Paint build up on the front half of needle will deposit onto the seals behind the trigger and into the guide gumming it up inside as it is retracted out the back. I was experiencing the needle hanging up over time and wondering what the heck was going on. It was to the point I needed pliers to grip the back of the needle to pull it out. I knew that wasn’t right, so I looked into cleaning and rebuilding. Once I saw the video, it was like a lightbulb went off. I flushed out the needle guide with thinner and closely examined my air cap and related parts since they didn’t always get a deep cleaning and I had all kinds of buildup in everything. I do like the idea of reinserting from the back. I’ll stick to that method.

Just wrapped this one up for my daughter. I made her the headboard years ago and now she wanted a foot board. I told her and the wife I’m done! They can stain and clear it.

I’ve got the 1/32 Flying Sub 90% built. I hit a wall running the fiber optics and lighting years ago. It’s been on the “shelf of doom” for years now.

Damnit! You figured it out. LOL. Yea, I’ve got the big kit that’s 39” long. I need to order a few accessories like the lighting kit and interior for it though.