ScottsGT

One of my neighbors has probably a dozen juke boxes in various stages of working to complete projects. He trying to sell me one, but as the wife put it, “Takes up too much space with less music storage than my iPhone and Bluetooth speaker”. He does however have an old Bally’s nickel slot I’m thinking of buying. Problem is, very illegal to own one in SC. I do have another project on the SOD. It’s an old Williams Evil Knievel pinball machine. Been in the corner of my workshop for 20 years now. Maybe after the holidays I’ll get on it. Naaa….We’ll be in the middle of our “Wet group build” See? It’s y’all’s fault.

Oh my God…that’s horrible.

Horrible.

After I posted I went to Amazon looking at transformers. They’re only around $35. Just plan on swapping them out no matter how good the old one seems. Cheap insurance.

Damn Hubert. You suck too! Man, that is one sweet ride! I’ve got a weak spot for those cars. Jeff, if you’re looking for neons, can I give you a bit of advise? Inspect the transformer closely on used neons. As they age the black goo they pour around them will start to melt from over heating and start to drip out. Eventually they might catch fire. If you see any signs of the goo escaping, replace the transformer with a newer designed solid state unit. You can get them on Amazon. Check used restaurant supply stores. They carry them. I picked up a non-neon Bud Light spinning light up sign at my local store. Start looking for neon repair shops in your area too. Sometimes you can get a broken neon free from sellers just to get it out of their way and it can easily be repaired for around $100-$150. About 28-29 years ago someone gave me a Welcome to Miller Time neon. Got the tubes fixed for $75 and then about a year later I noticed a small black stalagmite growing under the light on a door frame. Called the neon shop back and they wanted something like $150 for a transformer. I stuck it in the corner and forgot about it until a few years ago and started searching online and found neon transformers on Amazon for a lot less.

Oh good God, no! Not that expensive. I priced out the RC system for the 1/72 Skipjack I have in the stash. I think it was around $1200 Let’s just say instead of a sub on a stand, a diorama.

Lack of discipline? I’m doing my best to never go down that rabbit hole again. I focus on the project at hand and keep one SOD project on top of my bench as a reminder I have another kit that needs my attention. I’ll slowly work on it until it’s done. Even when we transitioned into the new home, I knew I didn’t want the trashed workshop I was giving up with 5 and 6 half built kits laying around. EDIT: I will add, I try NOT to think about kits in the stash while building the current project. Once I’m comfortable knowing the last decal or detail will be done within the next 24 hours, I then let my mind wander. The “Wet group build” discussion came up right as I was wrapping up the F-16, so I started thinking about it, and even before I started the Viper I knew I wanted to build something out of my syfi stash. It was a no brainer. Now I’m thinking of how I can take that build to the next level, and it might get expensive. I’m keeping that secret to myself for now.

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.