ScottsGT

Discovered another use for them last week. I had sprayed white lacquer into the wheel wells of my latest build and I forgot to plug the holes to keep paint out of. Dip the micro applicator in some lacquer thinner and wipe out the paint in the holes. Had to act quickly though. The thinner was dissolving the glue that holds the fuzzys on the end of the stick. Used one to get the thinner in the hole, another to wipe it clean. A cotton swab wouldn’t have even come close to fitting in the hole.

Hard to believe it was two weeks ago today it was pulled. I’m still having some minor discomfort but thankfully Tylenol or Motrin keeps it ok. Big hole in gums is slowly filling in. Yea, that meme above? That would seriously be my youngest daughter. Oh, and our furniture/appliance outing mentioned? Yea, that set us back $11,000. Now I know why she took me out while I was numbed up.

Supposedly it’s the torque converter they’re waiting on. He said they have them for the diesel powered trucks like mine, but not a big demand for the 351W motors in a 1990 F-250 these days. They are having to make it.

Taped! sprayed… And untaped For some reason she’s sitting tail heavy. Hat to lay the tweezers on it to sit. Never had an F-16 build do this. Got a few fuzzy edges on the paint lines I need to correct before moving on to the blue.

Peter, I’ve almost been there myself. My Fisher Cougar almost met the same fate right near the end. I walked away, poured myself a good stiff Scotch and relaxed a bit. Had to keep reminding myself that building models is fun and relaxing. All I could see was $$$$ and I think that’s the only reason it survived.

Cold front coming in. We’ve got 25 mph hour winds blowing in across the lake. Hard to rake leaves in that wind! Besides, my old truck has been in the transmission shop for three weeks now waiting on parts. I’m missing out on the best weather to get anything done around here. My biggest dilemma now is do I wear shorts with a high of 61 (16.1 C) or do I put on pants for the first time this year?

I started out with Tamiya white primer and let it dry a day or two. Then lightly scuffed out any dust spots are dry areas with 800 grit wet. Laid down many coats of white MRP. That stuff dries flat or semi-flat. I wanted some gloss so the tape would stick better for the other colors so I sprayed on a couple coats of Mr. Color white with leveling thinner. Had a good enough gloss for the tape to stick to better. White is tough. Sometimes you can’t tell if the paint is thin or if your trying to fill a shadow. Hardest color to spray. Gotta watch the paint as it hits the surface and not where you’re going as much. I learned that painting cars. Trust your instincts. Son called me last week telling me they were about to paint a car. Not sure if they wanted to go white or gray. Told them the same thing as above and recommended gray for their first paint job.

Shot the red on the tail this afternoon to try out the SMS line of lacquers from Australia. Seems to shoot a bit on the thick side. When I shoot the wings I’ll add a little Mr. Color leveling thinner. I actually had to wet it pretty good with almost straight thinner to get it to smooth out. Basically emptied the airbrush and filled the cup halfway with leveling thinner and used a brush to mix the old paint in the cup with the thinner then hosed it on. Also started taping off the wings so I can shoot the red tomorrow.

Got the white sprayed yesterday.

I will add, as the same with the old Revell kits, I’m having a hell of a time blending the wing to fuselage joint. And I think I’ve gotten a little more anal retentive since I built all 7 of those years ago.

Quoting myself here. I discovered I did splurge on that nose correction when I went through my aftermarket stash the other day. Glad I didn’t get in a bidding war and win it.

I’m sure that thing was plated and insured for that little drive on the road. Afterthought. If they had caused an accident, lawyers job would be easy. Go after everyone that has a sticker on the car.

Little bit of progress today. Got the horizontal stabs, engine and nose glued on in my few minutes I had. Oh yea. Also glued on its legs. vertical is just sitting there. Also made a thing to replace the fragile thing. Used an 18 gauge needle and some music wire that fit inside.

Pre-pubescent Viper?

And just so y’all don’t think I’m sandbagging on this build…..

Good news. Just got an email my red paint has shipped. Sounds like Ian spared their location.

Any advise on “close enough” colors I could find in lacquer? The T-bird colors are just too dark.

But wait! There’s more! Now I’m off searching for the correct red. Instructions call for FS11105. The only lacquer I could find with those numbers was SMS out of Australia and imported by USA Gundam store. It’s listed as RAAF Red with FS11105 on the bottle. What the heck, ordered 2 bottles. Of course now I’m getting radio silence and no email replies. I look up their address. Yep, Daytona Beach, FL. Not sure if I’ll ever see this order or not. I currently have the red and blue for Thunderbirds planes in stock. But these colors are lighter by a shade or two. Oh, here’s a few pics of the actual plane.

Pulled this old Minicraft Hasegawa kit out of the stash and started it earlier this week. Just something about this old kit I’ve always wanted to build, and considering it’s been around for 44 years and probably half that time in my stash, it was time. No real action shots to post yet of things getting glued up since it’s kind of a typical boring F-16 build. But I have run into a conundrum I could use some help on. The colors called for. The instructions have FS 15056 which somehow doing my Google sleuthing I came up with MRP-316 or colore 11-azzurro. Italian AF 1916-1943. So I ordered it. Thought it looked a little too light in the pic. So of course I’ve been back to Google for hours searching images and came up with this pic. And thought for a second that when they kitted the model they simply used the wrong color. But something just didn’t look right. Found out the above pic as a tribute paint job by the Belgian AF for a show sometime back. Could Hasegawa possibly found this aircraft and listed the wrong FS number?

Y’all mentioned decals. I have a top drawer in a filing cabinet I keep decals in and this got me thinking. The wife has been wanting to clean out the file cabinet, so there I go! I can have a drawer or two to organize how I want to store them.

How do you keep up with it? I refuse to box up items with the kits I bought them for, so I’d just pile it all up on a shelf and hope the old gray matter is firing in order when I start said kit. When we moved last year I shoveled all my AM into a moving box. I kind of kept some order? Few months back I saw a Fisher nose correction for the Connie come up on evilBay. I bid a high of $75 and said no way I’m spending more. Woke up the next day and it had sold just shy of $200. The other day I found one in that moving box. Apparently when I bought the corrected radomes and cowlings, I got one of those as well. I thought I had 4 or 5 more sets of Rhino or DMold Phantom intakes. Nope. Just 2 and 5 or 6 kits. Should have bought more when I could have.

John, that turned out fantastic! As quick as you burned through it, I cannot figure out why if was placed on the SOD?

Welcome to the forum! Myself, I simply do a search for a particular subject on modeling websites. Now what would come in handy is an app that would keep track of all my kits in my stash, the piles of aftermarket I have and have it where it cross references with each other. Just the other day I went through my boxes of aftermarket goodies and discovered I’ve bought too much one one thing, not enough of another. Maybe even a location like ”Box 14-Garage shelves, right side” I try to keep a list in my notes, but it gets mixed up in the shuffle.

WooHoo! All done. Doc said I probably won’t need the implant since it’s the rear molar. Saves the modeling budget too! And now the wife has me out furniture shopping with a mouth full of gauze. I can’t make this stuff up.

Wow! Looking great. Are you using any of the kit decals? My Cougar decals were brittle and impossible to use.