ScottsGT

Welcome Scott! Good to have another here from South Carolina, and with the right name too! Your work is stunning. ….Scott

Not sure if it’s my imagination, but before the pandemic mess it seemed we were getting new decals from various companies on a regular basis. When McEntire ANG base showed off the new wild weasel tail art, decals were out ASAP. When Shaw showed off their new stuff, decals came out shortly after. Couple months back Nellis showed off the new F-35 Splinter scheme. Crickets. Nothing. Nada. Caracal announced he was going to put out decals for the Revell re-release of the old Harrier kit. Then he announced he was no longer going to do 1/32 since they were such slow/bad sellers. Didn’t Two Bobs also get out of 1/32 as well?

She was a true class act! What a life story.

Here’s where I stopped for lunch and to update this thread.

Two areas I had some difficulties with were the top of the fuselage where it sits on the dash panel. I really had to file the top down and open up the area on the bottom it the top where it meets the dash. I glued one side down, let it sit overnight and came back the next morning and pulled the other side down using a miniature industrial wood working clamp. Seems to have done the trick. Once that was dry, the engine firewall went into place. That took some work to get it to sit flat. And to walk around the edge with a file, and had to smooth out the inside of the fuselage opening since there are three glue joints that will fight you if not perfectly smooth. The other area was the back of the fuselage. I guess someone wanted to design this with a removable hatch so you could see the equipment behind the cockpit I refused to build in. Unfortunately, that hatch is made slightly too small. Once again the miniature industrial wood working clamp came in handy. Glued one side, let it dry overnight. Came back next morning and hit the other side and clamped in place. A little filler was required. Maybe more. I’ll know after shooting on some primer. EDIT: My next Texan build I’m going to try adding some Evergreen stock to the bottom of this panel to see if it fits better. Yea, I have another kit in the stash.

And here’s progress from the past couple of days. One thing I did was to go back and read every build on this kit I could find . I found a few with some bad fitting fuselage parts so I did a dry fit with just the two main cockpit bulkheads before I assembled the cockpit cage I got some pretty good alignments with just putting a few touches of the file on the edges of the bulkheads. Once I got the cockpit cage done, I glued it in place and noticed it is very easy to get it slightly cocked at an angle. Had to soften the glue a little and move it slightly. I also made the decision to ditch all the engine mount details that are hidden anyway and simply glue the firewall into place after everything dried.

Well another Derp moment for me. I started trying to align the cowl onto the built fuselage and the blocks would not line up with the notches in the back of the cowl. I was asking myself could KH have gotten this way off? Fortunaly for me, I numbered the parts on the back side with a pencil when I removed each one and cleaned it up. And then I proceeded to build it backwards. 🤪 Yea, I cut new notches and I’m going to have to fudge this one .

Yea, about that cowl…. It went together yesterday as well. And it took almost all day to do it. If others can design 1 piece cowls like the Trumpeter Corsair, why couldn’t KH?

Did that kit come with an optional toupee?

And from the “You ain’t gonna believe this ****” files… two female locate pins. Well, pin holes. I made one out of plastic stock.

Got some bench time in today. Well, almost all day. 🙃 And the gear location correction!

Peter, agreed with the Connie. Very graceful bird. I remember years ago there use to be one of those real hardware stores here in town. They carried every nut and bolt ever known to mankind. In the main office up front there was a balsa built Connie with about a 6’ or 7’ wing span. It was a beauty. I think it had TWA markings, but that was 20 years ago. I have all 3 of the Heller kits in the stash. I did buy the Fisher engines and Radome corrections for the one kit, but did not “splurge” for the nose correction. One just sold on eBay last week for almost $200. I figured between Fisher and DMold it wouldn’t be a problem down the road. Boy, was I ever wrong.

Yea Hubert, I’ve read about the hodgepodge issue. But like you mentioned, I one that can easily live with it. I did finally find the write up Mike West did on moving the LG outward and it shall be done! I’m seriously thinking my second kit will be covered in aluminum foil

Man, that would be great. Just took a quick look at his website. I like the A-26 wing root correction he did. Something like this and an inner section of the wing top would fix it right up. This would convince me to also get the D model as well.

Yes, such a shame. I did at least get a set of the nicer turrets for mine. But that wing, oh that wing….. My plan is to hang it up and hang it high so I don’t have to look at it.

Rob, I completely forgot the Nautilus was on my list as well. But the Disney version. Yea, I got one and it was a bench clearing kit. Its 31” long. Kit is some sort of black resin by Masterpiece Models. It took a lot of detail reworking to get it there, but I’m very satisfied with the outcome. The finish started out painting it silver, shading the rivet lines and then applying a true iron paint and then spraying it with a acid that promotes the rust. Kind of cool watching it rust before your eyes. If anyone is interested: https://masterpiecemodels.com/product/20k-submarine/

Same kit. Hers was the 2003 release.

Another one!

Great thread. Let’s load it up and get word to Paul to show how much we appreciate his hard work and that we’re not all “kit flippers”.

That Revell/Monogram A-10 kit, is that the Jill Long version they did of her plane? She was my neighbor for a short while and I have the box top autographed by her and framed. She had some interesting war stories to tell over dinner.

I always thought my favorites were the Phantoms. Almost picked one out of the stash yesterday instead of the Texan. But looking back at my record I’ve built 8 F-16’s and have something like 7 or 8 more in the stash. Only built 3 Phantoms so far. Watching this one closely. I love the two tone interior green. I’ve got one Tamiya Corsair in the stash.

Well, done for the day. The Quinta cockpit kit requires a modification of the kit parts. Not sure why? Was KH wrong with their design? That’s stock with the detail removed. Below is the mod All the fiddly parts minus the second fire extinguisher I found after I thought I was done. I played around with assembling the cage. It’s like putting together a Jinga game starting at the top. Well, weekend starts as soon as momma walks in the door and I have already been ordered to open the wine bottle and get ready to go for a float in the lake. Won’t be back at the bench probably until Wednesday when she goes back to work since we have company coming.

Here’s where I’m at. Cockpit cage all painted and Quinta Studio interior being applied. This build has two firsts for me. My first Kitty Hawk and my first Quinta Studio aftermarket. So far, I like both. I have read in the past about how soft the plastic is with the KH kits. I have to agree. But at least it’s not brittle! All the detail seems great, no excessive flash needing to be cleaned up and parts are fitting pretty good. I did have to open the pin alignment holes on the radial halves and it only fits one way! Got to make sure the two parts are clocked correctly.

So far this is all I’ve got to show! I did hit the cockpit build hard yesterday and I’ll follow up with pics a little later.

Ok, I’ll get some pics and start a WIP thread.