Pete Fleischmann

I stole them from the Barracuda Corsair set- instruments are from Airscale P

Great job Peter! Looks like it should- really impressive!! congrats on a job well executed! P

Thanks all for the kind comments- much appreciated! Had a few questions about creating the base. I knew that casting the water in clear resin was the money play..so I first had to create a stable master pattern. I decided on Monster Clay. It is an easy to form synthetic clay that Hollywood uses to make..well..monster masks. It’s not expensive; and comes in a few different hardnesses- each with their own formabilty. I started with the same wooden base that I used for my Pavehawk. I built up some temporary plexiglass sides around the wood base. After warming the monster clay in the oven, I poured/spread it into the plexiglass frame on top of the wood base. I formed the rotor wash waves by hand while the clay was still warm. Super fun! I removed the plexiglass sides when the clay cooled, And I scalped-out a recessed area for the raft to sit in water texture was tapped onto the surface with the ass end of an adjustable wrench I used a heat gun to re-warm the clay and smooth out any rough spots or finger prints. This step really creates that natural organic water feel a two-part RTV mold is pretty simple. Just mix up equal quantities of both parts. I had to build a box around the master to contain the RTV. The clear resin was tinted with resin tint. The resin mix ratios are critical to get it to set up properly. It took about 24 hours to set up for demold. I used the torch again to destroy bubbles as they surfaced- obviously this is the bottom of the base you are looking at. The whitecaps were made from Microballoons mixed with white acrylic paint. Lots of airbrush effects, and washes with dilluted clear acrylic paints- The base is about an inch and a half thick and weighs a ton. I’ll polish the edges and trim it with wood molding about half way up- cheers P

Yes! Thanks Martin for the backstory on that pic! Will try to create a similar scene with my lady fighter pilot- cheers P

That is a modification of the kit part that I did- P

Here’s the figure modified with an inflated LPU. The raft was cut down from a Schnell boot raft and also modified The master for the water was made with Monster Clay RTV mold of base clear resin casting Finished figure Raw casting before paint Sea dye marker Rotor wash and white caps added should look kinda like this. I’ll have a Coast Guard MH-60T in a hover over the water mounting rod for the helo goes here- this will be very similar to my Pavehawk here- cheers P

Hey All- working on this too. This is a Coast Guard MH-60T dio helicopter rescue of an unfortunate Hornet driver- Reedoak figure modified cheers P

Gotta be colorized- cool pic that gave me the inspiration P

Thanks Kev- I’m using the grey Moulding of the Revell 1/32 Beau.

Thanks Kevin- That was MRP NATO black with a touch of blue..then over coated with VMS gloss. cheers P

Hey all- finished this Russian pilot for a diorama I’ll get around to finishing some day- should look something like this- cheers P

Hey all- been working on this too- Here’s the Model Monkey Beaufighter cockpit underway for a USAAF Beau- New belly panel with cannon ports, shell eject chutes, and repositioned pilot hatch cheers P

Looks awesome John!! is there any path forward with the Tamiya kit to convert to a -4/5 or 7? I am a big fan of the long nose versions P

Hey Pete! Love your P-38. Great job! I hear ya brother. If I never set foot in another model competition venue I’m good with that. Great choice for an enjoyable build- My go-to in that scenario will likely be the Tamiya 1/48 F-35A. looking forward to watching you work! Great stuff. cheers Pete

Regenerative heat exchanger exhaust from Kopecky roughed in-

Small update that actually took a while to accomplish- I used a keyhole saw from UMM to carefully cut away the oval-shaped battery container from the aft fuselage. I also drilled out the three holes on the aft turtle deck in preparation for detailing these areas. more to follow P

Thanks all for the encouragement! boxes are in and wired up- cheers P

Hey all- Here’s the IAF specific gear for bay 5. Just set in place for now- still needs electrical wire connections …that aft-most rack- I can see a little ghost of the Rivet decal film at this angle- cheers P

Hello all- seat in situ- I started working on the IAF-specific avionics in bay 5. This just .005 aluminum and styrene Then a black primer coat and then Tamiya XF4. Just set in place here- a bunch more to do on these cheers P

Calling the seat done-

Spent about 2 hours working on the IAF specific racks etc for bay 5. simply formed from .005 aluminum lots more to do-

I started detail painting the seat-

Dogs are the best people I know- they are too good for this world. You are a good human Oliver. Well done. 😇 P

Mmmm… I dunno- my ass is pretty numb from that much time in the saddle- P

Just flew the L-39 up to Alaska from Iowa. It’s here to participate in Red Flag/Northern Edge- 2 days 2500 miles 10.6 hours in the jet …that’s me on the right cheers P