mustang1989

I like the imagination you have at work here. Looks good so far.

Right off the bat I'd say get with Agent G (Wayne) about this as he's a good with armor and he might have a lead or two that could help you out Ken.

Man you can't beat this with a stick!!! Amazing scratchwork going into the build here. More please.............

Looks good so far Jim!

Aww ho ho man!! I love this!! Too cool!! Waaaaaaaaaaay too cool!

Thanks Ray. I got the fuselage together and the camera upper and lower fuselage clear panels glued into place as of last week. This weeks progress so far has seen the installation of the wings. The body work is immense but nothing compared to what I'm going through with my VW Bus at this point. Posted below is the progress so far with the problematic seams noted in red. Lots of filling and sanding in all four areas.......

Hang in there with it Andre. Lookin' forward to progress.

Great work so far on this build Scott.

One of the other ones was mine and yeah......you've got some work ahead of you but it's a doable thing. Watching to see how yours goes.

Thanks Carl for the encouragement. I'm a long way from being done buddy. lol I just ordered a Pro Stock Camaro with the wheels that I want that are a 5 bolt pattern instead of a 4 bolt pattern Weld Draglites as well as having a nice chrome finish. I don't trust my Alclad outcomes just yet and am putting way too much into this build for me to ruin it with some "so-so" looking wheels. This Camaro kit's got a bunch of other "goodies" in it that I'll use as well. The aluminum wheels I've been mocking everything up with are a "special treat" for my Street Stock 1990 Mustang LX I'll be tackling in the future. Here's the kit: and a picture of what the wheels will look like outside of an artists box top art representation ( Say......... I like that "Chevrolet Power" decal on the side of that hood scoop! That'll be going on the VW somewhere alright) : The first thing that I had to do to get the engine / transmission to fit was to get rid of the Lenco 4 speed transmission and replace it with a Turbo TH350 automatic transmission. I went to work by cutting the Lenco from the engine assy. After some sanding and dry fitting to make sure everything would line up flush , I mated the two together: This morning has been nothing but planning and fitting to make sure all these mods are gonna jive with each other. I cut the flooring out another 1/2" at the front to allow the engine/ transmission to fit in nicely. I think this'll be ok: I've got a lot of work ahead of me to include rear chassis framework fabrication, engine and transmission mounting and figuring out where I want the radiator to wind up as well as figuring out how I want to do the seating arrangement because the OOB stuff is now shot all to Hell.

This is looking pretty swell here James. Great creativity at work on your build.

I like the start up here. Got the makings of one good looking wrecker.

Goin' with the B-1 here! Bustin' out with the big dawgs are ya? I got this kit when I was just a kid for Christmas and I couldn't believe how big this thing was. I can remember it being the biggest kit under the tree and my reaction when I tore the wrapping paper off of it. Aside from a little body work to take care of those seams, it looks like you're heading in a good direction with it there Andre.

If you ask anybody closely associated with me in the modeling realm about my thoughts on landing gear, they'll tell you that I cannot stand this part of an aircraft build. To me it's the one thing that can absolutely make or break an aircraft build outside of a really obvious flaw or wing dihedral especially when it comes to shows. I judged aircraft at the last show I went to back in February and it was the one area of the build that was the deciding factor in a lot of the aircraft that were candidates for an award. Outside of the show and award realm, it's really irritating to spend a lot of time and put all kinds of work into a build only to see it either lean because the gear wasn't set up right or to see two landing gear legs that are waaay off in angles. I've got an Fw190 A8 build that I had such an experience with. It still sits in my display cabinet but has the flaw of incorrectly angled gear. I put all that time into the build and neglected to get the angles right and it really shows when it sits right next to my Fw190 D-9. So I get really nervous during this part of construction. This build is no exception to that rule and is IMO a lot harder to get the angles right because the gear has to be assembled in separate pods and then inserted into the fuselage as the halves are joined which is one aspect of this kit that REALLY sucks. I think I've got it though after a lot of time aligning and making sure everything was just "so-so". I didn't care for the RLM 02 that turned to more of a 66 after my shadowing attempts though, I can tell ya that!! Here's this (and last) weeks progress so far:

Sorry for the late reply....Thanks Kevin. Thought I'd catch up in here. Been all over the place with life and now building. I'm building an aircraft and VW bus at the same time and I've about got the system down to organization. Here's about 47 pieces of resin, plastic and PE and about 1-1/2 months of building..... I managed to finish the cockpit tub and am now working on the side panels. After that I'll be working on the glass enclosure, which is a real PIA on this kit. Any ways, here's the completed tub:

That Gee Bee looks good so far Bill! Thought I'd catch up in here. Been all over the place with life and now building. I'm building an aircraft and VW bus at the same time and I've about got the system down to organization. Here's about 47 pieces of resin, plastic and PE and about 1-1/2 months of building..... I managed to finish the cockpit tub and am now working on the side panels. After that I'll be working on the glass enclosure, which is a real PIA on this kit. Any ways, here's the completed tub:

Thanks Jeremy , Ray and Anthony. More sanding on the body this morning after yesterdays priming stage. Just didn't like how the R/H side turned out and I had to dump the front fender flares (thanks for the suggestion Dave) as they didn't coincide with the flareless rear wheel openings so I got rid of them. No pics today but made what I feel like was alot of progress in the way of body work. I'm feeling pretty good about it so far. Next weekends push will be on the roof to smooth that all out. Till then.............it's back to the Arado............

Man I hate that when that happens in transit. I have an Fw190 D-9 that I detailed all out and took to a show in Austin last year and the starboard wing separated at the wing root!!!! I managed to place 3rd with it even like that but it was a painstaking and tedious repair when I returned home. It paid off 6 months later when I took "Best Luftwaffe Aircraft of Show" with it. It was up for "Best Aircraft of Show" but a guy in a 32nd scale F-4 Phantom beat me out. I'm pretty well certain this bad boy is gonna rock the house in the next show you put it in Dave.

Say.......................that's not a bad idea......

Thank you and that's a point taken Dave. I thought something looked out of place but I just couldn't put my finger on it.

Well .......I got the primer coat applied and so far it looks pretty good. I've still got some work to do as there are a couple of things that didn't show up under the wipe down prior to priming but it looks like it's all manageable, but hey, a guy can't do all this cutting and hacking and NOT have any body work left over to do you know. There are a few bubbles in the primer and I couldn't for the life of me figure that out until.............I let my dog outside and found out that it was raining lightly. There aint that many thankfully and a little sanding outta get rid of the few that are there. Whew!! Got by with that one!

Wow!! Sorry about not having it done for the show. Every step is one closer to the finish line brother. BTW.....my bus was supposed to be OOB. What a laugh that turned out to be. lol

I cut the roof to follow suit with the body and chassis mods. Here's the two bodies side by side to show the length added and the difference: Test fitted into place on the body: and a couple of overall mock up shots. I've got lots of clean up to do from this point but it's all a doable thang.

Nifty build Ray!! There's a lot going on with these kits now with all the different variations being built. Cool color scheme as well!

Ok I got a little more benchtime during the day and I think I've got the rear suspension about figured out to where I can put the wheel in just the right place. I turned to AMT's 67 Chevelle SS396 for that. I sectioned out the framework for the axle well and graphed it into place. I had to shave some off of the axle mounts themselves so I could position the tire /wheel up into the wheel well a little but I think I've got it about where I want it right now. Still gotta figure out the chassis frame work and fabricate rear springs but those shouldn't be too big of an issue. Getting the rear suspension/ differential combo was the hardest part I thought.