mustang1989

Well guys I've got the cowl compartment/ piece put on and most of the body work completed on the fuselage. So far so good. Just need a little "clean up" on the oil reservoir compartment and I'll call that done: and for the real cool development (at least I'd like to think so) is the addition of a landing light to this sucker. I have yet to figure out why a model manufacterer would put a "hole" in the leading edge of a wing to install a lens over..............absolutely nothing! But that's what they did! Here's what we normally would have: You see, I just can't let this slide, so.................... I went to work making a scratchbuilt landing light. I do have car models in my stash (don't worry, I'm not going to hack up anything-I want to build this kit one day) I have Mark Martins 1994 Thunderbird in the stash and used one of those "cutaway" tabs you always see on the windshields: The right hand one is gone and is being used here. I trimmed the clear part up quite making it just a hair smaller and not as thick. I painted the back of the "light" silver and added one drop of future to the face making it concave in appearance and giving it a true glass shine. I had a piece of resin stock from all these add on resin kits I accrue and cut that down so that it would fit between the wings halves and painted it RLM 02 gray, then stuck the landing light to the base and put it in the wing............. The foam below the wing MG17 gun compartment is for a "push" from the bottom when the wing halves are assembled. Ever have something like that looking really cool and later on in the years or with just the right jarring the whole thing falls inside? Aint gonna happen folks! Just a little insurance is all. Anyways this is what the whole thiing looks like now instead of a "hole": and it comes fairly close to my references:

Man that just looks freakin' cool Mark! You really brought that motor out dude. If I didn't know anybetter I'd say that you had a beat up 4x8' sheet of plywood in your garage and was building a real bike! I'm all eyes here watchin' the show...........

Thanks Wayne. For the longest time it seemed like he was the only one indeed. I'm going to be finding out this year how the Eduard brassin stuff stacks up when I build Eduards new Bf109G-6. There's alot of hype over that kit and I've seen an article review of it already. Hell I've already got my decal sheet for that build and the particular kit I want is months away from release. Supposed to be really killer kits from what's going around and from what I've seen in the bulld pics.

Next up is the cowl oil tank reservoir. This is another Verlinden piece from WAAAAY back when! Back when Verlinden was one of the only suppliers for resin that I knew of. This and the wing mounted MG17 machine gun internals were all I felt like using out of that set! I guess a decent build could be had out of the rest of it but it would be ALOT of work. Here's what I started with: Well this didn't exactly line up with the fuselage too good. Go figure! It's time to start integrating the resin detail with the kit supplied stuff again!! Pictured below on the left is the OOB part with both halves glued together. On the right is a OOB part from my spare Stuka kit with the L/H side panel cut out: Now I had to cut the "compartment" out of the resin block and get it ready to install under the assembled cowl halves: and here we are with the oil reservoir compartment tucked away under the cowl piece. Still some minor clean up and trimming to do. This is it installed onto the fuselage with the compartment and oil reservoir painted up and weathered. Still have some clean up to do but it'll turn out ok.............

I've got you down in the intro Mark!! Looking forward to the build here.

You're on Mark! I'll get you entered in on the intro post dude!

It's been about a week here since we've posted last so I'll post an update to get it started. I cut out the port wing machine gun access panel opening and test fit the machine gun receiver in the wing here. and here's the guts of that operation, and here it is all painted and weathered up:

Go for it Greg!!! lol

Wow!! That sounds like quite the build there at 1/14!!! Lemme know when you decide to biuld that one!!! I'll be watchin that for sure!!

LOL! I agree! I was at a loss for trying to replicate that spring when I had the flash thought of using a guitar string!! It did do the trick for me and thanks for the good word Peter!

I have the same problem with storage space. I got back into the hobby full swing in Jan of 2012 and haven't stopped yet. My small storage space is running out quick. The only thing that may save me is the fact that I can donate a couple of my builds to the U.S.S. Lexington museum here in the bay. They have a really nice model display room. Even if I emptied it out I couldn't display a 32nd scale B-17! I do, at some point, want to build the 1/48th scale Monogram B-17 I've had in my stash now for 24 friggin' years! lol

I like both of the Cessna's man. Nice BMF on the first one and on the 38. Man that 38 should be a biggun' in 32nd scale. HUGE!! HK models released a 32nd scale B-17 within the last year. Now THAT is HUGE!!!

Interesting build! In real life this thing would be one helluva ride!!!!

Man it looks like it should just roll on outta there Wayne! This is true model building at its finest here sir! The tank, the figures, hell everything! There's just so much right about this build that I don't even know where to begin!

Man those were the days right there! I was toolin' around in a little blue 67' Mustang coupe with Cragar SST wheels on it back then. That car was da bomb!! I drove that thing everywhere. Good to see a fellow Ft. Polk resident here.

Not to worry Jason. I think we've all had those times. Thank you for your encouraging words and look forward to seeing you in here pal, Joe

Thanks Eric! Would love to see pics of that 109! Eduard is to be releasing thier new 109 F,G, and K variants in May. These things look KILLER!! I'll be doing one of these this year as well in the G-6 variant.

First off James that's a very clean build! Secondly what unit were you with at Polk? I was there at that time frame with 36th Air Med as a Huey crewcheif out on the airfield. Small world we live in I'll tell ya! lol

Well guys we are starting to wind down on the cockpit here. I've got the rudder pedals in stalled. What a hoot that was if I would have done that the way the Aires instructions would have had me do it. Basically there are two PE arms that come off of the pedal bracket and are SUPPOSED to be glued one on the L/H fuselagea and the other on the R/H fuselage. I chose to make a styrene section and glue both of the pedal bracket mounting arms to that and then the whole styrene section to the L/H fuselage. Kind of like this: one last shot of the interior before we move on here: and now she's sewn up!

Man you got that right. It a wonder that half of the reference pics we post on these forums havent' been the target of that kind of stuff.

That'll make two of us!!!! LOL

Wayne: You are not allowed to stop building here until the GB ends!!! WOW!!! I'm going to end up PMing you for tutorials on painting figures. I have some 1/48th scale mechanics that I would like to paint for my Stuka. Ben: Man that color and those decals go together like peas in a pod man!! Nice. Did you use any setting solution on those decals?

Thanks for the vote of confidence on the progress so far Dave and Wayne! Well the updates for today are minor but I'm glad I found what I found now instead of later. It seemed that after I installed the S5b and F5a radio transmitter/ receiver boxes behind the pilots seat there that the overturn structure which mounts to the sides of the cockpit and then the radios mount to that, I had a problem. The radios sat too far down in the cockpit. Further research showed that there was a rectangular base that was supposed to be there that did not come with my update kit. I robbed the part that was molded to the OOB radios, cleaned it up, painted and weathered it and then installed the parts. Here's the before pics: and the after pics: Coming up next will be the rudder pedals (which look like a real PIA) and the instrument panel. Also coming down the pipe line is the planning for cutting an access panel out of the L/H wing for displaying the wing 7.92mm machine gun and a panel for the cowl to display the oil reservoir.

I've done it especially when , only by coincidence another few members have posted the same time as I have and suddenly right after I post, my post slips down the ladder several posts. niteowl nailed it pretty good with his point.

Seat belt painting under way with a coat of Humbrol Linen enamel a couple of days ago: and then here we are with the pilots and gunners seat with the seat belts installed along with a couple more details: and a top side view: I always pic the metal detail out with MM aluminum enamel paint and weather the belts to dirty them up a bit to give em that used look with ground up black pastel brushed onto the belts. What's interesting here is I had to cut away some of the floor detail (that will not be seen) to accomodate the oxygen bottles on the R/H side. AM stuff.............I'll tell ya!! There's more coming. The Aires cockpit set has LOTS of stuff in there!!