Tcoat

Here are the innards.

It does seem like an odd choice to model when there were only a small handful of the real thing built. Suppose that since they already had a kit of the two float 196A it was just a matter of "might as well". The only reason I even bought it was I felt sorry for it sitting on the shelf for years gathering reduced price stickers.

OK last look before it is all done!

Oh great. Just what I need. another diorama project.

It really is. When you look at all the parts it looks like it will be a pain and very fiddly but it just falls together.

Thanks. In fairness, other than the 1,200 pieces that make up the canopies (well it felt like that many) it is such a well engineered kit that you just need to cut the parts off the sprue, throw them all in the air and an assembled model hits the ground. The true entertainment was in the painting and weathering.

Perfection! Pretty sure I have seen that very one on an airfield.

This is a really, really nice kit! I found it on clearance at a local shop. It had sat on their shelf for a while and they pretty much gave it to me. I bought it to work on at the cottage where I have only limited supplies and tools. Built all the subassemblies then it sat unpainted in the box for a couple of years since I also had no place to display it. Got new shelves just before Christmas so figured it was time to pull it out, throw some paint on it, and get it on display. Thank goodness the wings fold though or even the new shelf wouldn't have cut it! It is done in the prototype basic paint scheme with just simple weathering.

Sweet! Hard to believe it is only 1/48 with the way you made the details pop through weathering.

Looks great and weathering is bang on! Having built the BanDai X-wing I did a pile of movie clip viewing and determined it was almost impossible to over weather these things. The scenes in the hanger on Hoth showed all the space craft were very weathered but the X-Wings were by far the worst. Being an atmosphere as well as space going ship you would expect them to be dirty. Not like the Rebel Alliance pilots were sitting around polishing their craft with cans of Turtle wax that they picked up from the Walmart on Naboo!

I watched that movie opening sequence about 100 times. Of course the spacing and sizes are a bit condensed to fit into the space I wanted but it is all accurate as I could get.

The T-800s are 1/32 scale from the Pegasus kit. These ones were the non plated kit so were painted with Modelmaster chrome. The Hunterkiller is also a Pegasus kit and although it claims to be 1/32 is closer to 1/48. Works OK in a forced perspective type of way though. The skulls on the base are cut out of the platform that came with the T-800 kit and spread around. The playground equipment is all scratch built from tin, plastic rod and assorted spare parts. The ground is drywall compound with saw dust, bits of plastic debris and whatever I swept off the bench glued on. The whole thing is painted in 4 shades of grey to mimic the lighting of the opening shots of the movie.

Mirror mounted. Boot panels make a big difference in the convert conversion. Glad you reminded me! Don't normally do antennas but you made me get thinking that it sort of is needed on these since it stands out so much.

It's curtains for you And interior is complete. Next up is the exterior. Not much to that though.

Yep. I was just joking due to the astronomical amounts they are looking for online. I have seen it for as much as $100 a bottle!

Exquisite!

That wheel is pretty appropriate but I would do away with the horn ring, do the wheel itself in wood grain and leave the center and spokes brass.

Had a buddy back in the army that had that exact car. Same colour, trim, wheels, everything. Beautiful job.

You missed your chance to turn a tidy profit.

I have found that the very best way to remove a decal is to really really want it to stay in place! Use Microsol again to loosen it up and scrape away with a toothpick.

You could have modernized the driver by reworking his fingers, leaving his hand out the window but not signaling a left turn! It is a New Yorker after all.