Canute

Nice job with your build. Forming that plow blade was fun.😁

Something that gaudy would help form up the flying units. At altitude, those dull green and gray a/c can get lost against the cloud background over East Anglia. Having some crazy painted "war weary" a/c to attract 4-6 sets of eyeballs in each plane during a rendezvous would help. i did a few (?) joinups over Germany and I had a state of the art airborne radar to help me out. Those heroes had the old Mark I, mod Zero eyeball. The ground crews probably figured the Os got into the gin supply and went a little loopy. Lou, we came home to the San Francisco Bay Area; back then, in all it's psychedelic glory. It was a riot of color. The year we spent in the boonies dulled our sense of color. Out side the dull grays and greens was some orange dirt in some places around the northern Corps areas.

Grant, those old craftsmen really took pride in their work, with the nice coloring and workmanship. This model carries on that tradition and your rendition is top shelf. 👍

Denis, this is another good site for sheet building supplies, the N Scale Architect: https://thenarch.com/ It's more than N Scale stuff, catalog links are at the bottom of the page. Northumberland was a loco facility and yard for the Pennsylvania RR. Had a big many stall roundhouse, fueling docks, etc. They stored many locos there that eventually were moved to Strasburg, PA and the Pennsylvania State RR Museum. Worth a trip to go there, along with a ride on the Strasburg RR across the highway. Maybe include a trip to Scranton to visit Steamtown and an anthracite mine. Dating those kits, probably late 60s-early 70s. Good for their time. Have fun with the build. If you use the kit sheet wood, cut from the back and use tape to draw your cut lines. As I remember, the sheet stock dries out and gets brittle.

Denis, you're turning this beast of a kit into a fine rendition of an assembly bird. 👍

Unless your computer can read your mind, sure. Me, I am waving my hands over my keyboard, in the tried and true "hunt and peck" method of typing. 😁 Being only half Italian, this works for me.

I know a few Italians who operate the same way. Can't talk while sitting on hands. Quite interesting following the discussion on keeping the print area level. Learning a lot. Thanks.

My train club gets these "heirlooms" from folks turning in Dad or Grandad's train stuff as donations. We resell most of it at the semiannual train shows up near Asheville Airport. Any scale, it all sells. We have some dealers who come to the shows who scarf up whatever we don't sell during the show. For the club, it's all profit, since the stuff is donated. We survey the donations and if we have items we could use for the club or potentially offer on the online seller sites. Some items, like Denis's Findex car could attract collectors of these kits. Like Ron said, the sides/ends were a paper wrapper.Without it, it's scrap wood. Very early HO since the body is a solid wood block. Post WW 2, folks like Northeastern brought out precut floors, roofs and end blocks you could attach wood or paper sides and ends. Some kits used white metal castings for the ends. Looking at them nowadays, the castings could be pretty crude. The plastic aftermarket parts run rings around them. But plastic kits are fading away. Many current hobbyists just buy ready to run; the old instant gratification. Luckily a few manufacturers still make undecorated kits. And resin castings are taking over for us freight car fans. The big issue for them is the quality of their instructions. Some are copy machine copies with poor diagrams; others do it up in color and you download a quality PDF or PowerPoint . It's a big, fun hobby. Some of us get together at somebody's model railroad to operate in a prototypical manner, using radios, manifests and obeying track-side signals. Others just like taking their locos and cars out for a spin at our club, enjoying the sight, running through realistic scenery. Different stokes for different folks, as the singer sang.

Egilman, no I was just gobsmacked by the scope of these releases. When they show up, I'll get a slatted E. Most of my 4K hours was in various E models. My buddy Mike and I had questions about the Revell E, but he liked the larger size. I had a Tamiya in 1:48, but it was the first configuration of the cannon, so I needed to build up the shield. And the assorted doors were molded in. I like the Hasegawa E a lot more. But, there can be aftermarket for a lot of add-ons. How about ALE-40 chaff and flare dispensers at the rear of the inboard pylons? It's just my wish list. We have it better in 1:48 for ordnance, like different bombs, CBUs and missiles. And the 7M Sparrow? I did the ops test at Tyndall during Desert Shield. It fit but there were other issues the engineers worked out to allow our APQ 120 radar to speak with the Sparrow. Fun times for Weapons Officers. 😁

Well nuts. I need a C,D,E, slat E, RF-4C (flew them all). I wonder if they'll do aftermarket LORAN D (towel rack on the spine) or NWDS LORAN E mods? So many mods. I'd need a squadron's worth of E models to do all the variations. If I can have one, I choose the slat E. Smokeless engines, 7 Mikes and 9 L/M for air to air. Anything else is rubbish

Nose of an E model and J model are light years different. The J is closer to a D model, without the "protrusion" under the nose. That was a never installed IRSTS and ECM antennae. The E model is 6 feet longer, due to the Gatling gun installation. My buddy Mike spent a lot of time on alert at Eglin AFB, wiring up the hydraulics and whatnot in the wheel wells while we sat Air Defense Alert on the Gulf Coast, protecting Alabama and the Florida panhandle from whoever intruded our airspace. 😁

Happy to help, Denis.😄

Gonna need a shoehorn to get all of them into the farm. 😄 looks very good, mate.

That first pic was quite convincing, OC. Keep them coming, as you can.

Those old ca kits sometimes used card stock car sides. I have a few published in O, S HO and N scales in modeling magazines. You got some Northeastern Models wood floors, roofs and end blocks at the local hobby shops. Get some trucks and couplers, a bottle or two of Floquil paint and maybe some brake parts. Voila, a nice car for your layout. 😉 Most folks don't build kits like those any more. Can't wait to see what you come up with, Denis my buddy.

Denis, they disappeared years ago. May have gone into QualityCraft, going into GloorCraft... They did a lot of logging equipment for detailing backwoods sawmills and other old facilities. May have to check HOseeker.com for their instruction sheets. Post a picture of the refrigerator car. Another old train supplier that went away in the 60s, maybe? Is it mostly wood and white metal parts? May be able to give you a steer for generic parts. Your assembly bird is progressing nicely. Brave painting the red and white stripes without going pink. Operation Petticoat, anyone?

Mmm. lobster.😁

A MER (Multiple Ejector Rack) centerline with SDBs (Small Diameter Bombs). They're a lighter but more accurate bomb, in current use. Nasty loadout.

Mike, you'll need to load it up with some Maverick missiles, targeting pod and a self protection IR air to air missile. It's really a big gun platform. Great jet.

German Army, not the Luftwaffe. Der Dicke.

Your build is coming along great. Having the KGL figures in fighting stance looks terrific.

Same issues in model railroad passenger cars. Floors are too thick, so the seated folk are double amputees just below the knees. They bring the cars to life, but our modeling materials are nowhere near scale thinness to permit using full figures. If you can work them in, the model will pop.

Looks great, Mike.

If I might add: The ship's crest goes up near the bow. Hopefully there may be a shield shape molded between the anchor and the bow. Need better photos to see where the name plates go.

Good job on your first airbrush session. Great info from Craig and Alan. I've read and seen on the YouTube vids a technique to put a drop or two of flow improver into the paint cup with your conditioned paint. Opinions, gents?