CDW

Besides being great paint and a huge selection of colors, the bottles were 2 or 3 times the size of competitors and not much difference in price. All the way around, Floquil was great paint.

Battle of laDrang Valley - November 1965 You're a 19 year old kid. You are critically wounded and dying in the jungle somewhere in the Central Highlands of Viet Nam . Its November 14, 1965 . LZ (landing zone) X-ray. Your unit is outnumbered 8-1 and the enemy fire is so intense from 100 yards away, that your CO (commanding officer) has ordered the MedEvac helicopters to stop coming in. You're lying there, listening to the enemy machine guns and you know you're not getting out. Your family is half way around the world, 12,000 miles away, and you'll never see them again. As the world starts to fade in and out, you know this is the day. Then - over the machine gun noise - you faintly hear that sound of a helicopter. You look up to see a Huey coming in. But.. It doesn't seem real because no MedEvac markings are on it. Captain Ed Freeman is coming in for you. He's not MedEvac so it's not his job, but he heard the radio call and decided he's flying his Huey down into the machine gun fire anyway. Even after the MedEvacs were ordered not to come. He's coming anyway. And he drops it in and sits there in the machine gun fire, as they load 3 of you at a time on board. Then he flies you up and out through the gunfire to the doctors and nurses and safety. And, he kept coming back!! 13 more times!! Until all the wounded were out. No one knew until the mission was over that the Captain had been hit 4 times in the legs and left arm. He took 29 of you and your buddies out that day. Some would not have made it without the Captain and his Huey. Medal of Honor Recipient, Captain Ed Freeman, United States Army.

For me, the verdict is in on the Liquid Decal Film and restoration of my heat/humidity damaged decals. It does not work. Yes, the dried liquid decal film allowed me to remove the decal from the backing paper without it falling apart, but the heat and humidity destroys (apparently) the glue that's between the decal film and backing paper and it does not fix that. The decal will not adhere to the model, as it wants to curl up at the edges as the decal dries. The product would probably help for mildly damaged decals, but when they are as far gone as mine, it just didn't work. Yes, those are my drug store readers in the background. Like you, I'm still deadly with my rifle/s with iron sights. My distance vision is as good as it ever was. I prefer iron sights, they are so much easier/faster to acquire a target. I stay in practice.

All the old masters used oils. Shepherd Paine comes to mind. Remember all the diorama photos in the Monogram kits showing Shep's work? I promise his photos helped sell a ton of Monogram kits.

A few days ago when I last worked on the decals for this model, I managed to spill the entire bottle of Microsol decal solvent in my lap. Today, I went to my local hobby shop to buy a replacement bottle of Microsol and found another product made by the same manufacturer called: . I thought it was worth the cost (less than $5) to buy a bottle to try and restore the old, dried out decals that left me stranded with this build. The decal sheets have been given a coat of the product and I will be testing out the decal sheets with the application very soon after the solution has had ample time to dry. Will post my results...keeping my fingers crossed.

Thanks for the nice comments gentlemen. I am enjoying the construction of this model. Everything fits extremely well. Zvezda knocked this one out of the park in terms of engineering and quality. It's on a par with Wingnut Wings WW1 kits.

Jack of Diamonds is a messenger who brings important news. Ace of Spades is the symbol of death. Combination of the two cards is obvious...

With that photo, you should be able to crop out the cards and print them on white decal paper. A piece of cake.

A few photos of the engine, engine bearers, and piping.

Yves You're doing a marvelous job on the Discovery. The kit itself far exceeds my expectations of what was inside. A very interesting model to say the least.

Back then? It still does, right? It's the death card. Your time is up.

I looked it up and what I recalled was an ace of spades on a Marine Huey, Monogram 1:48 scale.

Real nice photos OC. That is a beautiful bird.

I've seen that ace of spades insignia on the nose of Huey models before, but don't recall if there was a king of diamonds along with it.

When printing your own decals, something that helps solve the transparency issue is to print the decals on white decal paper, not clear. However, this can cause other issues, particularly if you don't want a white background. But it does take care of transparency.

The answer is a resounding....yes and no 😁 Let me explain. There are three separate sets contained in the Big Ed photo etch set I've got. There is an exterior set, an interior set, and a set of canopy masks. In a perfect world, I would choose which of those three sets I needed and acquire them. However, I was unable to find the sets separately and had to buy all three together in the Big Ed set. Having said that, the exterior set is redundant in certain instances. For example, the exterior set provides radiator grills to replace the kit parts. A close examination of the parts shows me the kit part is just as well detailed as the photo etch part, so it's not needed in my opinion. Not worth the effort or time to install it. Photo of it: There are other parts associated with the exterior set that will provide detail the kit parts lack. In the case of the interior photo etch parts, it's a big yes, it's necessary to me as the photo etch parts provide a level of detail I can't achieve by hand painting the kit parts. The photo etch instrument panels are pre painted and look super nice. Photo: And besides the instrument panels, there are seat belts not found in the kit. On the other hand, if I used the pilot/crew figures provided in the kit, I would not need the photo etch seat belts. Last, the photo etch set contains a pre cut set of canopy masks. I don't know about you, but I hate cutting micro thin strips of masking tape to mask a canopy. It's time consuming, tedious, and generally a pain in the rear. So yeah, I think canopy masks are totally worth it. So the verdict? I am certain one could build a very nice model straight from the box. If I could buy things separately, I would buy the pre painted instrument panels/seat belts, and the canopy masks. And that's it, that's all. So there...it's a long answer but the short of it always is, do whatever you enjoy doing because in the end, you're the only one who has to be happy about it when it's finished.

Thanks Ken It's just a small bump in the road those decals. Replacements will be here soon.

The Zvezda company out of Russia has morphed into one of the top kit producers, offering highly detailed scale models. At one time years ago, their products left a lot to be desired, but somebody put some money and talent into this company as they are now releasing some outstanding models of subjects not found elsewhere. Such as the example here of the WW2 vintage PE-2 Soviet Dive Bomber. I'll be building this model with the addition of an Eduard photo etch set for the interior and exterior, along with a set of canopy masks. In the following photos of the instruction pages, note the tons of detail provided for the engines and other internal details.

The time has arrived...looking forward to this, Lou.

Great to see your start, Mike. Looking forward to it all.

Who woulda thunk it?

I started to work on the decals tonight, but got bad news. My decals are shot. All of them, and I had two separate sets of aftermarket sets in addition to the kit set. Problem was, all the decals were stored inside the kit box and the kit stored in my garage which was not climate controlled. The heat got to them. I have fresh decals on order and will use those as I am not going to screw up the model with bad decals. So standby for a couple of weeks for me to finish this model. In the meantime, I intend to start another model.

Added the afterburners and wheels. The speed brake on top of the fuselage is temporarily photoed in the closed position, but will be cemented in the open position along with an open canopy for final display. To add some nuance, I used a highly diluted (1 part paint : 4 parts reducer) lighter shade of gray (neutral gray) to shade between the panel lines of the entire aircraft. It's not intended to be highly noticeable, but if you compare this version, it should look slightly lighter in shade of gray than the previous set of photos. The afterburners are a multi colored affair, starting with stainless steel, then dark aluminum, then titanium, then burnt iron. All that got a black wash.

Semper Fi My cousins and brother. My cousin with the walking stick was an Army officer, a veteran of Korea now in his 90's.

The best I can do is give you a virtual tour of the ones I built in 2019: