CDW

Before the virus debacle, Andy had a big order in place. All the warehouses were scoured recently, and it was found they had a quantity of old stock kits stashed away inside a warehouse in NZ that were hitherto unfound. This is the shipping container that Andy is just now preparing to receive in mid-December. To the best of my knowledge, any future production of new inventory is still in limbo. Andy says he WILL NOT be jacking up the prices. They will be sold at their original MSRP. First come, first served. If you want one or more of these, I highly suggest ordering them at the very first opportunity starting at 6:00 PM EST. Once word gets out, they will be gone in short order IMO.

This is a Wingnut Wings Albatros D.V kit I built in 2019

Public Service Announcement - Newsflash! Andy's Hobby Headquarters NEW (andyshhq.com) as of 6:00 PM tonight will be taking preorders for brand spanking new WINGNUT WINGS kits. As you may or may not know, Wingnut Wings, a New Zealand company produced the finest injection molded 1:32 WW1 kits ever made but went out of business about 2 years ago. This caused the Wingnut Wings kit prices to skyrocket to astronomical prices on Ebay, making them out of reach for many modelers. Well, today, the kits are coming back on the scene. Andy is received a 40-foot container of the kits sometime in mid-December and is taking preorders as of 6:00 PM today. Don't know exactly what is going to be available nor the prices yet, but you can bet I am going to visit the site at 6:00.

If we had a spare $250k laying around and no other pressing needs, we could buy our very own F-86. PS: and for the bargain price of $2.95 million, Canute could bring home his very own F-4. If you buy one Ken, can I has a ride?

Painted the heads with Tamiya semi gloss black, then masked them off and painted the block with Mr Metal Color iron. After spraying it on, gave the iron a little buff with a soft cotton rag. I think this is more convincing than the AK paste.

The yellowish tint on the parts tree is the clear paint under the chrome that has not been removed yet. In another hour or so, I will scrub the parts a bit with a toothbrush and rinse them off. They will be bare plastic then.

I didn't care for the AK True Metal paste I used on the engine block, so I decided to strip it off and go another route. I'll take this opportunity to show what I use to strip paint and the "chrome" off of molded plastic parts. It's a product many in the plastic modeling community are familiar with, called Super Clean. It come in gallon size plastic jugs, and I buy mine from the automotive section of Wal Mart. Seels for around $10 a gallon last time I bought some. It will last a long, long time, and can be used over and over again, just pour it back into the jug after use. It stripped the wax off the engine block in just seconds, using a stiff brush to loosen the paste from cracks and crevices. Took it all the way down to my primer, which was Mr Color lacquer. Had I left it in the solution for an hour or so, it would have stripped the primer as well, down to bare plastic. If you use it to strip a model that's been painted a long time, like years, it may need overnight and a toothbrush the next day to loosen and remove the paint. it will not harm clear plastic such as canopies and windows, so that's a plus. Next, I am using it to strip my chrome parts tree. What I really like about it, it also removes the clear paint that's underneath the chrome. The clear paint is part of the plastic plating process. Other methods such as brake fluid or bleach will also remove the chrome plating, but it won't remove the clear paint under the plating. Not to mention the fact that brake fluid is just a p-i-t-a to get rid of when you're done with it, AND it fogs/ruins clear plastic. I know, I know, I also used it back in the day but that was all we had back then except for spray-on oven cleaner, and that has all its own set of drawbacks. Stripping the chrome tree down to bare plastic usually takes a couple of hours, and sometimes a toothbrush to scrub the parts a bit to remove stubborn clear paint. Just a word or two of caution: make sure to wear latex gloves and keep the Super Clean off your bare skin. Do not put your uncovered hands down into it. Keep it off/away from anything you don't want damaged in case you accidentally spill it. Lastly, use a container with a lid if you are using the product indoors.

It pains me but it seems the "new normal" for newly released 1:48 modern fighter planes are right around the $100 mark. Sometimes more, sometimes a little less. Unless there is a drastic change of some sort, I don't expect this upward cost trend to get any better. Makes me wonder if we all might one day be building card models just so we can afford the model building hobby. I have recently paid as much as $150 for a newly released SU-27 kit. For me, this trend is unsustainable.

Beautiful build on your Buc! My old air force buddy tells me a tale about him flying at Red Flag in his F-16 while he watched a Buccaneer race past almost on the deck supersonic. They were by all accounts a very impressive aircraft. Mine was also done in Desert Storm markings, although I gave it away long ago and have no photos of it to share. Wish I did, but in those days I did not have a digital camera and developing film was such a hassle I neglected to take photos of many many models I wish I had photos of now.

The comparison is closer to Protar, although it’s my opinion the Gunze kits are a bit better molded while Protar gives multi media parts in their kits, Gunze does not. Gunze Kia are typical of Japanese models from the 70’s. Back then they were considered high quality. Poacher is in a league all their own, twice the size and orders of magnitude more parts.

Cast metal block with black cylinder heads

Couple of years ago, bought some tubes of AK True Metal wax paste in various metallic shades. I never got around to using it so decided to try some out on the Rolls V-12 engine block. Photos I’ve seen of the engine appear to be unpainted metal, so I first covered the engine block in a black primer then applied some AK true metal iron color then polished it a bit. Maybe it’s just me, but I thought it looked too silver. Next I applied some gun metal color and buffed it. It’s a shade or two darker. I think I like the gun metal for this piece. It’s going to get shaded and dirtied up a bit later so this will just serve as a base color for the block.

Have any of you in the UK had a look at the newly released 1:48 Airfix Buccaneer yet? Their old one was challenging and I want to see the new one. Several of us did a group build challenge on the old one in the 90’s. It was a lot of fun.

The photo etch set made a vast improvement on your Harrier. Looks great. I admire your persistence. Going to make a very nice little model when you’re done with it.

Probably one of the first things I'll do with this model is to strip most all the chrome plated parts. Need to start thinking about a jig to make my own spoked wheels, too.

Dang, I just started an old model that's been sitting around here for over 30 years and now learn it was worth almost half of that I needed to buy the 1:32 Border Models Lancaster (Wingnut Wings design). Sheesh...what have I done? Oh well, maybe I can sell it built. Done that many times before.

About 30, maybe 35 years old now. They reboxed a Japanese kit for this...Aoshima I think. Edit: I just checked: it was from Gunze originally.

About 30, maybe 35 years old now.

This represents a change of plan. Had intended to start a F-4G Phantom next, but now decided to do this instead. This kit has been in my possession a very long time and it’s time to come out of the box.

Yes, to mute the national markings primarily. I never tried it before, but this is a photo edit I found:

I will put a dull coat over all to unify the model, but this model for me is finished. Its been fun, a nice kit for a small amount of money. Thanks for following along, your likes and kind comments. See you again soon with another model.

Flying will be less of a chore with a prop.

Looking at the incredible detail in your model, it’s hard to believe it’s 1:72 scale. You are doing a very excellent work on it and I enjoy seeing your photographic updates. Plus, it’s an aircraft I am not familiar with and that’s refreshing.

Was in my early 50's when diagnosed with cataracts and consequently had surgery on both eyes just afterward. Mine came on due to spending a number of years on limerock surfaces in the bright Florida sun. It was common among men in the field of work I was in, road construction. I thought I needed brighter light bulbs to see better, so I kept increasing the wattage until I was working on my models using a 250 watt bulb. My wife said, you need to see an eye doctor. I did, and the rest was history. The good news, it was immediate relief after the surgery. I literally came out of surgery with 20-20 vision. I had mine done at St Lukes clinic where a Doctor Gills was known worldwide for his cataract surgery, people coming from all over the country, and even from foreign countries to get their eye surgery there. Don't know if it's the same today, but I was given the choice of distance vision or closeup vision without corrective lenses. I chose distance vision so I would not need glasses to drive, just reading glasses. Alternatively, I could have chosen one eye with distance vision and the other with closeup vision but I didn't like the sound of that. Dr Gills said you get accustomed to it, but I stuck with the uncorrected long-distance vision for both eyes. Glad I did that. No problems since then, and that's been more than 16 years ago.

I have been watching a ton of YT videos about paper model building. Very helpful and informative, I think. One of the modelers uses scissors to cut out most of his parts. His models seem to turn out well. Will scissors leave a raised edge, and are there other disadvantages to using scissors instead of a blade to cut out the parts? I have also noticed that several modelers use a spoon to flatten down edges that have been blade-cut.