lmagna

I think that is one of the better essays on the Hood that I have ever seen OC.

The nose area? More like the whole darn plane! Even the cockpit is too narrow for the crew to sit side-by-side. I think the staggered seat thing combined with the hatch in the foot area was pretty much unique to the Mosquito, but it did allow the same person access to the radio behind the pilot and the nose position in front without having to climb over or under the pilot!

The reason I said to use IPA in cleaning the electronics is that a form of IPA is what is used to clean circuit boards at the factory when they are built to clean off residue from being built. When the board is not powered it is just a bunch of plastic, metal, and resin, and IPA is perfectly safe. If it is 99% then it also leaves virtually no residue when it evaporates. Over the years i have seen many circuit boards revived this way from dunkings much worse than soda. Hard drives are another matter as they involve moving parts, unless they are SSD drives. Also if the part is dunked while it is powered up it can get fried from the electrical conduction properties of the liquid. Either way, at this point while you know that the original thumb drive is working, make a copy onto a new drive, just in case.

With the emphasis on LOOSE. Half of our time seemed to be tightening or checking for tight things that you would never expect to come loose, even things that were wired to stay tight! The last thing you wanted was those parts to loose their formation. I think that all of the Hueys were built by Bell, but as there were so many made I think it is entirely possible that components were subbed out and possibly that could account for the differences. Add all of the years involved and varied hours flown and damage received and you are bound to have differences. And that would just be in the D and H models.! It has to be remembered that all of the Uh-1 variants shared parts in common even the Cobra shared parts. As an addition we are only talking color here. Gray or black! That is just paint! What I was primarily saying above is that for some reason I only remembered the black on black.

Here are a few more walk arounds: This is Kermit Week's unrestored plane not the restored flying plane here in Everett.

It is almost the same color they used for the interior of the mosquito here in Everett. The Mosquito starts at about 13:25 There may be some views that can help in your build as well OC.

Great books! You should pick one up and try it Ken I read them when I was young but I still think the story line would hold up. Hollywood approached John D. McDonald more than once to make movies based on the books but somehow he felt the books would be compromised and not sell if he allowed movies! He should have lived long enough to see what happened to JK Rowland or Tom Clancy! Oh well OOB is good too. They are a very handsome vehicle. It certainly looks like you are moving right along, (You not the car) I find it interesting that the front suspension is leaf spring, like a buggy or horse drawn wagon. That six cylinder engine also looks huge. Great looking work

Thanks OC The uncut door is on the left. I suppose I should have sprayed it with primer so that they would have shown the same. Then it would be easier to see that the left door still looks much better. But it is OK and I don't think too many people would notice it is repaired who are not following this build. It will never be entered in a competition so there will be little need to examine it that close.

Is that the stick you use to store all of your Nautical data Roger?

You should build the wood kit OC. https://www.etsy.com/listing/633093504/laser-model-mosquito-bug-insect-3d-kit?gpla=1&gao=1&&utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=shopping_us_e-art_and_collectibles-dolls_and_miniatures-other&utm_custom1=28a66b42-4705-4c22-8903-62e49bfbc1ac&utm_content=go_304499915_22746206435_78727441835_pla-112967989955_c__633093504&gclid=CjwKCAiAp5nyBRABEiwApTwjXr4y5wkSh5gwNprUR_Xg1tPwW2OHbKlwmH6DvJWn2wo0lJpgojU-wxoCtfIQAvD_BwE

We had a HUGE barn with a hayloft as well when we were young. About the only thing up there in those days though was a few bales of hay and Black Widow spiders. I used to catch the spiders in jars, my sisters HATED them!😈

Welcome to the ward!

Glad about the thumb drive Denis. If you have some Isopropyl alcohol, (Rubbing alcohol) you can use that and a toothbrush to clean the circuit board and contacts. 99% is best, but 70% will do. It cleans and dries better and quicker than plain water.

I think you may be confusing Ray Charles with Louie Armstrong Denis.

Are you certain? It could go a long way in explaining why you are like you are today! Dumb question though. WHY were you in the loft with a tricycle in the first place?

Thanks Denis When I was cutting out the door it crossed my mind at some point that I should have just carved out the door and why I was carefully tracing around the frame and removing the door as a solid piece? This would have of course allowed me to cut the opening to match the replacement door more precisely but would not have preserved the original door and back tracking like I did would have been impossible. I suppose there are arguments for and against both methods. You have no idea! Not so much "Battle damage" as just plain hard use and limited time for spit and polish. Duct tape, (100 MPH tape) and a paint brush with plenty of OD paint were our best friends.

I think that is part of the desire in all of this Ken. Just as if you were to build build an F-4 I am sure you would like to include any personal insights you have so that others would appreciate the fact that your model was historically accurate. This forum is founded on this concept. Accuracy through research and effort, limited only by skill. So I doubt I will be able to completely ignore some aspects of this model as I feel I want my research, (ME) to show if possible. I already know that I need to make, or try to make, at least two more bashes to the pilot cockpit over and above what is supplied in the kit, or to correct a detail I know is wrong and is within my abilities. (Or I hope it is). By the same token I know I will have limitations and I am finding that I also do not remember some detail or another. As an example I am having trouble remembering colors. What color was this or that. As an example I could have sworn that all of the instrument clusters on the Hueys we flew were black gauges on black panels. This kit supplies some beautiful photoetch detail that shows black gauges on a gray panel. I was able to locate only one photo in the few pictures I have left that shows part of the instrument panel that is not in shadow. And it is clearly black gauges on a gray panel! I would have argued that they had to be black on black prior to that picture. There are other things but I already tend to be all too wordy. I am sure you get the idea.

You remember more of your freedom flight than I do mine Mark. All I remember was that for some reason I think we landed at every island in the Pacific on the way and the flight took FOREVER! The other part was looking at the stewardesses. When I came on board the first thing I noticed was that there where more non Asian women than I had seen in a year! I think my mind was so boggled by the concept that it stayed in a loop all of the way home. I spent a lot of the flight trying to catch up on a year of truly deep and restful sleep as well.

It is not so much that the parts are crap. In almost every case they are at least more detailed if not more accurate than the kit supplied part. I is just that in EVERY case so far, at least with this kit, where the aftermarket part is intended to replace the kit supplied part, the interface with the kit never matches! While the parts I am using now were ordered from 1001, they were not made by them, at least I don't think they are. They are listed as CMK/Czech Master Kits, and I assume are made in Czechoslovakia. This is my first time using resin aftermarket and I have no idea if this is normal or not. I am not really an aviation enthusiast as such Roger, but there are some aircraft that interest me. I will send you a list, if these other guys have not cleaned you out already! I personally think I should pay shipping though. Postage is getting horrible! Thanks for making them available. As for the "Save the door campaign," I think I may have carried it off, at least I am satisfied with the results and can live with it and not feel disgust at my blunder. So now I am back to where I was a couple of days ago and will start altering the lower part of the resin doors to fit into the kit doors instead of replacing them. Here is the result of tonight's work: The repaired door is on the right From the work I have seen on this forum, especially in 1/350 scale ships, I know that others could do better but this is still OK for me. So that is my two steps back for the day, tomorrow I will try for at least one step forward.

I was so upset last night when I discovered that he resin door was another "Will not fit" from the aftermarket parts that I was tempted to do just that! Actually the best part for the lower inner part of the door would have been PE. That would have looked absolutely perfect.

Yeah that's the beast. I still think it looks like a hound dog with a top knot! Yes I could do like you show and shim out the door frame to fit again. That was the first possible remedy that came to mind last night when I saw what I had done. but it would be a lot of very fiddly work with questionable results. By the time I got the window frames fitted I don't think they would be even and would always look odd to anyone looking at that side of the model. Thanks for the help

With what I am seeing that will go just fine as well!

OK, as I promised here are some pictures of my blunder. First off here is the doorway that formerly held a perfectly good door, at least on the outside! Here is what I got to see after spending at least an hour carefully measuring and cutting out the above doorway! Now I think you can see why I was anything but a happy camper! I was pretty certain that I had destroyed a perfectly good model in my desire to fix what I considered a shortcoming that would have probably never even been noticed by anyone but me! Only after comparing the original and aftermarket door was it clear that it was never going to work as a closed door, and if I could not do something I would need to alter my intended display method. This picture does show the additional lower door detail I wanted to include in my finished model. The upper detail of rivets around the window frames and the leather grab handle for the co-pilot on the vertical frame were not so important as they are so small that they would never be seen and besides the "glass" would cover these details when installed later. So last but not least it was time to place the original door back into place and see if I will be able to back up and save this side of the helicopter! My feeling at this point is that it is doable, especially if I was CDW, OC, RGL or Popeye. Now the question is "can I do it?" If I am right it should only take a little superglue and some putty or Mr Color and I should be able to hide it well enough that only us here and myself will know. There is a little place at the bottom of the rocker panel where the knife slipped but that can possibly be written off as normal wear and tear. We were always patching up the skin of our Hueys for one kind of damage or another. Hopefully the next time you see this side of the chopper it will be all well and healed again! My intention for the aftermarket doors is to do what should have been done in the first place. Cut off the window frames and thin the lower inner panel to fit in the lower kit door. There was never any reason to make a design that required removing the kit door for this detail. If the builder wanted open doors then they could do what I did and open them up with a knife and use the original material with the aftermarket lower panel. Thanks as always for looking in. It helps a lot.

I know of a certain Huey that is in need of a qualified painter such as yourself! Are you certain that you won't stop on over to my place and do some yeoman work? Great job, and yes I'm jealous!

I must admit that I am still a little surprised at seeing the Iron Cross on a B-17, but the faded OD combined with the bright yellow is a killer combination and your ability to reproduce them amazing. Keep it up, it is getting better and better!