lmagna

I'll give him a PM and see what happens.    I'm going to the shop tomorrow to "bitch" about the bottle of "flat clear" that doesn't dry clear.

Next to sheen at all OC.   And after a couple of months in the hot sun, they started fading.  Some had the red/white bands on the tail, others didnt'.  Some had a bit more of lettering, and again, some didn't.
 
Here's a photo of one of CH-53's in the squadron I was in while in 'Nam....  

This is one that's at a museum.... it's faded also.  This one is an "A" model as no intake filters, and the markings are "colorful".

 
 

The decals look good on her, but shiney, OC.  Conformed well to the seam lines of the plates used for the fuselage.   

"Silvering"   is always a problem with  wet slide transfers   I know  everyone suggests putting them on a  real shiny surface  (gloss painted)   then  when fully set  dulled with a flat or satin coat  to choice after.
 
Oh!   and micro sol  and micro set  is supposed to really help  if the surface has raised  areas  or  rivet detail, to help the transfer settle down  as  it softens the decal.
 
OC.

Well, decals are on but only on the fuselage.  I'm still flipping the coin about the sponsons.   Now for the question... what do I put on the decal to kill the shine and protect it?   I have some ModelMaster Flat Clear but it seems to dry a bit milky in the testing.  I'm brushing still.
 

Ours were even simpler. The only national marking was "UNITED STATES ARMY" on the tail boom and aircraft number on the tail rotor support. I can get away with either black or yellow, or even black and yellow numbers and that is about it. Many but not all had some kind of nose art usually the unit black jack crest, a few even had more personal additions like names or artwork put on by the pilots or crew. I would like to do some of that with mine. Face it, the stuff we flew in was pretty much just plain Jane functional.

I suspect that neither of us is trying to make a living at selling these kits and still making a profit.
 
I have to hand it to Dragon in a way I suppose. They took the only 1/35th scale Huey molds available from the old Panda Models release when Panda went out of business. The panda kit was considered OK but definitely a step up from the old Revell 1/32nd rendition. They could have just released it as is but they did add a considerable amount of PE. I am picking and choosing kit and aftermarket and even after all these years I think I have some insight about the D and H model Huey's that not everyone has, but like I said in the beginning, one could do worse than building this model right out of the box. 
 
As I understand there is a new kit coming out by Kitty Hawk models in 1/35th also. By reputation their 1/48th D model is to kill for. The question will be whether they just take a pantograph, or its computer equivalent and scale it up, or if as some are saying it is going to the dream come true for larger builders. If it is the latter then my build done perfectly will just be so much painted plastic. In fact, I just looked at the instructions for the 1/48th scale Kitty Hawk Huey and even in that scale it blows this kit, (And my personal abilities) away, ( https://www.scalemates.com/products/img/1/3/5/1069135-88-instructions.pdf ) both in detail and in the way I remember how things were in real life. 

with what I've read,  it depended on what time of service the craft was used.  take the B 17.........depending on the segment of service {and what squadron},  the call letters and numbers can be a certain color......early seemed to be yellow.......mid war was black,  and towards the end was white.  some were even white outlined in black or red.  I found that out when I ordered that sheet of letters and numbers........I found out that they had their limitations.......I would have to order additional sheets to widen the scope.  it's the same with the insignias...........JEEEEEE....stick with one banner people.....pleeeeeze! { my rant with the military}  they make it soooo hard on us modelers!  
 
look'in good Mark

Nice work, Mark.  Keep on truckin'.
 
So many topics to study. Most USAF fighters used 4 colors in Viet Nam; the 2 you mention, a dark tan and a dark green. Grey belly and the other 3 colors on top. The grey went away in the late 70s, I think. That's a whole other rabbit hole of study

....and finger prints too........I never forget a paw!  our Eskimo,  Gibbs is like that.  if I drop something and don't pick it up right away,  he'll carry it off to his lair {under our bed} and destroy it.  I hope you still have that upper canopy part.......you can scratch every thing else.   if not.......well,  you'll be following her / him around for a little while   

It's well known in Florida, bull sharks are man eaters. Last time I checked, they account for the majority of shark attacks in Fla.
They swim far upstream in rivers as well, well beyond brackish water. 

There are a lot of critters to ruin your swimming in Fla lakes. Water Moccasins, gators, parasites, etc. 
As a Fla native, I don't swim in lakes but we used to do it a lot as kids. The water was cleaner back then before the massive population increase and urbanization which brought a lot of pollutants to our lakes through rainwater runoff, not the least of which is fertilizer and heavy metals (from automobiles).  

me and a friend { Randy}  boated out in lake Dias........ beached on a sandbar and went for a swim.  it was coming back when I saw the gator.  I think it was also the time where I got a case of roundworm.......very nasty and itchy.......everywhere........even places you can't see! 

I reckon you could write a book for modellers with all the great tips you gives us Craig 😆👍

I'd have never thought to do that either......and also gave me more insight.   when I get more into the Memphis Belle,  I'm going to need this masking stuff..........I've never used it before.   being a first for me,  I thank you  for the info on how to use it.  the paint tip is a plus,  because the inner framing too will need to be the chromate green.  when you see some of the panels,  this will be important    you'll see soon    the blue looks black to me........gotta be the camera. 
 
my best friend Mike lives Kissimmee..........closest I ever got was DeLeon springs........lake Dias.   there's something unnerving about seeing a gator sunning himself on a log,  after swimming and having a good time in the water 

My brother pulled this big spec out from the gator's lair yesterday. He's fishing at Lake Kissimmee in Fla
 

Glad there is something here that helps just a bit.
The Avenger was the largest single engine aircraft of WW2.

Another good day  at the table,  I  firstly fitted the  stearing column  then the  hand brake,   next  I worked on the instrument panel, this  included  pe  front sections  including the clocks,  they had to be cut away  then  placed  with watery ca  onto a pe  base plate, in all there was three  sections, I left them to set  then  ran some nato black around the edges,  there  is also a back consul  that covers  the rudder pedals, this  too was fitted then painted black
After the assembly was set and dry  I glued it into place on the front  area.
 
This completes the  internal  cockpit  assembly  - next off  I will  fit some pe parts  to the inside walls of the cockpit area, then paint them accordingly.
 
OC.

Very nice story,OC.  I have a short story - During the war my Mother worked building aircraft in a factory in California (don`t know which factory) While my Father was overseas.  She said they called her "Ruthy the riveter" (her middle name was Ruth).  She is now almost 97 & in a nursing home with dementia & severe short term memory problems.  The sad part is that illegal aliens get more govt. benefits than her.
 
Mark

Well bit the bullet and finished the faring...what a pita, the kit only has 9 main bulkheads and 5 had issues, 4 of those had an easy additional 1/8 inch that needed removed.  That would be chore enough but with the old plywood any amount of cross sanding caused a lot of delam

tried gluing some of the worst of it back

you can see how much excess there was on frames 4&5 in the pic above...that was typical, but the deed is done. but boy is she UGLY

#3 still needs tweaked toward the keel, you can see here I whacked off the timber heads, they sucked anyway, new ones have been made,

my plan is to plank the deck then attach the new timberheads with pins in predrilled holes.  It's a technique I've used on previous builds and it works ok.
 
I took some time and clear coated the paneling and deck for the hatchway and painted out the ladder in it's finished color,
after clear is applied the orange wood looks like fir to me...hard as old fir too!

Well that's it for today...thanks for the likes and following along

Got the HMS BEAGLE kit around 1966, when I was ten, and built it then, 'oob' as one would say today. Got the HMS BOUNTY kit around 1970, I think and started to built it. In 1972 I first visited the NMM in Greenwich, which was a revelation then. They had some drawings of the BOUNTY on display then and I got the permission to take pictures. However, I didn't know about the archives and how to get access to them at that time.
Already, when working on the BEAGLE, I didn't like the plastic shrouds, but didn't know any better. Still using the dead-eyes from the kit, I properly (well, more or less) rigged the shrouds and rattled them down with ratlines. But then the project ground to a halt, because I just could not come up with a solution for blocks of a sufficiently small size with my limited experience and tooling. No Internet to be even dreamt of
I still have the model, boxed up, but I don't think I will ever complete it, because I recognise my juvenile mistakes and would need to completely redo it.
 
Good luck with your project !

I hear reminiscing of the poor gentry ...

Ours were even simpler. The only national marking was "UNITED STATES ARMY" on the tail boom and aircraft number on the tail rotor support. I can get away with either black or yellow, or even black and yellow numbers and that is about it. Many but not all had some kind of nose art usually the unit black jack crest, a few even had more personal additions like names or artwork put on by the pilots or crew. I would like to do some of that with mine. Face it, the stuff we flew in was pretty much just plain Jane functional.

I looked up the two colors by number and the 34102 is OD and the 16440 is gloss Gull Gray. Am I doing something wrong?
 
If your aircraft were like ours no two had the exact same color of OD anyway. Even some of the parts like doors and things were a slightly different color sometimes for the Hueys.

you don't need to....we are all in our own class      hope you reconsider.   we have this bird on our calendar this year.