Egilman

You can tell a real ship builder designed and built that roof... {chuckle} Looks like an upside down boat hull.... But then tapering like it is it's probably the only way to do it quickly, and truly custom.... It's nice to see the principles of hull engineering applied like this, very innovative.... Well done...

Extra thin is 51% acetone and 49% Butyl Acetate.... Their airbrush cleaner is either 50/50 Acetone/Acetate or 49/51% depending on whose MSDS you read.... So yes, they are essentially the same material... And since the Airbrush cleaner is 55% cheaper than the Extra Thin.... you make your decision....

Hi Brother, I'm real interested in where your going with this.... And as a note Round 2 still produces the Pete 352 pacemaker, can be found for under $40.00 in the Coke outfit and there are still some of the 1970's kits around as well... And as you said the trailer is a multi generational trailer pretty standard 40' footer... And yeah those landing gear wheels from the '30's thru the early '60's they were something weren't they... The thing I see in the pics? Single axel trailer with a single half leaf spring suspension, with an AIRBAG in front of the spring??? No backing plate on the brakes??? I doubt that DOT would allow that on the road today.... A very stiff rough riding trailer indeed.... And split-rims were and still are dangerous... The mounting spoked hubs were simple and very safe and are still in use today... But the rims very few people wish to deal with them anymore, in fact three of the five Les Schwab tire shops around here refuse to do them, citing insurance limitations... I always found that if you maintain mounting standards, they were no less dangerous than dish rims. the thing is the locking ring is only good for two or maybe three tire mountings then the entire rim and lock ring needs to be replaced... Held to that standard they are some of the easiest rims to deal with and a heck of a lot lighter that steel one piece rims... Mack trucks still installs them on some of their trucks... Anyway, I'm down for this one brother... and good to see you back at the bench...

Yep, much like PE cockpits/interiors, on some of them you have to ask if all the work and stress you just went through executing them was worth it... For most it isn't, but for the most exacting modelers, the results cannot be argued with... Nice work brother....

Thank you for that, I've still not seen an image of any allied aircraft with "Mop" painted invasion stripes... Two pics and a journalist's opinion showing the unfinished application of stripes to aircraft means it was sloppy work does not make proof ... Just my opinion which is probably not worth much either.... Sorry, not trying to argue here.... the order to remove them also was not completely carried out on many aircraft as well, I touched on this in my P-51 B build log where many of the fighter units only removed them from the upper surfaces of the aircraft leaving them on the undersides making for some very unique applications of said stripes... There is also the scale effect to consider as well, A slightly irregular line in real life will appear as arrow straight at a distance... (or in scale which translates visually as distance) No they weren't perfect that is true... But they were not only very effective, in most cases, they were attractive as well....

April 1943.... Typhoon Mk I with ID stripes... The pattern is different, D-Day invasion stripes were 18" wide on single engine aircraft and 24" wide on twin engine aircraft and were composed of alternating white and black stripes three white stripes and two black stripes... From the pic above you can clearly see that the standard RAF pattern was four 12" black stripes and three 24" white stripes... The orders were issued in late may to change over and some aircraft didn't start until June 3rd so yea, there was some sloppy striping done as no masking was used... A simple chalk line and 4" brushes handled most of it.... But trying to spot the sloppiness on an aircraft say 15 yrds away was next to impossible... They weren't mopped like with a floor mop they did take a modicum of care in doing it... I've yet in all my years looking to see a pic of invasion stripes that were anything but straight and basically even in width... They weren't that bad....

It's even more pronounced with British aircraft... British aircraft carried id stripes on their wings long before D-Day, (from late '42 I believe) especially the low flying types... There are numerous examples in the photo archives as well... In fact the whole invasion stripes idea was an RAF one.... (with thousands of aircraft in the skies and an expected massive response from the Luftwaffe planned for, they ordered the stripes installed on every aircraft that contributed to the invasion) Original British ID stripes were not even in width nor in length... the Air ministry ordered the RAF aircraft repainted with the same pattern used on US aircraft so there would be NO mistakes in the air... And one must admit, with the stripes in place, one glance told you which side the aircraft was on... They were very effective...

Amen to that!!! But just think abut it for a sec, same techniques just different subjects.... It keeps the brain engineering functioning...

Another suggestion, the gold will have to go down as a two step process, since there is no paint that will give the reflectance that the decal has... Make two stencils one an outline for the gold portion, the other the black lines portion, make the outline stencil for the gold a hair smaller than the outline portion, apply the outline stencil and use bright gold RnB (Rub n Buff) to fill the gold area then use the line stencil over the RnB layer to finish it off.... That is if the cricut can cut that small... It should give you the gold back decal perfectly...

Yep, it's completely hardened and has started flaking off the backing paper, usually this means that the film is cemented to the paper.... What I found is once the liquid film is applied let it dry for a full 24hrs, then, once cut out, allow them to soak for at least 6 hrs, let them float right off the old backing paper cause that is what they will do then apply them directly from the water they are floating in... It works sometimes, other times it doesn't, but more often than not it does... But it is a roll of the dice... Depending on who made the decals it could be a simple soap solution used as the glue, others would use a milk solution, it's the milk solution that seems to dry up and flake off over time... Let me know if the cricut machine works in cutting the stencils that would be the best way to deal with it then paint them on... (I've been thinking about acquiring a stencil cutter)

They haven't yellowed yet so that is excellent, but it does look like the adhesive holding them to the paper has gone south... Micro Liquid Decal Film 1oz from microscale... I've used it on some old decals where the glue got to the point of attaching the decal to the backing permanently.... (it takes three times longer to soak them off, usually they fracture into a million pieces) It worked on most of them.... My first suggestion is take a close up photo of the sheet to use as artwork in case you have to have them printed by a decal print shop... (there are several good ones on the net) Then, try the decal film on them and see if it works, the film holds the decal together so it doesn't fracture when going thru the slower process of applying.... Above all go slow and use patience, they probably can be recovered...

Interesting, but although it might have been unknown to the ground troops, the high command and fighter command sure as heck knew about them.... There are several reasons that the knowledge of these flights was kept secret... #1 was the state of radar development at the time which was a more closely guarded secret than the Manhattan project... #2 was the estimated effectiveness of the intelligence gathered, not very effective as the video commentator admits... To be honest, the overlord operation placed 1.6 million troops ashore with all their equipment in under two months, there was no army on earth that could have stopped such an operation once the beachhead was established... #3 The missions came randomly chosen, completely inconsistent times of day, there was no way to plan an interception, and believe me they had the assets to intercept such flights, but from leaving the ground they were gone before the interceptors could get there... The High command made an operational decision that it just wasn't worth the effort to intercept them... The Germans had a perfect photographic record of their destruction, I'm sure they were overjoyed....

Part 47, bushing the screw allows easy play side to side and up and down of only a few thou and no longitudinal axial play, a true floating nut... The bushing keeps the hardened screw thread from grinding on the softer saddle...

They want you to use a bushing in the feed screw hole to align the thread hole on the nut... very delicate work for the material sizes you are working in... Personally I would like you have, carefully machine the hole as close to center as you can and float the nut... but then I would change the design to accommodate a floating nut... What you came up with will work, but I would bush the screw to prevent any wear on the contact parts.....

Amazing work indeed! Brother, that's majic wand stuff... {chuckle}

Nice, VERY Nice..... Difficult plane to build in Balsa & Tissue.....

Beautiful work brother, very happy to see you back at it.... Not too much longer for me as well...

I always considered the Yella wings as a flying advertisement for the Navy.... They are beautiful aircraft.... Very well done my friend.... Looks the part...

According to Wiki the Sara was the only carrier assigned BF2C-1's..... "The only U.S. Navy units to operate the F11C-2 were the Navy's famous "High Hat Squadron", VF-1B, aboard the carrier Saratoga, and VB-6 was briefly assigned to Enterprise." But there is photographic evidence that they were flown off both the Ranger and the Lexington as well... When the Goshawk was assigned to VB-6 from the Enterprise, they never actually reached the point of deployment, so they never actually flew off the Enterprise operationally...

Yep the brand they sell is known as Formula 560.... A go to glue for many thing....

Well Done my friend....

Yep, the last time I bought any was at a local airport, (and I had to tip the attendant a 20 to fill the four 5 gallon cans) several decades ago... Wasn't supposed to sell it for auto use... Regulations you know...

Definitely the look of a late '60's gasser.... (now where is the 120 octane) Well done..

Motorcycles are supposed to look fast, (even if they aren't) THIS looks fast.... (and was in real life) Could you do us a favor? step over to it and start it up so we can hear the engine.... Really, really beautiful job....

Your on it... pre June '44 configuration... Also they didn't backdate aircraft in the field when they made the change to all black... (the scheme was production only going forward) I agree, the aircraft in the Museum is probably a postwar aircraft.... Nice pics...