Egilman

You continually amaze me brother with your abilities to do figures that look real especially the modified figures... You have a real talent for this type of modeling... They are spectacular all by themselves....

Very Very nice, and a completed GPM kit to boot! I've watched a lot of people start one of these kits and eventually bin it over the years... (me included) Completing it is an accomplishment itself.... Beautiful job my friend, very impressive... Gonna try a Halinsky next? I heard the Thunderbolt was a particularly interesting build (the engine alone I believe has over 100 parts, it includes a lot of choice words in it's workflow as well) {chuckle} But they are a lot more accurate in their appearance... You are definately a card master....

Another small update my friends... And another excursion with the micro saw.... The object here is to thin the back wall without breaking thru to the gear bay.... Far enough into the wall to clear the Ammo Bay insert.... Initial cut went like this.... That took off about 2/3rds of the thickness... Next is to remove the remaining corner from the intake planum.... Essentially a #2 straight blade run into the wall along the curve of the plenum, then a short straight cut along the machine gun bay... Once done, use a chisel blade to remove the triangular part along the plenum... And yes, that red splash on the side of the machine gun bay is my physical contribution to the build, courtesy of the #2 straight blade.... As the admiral would say, it is now officially mine.... {chuckle} Done... I will have to do a bit of filling along the joints when all is said and done... But it now ready for assembly..... More later.... EG

I've read that it is a wipe on wipe off type of stuff, only for filling gaps... Sandable smoothing fills take place after it is cured for at least a day... I don't know, others may have a better understanding of it, all I know is I haven't found an application yet where it works like we understand normal putties do... And it has come off everything I've ever put it on...

As originally designed the Stuka had a bomb swing on the centerline so the bomb would clear the propeller arc when dropped... It is what made it a deadly accurate dive bomber much like the American SBD..... but as a tank buster, it was removed so no one would get the idea of loading it up with gun pods and a bomb, it wouldn't even get off the ground with both... Beautiful job on this brother... it was one of the favorite planes of my youth.... (especially the cox u-control version)

Short update brothers... I knew that installing the Ammo Bay was just went too easy... And I found out when I was trying to fit the forward fuselage halves together.... The back wall of the nose gear bay is way too thick and needs to be trimmed down on that side so it can slip into the space in front of the bay... I checked the two aftermarket landing gear setups for this kit and they have the same problem, I would have to thin them as well... Shouldn't be too much of a problem for the razor saw as long as I get the initial cut straight... Failing that replacing the entire back wall with some .010 sheet styrene should do it.... I just knew that the Ammo Bay went in way too easy... {chuckle}

Thanks Craig! but I will say there are a few more plastic surgeons out there that make me look like an amature... Got a bit more to do to fit it properly, has more to do with the thickness of the parts as shot by Kinetic, some serious thinning needs to be done... (and aftermarket is no help)

Thanks Dennis, it's appreciated... Except there is always a fuss with this kind of stuff... Will be showing what's next cause it doesn't quite fit as well as it seems, more surgery is needed.... Pics in a bit... And hopefully the gods of no pain will smile on me for the next few weeks... (yeah right)

The real problem Brothers is that it doesn't adhere very well to the model plastic and tends to peel... And, like anything acrylic, once you get a corner lifted, it comes right off...

That's the issue brother, at least everytime I've tried it.....

Thanks Ken.... I think they came out well... They did line up nicely..... Still need to prime them to see how smooth they actually are but I have a good feeling... Thanks my friend...

Ammo Bay installed.... Hole cut.. Installed.... Now the door doesn't fit perfectly, it's a few tenths of a mm off, but that was expected.... Besides it will be open functioning as the initial step into the aircraft and no one will see it... That went a lot easier than I though it was going to.... Almost ready to assemble the fuselage.... Onwards....

Ok, Short update; The left side is now cut and glued in... My process is simple, old school and goes like this... 1st step, drill 4 holes in the corners of the panel you want to remove about 1/8th inch from the finished edges... I used two of the existing holes... then you use a saw to join the holes taking out most of the material... Then using a large #2 blade you shave down the edges to the panel edge line... The last 1/32nd or so using a brand new sharp blade to get the cleanest cut you can.... Then it is just a matter of trimming the replacement panel until you get a snug push in fit, tight but not so tight to distort the pieces, you want it to just stay in place for gluing... I apply a few drops of CA to the back side and leave it sit until dry.... They will be close enough to make final adjustments to the shape with sanding sticks... Any gaps being filled from the inside with modeling putty... Here is how they look from the nose on position... The right locations and not too much sanding to get the fuselage shape correct.... But before I go to filling and sanding, I have to add the Ammo Bay on the left side as the door for it formed the first step for getting into the cockpit... A prominent feature that is always open when the aircraft is sitting on the ramp.... This part is also designed for the venerable Hasegawa Kit so it's going to take some figuring in how I want to cut it into the fuselage.... Anyways, Onwards.... Thanks for following...

Me neither... {chuckle}

I'll be using Testors contour putty for this, easy application and sands easily... Sometimes the old standby's work best....

Ok Brothers, it's been a while since I've replaced panels... these are going to take a bit more work than the usual drop in application... The replacements are designed for the Hase F-86F-40 and of course they are a bit larger than the panels scribed into the Kinetic kit... So I had to not only open the panel but cut down the replacements to a push fit into the hole.. Thankfully the fuselage sides are thick enough to allow friction fit once you have worked them into shape... The problem is that you seldom get perfectly square joints sanding resin so some filling and shaping is required to finish them off... Here is what it looks like rough installed... The resin is very soft so shaping it to the fuselage side shouldn't bee too much of a problem and the Hasegawa replacement panels are tapered which making the fills and smoothing absolutely necessary... Starting on the left side rough install now... EG

Thanks Ken... Yeah they are noticeable right away, there are a number of ways of fixing them, replacing them with inserts I believe is the easiest.... The right side is rough installed, will post a pic in a few... EG

Thank Dan... Good to be back working on it again... RL was kicking my butt for a while there... The gun ports were made of forged steel so they will have a grey cast to them when compared to the bluish white of the aluminum... But, it depends on the light, in some photos they appear very dark grey in others they are almost indistinguishable from the aluminum.... When I do the finish I will be putting them in a pewter shade slightly darker than the aluminum finish... That's what I get from the pics I've looked at... I've got the right side rough installed right now starting on the left side... The inserts were designed for the Hasegawa F-86F so there are size differences to deal with... The Kinetic plates are a bit smaller than the Hasegawa ones so after cutting them out they have to be sized down a bit to fit the hole then contoured to match the curves of the fuselage side and fit the space... Thankfully the resin is softer that the usual resin used for AM parts so it shouldn't be an issue and I have some gaps to fill and smooth... Hopefully I can do it without sanding away too much fuselage detail... Will show pics in a bit... EG

Yes it is.. I have most of the mainline American machines from the FT-17, Mk-V and Mk 8 International to the latest M-1A2 Abrams... Planning on starting them as soon as I get done with these two airplanes...

You did brother, you did....

The grade of kits ICM is putting out now makes them a direct comparison to Tamiya... I have the Tamiya 60322 P-51D, I haven't cracked the box yet so I haven't examined it directly, but all the reviews say it is the best 1/32 P-51D on the market today, and at almost 200.00 something of similar quality at half that price would be greatly welcomed....

Well, the next step in the instructions was to assemble the engine..... Not going to paint it cause it's going to be inside the fuselage and won't be seen.. I did paint out the inside of the tail pipe so that will not show anything inside either except a black hole like it should... Now I get to do more upgrading... The gun ports... Those have the proper look to them where the molded in ports are phoney as heck..... Airframe Surgery up next.... EG

Looking very very nice Jav... beautiful cockpit....

300 cases of Coors....

Hey Brothers, after another side trip in real life, I'm about to get restarted on this... I'm gonna leave the engine for a while and get back on the airframe.... Hopefully I won't have another interruption for a while, I'm getting sick and tired of hospitals and doctors... When I left I was assembling the cockpit with an incomplete PE set.. so I'm kinda stuck, now I have the complete set but I went too far into the cockpit to dress up the seat so I'll be leaving it to what details I can add without destroying what is already done... Most of it won't be seen anyway cause of it's color, so it's highlights for the remainder.... But I now have the canopy shelf parts which will be seen behind the seat... Going to pick this back up and get on the path... EG