popeye the sailor

holy moly Mike! amazing work with such small parts! I'd be daunted to try one.........

with the holidays over, I can get back to this model it took a little though to figure out what to do about the gear door situation. what I did isn't correct.......but it's the best solution. any other remedy would mean almost total disassembly of the model, and to go there would mean certain damage. the brace for the rear gear door was altered slightly.......basically cutting off the locator pins and cementing them in the proper place in the well. the door hinges were added to them and painted. once the braces were dry enough, the doors were cemented in place. the gear doors were added to the front well.....a couple other parts were added too. I tried to get a shot of what can be seen as you'd look into the cockpit.......flash wasn't a help here I went into macro without flash for these pictures. it was plain to see that the front gear door wasn't going to fit. what I did was cut the door in half, and cemented the curved part of it in place. as I was working on her, I slipped and the wing came off .......it's OK.. no damage......I can put it back on afterwards with little effort as can be seen, the other half has a definite lip groove........but the groove would have had to be cemented along the body, leaving the flat {cut} edge exposed. to make this look a bit more plausible, I switched these two halves, and cemented the part meant for the starboard side, on the port side, exposing the lip and appear as though it would mesh with the other half. the back edge is at an angle and matches the rear gear door. there is one other part, a brace for the gear itself........but I'm not sure I can add it without it looking like it would impede the operation. even if I didn't add it, cemented to the base, it likely would never be seen. so, there are a few more parts to add, and then it can be glued to the base. almost there my friends

looking good Egilman....I wouldn't think that both sides were identical. the seascape is coming along nicely as well

very nice progress...the helm looks awesome is that plastic rod? did they supply it in the kit?

hey Jack! the jeep looks really good in the dio.....quite a bit of potential still you could get a medevac chopper and do a pick up

I'm sure you would have come up with it, if you were in the same situation kinda neat that it doubled as a spatula as well . I've been wanting to get back to her, to get the rails on......spray rails at the chines, the clamps and the gunwales, but the holidays helped to keep me at bay. not only that, I'll need to order some extra stuff, since I want to have the two rudder and screw arrangement, this should be done before the sheer is put on. this way, there'll be more than enough room to do what needs to be done.

hi there.....just tuning in here. yea....I'm glad you like the alternative idea. no....you won't need to make additional bulkheads. if you run the sections with the grain, they should conform to the frame just fine. I would suggest sheeting the frame two sections at a time. using the keel as a starting point, butting it along the keel and then wrapping it around should work out well. trim the sections slightly past the deck line {I'm guessing there aren't any bulwarks}.......you can do the final trim work once you release it from the board. create your joints so they share the adjoining bulkhead, making sure they they are flush. I cut all of the section for the PT boat by eye......some minor adjustments with the shaping before I glued them down. what you bought there is perfect, as the hull doesn't look very deep.......some of what I bought was 4 and 6 inches wide. with some kits. they supply 'rabbits' that you can cement planking or sheeting to...apparently Dumas doesn't do that. you'll also need to find if the bow stem needs to be sanded to an apex, as I did with the PT boat......... one nice thing with this hull, is that there isn't a defined chine.......you'll be able to cover it with single sheeting. I plan to use resin on the hull, but only the resin.....I don't use the cloth. sometimes I could see the cloth showing through. I figure to give it a coat of resin......sand smooth and then give it a second coat. this should more than suffice

getting back to the Osprey.........I painted the base and gave it some markings. I did 'em by eye....so they might not be perfect. more on her soon

College Park........there's a College Park in Maryland and Georgia........really looks the business it's too bad you couldn't get all of that smear off the windshield. it's a fine looking model

Billings makes great kits.......I started with one. you got a leg up though......this is a laser cut kit my first one wasn't........but it's OK.....I learned to scratch build early on.

another point to make here is that the bulkheads are too far apart........there should be more of them to decrease the spacing. you can get Obechi wood from Billings.......it's thinner and a lot more flexible. I've never been a fan of Balsa, mainly due to the fact that it dings real easy. now if you don't feel like going that route, you can resort to basswood sheet, covering the hull frame in sections. you will need to anchor the frame back onto the board though, to insure that the hull will be warp free and straight. I just did this to a Dumas PT boat. they supply plastic sheets to cover the hull frame, but I thought that cutting the plastic to shape would be a lot of work. so I went with basswood sheet. I used 1/16 so that I could get good contour of the frame. I have a log going on this so you can see how I did it.

sounds like some really good plans there totally understand concerning your brother.......hoping things get better.

I wouldn't mess with it.........looks like a huge undertaking. if it looks like it could damage the model.......one thing I look at when I need to do something over

sit back........tables in an upright position.......nothing sticking out over the edges. there's a lot of force.....dodge the canopy on the way out!

when I lived in Florida........you could get Dune Buggy plates and run just about anything.....as long as they had all the DOT stuff one could only drive within the state with it though {that was back in the 70's}. I'm not sure what they do up here, but you could get {what they called} 'Ag plates' {farm vehicles}, and you could drive just about anything on N.H. roads. they were limited to a twenty mile radius. I love the Brunswick Green..........very nice .........I'm watching

what rolled off the assembly line is one thing.........it's what they did in the field that is another depending on the terrain, among other factors, determined what the final camo appeared. if a division commander thought there should be added color, it was handed down to the units to make the changes......some even had their own ideas. this also pertained to markings as well.

great job!........cool to see it working

it appears that if the vac form wasn't molded with the 'boxes and slots', it might be hard to do........your dealing with some pretty thin stuff looks really good though........

no worries OC........I just did the dishes {last night} and most of it is gone. .......one of the benefits of Dawn dishwashing liquid so this marks the end to the parts dilemma....the project is back on track! I'm a very happy camper earlier yesterday when I was painting, I was a bit apprehensive about the color, but now that I see the bulk....I feel better. I started to work on it again at my desk.......but I quickly got the sense that this project has grown to be too big for the space. so I moved it to the third table. I did some touch ups to remove what overspray there was........later thinking that once the fuselage is joined together, most of it won't be seen. here is the state of the project at this time. I laid down some paper towel to keep scratches at bay......the paint covered really good. the bomb bay was cemented in place now that the fuselage is painted fully. the insides of the nacelles have been painted and the nose gear has been cemented in place. once that's dry, it too will be cemented in the fuselage half. when the nacelles are dry, they will be added to the wings. the engines have been touched up......silver or aluminum dry brushing will be done, in prep for that to occur. the topsides and undersides of the wings and tail have been painted another nice thing about the extra sprue, is that I have a wider assortment of armaments to go with.......if one doesn't look good enough, I'm sure another will ...more to come

take care of your brother.........this matters the most. has he been sick? were you aware of it?

look'in really good.........I've not seen one built to this point yet

thanks it took a bit of doing, but I managed to get the airbrush fired up. for some reason, it wouldn't spray....I later found that if the bottle was tilted back a tiny bit, bringing the nozzle close to the cap orifice, it would spray like normal. I may need to buy another EZ airbrush...they are fairly cheap. of course through All the fidgeting, my fingers are all blue I should have taken this picture again........the flash put a different hue on it I have plenty of this color..........more to come

that's interesting.........they have a dual purpose.........

awesome job on the cab....the whole model looks great hope you can fix the windshield.

the bucket looks super. '