Noticias

Snake Plissken
Wow, chrome plated!

Ben M
Taking it on vacation with me to get it started.

Nathan Dempsey
Bearcats unite! Following 👀

Guy Rump
Following. 👍

Snake Plissken
Is it similar to a commemorative edition or just meant to replicate natural metal finish?

Ben M
It's aluminum plated to represent the actual nmf finish. I built a t-33 where I had some issues that I hope to improve upon.

Ben M
Did a lot of sanding areas that will be glued, masking, fitting parts to each other, and basic assembly while I'm on vacation. I got new decals from Siam decals as the originals are from 1968 and not in good shape. I'm not sure how old the Siam decals are but they are newer than '68. One thing that is apparent is the stripey tail decal doesn't fit at all. This is going to be a good challenge to resolve.

Robert Podkoński
Taking a seat here.

Ben M
Decided to try to apply the 1960s decal for the cockpit, as I don't have an alternative. Had to soak it for about a minute in hot water to get it to release. As is typical for hawk kits the decal isn't the right size but you go to war with the decals you have. I got it to apply without shattering. Unsure if it will stick, very old decals like this often have to be glued in place.

Neil
Interesting 🤔 following also, looking good 👍

Ben M
I think the Siam Scale decals I'm using instead of the originals are about 20 years old but they're going on ok. A little thick, so not settling down into panel lines but I'll try some decal fluid once they set in place, hopefully they will on the aluminum surface! The roundels are two part so I will have to do a second layer…

Mr D
Smart little model.... unusual in the factory chrome 👍👍
Nice classic kit.
Bit of heat of hairdryer works with thick decals.... nice n steady.
Like it 😁👍

Ben M
That's a good idea, I may give it a try. First I'm going to upgrade from micro sol to mark fit.

Mr D
I use Mark fit ....but recently found the Vallejo one works amazing... Just used it on my in progress IAR-80.
Definitely my go to now.
The moon ships is great 👍👍

Nathan Dempsey
Wow Ben this one is turning into a colorful bird.

Ben M
An interesting detail I note while decaling. The panel lines on the fuselage are engraved. The panel lines on the wings are raised. Wtf.

Desert Marlin
I've been using Mr. Mark Softener and Mr. Mark Setter. They worked well on some Kitty Hawk decals which are pretty stubborn...

gorby
Nice work so far.

Ben M
The tamiya mark fit and some work with a needle solved the problems! Thanks for all the great ideas everyone. Onwards!

Ben M
Did a bunch of cut the decals into pieces to fit a different model than they were made for. Came out fairly well. Subassemblies are getting larger as the project comes together.

Dave
Looks great. Nice work

Desert Marlin
You seem to have forced the decals to cooperate!

Robert Podkoński
Great job, Ben!

Mr D
It's looking really good 👍
It's great that the kits can still be built after all these years.
The people in the factory's would have never believed the model they are packing wouldn't be built until 2024 🤔🤣.
Nice build to follow 😃

Ben M
Almost complete. Popped the main fuselage seam a bit 🙁 I had gone to a lot of work to hide it. For some reason even after carefully scraping the mating surfaces I just don't get good adhesion. Maybe next time I will try only using CA for assembly on my next plated kit.

Ben M
The decal sheet says 23rd squadron Kohkratiem AFB, but there's not much on the internets. Possibly a misspelling? The Royal Thai Air Force had F8F's from 1951 to 1963.

Thanks to Siam Scale for the decals, without which this project would be hopeless. The sheet number is 48003 if that helps anyone.

Desert Marlin
Looks great so far! Don't worry about the seam. It can be filled and perhaps painted, even though it's plated.

Desert Marlin
Or foil added if you have access to that...

Ben M
Complete! @desert marlin - I decided the seam on the bottom wasn't important enough to do a bunch of rework. It's an old 60's "chrome" plated model after all 🙂 I think it came out looking pretty good overall.

Mr D
Fantastic, Really nice kit , Looks 👍 great.
Sometimes it's nice for a vintage kit to look close to how it would be built originally.... Nostalgic.
Nice find....

Guy Rump
Great job! 👍

Nathan Dempsey
That's some nice work on that old kit Ben. Looks great!

Ben M
I have one more plated kit in my stash. Kind of tempted to get it out and keep going…

Mark Sherwood
Nice rendition of the F8. 👍🥸🤘

Robert Podkoński
Good job, Ben!

Ben M
Thanks everyone!

Desert Marlin
Oh yeah!!! Excellent outcome!!!

Cuajete
Very nice painting job 👍
Is it finished?

Kyriakos Vafiadis
Need to add a few details and then apply a clear coat

Bruce Huxtable
Superb 👍🙂

Simon Nagorsnik
very good job, looks great 👌

Elshan Mammadov
Thanks!

Rui S
Excellent 👍 Great photos too.

Rewop
Very impressive, particularly for a 1/72. Very well done.

Juskifo
Wow all these tones of paintings I thought before I saw that it was on a scale of 1/35

Robin (WhiteGlint)
Nice work! Very well done painting and weathering! 👍

Neuling
Top build and presentation!

gorby
Wow!
It looks like Zsolt has competition.

Robert Podkoński
Is it really in 1/72nd scale or you have produced such a big match? LOL 😉 Absolutely fantastic!

Elshan Mammadov
Yeah, the most difficult was to build the match!😉Thank you all friends for your kind words!

Mr James
Another superbly weathered kit, wondrously presented

Rui
Superb work at this scale! 🏆

Jennifer Franklin
Another older build that Mr. James has dug up is gorgeous. Thank you for shining a light on this one.

Elshan Mammadov
Thank you mates! Happy you like it!

Michael Kohl
Top job.

Elshan Mammadov
Appreciate!

Dave Smith
Have this in my stash would be interested in which colours you painted. Will give me some ideas to come away from desert scheme.

Villiers de Vos
Very nice work.

Michael Schubert
Looks awesome, especially at that scale!!!

Elshan Mammadov
Thank you!

Zsolt Czegle
AWESOME! 👍

Rui
You're a wizard with the weathering and a magician with the camera, my friend. 👍

Elshan Mammadov
Thank you mates! Very glad you like it and nice to hear good comments from such specialist in this scale as Zsolt.

CaptGPF
Whoa! That paint job just makes at model pop! The weathering is unique, rather than just crabbing up the model, it actually accentuates the camo colors. VERY VERY VERY WELL DONE!!!!!

Elshan Mammadov
Appreciate!

Alec K
Congrats. Consider me teased! 😄

Bruce Huxtable
1:72? Wow! More to follow? Keenly watching 🙂

Thomas O'Eh
looking great! following!

Robert Podkoński
Joining the party!

Rui S
It's another Beautty 👍

Łukasz Gliński
Wow! I can see the winter is coming 😄

Simon SW
Brrrr! Looks cool 😉

Zsolt Czegle
AWESOME work again! I'm courious!!

Pietro De Angelis
An other little jewel, congrats!

Simon Nagorsnik
Ha! You´re all welcome mates!
Put on your warm clothes, it's getting even colder... 🥶😂
Thank xou!

Lukas Muller
nice one Simon as usualy 👍🥶

Bohrmann
Looks fantastic ! 👀

Robert Podkoński
Taking a seat, of course!

bughunter
Welcome Robert! Which one you want to take, the yellow or a green one? 😉

Please do not miss the project description, for the _VERY_ important reason for this project!

Robert Podkoński
👍 A green one, please 🙂

Marcel Klemmer
Hi Frank, I am in and do not need a seat. 😉

Ludvík Kružík
I'll sit down too. If I'm not mistaken, one green seat is still open. 😉

Spanjaard
I am certainly in

Martin Oostrom
Green two for me

David H
Be rude not to join in. 👍🏻

gorby
I'll join the audience as well. 🙂

bughunter
Hello my friends! A warm welcome to each and every one of you!

Working on the parts of this kit can be considered bodily harm! The bright yellow hurts your eyes and you can't see any details or damaged areas that need work. I would have preferred a more common gray!

Michael Kohl
Moin Frank. Nimmst mich mit?

bughunter
Aber sicher doch, wenn Du eine wilde Fahrt aushälst 😉

Kenneth
Hallo Frank, the set with lap belts only could be intended for the US Navy variant of the Stearman, the N2S. Until US entry in WW2, US Navy aircraft mostly did not have shoulder belts. I read this in a review of a 1/32 Vought Kingfisher while looking for seatbelts and wondering about the same thing for my 1/32 Revell/ICM N2S Stearman kit.

Juergen Klinglhuber
Schau ich mir auch an,...

bughunter
Welcome! Thanks Kenneth! That makes sense, as the kit offers also a yellow Navy plane with red stripes. Luckily my wife want it blue-yellow. All the pictures I found shows also shoulder belts, but that was mostly still flying machines and I guess the shoulder belts was added later.
I had already downloaded the ICM manual as an additional reference and looked at reviews because of an oddity on the upper wing. More on this later.

bughunter
Because I was still in soldering mode after the seats, I immediately turned my attention to the tank on the upper wing. I like the look of the metal fuel tank now.

Robert Podkoński
Perhaps you will find my photos useful for your build:
Hangar 10 | Album by podkon

bughunter
Yes, definitely 👍 Thanks!

bughunter
Found a nice page: stearman-aero.com/

bughunter
The wing is yellow again, but now the look is better!
I used here MRP-142 Orange Yellow. If someone remembers my Piper: the yellow was "Dark Chrome Yellow" also from MRP. Even this one here called "Orange Yellow" it looks more yellow compared to the Piper.

Ben M
👀

Alec K
I was just wondering where the heck is Bughunter, and here he is! Lovely progress and topic, following of course 👍

bughunter
Welcome Ben and Alec!
The lower wing is now also painted yellow. I only not sure about the blue. I want to go with the darker later blue, tried AK Pure Blue, but I will also try others.

Jakub Fiala
Nice work on this interesting type of aircraft so far 👍 Following for sure!

Ben M
Love these old trainers. They used to show up at airshows a lot when I was a kid.

Greg Baker
Sign me up!

Zbynek Honzik
A joy and pleasure to follow such a project! 👍

Christoph Kunz
Ui, da habe ich den Start ja irgendwie verpennt. 🙁
Aber jetzt bin ich dabei.

Kenneth
Noch was, je nach dem, was das Vorbild ist: Part 71 in Point 4 of the instructions is in my opinion not correct for a WW2-era Stearman. Such a box typically houses a radio, intercom, transponder etc. on modern, restored examples

David Taylor
Watching.

bughunter
In the spirit of "Piano man": the regular crowd shuffled in ...
Welcome!
Oh, can someone wake up Kyle? 😉

Juergen Klinglhuber
Kyle! - come on, you will miss a good portion of the show and have to put the stool again in the back... 😉 Just kidding. It is never to late for a bughunter-show

bughunter
Kenneth, thanks for the hint! Interestingly the Eduard manual of the PE set here on SM told me to remove the mount points for this part 71. After that hint I checked some pictures of original machines and found the modern equipment. So thanks for the confirmation! After my PE set arrived I found out the remove of that mount points is missing in my paper version! Luckily I have checked the corrected online version first.

I would like to build a original equipped plane, but this is somehow limited. I have only the kit decals for a US Army plane "136" dated 1941. There is no serial number mentioned. I have not found photos of that plane yet. So I will build it according the information I have, with "educated guesses" on some points. Later more.