Wiadomości

Rando
Been cooking up this idea since I got the 1/72 RF-8. My original plan was to build the plane in the cover of the Osprey RF-8 book, flown by Lt Andre Coltrin over Vietnam. With a little help from a 1/72 version of the Furball MiG Master sheet, I will rearrange the nose and tail numbers to make BuNo 146871 as it flew in Vietnam during its 1966 cruise off the USS Oriskany.

I also found an Academy F-8E, which has decals for a VF-111 jet that flew on the same cruise, so decided I will build it as the RF-8's escort, which they often had during their photo runs. I also figured, why not build them together? They will be displayed in flight.

Oleg Bogolei
Nice idea and intersiting projeact. Also have two of them in a stash)

Freak
Great idea for a double build. Following!

Rando
Good to have you gents, looking to start this one soon! I like researching and adding reference photos, so I just added some in the meantime.

Urban Gardini
Now this seems like a build that I've to follow!

Rando
Welcome Urban, happy to have you! "It's only a model!"

Sergej I
Following 🙂 👍

Rando
Hi Sergej! I'm very very excited to get started on this one

Casey Beckett
Following - got 3 of those nice new Sword RF's in the stash.

Jos Jansen
Normally I don't follow 1:72 scale models...for this one I'll make an exception...😅😉, grab myself a seat here! Love those Crusaders...

Patrick Hagelstein
Got intrigued by Rando's comment on Jos' build, so I popped over here. Looks like a very interesting build as well!

Rando
Happy to have you gents here, I'll be getting to this one just as soon as my elaborate P-51 build is done...

Rando
Here we go, double Crusader build. Gonna be comparing the short-run Sword RF-8 with Academy's F-8, which has been the go-to in 1/72. I have extra Academy kits so I'm swapping out the RF-8 kit's nice resin seat, I'll use it for a future open canopy build. The pilots will be obscuring seat detail in a closed canopy anyway.

David Fuller
Following

Rando
Welcome David!

I assembled the PJ pilots and started nipping off parts to assemble the fuselage. Getting the pilots to fit in their seats is tricky so far. Fit on the Academy kit parts is pretty nice. Sword kit is not as easy since there's no locator pins but they align well

Rando
Pilots are fully painted now. The F-8E pilot is based on Dick Schaffert, who was a pilot on this 1966 cruise. While I don't know of any specific plane he flew, F-8 pilots often flew jets that were assigned to others, so he's flying 149180 on this escort mission. In order to accommodate them, I had to remove the rudder pedals and front of the cockpit tub on the F-8E. It won't really be visible when the cockpit is buttoned up anyway.

Rando
I didn't like how the Sundowner helmet turned out so I stripped the paint and airbrushed it this time with tiny wedges of tape, then shaped and touched up everything. Just need to add a black stripe for the visor groove.

J35J
Great attention to details Rando! Following👍🏻

Rando
Thanks and glad to have you J35J! Pilots, seats, ejection handles, and joysticks are all in place. Time soon to start putting the jets together.

Rando
All the interior parts are in, soon time to put the fuselages together 👍

Guy Rump
Looking good, following. 👍

Rando
Hello Guy, welcome 😊

Fuselages are together. Now getting all the panels and gear bay doors to sit flush.

Calvin Gifford
Very nice! How is the Sword kit so far??

Rando
Thanks Calvin! It's quite nice if you remember it's a short run kit and you prep and test fit parts a lot before gluing anything. Has been a far from perfect first effort by me but I like how it goes together. It's shape is pretty accurate too. The Academy kit is very plug-n-play in comparison

Calvin Gifford
👍

S M
Double build! Following!

Rando
Welcome S M! I have been painstakingly installing the gear doors closed. Stuffing blutack in the wheel wells helps with frustration. Both F-8s have tiny aft gear doors on the main bays that took a lot of time to line up. The RF-8's nose doors were also very tricky. Happy to say I'm done getting the gear doors on.

Casey Beckett
Backup RF-8 inbound Rando ! Shipped Friday!

Rando
You the man Casey! Did some scratchbuilding tonight

Casey Beckett
Me too - Bonanza gear struts. God bless Albion Alloys. Great stuff if you've not used any of their items.

Rando
I have not but am always looking to add new things in this hobby, I'll check them out! I actually have an old Minicraft 1/48 Bonanza that I might do something with one of these days.

Rando
Took a big long tour on the clear parts struggle bus this past week. Got glue smudges on a camera window, the windscreen, and canopy on the RF-8, which all had to be buffed out. Hopefully I get the canopies attached snug without issues tomorrow night. Finding that carefully lining the attachment point with Revell Contacta on a toothpick is less risky than TET.

Calvin Gifford
👍

S M
Clear parts look good 👍

Michael Kohl
Like the planes. Like to see them in flighr. Like the effort you put in.
Feel you when putting pilots properly in and closing wheel well doors.
Anxious for the paint job.

Rando
Thanks all, getting closer to painting. A ton of work has gone into smooth out and scribe the lines around the gear bays on both jets, not to mention persistent seams. Also turned my attention to sanding down and rescribing the fictitious bumps on the folding joints, which the RF-8 has as well. The RF-8 also has wedge-shaped plates on the droops, which were only present much later, so those were sanded down as well. There's still a few things I want to try to perfect before I begin painting. I also have to decide if I want to paint the wings separately, in all likelihood I'm going to glue them on first because I want the fuselage section to be flush.

Rando
Alright, wings are on. I feel like this will make masking more complicated, but better for making sure they conform to the fuselage. I am so ready to paint these jets

Calvin Gifford
Whoot!

Nicolas
I missed this one, following. I love these side by side builds.
Great progress so far. 👍

Rando
Hi friends three months later I'm finally painting the damn things. Here's my current take on preshading, blackbasing, what have you. Gave the white areas a white base that I preshaded with dark gull grey. Then mottled the black with white for some variation with the light gull grey. Elsewhere I built the missiles, launch rails, and painting the horizontal stabs.

Thomas Kolb
Coming along nicely! Your blackbasing tedhnique looks very effective, I am curious how they will turn out!

Rando
I've painted the undersides of the CVW-16 birds. Unfortunately I did something stupid, something I even decided against at first--I tried doing a "pour" into the intakes to get them painted. This was a bad idea for the RF-8 in particular. I thought that since they were glued together I could get away with no leaks, but I saw the paint level draining, and I knew the paint would appear inside the camera windows. Lo and behold I saw paint when I peeked under the masks.

Feels horrible that I did this, even if I have some ways I could fix them. I can pop the side windows out and clean the bottom side windows, but putting them back in will be a pain since the side windows are meant to be attached from the inside. UGH. Any clever ideas to fix this mess are welcome, this is definitely one of those "mojo killers."

Rando
Think I fixed the windows. The bottom windows will still be a little smudgy. But I was able to get the sides back in by gluing a toothpick to the mask and rotating it from the inside, then seating it on the frame.

Calvin Gifford
Glad you figured it out!

Rando
After fussing with the white for what seemed like forever, I finally masked to paint the gull grey. Unfortunately this revealed a ghost seam on the spine, so on the plastic putty goes. Hopefully it goes away.

S M
Those ghost seams are so annoying 🙁

Calvin Gifford
^^Yeah, hate those ghost seams!

Rando
Fortunately I was able to defeat them with putty and paint! It's just crazy they'd show up after working on all the seams and surfaces for the past few months. I also removed the ECM blister from the VF-111 jet's tail, since reference photos and instructions showed they didn't have them at the time.

Rando
Fussing a lot with the color of the nose tip. Also very difficult to mask off. Lots of touching up needed. The tip seems either a tan or greyish hue, but I have no photos to base it on.

Guy Rump
Looking great, following. 👍

Freak
Looking good, can't wait for the masks to come off!

Rando
Thanks guys! Cleaned up the paint edges on the nose and feel a lot better about how it looks now. Also painted an anti-glare area in front of the camera fairing. Just gotta paint the tailpipes and it's on to clear coat and decals!

Thomas Kolb
They look really great! I have to say, the F-8 is one fine looking aircraft and your models definitely do them justice. I cannot wait to see them with decals! About ghost seams, I have seen them appearing on my models weeks after they are finished. I guess it's the cement seam cracking a little bit because of tensions in the plastic, but I have long since stopped worrying about it.

Rando
Thanks Thomas! I appreciate that, I'm super anxious to start the decals myself, going to be the most rewarding part of the whole project. Still had some touchups and wanted to paint the leading edges of the flight surfaces with flat aluminum to represent Coroguard. Clear coats go on *I hope* tonight.

Gotta say, building two planes at once sure is a different kind of challenge and test of your patience. It's fortunate that they are mostly the same, but it's still time consuming to do everything twice. I spent at least an hour masking off the leading edges and it took all of five minutes to paint! Probably won't be doing a double build again for quite awhile.

Calvin Gifford
👍

Rando
One side of the decals mostly done. Buncha stencils to do also. I'm super paranoid about breaking the ventral fins so I stood them up on wads of blutack which works pretty well.

Rando
Gonna shift gears with a more straightforward Tamiya build. I wanted to make the all-black night fighter option, but thought the color scheme was too simple and I also wanted to try some camo painting. So I got decals for a night intruder option, which is the best of both worlds, and the camo with black underneath just looks really cool.

J35J
Mossie! I'm in👍🏻

Markus Antonius
There is nothing more complicated, to replicate a all-black aircraft not making it look too dull, in my opinion

Ludvík Kružík
Interesting choice. Both when choosing a machine and when choosing a kit manufacturer. Compared to the Crusader, we go back in time by choosing the aircraft, but it's a big step forward in kit quality.
I wish you a lot of fun and as little trouble as possible building this kit. And of course I will be happy to follow it 👀

Jennifer Franklin
Following 👀, 'm excited to see how this turns out.

Rando
Welcome friends! Yes Ludvik this is a "palate cleanser," I wanted to see how a nice Tamiya goes together, it's also the second kit I got so it's been sitting in my stash awhile. I'm already messing with ejector pin marks, we'll see how much trouble I create for myself 🙂 and Markus--yeah I figured the topside camo would add a lot more visual interest.

Desert Marlin
And so it begins!!! You have earned the right for a break from raised panel lines!!!

Rando
🤣 I guess I have! The Monogram Voodoo lurks around the corner. The Mosquito's fit sure is mostly nice so far

Rando
Wings and nacelles are glued together and been painting the many cockpit components. Drilled out the gun barrels on the .303 Brownings too, I like the look

Markus Antonius
Is that Tom Servo in you profile picture, btw? 😄

Rando
Oh yeah! Been an MST nerd since forever

Rando
Did some detail painting, and been pounding the instrument panel decal with micro sol. It's slowly conforming to the raised dials, but I have solvaset and mark softer on order since Tamiya decals are apparently known for this…

Gerald
👍

Rando
I improved the cartoony decal seatbelts by applying them to foil, cutting them out, and painting the black edges a similar color. Idea thanks to an old IPMS Stockholm article.

Desert Marlin
I have the FB and NF versions… I need to finish my P-8 and get started on a Mossy…

Desert Marlin
The belts look great!!!

Rando
Thanks Marlin! Definitely my favorite part of the build so far. Actually just threw the whole thing together today, now that the cockpit has been all worked out. It's not exactly intentional, but because this NF version I chose doesn't have the radar features, I've been breezing through construction since it also doesn't use the FB rockets/bombs/bomb bay. Next I need to get the canopy on ASAP since I keep breaking off gunsight 🤬 the only construction left is the landing gear, props, and the crew hatch and boarding ladder. Looking forward to painting

Guy Rump
Looking good, following. 👍

Ludvík Kružík
Excellent work on the model. Looks great. 👍

I'm sure you're not the only one who breaks off small parts of the model. I have the same problem. All it takes is one very brief moment of inattention and one careless move and that's it. Although I try to handle the model as carefully as possible, for example, I have broken off the antenna on the bottom of the Gripen four times. 😭

Aman S.
Following...looks great

Rando
Thank you all, and glad to have you here Guy and Aman! No more breaking off the gunsight for me now Ludvik, the green strip decals are on the inside of the canopy and masks are on. Just gotta mask off the guns and then it's time for surfacer

Desert Marlin
Nice! I just finished the cockpit on the P-8 so, I really appreciate this step you have accomplished!!! Cheers!

Rando
Guess I'm onto the painting phase! I already painted the propeller caps ocean grey, then decided to hit the bottom side with matte black. Also getting the undercarriage painted and assembled too.

Desert Marlin
Love this stage! Looks great!!!

Rando
Thanks Marlin! I got it ready to paint the dark green. IDK what others do for camo like this, but to make a "hard edge" camo I used Tamiya curved tape to make the lines, and then used regular masking tape and paper towels to mask off the rest. Excited to see the finished paint job

Neil
It's looking good Rando! 👍

Rando
Thank you Neil! At first I was thinking the ocean grey looked too dark, but with the dark green I find it contrasts well. Just got to fix some overspray and touch up some areas and it's on to decals

Desert Marlin
Excellent work! The scheme is coming along nicely!!!

Rando
Decals are on with a gloss coat over them…maybe some weathering today?!

Desert Marlin
Oh yes!!! Great Saturdays provide the opportunity to focus on all those little details seen in the mind's eye!

Rando
Hell yes Marlin especially a rainy one like this! Working on the landing gear while giving the gloss time to cure

Jos Jansen
Iam in Rando.

Rando
Hell yeah bro! Finish line is near!

Desert Marlin
The MLG look great! Where are you that it is raining?

Ludvík Kružík
Marlin, it looks like Rando was visiting the Czech Republic today. It's been raining here all afternoon 😄

Rando, that chassis looks fantastic. Didn't you put pictures of the real chassis here by any chance 🙂

Desert Marlin
😆👍

Rando
If only Ludvik, I'd love to come out that way. Would have come by to say hello and see your workbench! Been a pretty nasty day here in eastern Massachusetts too. Was also a good day to bring the kids to a model train show, fun look at an adjacent hobby.

Here's hoping the chassis fit into the nacelles without too many swear words 😉

Desert Marlin
I spent the day painting here in Nevada.

Ludvík Kružík
Rando, I believe it would be a pleasant meeting. I'm sure we'd have a lot to talk about. And of course I would love to show you my desk 🙂

Rando
Indeed Ludvik we sure would, I'd be thrilled to meet you Marlin and all my modeling friends on here someday.

Mosquito is like 99% done! Landing gear went in surprisingly easy and now just some wingtip lights to install, finish painting the crew hatch, and attempt to rig the antenna mast. Pics soon!

Definitely looking forward to seeing painted the P-8 Marlin!

Desert Marlin
I'm starting gloss for markings…

Rando
So I have to say I'm disappointed with how the canopy looks. I used Eduard masks and they were a struggle to get on as they didn't fit great. In hindsight I should probably de-tacked them too, like I do with Tamiya tape, since it seems like they left adhesive residue. They left some rough paint edges. Not sure how to improve it, I've done some careful scraping with toothpicks and Leveling Thinner, which improved it some, but considering popping the whole thing off and repainting it.

Desert Marlin
Using a 000 brush, put a couple of coats of thinned out black along the bottom of the canopy glass then a similar thinned coat of color over the black. That would firm up the window frames. The rest of the frames look pretty good to me!

Rando
Thanks Marlin, so would that help with that weird splotchy white color, especially noticeable on the frames in back?

Desert Marlin
Those should be dressed with a thinner brushed on in very small quantities until the streaks relent. I had thought those were aluminum chipping which would also be valid!

Desert Marlin
The Mr. Color Leveling thinner with a stiff hobby swab would help clean the edges. The Mr. Color thinner doesn't seem to harm clear plastic…

Rando
LOL, amazing that my mistake looked like something good! Shoulda just rolled with it. I do have a stiff kind of swab, I'll give it a try

Rando
I actually got Leveling Thinner after you recommended it on my Crusader build and it's all I've been using lately. Good stuff, I like that it can leave a smoother finish

Ludvík Kružík
I can confirm. I have the same experience, Mr. Color Leveling thinner will not damage clear plastic.

Rando
I think I've improved the framing a good deal already, both with paint and the thinner. Now just gotta glue on some nylon thread for the mast rigging, which I've never done before. So far I managed to attach it to the mast with some gel super glue.

John
Get some EZ Line, you won't regret it. Nice Mossie too! 👍

Rando
Hey cool, how do you attach it John? And thanks getting close to final pics!

John
You use super glue, it just stretches nicely without putting a lot of pressure (i.e. bending) on antenna masts. So you can anchor one point and then stretch it easily so there is no sag when you attach the other end.

Rando
Got it! I'll order some. I've already had trouble with the mast popping off once.

John
The antenna on my Buffalo build is EZ Line, it's also handy for those annoying multi-wire antennas.

Rando
I see did you use thick or fine?

John
Definitely get the fine size. 👍

Rando
Basically done! Aside from the rigging wire, which I will attach when it gets in. After that I'll upload the beauty shots. Now to clean up my very messy workbench and get the next project going!

Desert Marlin
Bravo! 👏

Rando
So I decided to finally upload the glamor shots for this Mosquito. These were taken months ago but I was dissatisfied with how the photos looked at the time since it was difficult getting the plane to fit in the frame without ugly background. Looking closer though, I thought they actually turned out fine, and pretty nice actually with some cropping and brightening adjustments. So belatedly, here she is completed, the Mosquito night intruder. Great kit, most difficulties I had were my own doing. Eduard masks are not their best. Eagle Strike decals are great. If you have this one in your stash, pick out a cool scheme and build it!

J35J
Your Mossie turned out great! Congrats!👍🏻

John
Hey Rando, I can only repeat previous comment, nice Mossie! I think the canopy looks fine. I'd probably do a masking like this myself for the reasons you ran into. I don't like the "put the tape on the canopy then carefully trim the frames" technique because a mistake can be disastrous, but in this case since most of the frames are straight and well defined, I think I'll do that for this one instead of my usual cutting and taping dozens of little pieces of Tamiya tape to the canopy, which also works, but is time consuming. I did get this kit after seeing your build and I plan to do the NE D bird, I just like the scheme. Looks like the EZ line worked out really well for your antennas. 👍

Rando
Thanks John and Draken! Yeah I kind of gravitate towards cutting directly on the canopy for some reason, even though it's soooo risky. One thing that might be a good alternative to the Tamiya tape is scotch tape (suggested by Marlin), since I found you can more clearly see the actual place you're cutting into. I did that for some windows on my P-51 build and it worked out pretty nice. And also yes--the EZ line was a breeze, thanks for that! For some reason it fought me hard on the aforementioned P-51.

Shameless plug for my F-8 double build, putting the decals on tonight. So excited!

John
Wow, you really like your Crusaders! (I mean, who wouldn't?)

Rando
yeah it's ridiculous LOL. I'll be building other planes, I promise! At least after I try CAT4's new early nose conversion.

Desert Marlin
That looks perfect Rando!!!

Ludvík Kružík
Mosquito turned out very well. You did a really good job. 👍 👍 👍

Rando
Thank you Marlin and Ludvik! Who doesn't love a Mosquito? I sure do like the look of it on my desk at work.

Doubtingmango
Pretty skeeter

Jennifer Franklin
Mosquito is very nice. I can imagine that it looks good on your desk at work.

Guy Rump
Great job! 👍

Neuling
Clean and careful work! 👍

Rando
Thank you all!

M0rce
Oh this is very nice. Loving the work on the crane and the ropes. Lots of great additions

M0rce
Nice stairs too

M0rce
Loving the funnels and the pulleys. Are they all scratchbuild? And those anchors? Scratchbor aftermarket? Excellent eork Sir!

Tcamp
Oh btw i wasnt digging " jackal" so i cut up 1/48 marines decals and she became " Marin" lol

Tcamp
Oh the funnels were 1/350 from liberty ship spares

Tcamp
Oh by the way thank you!

Tcamp
Sorry anchors if i remember are 1/350 scale

M0rce
Gret stuff.
Would love to.awe your other builds too

M0rce
Just noticed the little 🔔 so cool

Neuling
Well done!

Tcamp
Thank you