Something more modern; a F-15C (still under construction).
Posted on 05/30/2006 9:20:53 PM PDT by pickrell
Brings back pleasant memories.
Sweet!
Well, film negatives of instrument faces combined with etched brass instrument panels do help. Also, cast resin detail parts help add to the realism of many a model.
And that damned Cherry-scented 'Ross Sniff-Proof Glue' was the first salvo in the war to feminize boys.
I told him that one of the reasons why guys build rockets, or planes, or catapults, or whatever, is because there is a real thrill in seeing something you build with your own hands and your own imagination actually do what it's supposed to, be it fly, shoot, or pick up tv signals. Nowadays it's cheaper to simply buy a tv; I don't know if heathkit is still in business. But the thrill of it, the smell of the solder, the pause before you plug it in: will it or won't it make lots of sparks and blow all the fuses? Those were the days....
I have spent as much as half an hour painting one instrument face. I can take a couple of weeks for me to paint a 1/35 scale soldier (partly because oil paints take time to cure).
I really like the distinctive camo job on the 51. You got one of those Junkers with the "snake" camo jobs? Talk about labor-intensive!
35 years after I built my last plastic model airplane, a friend with a convention/party service company contracted me to assemble a dozen helicopters for a display. The price was right so I built them.
And I loved it!
I also discovered my hidden airbrush talent. :-)
Great read, good memories.
Thanks. That was thanks to careful masking and delicate airbrush technique. I chose that pattern because it is a rather unusual camo pattern.
Wonder how it would fare against the SU-22 Fitter.
Funny that you should mention the Fitter - I am working on a Su-17M4 and a Su-22UM3K.
Seriously, that control panel work looks like museum quality. Nice job.
Yeah... we grew up during the same period. I keep this little list around to remind myself what it was like (and because no one will believe me when I mention it):
I was born before Xerox, contact lenses, Frisbees, and the pill. There weren't things like laser beams, pantyhose, or air conditioners, and man hadn't walked on the moon.
Men and women got married first, then lived together. Every family had a father and a mother, and most kids over fourteen had rifle that their dads had taught them how to use and respect.
Until the sixties, I called every man older than I was "Sir." Especially policemen and any man with a title.
In that era, closets were for clothes – not for "coming out of."
Sundays were set aside for going to church as a family, helping those in need, and just visiting with your neighbors.
We were before gay rights, computer dating, dual careers, day-care centers, and group therapy. Our lives were governed by the Ten Commandments, good judgment and common sense.
We were taught to know the difference between right and wrong, and to stand up and take responsibility for our actions.
Serving your country was a privilege and living here was a bigger privilege.
We thought fast food was what you ate during Lent.
Draft dodgers were people who closed the front door when the evening breeze started, and time sharing meant time the family spent together in the evenings and on weekends – not a reference to condominiums, which didn't exist.
We'd never heard of FM radio, tape decks, CDs, artificial hearts, word processors, yoghurt, or guys wearing earrings.
If you saw anything with "Made in Japan" on it, it was junk.
The term "making out" referred to how you did on your school exams.
Grass was mowed, Coke was a cold drink, pot was something your mother cooked in, and aids was a term used to refer to helpers in the principal's office.
A chip meant a piece of wood, hardware was found in a hardware store, and software wasn't even a word.
Any parent could discipline any kid, or feed him, or use him to carry groceries, and nobody, not even the kid, thought a thing of it.
Girls neither dated nor kissed until high school, if then.
A quarter was a decent allowance, and another quarter a bonus. You'd reach into a muddy gutter for a penny.
There were two types of sneakers for girls and boys (Keds and PF Flyers) and the only time you wore them at school was for gym.
You got your windshield cleaned, your oil checked, and your gas pumped, without asking, for free, every time.
Laundry detergent had free glasses, dishes, or towels hidden inside the box.
And we were the last generation that was so dumb as to think you needed a husband to have a baby.
Kinda strange to think of it now, huh?
Thanks! The F-15C is one of my 1/48 scale projects. This is what I do for fun and relaxation (aside from visits to the firing range). I guess that I should show some of my ships and tanks. Gotta go to bed. 'Night all.
So I gotta put this link up, Model kits for everyone from the kid to the serious scale modeller
I built my share of B-24s and Spitfires and Zeros. My pride and joy was a 1/24 Stuka, with huge wing-mounted antitank cannon. Eventually, I graduated to model rockets, but I kept the model planes for a long, long time. I had a huge kit to make a Cutty Sark model, but never did get around to it, too much painting and other preparation....
I'm not talking about comparisons of beauty or complexity or in scale accuracy or in attention to detail. No, in all those areas the American models were superior to the Japanese, IMHO. But what really stood out as the big difference for me were the motors and the gear boxes and the AA batteries and the lights and the switches. The Japanese models actually DID something! The American models just sat on the shelves and looked pretty.
Thought I haven't seen them in 48 years now, I can still picture those tiny dark blue Japanese model motors with the red and blue wire leads and the tiny brass gear on the shaft. When I built a cable car, it didn't just sit on the shelf showing off its paint job. It had gears and wheels that moved, and I ran string from the top of my bunkbed across the room and down to a floor lamp and when I switched it on, my newly assembled toy climbed up a 30 degree slope.
When I built a submarine, the backplanes and frontplanes actually steered the thing up and down underwater in the bathtub.
I built little motorized tank models with rubber treads and moving turrets with spring loaded gun barrels that shot plastic ordinance at card houses. Better yet was building forts out of cards, with toy soldiers on top, and then setting the tank to crawl across the room on its own and take down the fort. When it was time to move to the States and I couldn't take my tank models with me, I stuffed as many firecrackers into them as I could and started them off on their last battle run across the back patio, to blow up midway.
The ship models all had propellers that turned. The really big ones (that my family could never afford) had motorized gun turrets as well as props, and lights all over the place as well. My older brother used to visit a friend whose parents had money, and he and his friend would build huge ship models and then blow them up with firecrackers in their fishpond in mock naval battles. What a waste! (But what fun.)
And no, I never once put "Cemedine" in a bag and sniffed it. That's what bad kids did. Besides, they barely gave you enough in those little yellow tubes with the bright red caps to complete a model.
Ahh, those were the days!
I'd had X-Plane simulator for a bit, and when I found an SU-22 fitter model to download for it, I found I was a couple months too late as the link was deader than Tsar Nicholas..
*sigh*
An interesting aircraft to be sure, a scrap between it and the Lightning would have been interesting.
(Also, the T-4/SU-100 would have been interesting to see... but it was the 'answer' to the XB-70..)
Built my share and then some as a kid.
Still put em together occasionally today.
And now I fly a few myself as a private pilot.
Working on a studio scale X-wing from Star Wars at this very moment.
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