Life Through Your Camera

[tundra_flier]

Some of my Stick and tissue models:

Those are nice models! Although I have to admit your work-desk is alot neater than mine!

And FlyboyGil, awsome looking models yourself.  I've never been able to get a paint job on a plastic model to turn out decent.  I've got a stack of them people have given me over the years that I'm afraid to assemble.   

Phil

[Mike]

Woah man !!! 

This looks like serious WORK !!!

Do you even fly them when you're done? They look like they break easy..... 

[FlyboyGil]

And FlyboyGil, awsome looking models yourself.  I've never been able to get a paint job on a plastic model to turn out decent.  I've got a stack of them people have given me over the years that I'm afraid to assemble.   

Phil

Thanks. I got an airbrush for my birthday last year, and its's helped me to finally do good paint jobs (Although the Sabre required several tries to get it right). Now I've got a backlog of models that need to be done, including about 100 that I picked up from a flea market. Some kid just built them without painting them, and there's glue everywhere. At about $30 a piece brand new, some kid was spoiled!!    Not to mention a few that I have built when I was young, and have to be restored.

[tundra_flier]

Woah man !!! 

This looks like serious WORK !!!

Do you even fly them when you're done? They look like they break easy..... 

Most of them fly when finished Mike.  The Champ and Baby Ace have not, but that's because I was still using domestic tissue instead of Japanese and they warped badly.  Look closely at the horizontal on the Baby Ace.  I've done some preliminary test flights with the Piet, and they look promising, the Cabinair flys nice, but is a bit heavy so doesn't fly very long.  I'm experimenting with different prop/rubber compinations on it.

Not shown is my Sig Cub, a very basic stick fuselage model that's nearly indestructible, but will regularly break 1min flights.  Also not shown in my Peck One Nite P-30 competition model.  it's got a 28" wing span and easily does 1min 40 sec flights.  I'm scared to fly that one much because I've nearly lost it a couple times.   

And they're more rugged than you would think.  They're light enough, and slow enough that they can't damage themselves too badly.  In fact the worst damage I've experienced was on my Condor, which has a sheet balsa fuselage.  The rubber motor broke while winding and shredded the fuselage as it snapped back and unwound wildly inside.   

Phil

[tundra_flier]

And FlyboyGil, awsome looking models yourself.  I've never been able to get a paint job on a plastic model to turn out decent.  I've got a stack of them people have given me over the years that I'm afraid to assemble.   

Phil

Thanks. I got an airbrush for my birthday last year, and its's helped me to finally do good paint jobs (Although the Sabre required several tries to get it right). Now I've got a backlog of models that need to be done, including about 100 that I picked up from a flea market. Some kid just built them without painting them, and there's glue everywhere. At about $30 a piece brand new, some kid was spoiled!!    Not to mention a few that I have built when I was young, and have to be restored.

I've got a cheap airbrush that I use on the flying models, but I've always used it to just fill in masked areas.  And I've never tried using it on plastic.  What type paint do you use?  Some friends of mine suggested Vallero acrylic paints, but they're awfully expensive.

Nice score on the models.  that'll keep you busy for a while.     I've got at least 3 kits sitting around that I can think of.  A cessna 150, A Smithsonian Series Wildcat and a 1970 Hemi Cuda    There may be more hidding somewhere too.

Phil

[FlyboyGil]

I've got a cheap airbrush that I use on the flying models, but I've always used it to just fill in masked areas.  And I've never tried using it on plastic.  What type paint do you use?  Some friends of mine suggested Vallero acrylic paints, but they're awfully expensive.

Nice score on the models.  that'll keep you busy for a while.     I've got at least 3 kits sitting around that I can think of.  A cessna 150, A Smithsonian Series Wildcat and a 1970 Hemi Cuda    There may be more hidding somewhere too.

Phil

I use both acriylic and enamel. I've never found acrylic much more exspensive, and I prefer it over enamel as it's easier to clean than enamel.

Here's a few of my projects right now:

[TheSoccerMom]

Cool stuff!!!!!!!

I'll have to take a shot of my old DC-3 model when I get back home -- IF I can manage to clean off all the cobwebs!!!!!!!!     (Airplanes are SO much more appealing than housework!!!)   

[FlyboyGil]

Here's another one. It's a 1/32 scale Hawker Typhoon. This Typhoon was one of the models that I had picked up at the flea-market. It called for a total tear down and rebuild. I had to paint the decals on it, as I had none.

[FlyboyGil]

Here's an interesting display for the Willacoochee Lodge in Willlacoochee, Florida.

[Mike]

Here is my scale model pride!
(please note the firextinguisher has 4 different colors and even the playing cards on the soldiers helmet has detail)

It's a model of Hugh Mills OH-6 he flew in Vietnam. If you guys ever get to check out the book "Low Level Hell", it is soooo worth the read !!!

[FlyboyGil]

Here is my scale model pride!
(please note the firextinguisher has 4 different colors and even the playing cards on the soldiers helmet has detail)

It's a model of Hugh Mills OH-6 he flew in Vietnam. If you guys ever get to check out the book "Low Level Hell", it is soooo worth the read !!!

That's a nice model. Do you have anymore?

[Mike]

Hey THANKS !!! 

you mean more pictures, or more models???

Most of my models are back in Austria at my dad's house. With this one I felt the need to "import" it and have it with me at all times.
I have a lot of F4 Corsair models with lots of detail there. (hmmmm....Chuck likes Corsairs.....coincidence??)
Was kind of a model freak back in the days....

I will look and see if I can find more.

[tundra_flier]

Dang!  all the plastic models I've ever done looked like doo doo compared to you two.   
But now I wan't to try it again.  Can you recommend any books for painting techniques?

I owe most of what I've accomplished with stick and tissue to Don Ross's "Rubber Powered Model Airplanes"   

Phil

[Frank N. O.]

Great models, and great set-ups for them too 
My only idea of a model airplane collection would be to have scale models on a shelf that had a cover looking like a runway, and have the models be the same scale, but that's hard.
A shame for me that die-cast model airplanes are quite rare and the wooden-ones are extremely expensive (compared to die-case 1:18 modelcars like from Bburago and Maisto). I'm also sad I didn't keep my G.I.Joe Tomcat model with swing-wings and folding-gear (it wasn't a total scale-model and wasn't called Tomcat but it was very close apart from the gear folding straight down when you swang the wings forward) it was the model where there was a pilot with a real plastic-parachute so you could throw it in the air and the parachute would fold out and he'd crash into the ground slightly slower than usually

I think one of the RDAF-bases has a Drakken fighter on display as a gate-guard, and I once saw someone with a ex-RDAF Super Sabre diagonally in his tiny front-yeard next to the highway going west towards Billund (Legoland and Billund Airport, EKBI).

Frank

[Stef]

Here's an interesting display for the Willacoochee Lodge in Willlacoochee, Florida.

Wow! Just imagine how much glue you need for a model that size!!!! 

I never achieved the level of detail Mike did with his models. My best piece of work is an A-10 Thunderbolt, but I screwed it up at the very last moment. It needs some lead in the nose so that it doesn't fall on it's tail all the time. I wonder if the real A-10s do that when they remove the gun! Anyway, the lead I put inside kept sliding, so I decided to pump a lot of glue into the hull... and it all trickeld into the cockpit, turning the canopy a solid white blob.  I don't know what I was thinking! I really put a lot of effort into that litle cockpit.... All my models are back at our dad's house too, so I don't have any picture...