old stuff

[rjccjr]

Hi All;

It must be a new year. The welcome box data went back to the same information that locked me out a year or so ago. Can open postings, but not pictures. I found a way to get part way back, but the box needs to be reset. Can the moderator help me?

Happy New Year anyway.

Regards, rjccjr

[rjccjr]

Hi All;

First thing: Thank you for getting me back in the log in section, especially so fast.

Back in the 1980s, in one of the pen pal shipments, which my friend received from Poland, there was a single piece resin D-21 drone in 1/72 scale. Well, if you have one of those, you just have to have a M-21 variant of the A-12 to put it on. Even if it was an odd choice for a base, it was an appealing project at the time.

Photo 1r shows the project, just out of the storage box. It hasn't been cleaned up and has been damaged over the years. The parts are all in the box, so it could be restored. But, isn't likely to be. The D-21 drone had a protective cap over the air intake, which was removed for flight. It was surprisingly accurate for a limited run resin kit, especially since information at the time was scant.

The mother ship is a Revell YF-12A interceptor kit #H-206, in the same scale. To make the conversion, what was needed was a launching cradle and a peculiar black and bare metal paint job. Photo 2r shows the launch cradle built of thick laminated plastic sheet. Photo 3r shows the underneath. The parts fit of the model was not very good. Perhaps the size of the parts tended to conspire against adhesion. Floquil chrome silver and platinum mist paint were used for the bare metal parts of the paint job. A few drops of flat black were added to the cup to create the variations of metal shade. Photo 4r shows the drone beside the mother ship. The scribing is very simple but the D-21 has an exotic sci-fi look to it. Photo 5r is a closer shot of the drone from the top. Photo 6r shows the bottom. The equipment bay is clearly etched in the forward fuselage. Photo 7r shows the exhaust of the A-12. The color effect was obtained by adding a couple of black and brass to the platinum mist.

It's a temptation to restore the model because it's an attractive and unusual conversion. But, it has gone back in the box, as is, for the simple reason that it was there in the first place. It's a big model and there is no place in the shop to fit it.

Oh Yeah, the last photo is my favorite Christmas gift, an outside Christmas tree ornament made of bird seed.

Regards, rjccjr

[rjccjr]

Hi All;

This one goes back a very long way. One evening in 1979 a friend came up to me at a meeting of the USS Constitution Ship Modelers Guild and said, "Hey Ray, do you want a ship model? I just want to get rid of it. Looks like a nice kit. Only thing is somebody started it and butchered it. It's out in the car. I'll bring it in."

Well, it had been started and the assessment was right. There was a big badly done frame and a big box. Inside the box was a huge number of parts, several pages of plans and a nicely packaged set of sixteen gorgeous brass cannon. They were what sold me. Not really having any idea what could be done with it, I asked "Can I give you something for it?

He Said, "Ten bucks will do. That's what I paid for it. Some guy bought it at my local hobby shop, made a mess of it and brought it back. Must have been a good customer, so the lady took it back. She knew she couldn't sell it, but wanted to keep the guy, so I wound up with it. No way I'm gonna build it."

So, home it came, then sat with my stash for years, too big to build, but too nice to toss. Finally clean the cellar day came. It was too nice to toss. Soooo....

Fortunately the skeleton had been assembled with Ambroid cement. It's lacquer based and brittle. The bulkheads snapped away nicely. There were solid balsa blocks at the bow and stern. The original builder hit the wall with them and realized that he was in over his head.They had to be cut away carefully. That done, the kit was buildable. It happened to be an IMAI 1/80 scale mixed media kit of the USS Susquehanna, Admiral Perry's flagship when he entered Japan in 1884. It was a side wheel paddle steamer, subject to frequent breakdown, hence the Bark rig. The model is one of the best designed and packaged kits that this old goat has ever seen. Not flawless, but elegant.

Photo 1r shows the reassembled frame. The balsa blocks were replaced with properly shaped bass wood. The model is of plank on bulkhead construction. Photo 2r shows the start of the deck planking process. The frame is well designed and very sturdy. The deck planks were glued and pinned until everything was dry. Then the pins were removed and the wood went back to its normal position. Photo 3r shows the main deck completely planked. The short quarter deck was elevated and has not yet been installed. Notice the very nice building cradle, which came in the kit. Photo 4r shows the quarter deck installed and the side planking started, working from the top down. The kit supplied side planking was suspicious so commercial bass wood strips were used. The planks were soaked overnight in an inexpensive wall paper trough, then slightly curved and allowed to dry. This loosened the fibers enough to be pinned in place without snapping. When the glue was dried the pins were removed.

Unhappy with the planking, the hull was coated with red automotive putty, then sanded and sanded again. Photo 5r isn't as bad as it looks. The first application of black wasn't as smooth as it should have been and was sanded away, then refinished. Photo 6r shows the hull further along. The bulwarks were planked on both sides. Some of the pins on the inside have not been removed. The quarter deck is in place, the mast holes are opened and the deck is marked with pencil to located deck furniture. Photo 7r shows the finished hull, with deck openings and cannon ports. It is sitting on the workshop table so you can see how big this monster is. Photo 8r shows the effect of copper paint with an over sprayed light mist of green. The inside of the bulwarks is now painted and the bow sprit is in place. Ladders to the quarter deck are now installed.

Along with the construction of the model, came the usual amount of research. Several photographs turned up, which proved some design errors with the model. Pictures taken of crew on deck can be a wealth of information for details. More about that later.

Regards, rjccjr

[rjccjr]

Hi All;

Last post, the phrase "not Flawless" was used. In photo 9r the deck furniture had been assembled and installed, the cap rails were on, the stack was in place and the bow sprit had been glued in. Notice the green luster on the copper hull below the waterline. It varies according to light conditions, a fairly clean hull without overdoing the verdigris. The hull without the machinery is essentially a clipper ship. Then the fun began!

Peculiarly, the cover art got the rigging pretty nearly correct, but the kit designer dropped the ball. The plan shows the forward lower stay tying off on a wooden post. The lower stay is the heaviest cord on the ship and really ties off around the base of the bow sprit. More about that later. Photo 10r shows the model much further along. Research found a photo taken on deck when the ship was just back from Japan. The gun arrangement, which was pre- civil war, appeared the way the kit was designed. The ship was substantially altered for blockade duty during the war. It's a Japanese kit and the designers sources of information are different, so the array may just be accurate.

There were four large ships in the squadron, all of which had essentially the same rig. Through a friend, who happened to be an expert about civil war vessels, a set of the rigging plan for USS Mississippi was obtained. She was one of the ships in the squadron. Photo 11r shows the start of the rigging process. Although not particularly clear, the lower fore stay is tied off at the base of the bow sprit. Notice that the cord gets narrower in diameter as it goes upward. The running rigging is manila and the standing rigging is tarred black.

Notice the brass davits and air vents. Elegant kit. The cannon should be black, but they were so handsome that I departed from historical accuracy. Hey it's my model and I can build it any darned way that I please. Photo 12r shows the rigging a little further along. Photo 13r shows the rigging almost complete. The shrouds and ratlines were done on a jig and attached to the model when ready. Photo 14r shows the complete model on a base, just before being put in a case. Large screws were entered through the base up into the plywood center frame, so it's not going to lean or loosen any time soon.

The kit had sails, but they looked like artists canvas and were totally unrealistic. Ship models with sails are rarely realistic and only a real expert can pull them off successfully. Flags are difficult as well. This one was shaped and soaked in fifty percent water and white, glue then attached the model when completely dry. When you look at a complex sailing ship model, sails are usually omitted because the eyes go immediately to the sail and miss all the hull work and rigging. the builder wants you to see the ship, not the sails.

Photo 15r shows the mid ship area from above. The photo is blurry because the picture is taken through the case and reflections play hob with the camera. There were planked walk ways over the paddle wheel housings. Access was gained by ladders to the deck. Each lifeboat is a miniature kit by itself. The cannons are a complex rig. Photo 16r shows the accurate rig for canon taken aboard the USS Constitution a few years ago. It was used to rig the guns on this model, which had the same rig.

The kit cost $189.95 when it was first released. If you can find it, figure close to $400 today. Photo 17r shows how the looks over forty years later. It took nearly three years to finish and I'm admittedly proud of the build. Now, age and tremors have me and this could never be done today. Looking back though, not bad for ten bucks, is it?

Regards, rjccjr

[rjccjr]

Hi All;

First up; FYI there is something wonky about this site today. No idea what it might be, but navigation is slow and erratic.

Now for ther entry. Back in the early 1970s Tanaka, a Japanese company produced a series of 1/72 scale models: Irving, Nick, Frances, Sally and Helen. For the time, they were excellent kits. They were released under the Revell Japan label in 1972. All of them were acquired, built and wound up in storage under the counter.

Here is the J1N1, Revell kit #H105, built in 1972. Back then it cost $1.98. Even if you can find it today that price cannot be approached. Photo1r shows it just out of storage. Even with all that dust you can see that it is finely detailed over all and very accurate for the time. The kit came with markings for several different aircraft and the decals have held up pretty well for fifty two years. Photo 2r is a bottom view. The wheel wells are Spartan and lack detail. Typical of all the Tanaka kits, the rivet detail is indented. The parts fit is good and the delicate scribing is more evident against the gray paint. There is some yellowing at the edges of the decals, and a little silvering from the decal application. Remember that this was built long before the modern techniques for avoiding these issues were common knowledge. Photo 3r is a more direct shot of the underneath. The crack where the trailing edge of the wing is the fault of the builder not the kit design. There are several ejector pin marks, notably at the ends of the stabilizer. Photo 4r is a direct top shot after the dust was cleaned off. The cockpit interior is simple and the cockpit glass is remarkably clear for the age of the kit. Photo 5r is head on. Back then the tremors were not evident and the stripes at the propeller tips, as well as canopy frames could be painter by free hand with impunity. The last photo is a side shot taken before the model was dusted. The upper gun cover doesn't fit very well and the tail wheel is somewhere in the storage box. Look at those canopy frames. Ah youth!

Depending upon your fancy for Japanese aircraft, if you happen upon one of these kits at a vendors table during contest and the price is reasonable, you can gain a lot of enjoyment from obtaining any of the Tanaka kits.

Regards rjccjr.

This appears to have loaded pretty well, so here goes.

[rjccjr]

Hi All;

Back in 1972, a man named Jay Miller and a staff of about a dozen started a journal called Replica In Scale that evolved into another journal called Aerophile, which ran from February of 1977 until December of 1980. The publication was erratic and concentrated on "volume number" as opposed to date. The articles were well researched, illustrated and written. In volume 2 number3 an article appeared about this aircraft, the Martin /General Dynamics RB-57F. To date, this is the most authoritative unclassified article about the RB-57F ever to be published.

There were only twenty one RB-57Fs produced, all rebuilt from standard RB-57 Canberra airframes. The modified wing spanned over 122 feet and the new turbofan engines had far more thrust than those of the original machine. There was two smaller engines installed in pods under the wings. It's use was for strategic intelligence gathering, weather reconnaissance and fall out gathering. The RB-57F had long range and was capable of extremely high altitudes as high as 80,000 feet. In some very important ways the RB-57F could outperform the U-2. It had two crew members who could share duties and it could carry four times the weight of payload of the U-2.

The model is a 1/72 scale vacuform kit number 190 produced by Airmodel, released in 1973. Typical of models produced by this company, it was a crude kit, generally accurate in scale, but completely lacking in the basic requirements demanded by current modelers. It came in a large box, had twenty six vacuformed parts, rudimentary instructions, and no decals. What it had going for it was the fact that if you were attracted to the aircraft, this was the only game in town.

Photo 1r is a top shot showing a very large model. Notice the ruler behind it. The outer wing colors are wrong and some of the scribing is incorrect. The seams are fairly well filled. The decals came from the scrap box and are mix and match. The USAF decal is yellowed from age, but the national markings are still holding up very well. The paints were Floquil, primarily chrome chrome silver with a touch of black added to vary the shade of the panels. Photo 2r is taken to show the side. The canopy has surprisingly held considerable clarity though it wasn't that clear to begin with. The rudder was enlarged, but the stabilizer was unmodified and seems unusually small. The parts fit and filling of the upper left engine are poor. Photo 3r is the other side. The upper right engine nacelle came out much better. Photo 4r is a bit closer. The canopy was attached with epoxy cement and some beads are showing. Notice that the texture of the plastic is somewhat coarse. The landing gear and interior parts came from an Airfix Canberra. Photo 5r is a fuzzy shot of the underneath. there is a plastic peg holding up the rear of the model because so much weight would be required to bring down the nose that the landing gear would collapse. Photo 6r is taken for a profile view. The serial number on the rudder is incorrect, didn't know that at the time. The band above it should have the word weather in it, but there were no decals in the spares box that would do. Photo 7r shows the rear. The rudder is way too thick at the trailing edge, but an attempt to thin it out was asking for trouble due to the thinness of the plastic. Photo 8r is from the rear, slightly above. The enlarged rudder is very noticeable. Notice that the trailing edges of the wings and tailplane are too thick and the left wing has a slight bubble near the engine exhaust. The suspicion is that the vacuum draw was not strong enough to pull the plastic down tight enough, probably a problem due to the size of the model. Even though it is fresh out of storage and dirty, it is intact and could be restored and updated into a pretty accurate model. Unfortunately, age and tremors render that impossible.

This particular model is rare to find and likely to be costly, if you do. There are some injection molded versions out there, but they have their flaws as well and are also pricey. Still, the aircraft is historically important and the model is an attention grabber for a couple of reasons, first it is a long way from the original Canberra design, second it's an interesting piece of history of what could be done before the U-2 and SR-71 came to dominate the scene. The program was done in by wing spar failure rather than inability to perform the mission. Even more interesting is the fact that after, becoming operational in February of 1964, three of them, though updated and altered, are still in use by NASA.

Regards, rjccjr

[rjccjr]

Hi All;

Here's another old vacuform kit, picked up at the end of the show sometime in the 1980s. It's a 1/72 RB-45C vacuform kit #72001 by a company called Aeroform. It's a step up, on a long flight of stairs, from the previously shown Airmodel kits. It did contain some injection molded parts, better directions and decals.

The North American B-45 design started near the end of WWII when the Air Force began thinking about jet bombers. It owed a lot to the medium bombers such as the B-25 and B-26, both for mission and for construction. The big innovation was the installation of axial flow jet engines, based on German designs recovered after the war. It had respectable range and a decent payload, but was clearly not an example comparable to the technological advances which were to come within a few years. The early versions of the B-45 saw action as bombers during the Korean war. The later versions came into their own as reconnaissance machines and intelligence gathering aircraft. The thirty three examples of the RB-45C were built, as conversions from earlier bombers, flew from 1952 until 1958.

Photo 1r shows the front of the model. The vacuform sheets were of inconsistent thickness and you can see where some areas are very thin. The bomber nose glass was removed and camera equipment installed. There is an entry hatch on the side, and a single glass panel on top. The clear parts of the kit were slightly cloudy to begin with and very thin. Photo 2r is a top shot. The model was painted with Floquil chrome silver and the panels marked off by masking and adding a couple of drops of black. The anti glare trim was hand mixed green. Notice that the decals have held up very well over the years and there is no evidence of yellowing. Photo 3r is from the other side. Notice that the right engine nacelle is somewhat rounded and the left is flattened. Parts of the USAF decal are chipped from age. Photo 4r shows the bottom. Parts of the landing gear are damaged and the USAF decal is again chipped. Notice that there is no bomb bay, which is correct for the RB-45C. The detail engraving is neither consistent nor crisp. The shapes of the engine nacelles are markedly different from one another. Photo 5r is a side view showing the unit markings, which are accurate and holding up rather well. Photo 6r is a top view. You can see into the cockpit and the camera compartment. The inconsistency of the vacuform sheets is very evident. The chrome silver finish serves to make it even more noticeable. Annoying, but if you wanted a 1/72 scale BR-45C in those days, you were stuck with it.

A lot of old vacuform kits can be found on the market. They vary considerably in quality, but do have the advantage of offering some pretty rare aircraft. The best that I've seen are the Koster kits, which are competitive with injection molded kits. The one thing held in common by all, is that they are uniformly a challenge to build.

Regards rjccjr

[rjccjr]

Hi All;

Here is a 1/53 scale Williams Brothers kit of The Lockheed 10 Electra flown by Amelia Earhart. This was built around 1998 and was a bear to get together. The parts fit was irregular in general and the cabin glass was nearly impossible to attach to the fuselage. The model has way oversized rivets in a questionable pattern. Although the machine was riveted, the rivets were hardly noticeable from a distance.

Photo 1r is a top view. It was painted with Floquil chrome silver, shaded with a couple of drops of black. Most of the seams were filled pretty well and have stayed that way. The rivets were partially sanded to reduce the size, though not altogether successfully in some areas. The decals have held up well, though there is a fleck of red on the right wing. Photo 2r shows the bottom. The difficulty with the parts fit is very evident. Photo 3r shows the open door on the left side. There was some detail of the inside, but it was crude by modern standards. Photo 4r is a bit further away. You can see that just about none of the window glass fits well. Photo 5r if from the front. Parts have come off over the years and the left landing gear strut has fractured. You can also see the trouble with the windshield glass. The engines were pretty well detailed. Photo 6r shows the right fin and rudder. The fit is crude and the rivet detail is way too stark. The hand painted deicer boot is just plain bad. It was about the time that the tremors were starting to manifest themselves.

The Electra was a handsome and historically significant aircraft, but the model doesn't do it justice. On the other hand not many companies would be willing to produce it. This stayed with the collection because it was such a challenge to build.

Regards, rjccjr

[Don Boose]

Being busy with various things, I missed your last few entries.

USS Susquehanna is a magnificent model of a truly history warship (kurofune, or Black Ship). Remarkable detail. I was impressed with the close up of the gun and its tackle.

I seem to remember seeing a few issues of Detail in Scale and may even have a couple stashed away irrecoverably in the catacombs.

All good stuff, but I especially like (aside from Commodore Perry's flagship) the B-45 and the Lockheed 10.

I don;t say much, but I do follow your posts (eventually) and enjoy them (although I regret that I haven't been as skilled, productive, and well organized as you over our 8+ decades.

Don

[rjccjr]

Hi Don;

Thanks for the encouraging word. It's nice to get that very once in a while. It also prods me to keep running these threads. They do take considerable time and work, but that's what keeps us young. The only way to fight the aging process is to keep getting older. I'm looking forward to seeing the first man on mars, probably be about a hundred and fifteen when that happens. That is assuming that some fool doesn't destroy our own planet before then.

Regardxs, rjccjr