Back in the Game...After 10 Years, or, Who Needs Verlinden?

Modeling Subjects Aircraft
1

Don’t you hate not having an LHS worth a darn… no Verlinden products, overpriced kits… but the model bug got me after a decade, so I naturally succumbed and forked out the dough for the kit and supplies…

Well, after looking around the house I found some 400 grit sandpaper that has the look and feel of scale “non-skid” used on flight decks and any other horizontal surfaces on Navy ships… So I said to myself “Self, you can make an LHD spot for that 1/72 Hasegawa AV-8B that brought you out of 10 years of model building retirement.”

Well, here it is… my first project after over 10 years out of the game…

2

matt that looks awesome. well done.

joe

3

Great job. I have yet to post my pics of my first builds after 15 years you did much better then me.

4

You did an excellent job there Matt! I’ll have to remember that sandpaper trick : it looks pretty convincing. What’s your next project going to be?

5

Great looking harrier and deck.

It certainly doesn’t look like you have been in retirement for a decade.

Karl

6

Hey! That looks great! Thanks for sharing your Harrier with us.

7

Thanks for all the words of encouragement. I have Academy’s 1/48 F-86F “MiG Killer”, a 1/72 Academy OV-10A Bronco, 1/72 Academy O-2A (Can anyone say Vietnam diorama?), the monster 1/32 F-16, and Monogram’s 1/48 P-51D looking at me… I want to save the F-86 and F-16 until my skills sharpen up some… and just a hint for anyone with a color inkjet printer and photo paper… On the first photo, that’s how I made the placard. Back in the old days I used to use a strip of styrene and slid the decal from the manufacturer with the scale and name of the model… Ain’t computers grand?

8

You came out of retirement with a bang! Very impressive diorama. By placing the aircraft on a carrier deck gave the entire build character. Now that you are back lets see some more.

Richard

9

Welcome back to the game. Good looking build.

10

Good work and I commend you for thinking out of the box (no pun). I once made non-skid look real by accident. I was painting a square piece of acrylic with some Krylon spray paint and it crazed the acrylic with millions of tiny wrinkles, I thought, way man, that would make the perfect non-skid surface for my F-18. And whalla, $4 for the perfect base vs $40 for a Verlinden base.

Again, keep it up, looks great.

Scott

11

You sure didn’t lose much during retirement! Nice job!
Paul