Well, surprise, surprise! Woke up this morning to a blanket of snow! The report from NOAA puts the total in my neighborhood at about 7 inches. I look out my window and would say that’s pretty close! It appears that it’s already starting to melt with the warm temps we have had lately, with 50’s and 60’s predicted over the next 2 days, it shouldn’t be here long.
I have this week off now, with no major plans other than maybe a day trip or overnighter to Nebraska. I know, doesn’t sound like much, but I have managed to find out more about my Dad’s family, locating my grandparents burial sites and even my great grandmother’s grave site as well. All of them ethnic Germans born in the Volga river region of Russia. Sounds dull, but of interest to me. I even managed to find the address of the house my Dad was living in when he was drafted. Not sure if he grew up in that house or what.
I hate masking, don’t you? I spent an hour doing all this to spray the metallic area of the exhaust and all for a minute of spraying! I removed the masking last night and will buff it out today. Updated photo to follow.
I picked the magnesium as it seemed closest to what I have seen in actual photos.
Also turned over all the little doors for painting. White again!
(there should be another photo here, but FB seems to be having issues at the moment…)
Thanks Jim. I do all my 72nd aircraft and 35th armour builds as diorama’s. This sort of base is a pretty simple one and doesn’t take long to knock up. I am now down to 7 GB commitments, but I tend to only work on one at a time and have now started an F-111 for SP’s Vietnam GB.
I know what you mean about masking, especially for something small. Looking forward to seeing how that turns out.
Very cool history on your family! I am lucky in that my Mom was really BIG into genealogy when she was younger. This was before the internet, when you had to travel to each town to look up records (birth certificates, death certificates, U.S. census, etc.). She traced our family tree all the way to Samuel Fuller, one of the original members of the Mayflower.
I totally agree with you about masking! Hate it! And just like you said, all that time and effort to just spray some paint in a matter of seconds!
I spent some quality time at the workbench today! It was all about the front instrument panel. First I started out scraping the paint off of the plastic where the photo etch is to attach:
The rest of the pictures show the gradual process of each piece of photo etch being attached:
Ken, that’s pretty cool that your mom was able to find that out! The Mayflower! I guess maybe I have become a bit more interested in this lately as most of my family is gone, I just guess I’m trying to make some connections to the past. It would be very hard to track my dad’s family back any further than I did, considering the time period, and all the changes that took place in Europe over the last several hundred years. I probably learned more about my ‘people’ in general yhan family itself.
I know much less about my Mom’s side, other than they were also German immigrants as well. I did find one article about a Sauber who went to work for the railroad in the Chicago area, who I think is my great or great-great grandfather.
I wonder if it would be worth joining ancestry.com and see what else I might find.
That’s pretty incredible Ken, I have no idea when my folks came over.
I heard someone say that when ancestry.com is running a free week or so deal you can get a bunch of information and then not sign on for the service- no idea if there’s any truth to this or not.
Well, I made my little trip Monday, across the corner of one state into another, and found the gravesites of both of my grandparents. Kind of sad in a way, as they had passed 16 and 18 years before I was born and I never had a chance to meet them. If only one could step into a time machine, imagine the stories they could tell!
I also went by several of the houses I had found listed, including the house my Dad was living in when he was drafted in '42. I also went to the address listed in the obit. where my grandfather passed away. There was an empty lot! No house, but there was still a driveway and a fence across the front with a gate. Somewhat of a mystery!
I think about how tough it must of been for him (my dad) growing up. Born into the family of poor immigrants, he was one of 9 children (i think second to the youngest). He could never complete his education due to being called on to work and help his family. His sister was brutally murdered when he was 15 (she had been stabbed 47 times by an abusive husband and was barely 18 herself!), My dad’s father was stricken with cancer and died at the age of 62 when my dad was 18, and his mother passed just 2 years later of a heart attack. A short time later he is drafted to go fight in Europe, then afterwards, he is discharged here in Denver at Ft. Logan. With no family to go “home” to, I see why he stayed on in Denver.
Well, no other plans this week, so maybe I’ll get some work at the bench done…
I’ve been trying to figure out how to paint the dark oval on the under side of the aircraft, that’s suppose to confuse an opponent in a dog fight.
That area is very very busy with the faring for the gun, blade antennas, and the sensor pod on the side. I wasn’t sure how to do it with any regular masking. decided to try Silly Putty:
After spraying, I had to touch up a few places. Not perfect, but if you study the first photo, that one isn’t perfect either! Looks like it was painted freehand to me!
That trip must have felt a little like traveling back in time. Even with the house gone, you were standing at the spot where a lot of history took place. I hope it was a good trip for you.
Wow, very cool Jim, you’re making me want to look up my history now! And I love Silly-Putty - great masking stuff as well as holding small parts in place while painting.
It was like time travel in a lot of ways. Right there was the sugar factory, the industry they worked in, both farming and the production of.
It’s odd to say, but I found I loved that little city, as I am so tired of living in the “big” city. Really, how many people can say they want to move to Nebraska? I think if I knew how to get a decent job there, I would move in a heartbeat!
Working at the bench the couple of days was painting and decaling.
The RF-4B gets a white tail:
And this area ahead of the cockpit will be black:
And as to decals! I tried using the kit-supplied decals for the A-10, but typical of many of the decals supplied with Academy kits, they were thick and I couldn’t get them to conform, no matter how much solvent I threw at it!
It was one of the blue ones as seen below:
I finally gave up, and used a piece of tape to remove it. I went ahead and switched to a set of TwoBob decals I bought a while back. They depict a training unit out of Nellis AFB. I think I only paid 3 bucks for it as they seem to be dropping all their 1/72 scale line.
They are printed by Microscale, and work well the set and solvent.
The down side is that several of the markings are two-parters!
These for example:
First layer down:
Finished vertical slab:
More to go…
Jim
P.S. Luckily, the F-8 kit came supplied with Cartograph decals and work great!
You’re making good progress there Jim. I know what you mean about company decals, I generally end up replacing most of them with aftermarket. Seems like it wouldn’t be much more expensive for them to replace them with quality ones like Cartograph. I’ve used Two Bobs a few times and really liked them.
BTW: I am using the box decals by Hobbyboss on my Wildcat and oddly enough they’re working quite well. Should be done decaling by the end of the weekend.
I have heard Academy decals have a reputation for being difficult to work with. I have done only one other Academy kit and that was an F-117 stealth fighter. Hard to judge from that as there are NO curves on that plane. A few of them did silver on me, but that was more inexperience on my part. It was one of the first kits I completed.
