Wounded Warrior Project

Regardless of your position on the topic of war, I think we can all find some common ground in appreciating the men and women who have sacrificed their bodies and minds for our freedom. I recently was doing a search for some Under Armour shirts and discovered that they have partnered with the Wounded Warrior Project. They have a line of clothing with various sayings and images on them. After I purchased four shirts, I searched further into the foundation. A quick search led me to their website along with their other partnerships. Survival Straps was another company that is involved with this organization. They make bracelets from pararescue cord and have a line devoted to the WWP. I am not sure about Under Armour, but Survival Straps donates 37-45% of the purchase price to WWP. I bought a camouflage one, by the way. I have since received it and will say that it is durable and surprisingly comfortable.
As a modeler, there is another way to give back. Through the IPMS website, IPMS/USA Support the Troops Initiative provides instructions to donate models and supplies to our wounded veterans recovering from their respective injuries. I can’t imagine being in a hospital recovering with little to entertain me. I take my models to build on vacation so I am sure our veterans would appreciate having that relaxation. With that said, I am currently putting together a package of models and supplies for our countrys heroes. This might not hit close to home for some, but there are a great deal of people that it does.
http://www.woundedwarriorproject.org

Back to Work

I am back to work on my dual build after a four day hiatus. Mother’s Day came and with it a “fun” home project of remodeling the living room.
With my Starfire and Flanker ready for paint, I chose to move from my dual building to a singular build. The Flanker will take a lot of extra time and patience to complete the digital camouflage scheme so I opted to finish the Starfire first. I sprayed the anti-glare shield and the walkways before the main color. After that, I masked the before mentioned areas off and used Model Masters Aluminum for the final finish.
Today, I spent about forty-five minutes applying the decals. I’ll let the decals cure for about a day before final assembly and it’s appearance here.

The Cup is Half Full

Progress on my F-94 and Su-34 have been nothing short of satisfactory. To some, I might not be that far along. Considering my work schedule lately, I feel accomplished with where I am. Trading sleep here and there for quality build time, I have effectively given myself a comfortable start.
I took a little extra time with the cockpits adding seat belts and putting some additional detail on the instrument panels. With most of the minor work finished (ordinance, landing gear, exhaust cans), I directed my focus on the planes themselves. The fuselage halves went together quite nicely on both kits with little need for filler. One round of sanding the seams and some filler has been completed. Tonight, I will do more sanding and shoot a coat of primer on them. I’m betting on a little more filling and sanding on the Starfire, but the Flanker should be good to proceed. Fortunately, these two kits have not decided to fight me and are going together like one would expect. With a little more time and effort, I should have these two kits ready for final paint.

The Flying Dump Truck

Completion of my dual build is slowly coming to life. I have completed the landing gear and the ordinance on the SU-34 and I have only been able to do some minor work on the F-94. Fortunately, I have yet to have any difficulties within these two kits. While I am working towards completing these builds, I wanted to feature an earlier work of mine.
A good number of my builds start with me reading a book about a pilot that flew the particular aircraft. This was no exception. The idea of this build came from reading “Hero Found: The Greatest POW Escape of the Vietnam War”. It was a great read about Lt. Dieter Dengler. As a boy in war torn Germany, Dengler witnessed American fighters in flight over his hometown and forever changed his dreams. He came to the United States and proceeded to gain his citizenship. He ultimately became a pilot for the U.S. Navy. On his first mission over Laos, he was shot down and became a POW. The rest of the book details his life in a prison camp and his eventual escape and rescue.
Here we have two 1/72 Airfix A-1 Skyraiders. I wanted to give this diorama a feeling of movement so I added spinning propellers and built the wings of one Skyraider coming down from the folded position. I used a Fujimi Flight Deck Crew set for the figures and fire truck. This build was my introduction to weathering with pastels. You just can’t build a Skyraider without the unmistakeable exhaust stains. Luckily the decals were already the squadron of Lt. Dengler’s. I just had to make a few decals on my computer so they wouldn’t have the same numbers. I had fun with this build. I am a huge fan of the Skyraider and I am positive that if you were to ask a downed airman during the Vietnam War, he would feel the same.

Dual Build

Now that my Demon has been shelved, it’s time for a new build. Actually, it’s time for two builds. I have opted for the dual build so I can always have something to accomplish. With a singular build, you accumulate a lot of down time waiting for paint to dry, filler to set, or glue to bond. While building two kits at once, you can count on quality building without the standstills.
For my two kits, I have chosen Italeri’s 1/72 Sukhoi SU-34/32 Strike Flanker and Emhar’s 1/72 F-94C Starfire. So far, all that I have accomplished is some prep work on both kits. I’ve cut cockpit details, ordinance, and landing gear from the trees. I assembled and sanded the seams on the ordinance and they are ready for a base coat. I am quite unfamiliar with colors of Russian missiles so I will need to do some extensive research. I plan on giving the Flanker a digital camouflage paint scheme, in which I am a little apprehensive to try.
Italeri put some good detail in this Flanker. The landing gear looks fabulous and it comes with a full array of weapons. Emhar put out a basic kit. Not to much for details with this Starfire. I plan on searching for some after market details to liven it up.
I most definitely will be busy with these two kits. I am excited to get into the flow and relax a bit.

The Fruits of my Labor

After weeks of complaining about my lack of time to build, I am finished with my F3H-2N Demon. It was a pleasant build overall with few issues. A few gaps and ill fitting parts were the only setbacks. The decals for this kit were wonderful. A little on the thicker side, they went on quite well. They also react superb with decal set. Although I was disappointed with the lack of Emhar’s attention to detail, I am pleased with the end result. For the price, it stings a little to see what you get for your investment. For the ease of the build, it was worth it. Thank you to all of you who encouraged me through this one. It’s tough when there aren’t enough minutes in the day to get projects finished. With patience and determination, this Demon has a parking spot on my shelf and not half complete in it’s box.

The Final Push

I am very pleased with the recent progress of my Demon build. I have put some quality time in and I am enthused to report that it is awaiting the final stage of paint. Like I said before, I am disappointed in Emhar’s attempt at this kit. The lack of detail and some bad fitting parts made for some challenges. The openings for the wing roots were not wide enough which required some minor filing. On the plus side, there hasn’t been too much filling. The Airwaves photo-etched parts have added some much needed detail. I hope to be done by the weekend, but we’ll see about that. I am just glad that I finally found some time to make some progress.