Recent content by pinehilljoe

Did you buy an upgrade software? I'm thinking of of a Silhouette 5, the current model.

@talbot With your Portrait 4, do you use the Silhouette software? I'll send you a message for the repository info. What is your technique for creating the file for canopy masks? Painting vs using the year old decals could bring a lot of new life to the old kits.

Has anyone tried making their own masking? I've been test driving Cricut and Silhouette software before buying a machine, and like Silhouette more. My thought is for older kits like Monogram, it would maybe be better than trying to use the 40 to 50 year old decals and over time lower cost...

Well done! Painting figures separates the artists from the rest us hobbyists.

Is that the old Fujimi kit? I built that in the late 70's.

have you seen anyone convert a wing tank to a cargo carrier for luggage?

Unmasking day for a Monogram SBD. I tried I bought a nice high end office chair a few months ago from FB Market Place. The owner of a local engineering firm was retiring and liquidating the office furniture. I think I paid $10. Deals are out there for nice chairs.

Once the jet engine became reliable, why continue piston engine refinement? The jet allows an order of magnitude more air into the engine; the IC engine air intake and therefore power, is limited by the size of the cylinders and stroke volume; and the jet produces power with essentially one...

Unmasking day for a Monogram SBD. I tried Javlin's tip of using aluminum foil when masking. The canopy was masked with Vallejo liquid mask, I need to clean up the canopy and touch up the ribs. The model is built out of the box, except I didnt use the bomb release level. I'm using the kit to...

Agreed. Adm King thought 29.5Kts the minimum for carrier operations to provide adequate wind over the deck. Wasp was a compromise to achieve the 29.5 on available treaty tonnage. Another interesting note, the Yorktowns were designed to make 30 kts in reverse, to allow deck operations if the...

Try Norman Friedman's U.S. Aircraft Carriers: An Illustrated Design History. He spends time writing about the trades in the 20's and 30's for US carrier design, size, speed. Wasp was considered a marginal design by Adm King, who was chief of BuAer in the late 30's, due to her low speed...

I had to look up Dusty Kleiss, from Wikipedia: "Kleiss was the only pilot to score three direct hits with a dive bomber plane during the Battle of Midway. For his participation in the battle, Kleiss received the Navy Cross in November 1942." First among equals.

are you using the foil as masking material? I never thought of that, aluminum foil can be contoured and its less expensive than blue tape.

Does a plane like a P-38 consume fuel on the return flight at the same rate as the outbound and combat? Is the lighter load from consuming 300 to 400 gallons of fuel in the noise with respect to fuel consumption?

The older movie with Steve McQueen was "The Great Escape" the new movie with Michael Caine is "The Great Escaper"