really little Phantoms

[wendovertom]

OK - I am very impressed by the Swamp Turkey diorama, so here is my meager first attempt at 1/350 scale - boy painting these little monsters is tough! Anyway - a VF-111 and VF-142 CAG pair.



Tom P.

[Warbird Kid]

Very Cool Tom! Glad you liked my "Little Turkey". I believe 1/350th scale as an aircraft scale will see some expansion in the coming years. Even if its just the addition of P-47s and P-40s maybe. In the meantime I've been working on a Corsair... dam.n those wings are hard to keep up!

[The Inspector]

Ready to give 1/700th scale a shot? Those do look good an interesting project to tackle

[Scott Rose]

I would suggest photographing them with a coin to get a sense of scale.

[tom d. friedman]

you have a steady hand & a sharp eye!! excellent work!! just don't drink to much coffee!!

[wendovertom]

Ugh - these phots are lousy but here is the rest of the CAG group!




Tom P.

[Warbird Kid]

Cool!

[Scott Rose]

Wow!! Now that really gives a sense of scale and a good measurement of your insanity good job

[wendovertom]

Hopefully these are a little better - the E-2 (VAW-120) will not sit down on its nose - even with weight added I lost the decals so that just really irks me because they don't feel complete but alas. I also need to finish the wheels on the VAQ-140 Prowler.






Tom P.

[sandiego89]

Hopefully these are a little better - the E-2 (VAW-120) will not sit down on its nose - even with weight added .

Tom as a 1/700 and 1/350 modeller I often have tailsitters. Clear plastic is a solution. I just did a A-3 Skywarrior that would not sit down on its nose gear. I cut a small trench in the underside of the belly with a dremmel cutting rotary tool, then cut a piece of clear plastic from a discarded package, think it was from a tv remote I bought, but any clear, solid, plastic will work- like a package of strawberries. Thinner the better, but not so thin it is flimsy

Cut the trench with a tool, I use a very thin dremmel cut off whell. Trench is parallel with the fuselage. Then with scissors cut a very small strip of plastic about one inch long and 1/16 inch wide or less. Use crazy glue, put a small drop on one tip of the strip and glue it into the trench or hole on the bottom of the aircraft a little aft of the main wheels. Or you can try to glue it directly to the underside of the fuselage, but I find the trench gives anoter surface for the glue to stick. Hold the clear plastic straight down until it dries, you now have a super long 4th landing gear. Why so long? So you can position it and don't crazy glue the clear strip to your finger tips (experince here). It should be dry in 30 seconds. The other reason you want it long is so you can cut it to size. Eyeball the line where you need to cut and cut with scissors. You now have a 4th gear "kick stand" that pushes the nose down. Usually you can go position this kick stand just behind the main gear and it is pretty un-noticable. Belly kick stand is also better for carrier dioramas so you can postition the tail over the side of the carrier. On a Hawkeye this kick stand will be easy to hide under the tail or belly.

Give it a shot.

[wendovertom]

Sweet! I'll give it a try - this particular plane already has a "trench" cut down the centerline so it should be perfect to try this on.

Tom P.

[mazdaP5]

That's a great tip.

[sandiego89]

Some pictures to help. This is 1/700 scale, but works in 1/350 as well- even easier.

Cut the trench in the belly of my Skywarrior, Like you said many 1/350 planes already have the trench.



Glued the long "kick stand" in place. I angled the light to get some glare on the clear piece. It is usually not noticeable.



Cut the kick stand down, and place on deck. No more tail-sitter!



On deck on a "what if" post war USS SARATOGA (CV-3). 1/700 scale. Skywarrior on the fantail. This one was actually with a much wider kickstand. I redid a better kickstand for the above 3 shots.

[wendovertom]

Wow - now that is a awesome job on the carrier!

Tom P.

[sandiego89]

Wow - now that is a awesome job on the carrier!

Tom P.

Thank you Tom, full thread with the build and more pictures on the what if modelers site at: http://www.whatifmodelers.com/index.php ... 145.0.html