SPA Modeler

You got it, Duke. I’ll be there in August—barring force majore or a call from Spielberg.



Good luck with your projects today. You write candidly and that’s appreciated. One important real world learning element for me was when John Kim sent me a P47 belly tank—he wrote in his note that he prepared the parts for assembly. And I’ll tell ya, he truly did. No seams or raised lines, just pure plastic parts made as though they never were part of a tree of sprues. Now, maybe seventy percent of that smoothness goes to Tamiya, but the other thirty reside in the hands of the Modeler.

The second important real work advice I received was from Mustang Joe who said it was more than okay to spend a week smooth sanding a paint finish. I just trusted him like I do you and Carlos and John. I have seen your results but more important I have read your narratives and know how you fellas work.

The third important real work advice just happens to be your words about why you model. Not for fortune or glory but for the personal experience of creation. Wise words, my friend. Thank you.

I notice that it looks as though your F 102A is set up with flaps. Delta wing aircraft do not, and can not, have flaps. If you lower the flaps on a delta wing aircraft it will try to raise the rear of the wing and compress the landing gear. Deltas have full span elevons and take off is accomplished by raising the elevons which lifts the nose and creates a high angle of attack which creates enough lift for take off. I've seen numerous 102 kits that have flaps and apparently they never looked at a picture of a real F 102. Here is a shot of one of the 102's I used to work on in Holland. As you can see the elevons are drooped and full span. I'm not trying to be critical but in the interest of realism I thought I should let you know about this.




Here is a shot of an Encore 102 I built a few years ago. It came with flaps and I had to glue them into one piece.

Bruce, thank you. I do appreciate the compliments very much. You honor me more than I deserve.

Those are excellent lessons that I will also do my best to follow.


Thanks wjkunert for the information on the F-102. I had glued everything as straight as possible because I knew it didn't have the flaps. In reviewing the pic in question, I believe you might be mistaking the masking tape for flaps. No worries, I know I did when I first went back and looked at it. That's quite all right, I appreciate this kind of information and oversight by my friends and fellow modelers so keep it coming. I do hope to get more painting done on that model so I can move forward.


Stay tuned folks, more to come!

Here's just a small update on some of the models I have been trying to finish.

First up is my P-40. I shot a Neutral Grey coat on the bottom:



Afterward I shot a gloss coat on this and them added the decals. I later re-coated this with another gloss:





It's getting closer....


Next I decided to paint the interior of the Ludwig Areo bus to get it ready for final assembly:



That one chair is still crooked. Note to self: Fix it.....

While decaling the P-40, I also added the decals to the Sherman mineroller tank:






And finally, I did some more of the detail pieces on the Russian Aircraft Carrier Baku:






And now a couple of these are finished. Feel free to check them out in the armor and ships sections. Thanks for looking in, comments are welcome.

Until I saw your last paragraph, I was gonna say you’re behind on your updates. Two of those I saw finished on Friday nite. And I have to say again how good the carrier looked up close.

Congratulations, Godfather!

Thanks Carlos. I did want to have that posted before the meeting, but ran out of time. Still, I felt I had to show the last little bits before these were shown done.


Thanks Bruce! Carlos is the true Godfather ... of the Monogram Mafia. But, I'll take it!

Well spoken my friend!