SPA Modeler

This was the third 1/48 model plane I built after returning to the hobby in 1988. I'm sure I bought it at our Winn's department store (nickel store) here in Cameron. I had to make a replacement pitot and tried to copy a photo I'd seen in those pre-internet days. It has an openable canopy and I forgot to get a pic of that at the airport. It's painted with Humbrol or ModelMaster enamel with the Paasche H.

I had never taken a single photo of this one and always considered it at best, a "place-holder" until I built something newer and hopefully better. I decided to rectify that and see what kinda pics she made in a proper setting. At the airport for the Tigercit pics,, I reached across the truck seat and snapped the pitot tube clean off. I did finally manage to glue it back together and on, it developed a severe droop, so please overlook that detraction.

Nice looking build!

Nice Viper! How do you create the dark grey curve separate from the lighter grey? What’s your secret?

Looks like a good entry back into the hobby. The scary thing is that F-16As were in first line service when you built this in 1988!

Nice job. Those old Monogram kits were great.
I do those sorts of soft edge camo's with Elmers orange tack.

Beautiful build Gary !



But where on earth have you kept this bird for all those 33 years? It really looks like it was just finished "yesterday" !
No dust, no broken gears, antennas or missing canopys!


- Kari

Great build Gary. And still looking good after 33 years

LyleW wrote:Nice looking build!

Thanks you Lyle!

BlackSheep214 wrote:Nice Viper! How do you create the dark grey curve separate from the lighter grey? What’s your secret?

Thanks Tom! I did that freehand with my airbrush. I think I remember drawing the curve line with a faint pencil line and then spraying up to and just over it. If I recall correctly, the biggest worry was trying to keep the curve symmetrical, and that I approached the process with a lot of trepidation!

Stikpusher wrote:Looks like a good entry back into the hobby. The scary thing is that F-16As were in first line service when you built this in 1988!

Thanks Carlos! There have been a lot of changes since 1988, eh what? This Fighting Falcon looks almost like a different aircraft compared to the latest versions of this airframe. Simpler and sleek she was back then.

keavdog wrote:Nice job. Those old Monogram kits were great.
I do those sorts of soft edge camo's with Elmers orange tack.

Thank you John! I've used your method as well, seen here on my Tamiya Wildcat:


And on that same build, I used cardstock masks to create the demarcation line. I curved then previously to fit the shape of the fuselage.



the resulting line:

KSaarni wrote:Beautiful build Gary !



But where on earth have you kept this bird for all those 33 years? It really looks like it was just finished "yesterday" !
No dust, no broken gears, antennas or missing canopys!


- Kari

Thank you so much Kari! I guess she has held up pretty well over the years. It's remarkable tat I hadn't broken the pitot in all that time until, ironically, her "big day" before the camera. It has been in a display cabinet since late 1990, early '91.

See it on the upper left, top shelf?

tempestjohnny wrote:Great build Gary. And still looking good after 33 years

Many thanks Johnny! I wish I had changed as little as this model has since 1988!

Indeed, quite ironic with the pitot tube!
And oh yes, I see it there... but I see a lot of other nice builds all over there as well !

- Kari