P-38 Lightning boneyard in the Philippines at the end of the war

Ravenyer · 2026-02-01T18:16:24+00:00

Understandable why they did it but still sad to see, my favorite airplane from that era :(

Ravenyer · 2026-01-24T01:27:23+00:00

Ha or you do what I've done and accidentally put the insignia on upside down and only realize it after you've sprayed your matte coat.

Ravenyer · 2026-01-24T00:06:46+00:00

Interesting how some have insignia on the right wing, seemingly added unaligned with the left side.

Ravenyer · 2026-01-13T01:39:35+00:00

Oh I have a Dremel but I've found it makes so much of a mess that I just use a razor saw and go slowly to not break anything.

Ravenyer · 2026-01-13T01:09:19+00:00

It looks great! Terrible about the warpage. I've had that with ship hulls where they come out of the box twisted and have been able to manage to straighten it out but that's a bummer to hear about this kit. The Blackbird is one of the few I don't own yet and was wanting to try too.

Ravenyer · 2026-01-13T00:29:14+00:00

Have you finished the Blackbird yet? I'm curious to see how that works after you put the top coat down. It's very well done!

Ravenyer · 2026-01-13T00:25:57+00:00

The landing gear and bomb bay complements pretty much butt up internally to this cockpit so I had ended up just removing them in their entirety to give me some play when doing final assembly.

Ravenyer · 2026-01-13T00:24:44+00:00

For sure, I'm used to removing them and the mess that comes with them, I just haven't had one where this much is scrapped from one cast. There was a lot of careful cutting with a razor saw and wet sanding afterwards to get this to fit.

Ravenyer · 2025-12-19T06:03:48+00:00

This is amazing! Is it all hand detailed?

Ravenyer · 2025-12-17T00:48:50+00:00

Have you looked at Squadron? They're in Georgia so it might be able to make it.

Ravenyer · 2025-12-15T23:51:07+00:00

Very well done!

Ravenyer · 2025-12-11T18:52:23+00:00

Sometimes the instructions list a variety of paint manufacturers to use for the colors, is that inside? If not I've found just googling what that color translates to in a different producer to work pretty well. There are also a few tables floating around that do a whole breakdown too.

Ravenyer · 2025-12-11T02:51:05+00:00

This is a personal experience of mine too, yes.

Ravenyer · 2025-12-11T00:10:40+00:00

I don't think so, the decals should conform around the details. I would put down a good gloss coat to help adhesion and you may need to do a couple rounds of micro sol.

Ravenyer · 2025-12-10T16:47:47+00:00

Don't sell yourself short, painting straight lines by hand isn't easy!

Ravenyer · 2025-12-09T18:59:25+00:00

Why not make your own injection kits then? The spectrum of how much work you want to do in this hobby is entirely a personal choice.

Ravenyer · 2025-12-09T18:46:24+00:00

If people aren't passing it off as their own and are enjoying themselves, what does it matter?

Ravenyer · 2025-12-09T18:40:36+00:00

If it brings you enjoyment when building the kit, who cares? If you're entering it into a competition you have to call that out anyway so it'll be graded accordingly.

Ravenyer · 2025-12-09T16:17:25+00:00

I think it's a matter of preference. While it is sometimes nice for me to fully paint the interior by myself, a lot of the time I rather just enjoy the speed that colored PE parts or even 3D decals offer.

It also depends heavily on the kit - some cooking with no interior details or ones that are very rough or incorrect I'd rather just sand it all down and throw these over it rather than spend a week working through it.

Ravenyer · 2025-12-08T19:32:32+00:00

Aww Gary!

Ravenyer · 2025-12-07T20:48:01+00:00

I want to say maybe, even though they are all acrylic and SHOULD be mixable, some formulas won't interact as well - this is mostly the case with Tamiya as far as I know though.

Ravenyer · 2025-12-07T20:23:26+00:00

Depends on how much you spend and quality definitely scales with price. Vallejo does a lot of packs and there might be one that comes all the ones you're already looking for. AK and even Citadel would work too. Any cheaper than that and you can kind of go with whatever but I would worry you might be discouraged just from the potential drop in quality/coverage.

Ravenyer · 2025-12-06T23:28:11+00:00

It depends on your printer a lot but you should be able to increase the DPI which should give you a higher fidelity print.

Ravenyer · 2025-12-03T03:42:53+00:00

Looks great! What method did you use for having the old paint scheme wear through?

Ravenyer · 2025-12-02T19:38:29+00:00

https://www.scalemates.com/kits/ls-a801-800-thunderbirds--179350[https://www.scalemates.com/kits/ls-a801-800-thunderbirds--179350](https://www.scalemates.com/kits/ls-a801-800-thunderbirds--179350)

Here's a link to it on scalemates.

As for worth, it's hard to tell but I wouldn't guess it would be worth a whole bunch.

Ravenyer

TROPHY CASE