SPA Modeler

Thanks guys! Appreciate the comments. I've just ordered 3-D printed wheel wells from a company called Mini Craft Collection. One of the reasons for the long delay on this project was my reluctance of adding wiring to the wheel wells.

Proud Marine Dad wrote: ↑Fri Jul 19, 2024 10:14 pm Beautiful work John.
I too am going to start airbrushing some lures when I retire in 4 years as beautiful Norris Lake in east Tennessee is visible from our retirement home front porch and the launch ramp is about 1/4 mile away.
Sold my 19' Champion bass boat several years ago and plan on buying a used Ranger when I get there.

Alright! Great to have another angler here at the forum. Your plan sounds like one of my retirement dreams. I'll probably be retiring in about 4-6 years myself and relocation to a place with lake access is definitely being considered. Just got back from my first bass trip of the season at my favorite lake, Barrett Lake in San Diego. Caught about 25 bass, nothing huge but most were nice, healthy 2-4 pounders. Plus an aggressive bullfrog. Still working on the youtube video.

Nice little piggies. In my area, we have some big piggies at a small lake up in Richfield Springs. Not sure if I have oics on my phone. The Adirondacks is another good one to head out to.

These are from 2019 and 2020. My son, Matthew with a couple largemouths from Young Lake just outside of Richfield Springs.






Me.. same lake.

Right on, Tom! Nice bass! I'm guessing your big piggies are about the same size as my little piggies... 2-4 pound range from the looks of it. Barrett Lake is strictly Northern Strain largemouth, not Florida, so they don't get to world record size. I've seen a 10 pounder and my personal best there is 7 lbs. A couple of 5-6 pounders for reference...



The Mini Craft Collection wheel bays are enroute so I'm filling my time doing other things. I tested a few paints for the exterior colors. AK Real Colors Insignia White FS17875 (RC222) for the bottom and two candidates for the Gull Grey on top: Mr Color Gray FS36231 (C-317) and Mr Hobby Aqueous Light Gull Grey (H-51).


I've also sanded down the molding ridge along the middle top of the clear canopy. The lightning arrestors are molded on the inside of the canopy and still remain.

Before...


After initial sanding...


After polishing...


And finally, a look at the D&W nose gear strut after painting.

Oh my those gear look beautiful!

Wow those gear legs look fantastic. Tom I just read a story the New York record largemouth was just caught in Lake Oneida. 12+ pounds

Thanks guys! The D&W legs are really something else. I think Reskit makes similar legs for the F-14A as well.

tempestjohnny wrote: ↑Wed Jul 24, 2024 3:15 am Wow those gear legs look fantastic. Tom I just read a story the New York record largemouth was just caught in Lake Oneida. 12+ pounds

12# is a definitely a big piggy! My friend got a lake record in San Diego County and it was 12 pounds 8 ounces.


My wheel wells shipped from CZ and just departed Belgium. Hopefully, no more stops before the package hits the US.

The D&W wheel have been painted. Here are the white hubs...


The hubs posed on the painted tires.



To make this model easier to transport, I've decided to make the ordnance removable using tiny magnets. These are the racks for the external drop tanks.


In this case, I want the drop tanks to be removable at the fuselage surface. A pair of 2mm magnets were placed in holes drilled into the engine intake fairings..


A pair of matching magnets were set into the drop tank pylons. You have to be careful with the orientation of the magnets because they will repel each other if put in the wrong way.


Once the magnets are fitted and verified to work, they are covered up with CA glue, putty and finally a primer coat.


I want the AIM-54A missiles to be removable at the rack and I want them to be interchangeable so I took some extra care to get all of the magnets in the same position and orientation.


The drop tank racks and the Phoenix missiles lock into place with a satisfying CLICK!

I love this idea of using magnets. Not because I'm going to re-arm my models for different missions but sometimes attaching ordinance can be frustrating. Can you tell me the source of your magnets?

Thanks guys! I've purchased my magnets from both Amazon and EBay. The smallest ones (1.6mm and 2mm), which I used for the drop tank and Phoenix missiles, were from EBay. Just search "neodymium magnets".

Just to show that the magnets can hold the weight of the AIM-54A and drop tank...



The wing pylons are mounted an extreme angle, which might make magnets trickier to install. I'll have to let the glue dry before I play with these further.


The jet intake fans have been painted.


Filling the seams of the ducts is a little tricky but do-able.


The magnets that I mounted in the engine intake nacelles stick up ever so slightly on the inside.


But they didn't seem to interfere with the fit of the intake ducts.



It's been a few years since I last looked at the exhaust nozzles.


The Eduard resin trunks are deeper and offer much more detail but it'll be difficult if not impossible to make out this detail.


There are some very delicate photoetch parts that enhance the resin cans.


Assembly looks very fiddly, especially folding part PE4 and trying to glue it onto PE1.


I want to keep these parts completely flat so I use a small sheet of glass to work on.


The inner rings fit without too much drama. The tabs need to shortened considerably to clear the circumference of the exhaust tubes but once you do that, they fall into place pretty easily. Eduard even provides little slots for the tabs to fit into.



I decided to paint these cans before installing any of the PE. Alclad Steel was used.


Once the PE parts are set, they were glued down with thin CA glue. The interior of the can was then misted with a layer of Alclad Dark Aluminum.


The fiddly PE4 was next. PE1 was kept on the fret to help keep it straight and flat during fitting and gluing of the PE4. Once the general orientation was established, I glued the part down one leg at a time.


Mounting the completed part without bending doesn't look right nor does it fit correctly.


I'm not sure this is correct but bending the appendages like I have on the right allows it to fit better.


These parts were also painted with Alclad Dark Aluminum. Once dry, I'll fit them into the exhaust cans.

That PE would never work for me, very nice!