A-7E Corsair II (Photo Update)

Here is a new photo of the A-7E Corsair II which was taken with a Canadian 1 Cent Penny to display the scale of the aircraft.

EA-6B Prowler

While working on the six A-6E Intruders I added the pair of EA-6B Prowlers to my assembly line since they are very similar with exception to there final details. Notice that the word "MARINES" is displayed instead of "NAVY", I made this remark while examining real photos of the EA-6B aboard the Midway.

My Photo

I work for Cardinal Health (Pyxis) and today we had a photo session organized for all employees interested in having there picture taken with there favorite hobby, interest or passion. Obviously I brought some scale models/supplies to the office and had the following photo taken of me working on my Tamiya 1/35 German 6x4 Truck Krupp Protze.

A-7E Corsair II

I have completed the first set of aircraft the A-7E Coraisr II, eight down, eighteen more aircraft to go! The aircraft look large in the photos but they are barely an inch long.

Here you can see the full squadron.
Added US insignias, Navy writing, drilled out the tail pipe.

Notice the refueling rod added to the side near the cockpit

Display Case

Today I purchased a glass display case to protect my scale models from dust while displayng them for all to view in my home office. I got it on special at a new store that opened up near my house called JYSK for $66 cdn (normally selling for $100 cdn).

Starfighter Decals!

Today I received the Starfighter Decals I ordered and I must say that they are much better then the decals supplied with the ARII kit. The scale looks more appropriate and the "NAVY" wording decals are outstanding! I can't wait to apply them which should be very soon since I have pretty much completed the A-7 Corsair II's.

USAF National Insignia

While finishing up the A-7 Corsair II's I quickly realized that the number of Insignias that came with the scale model are not enough for the number of aircraft I am to display aboard the Midway. Having 26 aircraft that requires four insignia each for a total of 104, unfortunately the decal sheet provided by ARII only supplied 68. I am guessing that ARII assumed that not all the aircraft would be used or that the insignia would not be placed under the wings...

So with a bit of searching on line I found the web site www.starfighter-decals.com who sell a nice decal sheet with 432 USAF insignias as well as 245 decals worded "NAVY" as an added bonus. With shipping to Canada only $7 USD, that's a hard bargain to beat!

Midway Air Wings & Squadrons

There is a wide variety of aircraft included with this kit (some of which never actually flew off of the U.S.S. Midway) and after some research I have narrowed it down to the following aircraft to be displayed based on a 1986 model of the Midway (pre EISRA-86):

• F-4S Phantom
• A-7E Corsair II
  
• A-6E Intruder
• E-2C Hawkeye
• EA-6B Prowler
• SH-3H Sea King

Below is a screen shot of the different airwings to be used with the excess plastic removed and stabilizers fins glued, next stop the paint shop!

Let There be Light! (in the hangar)

I received in the mail today the electroluminescent strip lamp I ordered on eBay. I had to make a quick test to see how it would look and and am very happy with the results (much better then the LED's). There is a slight blue tint to the light but the advantages of the electroluminescent strip lamp outweigh this detail. Notice that we can even see details such as the hangar door decals inside the ship clearly, I am anxious to complete detailing the inside and add aircraft.

Paint it Red

After masking the hull hangar deck I took out my airbrush today and painted the hull for the second time. Why the second time, well the week before during my vacation I painted the hull Tamiya flat red (XF-7) and it looked like red primer (hideous, although probably more realistic to the real thing). So I sprayed the hull with white primer and resprayed it with Tamiya red (X-1), this time round I am pleased with the results.