Monday, March 30, 2015

WWII Modeling Day at the Flying Heritage Collection


On Saturday, my local model club, the Northwest Scale Modelers, hosted the first of what we hope will be quarterly modeling displays at the Flying Heritage Collection.  Each modeler gets a table to build on and to display a few models.  We spend the day BSing with each other and talking to the museum patrons.  It is a nice way to spread the word about scale modeling and I even got some progress made on an Academy P-40N.

My workspace for the day.  Yep, it is a rough life...


The nose of Lancaster Mk. I (FE) TW911 makes a nice display. This Lanc was built for the Tiger Force but carries the more common night bomber scheme.


One of the newest displays at the Museum is a Scud missile on its launcher.




The Spitfire had the engine off for some winter maintenance.

Wednesday, March 25, 2015

Vought XF8U-1 Crusader Unveiling



Today I had the pleasure of attending the Vought XF8U-1 Crusader (Bu.No.138899) unveiling at the Museum of Flight restoration center. Sixty years to the day that the prototype XF8U took to the air for the first time with John Konrad at the controls, the Museum took the wraps off the same aircraft which had been under restoration for decades. The Crusader exceeded Mach 1 on its maiden flight and it still looks speedy to this day. Originally, the Museum had requested the loan of the Sageburner F-4A Phantom II, but instead the XF8U was offered. The Crusader was on display at the Museum for a short while and then sat in storage until restoration work commenced in 1996.



The covers come off...


The restoration team.


F-8 pilots, the restoration crew, and one of the aircraft's designers.






Monday, March 2, 2015

Shiny!


Some progress has been made on the Airfix Mustang 4.  The natural metal finish has been simulated with Mr. Color H8 Silver.  I was pleasantly surprised, as it turned out a little shinier than expected.