B1-B

Donald Dickson II
So a little work started. The crew ladder (not shown) built. Started on the front wheel well.

To illustrate the size of this thing, the table you see it laid out on is at least a 6 foot long work bench. I am staging the parts there and bringing them over to my main work bench as I need them. Going to have to use the bench it is spread out on once I get to the fuselage portion.

Donald Dickson II
Alright, got the cockpit done. I am gathering that the original release the hatch above the rear seats was not open. I was told by a couple people who did it that they had to cut it open so you could see the stuff in there. Being me, I took their word and proceeded to do the cockpit detail with the idea that you wouldnt see it anyway. Well shit. Guess what? On this one the hatch is open and you can see everything just fine. So no detail on the back wall, but ah well. I still think it looks good.

The problem with these ridiculously huge kits is the ridiculously huge parts almost always dont mate well. I started at the front and used Tamiya extra thin and rubber bands. Then I worked my way back combining super glue on parts and the extra thin on the rest. I got it lined up well enough that the seam work wont be bad I think.

Spanjaard
this is going to be a really big mother f....... i hope it fits well!

Donald Dickson II
Yeah, its gonna be huge. Not sure where the hell I am putting it. LOL I will figure that out when I am done.

Spanjaard
hang it from the ceiling..... 😉

Donald Dickson II
The crew ladder is down and the landing gear will be as well. And likely going to do the nose open. Which I have never done before. So hanging wont work on this one I think.

Michael Phillips
Ah, count me in here! Love the Bone... I have one of these in the stash I will tackle some day, it will be a "focus" build for me much like my recent Flanker was. I have a few kits like that in my stash that I want to become the jewels of my collection, and the B-1 is one of them!

I look forward to seeing your progress with this beast!

Donald Dickson II
I dont know that I am going to have that level of focus on this one. I love the kit and the plane, but not feeling that. We will see how it goes.

David Thor
Cockpit looks pretty neat. Nice start and I'm excited to see your further progress on this giant.

Bryn Crandell
Definitely going to pull up the recliner and crack a beer. This is going to be a huge project!

Donald Dickson II
I can not convey just how pissed off and disheartened I am right now. I got the resin intakes from Barracuda Studios. I had heard nothing but great things about how good they look. And they do. Definitely better than kit intakes. So I set about doing these as the instructions said they dont match the kit nacelles. That the nacelles will have to be built up and the recommend miliput. So i figure there will be some work, but no biggy. Yeah, I was wrong. Look at the pic. What in the ever loving FLIPPING HELL am I supposed to do with that? I may as well scratch build a whole God damned nacelle. It doesnt match in any way shape or form.

So that was a waste of money. Perhaps I will be able to get the FOD covers shaped to work on the kit intakes.

David Thor
Pretty annoying and a good reason to send them back. Only in the scalemodelling industry, you could sell a product that is of no use to the customer unless he puts in extra money and work and craftmanship. Because people tend to work around it and get a sense of accomplishment out of it, instead of complaining. That beeing said, i think it might be possible with miliput but it would mean alot of extra work.

Wim van der Luijt
That is one serious fit issue....I would be pissed too

Martin Oostrom
Nonetheless I will follow this one

Michael Hickey
Nice start on the pit, I bought everything Barracuda Studios did for the 1/48 B-ONE, except the intakes. You could try building up the difference with sheet plastic, then blend it over with Milliput in a thinner layer. That way your not going to get a lot of shrinkage from the putty and it will dry better. Your making me want to get back into mine, but resist, resist I must. At least until my next 3 or 4 projects are complete.

Donald Dickson II
I am quite sure it is possible to do. And I am sure there are guys out there with the extreme talent to do it and make it look like nothing was done. Thats not me. I am good, but not THAT good. I dont mind putting in a little extra work. But this is absolutely ridiculous. I will go with the kit intakes and be happy with that

Spanjaard
We are in a business were companies are happy to sell solvent with a few drops of paint, call it "wash for xyz" and sell it more expensive than if the jar were full of high quality paint. A market where expensive after market sets, do not even fit in the models they "made for".... If we do not protest, I do not know what will be next....
Complain, ask your money back. And if they do not, add reviews of this crappy product in all Modeling sites that you can find.

Donald Dickson II
Oh, i am going to post this elsewhere for sure.

Michael Hickey
I avoid buying these pre bottled washes and pigment powders, I prefer to mix my own washes. Sure it might take me a couple of minutes to set up on a clean piece of glass that I mix on, but the money I save can then go towards buying kits. As for pigment it's amazing how long a piece of artist chalk grounded up and put into a small container lasts for. I bought my artist chalks over 20 years ago, and I'm still using the same sticks.

Spanjaard
Well done Michael, good idea

Donald Dickson II
I have all the above. And use all the above. LOL Depends on what I want it to look like as to what I use.

Donald Dickson II
So evidently my posting this complaint on FB ruffled some feathers. To be exact, it pissed some people off. So, it seems that the solution is to remove 1/4" or so of the front of the nacelle and it will match up much better. Something that would have been REALLY helpful in the instructions. Not me having to go asking all over or posting stuff and having people get all bent with me. LOL

Donald Dickson II
To be completely fair, the owner of Barracuda responded on the FB thread and the email. Here is the FB exchange:

Barracuda: Hi Donald. Wish you had given me time to answer your email before talking it public, but it's fine. Yes, this set is NOT a drop fit. Its a builder's set. It corrects a huge accuracy problem with the kit. I'm sorry if that was not conveyed to you. You can either keep the set and do the necessary conversion work as outlined in the article, or I will refund your money. You can keep the set. No need to return it.

Barracuda Studios stands behind its products 100%, and we have an excellent reputation in the business. We are coming up on our tenth anniversary. You don't last that long by not taking care of your customers. Let me know what we can do for you.

Me: I said, across the board, that I understand things like this are not always plug and play. I do get that. However, there IS a vast difference there. I also understand that difference is due to the actual differences between the A and B intakes. That being said...

The instructions provided with your set simply say to build up the nacelles with miliput. Sitting there looking at the parts in front of me, and that for instructions, I was a good bit miffed.

Contrary to what several have said in this thread, every modeler out there is NOT going to just look at this and immediately determine that you need to actually cut a certain amount of the nacelle off. And the guy in the review I saw even missed what the notch in the top is for ( he labels it as a mystery notch) and shows a straight cut across the nacelle.

Clear instructions on that would be a big help. Hell, even a single picture showing your part with the cut kit part would make things a lot clearer.

No need to refund the money, though I appreciate the offer. And I do truly appreciate your response here.

Barracuda: Hi Don. No, you are right. It's something I've meant to address for a while, but I am like a one armed paper hanger. I have about 60 projects in the works at any one time, and all products have to go through me to make it in to production. The posting of the article was supposed to be a stopgap measure til I could get around to revising the instructions. My bad! Thanks for understanding. We really do care a about our customers!

So there ya go. I bitched. He responded in a helpful manner. And a solution was pointed out to me that I had failed to see.

Clifford Keesler
The pit looks nice. I used all of the Barracuda stuff, except the intakes on mine. She has a whole shelf to herself. LOL.

Michael Hickey
Well done Donald, one for the little guy.👍 Hopefully he'll get those instructions rectified before any one else has an issue.

Donald Dickson II
Cliff, thank you. 🙂 Yes, I have determined that I am going to have to hang another shelf for her. A rather deep one. LOL

Michael, he was very responsive and helpful and polite in his responses to me. I do understand being the only guy in charge and how busy that means he is. And he did acknowledge the issue. I know a number of people commented on the threads that they had the intakes as well and that they were glad to find this stuff out. AND they also got good directions. So it helped out all involved. Plus I got to identify a few more assholes and block them. LOL

Sooooooo, I have already started the cutting process. Now that I know how to proceed, it is not that bad.

Michael Hickey
Awesome, can't wait to see some pics.🙂

Konrad -
Hi Donald! It looks very amazing this really huge thing🙂. I'm following with interest! Great work so far! 👍

Wim van der Luijt
Glad that glitch has been worked out.....Looking forward to the rest of the build!

Spanjaard
you see, if you do not protest, you do not get any help 🙂 and actually, some people got also the same help. even a one man show, i think it does not justify not even including proper instructions. a simple picture of where to cut and how it looks once done, can make a hell of a difference 🙂 but at least they were correct and quickly responded. one for them, and for sure, one for you 🙂

Clifford Keesler
Glad you got it all squared away. Looking forward to the rest of the build.

Donald Dickson II
Havent been at the table a lot. But I have made progress with the intakes. As you can see, what needs to be done is a good 1/4" of the nacelle has to be removed. Then further surgery to get the sides to match up. Far from done, but getting there. Then the joy of the other end. Fitting the exhausts. Though supposedly not as much work to be done on those.

A number of people on FB questioned my abilities when I complained about the lack of instructions. Kind of gave me the motivation to really dig into this one that I was lacking before. LOL I will be getting on it this evening I believe. Hopefully totally finish up at least one intake.

Michael Hickey
Looking good Donald, don't let the knockers bring you down.👍

Augie
Nice work Don, nice to hear on the intakes too as I have a set to go on mine..

Donald Dickson II
Augie, they are perfect as far as accuracy goes. Just ignore what little is there for instructions. You can see how far back I took it when I cut the nacelles down. I think I could have gone a hair bit more, but really didnt want to push it.

Michael, thank you sir. 🙂

David Thor
The amount of filler reminds me of a project on my workbench. :\

Donald Dickson II
David, yeah, it is taking a good bit. But that is before I did total sanding.

Dave Flitton
Looking good so far!!

Clifford Keesler
Very nice progress Donald. I agree with Mikey, don't let the nay sayer's get you down.

Donald Dickson II
Thank you all for your kind words. 🙂

I got one intake almost completely done. Just a bit more sanding to do. I also started to prep the exhausts. On the A models, they had bumpy thingies (that is a true technical term LOL) just before the exhausts, while the B models do not. So off with the bumpy thingies as you can see in the one pic. And further work on the other intake not pictured. I am spending a lot of time waiting for putty/paint to set enough to work with. But thats why I am working on the Phantom.

Clifford Keesler
It is looking nice to me. Try building 3 at one time. LOL. I have to finish all 3 by Christmas.

Donald Dickson II
Yeah, you set yourself a hell of a goal there my friend. LOL

Clifford Keesler
Yea, I did but my son's will love them.

Donald Dickson II
OK. This has become very labor intensive. The intakes are done. Now I am working on the exhausts. You have to thin the inside walls of the nacelle. Well, I cant thin them a whole lot more, and you see it still spreads the halves apart.

David Thor
Good job on the intakes. Looking good.

Donald Dickson II
Thank you David. I worked on the exhausts last night. Tedious cutting all the actuator arms off the blocks and cleaning them up and then attaching them. Got 1 1/2 done. Finish up the rest tonight.

I have decided I will treat each section like a model in and of itself and complete them to the point of final paint job. If i have to ruin a bit of paint joining the sections, I can fix that. It will will be far easier that way i think.

Clifford Keesler
Good luck, I'm sure it will all be worth it in the end. I bet it will be beautiful.

Donald Dickson II
OK, so ignore the stuff about the exhausts. I had messed them up cutting them off the pour blocks. Thought I could fix them, but nope. Ordered new set. New set came and were totally warped. And one of the sprues of actuator arms was actually the 1/72 version. Emailed them. Got replacement parts a few days ago. Removed these MUCH more carefully. Back to removing those arms and gluing them on. 2 down. 2 to go. Then I can actually get to painting them and the nacelles and be done with that portion.

Donald Dickson II
Exhausts together painted and all that jazz.

Konrad -
Looking good man. So the stressful work pays off 🙂

David Thor
Looking great!

Spanjaard
Exhaust looking pretty convincing

Clifford Keesler
Looking great Donald.

Augie
Looking good Clifford 🙂

Gerald
👍

Dutch
Don great work so far. Did you use multiple tints on the exhaust exterior, because they look great! I've taken note and will be very careful removing mine from the block. Keep a going!

Oliver Zwiener
Heavy work - respect !

Donald Dickson II
Thank you all folks. 🙂

Dutch, yes I did. On the exterior I did stainless steel. Then highlighted with burnt iron and a light misting of pale burnt metal. All Alclad. Interior is Stainless then every other groove I did white. Then hit it with Tamiya black wash. Then fans are stainless with the black wash. Left the center parts of the prongs alone as they are bright in the pics I have seen. The can part is white with the black was and streaks of jet exhaust. Hard to really see all that in the pics. LOL

As for taking them off the blocks. Just be slow and stay towards the block. There is a little tit on each one. That will give you and idea how far away you should stay from the actual exhaust. Once the are free, you will need to go back and sand the lip down. You will see what I mean. I may do a video with the jacked up ones.

Donald Dickson II
OK, the engines are finally done. I procrastinated with them, but I got them done. LOL Now for more tediousness. The bombs. Anyone know what color they should be??? They look light gray or white in the cover pic.

Donald Dickson II
Never mind. Found a good pic finally. LOL

Clifford Keesler
Looking awesome Donald. I finally started my 1/32 F-104G.

Scott Hastings
Cool build

Donald Dickson II
Clifford, do you have it posted? And thank you.

Scott, thank you as well.

Donald Dickson II
Forgot the intake end pic. LOL

Michael Phillips
Those engine nacelles look great man, well done!

Donald Dickson II
Michael, thank you sir! They were a royal pain. LOL

David Thor
Great job on the nacelles! They turned out great after all the fuss.

Dutch
Don, where'd you get or how did you make the intake plugs? Yes, great job on the intakes!

Stephan Ryll
looking really good Donald 👍

Donald Dickson II
Thank you guys! 🙂

Dutch, they came with the intakes. Since you have to cut away part of the kit nacelle, you can not use the intake trunking from the kit. So they nicely provide a really good set of FOD covers. Otherwise you would just see the inside of the nacelles with nothing else there.

Dutch
Ah so! I just checked my 1:72 Barracuda set and it includes the complete forward half of the nacelle with trunking and engine turbine faces, but no intake plugs! So, I guess I will build it that way. But I like, scratch that! I love your intake plugs. They look really authentic!

Donald Dickson II
Yeah, they did the 1/72 set a bit different. If you end up breaking the actuator arms too much, I have an extra sprue of them that were packed in my 1/48 set for some reason. They really did a great job on everything looks wise. And they fit perfectly in the intakes. Probably could have put them in with no glue. But with my luck one would fall out and disappear.

Scott Hastings
Intake plugs look amazing, so realistic. If I may toss in a pitch..I am hosting a bomber build on ISM if anyone interested May1-Aug31 lots of prizes!!!
intscalemodeller.com..php?f=52&t=24016 come join us

Clifford Keesler
Donald, yes the F-104G is posted. First W>I>P> pictures should be up tomorrow.

Clifford Keesler
By the way the "Bone is looking awesome.

Donald Dickson II
After messing with the bombs for a while, I am highly not happy with them. They really are NOT good representations of anything I can find reference for. So I decided to do it with the bomb bays closed. I am putting this on hold in order to concentrate on my 1/32 F-18 for a show coming up on 21st April.

Donald Dickson II
OK, so I have been working on this a bit since the C-17 got done. Got the SAC metal landing gears together and the wheel well installed. Wings and tail parts together. Cut the areas out where the nav lights go. Making them out of Krystal Kleer. Figured that would look a lot better than just red and green plastic. Tail parts primed.

Donald Dickson II
Yeah, I thought they might be OK, but totally were NOT. I have already invested more time and money into this than I wanted to, so I didnt bother trying to find something better.

Nathan Dempsey
I think I spent more on resin bombs for mine than the original kit price.

Donald Dickson II
Yeah, the bombs would be pricey in resin. I am fine with it being closed up. I should have some more progress pics soon. 🙂

Greg Baker
How did I not get a front row seat in this one... shove over mates!

Martin Oostrom
Greg, bring a couple of beers from the fridge in the rear. You can sit between Spanjaard and me!

Greg Baker
Thanks guys... first round is on me.[img1]

Donald Dickson II
So, I had to stop painting. I was getting high. LOL I have never painted this much at once. There is a LOT of plastic to cover.

Nathan Dempsey
Some hobby shop out there just made a fortune on Gunship Grey paint.

Donald Dickson II
LOL Nathan, pretty much.

This thing is HUGE. I knew that, but its more so once you start getting it together. The nose to fuselage join was not so good. Its gonna take some work to make it look good. Dry fit of the tail shows it will be much better. The ruler is 12 inches. Its going to be around 3 feet long I think.

Michael Hickey
If I remember correctly, when I dry fitted mine together she was longer than the box!!!

Clifford Keesler
They are big for sure, mine takes up a full shelf, and that is with the wings retracted, I used 2 bottles of MM Gunship grey I think and a whole lot of white. Yours is looking good Donald.

Donald Dickson II
I am using rattle cans of Tamiya. I am waiting for another one to get here. I also picked up 2 cans of Gunship Gray2. Its lighter. I am doing black primer, the GG then some GG2 over that. I will airbrush only if I need to do some finer painting

Clifford Keesler
Sounds cool.

Donald Dickson II
I got the tail on. I still have an issue with getting the join seam for the nose to look right. Gonna drive me nuts. LOL That is my 20 year old son holding it. If you needed any further evidence of how big it is.

Bryn Crandell
That thing is huge. Looking good so far.

Donald Dickson II
And the top is all gray. Annnnnnnnnd more work on the nose seam and the tail joins well. Yay.

Michael Hickey
This is turning out to be a real mission.🙁

Greg Baker
That's where I stalled out on my B-1... and it was only 1/144... keep up the fight!

Stephan Ryll
Ah the big bad bone is comming to live 👍 looking good

Martin Oostrom
For motivation: Youtube Video

Clifford Keesler
I agree with James, looking awesome.

Donald Dickson II
Thanks guys. 🙂

Hans, I think the body parts on mine have been boxed warm and kind of flattened out a bit. There just was no matching them up without bending the body some and super gluing the hell out of it. So there were significant gaps. The bigger the parts, the more likely not to fit. Hopefully yours will not be an issue. But I will get it were I want it damn it. 😄

Donald Dickson II
Oh, and some George is ALWAYS appreciated Martin. 😄

Donald Dickson II
OK, she is pretty much painted. I THINK I got everything that was really bugging me. Using my workspace is NOT easy with this thing. I got her legs on and need to do a little more with those. Just have to get all that taken care of, gear doors on, engines attached and decal time. Then it will be little bits and that should be it. Possibly.

Clifford Keesler
Coming along nicely.

Donald Dickson II
Well, it WAS coming along until tonight. And this happened. I had to walk away or I would have trashed it.

Peter Hardy
Temper temper!

Michael Hickey
How did that happen, apart from the forward oleo appearing to be leaning back she was going so well.🙁

Peter Hardy
He's building an aeroplane UNDER the ground Mick! Anything could happen!

Michael Hickey
lol🙂 My intakes for my B-ONE turned up this morning from BNA, so I think after we move in a month or so I'll pick mine back up and let her frustrate the hell out of me.😢

Dutch
Don, step back, take a breather and relax. I know that it is a big disappointment, but all is not lost. Seems a fairly simple fix, may require some reinforcing strips to be added from fuselage to tail, then reapply and refill seam, sand and repaint. I (and I am sure others as well) have recovered from worse. As Winston Churchill said famously, "Never give up! Never give up! Never give up!" R/ Dutch

Donald Dickson II
LOL thanks guys. I will fix it. It just really pissed me off last night.

It happened while I was correcting that issue with the front landing gear. It slipped off the stand I had it on and caught it by the tail which snapped off. I managed to catch it by the nose before it hit the floor. Luckily that didnt break off as well. I have been thinking of ways to reinforce it as Dutch mentioned.

Dave Flitton
Steel girders!!! Re-enforce with steel

Peter Hardy
All good again Don?

Bart Goesaert
Luckily it's a nice clean break, and I hope no cracks along the length of the plane. Some reinforcements inside, and extra thin cement will do the fix...

Martin Oostrom
Come on DD! Fix this gal, you've come so far already 👍

Donald Dickson II
I will sit down to it this weekend. I was hoping to finish it, but that wont happen. Ah well

Michael Hickey
Don't worry Donald this hobby we're in isn't a race, some times a build will make you take one step forward two steps back.🙂

Peter Hardy
Just use me as an example! 🙂

Clifford Keesler
I reinforced the nose and tail on mine with plastic card and strips of sprue, cause I did the same thing, only difference was mine was not painted yet. But the top of my fuselage split to the aft bomb bay, so had to glue the top fuse back together again also. I know you can fix it.

Donald Dickson II
Clifford, makes me feel better to know a master did the same thing as I. LOL I have a couple ideas how to brace it and secure it better.

And thank you all for your encouragement. It is much appreciated. 🙂

Michael Hickey
Well that's not encouraging for me fellas, I still have to get my nose and tail on when I go back to mine. Looks like I might have to weld her together.😢

Clifford Keesler
It would not hurt.

Donald Dickson II
Michael, if there was a way to arch weld plastic...

Augie
OOoo

Dutch
Sounds dangerous! And smelly!

Donald Dickson II
Hmmmm...

Donald Dickson II
The weekend got away from me, so I did nothing with it until tonight. I got the tail back on. I am letting the glue set 24 hours before I do anything else. Shouldnt take a lot to clean it back up.

Dutch
Bravo! That's the spirit!

Donald Dickson II
Thanks Dutch. Still making me curse at random. Its like I have turrets now.

Greg Baker
Been there... done that...

Bryn Crandell
Oh my. That was quite the accident. Glad to see it was at a seam. Can't wait to see the repair work and getting this BONE finished.

Donald Dickson II
Just about done. Everything except the landing lights are on. Painting is done unless I find something I missed. I discovered that I should have put a bit more weight in the nose to counter the heavier exhausts. When the wings are fully retracted the front wheels lift slightly. So they are going to have to be open a bit. So, if all looks well when I go back to it tomorrow, decaling will commence.

Peter Hardy
Hmmm, all that sooking and it came out ok! Looks like all your mates are right, you are a legend!

Donald Dickson II
LOL Peter, hardly. But thank you. It does not look as good at the seams as it did before the disaster. But it will suffice.

Peter Hardy
You are starting to sound like me!

Augie
she looks brutal! damn good work

Donald Dickson II
Thank you Augie. 🙂

Donald Dickson II
Oh dear Lord. I am starting the decals. As you can see, not so many as Augie is dealing with LOL. BUT, the freaking walkway lines and stencils are almost exactly the color I painted it. See if you can see the forward line on the wing. *sigh*

Augie
Ooo maybe a case for some after market black lines?

Donald Dickson II
I'm going with these for now. That was a thought almost immediately. But dragging this out further...no bueno. LOL

Dutch
Don, Is that the decal immediately aft of the slats? Hmm. It is very close in color and appears darker on the dry decal paper, but when you get the rest one, it should show up okay. Yes, by all means, get this one over the goal line!

Augie
lol 🙂 go for it 🙂 am sure it will look fine

Donald Dickson II
Its OK to say dear God yes! Please finish this so it doesnt keep popping back up.😉 LOL

Michael Hickey
Hey Donald I don't know if this is any help, but when I've got to do walkway lines when I'm Appling them to the wing I keep the decal paper really close to the surface of the wing, and I use tweezers to hold onto the end of the decal paper. Basically what you want to do is get the decal started in position and hold it there with your finger, and then keeping the decal paper on the wing use the tweezers to pull the decal paper away from the decal. Hope you get what I mean, but it really works well, and be sure to keep the area where the decal is going on wet this will help the decal not break.🙂

Donald Dickson II
Michael, that is pretty much how I do it. The issue isnt applying it. Its that it is almost exactly the same color as the plane is. You can barely see it

Donald Dickson II
And last two pics before I am done. Left side has the decals on.

Michael Hickey
And I guess you don't want to mask up and paint them on because that would be a tidiest and time consuming task. But at least you could get them darker without resorting to black decals.

Donald Dickson II
Perhaps at a later time I might do so. But you are correct. It would be a royal pain in the tush to do so, and not something that makes me giddy with anticipation.

Donald Dickson II
And looking at pics, I think Revell got it wrong. The walkways I am seeing sure look black to me.

Michael Hickey
And if you did do it I'd use Tamiya's XF-69 Nato Black, so it's not really dark.

Clifford Keesler
You can whip the beast into shape Donald. I do not remember having that problem with my wing walkways. What color did you paint the beast. Mine is painted Gunship Gray, but I modeled an earlier version than you did I think. Anyway she looks good.

Clifford Keesler
Mine had different decals.

Peter Hardy
Be careful with it Don, remember you have already established that it has the flying performance of a brick!

Michael Hickey
LMAO😄

Donald Dickson II
Peter, very true! LOL

OK, so this and all other modelling activities are on hold. I went downstairs to get someburger for dinner. Opened the freezer. Wellllll, it evidently has not been working. For at least a couple weeks. I almost puked immediately when the smell hit me. I emptied it and got the rotten meat outside, but the basement now is uninhabitable. I imagine its gonna take it while to clear out.

Peter Hardy
Yucky!!!

Clifford Keesler
That chucks. LOL. Sorry to hear that really.

Greg Baker
Dude... tie a sock around your mouth and nose and get back in there. Your fans need you!

Donald Dickson II
Peter, thats one way to describe it. LOL Having been a firefighter in a county that borders Washington DC ie, urban war zone in some parts, I have smelled some nasty things. This was right up there.

Clifford, bad puns are always appreciated. LOL

Greg, if I had a full SCOTT mask, then maybe. LOL

Peter Hardy
Don, I will give you a very basic piece of advice. When a fridge van has unloaded meat or fish or onions or something else just as smelly, an open tub of vanilla essence on the floor will kill most of it before loading again. Give it a try!

Donald Dickson II
I will see if I can find any. Thank you Peter! 🙂

Spanjaard
Do the trucks you work with carry meat that has been without refrigeration for s couple of weeks? I think he will need something stronger than vanilla...😉

Dutch
My nephew is a Maine game warden. He once had to clean out a portable freezer (i.e. 20 ft freezer container) where they were storing several hundred pounds of frozen bear and moose meat as evidence in a poaching case. You guessed it, power was lost for several days and as the rookie, he got to clean it out.)
So, use Vicks VapoRub, apply a good dose up each nostril (and a Scott's mask for added protection if you desire) and long rubber latex gloves and your worst overalls. (Those microbes are nasty.) When it's cleaned out, ventilate the basement, then finish by sponging out the freezer with straight bleach, then rinse with a few passes of water.
See, you get more than modeling advice here!

Bryn Crandell
EWWWW! Freezers that have shut off rank in the top five of smells. RIght up there with garbage trucks and dead bodies. I'm there with you as a firefighter Don. The smells we have been exposed to.

Donald Dickson II
Bryn, my all time favorite was a regular of ours. A homeless alcoholic. He developed gangrene in his foot. Not knowing this, I tried to take his boot off because he was complaining of ankle pain. I almost tore his foot off and almost puked right then. I spent the rest of the ride to the hospital with an O2 mask on.

Dutch, good advice. But I am trashing it. Gonna duct tape it closed and take it to the dump. It wasnt expensive and I am NOT opening that thing again. LOL

Dutch
There is that option!

Spanjaard
Indeed a clean and effortless solution 🙂

Donald Dickson II
OK, I blame Michael for this. The basement has cleared up. But during the delay, him calling me out on masking and painting the walkway lines was buzzing around the back of my mind. So, of course, when I got back down there tonight...

Michael Hickey
NO, NO, NOOOO.... Don't blame me.🙂

Dutch
Wow! Man you have a good eye for making straight lines. That is quite a masking job. I am impressed. Oh, and "WA" is Weapons Test (57th WG) at Nellis AFB, NV, not Washington ANG. Just saying. Kansas was the other state ANG to fly the Bone out of McConnell. But those checkers on the tail look really good!

Donald Dickson II
Dutch, thank you for clarifying that. I cant keep that shit straight. LOL And I used pin stripe tape to mark the lines, then pulled it once I had the other tape down.

Michael, totally blaming you bud.😉LOL

Clifford Keesler
Excellent. I used pin striping tape for the wing walks on my B-52, as the kit did not supply enough decals for all of them.

Peter Hardy
Secret is out Don! You put that tape together on the bench and then cut it! C'mon! Fess up!

Donald Dickson II
LOL I will take pics as I do the other side.

Michael Hickey
Well I must thank you Donald, now knowing that the walkway color will clash with the paint scheme, when I come to paint my B-ONE I'll reverse mask what you're doing. That way I'll be doing other modelers a favor by bringing the cost of the Tamiya masking tape back down because the world won't be in short supply of it.😢

Michael Hickey
When I have big areas to mask, I mask the initial line with Tamiya tape then I get plain paper and tape that down to cover the rest. Quicker and a lot cheaper than going through Tamiya tape.

Donald Dickson II
I usually do that as well but decided what the hell. LOL

Clifford Keesler
Are you about to get that beast finished? LOL.

Donald Dickson II
Clifford, weeelllll. After painting these lines, I feel like the rest of the stencils need to be close to this. Sooooo, it just so happens that Caracal just came out with a new set of decals for this kit. That set has a nice full set of stencils that look to be a darker color. So I ordered one.

Now, I only need the stencils, and not all of them. I already have the unit markings on. So, once I get the set and pull the stencils I need, if someone would like the unit markings and all that, let me know.

Donald Dickson II
Oh, and see the pics for what I did.

Michael Hickey
That turned out to be a great result, pleased you went with Nato Black, top job Donald.👍

Dutch
Don, Looking Good! No, looking GREAT! I will use this technique on my 1/72 Bone. The results are simply outstanding. R/ Dutch

Donald Dickson II
Thank you gentlemen. 🙂

Tim Heimer
Wow! What a monster! Looking great as usual Don, can't wait to see it complete!

Peter Hardy
Yeah, Mick knows his shit eh! Well done Big Don, just brilliant skills. Better do some flying practice soon though. Don't want you trashing any more of America's finest!

Clifford Keesler
Looking very nice indeed Donald.

Donald Dickson II
Got the Caracal decal set today. Anyone want the squadron markings (which are flipping awesome) and walkway lines?

Clifford Keesler
Hey Donald, do the squadron markings include the tail codes?. I looked at mine today and it has no tail codes.

Donald Dickson II
It looks to me like there are two sets on there. But it sold elsewhere.

Clifford Keesler
Do you still have them?

Donald Dickson II
No, I sold them.

Clifford Keesler
OH well, snooze and you lose. LOL.

Donald Dickson II
Alright boys and girls, its done! I managed to get some pics at my regular pic spot, but they arent the best. When I have some decent weather, I will try out side.

Michael Hickey
Nice build Don, congrats for sticking with her, even after all the ups and downs you went through.👍👍👍

Stephan Ryll
Donald, you fought with the beast and won a beauty 👍 very nice 🙂

Greg Baker
I'm not sure it's big enough...

Augie
Wow don, that looks a beast 🙂 well done

Tim Heimer
Another fine piece for your collection Don! That thing is a beast!

Donald Dickson II
Thank you all. 🙂 Hans, she definitely does. And yes, a beast she is!

Martin Oostrom
Boom! Here she comes!
A bit battered and bruised, but which plane isn't?

David Taylor
Bad to the Bone

Murad ÖZER
HOLY COW! 😄 lovely lovely

Donald Dickson II
Thank you gents. 🙂 If you dont concentrate too hard on the tail join, its not bad. LOL

Dutch
Don, just beautiful! My hat is off to you for all your hard work and perseverance to see the build through to a beautiful conclusion. This one's a keeper! R/ Dutch

Clifford Keesler
Beautiful Bone Donald.

Peter Hardy
Now to knock out two walls to make a room big enough to display her. Nice job Donny old boy!

Bart Goesaert
Superb one

Donald Dickson II
Peter, LOL. You should have seen me getting it up the stairs to the living room. I ma sure it was entertaining for the dogs. LOL I put her in the only place I had room. I am now officially screwed when it comes to anything large. Like the B-36 or B-52 or B-58...

Bart, thank you sir. 🙂

David Taylor
what about 1/48 Lanc!!!

David Taylor
I know I meant 1/32 Lanc

Donald Dickson II
I dont much do WWII stuff. Korea and up for the most part. But I am sure that sucker is huge too.

Michael Phillips
What a beast! Well done Donald, she looks great!!!

Donald Dickson II
Thank you Michael! 🙂

Bryn Crandell
Amzing build. The final product is amazing. I agree with where do you put the big planes. I have KC-135 variants, a few 1/32 jets and the Monogram B-52, B-36s and a B-29. Looks like I will be hanging on the walls somewhere somehow.

Peter Hardy
Bryn you have a medium sized country's Air Force! You must live on a football field to keep everything!

Donald Dickson II
LOL Thanks Bryn. That 36 and the Buffs are really going to pose issues. Thankfully Im not doing them soon.

Tim Heimer
uht oh, I think I need a bigger box/house! LOL