Donald Dickson II Jesus. I am no less impressed the second time seeing it!

Daniel Wow, my first time seeing that and I am VERY impressed! piece of art

Slavo Hazucha For anyone interested in modern aircraft in medium scale, taking some time to go through Mr. Phillips collection is a worthwhile and highly recommended course of action...

Patrick Hagelstein I can only agree to that!

Patrick Hagelstein Even without lengthy voting procedure to get to an agreement.

Maciej Bellos Each one of them is a real gem.

Michael Phillips Thanks Again Donald, Daniel, Slavo, Patrick, and Maciej!!!!

I am always flattered when anyone takes the time to look through my work, so I appreciate that greatly Slavo. It really makes me feel good!

Glenn . Great looking Saab with a Volvo engine!

Daniel Klink Martialic with all the load and elegant at the same time! Wonderful Michael

Slavo Hazucha Nice load...! Will take a few more inches of the runway to get airborne but all will be fine in the end... Lovely details on the bomb & missile pylons too - are these OOB or aftermarket?

Nathan Dempsey Great loadout! I bought the Hasegawa set for my kit as well...

Daniel Looks like this guy is ready for war Those weapons look awesome!

Clifford Keesler Agree with Daniel, awesome.

Michael Phillips Thanks Stephan, Daniel, Slavo, Nathan, Daniel, and Clifford!

Slavo, the AAM-3s are OOB, but the rest are all from the Hasegawa JASDF Weapons Set.

This one is now completed! You can see the final pics here:

Hasegawa F-2A Viper Zero - Completed! | Album by Fighting 84 (1:48)

Bryn Crandell Great work on the weapons. Heading over to the final reveal album to take a look......

Glenn . Great lookin' super expensive F-16 clone!

James C Outstanding finish Michael, and the stand you've made is the icing on the cake. Fantastic!

Michael Phillips Thanks Bart, Spanjaard, and James! I really appreciate the kind words!!!

Demigod Again, a wonderful model with a fantastic paint job. Kudos for the in-flight stand - aircraft look best in the air, yet rarely they are modelled this way. Well done!

Urban Gardini Fantastic result mate, love it!

Michael Phillips Thanks so much for the kind words Demigod and Urban!

Jos Jansen Beautiful plane...excellent display, fricking awesome man...!!

Bryn Crandell Totally an amazing build. The display really sets it in motion.

Clifford Keesler There are not enough words to describe the beauty of this build. Very well done Sir.

Michael Phillips Welcome Spanjaard, Holger, Daniel, Martin, Nathan, Konrad, Slavo, Augie, and Patrick!!!

Holger, you sound like my clone! I approve!

Daniel and Patrick, I am doing the standard "Modex 103" black and white markings, circa 1998. These markings were based on the VERY short-lived 1991 VF-84 Desert Storm Homecoming livery of the CAG aircraft with a few minor differences. Those VF-84 markings are my all-time favorite for the F-14. So this is a close second! As the timeframe would suggest, this will still be an all air-to air loadout, as they had not really been used much as Bombcats to that point.

Slavo, I have not looked closely inside the box yet, but I do not believe they are included. I love the look of the GE engines on the F-14B that I think I will not model with covers on, but the FTD sheet I have has "skull and crossbone" decals specifically for FOD covers, so I do think I will do those. We shall see...

Michael Phillips Oh, and just to get in the mood for this build, here is a super cool video that I am sure will inspire all the turkeyheads like me out there!

Youtube Video

Jos Jansen Great Balls of Fire...! Iam in Michael, front row mate..

Roland Revolvermann I take a seat

Holger Kranich Cool video! I could watch it again and again! Anytime Baby!

Michael Hickey Cool, only a blind man would miss this.

Stephan Ryll I also take a seat

Martin Oostrom F-18 suck
F-14 cool

Who drew that on his canopy

Michael Phillips As requested, here are some pics of how I make my own in-flight bases. Needed are:

12" aluminum bar (36" original length cut to size)
Piano Black Glossy Black Plaque Blank
4 self-tapping wood screws
Plastic Baseball Card Holder
Information Card created in Illustrator to the size of a standard baseball card
Blu-Tac
Drill
Short Phillips Screw driver

I will be happy to answer any questions anyone might have.

Donald Dickson II Did you do anything to reinforce the area of the model the screws went in?

Michael Phillips I did not. It is quite secure using the size screws I used as well as the fact there are two of them.

Donald Dickson II Cool. I just wasn't sure if the plastic would be thick enough to not have the screws tear out or anything.

Mark Norfolk Very neat Michael. Very neat indeed- I really like that. And the idea in the first place...!

Sybar Many thanks for sharing your method. Your bases are an elegant way to display your superb models. I hope to produce a model worthy of such a base so I can attempt one.

Xander Jansen Thanks for sharing !!!

Slavo Hazucha Nice, simple and clean! Walter Gropius and the BAUHAUS architecture school approve! (or at least I am sure they would... )

Spanjaard Thanks for sharing !

Hans Robben Count me in!

Michael Phillips I kinda have the itch to do this one soon, but I am working on a funky Viper right now as it is, so this one will have to wait a bit. But I definitely think this will be moved way up in the queue at some point!

Nathan Dempsey I'll watch for this one. Definitely an interesting Viper.

Hans Robben Interesting and unusual, worth the wait.

Maciej Bellos Pretty far down the queue, but it is a subject I wouldn't miss in the world. Moreso if it is a Ferris bird.

Roland Revolvermann Awesome build + paint + pics!

Murad ÖZER Killer looking longbow, beautiful model Michael!

Michael Phillips Thanks Jens, Christian, Andy, Bart, Roland, and Murad! I really appreciate the kind words, as always!!!

Jos Jansen WOOW Michael... this is really a masterpiece, what an amazing result ...! Two thumbs up

Daniel Looks like a real war machine, very impressive work! especially how you got the sensors & cameras on the nose to look so realistic!

Michael Phillips Thanks Jos and Daniel! I thank you all for the kind words!

David Barclay Another stunner Michael!

Michael Phillips Thanks David, I appreciate the kind words!

Ronan Very nice paint work Michael

Slavo Hazucha Great paintwork & shading, very realistic! The positive rivets look very good in this context too... Looking forward to see it finished

Michael Phillips Thanks Timothy, Erik, Ronan, and Slavo! I really appreciate the kind words.

So I got her on 'er feet and I worked on the "R2D2" senser ball thingy on the nose. Played around with molotow chrome and clear yellow and blue to get a holographic effect. I am really pleased with how it turned out. The molotow chrome on the left side of the sensor ball is very mirror like, and you can see reflections in it quite clearly.

Nathan Dempsey That sensor looks great! The one side looks "deep". Very realistic.

Michael Hickey She looks really great.

Stephan Ryll Very nice progress Michael

ice Congrats - I don't know how this helicopter could look any better.

Tim Heimer Looking good Mike!

Demigod Good work and a nicely weathered paint job! I like!

Konrad Limmer Congratulation Michael very nice result

James C A fantastic looking finish Michael!

Anthony D'Agostino She is a good looking bird, I will start mine after I finish my AH-6J conversions, I have two of those. One will be the A with weapons, the other with outboards for the assault team. That should be fun, just need to find clear canopies, the kit has gold shaded plastic, sucks!

Holger Kranich You can be absolute satisfied with the result, Michael!

Michael Phillips Thanks Anthony and Holger! I am satisfied, just wished it had turned out better for my friend. But as long as he and his fiancee were happy that's all that mattered!

Anthony D'Agostino Hey Michael, I am sure that your friend and his fiancee are absolutely delighted with this rendition, and no way they could have created one even close to this level of realism. I know that feeling you have, but trust me, it is unwarranted, she is gorgeous!

Jos Jansen Nice model Michael, I like the subtle weathering!

Anthony D'Agostino That's a gorgeous Blackhawk you built there, love that it has the werners wings decal set as well. One question I had for you. While reading the only review attached to this kit, at the end, he claims that this kit is not a true L modification, as if is missing the larger horizontal stabilizer. Did you find a proper piece? I have this in my collection and likely to start it in a fes months, but I want to get the right specs for the decal set that I have from microscale, if I remember correctly.

Thanks in advance,

Anthony stalker6recon D'Agostino

Michael Phillips Thanks for the kind words Anthony! Actually, I had no idea about the larger horz stab. My friend wanted me to build one for his Fiancee, and was not terribly concerned with extreme accuracy and just wanted me to build it OOB (except the decals).

I will keep an eye out for your build my friend, looking forward to seeing you build one!

Anthony D'Agostino You will have to wait a bit, as I have two AH-6J conversions on my bench. It will be my first builds in thirty years, and I bought resin conversions because, well just building a OOB model after such a long layoff was too little a challenge for me. By the way, after even more searching and asking the gurus at arc, the rear stabilizer is fine, and I had bad info regarding that. What is different between the A and L, is the pilots step, which is ridiculously small to even see on most aircraft while flying, so not a big deal one way or the other.

I will put my birds up for scrutiny, once the first one is out of the paint booth. Cheers!