[kwiky]

the carrier tractor thing (yellow one) is from a fujimi carrier deck crew set i picked up off ebay, the white one i got with the carrier deck diorama that comes with the dragon f-18 super hornet,

ive also added this little lot to my now not so humble collection,



ive also took a few close up pics of the gulf war diorama






im expecting the arrival of 2 more Dragon f-16 tomorrow, so i'll try to get some pics up

[kwiky]

As promised here are the pics of my 2 new Dragon f-16's,





as you can see i added abit of weathering, an intake cover and some remove before flight tags to the 19th TFS bird, i made them by cutting a red ballon up and sticking them with white glue, they're only temporary until i can get some proper 1/72 scale ones,

i really like the two seat D model despite thinking i wouldnt, that big canopy kinda grows on you after a while, i set one up with the supplied HARM's and the other is carrying GBU10's and JDAM's,

my collection had outgrown the various diorama's i'd put together so instead of having lots of small ones i decided to just paint one of my shelves to make it look like a paking apron, im pretty pleased with the outcome even though it was a rush job





















here's one of the full collection



so next on the "to do" list is paint the second shelf to make it look like a carrier deck to display my Navy birds (the hornet is only there temporarly)

any comments welcomed

regards........kwiky

[smartd]

Nice idea with painting the shelf. I have the 2 seater, really like it.

[Kaptin_Kirk]

Cool Shelves! Great collection.

[STARMAN 352ND]

I like that......Cool idea with the shelves..
Love the jets too.
JP

[kwiky]

well ive finished making the other shelf look likea carrier deck, it took alot longer than i expected mainly due to the fact that i had to make the tie down holes with a screwdriver because i have no drill, its a solid wooden shelf so they took hours to do and i got a few blisters on my hands, so lesson learnt, buy a drill for next time, anyway, here it is, its done the same as the one above, i engraved rectangles in to the wood to simulate the plating on the deck surface, did the tie downs and engraved the catapult track, painted it and hey presto,






















so now i just need to wipe the paint of the edges of the shelf and then think about sorting out a background, im just going to go with something sample, maybe just the sky or clouds or something, i seem to remember seeing sheets of paper ready printed for sale in a model railway shop years ago, anyone know if their still available??

thanks..........kwiky

[valkyrie]

Hi Kwiky, like the way you display your collection. Great work!

[Cruver Collecter]

That has to be one of the neater and more ingenious model displays I have seen. You really put forth some great looking work.

[Gort]

Kwiky, I come to this thread late, but all I can say is, “Wow!” I’ll say it again. WOW!!! I’m awestruck by your “removable weathering” technique. Why didn’t I think of that?! Very cool.

Honestly, you’ve got a boatload of guts weathering your models like that. I haven’t even removed mine from their boxes, let alone display them as free-standing models. Bravo!

Hey, and your carrier deck shelves? Cruver said it best: “Ingenious!” I’ve never ever anywhere seen the like. Where did you get the idea? Good show!

Hey, aren’t those F-18 Super Hornets the Bees Knees?! I used to think the jet was gosh-awful ugly (even said so eons ago on Model Hangar I). Once I purchased one from Witty, though, I was a goner. I ordered nearly every Super Hornet they make. Love ‘dem Superdupers.

Keep up the terrific work—and keep us up to date.

[kwiky]

thanks guys, i gotta say its real nice to receive such positive comments especially since im so new to the world of diecast,

i got the idea simply because i couldnt find any comercially made carrier decks that were big enough to display multiple aircraft on, the dragon offering is ok but the fact its made out of card and has the join line between the 2 sections spoils it for me, its also only good for one plane, i'd searched everywhere looking for something better than the dragon one but there really isnt many alternatives, so with my confidance boosted from making multiple smaller diorama's and then painting the top shelf up to look like an airfield parking apron, i decided to give it ago myself, i must be honest though, i really didnt think it would come out as good as it did,

Gort, the super hornets are fantastic models, both mine are by dragon and i must say i am really fond of them, i know dragon arnt nearly as good as CW and often frowned upon because of they aint 100% accurate all of the time but to me they are easily good enough, the wife bought me my first one for Christmas and despite not being a huge fan of Hornets or Super bugs i fell instantly in love with it, the only problem was it looked very boring without any wash to show up the panel lines, i couldnt very well paint my new christmas present incase i ruined it so i searched around the house something that i could remove if i needed to, thats where the charcoal pencil idea came from, they are both now up there as one of my favourite planes in my collection along with my dragon F-16's and F-15E

i think the reason i buy so many Dragon wing is so i can weather them and add weapons myself, CW and most of the other top manufacturers already do that themselves so theres not alot left for me to improve, with dragon though, i can spend hours weathering them and gluing on different bombs and missiles,
its like been a child again

regards...........kwiky