Yeah, the Alby looks to be a fiddly build and the plastic is thin in places. I've had to scan and scale down a set of 1/48 plans for it. The ones in the kit were a bit on the small side.
The Skywarrior does give me everything. The plastic rod is meant for the refueling probe. It's even cut to the correct length already. Some square section for the spares might have been included, but buying it second hand they might have gone AWOL at some time. Not to worry as I have plenty of stuff that will work. Great thing about this kit is the inclusion of optional parts to build a tanker, recce or electronic surveillance birds. I'll be building it as a tanker.

@Jonathan: thanks for the help with that abrasive I have been searching for it here and still came up empty so looks like an online product for me.

@Mike: I should have used a heavier marker as you have, like the subject.

@Stephen: I also would go with the A3, it will be an awesome looking build.

Bob

If you haven't sanded out the tailplanes, you can make tabs out of the waste plastic by simply sanding around it, and cutting slots in the fuselage halves.

The tailplane is really too thin for that approach, but I think that is what Densil is suggesting in the instructions for the wings on the KC-135, which I have just been reading.
for the very thin tail section with almost no stiffness, I'm going to go right across with a bit of .020" brass strip stock. I have .125" and .250" widths.

Looks like I am the only resin build so far!
Here is my entry:-



The seaplane will be my build.

Today I made up a couple of the engines.





They'll look better with some paint on them, and the intakes opened up.

Hello mates,

I'm joining here with my first full resin kit. Still wondering what to do when it comes to the rigging, leave it or tackle it
@ Richard Now you're not longer the only resin-builder

Hallo Richard and Peter, nice looking resin kits good to see more boxes opened, good fortunes!

After days of filling and fairing, the Welsh Vac DC7 is almost ready for primer.

this weekend I will have the opportunity to do some painting.

anybody else working on their stuff?

Jonathan, it's looking wonderfully good. You've got farther than I got on that kit

So anyway, what kind of campaign leader am I if I neglect my own campaign? Here's what I'm going to do

This is the 1/72 Welsh/Proteus Canadair Cosmopolitan, with two different RCAF schemes.
Inside the box you find a bag of resin, some white metal detail parts and a vac fuselage.

Decals

And typically basic Welsh style instruction sheets


Since this is a vac and resin campaign it's only fitting that my kit is both vac and resin in one! The vac parts

and the resin parts

Here are my choices for this build:
Resin; CMR A-8 and A-10 Shrikes
Vac: Boeing B-9, Northrup N1M and Westland-Hill Pterodactyl

Jessica the side flash and window decals look like they will be fun to apply!

Hi Jessie, I'll accept your calling me Joel as a compliment.

The airframe is complete, and I've had about enough of fairing the wing root joints.





I also finished the engines. the vacuform part just had little nubs to represent the exhausts. Ive been looking at pictures of DC-7 engines, and they have cool looking obliquely cut exhaust pipes, so I cut up some bits of 1/16 dia copper tubing, and drilled holes for them. they look ok, I think.



got out my Minicraft DC-6s which are getting passed again.



"Hi guys, I'm a DC-7!"
"uh huh. enjoy your turbos. see ya."

@ Jonathan: you are really going to town with that DC7 and I am still having trouble finding a good abrasive just to start removing the edge material.

@ Richard: nice looking resin kit of the R3C.

@ Peter: could you give your impression of the Wedell Williams 44 Kit, I love Golden Age Racing a/c.

@ Jessie: where did you come by the Proteus Canadair Cosmopolitan? you always seem to find interesting subjects.

Bob

I too picked the Canadair CC109 Cosmopolitan. I took the Welsh Models 1/144 scale kit.



The kit contains a vac fuselage resin wings and tail along with metal props and landing gear.
I should be starting soon.

Hi Bob,
will do it gladly, the kit looks decent enough, but I haven't unpacked the parts from their bags yet. It still needs a little while to get on my bench I think, but I'll take some start photos soon.
Cheers Peter

Hi All,
Here is my started work. I marked them awhile back but finished cutting and sanding just last weekend.

Hi Jeff, yer off to a good start!



Today I built the props for the DC7. possibly the most difficult vacuform task,




sanded out the vac parts,
welded some .030 half round to the backs of the blades,
added a disc of .040 to the back of the spinner,
drilled .064 hole through the centers,
inserted 1/16" dia rod.
I have started to sculpt the resulting spinner tips to a point. bit of work left there.

Thanks Jonathan.

I am debating if I want to use the Vac propeller or mold one myself.
It looks kind of weird to me.......

Jonathan! Thanks for enlightening me: I never thought the props in vacforms were for actual use, I have always had the impression that they were included as patterns only !



Magnus

Even provided with a pattern, I could not possibly fabricate a better looking prop, much less four identical ones.

The props on this C-47 were also cut from the vacuform sheet.

Jonathan,

With the vac props, you just sand away everything that is not a prop? Do you do any thing else other than shape them. My Boeing B-9 kit has the vac props, so I was wondering. The other vac kits on which I worked had metal props.

Jeff

You may find that you need to fill in the rear of the blades with epoxy putty to give them a little thickness, especially if the plastic is thin and flimsy. Otherwise yes, just sand away everything which doesn't look like a propeller

I welded styrene half-round strong backs on to the backs of the blades, and sanded them down a bit toward the tips. the solid disks had a cross filed in to them before welding.

this is quite sturdy. I'll do some more filling and fairing before painting.
These 1/144 scale blades sanded out completely flat on the back.
Sometimes the sanded out part will actually be concave on the back - ie., thicker than the sheet. In that case you can weld in half-round with the round part in the groove. If you flood the groove with solvent, you can back-blade with the tip of the exacto knife, and sculpt the semi-soft styrene filler material into a fair shape before it sets up.


Jeff - I was hoping you would go with the B-9. The Curtis Shrikes are wonderful too, but the B-9 is a really rare beast. If the B-9 goes quick enough, hopefully you can build the Shrikes too.

Ive cut out and mounted this air intake, for the APU I guess. thats the last of the parts from the vacuform sheets.
everything else needed must be scratch built from scrap and the Evergreen stash.



Ive started building up some interiors for the main gear wells.