Thanks for looking George (@gblair). I'm exploring options and researching the Bullpup Guidance pod. I finally found an underwing picture of the guidance pod, but it's not real clear. Still, it might be useful to someone. I've lightened it some to make it easier to see details. The pod is the shorter underwing store next to the Bullpup missile

As I mentioned previously, the Bullpup missiles on the Fury required a guidance transmitter pod to be hung on one of the pylons so the pilot could control the flight of the Bullpup once launched.

The Hunter's missile pod front piece was used for the smaller aft end of the guidance pod and I found the Tamiya F4D Skyray's missile pod nose cone was close to the diameter of the tube, but too blunt. I shortened the Hunter missile tube about 1/4" (this was an estimate on my part), and glued the two cones to it.

Using a file and sanding sticks as well as some black CA glue, I reshaped the Skyray and Hunter cone pieces. The Skyray cone was given a sharper taper and the Hunter cone was filled and blunted. I'll be adding three small fins to the CA glued end of this new piece. I will also have to figure out how to make the pylon.

The only other thing I might do is shorten the pod body in length a bit more by cutting some out of the middle. I'll make that decision when I get the ResKit Bullpups assembled.

Excellent scratchbuild of the guidance transmitter, my friend @clipper!

Thanks John (@j-healy), Spiros (@fiveten), and John (@johnb).

I had read the forum entry (I think it was Brit Modeler, but not sure) where Kursad of Caracal Decals had mentioned that the FJ-4 decals were in work. That thread is several years old now, so I am not sure what the status is. I suspect that at least part of the delay can be attributed to difficulty in finding good photos, but that's just a guess.

I had elected to go the painted markings route early on. Even if I was able to locate the Matchbox decals, I would have probably scanned them to make the masks. This is all part of my desire to expand my skills. And speaking of that, I have been struggling with those very same masks since two days ago. There's a variety of reasons.

First, I work with the software so infrequently, that each time I use it, I have to basically start over. I am trying to rectify that by taking better notes this time and being more organized about the artwork.

Secondly, I spent a bunch of time on the tail letters ("NJ") , specifically, trying to reproduce the opposite side from the drawing. Silhouette Studio has only basic graphics tools and it took a lot of trial and error before I managed to repro that second side well enough.

Thirdly, despite my best efforts, every time I tried to import scaled VG files into the Studio software, it would give me trouble and also come in too small, requiring me to resize the image afterwards. Frankly, I think the software is pretty flaky.

The upside is that my file organization is better now and once I get more of the artwork done, I should have at least some art that can be used elsewhere (national insignia, lettering). And I am making sure to take better notes on things I encounter and problems I solve so that I can refer to them next time.

The guidance transmitter is still in the same condition since I have done no actual plastic modeling since early yesterday. Tomorrow, I have to finish a restoration of a clothes dresser for my wife for Mother's Day and I have scheduled some time to work on my cabin cruiser.

Okay, I have the preliminary artwork for the masks done. I still need to do some test prints on paper to verify sizes and then do a test run on the cutter to make sure it can cut all of these. The least likely to succeed are the small serial numbers and possibly the wing (and eye) on the bird motif. We'll see.

I'll probably add a few extras of numbers that only have two examples.

Update: Looking at the printed artwork, I can see some items are not sized correctly and will need adjustments.

I spent the early evening trying to cut the vinyl masks using the revised artwork. I'm still having some issues with this. Mainly, the smaller details having bits of the mask lift away from the backing. I tried different settings , slower cut, less depth. I got to a point where there was no lift off, but the stencils were not cut deep enough to separate them from the main sheet. I tried gradually increasing the depth of cut and did get somewhat better results, although there still was a bit of lift off.

I also tried doing this on Tamiya Masking Sheet and it suffered even worse than the vinyl. I am starting to wonder if perhaps the blade is too dull. I ordered a new cutting blade to see if that might help.

We got the dresser restoration finished, but working on the boat today didn't happen. Maybe tomorrow.

Thanks Spiros (@fiveten). Knowing how a dull blade tends to drag on material when it's cutting, I am hopeful the new blade will fix that. Barring that, I can print the smaller details on Tamiya masking sheet and cut them out with scissors or a hobby knife, or I can create a decal as I plan to do for the serial numbers.

Hi Carl (@clipper): I have had similar frustrating experiences using my wife's die cutter, especially on the smaller, thinner pieces. I have had success using a sheet of Tamiya masking tape instead of the vinyl designed for the machine. I have only done it once, mainly because a pack of the full sheets of Tamiya masking tape is very expensive. Good luck.