Modelers displaying in this post:

Hugh Bruce - Dornier Do335

Tim Shea - Car models

Kirk Shepard - U-Boat

Ed Tharp - P-36, Zero, and newspaper 

Andrew Taylor - Panzer IV F1

Modelers displaying in this post:

Mark Jordan - Wall of junk yard cars display---Splendid!

Russ Ivie - Atlantis White Freuhauf Gas Truck

October meeting pictures. Modelers not identified by badges are:

Hugh Bruce - 1/72 scale works in progress

Kirk Shepard - Planet Models 1/48 resin FW TA 183

Mark Skuller - Metal Artillery

Some pics of my current build after weeks of filing almost every part. 

NEW: Updated to include Scammel progress.

Andrew Taylor

Hiya!

I hope everyone has been doing well. I saw that things are starting to pick up again, so I thought I'd send in a few pictures. It's been slow going for the last month or two, but I did get a few things done and started . 

Kittyhawk 1/48 F-94C Starfire

This is hard kit to judge, on the one hand it is really nicely detailed and has a solid fit, but on the other the plastic was super brittle and the decals were some of the worst I have ever seen. I tried judicious amounts of microsol and microset on these but in the end they were more like brittle pie crust than decals. I did my best to weather the cracks and disintegrated chunks into the neglected ugly ducklingness that most F-94s ended up with. At the end of the day I still really enjoyed this kit, and I am so happy to have one of my favorite jet aircraft in model form.

In Progress

My never-ending battle with the HY-6U is still ongoing. In the meantime, I started working on a 1/72 B-18 Bolo by Special Hobby. It's been fun so far, the fit is gaping, but the opportunity to build a quirky plane makes me blind to any problems that the kit has.

Stay safe and happy building! 

Sincerely,

John Ritter

Good evening,

Sorry for the lack of pictures the last few months, between work and school I haven't had a ton of time to build. Here's the two builds I've finished in the last few months though.

Italeri 1/72 Lavochkin La-5FN: This was a very simple build (total maybe 6hrs, I finished it two days after I bought it), but also a fairly decent kit for the age. Nothing super special other than it's the only kit I completed between June and August.

Monogram 1/32 Grumman G-22 Gulfhawk II (1967 issue): It's finally done! It's built completely out of the box, including decals, and with all moving parts operational. It's bare plastic for simplicity's sake other than the tires (flat black) and the prop (metallizer aluminum plate). The decals cracked on application, but nothing too horrible. I think this kit will be the reason I finally buy microset/microsol, the cowl decals were not a fan of the bumps around the cowl. I might eventually rig it, especially since hooks are built in, but not yet. I'll also eventually paint the Al Williams figure, but that's a future project. This is my fourth 1960s issue Monogram kit, and I've loved each one.

Got lots on the bench and even more in the stash that I'll hopefully be able to show y'all at the next in person meeting.

Very respectfully, 

Garage Build at Mike and Carla Van Leeuwen's home - August 2020

 (Above) Latest modelling project finished-- PzKw 38t from Warlord Games, scaled to 1/56.  The kit is nicely presented with a very well done instruction booklet which includes a selection of full- color profiles as painting guides; decals are also provided for German, Rumanian, and Hungarian vehicles.  Surface details are well- rendered, although the model might be considered a "curbside" edition since there is no representation of plates or access panels on the underside.  Two alternative tank commander figures are provided if you choose to model with hatches open.  I chose to represent a Rumanian tank as provided by Germany after the Stalingrad battles in 1942; only a little pinwashing and light drybrushing was used to accentuate the details.  A brushing of pastels was dusted on the wheels and tracks to provide a bit of weathering.

 Kerry Hanscom

Builder's Comments

Howdy, I hope everyone is doing well. Sorry I couldn't send this at the beginning of the month. Its been a really busy last few weeks since Embry Riddle opened back up. I have been working on a few projects recently, with a few new ones coming up. 

Hasegawa 1/72 IAI Kfir C.2 

IAF camouflage has always been something I have wanted to try. The pop and contrast of the colors always draws me to planes camoed like this. The IAI Kfir is such a cool hot-rodded version of the Mirage that this seemed like a great way to give it a try. It was a lovely little build. This kit is actually one of Hasegawa's older molds, but the fit is remarkably good. The aircraft is built as a Kfir of the 143rd Smashing Parrot Squadron (I admit the slightly funny name of the squadron played a large part in me picking that option). I used Vallejo paints for the first time and they really impressed me. It made painting the camo scheme a joy, and the end product left me wanting to build more IAF aircraft.  

Airfix 1/72 Spitfire PR.1G 

I have had this kit sitting around for a while. Its the really old Airfix Mk.1 mold that came in a baggy back in the day. I didn't want to build a plain old RAF camo, so I tried to find the weirdest scheme I could. The RAF had a fun time painting some of their recon Spitfires a light shade of pink to blend in with the sky at sunset and sunrise, with the PR.1G being the first go at that. The kit is really simple, but that doesn't mean it didn't fight back! I don't think any of the major parts came close to fitting, but it was still a fun and funky little build with an interesting background. 

In Progress 

The Xian HY-6U Tanker that I mentioned last month is coming along slowly but surely, I hope to get it done this month. The other current project is Kittyhawk's F-94C Starfire. I am a sucker for early US jets(Brian can tell you all about my inexplicable interest in the F7U Cutlass). The 94 about halfway done, and has been a pretty good team player so far with a great fit and alot of nice detail. The only hissy fit its been throwing is with extremely brittle plastic that likes to crack. 

That's all I have for now, have a good one y'all! 

Sincerely,

John Ritter

This is the finished model of the Heller F-16A/B kit in 1/72.  The kit is a mixed bag of goodness:  fit of the parts is pretty good, loads of fine surface detail (all raised, so rescribing would be a nightmare), thin canopy and very finely reproduced undercarriage and other small parts.  The thin parts create their own issues as several of the missiles needed fins repaired (having broken in the box), and struts on the undercarriage and the arrestor hook broke during assembly, requiring additional work; the tailpiece of the A-version canopy was also damaged so a replacement was formed from clear sheet and trimmed to fit.  In general, though, the kit was an easy build.  Additional detail was added with a Pavla resin ejection seat and a scratchbuilt ECM pod.  The Romanian decals are from a Mig-29 aftermarket set and show the F-16 as it might appear; I've since seen a small photo of the 2-seat B version repainted in a banded 3- tone gray scheme like those on some late Romanian Mig-21s, with reduced size roundels (although still in full color), which is also a striking possibility.

Kerry

Builder's Comments

Good morning,

Here’s another update with photos for the website!

Tamiya 1/100 Il-28 Beagle
Tamiya made several 1/100 aircraft back in the early 70s, and while they’re older style kits, they’re reissued every now and again.  Fit is pretty good, and an impressive number of marking options are in the kit (this one had five separate country options).  This one represents a PLAAF aircraft that defected to Taiwan.  It is different from the Harbin H-5, which was an almost identical copy built by the Chinese, externally mainly in the design of the tail turret.

Tamiya 1/100 MiG-19 Farmer

This is a first generation MiG-19 with radar and only armed with first gen radar guided missiles.  As with American attempts at purely missile armament, it did not work well at all.  This one has Cuban markings, though I have a sneaking suspicion Tamiya didn’t research these particular markings very well as all other Cuban aircraft I’ve seen have a fuselage roundel and red numbers, not black.  This was my first attempt at testors metalizers, and it worked out great.  Some scuffs but I doubt these planes were ever in good condition, so figured it fit.

Sword 1/72 Northrop N9MA

This is the very first kit Sword ever released. It is mostly injected with resin details and a vac canopy.  However, as this is the first release, the nice resin cockpit does not fit at all with the separate nose wheel well in the same space.  As such, it was left out and the canopy painted.  Also, due to the nose gear getting lost to the carpet monster, the nose gear comes from the F-20 I finished a couple months ago and just happened to have lying around. 

Sword 1/72 T2V-1 Seastar

Some of y’all may remember an unpainted fuselage and very warped lower wing piece several months ago when I brought this to my first IPMS meeting.  I decided to finish this kit last week, and after shoving about 2.5mm worth of sheet styrene into the wing gap, the wings were level and building could continue.  This was my first experience with photoetch, and quite an experience it was.  I’m used to small parts with my 1/144 kits, but 1/72 tie down rings are a whole different level.  The cockpit is very nice though.  The white decals aren’t quite opaque, but they do the job. 

Cyber Hobby 1/200 XB-35
I love Northrop products, and their flying wings even more.  This 1/200 kit is the same physical size as the 1/72 N9M, which in real life was a 1/3^rd scale aerodynamic testbed.  This is an absolutely beautiful kit, with perfect fit and amazing detail.  The flight deck is very complete, though invisible once it’s inside the wing.  This was also painted with the metalizers, with some hand brushed panels for contrast. 

Hasegawa 1/72 F-20 Tigershark
This hasn’t changed much overall, but it finally has the teeth the F-20 deserves.  The ability to carry radar guided AIM-7s was a major difference from the original F-16 it was competing against.

What’s up next
A lot.  Mostly things I haven’t finished but keep saying I will.  Two new acquisitions though of course, a Roden 1/48 AU-23 Peacemaker and an (apparently very hard to find) Airfix 1/72 F-51D that will get built as Wee Willy II at Planes of Fame in Chino.

 Very respectfully,

Builder's Comments

A quick build squeezed in among the ongoing projects.  The model is a Hungarian Fokker DVII  from 1919 during the Communist revolution:  from an Esci kit in 1/72 scale.  The kit is pretty basic but fits well and builds pretty quickly.  There are quite a few ejector pin marks and sinks that need filling, but otherwise few problem areas.  The cockpit is vacant so I did suggest some instruments with plastic card and added some seatbelts from foil.  Decals were scrounged from various sources-- the white underside star from a WWII armor kit, remaining stars from an Eagle Strike generic Soviet set, and the number codes printed on the inkjet.  These last were not too great;  the font is not exactly right (but close enough) to the prototype, and they didn't print very densely.  I didn't feel confident enough with my brushwork to paint them by hand so used the numbers as printed.  The few bracing wires were added with nylon paintbrush bristles.

The triplet shows an additional couple of DVIIs that I had done earlier from the same kit.  The red/blue version uses the kit markings (although the underside is finished with some aftermarket lozenge decal), while the vignette shows a scene from a fictitious 1920s movie featuring a war surplus DVII (with some modifications to the horizontal stabilizer).  A pretty nice kit for displaying a large variety of color schemes since it's cheap and not too nasty.

Kerry Hanscom

Builder's Comments

Hi Ed, here are my  builds. The first is an old monogram '36 Ford. It's in it's as cast yellow plastic, changed up the wheels and tires, because the kit ones were badly warped.

Next is an AMT '25 T. Basically out of the box, and because I saw the box art and thought "I haven't done that version yet" 

Next up a Revell '32 Ford roadster, w/ fenders from another Revell '32. I acquired this from fellow member Victor Beldan. It was one of three in a parts box, the body was nicely painted, but I didn't want to do the highboy version in that color. So the next kit in line offered up it's fenders. I used the headlights and added the up top from a '29 model A. 

And last ( latest) the Revell '32 five window. About 95% of the necessary parts to do the storied Devil Deuce are in the kit. I corrected the interior and did better tired and wheel covers, and wired the engine. I'll call this one a Tribute, Tribute Car, as a nod to the real one and the 1/1 scale tribute car. In researching I found color photos of the original with the cowl flames and that was how the tribute car was done. And Bobs your uncle. 

Tim Shea

Builders Comments

Working on a few more kits for the virtual show-and-tell.

The armor kit is Warlord's 1/56 scale Sherman VC Firefly; entirely out-of-the-box.  Weathering techniques are similar to the earlier Cromwell, but much more heavily applied to represent a severely used vehicle.  Unit markings are for a "C" squadron tank of the 4th/7th Royal Dragoon Guards in 1944. 

The F-16 work in progress is a 1/72 Heller F-16A kit.  Wheel bays are being "busied up" since Heller leaves them virtually undetailed.  This work is more aesthetic than scale-ish but should provide a little visual interest when finished.  The weapons are from the kit (6 Mavericks which will be mounted on TERs and a couple of fuel tanks); Sidewinders are provided for the wingtip rails as well.  I'm hoping to represent a Romanian version (acquired used from Portugal), but I will have to scratchbuild an AN/ALQ-131 ECM pod since the kit only gives you an ALQ-119.  More photos to come as the work progresses.

Kerry Hanscom (and his own photos)

Builders Comments

This is another one that was sitting around and waiting for completion. It is an old Hawk model from 1957 and the colors, etc. are from that era. Things change slightly as the years go by and if you were to hop one now some of the details would be different. But the same idea holds through the years. It is truly a favorite of mine when visiting that magical town.  

Regards,

Michael Stuckey  (and his own photos)

Builders Comments

Just finished this one. Historex 54 mm. Stated it so long ago I cannot recall when. Trying to complete projects that have been staring at me for a while.

Switched to a couple of aircraft that have also been sitting for a while. Will send along pics later.

Hope you are staying well. Had a Covid-19 test yesterday and it came back negative. So far, so good.  

Best,

Mike Stuckey (and his own photos)

Builders Comments

Howdy, 

I hope y'all are doing well, Brian mentioned to me about sending in pictures for the virtual build, so here is my little contribution! I headed home a a week or so ago, but I snagged some pictures of a few of the models I had been working on in quarantine back in Prescott. I have been jokingly referring to the four of them as the "quarantine quartet." Here are a few pictures of two members of the quartet and a little bit about my other current and upcoming projects! 

Special Hobby's 1/72 Northrop XP-56 Black Bullet

This a kit I have really wanted to build for a while now, The XP-54,55 and 56 have always been some of the most fascinating WWII prototypes to be. This kit models the 2nd prototype with larger upper vertical stabilizer. It has a lovely little resin cockpit which really fills in the entire forward fuselage. The overall fit on the kit was really quite nice and only needed a bit of filling. I decided to build mine without the nose gear doors, since a heard a story that during high speed taxing and test flights the doors would often have to be removed since they caused even more instability!  

Minicraft's 1/48 XF5F Skyrocket

This is wonderful kit of an often underappreciated aircraft. The ol' XF5F had a hard life and the single air frame went through lots of changes during its career. The kit gives you the option to build the aircraft during every stage of testing. I built mine as it would have appeared after gaining its longer nose and new nacelles, right before it was repainted in the blue/grey scheme. It was a really fun build and the unusual structure of the Skyrocket provides an interesting set of parts to work with. Fit problems were minimal and it was a relatively stress-free build! Its 99% done but I still have to do some exhaust weathering to match the rest of the beat up look of the plane  that it had during this stage of its life.

In progress 

Trumpeter's 1/72 Xian HY-6U Tanker 

I don't have any pictures of this guy with me, but this is my current project back in Arizona. The kit is of the Chinese built Tu-16s that were China's 1st aerial refueling tankers. Its a big ol' kit, but so far its gone together nicely, but looks like the fit for the engine nacelles is going to be problematic. 

Coming up 

Arma Hobby's 1/72 PZL TS-11 Iskra bis DF 

 I heard that these Arma Hobby kits were little gems and since I love building Polish Aircraft I really couldn't resist picking up one of the only indigenous jet aircraft Poland built. 

Hasegawa's 1/72 JASDF RF-4E in the 501st squadron's final year paint job 

 Up to this point I have never built and F-4 of any kind and I've been looking for the right one for me. When I saw that Hasegawa was doing a releases of basically all the different retirement schemes I knew this was the time to build and F-4, since I love the look of the RF-4E and the squadron markings for the 501SQ. 

I hope y'all stay safe and sane during this time, and I look forward to seeing everyone and their builds again when we can all meet up!

Sincerely,

John Ritter (and his own photos)

Builder's Comments

Hello,

I saw the stay at home builds posted up on the chapter website, and thought I’d send you a few photos of what I’ve been spending my time on lately for the May update.  I believe John is also planning on sending some as well.  Below are descriptions for each model.

Monogram F7F-3 Tigercat (1/72)
This is the second boxing, released in 1968.  It still builds up amazingly easily, with no fit issues to speak of.  The decals, being rather aged, were not used.  The wing markings come from the Revell 1/48 P-38, while the fuselage markings and nose art come from the Academy 1/72 P-51B.  It’s a massive tail sitter, even with lots of nose weight, so it normally is on the stand that came with the model.  The Tigercat is one of my all time favorite warbirds, so I’m very happy to finally have one in the collection.

Monogram P-36A Hawk (1/72)
Another classic Monogram kit, this is the 1978 white box release.  Again, no fit issues and it’s a super easy build.  Unfortunately my copy was sans engine, so I got the starfighters resin R-1830.  It looks wonderful, but given the thickness of the Monogram plastic, the engine is way too big for the kit.  Much, much, sanding later, the engine was jammed in the nose and construction could continue.  One modification I did make was I extended the locking struts at the rear of the main gear strut, they’re only long enough to reach the bottom of the wing, they don’t extend into the wheel well.  I also chopped the wing guns, as the A model didn’t have them.  The decals are original from the kit, they took some convincing in the form of an xacto knife to come off the backing paper, but they are adhering amazingly well after the difficulty getting them onto the plane. 
This build was originally supposed to be a small challenge between John and me to see if we could cleanly build a plane from start to finish in a single day.  I had this, he had the old tool Airfix 1/72 Spitfire Mk.I.  Had it not been for the engine trouble on the Hawk, it might have been possible. 

Platz AV-8B Harrier II and AV-8B+ Harrier II+ (1/144)

These are recent reboxing of F-toys Harriers, which originally came in blind boxes pre painted on the sprues.  The blind boxes are quite popular in Japan, and probably 3/4ths of my 1/144 collection are the pre-painted but build and decal yourself kits from F-toys bought on ebay.  They are quite nice for the size.  Anyway, these Harriers come two to a box, with three variants and marking options.  The noses are modular to allow three different variants to be built.  I built the two USMC options, the grey/green one being an original AV-8B of VMFA-211 “Wake Island Avengers,” and the three tone grey one being an AV-8B+ of VMFA-231 “Ace of Spades.”  There is also a British Harrier GR.9 option that has the slightly different tail and a third nose option.  They go together quite well, though given the small size they are a bit hard to detail.  They did come with external stores which I’ll put on at some point. 

Anigrand XF-90 (1/72)
Y’all’ve seen this before, but now it’s really starting to take shape.  One horizontal stabilizer fell victim to a sharp bump but it’ll go back on easy.  It should be ready to prime shortly, then onto the painting.  I’ll be using the testors metallizers for the first time, and I’m excited to see how it goes. 

Some notes on all of them: They all need a little bit of detailing here and there, prop tips, tailwheels and such.  But then again, that always seems to be the case. 

Coming up soon: Hopefully some progress will be made on the Gulfhawk II in the near future.  The YF-110B/MiG-21 is lined up to be a summer project, and I just ordered a pair of Tamiya 1/100 kits (Il-28 Beagle and MiG-19 Farmer) for dirt cheap, so those should be relatively easy and fast builds.  I’m also at the painting stage for a 1/72 F-35A (Academy kit), so I need to figure out how to make stealth paint work.  Lastly, I finally managed to acquire a pair of 1/72 Northrop N9Ms, one being the Sword N9MA short run kit and the other (which was snuck into the box) being the Eagle Talon vacuform N9MB.  Both are started, so it’s a race to see which one gets finished first. 

Hope y’all are staying safe and healthy out there and working on thinning those stashes!

Very respectfully,
Brian La Fetra (and his own photos)

Builders comments

The first of the completed projects-- Cromwell Mk. VIII.  I didn't want to overload the email attachment limits so am sending only 3 for now.  Kit is primarily out of the box, but 75mm kit gun has been replaced with rod and sprue to modify it to 95mm CS howitzer.  Some decals from generic sheets to supplement the kit decals.  Base paint is Rustoleum aerosol Dark Forest Green (looks close to Bronze Green) with relatively light weathering using oil "filters", acrylic pin- washing and chalk pastel mud/ dust. 

As indicated by the box art, the production and design is by Italeri who also market the same kit under their label (but with a different instruction sheet).  Scale of 1/56 is odd but is probably a case of "product differentiation" to limit competition for their wargaming system (for which the models are primarily intended).  The kit is well- engineered and assembles without any obvious issues; this would be a fine kit for beginning armor modelers. Some additional bits:Cromwell VIII in rear view.The painted figures are from Warlord Games, completed as a section of Middle East Commandos c. 1942.  Though intended as gaming pieces, the detail and animation make them worthwhile display pieces as well.  Painted with acrylics.  Weapon detail is finely rendered with 1928 Thompson and No. 1 Lee- Enfields readily identifiable.

The unpainted sprue is also from Warlord Games (British Airborne) illustrating their design philosophy-- figures are all  multipart, allowing individualized animation and armament.  These later war figures are clearly armed with the No. 4 Lee- Enfield and Sten SMGs, along with the Bren and PIAT.  These would, I think, provide an ideal basis for small- scale (1/56) vignettes or dioramas.

Kerry Hanscom (and his own photos)

                                  Builders comments

I imagined this was to be the way we will need to deal with things for at least a while. Sad but true.

Here is my last completed project. Major Lanoe Hawker, VC, DSO - 1916. Done in oils mostly with some acrylics. Figure maker unknown. 

Best Wishes 

Michael Stuckey (and his own photos)

                                         Builders comments

Here is a Japanese soldier, Pacific Theater, ca. 1942. I am unsure of the maker. It is 90 mm. Fun project and a little challenging to get the correct shades of color on some items. Just trying to keep up on some modeling despite the current issues out there. 

Stay safe!