All Activity

Here at the staging area for Maddog Manufacturing, you can see the latest vehicles that we completed as they roll out of the Motor Pool. First is the Canadian Churchill AVRE: Followed by my Russian SA-6 Gainful: And last for this month so far is this US Army M1296 Stryker Dragoon: All of these were weathered with Tamiya weathering powders; I think I'm beginning to start doing this better.... My apologies for the poor pics; these all look far better in person. My Iphone 11 camera does not take good pics, making my editing software have to really work hard to make them acceptable. Man I miss my camera!! Thank you all for checking these out, comments are always welcome.

And another score, here's my most recent acquisition gotten at my IPMS meeting on Friday: I hope to get that on the bench soon.

Thank you for the Positive feedback.As a Longtime judge for IPMS Im afraid she would not meet the criteria, however my plans may change Thanks again Bill

Very nice, taking it to San Marcos?

Very nice looking early Jug!

Gorgeous build of the Shooting Star! Your NMF work is top notch. 👍🏼👍🏼

Thanks guys

I’m the Head Judge so I better be there. 😀

I've seen this one a few times at the Hobby Shop. Progress is looking good Mark.

Thank you, Phil! Hope to see you there! Link to site if needed! 😁 Link to museum page Looking forward to Saturday! 😁

Very sharp and clean looking Shooting Star! I like the alternative later style wing tip tanks. Like Ron said, a win-win! Gil

... the Battleship Texas Foundation has announced that the drydock tours of the Texas in Galveston have been extended into June & July, including July 30 before the convention. The tours are on Sundays when the normal industrial work is at a minimum. Tours are about an hour and you walk on the dock deck to examine the hull. The ship herself is not open. Tour cost is a donation to support the restoration effort. Salvaged material is being made into souvenirs and there is a gift shop. The ship is currently scheduled to exit the drydock in August. More work to be done topside at that time. No final location of the ship announced yet, although Beaumont and Baytown have been eliminated/ I could see the itinerary of starting in the morning in Galveston, then driving to Fredericksburg for a day or two at the Nimitz museum before arriving in San Marcos on Wednesday

Registered on Day 1. Smooth as silk. See you in August!

Beautiful build and fun to boot. A real win-win situation.

This was mind flush built straight out of box and not concerned about inaccuracies(IE Intake shapes). This was a very easy kit to build.I thought it was well engineered and went together quite well. I used the IPMS National decals for the Korean War F-80. The decals were fantastic. The model was finished in numerous shades of Alclad over Tamiya Gloss Black (rattle can decanted). The Alclad Aqua Gloss was used and worked great with the decal clear. This model was built straight out of box and was a pleasure to build. Thanks for Looking and Comments always welcome Cheers Bill

In honor/recognition of the 20th Anniversary of the beginning of Operation Iraqi Freedom and those who served there, I’m going to be building this kit. I’ve got a set of AM Bigfoot tracks to replace the incorrect ones that come with the kit.

I dragged this out of the stash to have something to do while paint/glue dried on another project and I just got sucked into it. It's the old Airfix Matilda II from a blister pack. It's not terrible, especially considering it's age, although the ESCI one was much better although in a slightly larger scale. But, like I said, I was basically just killing time and it was on hand so I went with it. I back dated it to a Matilda II from the. BEF in 1940. That meant a different armored coaxial MG sleeve, the 'mud flaps' on the ends of the fenders and a different exhaust system. I also drilled out the lifting eyes on the turret just to make them stand out more. The original tracks in the kit were so stiff there was no way they would conform to their proper run, so I cheated and used some much more flexible tracks from another Airfix kit that fit fine, look ok and I was able to make them conform better. You have to guess what kit I took them from. Decals were from the spares pile. So, it's done and I was kind of surprised how well it turned out.

Welcome Russ! Glad to have you back with us! I too joined back in '77. Between moving between houses and transferring from OH back here to FL, I can sympathize with having to pack all of the models, the stash, and the bench tools; not to mention the work in getting set up again when you get to your new home. You didn't mention where in MI, but there should be an IPMS club or two near you hopefully. In the meantime, make yourself at home here and let us know how we can help you have more FUN with our hobby! Cheers, and best of luck for a smooth move! Gil

I have a 1/48 F-16 + weapon set package for sale I was planning to do a Polish conversion, but an emergency came up and I need to sell 1/48 Hasegawa Weapons D- U.S. Smart Bombs & Target Pods 36008 Box open, sprues sealed 1/48 Hasegawa F-16D Block 52 Plus Hellenic Air Force Box, sprues open, but complete Did not come with kit decals or instructions, but does have printed Polish & Hellenic Air Force instructions and Techmod 1/48 POLISH F-16 Block 52+ decals $65.00 + shipping for the package I'm in Texas Email t55mbt@outlook.com or message Billy

Hi everyone, I first joined IPMS/USA in 1977/78 and have rejoined a few times over the last 40-plus years. I've built a little bit of everything but have concentrated on figures for the last 20 years. I recently started building ships and 1/43 cars. The new direction building-wise has really brought my mojo back! I currently live in the Phoenix area but am moving back to Michigan (where I was born and raised) in less than a month. Packing up all my model junk has been a pain! Russ

This is the 5.5 week of the Jupiter 2. After ten days of an unscheduled break for a minor medical issue I am finally able to get back to the bench! The “.5” (half week) notation is because I have only had a couple of days of work on it. I started with installing the deck LED’s. I am using the acrylic gel medium to hold them in place. For the freezing tubes the instructions tell you to glue the wires down with the LED bent upwards. I did not like how they just hang there so I used some thin styrene sheets and mounted the LED’s to them then attached to the bottom side of the deck. With the LED’s mounted I then checked out the sound card. The sound out of the speaker is a little muffled and since the saucer will be sealed I decided to make a speaker grill. Instead of drilling holes like I have seen on other builds I decided to cut slits on the cargo doors. The doors have ribs already so I just sawed them open. Once cleaned and repainted they will be very hard to see but allow the sound to project out. Next I purchased a small dual relay board. These relays will be controlled by the remote control board to turn on the light kit and turn on the sound card from the remote. I mounted the speaker by using two styrene square rods then mounted the relay board in front of it. I then removed the batter board from the sound card and ran the power to a mono jack. The battery pack was then mounted to a mono plug. This will allow the battery pack top remain out of the ship and allow batteries to be changed in the future. I plan on making a battery box to look like a storage container that may have been used aboard the ship. Next I need to sort out which LED’s go to which walls and then mount the LED boards to the bottom. I can then start installing the previously completed interior pieces. You can see more photos and details from the start in my build log at: https://davidsscalemodels.com/build-log/1-35-jupiter-2-lost-in-space/

Thanks guys! To my limited knowledge, it never really got passe the mock-up stage, but yes it has a lot of the characteristics of today's stealth planes. Maybe a fan of old time prototypes was in the designing dept. of these modern aircraft offices? 😉