Leaderboard

Hi All, I'm pleased to report a bid for the 2024 National Convention was submitted. It will be evaluated by the Eboard and details will be shared at the National Convention in Omaha. Thank you all who have reached out and supported the current bid cycle. See you in Omaha! Cheers, John

Since it was "Mustang Madness" week on the D&S FB page, I started this 1/48 Tamiya P-51B last Sunday afternoon and finished it this Friday evening, for a 6 day build. It's generally OOTB, though I did add a few doo-dads I had in the box: Moskit exhausts, resin tires, pe seat belts, Eduard resin 75gal wing tanks, a Quickboost resin N2 gun sight, MV lenses for the underwing IFF lights, and individually punched instruments for the featureless kit panel. Markings for the Boise Bee are from Aeromaster. The only drama in the build was when the black hole surrounding my work bench swallowed the left rear fuselage clear panel, forcing me to make another from clear sheet to replace it. All in all, this was a fun, fast build that puts the stash down one more! Gil

Judging is always subjective....to address your specific question; IF the "ragged" paint edge on the prop on the model was done to "scale", and looked like it was a case of "field Painting" (versus sloppy modeling), then it's not gigged. BUT, much of the time, whether it's THIS or (perhaps) an attempt to paint invasion stripes in a "realistic" sloppy manner, the modeler cannot pull it off in scale. A more experienced judge MIGHT know that in the ETO there was a shortage of tape and often planes were masked and painted with wet newspaper, making for sloppy edge lines and overspray. Also, they often had to buy "local" stocks of paint (for houses and cars) and thus they didn't wear on the airplanes as well as aviation grade paints, leading to ragged wear lines. BUT, a LOT of judges DON'T know that....and thus will chalk up those attempts to failed model painting. You pays your money and ya takes your chances! My advice (as always) is build it the way YOU want to for your shelf, look at winning anything as "gravy", and don't worry if the judges know less than you and don't give you the benefit of the doubt. Gil