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I just finished the classic 1/32 Hasagawa Hellcat, first released back in the early '70s. I built it as an F6F-3 on the Princeton and "shot the works" detailing and correcting parts of it. BUT.... the main accomplishment was PAINTING the cat-mouth artwork on the cowling. The interior is a combination of Verlinden resin parts for the floor and side panels and HodgePodge PE parts for the main instrument panel (with film instruments), the seat, and side wall detailing. I also scratchbuilt the engine water injection storage tank behind the cockpit since it would be visable through the -3 side windows. The rudder pedals are HP PE parts (with Grumman on them!) but I had to scratchbuild their frames. The kit only had a hole for the tail wheel, so I scratchbuilt a well for it. The main gear bay detailing mysteriously stopped half-way back in the tire well, so the rear half of each of them needed to be detailed with strip plastic. The wells also needed to be closed off at the rear and their outlines around the tire wells corrected so that there was a curve along their inside edges along the top. You can also see the HP PE gear up-lock hooks added in each well. The kit's aileron hinges were solid blobs so they were cut off and replaced with HP PE actuators that have the proper see-through underside to them. The kit engine is almost a kit in itself and VERY complete for its age. All I did was add plug wire receptacles and ignition cables made from solder wire. The cat-mouth artwork is a combination of masking and painting for the eye and mouth outlines and teeth along with detailing for and around them added using black and red very fine point Sharpie pens. The hardest part wasn't the artwork itself as much as making sure the masking for both sides was even and symmetrical from all angles! The approach light in the leading edge of the wing was added using an MV lens with a clear cover made from packing tape. I scratchbuilt a Mk.VIII gun sight (8 parts!) and also added the bullet proof glass panel behind the windshield that the kit omitted. The dropped flaps and open cowl flaps are a kit option. The kit has indented scribing on the wings and forward fuselage, but I had to scribe in all of rest of the main fuselage and tail panel lines using a razor saw. I added position lights to the rear fuselage above the tail hook and on the fuselage spine. Also note the blue formation light that was drilled, painted, and given a UV cured resin lens top on the outer part of each top wing. The wingtip lights are drilled and painted clear plastic that was then sanded and polished to shape. I also used aftermarket brass .50 gun barrels, each one cut to its proper length. I added brake lines and gear actuator struts to each of the landing gear and also drilled out their scissors links. The tires are aftermarket resin. I also added MV lens IFF lights under the rear fuselage bottom and the -3 landing light under the left wing. All in all this was a fun build that only took me about 3 weeks. It was also nostalgic as I originally built it back in the late '70s. Now I have to figure out if I can get one more built before the Nats! Critiques, comments, and questions welcome as always! Gil

Ok.... after the debacle of diverting to build the RF-84F, I'm back to work on this 1/48 Martin T4M torpedo bomber. I started by making a 3rd tailplane, as the first 2 just didn't cut it. I tried to "carve" the ribs on the far left one and that was too rough looking. I used the skinning method on the center one, but it had some gunk under the skin when I folded it over that resulted in having to try to sand the ribbing which ruined a section. It seems the 3rd time was the charm! The far right shows the 3rd tailplane I've built by sanding thicker sheet plastic to airfoil shape and skinning it with with "drawn ribbed" .005 sheet plastic (as seen in the post above). This one has much more consistent ribbing. Since I'd had trouble before trying to scribe the elevon hinge line, this time I sawed the elevons off of the tailplanes, glued some half-round to their leading edges, and carved a groove in the rear edge of the tailplane so that the elevons fit snuggly into that groove when I reattached them. I also realized that according to the scale plans the tail fin does NOT sit on top of the tailplane; instead, the tail plane is mounted on either side of the tail fin just below the lowest rib. So, that meant cutting out the center section of the tail plane (the thickness of the tail fin) and drilling holes so I could use thick wire for mounting pins. This pic shows test fitting each tailplane half to the fin. Not absolutely perfect, but certainly workable! Front and rear views of test fitting the tail fin and tail planes to the balsa fuselage (which will be vacuformed in the end). Moving to the wings.... I realized the wings AND the ailerons would be easier to skin if they were separate, so I sawed them apart. I also reasoned that the center of the bottom wing, where it's attached to the fuselage, the landing gear, and where the torpedo hangs would probably be the most heavily reinforced wing area so I used .010 sheet plastic with no ribbing to skin it. I used "ribbed" .005 sheet for the upper wing section, but note that I had to leave a space for a wing tank (the blue rectangle) when drawing in the ribbing. All that's left now is to use the .005 sheet to skin the rest of the wings and also skin the ailerons! By the way.... I'm using Gorrilla brand contact cement to attach all of the skinning. It only takes 2-3 minutes after applying before it's ready to use. BUT, it is NOT designed for "polystyrene", so it has to be used only in thin coats, which is exactly what's called for in this build. It seems to sand better than the regular "wood working" contact cement I first tried and gives me slightly more working time than using superglue. Critiques, questions, and comments welcome as I stumble forward with this project! 😁 Gil

I started this 11 years ago, but my cat got ahold of it and chewed apart the stretched chassis and ate the fuel tanks. The cat is still alive. It started as IBG's 15cwt C15A, and everything behind the spare is scratch-built. The larger wheels came from IBG's Holmes Breakdown kit; details from PART helped dress it up. Decals were pieced together from the Matchbox Monty's caravan, various 1:72 sheets, and the IBG sheet. The unit sign was made by trimming the corners off a Portuguese flag decal, with white "72" numbers swiped from the numbers jungle on the Airfix USAAF Bomber Service set's decal sheet. Something I learned was that, when the Commonwealth forces were ordered to paint the white star on their vehicles prior to the Normandy landings, many Canadian units applied the markings crooked to differentiate themselves from the Americans! (A good website for Canadian vehicle markings is https://www.canadiansoldiers.com/vehicles/markings/vehiclemarkings.htm.) Weathering included everything from oils to MIG pigments. The bed's cover was made from toilet tissue, and the stores in the bed came from Italeri, Academy, Prieser and my own scratch-building. Note the cases of beer back there - since it's a Canadian truck, I'm saying they're Elsinores.

Got the front and rear work done for the bumper and doors to the body. Little things are beginning to add up. A couple of things need to be done to the chassis and engine and then I can begin painting the frame and get the engine installed. The grill guard that I had done I found to be too small so a new one was made up which protects the headlights much better. After that the front bumper was easy to get done. Next up is to get the trim done for the rear doors.

Got quite a bit more done in the last few days. Radiator and shroud are set as well as the fenders and running boards. Next is to get the hood sections done. The center needs to be tweaked so that the hinge will work. The gap needs to be closed some with a brass sliver on each side. Side pieces will also need hinges but are set to go.

For me BEST AWARDS CEREMONY EVER.! do not have the need to hear my name or waste the time hearing everyone else's. Having the winners posted within a couple days is more than good. I hope the ceremony stays exactly the same - short and sweet. I do however agree with sticking to the schedules Dave

Sorry some of you were disappointed in the way the Awards Show was run. Some of you always will be. Based on all the feedback I have received, you are not in the majority. Bill and Aris did a great job with less than 200 categories for a number of years with a show that generally lasted four hours or longer. Most still complained the show ran too long every year, and nobody did anything to fix it. Currently there are 225 regular categories. That number is likely to increase next year. Something needed to be done about the Marathon Awards Show. San Marcos used slides over dinner in 2023 and it worked well. In 2025 we knew we had to put a fix into the Awards Show to get it organized and finished a timely manner. We concluded there was no way to read 225 categories, no matter who was reading, and finish the show in a timely manner. We choose showing the slides over dinner. The plan was to show the slides twice, but everyone was finished eating, so they only ran once. Not sure if the slides ran long or dinner ran fast. We also for the first time I know wrote a script. Everyone who had a speaking roll had written remarks that we walked through prior to the show. FYI, we did cut back on the amount of time we spent thanking everyone, but understand, these folks have put two years of their life into a convention for IPMS and deserve some recognition. The result was an organized show that was completed in two hours. By the time everyone had picked up their models, the slide show was posted online in multiple places so everyone could see who won. Even then, we had people pounding on the Contest Room doors and yelling at volunteers demanding their models. I can't see where we are going back to a four hour show where we announce all the winners. We have received a lot more positive feedback than negative. That doesn't mean we are not looking to improve in 2026 and make some changes to make it easier for people to see the winners. We are always doing our best to improve the convention experience. That does not mean we are going to please everyone. We look at all the feedback and try to create the best convention we can. Scott Hackney 2nd Vice President, IPMS/USA

This will be my 2nd stab at scratchbuilding a model. It's seems to be more seldom done these days since there's SO many kits available that weren't out there just 10yrs ago. Still, there ARE still gaps, especially in 1/48, which is my primary scale of choice. This will take more time than my usual builds and it will be easier to post progress as I go along as opposed to trying to post everything at once at the end. This the Martin T4M-1. It's never been made in 1/48 in vacuform or resin to my knowledge. I've seen 2-3 scratchbuilt over the last 40yrs, but no kits have been produced except in 1/72. After finding some suitable plans I had them enlarged to 1/48. You can see the two pieces cut out of the plans laying under and beside them. I started by first gluing two blocks of balsa together with a sheet of copy paper trapped between them, using white glue. This allows the two "halves" to later be pried apart. Then those cut out plans were taped to the top and side of the balsa and it was cut to the rough shape seen above on a scroll saw. Note that I actually forgot the "dip" for the 3rd cockpit opening for the gunner's position and had to add that later! The two rough halves seen above were then glued back together and the fuselage was sanded to shape. I used rough and medium grit sanding sticks for this step. Although I did cut out one of the side view templates (as seen on the left in the first pic above) to check the shape as I went, I actually found it easiest to just use "mark-1 eyeball" for 90% of the work. I'm satisfied the outline matches the drawings close enough for "government work"! The over-arching idea here is to make a fuselage that can be split back apart into 2 halves that will be used to vacuform the fuselage in plastic. Next up were the wings. I decided to use the KISS principle and just carve them from solid balsa. The wing thickness on the plans is 1/4", so I used a sheet of 1/4" balsa. I decided not to vacuform the wing parts, but to simply use them as "cores" and wrap them in very thin sheet plastic (more on that below with the tailplane surfaces). Luckily for me, the top and bottom wing of the T4M is virtually identical, so all I had to do was cut out the top wing plan and use it to cut the 1/4" balsa sheets to shape on the scroll saw. The next step was to give the block balsa wings their airfoil shapes. The first thing to do then was to draw a center line in fine tipped black marker around the edges of each sheet. Since I also had a 1/8" sheet of balsa handy, it was used as a template to draw the lines. Those center lines would help me judge the evenness of my sanding as I progressed, especially on the trailing edge since both the top and bottom rear surfaces had to taper down exactly to that rear center line! The leading edge was easily done as all it needed was simple "rounding", which was done with sanding sticks. I taped a large sheet of 80grit sandpaper to the front edge of my workbench to do the heavy sanding on to work on getting the airfoil shape. Again, I just used "mark-1 eyeball" to sand a tapering surface on the top and bottom. I switched back and forth between them frequently always trying to sand just as much on one as I'd just done on the other; and to also maintain the same angle I was holding the piece at while sanding. Once again, I found this easier than expected and the heavy 80grit paper helped speed the process along. Once both were sanded to shape I only had to add the pilot's cutout in the center to make the "top" wing. One part of scratchbuilding is knowing you have to engineer things that kits give you. I had to figure out HOW I would attach the bottom wing to the fuselage. Again, trying to go the simplest way, I decided to cut the airfoil shape into the fuselage bottom so the wing can be fit up into it. The scroll saw has more than earned its keep on this project! I tackled the tail surfaces next. Since they're smaller I decided to use thick sheet plastic to carve their blanks. After transferring their plan shapes to the sheet plastic heavy scissors was used to cut them out. They were then hand sanded to their airfoil shapes just like the wings. Note the very thin piece of .005 plastic sheet at the top of the pic. This was what I'd use to "skin" them with, so I didn't have to worry about any sanding marks on the plastic blanks. This and the following pics will show the method used to make the ribbed skinning for the horizontal tailplane, but the same method was used for the fin and rudder too. Note that the tailplane plan has been drawn in pencil onto the .005 plastic sheet, including the "rib" lines. Also note that they do not go all the way to the edges of the drawing/part. The .005 sheet was then placed onto a folded piece of paper towel to give it a slightly padded surface under it. A straight edge and a ball point pen was then used to draw in the rib lines (whether or not the ink transfers to the plastic is not important). This method creates an indented line on the inside and a raised "rib" on the outer surface of the thin sheet. Here, the tail plane blank (which had already been used in 2 previous failing attempts at ribbing!) has been superglued to the first half of its "skin". After it set, more superglue was applied to the other half and it was folded over onto the top. This method isn't perfect.... it produces rough edges at the sides and rear, but those can be carved and sanded to shape. On one of my first attempts I tried using contact cement instead of superglue. It worked ok, BUT when it came time to sand it and the .005 was sanded through, the contact cement did NOT sand well. Superglue solved that problem! Here are the rough sanded and primed tail plane parts. I'm very satisfied with the representation of the structural ribbing as being even and visible enough for my purposes. I believe that once they've been fine sanded and painted they'll look the part, pun intended! That's where things stand as of today! My next step will be to try to "skin" the wings. More pics when more progress has been made. Comments, critiques, questions, and suggestions are all welcome as always! Gil

I have always liked Tester's Dullcoat, but sometimes it dries to a semi-matte rather than a dead flat finish. I recently read on-line another modeler say that he lets a bottle of Tester's Dullcoat sit until the "flattening agent" (you know what I mean, all that 'stuff' that gathers at the bottom of the bottle) settles to the bottom. Then he draws/pours off a quantity of the solvent. This increases the concentration of the flattening agent and depending on how much you draw off, the finish that can vary all the way up to dead flat. I decided to give this a try. I took a new bottle of Dullcoat which had settled completely and poured off about 1/3 to 1/2 of the carrier/solvent. I was a bit afraid that it might be spotty or have flecks of flattening agent in the finish so I tested it on a scrap piece of plastic with a flat paint on one side and a high gloss black on the other. i thinned the Dullcoat as normal for my airbrush and gave each finish a coat. The matte finish was still matte, no surprise. But the high gloss dried to a DEAD FLAT and there was no flaking or spotting on either finish. I then tried it on my current project that had gloss and matte surfaces plus decals and I got an even dead flat finish over all. 60 some odd years of modeling and I am still learning.

Some more details have been added to the wings..... The 4 wing fold panels have been scribed in, their hinges added, and another coat of primer sprayed on. The hinges were made by sawing notches every 1/16" along a piece of half-round plastic strip. Note that hand holds have also been drilled out in the wingtips of the bottom wing. There's still yet MORE filling and sanding to be done, as evidenced by the one seam line running down into the one wing fold panel and some other slightly marred spots here and there, but little by little the wings are getting there!

This is the Muroc Models 1:72 kit of this weird test article, a glider used to verify the aerodynamic qualities of the JB-1A unmanned flying bomb (which flew for a total of five seconds when it was finally tested). Apparently, it didn't like slowing down - landing it was a challenge, and its landing gear was unsprung, giving it a suspension not unlike that of a shopping cart. I built it in three days - it's a simple kit, and I added detail to the cockpit, plus some nose weight so it sat right. The yellow is ModelMaster deep yellow.

My latest effort is the 1/48 Hobby Boss FJ-4 Fury. The kit has recessed panel lines and rivet detail, and average cockpit detail. Overall shapes and outlines appear accurate, save for one glaring error: the rear fuselage, between the trailing edge of the wings and the horizontal stabilizers, had a very prominent "dip" that shouldn't be there. A review of this kit in Bert Kinzeys' Detail & Scale book on the FJ-4 has instructions on how to correct this error, but I decided to live with it as is. Wing fold joints are included, but you must cut the wing tips apart yourself. Overall, parts fit is good, with a little filler needed at the wing roots and at spots along the fuselage and nose. The kit decals provide markings for two Marine jets, from VMF-451 'Warlords', and VMF-232 'Red Devils', but the blue in the VMF-451 markings are way too light. Hobby Boss offers kits of both the FJ-4 and FJ-4B, but you can build either variant from either kit. If you build an FJ-4, be sure to sand off the rear-most speed brake door on each fuselage half, and use the nose gear door without the antenna fairing. My references for this build were: Squadron/Signal Publications No. 103, FJ Fury in Action; Naval Fighters No. 25, North American FJ-4/4B Fury, by Steve Ginter; and the excellent FJ Fury in Detail & Scale, Part 2: FJ-4 and -4B Variants, by Bert Kinzey. Another valuable online source of photos and information was this web page on Replica in Scale: https://replicainscale.blogspot.com/search?q=fj-4 I wasn't happy with the barely-there kit instrument panel detail and how the cockpit consoles were represented, so I used an aftermarket cockpit set from AMS Resin. The kit seat is good, but lacks cushions and belts. The AMS resin seat wasn't that much better, but it did have a seat cushion, belts, and oxygen hose molded in. The kit has nicely detailed sidewall parts, but I couldn't get them to fit with the resin cockpit set. The AMS set also includes a detailed part for the area under the rear of the canopy, for which Hobby Boss provides nothing. The cockpit parts were airbrushed Model Master Acryl Dark Gull Grey, then details were hand-painted, and attached to the fuselage half. The AMS set also included a exhaust piece with flame holder, but it didn't fit well so I used the kit exhaust, and a length of styrene tube with the flame holder glued to the end to give the exhaust pipe some depth . The intake trunk fit pretty well but still needed sanding and putty to eliminate seams. The nose intake ring lacks the approach light at the bottom, so a section was cut from the intake and three small holes drilled, and painted Tamiya clear red, amber, and green. The cutout for the lights was then filled with Micro Krystal Klear. I ended up doing a lot of sanding around the intake to smooth everything out. Before closing up the fuselage halves, I added several large fishing weights to keep the model from being a tail-sitter. The fuselage speed brakes can be posed open, and have good detail inside, but I glued mine shut. The fit here was poor. The prominent vents on each fuselage side were too thick, so they were sanded down to paper-thinness, glued on place and faired in with Vallejo putty. The openings to these vents are also shaped incorrectly, but I didn't try to correct them. Airframe assembly went smoothly. Minor gaps at the wing root, nose and fuselage were filled with Vallejo putty, and Mr. Dissolved Putty. Wing fences are molded onto each wing, and were sanded to thin them to a more accurate scale thickness. Parked FJ-4's usually have a nose-up stance. The kit nose gear strut is a little short, so I added a one-eighth inch section of styrene rod to the top of the strut, and replaced the compressed torque links with a photo-etched one from my spares box. The nose gear fork was cut away and repositioned turned to the right. I added wire brake lines to the kits' main gear struts, and painted all the struts Tamiya Titanium Silver. Most of my reference photos showed that the main gear doors were often open when the jet was parked, but the kit doors had no detail on the insides. I used very thin sheet styrene cut to fit inside each main door, and cut lightening holes in them based on the photos I had. I also added rivets with a riveting tool along the door edges for added detail. One painted and highlighted with Tamiya panel line wash, they looked much better. All the gear bays were painted white, then the details highlighted with Tamiya black panel line wash. North American usually painted the entire inner surface of their landing gear doors red, but careful study of photographs indicated that Reserve jets had white inner gear doors, outlined in red. The landing light in the smaller nose gear door was painted Chrome Silver, and a wire added to the back of this light. The kits' wingtip pitot probe was too thick and inaccurate, so I built a new one with lengths of styrene rode and wire. The FJ-4 series has three fuel dump vents: one on each wingtip trailing edge, and another just under the fairing above the rudder. The wingtip vents are molded solid, so they were drilled out and sanded to shape. The tail dump pipe was recreated with a small piece of styrene rod drilled out and glued in place, then painted red. A small white position light was also added to the rear of the vertical fin fairing just above the rudder. I also added a missing vent on the left side of the upper fuselage, behind the canopy. The kit includes two drop tanks, two Sidewinders, and six Bullpup air-to-ground missiles, but the FJ-4 never carried Bullpups. The FJ-4 had long legs for a fighter, and therefore didn't usually carry drop tanks, either, so I left these off as well. I should point out here that the Navy flew the FJ-4B attack version, while the Marines flew the FJ-4 fighter version. Reserve squadrons often flew a mix of both types. I primed the model for painting with Tamiya White Fine Surface Primer. The paint scheme I chose was that of a Navy/Marine Reserve jet based at NAS Memphis in 1962. It was in the standard Gull Grey over White undersurfaces and control surfaces, but with the entire nose, tail, and forward half of the wings painted Florescent Orange. I used Model Master acrylic Flat Gull Grey for the topside color, Tamiya White Primer for the underside color, and Model Master Acryl Florescent Red (which is actually Orange) for the high-visibility color areas. Leading edges of the wings and stabilizers were sprayed Titanium Silver as well. After painting was complete, I gave the entire jet a coat of Future Floor Polish for a gloss coat, then applied the decals. No decal sheets existed for the jet I was making, but fortunately they are easily scrounged. The '6M' tail code, wing code, bureau number, and aircraft number came from AeroMaster and SuperScale letter and number sheets from my decal catalogs. The Navy/Marine Reserve service designator came from an old Testor F2H Banshee kit. The rest of the markings came from AeroMaster sheet #14193, 'Furies of The Fleet in Color, Pt. 2'. Once all the markings were applied, a final coat of Mr. Super Clear Matt sealed the decals. The final step was attaching the canopy, which led to the trickiest part of the build. Under the rear section of the FJ-4/4B canopy is a cylindrical object which isn't identified in any of my references, but I do recall reading somewhere that it's an oxygen regulator. A black coiled cable, resembling an old telephone cord, runs from this 'regulator' to the rear of the ejection seat. The cord is stretched taught when the canopy is open. It's very visible in photographs, so I recreated the cord by wrapping thin copper wire around a small drill bit, spraying it black, and attaching it to the 'regulator', which was then glued to the underside of the canopy. When dry, the canopy was then attached to the model. The Hobby Boss 1/48 Fury kits are a mixed bag: beautiful, crispy-molded and engraved parts that are flash-free with good fit, but with sub-par cockpit detail and a large 'dip' on each side of the rear fuselage that shouldn't be there. Still, a little extra detailing and work will reward you with a fine model of this very capable Navy fighter of the 1950's.

I built this electronic version of the S-3 Viking with a Black Box resin interior, Paragon resin wing folds, and the Metallic Details resin/PE engine set. Here's the BB resin cockpit painted and installed. It fit better than any other resin cockpit I've ever used on a model! Note that it's actually an S-3A/B cockpit and the main IP isn't accurate for the ES-3A electronic cockpit; but who can see under that dark tinted canopy? Even so, I did install only one of the control sticks to be more accurate for this version. The ram air intake in the tail fin was just a hole in the kit, so I used some of the tubing seen there, capped off with a punched plastic disk to create an intake duct. Using the Paragon resin wing folds involves major surgery and some heavy sanding to blend them into the wings. You do need to be careful also not to break off the small disks that do extend a bit higher than the folds on the top side, though they're not as fragile as they look. This the Metallic details resin and PE engines set, partially assembled. The instructions take careful study as they don't show clearly all of the casting areas that need removal. However, once you start trying to test fit things you'll figure out there's more to be done! The resin parts fit together VERY well! The advantages offered using this set are the realistic fan blades that you can actually see through ala the real engine, circular intake housings with no seams to sand, and they and their pylons all fit so well to the model I was able to paint them and decal them separately and then add them to the model after painting and decaling the fuselage. This pic of the left engine shows just how amazing the finished product looks! The markings came from a CAM decal sheet. The model was pre-shaded with black lines before painting the overall Light Ghost Gray scheme and then all panel lines were done with a pencil. On to the rest of the pics! The only other anomaly on this kit was the need to add 25+ antennas of various shapes, sizes, and types in various spots! The kit instructions require a bit of study to be sure to get them all in the right spots. This is #21 for this year and I'm going to try to slide yet one more quick build in just under the wire in the coming week! Critiques, questions, and comments welcome as always! Gil

Brewster Buffalo done wheels up for fun. Note the decal setting solution that I didn't clean off properly. It doesn't show as much in normal lighting. Kit went together well with the exception of the wing to fuselage joint. The wings are inset into recesses and the recesses are a bit larger than the wings so there's a rather substantial gap around them that needs attention. All in all, not a bad little kit and makes a nice display model

Joe, as long as you get there before Friday night when registration ends, you should still be able to register and enter your model(s) that you bring. You don't need to be there all four days, but it is one thing I do recommend you do one year as the experience is mind-blowing sensory overload. Not to mention the incredible people you meet.

For the third week of the Corsair I spent most of the week super detailing the landing gear utilizing the photo etch details. This required removing some of the kit molded details and replacing them with the photo etch. These were then installed in to the fuselage. I then base coated the underside in light grey paint. Speaking more in to the scheme, I have had lots of comments on the scheme. There are a lot of variations of schemes used on many different Corsairs. However, the scheme I will be using is one that the client has requested. The lower section is light grey and the upper with be intermediate blue. I will also be having the wings lowered and the flaps down. I started on the flaps. The starboard inside flap has a square hole that is used in various versions. The instructions have this filled for on this version. I am currently working on the rest of the wings and will then paint the base coat on the topside. You can see all the photos and details from the start in the build log at: https://davidsscalemodels.com/build-log/1-48-f4u-1a-corsair/

Favorite model when I was a kid. Had to re-do it. Enough said that you can't relive your childhood. Fought me all the way, but it's done.

I have to agree with everything you said. This was my 10th National Convention (and likely my last), and probably the best in my experience. My only complaint was the absence of Andt's HHQ. That's on him, though. Great seeing you!

Thanks for the kind words! LOL agreed there's a lot of funny stuff in that movie "Can I give you a hand, sir?" "Already got one." 😂

That is OUTSTANDING!!! Well done! One of my favorite movies. "You know, I'm a rather brilliant surgeon. Perhaps I can help you with that hump." "What hump?" 😂😂😂

A easy, basic kit of the Bull Frog. With the exception of the cockpit clear piece, the fit was good. Had to use stars & bars and the HMM 261 (actually a 268)from a Fujimi kit as HB got theirs wrong or were not included. The instructions had no interior color call outs which I thought was strange. Maybe someday Academy will re-issue their 48th kit again.

The Silicon Valley Scale Modelers had a contest called "Build Your Name." Unlike Frank Babbitt (who did a Ki-84) or Eugenie Ray (whose pre-marriage initials were E.T., hence her little spaceship), I had no obvious options. I built the plane flown by Robert C. Buchholz of the Fourth Fighter Group (you can read his full story here: https://obscureco.wordpress.com/2026/04/12/metronymic-mustang-building-lt-robert-buchholz-p-51d-10-from-the-eduard-172-kit/ ) who was not a close relation (although his name is spelled like my family's was before they immigrated from Hamburg in the 1880s). The Eduard kit is a step up in detail and accuracy from the Tamiya kit, but a step down in ease of construction. The surface is detail is... well, a bit overdone. Some areas of construction, like the instrument panel/rudder/windscreen, don't fit very well. The 108-gallon tanks in the kit don't fit particularly well; with Eduard's Brassin line, one could be cynical and say there was a reason for that. Different variants need you to scribe or fill lines; pay particular attention if you do a D-5 with a fillet. All that said, the cockpit looks great, they give you tank options we've never had before, and a bit of modeling is rewarded. I used True North paint for the red and white trim and Alclad II for the fuselage. The wings were puttied, sanded and painted with Floquil old silver.

Members 2,217 627 posts Gender:Male Location:Marietta, Georgia USA Interests:1/72 US military aircraft and small scale r/c aircraft. Report post #1 Posted 10 minutes ago I am not really certain where to post this, as it is more of a collection than anything else, and all of the models have been seen before. It is however my desire than all the information gathered and posted about these aircraft should be in one place that all modelers who wish to duplicate any of these models, may find the necessary info and some pictures or mentioned references, and in some cases, original artwork that can be downloaded. I sort of stumbled across George Laven while researching builds of various colorful aircraft. I soon realized that this one guy was responsible for an awful lot of them, and wondered, "who WAS this guy"? There's not a lot out there, but I'll give a brief bit of what I've found. First, "Stars and Bars -- A Tribute To The American Fighter Ace 1920 - 1973", by Frank Olynyk, ISBN I-898697-17-5, copyright Grub Street London, 1995 states " George Laven joined the Army Reserves and served as a Flying Cadet beginning Dec 30, 1940....was commissioned a 2nd Lt. and rated a pilot Aug 15, 1941 at Luke Field, AZ... was promoted to 1st Lt. June17, 1942 and sent to the Aleutians, Alaska, assigned to the 55th FG, 54th FS.... (and more). Where he is first found in a P-38E, named "Itsy-Bitsy": Build Thread Here This aircraft has at least two known pictures, one on the flight line in Alaska, and one at the San Antonio, Tx airfield, where he flew the aircraft from Alaska for repairs, and a brief holiday. Interestingly, "Stars and Bars" (above) states that he had earlier flown this same aircraft on what they quote as the longest over-water attack mission to that date, 8 hrs 45 mins, or 600 miles from Umnak to Kiska, where he claimed his first kill, sharing a Kawanishi 97 flying boat, which was on the water -- later dis-allowed. Then he appears again, still in the Aleutians, flying his second P-38E, also named "Itsy-Bitsy": Build Thread Here While the blue color seems highly suspect, much discussion and analysis of Life Magazine photos of this aircraft (including color-correcting the photos) failed to yield any explanation. So, it is painted, as it appears. Next, Laven was promoted from Captain (Oct 8, 1942) to Major (July 19, 1944), and sent to HQ 49th FG in the Phillipines on March 3, 1945, where he flew a Lockheed P-38L-5-LO, "Itsy-Bitsy II". It should be noted that the girl he married had this for a nick name, while his familial nickname was "Butz". Anyway, his P-38L, names "Itsy-Bitsy II": Build Thread Here In this aircraft, he shot down the last kill of his unit, an Emily, on April 26, 1945, which would be his last. Nominally his 5th kill, but since the first would later be dis-allowed, turned out to be his fourth kill. Laven was promoted to Lt Col on Sept 7, 1945, and when next we see him, he is in Maine, flying a Republic F-84B, named "Itsy-Bitsy III": Build Thread Here He is next seen flying two or three F-84E aircraft, and on Aug 1, 1951, he was promoted to full Colonel. The most colorful of his three F-84E's is shown here: Finished Pics Here Next we find Laven in maybe the most colorful USAF aircraft ever, a North American F-100C: Build Thread Here This model is a heavily modified Trumpeter F-100C kit, and it was a boat-load of work! Later, he also had a Lockheed F-104C painted to order here: Finished Pics Here It should be noted that the Brass was very unhappy about this paint job, and was eventually ordered "de-tuned", so Laven can be seen in F-104's with at least three sets of markings. It should also be noted that his aircraft at the time were kept "squeaky clean" and highly polished, as he was known to attend an airshow or two... Next Laven was chosen to receive for the Air Force it's first Phantom, dubbed the "F-110A", which was in fact a standard Navy-type F-4B, which the Air Force flew around on public relations tours, until their own real version, the F-4C could be delivered. Here is the F-110A: Build Thread Here And we come to (chronologically) the last major aircraft type tied to Laven. As commander of Clark Field in the Philippines, he flew a flight to Vietnam, where at the last minute, and not planned to include him originally, he was placed in charge of the the first F-100 mission into Laos, to bomb a North Vietnamese ground-to-air missile defense site, which mission turned into such a snafu -- NOT LAVEN's FAULT -- that in the time honored military way, Laven got the blame and was axed from his job! Anyway, only one known photo of the takeoff on that last mission of his is currently known to exist, and this is my interpretation of the F-100D flown by Laven that day: Build Thread Here Again, another Trumpeter kit, with many mods! Anyway, Laven stayed on with the Air Force, finally retiring in June 1969. He was later hired by McDonnel Aircraft, and McDonnel-Dougles, as their representative to the Israeli Air Force. He died Feb 16, 1995 in San Antonio, TX. Oh, and one last thing -- he was known for fast cars (wrecked his DeLorean at high speed) and strange cars: Well, I am not claiming that George E. Laven Jr was the best airman, or the best pilot, or anything like that. But I am claiming that he may be the most flamboyant American flyer; not a Chuck Yeager, but my hero nevertheless, and we should all be thankful for his 30 years of service defending freedom -- as well as all the others sort of like him, fighting the unsung fight. Ed Ellickson

The Osprey was a navalized version of the Hawker Hart series. It was flown off of cruisers mainly. This is a detailed little kit but some of the parts, like the struts, are very fragile. It has a nice interior, which of course is hard to see. Everything fit pretty well if you were careful and did lots of dry fitting. The decals were very good except after dull coating there was some 'blush' on some so my bad on that. Amodel makes a float plane version of this a/c as well, which I have attempted, the but the directions for the float assembly are vague and the parts fragile and fiddly so it defeated me. This is my second attempt so I opted for wheels.

The paint and decals are all on! Just of pic of the overall progress. The black part of the chevron was painted but the white trim stripes are decals. Note the wing walks, which will need individual flat coating. The fuselage codes were cobbled together from spare decals and I was even lucky enough to have the squadron insignia in there! The "T4M-1" was added using water-slide individual letter and number decals. The dash was made by cutting a #1 in half. Pics of the painted engine front and back minus its red cooling cover. The "sealing" gloss coat is on and drying. Next up is rigging! Gil

After messing with this a bit, my advice is to start slowly taking out carrier like maybe only 1/8 to 1/4 at first. Test it out and if necessary take out more or less to find the concentration you like. I have also found that each bottle of this stuff varies in the amount of flattening agent in it so you have to be conscious of that variable as well.

Main IPs are done (or as done as I'm gonna make 'em!).... I started by painting the IPs Tamiya flat black.... I then pried them apart so I could scratch off the markings on each painted black dial..... However! THAT didn't go as well as planned so I switched gears, dug out some Mike Grant instrument decals and punched out each individual instrument and white glued them onto the back of each panel. I then added some spare PE parts and some painted red buttons to finish them up. Interestingly, I believe using the spray can Tamiya flat black may have hindered my initial idea. The scratch-off dial method was originally developed using enamel paint back in the '70s and I think it actually scratches off easier than the Tamiya acrylic/lacquer paint. All I know is I was having more trouble scratching off the paint to make the dials than I have in the past and that's the only difference I could think of. Just file that away for future reference! No pics.... but I also got the interior frame and fuselage interior sides sprayed with their initial coat of metallic aluminum! Perhaps I might have the interior "done" and the fuselage glued together by the end of the week! Gil

Found a boo-boo in my build.... I JUST found a small anomaly in my T4M-1 build.... evidently there should be NO REAR inner vertical wing struts, as seen in the pic above! The lack of a vertical strut at the rear of the wing fold break is something I should have noticed earlier. The plans I have do not have a "rear" view and the rest of the plans imply that the struts would be there like most other biplanes of that time. But after studying pics of the real thing, they're just not there! Luckily it's an easy fix at this point! Just leave them off! It always pays to quadruple check your references! Gil

Got the main landing gear built for the T4M-1 torpedo bomber. Each one consists of 11 pieces of airfoil strut, wire, and a small bit of tubing. More pics after I get the tail wheel built! Gil

Some more progress pics of scratchbuilding my 1/48 T-4M torpedo bomber. Made a big step forward in getting the outer wing struts made and test fitted. Looks like I might just be able to make a model out of this after all! Test fit of the struts and the wings with the fuselage in place for reference. I'm pleased with the "look" overall. This rear view seems to confirm that the struts have been placed evenly and symmetrically. A close look at the wing surfaces shows the pencil lines drawn on and used to mark the exact strut placement points. The struts are airfoil strip stock cut to identical lengths and drilled and pinned with thin floral wire. The 3 thicker wires on the bottom wing center line are used to temporarily anchor the wooden fuselage in place for test fitting. You can also see some more of the filling that's been done on uneven scribe lines and minor imperfections that have since been sanded and primered over yet one more time. Anyway, this feels like a major step forward in the project and is a great motivator to move on to building the landing gear struts. More pics when they're done! Comments, questions, and critiques welcome, as always! Gil Gil

I had some Christmas money this year as well as a $100.00 Gift Card for Brookhurst that my SoCal AMPS group bought me. So I took them to Brookhurst Hobbies where I got a lot of glues, some putties, some blades and these: Time to restart my Maddog Manufacturing tours again!

I started the 1/32 Fisher resin F9F-5 Panther last Sunday and finished it this evening. This was the starting point. The resin casting is VERY smooth, extremely nice, and the kit engineering is ingenious. That fuselage is cast as 1-piece and also hollow! The combination cockpit/nose gear bay/speed brake bay is designed to be slid up into the hollow nose from underneath after getting it painted. There's even a tray cast into the front of the cockpit designed to hold pennies or nickels as nose weight (I used fishing sinkers). The wings are cast as 1-piece wing tip to wing tip with the gear wells cast in and the proper dihedral already set. The elevators and ailerons are positionable and the flaps and speed brakes are separate. The resin landing gear are wire reinforced so that they have the strength to hold the model. The kit also includes a fret of PE parts for the cockpit, wing fences, the Tiny Tim rockets, and to help detail the landing gear. The model was primed with Tamiya Silver, which was then masked off on the leading edges of the wings, tail planes, and vertical fin. Rattle can Tamiya T-55 Dark Blue Gloss was used for the USN Navy Blue. When it was dry the red squadron trim was masked off and airbrushed on. The decals are from the kit and represent a typical Panther operating in Korea, but is not accurate for any one plane. This Fisher resin kit is now VERY rare (and expensive) ever since Fisher was burned out of his home in California a few years ago, losing all of his molds and being unable to replace them ever since. If you find this kit at anything near or less than $200 and want it, snatch it up as it's worth 2-3 times that! Critiques, questions, and comments welcome as always! Gil

Gil, Gil, Gil... That Panther turned out great especially for what, a weeks build? The overall build looks amazing especially the finish. Who would have thought that Tamiya's dark blue would fit the bill? Color really looks good too! Any more pics of the office/office chair? I had the twogar for the longest time and sold it a few years ago for a nice penny. I also have the Fisher conversion for the Skyraider to make it into the station wagon variant as my dad called it when he crewed on one while at Pax Riv. This is something I won't be selling anytime soon.. Thanks, after seeing your build, I am getting the itch to do the AD-5. I know its for the Air Force variant but with a lil TLC and some mods, I got this! Happy Modeling, Mike

This gun was a beast, as a kit and in reality. Developed at the end of WW II, it nevertheless saw service in the US for a short time until it was overtaken by the first generation of SAMs. It could fire up to 60,000 feet and earned the nickname "The Stratosphere Gun". This is the 60's vintage Lifelike kit of it that I got in a bag at the last IPMS Nationals. Amazingly, it was only missing two parts, one that I replaced by scratching up a replacement and the other was the fourth figure that came with the kit which I did without. There was not one part that wasn't covered in flash and/or mold seams or had sink marks or mold release pin marks. When I was done with the clean up my modeling area was under a 1/4" thick coating of plastic dust from filing and sanding every single part. Fit was mostly ok but some areas needed extra help to go together and the instructions weren't very specific on how some things went with other things. It came with a cover for the top of the gun that I have to believe was not used in action but rather when traveling or not in use. It was a typical 'action model' of its era having many moving parts which always makes assembly interesting. It could be displayed in battery or in travel mode, the two bogey wheel sets used similarly to those on a German 88. The figures were typical 60's molds and the poses somewhat stilted. Since the gun was used after the armed forces were integrated, I painted the ammunition handler as an African American. That skin tone is tricky. You may notice the round in the tray. That's the automatic loader. The tray tilts down and an arm swings around and shoves the round into the breach. Lifelike had a series of these 1/40 scale military kits and they all had cute nicknames on them. This gun was "Tilly the Toiler" ( There were no decals in the bag so I couldn't do that), An Amtrac was "Winne the Whale" and a 155 SP gun was "Choo Choo Baby". They also did some of the support equipment for a Hawk AA Missile battery, but they weren't named to my knowledge.

HI ! Here another project I have done in the past using the EDUARD kit ..If you like to view more pic of it , I have set up an GOOGLE page for it , just visit this link : https://photos.app.goo.gl/4BieFCWNi6GxWP2m6 Enjoy ! Jmarc

As 2025 comes to a close here is a review of the eight builds completed over the last year. Four of these were commission builds. Three of them were larger projects that took up a lot of time to build to get the details correct for the clients. The first build of 2025 I built was Academy’s 1/48 PBJ-1D (B-25D). The scheme is the “The Fork-Tailed Devils” of VMB-433 for the U.S. Marines located on Emirau Island, New Guinea 1944. I added some resin seats as well as photo etch details to compliment the model. I had to scratch build the boarding ladders and many details in the nose. For a reference I used William Wolf’s “B-25 Mitchell – The ultimate look” book. This covers everything on the B-25 from drawing board to flying arsenal as well as all versions including the PBJ versions. You can see all the photos and details from start to finish in the build log at: https://davidsscalemodels.com/build-log/1-48-pbj-1d-b-25-mitchell/ The second build and the first commission build was of Trumpeter’s 1/25 scale American LaFrance Eagle Fire Pumper Fire Truck was for a client who trained and served as a volunteer fireman on this truck. This was the first time I built a fire truck and interesting build for me. The client also furnished many photos of the actual fire truck. I used some resin accessories from “Three Inches under” as well as scratch built many details like the fire hoses and nozzles, SCBA packs, and custom decals. Below are photos of the completed model as well as a short video of the model on a turntable. You can see all the photos, details, and final video from start to finish in the build log at: https://davidsscalemodels.com/build-log/1-25-american-lafrance-eagle-fire-truck/ The third build and second commission I replicated a 1922 Ford Model T Touring for a close friend whose father recently passed away. The car was his pride and joy as he spent many years restoring it. The problem is there were no 1922 Model T Touring kits available. So after doing some research I found two kits that I used to “kit bash” most of the parts and sections to replicate most of the vehicle and scratch built other specific parts for the 1922 Ford. I used multiple photos of the actual vehicle so it was easy to replicate. This was then mounted in a display case made by Grandpa’s Cabinets. The term “Kit Bash” is a modeling term where multiple parts from multiple kits are used to make a specific model. This was the first time I used the kit bash method to create a fantastic replica for this memorial project. You can see all the photos, details, and a video of the build in the build log at: https://davidsscalemodels.com/build-log/1-25-scale-1922-model-t-touring-car/ The fourth build I used an old kit made by Testors. Testors was known for doing some of the unique subjects over the years. This is their 1/32 scale H-43B Huskie helicopter. It was originally released in 1961 by Hawk Models and re-issued in 1967 to include Viet Nam Era parts. The version I built is the final release of the kit in 1998. I scratch built all of the interior details. The Kaman Aircraft H-43B Huskie is a very distinctive helicopter. It uses twin main intermeshing rotors. These were counter-rotating so a tail rotor was not required. It was first flown in 1953 and was in service until the early 1970’s. During the Viet Nam War it was utilized as an Air Rescue and Recovery helicopter which were part of the Pacific Air Rescue Center. You can see all the photos and details from start to finish in the build log at: https://davidsscalemodels.com/build-log/1-32-kaman-h-43b-huskie-helicopter/ The fifth build I went back to 1/48 World War II aircraft. This build was Tamiya’s 1/48 RAF Mustang III. I used Kagero Decals to replicate the aircraft flown by the Polish Pilot F/L Mieczystaw Gorzula of the 309 squadron based at RAF Andrews Field. This was the aircraft that F/L Gorzula shot down a Me-262 jet fighter on April 9th 1945. The build required some minor modifications to add the dorsal fillet in front of the tail and I did my usual of adding details. I enjoyed this build and am happy with the final results. I would recommend this kit to anyone who is looking to build the RAF version of the Mustang. You can see all the photos and details from start to finish in the build log at: https://davidsscalemodels.com/build-log/1-48-tamiya-raf-mustang-iii/ The sixth build and third commission build was done for a client who requests/schedules a build every year. He was a Harrier pilot for VMA-214 also known as the “Blacksheep”. For this build he requested a build of the famous F4U Corsair the Blacksheep flew and it is set in a diorama of a Pacific Island Airfield. The F4U I used was the 1/48 Tamiya F4U-1A Corsair which is mounted in a custom display case From Grandpa’s Cabinet’s featuring a typical island airfield with a Mini-Art Marston tarmac, a couple of rows of palm trees to line the back of the display, a background behind the trees of a beach/ocean view, and mounts that the client’s squadron patch and his name tag sit. I also used Eduard photo etch details to add to the realism. You can see all the photos and details from start to finish in the build log at: https://davidsscalemodels.com/build-log/1-48-f4u-1a-corsair/ The seventh build and last commission build was a fun little project. I built Hasegawa’s Space Shuttle Orbiter on the Boeing 747 Egg Plane! I built this for a friend who is a fan of the Egg planes. This will sit next to the SR-71 Egg Plane that I previously built for him. It only took a few days from start to finish. You can see all the build photos and details in the build log at: https://davidsscalemodels.com/build-log/shuttle-and-boeing-747-egg-plane/ The eighth and final build was Hasegawa’s 1/48 A-4M Skyhawk. The scheme was that of VMA-214 as they flew out of MCAS Iwakuni during the early 1980’s. I used Eduard’s photo etch set for detailing the aircraft. The scheme decals were a mix of kit decals and Cutting Edge’s A-4M Skyhawk Part 2 decal set. You can see all the photos and details from start to finish in the build log at: https://davidsscalemodels.com/build-log/1-48-a-4m-skyhawk-vma-214/ This has been a good year for some interesting builds. I am already planning and scheduling builds for 2026. Thank you all for following along – Happy Modeling! LINK to photos : https://davidsscalemodels.com/2025/12/27/davids-scale-models-2025-the-year-in-review/

And the final grouping.... 1/48 Wings vacuform O2U-1 Corsair with a scratchbuilt cockpit, replacement resin engine, and aftermarket Scarf ring and Lewis gun. 1/48 UMa AV-8B Harrier Plus II, OOTB. 1/144 Minicraft Boeing 727, OOTB. 1/32 Trumpeter P-51D Mustang with some 3D printed parts added. 1/48 Tamiya Ki-61 Tony, OOTB. 1/48 Monogram AV-8B Harrier with some 3D printed cockpit placards and a home-vacked windscreen to replace the cracked one in the kit. 1/32 Revell P-51D-5 with some 3D printed additions. 1/48 F-100C conversion built using the Cutting Edge resin set and a Monogram F-100D kit. All in all I'm happy with the year, especially considering almost 1/3 of the builds were not injection molded kits (4 resin and 3 vacs)! Here's wishing everyone a boatload of modeling FUN in 2026! Gil

Here is the update on the ongoing B-1A HYBRID ..Youl'le notice there is only one image available you can view more of the update picture of the projects on the Google link ! (DEC 11th ) .. Today , I continue the work in the front bomb bay ! If you like to help out on this projet I need these ... : from the REVELL 1/48 B-1 LANCER stenciling for the WHITE prototype aircraft, this was on the decal sheet of the first edition of the B-1 kit.. I'm also seeking the NOSE WINGLETS + LEFT TAIL STABILIZER .. used parts are welcome as long they are useable ! A big thank you for helping out , without your help I won't be able to do a good job on the project !... ..If you like to view more WIP of this project and 2 other 1/48 B-1 bombers ,This is 'PHASE 2' by the way follow this Google link https://goo.gl/photos/QkeSiGZuvcRfG7yV7 Enjoy and it's an 'rendez-vous' next week for more on this particular project..!. Jmarc

After what was probably 3hrs of tedious masking over 2 days in order to paint the trim colors, some varying aluminum panels, the antiglare panels, gear wells, and the tail pipes; the paint scheme is done! I'll apply a gloss coat to the fuselage and tail fin stripes today to prepare them for decaling. The NMF doesn't need in any gloss to prep for the decals as it should be smooth enough as is. I still need to mask and paint the canopy, nose glass, ejection seat, and repaint the wheels for all of the tires; but final assembly should follow quickly afterward. More pics when she's decaled and finished! Gil

Started and finished in the same calendar year! This is the Special Hobby kit, which is the basis of a bunch of Griffon-powered Spitfire kits. I took off the Seafire-specific features (the RATO attachments, primarily) and detailed the cockpit with Special Hobby's own photoetched set, plus a Barracuda Studios control column. The exhausts are from Quickboost and the wheels and from Barracuda Studios. I used the kit decals to build Roy Cruickshank's N0. 91 Squadron aircraft in which he was shot down by flak on April 10, 1945; he and his wingman were rescued by a USAAF OA-10 Catalina. Only 120 Mk. 21s were built - it debuted the new laminar flow wing, full wheel covers and a retractable tail wheel. The paints were ModelMaster dark green and ocean grey, with Floquil medium sea grey, all from my Museum of Extinct Paints (aka Evidence I Used to Habitually Overpurchase at the Hobby Shop). It was weathered with oils - I tried to keep it light since the plane didn't last more than three missions.

The second week of the A-4M I assembled and painted the intake and exhaust. These were then mounted into the fuselage along with the cockpit tub. The fuselage halves were assembled and the intake ducts and nose cone were installed. The nose has some antenna pods which were mounted. On a side note I added 0.4 ounces of weight inside the nose cone so the aircraft will sit correctly on the landing gear when completed. I then assembled the main wings and the hard points on the underside. The wings and the fuselage were then masked off. For the nose I scanned in the painting instructions and scaled the nose section to match the model. I then made a template for the curves on each side and trimmed the kapton tape to replicate the correct curve. Once aligned I then painted the underside of the fuselage and wings with white. After the paint dried I installed the wings to the fuselage. I am now detail painting and adding some more details to the main and nose wheel wells for the landing gear. I am hoping to finish the wheels wells and to detail the landing gear before the Thanksgiving holiday. You can see all the photos and details from the start in the build log at: https://davidsscalemodels.com/build-log/1-48-a-4m-skyhawk-vma-214/

FeR Dracula 1/12 posed in front of a photo of West Boylston's Old Stone Church edited in Lightroom to change it from daylight to nighttime.

Here is the update on the ongoing B-1A HYBRID ..Youl'le notice there is only one image available you can view more of the update picture of the projects on the Google link ! (OCT 28th ) .. Today , I continue the work in the front bomb bay ! If you like to help out on this projet I need these ... : from the REVELL 1/48 B-1 LANCER stenciling for the WHITE prototype aircraft, this was on the decal sheet of the first edition of the B-1 kit.. I'm also seeking the NOSE WINGLETS + LEFT TAIL STABILIZER .. used parts are welcome as long they are useable ! A big thank you for helping out , without your help I won't be able to do a good job on the project !... ..If you like to view more WIP of this project and 2 other 1/48 B-1 bombers ,This is 'PHASE 2' by the way follow this Google link https://goo.gl/photos/QkeSiGZuvcRfG7yV7 Enjoy and it's an 'rendez-vous' next week for more on this particular project..!. Jmarc

This conversion was built using the old Cutting Edge resin set with a Monogram F-100D kit. It's not difficult with the conversion providing a new set of wings, vertical tail, one piece main gear doors, and speed brake bay (not used, more below). I also added a Black Box resin cockpit that I had on hand, as well as saving some work by blocking off the intake with a FOD cover. This shows the resin cockpit components with the IP shroud and rear seat ledge already added. The Cutting Edge F-100C resin vertical tail has a choice of a ribbed rudder or a flat rudder as I used. It also has the proper smaller antenna fairing above the rudder. The ammo bay door has been cemented shut and the tail planes (molded in place) removed from the top fuselage rear. Some of the rescribing work has also been done at this point. Removing those tail planes makes it easier to work the fuselage seams on the sides once the upper and lower halves are together. The resin wings and slats were well cast with no warpage, though I did have to rework some of the slat arm openings to allow the slats to better "drop fit". The F-100C wings had no inner flaps, a straight trailing edge, and no wing fences. You can also see the separated tail planes which have been rescribed. They will be reattached after adding a piece of wire to use as a locating pin, and can be added at the end of the build after painting and decaling. The F-100C speed brake had a smaller opening so I added strip plastic to fill in the center slot. As molded, the Monogram center "finger" in the speed brake well is too wide for a "C", so I used a motor tool to grind off the edges of it to make it smaller and match the shape of the speed brake. The Cutting Edge resin set provides an entire new speed brake well, BUT not only is it closed up, but it also requires major surgery to insert it in the bottom fuselage. I figured modifying the speed brake and center finger in the brake well as less (and easier) work to do! You can also see that I've closed up the bottom gun bay door beside the nose gear well. As molded, the exhaust tube isn't deep enough. I opened it up, added a piece of brass tubing to deepen it, and then fabricated a new "flame holder" to detail it and close it off. I used the kit supplied nose part and my old Mattel vacuform machine to make a FOD cover that fits perfectly and can be added at the end of the build! The model was sanded, rescribed, fine sanded and then primed with Alclad Gloss Black. Alclad Aluminum was then used as the base coat and a few panels masked off and done with Alclad Airframe Aluminum for some variation. The burner section was then masked off and sprayed with Alclad Steel. Alclad Clear Sepia, Clear Hot Violet, and Tamiya Clear Blue was then sprayed to make the vertical burn pattern on the rear. Although not bad, I thought it was too stark looking. So..... I remasked the rear and lightly sprayed Alclad Steel over the burn patterns until they were much more obscured, then came back and sprayed very light vertical streaks of Tamiya Clear Blue to finish it off. This looks much more subdued and realistic I think. I used a Cutting Edge sheet of decals to do Col. George Laven's very colorful candy-striped F-100C. Generally the decals went down well, BUT I had to cut out the decals for the wing slats "on the fly" (while applying them) as they weren't supplied as separate sections. It was the same for the top fuselage candy stripes. They're supposed to wrap around the to the fuselage bottom, but they come as one piece and have to be cut "on the fly" and then try to apply the remainder to the bottom fuselage. The problem here is that also involves the main gear doors and there's no separate pieces for those, so MORE cutting is needed. I couldn't do all of that cutting on the wet decals without tearing them, and so I just concentrated on applying the top fuselage decals. Also, the candy stripes for the drop tank tips did not fit the Monogram tanks. I removed them after I couldn't get them to fit and tried to paint the stripes, but after having some primer peel up in the process I just repainted the tips in NMF and let them go at that. Still, it makes for a very colorful bird regardless! On to the rest of the pics! All in all this was a quick and easy conversion compared to many others I've built. The decals gave me fits, but otherwise it was a fun build. Of course now if you want an F-100C, you can just build the Trumpeter kit (if you can live with ITS warts). But, if you still have this conversion in the stash after 20yr (like me), it's worth tackling! Critiques, questions, and comments welcome as always. Gil

155mm self-propelled howitzer of South Africa done in acrylics. Kit by Takom in 1/35. This weapon platform features stabilizing hydraulics towards the front and at rear and is able to fire 2-4 HE rounds per minute at a range of 41.63 miles.

Thanks for following this WIP , it's quite appreciated LINDBERG KNIGHT TWISTER X 2 (SEPT 16th) ..Today ,I start the work on the nose inrtake of the second version !! If you like to view the complete WIP of this project , just follow this Google link : https://photos.app.goo.gl/PHiSWZwEPTxCbNr77 If you are curious and like to view the 1/48 civils aircrafts I have build so far , just follow this Google link: https://photos.app.goo.gl/R5EibRLDyihRmC6i6 Hope youl'le enjoy the project Jmarc

Hotels usually have a "food and drink" minimum that has little if anything to do with the individual room rate although it may affect any fees they charge for use of meeting/ball rooms. Usually the hotel's convention facilities are free if you guarantee a certain number of room nights. That being said about hotels, some convention centers do give a discount on facility charges that can be tied to a group's "food and drink" usage. In at least one case, the local convention authority gave a discount on the city's convention center if a certain number of local hotel room nights were used and they kept track of them. In short, every place is a little bit different.

I know a number of people on this thread can remember the banquets from years past, the banquets for the last few years were HUGE improvements over our “slide show” days, so continuing updating and improving is not an issue with me. That said I think there is an unequal divide concerning perceptions of the awards show, between those that regularly go to the banquet and those that don’t. I have always gone to the banquet, it’s part of the convention for me, I could care less how long it goes as I have no plans after except going to the contest room for a bit and then maybe the bar and then my room. Sitting, eating, seeing models I may have missed and talking with both old and new friends has never been a problem for me. I believe it was mentioned that next year Fort Wayne will not have a banquet, OK, but it was also mentioned that it will not be the norm for every convention. While FW doesn’t have a requirement for a banquet in order to get a much better rate on the rooms we need for the vendors and content rooms that will not always be the case, eliminating some sort of banquet is probably not in the cards, but keeping it relevant so it will be well attended and satisfy the requirements is. It seems to me that the banquet is attended by a large percentage of longer term members, and those that attend the entire convention, not exclusively, just mostly. It would be interesting to me anyway to see the difference of opinions between those that go to the banquet and those that don’t, and/or go to a “telecast” version of the awards show. It seems to me the perspectives are different. The answers will certainly be a trial and error process, and tweak along the way, however with the requirements of some sort of dinner maybe the solution is something completely different (to quote Monty Python) like a banquet on a different night with a different presentation, geared to new/continuing members. Congratulations to Hampton on a great convention, they deserve it. For the record, my main critiques of the banquet would be adherence to the posted schedule, the speed of the slide show being too fast and no screens for the people not facing the front of the room, for what it may be worth.

Scott, thanks for the explanation. It should be noted that your message does not disregard any criticism in the manner in which the show was conducted. It simply offers a more in-depth view of the event. Those who have not volunteered to work on the Leadership Team of past conventions may not have a clear view of the working relationship between the Leadership Team and the Event Site staff. While the Leadership Team and the Event site Management Group cooperate to make the event a success, there are issues that come up which are not in line with what the Convention Leadership Team would prefer. And, in some cases, the Leadership Team simply has to work in the environment set by the site hosts. Entry times into the Banquet Hall and departure times from various rooms are among those points which sometimes cause difficulty for attendees, not to mention the hotel staff and the Leadership Team. A BIG THANKS to the Hampton Team and to the volunteers who supported the Leadership Team.

Just finished the Academy 1/48 F-4J in Blue Angels colors. This was a kit started by fellow club member Larry Goodell that I took off his hands so it could be finished up. The markings were from Mil Spec and were tough to apply on the bottom as none of them were pre-cut to fit the landing gear doors. Some of them also tended to chip along the edges some. There's a LOT of warts on this one as it was a purely "git 'er done" project. It does look good sitting next to my BA Connie though! Now on to the next one! GIL