ewahl

Hi, Kevin, It looks like you faced the same challenges I had with the Luna and the Space Ark. You had to paint everything bare metal from all directions. I like the look so far. Those old sci-fi movies had some great looking rocketships. You absolutely need some kind of base with a bit of color to set off the bare metal. It's too bad the Cosmostrator kit has no Venus landscape base for the all-chrome ship. Ed

As I was walking the aisle at my "local" HobbyTown USA a few days ago, an odd thing happened. A big box with a Revell of Germany kit of the Douglas C-54D in 1/72 scale fell off the shelf right into my arms. Then the box dragged me to the checkout station and even dug into my pocket to extract the cash needed to give it a permanent new home with me. I even had to serve as the chauffeur to the box to protect it from harm on the roads and byways. It then hid from my wife as it snuck into the house. Ed

Hi, Mark, Here's a question to display my ignorance: On the tractors for Atomic Annie, is the masking tape still on the cab windows? All the windows seem opaque to me. Nice work on the lot, but I like AA best. Ed

Thanks, Jim, Dave, Bill, and Kevin, While relatively simple to build, the Ark had lots of seams and sink marks to fix. The panel lines were not there for any reason other than they were the joints for the various sections of the model used by the movie's special effects team. Otherwise they would not be visible and need to be filled. I replaced the nose probe with a straight pin for strength and durability; no doubt I would have broken the plastic one countless times. The problem with painting a ship like this with Alclad II is that the whole thing must be done, so I masked it off and painted it in sections so I would have something to hold in my hand while applying the finish. The base is a creation of Woodland Scenics products for basic ground cover and foliage. The launching ramp rail structure was hollow underneath because it was molded in one piece, and I used plastic sheet to cover all exposed under surfaces to make the structure look solid. The support piers looked like they were made from concrete poured into wooden forms, so that's the way I painted them (Vallejo paints for everything). I used photos from the film and stills from the internet to rebuild the undercarriage rocket sled with extra details. If anyone has a method for making realistic rocket exhaust flames, I'd like to know. For the six wing engines and five rocket sled boosters, I made my flames with medical cotton and colored with artist's craft markers. Ed

Thanks, Kevin and Mark, The finish on the rocket ship is Alclad II over the black Alclad base. Airbrush. I shot this picture against a WHITE background of foam boards. I do not know why the camera turned everything so dark. The rocket has only a few pieces, but the seams all need attention along the hull and around the fin-to-hull joints. There were a few sink holes in the plastic, so fill, sand, and polish those, too. Ed

Hi, Mark, It was great seeing your photo in the new Journal standing in front of this masterpiece. You built the 1/72 Saturn V and nobody else did. Cheers to you for that effort, and for getting it some 2,000 miles to display on a contest table. Ed

HI, Rusty, It's out of many, many, many boxes. Scratchbuilding and aftermarket resin and PE, if used, will not permit entry into an OOB category, and it will be hard to avoid the temptation to go beyond what is provided in the boxes. Nice as they are, the model's cockpit and interior spaces beg for embelleshment. Ed

Yes, I admit it. I subscribed to the 25 months of installment build of the DeAgostini Model Space Millennium Falcon. I started last May, so I am 24% completed on the build through October. Since nobody in the United States will be done with this model until mid-2017 (United Kingdom builders are four months ahead), the first opportunity to enter one will be at the Omaha Nats in July 2017. These things are so big that only two will fit on a contest table. Pay attention, Omaha! Class 600 Sci-Fi will require LOTS of table space. Suppose there are enough for their own split category? So, if you are building this kit, post your name here. Let the Force be with you! Ed

Hi, Mark, Paint the whole thing flat black and call it an aircraft recognition model. Ed

Thanks, Ron, Please explain the logistics for #3 above. Who make the choice of Chapter? How is this to be monitored by the RC and DLC? The Charter renewal lists are not usually seen by anyone other than a Chapter officer or the CC. Will a double or triple member have his or her IPMS/USA number highlighted in some color other than red or yellow or green so that Chapter loses one counting member? I predict this will be a bookkeeping problem that someone must sort out today as the recharter notices are ready to go out soon if not already for 2016. Ed

A 1/72 Boeing 737 is a rare bird indeed. Aurora pioneered the kit, so maybe someone still has the molds in their stock. Anyway, I went through my stock of airliner decals looking for anything Mark can use. Sorry, no got. The 1/72 KMC kit of the Boeing 727 is as close as one can get, but the airline markings were probably too recent and never worn on a 737-100. Ed

I am an officer in two Chapters, and I count toward the minimum five IPMS/USA members in each according to the DLC's and RC's renewal records.. Ed

Hi, Mark, I remember building the 1/72 PSA Boeing 737-100 for a friend back in the 1970s. Trying to convert this kit to a P-8 is, well, impossible without jacking up everything above the display base and replacing with scratchbuilt parts. I suppose it would be called a "conversion" because of the family tree of the 737 from this base kit. Scratchbuilding simply gets you to the conversion. Ed

Regardless of the box or reissue, the USS Midway (1960 & 1975) and USS Coral Sea (1961, 1966 motorized, & 1975) in 1/547 scale all trace back to the Revell molds of the original 1954 kit of the USS Franklin D. Roosevelt (1954 & 1961). The removal of decal outlines and perhaps changing out some of the deck aircraft would be the only changes to the basic original kit. Revell got a lot of mileage out of that original kit. If you happen to have the G-311 Victory at Sea "S" Gift Set (1955) with the FDR included, don't build it--the collector value exceeds $600. The included aircraft with the FDR include Cougars, Corsairs, Skyraiders, and Piasecki helicopters. Mark, this will be the straight deck version of Midway prior to the angled deck conversion on display in San Diego. Ed

Hi, Gil, Unfortunately I just read above you are/were looking for the Revell USS Franklin D. Roosevelt. I have an original but slightly started one in its original box that I could have given you for this museum project. It comes complete with the engraved (actually raised) outlines for the decals. The decals are 60 years old and somewhat yellowed, but with the decal outlines you can mask the outlines and airbrush the yellow paint. Ed

Ed, was the Revell kit one of the four box scale kits that had plastic stands that swivelled 360 degrees? I had all four of them mounted to the wall of my bed room. Hi, Clarence, Those clear plastic Revell swivel bases were in dozens of their early model kits. I've kept mine because I applied the large circular identification decal to each one. I have a box of those bases with no models left to display them with. In my showcase with the old models I show the base (minus support post) to ID the models (and document their age). Ed

George Pal's second color sci-fi movie in 1951 introduced the Space Ark to save a remnant of humanity as the Earth is destroyed in a cosmic collision. The special effects won an Academy Award. The Pegasus kit has a vacuformed flat base that supports five piers and a section of the launching ramp, which I did not use. I chose to show the Space Ark on its initial downhill run on the launching ramp where the six wing engines and the supporting rocket sled undercarriage engines are all firing. The main engines did not fire until the ship leveled off and began its uphill run. The downslope is 15 degrees in the film and on my base. The ramp structure was hastily built down the wooded slope of a mountain, hence the bare ground and the live and dead trees next to it. I like the way this turned out. Ed

Destination Moon from George Pal in 1950 gave us the color sci-fi movie with the moon ship Luna. Pegasus gave us a nice injection molded kit of the ship and a moon surface base. Unfortunately, the base has no locating spots for the four-point landing, so I decided to use one of the craters as a flame pit for the rocket just before landing touchdown. Comments are welcome. Ed

I had built the Revell "Hornet + 3" recovery carrier for an Apollo space mission. I had it on display in my work room on a counter top. Also on the counter top in the corner was a tall stack of National Geographic magazines. For some reason, the pile of magazines decided it was time to cause an avalanche, taking out the Hornet + 3 and everything else in its way. I still have a few of the deck aircraft and the Apollo capsule in the spares box, but the ship was crushed. Ed

They look like PE to me. You can get this rivet pattern from the water slide rivet decal sheets sold by Micro Mark. I think Archer also sells them. Ron, you certainly tackle some off-the-path subjects. We can all learn from your careful photo logs of your efforts. Documenting the ideas that do not work can be more instructive than showing us what did work. Ed

Hi, Bob, I'm checking out the Workmate by Black & Decker. I have one of those and still use it, mostly outdoors for clamping and cutting up downed tree branches. I also used it for holding (loosely) the 30" long 1/144 submarine hull from Trumpeter for painting outdoors with rattle cans. Ed

Yes, all three B-17G kits are molded in aluminum (silver) plastic, but I would overpaint them anyway. The B-24J kit is also molded in the same aluminum color plastic. You will need your own decals or masked artwork for D-Day stripes and nose art if you do not like what is in the kits. Ed

Hi, Mark, You left yourself wide open to this one: Your mom was right; they are still "too complicated" for you. :D :lol: Ed

Hi, Tim, The Minicraft/Academy B-17G models have the Cheyenne tail turret, so that would make them late war. The windows for the waist gunners are merely scribed into the fuselage, but they are opposing rather than staggered (an easy fix). The B-24J was near the last production version in WWII. The kit mentioned above has the markings of a formation assembly ship with bright colorful stripes. The PBY-5A kit #14518 from Minicraft is specifically a "Black Cat" as identified on the box. The kit is molded in black plastic to help those who do not want to paint it black. The kit does have the wheels in the fuselage sides, so it is a PBY-5A. Good luck on your search. Ed

It may have been a long time coming to a 90 year old member of "the greatest generation," but the work on and presentation of the B-24H model are outstanding. One of my friends is 96 and a Navy veteran of WWII and Korea. His ships have no model kits, unfortunately. Ed