ewahl

The worst model I built was the Aurora X-15. The box art was beautiful and totally misrepresented what was in the box. The kit was of the Japanese rocket interceptors used in "Battle in Outer Space." These were caricatures of an X-15, and that's as close as it got. The worst building experiences come when I need something scratchbuilt that I can't get right when trying to make it. Ed

Hi, Tim, B-17G Flying Fortress: Minicraft #14401, Academy #4401, Minicraft #14519 B-24J Liberator: Minicraft #14402 B-24D Liberator: Minicraft #14636 PBY-5A Catalina "Black Cat": Minicraft 14518 All 1/144th scale. Some of these may also exist as reissues under different stock numbers. Check the Minicraft website. Others will have to help with the 1/72nd scale kits. Ed

I started with a Gowland & Gowland car kit. I had several of them, but I seem to recall it was either the Stutz Bearcat or Stanley Steamer. Since I did not paint it, it was probably the Stutz. My Stanley has paint on it. Then came the Ford Model T. My first aircraft was the Hawk XF-92A Dart. My first ship was the Revell USS Missouri in 1/535-scale (a kit which is still on the store shelves today some 60 years later). Ed

Hagenbring's Department Store in Arlington Heights, IL, had a toy department down in the basement space, and they had a great Revell salesman who kept them stocked with new box scale kits in the '50s. I remember desperately trying to raise the 98 cents plus 3 cents sales tax to buy the new Revell Boeing B-52A Stratofortress because I loved the box art. I could also buy 10 cent bottles of Pactra paints in the small square bottles there--red, yellow, blue, white, black, and silver (all gloss, they worked, too). This store was on my way home from junior high school, so it was easy to detour into their door. This store held me captive until I went away to college. Half a block away was a Ben Franklin 5&10 that had some model kits, but never up to what Hagenbring's had. Ed

I returned from lunch one day and found a paper bag on my desk with the remains of a shattered ceramic Hummel figurine in it. I soon received a call from a co-worker who explained the bag and figurine. His wife had been cleaning her living room, and the sweeper cord flipped the wrong way, snagged the Hummel, and pulled it off the shelf onto a hard tile floor. It shattered, and the poor woman was beside herself for having broken a family treasure. He told her to sweep up all the pieces, no matter how small, and put them in a bag. He told her he had a co-worker friend who builds models who might be able to figure something out. Just be patient. I did, in fact, find almost every piece, chip, slice of surface glaze, etc., to slowly put everything back together using super glue. It came together in two main sections piece by piece until I had to connect them. A test fit showed an almost perfect fit, which then received the super glue for final assembly. The only spot I could not fix was the impact point where the figurine first contacted the tile floor, which had turned the ceramic to sand. I filled that hole with more glue. This was like assembling a 3-D puzzle without any diagrams or instructions; each little piece had to fit somewhere. The project was slow at first because of the sheer number of pieces, but speeded up as more and more pieces were glued in place leaving fewer to figure out. It took several weeks. I returned the reassembled figurine in the same paper bag by placing it on my co-worker's desk while he was out to lunch. He was amazed and thrilled with the restoration when he looked in the bag. He took it home, put it back on the shelf from which it had crashed, and let his wife discover it on her own. She had never expected to see it whole again. He was a hero in his own house. Like Gil, I did this as a favor and asked for nothing except time to work on it. The resulting restaurant gift card was shared with my wife at a really nice place (dress-up). The down side of this is that my wife knows I can fix ceramic things and has tested my skills on several occasions. Ed

2001 Chicago may have been the first "out-of-rotation" Nationals. That was supposed to be a Western Zone year. We were approached in March 1999 as a previously unsuccessful bidder to pull a bid together because no Western Zone chapter had put in a bid by the December 1998 deadline. Other recent unsuccessful bidders were approached as well, but only we responded. In mid-April we were made aware that we might have a belated bid from the Seattle chapter as competition. At the bid meeting in 1999 Orlando, we were indeed the only two bidders. Ours was put together from scratch in just weeks. Seattle's bid was based on their successful 1992 National at their same venue. Because we had been invited to submit a bid, we were assured that the Seattle bid would not automatically receive the nod just because it was the Western Zone's "turn" in the rotation cycle. We had a 50-50 chance. We received the nod at the 1999 National after a formal bid presentation. I do not know if today we could use the same venue again because of the price issue. We, too, had another convention (bigger) added into the facility on top of ours, and we were not told about it until after we filled our room block and tried to add more. We went to neighboring hotels for the overflow room blocks after the primary would not provide any more rooms. We had trouble with the other group raiding our assigned seminar rooms for chairs for their meetings in other rooms. Our banquet room had a side room that was isolated by a moving partition. When it was time for the awards presentation, we filled the side room with chairs and then opened the wall so the seated guests there could view the presentation screen along with the dinner guests. It worked quite well. I drove 3 days from Chicago to reach Phoenix twice, 2 days to Orlando and Walt Disney World twice, 2 days to Virginia Beach twice, one day to Columbus twice, one day to St. Louis once, and one day to Omaha three times (twice for R5 Regionals). I'm like many older gents with a spouse along for the ride and to split the driving; I'm less comfortable with the long, long drives as the years go by. It's two days each way to Columbia and one day to Omaha. We shall see. Ed

"Ambitious" is an understatement for your efforts on this project. Good luck finding all the kits you listed. Some seem pretty rare. Regarding the Convair F2Y Sea Dart, I found the Mach 2 kit to be terrible to build. I found: 1. The vertical tail was misaligned by more than 1/16th inch when cementing the fuselage pieces together. I had to cut one side off and relocate it to match the other. 2. The fuselage is more circular at the cockpit than oval. Fixing this is nearly impossible because the upper engine intakes must be changed also. 3. The cockpit must be scratchbuilt because the canopy glass lets you see it. Then you must throw out the provided canopy piece and replace it with a scratchbuilt canopy with flat rather than curved glass openings. 4. You will have to mask and paint all markings because the kit does not provide them. 5. The blunt nose "probe" will have to be cut off and replaced with a reasonably close aftermarket piece of turned metal. 6. The skis and their struts will need modification for the correct angles. You can only build the twin-ski version; the single-ski is not an option. 7. The engine exhausts will require reworking with putty to get the correct contours. Ed

Please remember that a National Contest Coordinator at the IPMS/USA level will always be dealing with four Nationals simultaneously. In present times, these are: -- Convention Past (Columbus) wrapping up the post-mortem reports and financial statements and details -- Convention Present (Columbia) getting all the details in place and the the many wheels turning (Prediction: Within a month from now there will be members clamoring for Omaha hotel reservation information so they can be first in line.) -- Convention Future (Omaha) with settlement of contracts with the facilities and coordination with the hosts for planning the localized touches -- Convention Future (2018) with preliminary bid presentations and venue searches leading to tentative commitments This load if added to elected 1st and 2nd VPs on top of their other established duties in their volunteer offices will indeed limit the number of persons stepping forward to put their lives permanently on hold. For those of you who have never done the 4-year process personally, you can't understand the strain this puts on family life. Any time (24/7) some detail goes foul or might have been just discovered as a new wrinkle, it is a drop-everything priority for somebody to resolve the issue. Been there; done that ... for 2001 Chicago (and it took two tries to win the bid). Ed

I was the MC at the 2001 Chicago Nationals when the announcement was made from the podium that OKC had won the bid for 2003. I remember vividly Rusty's reaction to the announcement. Come to think of it, it was the same as ours when we were told in 1999 Orlando Nationals that we had won the bid for 2001. There is no feeling like it! Western Zone, go for it! Some years back I suggested booking a cruise ship out of a west coast city to Alaska or Mexico and back, with the contest held on the ship. All rooms and meals would be in the fare, so nobody would be left out. That would be a really different convention experience. Ed

For making a symmetrical mask, go back to the technique we learned as kids to make hearts or stars. Make your pattern by folding a piece of paper in half and cut the shape or curve you want away from the fold. Unfold the cut paper and you have a perfectly symmetrical pattern. Align the fold with the fuselage seam line and you have the shape you need to shape against with your masking tape. Remove the paper pattern and spray away. Works for me, anyway. Ed

Hi, Warren, I have to admit I do not build ships often (unless sci-fi space ships count), so I admire your diving into unfamiliar waters here. What is the base kit for this project? Is this a USS Missouri kit that you are switching to the USS New Jersey just to have an alternative vessel from the Iowa Class? I will be a visitor to this page every time you post an update. I need to learn some things from you. Good luck! Ed

Hi, Larry, Is it possible that for a "reasonable" cost Moebius might be willing to sell and send you the needed replacement parts only. You'll need to provide a list, and sending this photo will help your case (your tale of woe). Just a thought. Ed

Everyone has a first model, regardless of the age he or she was when it was built. Keeping it in the showcase is a visual reminder of what we were then and what we are now in the progression of skills in first assembling and then assembling and finishing models. I'll keep this list of currently displayed models to models I built before turning 20 in 1961. Gowland & Gowland Ford Model T Gowland & Gowland Stanley Steamer Revell Grumman F9F-8 Cougar Revell Chance-Vought F7U-3 Cutlass Revell Lockheed F-94C Starfire Revell North American X-15 Revell Northrop F-89D Scorpion Revell Battleship USS New Jersey Revell S.S. United States Revell US Army Nike Hercules Revell Douglas D-558-2 Skyrocket Hawk Convair XF-92A Dart Revell Convair F-102A Delta Dagger Revell Lockheed L-1049G Super Constellation [Eastern Airlines] Revell Martin B-57B Night Intruder Revell North American F-100C Super Sabre Revell Northrop SM-62 Snark Revell Boeing B-52A with North American X-15 Revell Boeing KC-135A Stratotanker Revell Boeing B-29A Superfortress Revell Boeing B-47 Stratojet Revell Convair B-36 Peacemaker Revell Chris Craft "Revell 1" inboard motor boat There are many more not on display still in the to-be-restored boxes not listed here. Why so many Revell kits? Those are the kits my favorite dime store toy department carried. Simple as that. Ed

Hi, Warren, Thanks for showing us how to crank out a beautiful model in two weeks. Your Star Destroyer looks great! I don't blame you for not adding a couple thousand fiber optic lights all over the main hull. The main engines look the part. Your base looks much better in black than in the clear plastic. Ed

Hi, Mark, For masking the ridges on the rocket stages, use your silly putty. Roll it thin and then squeeze it into the recesses along the paint lines. Use your knife to cut straight lines across the the tops of the ridges and then scrape off the excess toward the black area, leaving putty in the recesses. Then, using a strip of plastic the width and depth of the recess, push the remaining putty in the resesses in the black area up even with the straight edge you have already cut. Now add some more putty to the thin putty strip on the white side of the line to widen it to protect the white ridges from black overspray. With the edges of the black areas thus defined, you can then use plastic wrap to cover the rest of the white areas. Spray away, then remove the masking wrap and putty. If you have a better way, I'd sure like to know it. Good luck! Ed

Hi, Joe, In 1/35 scale there is a set of resin aftermarket tires and rims for the M977 HEMTT Oshkosh Trucks. Each tire/rim is a single solid casting, not two hollow halves as produced by Italeri. The set is produced by MR Modellbau as Kit #MRA-3512. The tread pattern is different than the Italeri version. Good luck! Ed

You lucky dog! You still have a small bottle of the Pactra Flat Metallic Gray. I nursed my last bottle to the very end because it painted better and looked better when dry than any of the "improved" metallic gray paints from Testors. That's one old square bottle paint I would buy in a heartbeat. Do you have the 30-cents cap on the bottle? That's what they cost back then. Ed

Hi, Mark, Great job on the intricate gold painting. Did you paint the gold around the blue, or the blue around the gold. Either way, you got beautiful results using the 20/0 brush. If the base is any guide, the figure is about 3 inches wide. Ed

I can't wait to see the horseless headsman in finished form. Ed

This is a cute little bug(ger). Did it fly off with an award? Ed

Hi, Mark, Normally I do not build armor because I do not know much about the subject, so these are questions and comments for information. How does "beastie" the Renault FT-17 get up into the bed of that Mack truck? The truck must have a very sturdy single rear axle to take the weight of the entire tank. Is it really that strong? Also, the drive train consisting of dual sprocket and chain drive for the rear wheels to move the combined load would require very strong chain links and hardened steel sprockets, or both would wear out or fail in no time, especially on a muddy road somewhere on the battlefield. All this aside, I like the idea, and the completed display looks great. Way to go! Ed

According to the history book on Revell kits, the USS Kearsarge without Sails (H-391) and the CSS Alabama with Sails (H-392) were both originally issued in 1961 and continued into the mid-1970s. Both kits shared the same basic hull, but there were changes to make each ship different from the other, The model was about three feet long. It doesn't say which kit has the correct length, and would the average viewer know or care which one is "right" and which is not? Ed

Hi, Mark, AT LAST! Congratulations on your success with Alclad II on the bare metal finish. You give me hope for three such projects on my bench with bare metal everywhere (sci-fi stuff). The American Airlines DC-6B look great in spite of your troubles in applying the decals. I'm still wishing you had attempted the engine cowling markings just to see them in all their glory. Good luck on finding the broken and missing landing gear parts. :D Ed

I was not familiar with the Airfix 1/72 F-111A, but I do have copies of the Revell kits. The two kits are: 1/72 F-111 Tactical Fighter (TFX) Kit # H-208 (instructions copyright 1966 and box 1969)--can be built as USAF F-111A or U.S. Navy F-111B. 1/72 F-111A Tactical Fighter Kit #H-4303 (instructions and box copyright 1979)--Navy F-111B parts gated off the mold. The F-111B was cancelled in reality, but not before Revell had a kit with the short nose cone and extended wing tips for the Navy version. Build it as a What-If concept [until Defense Secretary Robert NcNamara crushed it]. Microscale produced Sheet 72-132 for all the versions: F-111A, F-111B, F-111E, & FB-111A. There are 4 identical instrument panel decals on the sheet in case you do not want to paint and detail the kit's raised panel details. The Revell kit was engineered at a time when features on a model needed to work. So, what works on this kit? 1. Nose and main landing gear rotate and retract, with doors opening and closing and wheels rotating. 2. Nose cone can be removed to expose radar dish. 3. Horizontal stabilizers move. 4. Escape capsule (cockpit) can be removed [there are two pilots in that cockpit]. 5. Speed brakes work. 6. Wings swing in/out. Remember, all this is in 1/72 scale, not 1/48 or 1/32. Ed

I know some of you will laugh, but I got mine at Home Depot. It's Elmer's Wood Filler in a 3.25 oz tube. It comes in white and golden oak. You can sand it and buff it. Ed