noelsmith

Thanks Dave. Found the website OK but could not establish if he is still active or not with the Wingrove plans service. Have heard mixed comments about the plans service by this guy on other websites. Do you have any more information about him and/or the service he is purported to be offering, and any information about the quality of product from him?

The replies to my posts make interesting reading. What will happen to Model Cars Magazine in the future, nobody knows. I cannot see how it will be able to go on like it is now with subscriber deliveries appearing to go further out. Many subscribers I guess have been very patient, but how long will it be before their patience wears a bit thin? Hopefully they will get a grip on this soon. Also if many authors that have not been paid like myself stop writing, then their material will dry up. What then?

Rusty and Gil Thanks for your responses. Model magazine publishing is a fickle business to be in, even before the internet days. Like you guys I have seen many come and go over the years. Since Golden Bell publishers in Denver closed their doors, Model Cars Magazine is now being run virtually as a one man band based in Hawaii trying to put out a commercial magazine with all its inherant risks and costs such as editing, layout, printing and distribution, both to direct subscribers and to retail outfits who probably have magazines on sale or return only. I guess that is why things are as they are right now, unless they can get a publishing company to take them on and get the magazine back on track. I agree with you both about authors should be paid in a timely fashion as a magazine's life blood. Writers tend to know each other or who's who on the writing circuit, and what is happening generally. I would imagine other writers like me are also holding back submitting for the time being.

Chased up my authors fee recently for the Duel article in MCM that went to press TWO YEARS AGO! Still not paid! Got a fairly negative response back, so I am not hopeful of getting any payment whatsoever although their debt for a considerable sum of money to me still stands. Hopefully they will survive, but who knows the way things are with them at present. I certainly will not be submitting any more articles to MCM at least until my invoice is cleared. Any other MCM article writers out there apart from myself awaiting payment(s) for articles that went to press a long time ago? Or am I the only one?

An update! Since my last post about this topic I have learnt that the Wingrove plans and portfolios went to a guy named Stephen Pombo. I understand that he has a website named Pomboworks.com. Do not know if he is presently active or not with the Wingrove Plans Service that he bought.

Model Cars Magazine appears to be struggling for some time to get on track with their subscriber deliveries. Don't know what is happening, but my article about the Duel Rig that went to press in November 2015 remains unpaid for. I guess they must be having some really persistent cash flow problems since Golden Bell Publishers closed their doors.

Gil Hope you have a fab time in London when your daughter gets married. Depending on how much time you have over here after doing the touristy stuff, there are some really interesting places like many London museums ang galleries, the Royal Air Force Museum and Imperial War Museums to visit. Would thoroughly recommend an hour or so train trip to Portsmouth Historical Dockyards. See HMS Victory and Warrior, the preserved remains of Henry VIIIs Tudor ship the Mary Rose in its specially built museum. Windsor Castle is a short distance from London as also our two famous university cities Oxford and Cambridge. If cathedrals and castles are your thing.....Plenty of those all over the country! Cheers, Noel

Hi All IPMS UK Scale Modelworld Show takes place on Saturday and Sunday 11th and 12th of November at Telford International Centre. The show has developed into the largest scale model show in the world taking up all 4 halls of the centre plus other areas for the competition, presentations and kit swap. Many Overseas IPMS branches have a special international area within the show. A great way to meet like minded modellers and what IPMS is fundamentally all about. Hopefully we may be able to greet fellow Stateside members and modellers visiting the UK show.

Sad to hear about Testors diminishing ranges. Same happened to good old Humbrol over here in the UK some time ago. There is a saying that familiarity breeds contempt. But in this context it is contempt for other unfamiliar brands. I agree that it is a pain in the rear having change forced upon us, but as there is no option we have to adapt. However despite the gripes it is not all bad. I have been a model maker from way back in the 60,s and relish taking on board the multitude of new finishing materials available from AK, Vallejo, Mission and so many others who have come into the market more recently. I wish a lot of this stuff was about when I started out in the hobby. Maybe we should be thankful for the plethora of materials available that could only be dreamed about 10 to 20 years ago. What is just a hobby to us is a way of making a living to manufacturers who have to make hard decisions in able to both survive, pay their employees wages and reinvest in new products. Anyone in their right mind would axe loss making ventures, and on top of this there is ever increasing manufacturing and shipping legislation with regard to anything remotely toxic to contend with.

IPMS Seattle Chapter has been referred to many years ago in a UK IPMS Mag as being the first USA Chapter formed. Isn't Seattle famous for Starbucks first coffee bar as well?

Was this car kitted in 1/12th scale by Bandai back then also?

Rusty, I have tried your method of using PVA to make smaller blocks followed by a dab of paint on my Vasa. It is working fine for me, so thanks for the tip Kind regards Noel Smith.

As another alternative, try using the thick metal seal material from wine bottles, some of which is made from a very soft metal and feels like very thin lead sheet. Aluminium foil wine seals and food containers can also be used. They can be cut into strips, and as they are very malleable enable shaping around seat contours etc to be done easily. Fitting photo etched seat belt buckles and harness to them is very easy.

Rusty, Thanks for the feedback and the block technique tip. I will give it a go. Is the Elmers you refer to a PVA wood adhesive? I guess it is a particular USA trade brand name like Evo Stik PVA is over here in the UK. If so I have plenty of the UK equivalent in my workshop to try. I can probably do quite a bit of block work on various threads before locating them on the model. The rigging runs will determine how much of this I will be able to manage however, if any at all. Have seen how LLoyd McCaffery makes up shaped block punches in his book 'Ships In Miniature' by Conway Maritime Press. Not sure that I want to go to all that trouble though. Not aware of any commercially available punches and dies for making miniature blocks. Probably very expensive if they were! Again Thanks

Rusty.........Fantastic model. How do you render small rigging blocks in this sort of scale.? I am building a Revell Vasa in 1/150th scale and am about to tackle the Masts and Rigging now the hull is built.

If anyone is having a go at, or interested in building either Vasa kit I have been exchanging ideas with other modellers on the IPMS UK Forum in the Nautical section in the Airfix Wasa thread. Have got to the point where I will be attempting to rig the model. 1/150th scale is a bit challenging with regard to rigging blocks. They will be so tiny! Any sailing ship enthusiasts on your side of the pond got any ideas?

Way back in the 70's a company in the UK named Gloy introduced a very comprehensive set of colours with a much wider range than Humbrol. Within a year Humbrol brought out an even more comprehensive list of colours to fight off Gloy's challenge. Brilliant for the model maker at the time, until Gloy's challenge was killed off. Many model shops at the time were a bit reticent to hold another range of paints other than Humbrol's anyway. Result Humbrol won out. Gloy's range disappeared, and within a couple of years or so Humbrol were cutting back their range of colours. Sound familiar? So yes, pick up those current colours now being axed and place them in your stash!

'Weathering' ! It seems to have become more of a generic term in model making for something just getting dirty, stained or damaged as well as for something stood out and deteriorating due to the elements.

Airfix was a co manufacturer with Heller and Humbrol a few years back. Back then Heller and Airfix did a lot of cross kitting like car badge engineering.........Same kit in Airfix and Heller boxes! Funny thing where moulds get to though down the years. Revell's 24th scale Blower Bentley looks like a re pop of the Heller kit from their classic car range. Cannot recollect Airfix ever issuing this one though!

I was in contact with Gerald Wingrove over the last couple of days as his WINCOL website appeared to be defunct. He used to sell his plans etc. direct through that site but closed it down just before he retired to live in Spain. He sold on all his Drawings and Data Collection on to an individual in the USA. Gerald tells me that the person concerned was going into business and setting up a plans service for Car Model Builders. Shortly after he sold all the plans, photos and data, he learnt that the person concerned had a nervous breakdown, and nothing has been heard about the Wingrove Data Collection since, or the buyer. It all must all be languishing somewhere, so someone somewhere must know of its whereabouts. It represents about 30 years research work towards the making of Gerald Wingrove's model car masterpieces. If any of you guys Stateside can help and put some feelers out I would be most grateful.

It might be worth looking at SMTS (Scale Model Technical Services) website in the UK. They have quite a large range of kits in 1/43rd scale.

This kit is retailing at about £35.00 here in the UK. Maybe Tamiya;s pricing policy has changed. Their Aston was around the £50.00 mark. I expect that as Revell Germany's kits are on a par with Tamiya stuff and were about half the price, so they needed to get competitive. Nice choice of kit this time around. Could never understand Tamiya's thinking when they released a Citroen 2CV Fougonette. A bit like a corrugated iron estate car. Seems a bit of a weird subject considering the costs of tooling it up.

Imagine trying to raise that one! Probably will never happen as it is probably a designated war grave like many other sunken wartime ships. I think that the only exception to this is the Graf Spee. She was scuttled by Captain Landsdorf to save all the lives of his crew as the ship would have put to sea facing overwhelming odds. I have heard that there is an attempt to raise her and make her into a museum ship in Montivideo.

Just out of interest, there is a company over here in Hereford UK named Scale Warship who make a number of sets of photo etched parts specifically for the Airfix Victory such as Ratlines, Hammock Nettings etc. They also make various blocks for Victory that have been 3D printed. Keeping to sailing ships, they also have PE sets for the Revell Vasa and the Academy Cutty Sark. Saw all of them at SMW Telford last year on built up models on their stand. Looked impressive. They also do PE stuff for modern warships as well, so their website may be worth a look.

Dave Morrisette's post was interesting in that he points out that most USA Chapters meet at weekends. A definite advantage to be able to encourage youngsters into the hobby. Other posters have mentioned that kids these days lack hand skills, patience and look for instant gratification. Unfortunately, I have to agree to a certain extent. For the last four years running up to my retirement, I worked as an Engineering CAD CAM Technician at a local high school. What an eye opener that was! When I left school at the age of 15 to go into an Engineering Apprenticeship, I had already mastered how to make a coffee table in mahogany from plans using proper tenon and dovetail joints. Most of the kids of 13 plus years old at the school where I worked had difficulty in making a pull along toy from dowels, battening and MDF! Sad to say that the demise of practical lessons from a young age has brought this about, not to mention ambulance chasing lawyers and parents too willing to sue over the slightest accident. A sign of the times we live in where risk aversion is done for the wrong reasons.