noelsmith

Hi all IPMS members.... 2013 will be the 50th anniversary of the original founding of IPMS. It all started off with a small group of plastic modelling enthusiasts in London in 1963 getting together to form the fledgeling British Plastic Modellers Society. Interest from overseas quickly forced a rethink about the name and so the International Plastic Modellers Society was created. I believe that IPMS UK will be hosting something special at their Scale Modelworld Show at Telford in the UK in November.2013 to celebrate the society's half century. It is a little way off yet. Plenty of time for our friends in IPMS USA to plan a trip over. We have many IPMS members from European Branches visiting each year, so it would be nice to see some American IPMS members attend as well for this special event.

Charging your account immediately for items on back order is simply an insidious practice. It puts the buyer in a very poor situation if the company goes bust and they may as well write off what they have spent if this happens. It makes you wonder what their cashflow situation is like to have to trade like this. Many other firms will only invoice upon despatch....Far better to support them. At least you are keeping the cash in your own account and not propping up businesses that possibly may falter.

'GENTLEMEN WE CAN REBUILD HIM. WE HAVE THE TECHNOLOGY!' Remember this quote from the opening sequence of the 6 Million Dollar Man? 3D Modelling is certainly a brilliant technology. I had a go at using one of these machines about 2 years ago. I must agree that the finish is not yet good enough, as stepping is visible for each layer. There are two ways of importing info into these machines. A previous poster mentioned, scanning and printing being one nethod...However, 3D machines and scanners to convert a scan into CNC code for the machining do not come cheap! Likewise there is another method, whereby the originals are drawn up using 3D cad programs such as Solid Works, Pro Engineer, Solid Edge and Autodesk's Inventor to name the main players. These software programs cost thousands. So for most modellers, cost wise this is a bit of a dead duck at the moment. But who knows what developments there will be in about 10 years or so. One thing is for sure, the kit manufacturers already use CAD in a big way to design the kits and the injection moulds. We must all have noticed how good the fit of new kits are these days. The accuracy of the model however is still down to the CAD drafting being correct in every detail.

Does anybody know if a set of after market Jurassic Park Decals was ever made for this kit? As far as I am aware Monogram never issued the Jeep kit in Jurassic Park livery.

Hi Gil It does not surprise me that most of us Brits over here do not know the connection between Thanksgiving and the Pilgrim Fathers voyage in the Mayflower from Plymouth here in England to the New World. Maybe we ought to lobby Parliament for another holiday to celebrate! Looks like your daughter had to give her British friends a bit of a history lesson before they could enjoy their turkey! However, American style Halloween celebrations have caught on in a big way over here in the last 10 years or so, especially the kids trick or treating for sweets (candy). It has been shown on our calendars since ad infinitum, but not generally celebrated much over here before, (Except by real covens!). All the best

Hi Gil I don't think you need to worry too much about the spellings. We have a joke going around over here in the UK that Bill Gates has not been told that there is no such thing as US English. Joking aside it does'nt matter as long as we understand each other. I enjoy reading Fine Scale Modeller......Whoops! Modeler!

For a really TOUGH, FEISTY sci fi lady........I'm surprised that no previous thread has mentioned Linda Hamilton's portrayal of Sarah Connor in the Terminator Movies

Quite a number of years ago when our UK Nationals was a small show compared to today, I decided to have a bit of fun in the figures class. What I did was enter a base with just two footprints on it entitled H.G.Wells' Invisible Man. Later on during the day, a friend of mine came over to me with an amused look on his face. Apparently someone looking at my joke entry passed their hand over it to see if anyrthing was there!!!!!!!

Ref Dan Kink's post. I think that there may now be a dedicated museum to the Campbells next to Coniston Water in Cumbria here in the UK. Cosiston Water is where tragically Donald Campbell lost his life in Bleubird whilst attempting the World Water Speed Record

The Disney version of the Nautilus is quite iconic. I have copies of an old 'Scale Modeler' magazine that has drawings and an article that shows a cutaway model. There were a number of American modelling magazines that were printed on pulp newspaper back in those days of which this was one. Anyone remember 'Model Car and Science? Is Dan Thompson's article from the IPMS USA magazine available as a PDF download?

What no replies? Surely someone must know what has happened to both these organisations!

Lovely job there Jay! The 250 GTO must rate as one of Enzo's better all time classics. Revell Germany have recently released a new kit of this car and it is absolutely beautiful. The way that they have moulded the wire wheels in plastic has to be seen to be believed. Revell seem to have got their act together in Europe and their latest auto releases are up there with Fujimi, Hasegawa and Tamiya.......and at about half the price of the Jap offerings here in the UK. I am really looking forward to their London Transport Routemaster Double Decker Bus in 1/24th scale when released in November. If it is as good as the cars it will be amazing.

Yes a replica was built for a UK TV movie about Donald Campbell....Not sure about whether propelled or not though. Maybe just a dummy for filming slow moving shots. The Actor playing Campbell was Anthony Holpkins who you may remember played Hannibal Lecter along with actress Jodie Foster in Silence of the Lambs.

Further to my last post, I was reading a UK photographic magazine with an article in it about photographing model railways (railroads to US readers). It featured a particular photographer who does a lot of stuff for modelling magazines where great depth of field is required. He was singing the praises about a piece of software named HELICON FOCUS. I looked at their website to see what it was capable of and was very impressed. Basically it 'stacks' a number of images taken at different focal lengths on the subject and translates them into a super sharp front to back image.

I agree with what you say Rusty!..............Ah well! We can live in hope! Copyright issues aside, 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea hit theaters 40 years or so ago. So the desire from younger modelers to purchase a kit of the Nautilus (at least $40.00 due to heavy licensing fees from Disney) would be limited at best. So getting stockholder in the model company a fair return on their dollars for the expense of releasing the model is the real issue. While a few hundred thousand adult modelers with enough money to buy the kit are out there, that's far short of the numbers needed to guarantee stockholders a profit on their investment. Now if Disney would do a remake (it would be cool with the CGI today), then sales wouldn't be problem and a release would almost be guaranteed. Just my opinion.

Ray Rimmell the ex editor of the British Scale Models Magazine wrote a book on building Dinosaur kits approx 7 or 8 years ago (I think). Thought this might be of general interest to dinosaur modellers. Don't know who the publisher was though. Possibly Kalmbach? Ray edits and publishes the Windsock magazine devoted to WW1 aircraft. It may be worth a look on his website if he has one..

I can remember two organisations from way back in the 70's.. Sinclairs Auto Miniatures had a very good magazine that used to feature professional built car models and review high end kits such as Pocher. Auto World of Scranton PA. used to issue a really good annual catalogue of all the kits they stocked, and it had build tips in it as well. Any old timers know what happened to these organisations?

Thanks for your response Robin......It prompted me to look in the Oxford English Dictionary as I still had a niggling doubt. As you quite rightly pointed out Media is indeed the plural of medium..but not quite as we have been led to believe it seems. The dictionary describes Media as TV, Radio and Newspapers as the means of mass communication. It describes Medium in 5 ways as follows; A means by which something is communicated. A substance through which a force can be transmitted. A liquid with which pigments are mixed to make paint. A person claiming to be able to communicate between the dead and the living. The middle state between two extremes. I thought like yourself that a material would be described as a medium in this respect, but was surprised to find that the dictionary did not describe it in this way. This led me think that both terms Multi Media and Multi Medium in respect to model kits after all were BOTH suspect. So I thought that I would have a look at how Material was described instead. The dictionary describes Material as follows.....The matter from which something is or can be made. Items needed for doing or creating something. So maybe after all MULTI MATERIAL would be the correct way to describe these kits, considering that they may contain plastic, resin, metal (raw material,cast and/or photo etched) in any combination. However, despite my personal ramblings I cannot see the description 'Multi Media Kit' changing as it has now simply become a common term in modelling circles to describe these kits.

Brilliant! This model looks so realistic. I have seen many model junkers at shows that have been overdone. The subtlety of the weathering is a real credit to you. Would you like to share the technique James?

The term 'Multi Media' seems to have become accepted generally to describe kits of different materials, but is this correct? I always thought that 'Media' was collectively Television, Radio, Movies, Advertising and Newspapers etc. Surely 'Multi Medium' should be the correct term for these kits?

This is true.......really! Quite a number of years ago when our British National Championships was a much smaller event than now I made up a small base with just 2 footprint indents simulated on it with a nameplate 'H G Well's Invisible Man on it and placed the base in amongst the figures class for a practical joke. A friend of mine later said on the day 'You're not going to believe this but more than one person actually passed their hand over it to feel if something was there!'

If I can finish off the 1/16th scale scratchbuilt Bugatti Type 59 that I have about half done, i will be happy.

One of John Heck's posts brought back some happy memories of flying out to Florida in the 80's and doing the Disney thing like many parents from the UK with their kids. I remember going on the old Nautilus ride, so I was sad to hear that it had shut down. Since then I have visited Eurodisney in the early 90's with my (then much older) kids. As the Nautilus was from a Jules Verne story it was appropriate that there was a large almost full size mock up of the Nautilus to go inside. I will be going there again this summer with my Grand Children so hopefully it will still be there to see. John, I guess you are right about not enough interest in a 1954 film to make a kit viable. Now if Disney remade it with CGI that would be another story....Maybe even in 3D!!

Nice kit build of a quintessentially English sports car from the old originally Revell kit. Interesting post from Dan Schmitz with regard to driving one riddled with rust. and handling like a truck! Yep, that just about sums up the quality of most British Motor Corporation cars built here in the UK back then. Having had some of their rust buckets in the past I have experienced this first hand. Even when BMC became British Leyland there was hardly any improvement in quality. I bought a Triumph Dolomite 1500HL that was absolutely immaculate when I bought it. Despite using a rust proofing kit as soon as I bought it to spray wax to penetrate into all the bodywork's hidden nooks and crannies, after a couple of years it started to rot like a vampire doused in holy water. I was not impressed!. It was such a shame as the car was very well appointed and handled well. The Wolseley 6/110 that I owned also fared the same. Basically BMC and BL's quality control at the time left a lot to be desired unfortunately. Both nice looking cars but full restorations cost more that the value of these cars, so not many have survived. Only cars like the Austin Healey get money poured at them. Luckily there is an outfit named BL Heritage who make complete MGB bodies for enthusiasts to use all the mechanicals from a basket case, to rebuild their rot box MGB with a brand new body that has been made to modern standards. This has saved many MGBs from being scrapped.

I can remember the Matchbox kits. Somehow, I could never make out why they moulded parts of the kits in different colours though. Revell I believe bought out all the moulds some time ago and we see the occassional re release of the old Matchbox kits from time to time. Thankfully they do not go in for the ghastly colour combinations that Matchbox did all those years ago. The 1/32nd scale Tiger Moth and the Spitfire Mk22 have been released by Revell. Revell also bought out many of the old Frog moulds but I have not seen anything knocked out from these for some time. Back in the Halcyon days of the 60's and 70's when pocket money kits were coming out of kit manufacturers ears have long gone. The market has become aimed more at mature enthusiast modellers now, so there is an expectancy of quality that is reflected in the price. e.g I recently looked at a 1/24th scale car kit from well known Japanese manufacturer that was priced at £48.00 sterling here in the U.K. OUCH!