Ron Bell
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Posts posted by Ron Bell
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Glad to have you back in the fold. I like your areas of interest as they match mine pretty nicely. I hope we will see some of your work here in the future.
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Nice scores. However, be wary of those ESCI decals. They are ancient and are probably brittle. Make sure you overcoat them with something (gloss or flat coat or Micro Decal Fluid) before you use them and avoid if possible putting them over any raised detail as they may not settle over it very well.
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Never heard of Braille Stike decals. I'll have to check them out. Like the goulash canone, by the way.
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I like when the "old" kit is displayed next to a "new" one and the "old" one looks better and your's sure would. Excellent work, as usual.
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Very nicely done. Good to see something a little different.
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This is the Revell re-release of the Matchbox Humber Mk II armoured car. It's a neat little kit and has one of their display bases included. I opened the vision slits on the hull sides, added the lifting rings front and rear, removed the molded in tools and tow cable and replaced them from the spares box and drilled out the guns and smoke dischargers. The base is another story. I covered the grassy area with Woodland Scenics products. Then I covered the shell hole with real dirt and filled the puddle in the middle with Klear wax. The last photo is the inspiration for the whole project, a book I recently read.
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This is the Revell SSI re-release of the Renwal USS Springfield. It's possibly one of the most inaccurate models of a ship ever made. The Springfield was converted to a guided missile cruiser after the war, her designation changing from CL 66 to CLG 7. Here are the problems. The kit has two triple 6 inch gun turrets but the converted Springfield only retained one. The kit has six double 5 Inch turrets but it should only have one. The kit has two pole masts but there should be three cage style masts. The kit gives you two Terrier missile launchers but there was only one. The fantail in the kit is configured for a hanger and crane for a stored seaplane, but a helo is given. On the reconfigured ship there was a heli-deck on the fantail but no provision for a hangar. But the helo they give you isn’t all that bad for what it is so I didn’t want it to go to waste, so I put a clear disc on for the rotor and posed it doing a “fly by”. Finally, the entire superstructure was completely reconfigured and the kit's is that from WW II. To fix all that would not be worth the effort, even if it were possible, so I used what they gave me. My only real change was to cut off the very thick molded in railings on the mail deck and replace them with PE and I added PE to the upper decks as well and stretched sprue for the rigging. There’s a photo of the removal of the railings “in progress”. Oh, one other thing. The kit comes with simulated wood decking on the main deck, but from what I can see from photos, aft of just about the centerline it was either removed or covered, which makes sense as the blast from the missiles being launched would have scorched a wood deck. So I sanded/scraped that detail off where needed and smoothed the deck. But, as they say, it is what it is and presented for your viewing pleasure, Revell/Renwal's USS Springfield.
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Have you tried an ABS cement such as is used on Plastruct materials? The plastic has a different chemical basis so "normal" cements don't work. Plastruct makes two cements, one is specifically for ABS plastic. Rubicon models are made of a plastic that does not respond to "normal" cements either, but ABS ones work fine.
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If that airbrush was new and as yet unused, there's an outside chance that there was some sort of a preservative on the metal parts. Another possibility is that the paint itself is contaminated or just not mixed thoroughly enough. Try straining the paint to remove any small particles and really mixing it up. I've bent a paperclip to form a "T" at the end and inserted it in my Dremel tool. Put it in the paint jar, turn it on LOW (and I do mean LOW or you'll have paint all over) and really give it a mix. Hold on to the paint jar or it may go flying.
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Is your airbrush clean, and I mean really clean? Many just shoot some thinner through the brush and declare it clean. Not so. Take it apart and give it a good cleaning to remove any possible residue then let it dry and reassemble. Did you wash the parts before painting? It looks to me as if there was some residue on the part itself like a mold release or some such that caused your problem. Two ways to proceed. One, remove all the paint, wash the part in dish detergent, let it air dry to avoid creating static electricity that will attract dust, then re-primer. Two, lightly sand the part especially in the effected areas, wash as in One above, then re-primer. If it happens again, then you know you've got an airbrush problem. Lastly, you didn't mention the type of paint used, solvent or water based. Each could react differently to surface or airbrush problems.
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That's a little better than the Rareplanes vacform I did many years ago, 😀. Excellent finish, as usual. I have always marveled at your NM work.
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Many Atlantis kits come with the decals for a stand but do not include said stand. They sell the stands as a separate accessory on their web site. Being in Ollies has nothing to do with they're not being in the kit. As to different pricing, I'd be dubious of Atlantis doing a "special run" for kits for a retailer. Another explanation for the price discrepancy might be because Revell also reissued those kits as part of their SSI (Select Subject Issue) series and they have different box art and pricing. Just guessing on that last part.
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The attitude of a large part of America today.
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Actually neither. It's Woodland Scenics tan Fine Ballast. I wanted more of a 'gravely' texture than sand would provide.
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This is a kit that dates from the 70's but is remarkably good, rivaling the current crop of Trumpeter and Dragon kits. I've done this scheme in 1/35th and 1/48th but needed one for my Braille Scale collection. The kit comes with no interior, which is odd as their Valentine of the same era had a driver's position, turret basket and basic interior detail. The driver's visor can be posed open or closed, but if open there's nothing there, not even a driver figure. Ditto for the loader's hatch. At least you get a commander figure to fill an open cupola. I built a box inside the driver's position and painted it black to hide the fact that there's nothing in there except the driver figure that I adapted from the spares' box. The loader is from the ESCI 25 pdr. kit with modifications to get him to sit right on the turret top. I added the wall segment to illustrate why the vehicles were painted this way. It's actually a section of a Matchbox kit's diorama base. I make no claim to fame in painting small scale figures. I just can't get the hang of it. But to be fair, the detail on figures from this era wasn't exactly "crisp".
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Your paint work is excellent. As to the gloss coat for the bomber jacket, maybe a semi-gloss would be better. Those jackets got plenty beat up. Also, is it me or do the arms on the RAF pilot look out of proportion (too large) to the rest of the figure?
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Or just use another company's clear coat, such as Tester's Gloss Coat. I've used it over all sorts of decals and Tamiya paints with no problem. You can still find it in Michaels and other craft stores and model RR stores.
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Clearly, no gap. Bend as suggested.
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Looks like a great show. That must be one huge church to have a fellowship hall that size and quality. Usually they are a dank room with a tile floor in the basement with the pipes exposed. Blizcon is next week and I hope we can equal your success.
And by the way, you should get these posted on the IPMS/USA web site under "Websites" then "Gallery" then "Events Gallery" or send them in to the Journal for some coverage. You deserve it!
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For large pour plugs on flat parts I have used a Dremel belt sander. You need to go slow and check your work often, but it sure does make short work of it. I get it down to where I can hand sand the remainder so I don't go too far with the power tool.
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If what goes on in my local club is any indication of the "national scene", there's a third group of modelers, those that never build anything and there may be more of them than the other two. They may be serious kit collectors or may just never get around to building/finishing a model but they like the hobby for whatever reason.
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No, that's just one, albeit a large one, of the problems to be overcome. If we aren't looking to "grow" the society, as some have suggested, what can we do to better involve the members we do have? Maybe some wild suggestions will lead to concrete actions. Heres one...
De-emphasize the contest and promote display. How? Heres one way, limit each modeler to only one model per category. With this there is also no need anymore for a sweeps rule. However, at the same time, expand the space for display only and give each registrant a certain number of tokens of some sort that they can leave by the display models (not contest entrants) of their choice to show the modeler that his/her work was noticed and appreciated.
Above is just one scenario. Some of it is workable, some maybe not so much and some not at all. But with ideas like this, we can start to springboard to others that just might improve the society's overall membership participation/satisfaction.
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The old "why join IPMS" question. The question "what's in it for me" is more prevalent now than ever. Just joining a group of people that share your interest and being a part of a larger organization no longer attracts the current generations. Witness the decline in membership in most if not all fraternal organizations such as the Eagles, Odd Fellows and their like. People no longer need an organization to be linked up with others of like mind, they have the internet for that. We have a great modeling magazine, but there's nothing in there that the internet can't provide and mostly, aside from your internet service fee which covers way more than just modeling stuff, it's free. Unless you like to show your models (which you can also do on the internet by the way) in person and talk to people face to face, there's little we can offer to this generation of modelers. We even let non-members shop in our vendors' areas because we're afraid the vendors might leave and that's a primary reason people come to our shows. But yet thousands of people travel many miles to attend comic-cons and their like across the country with no parent organization governing them (not counting the various corporations that make big money off these things.)
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Try one of the plastic "welders". Plastruct makes two and Micromark makes a product called "same stuff". It's the same formula as Tenax 7 and works a treat on every plastic I've tried it on.
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Maddog Manufacturing Open for 2024
in Photos: On the Bench
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A while back, I obtained a couple of tin printers plates. (They were used before the days of Xerox, laser printers, etc.) They are thin sheets of a tin like metal about the size of a legal pad and can actually be cut with an Exacto, although it's the last thing that particular blade will ever do. It's thin enough to be bent to just about any shape yet being metal is strong enough to hold that shape. Now, I know that you probably won't be able to find any of this stuff anymore (but if you do hoard all you can get.), but you can get very thin sheet brass and/or aluminum from K&S products. It may cost a bit more than plastic (or any PE product) but a little bit will last you a very long time if used for small parts such as your track return guides.