Ron Bell

It's an attempt to hype the 50th convention, which you can't do after that convention has happened.

THIS is a group build I can really get behind. Here's one of each, a/c, msc, ship, mil.veh, and figure. Scratchbuilt 1/32 Rolls Royce armoured car. Airfix HO Prairie Tank Engine Airfix 1/600 HMS Hero Pegasus 1/72 Fairey Albacore Harlequin 25mm 3rd Dr. Who And my West Highland White Terrier, Sophie

I heard back from the contest chair and he's says on line model registration is news to him. He thinks it's just an editing error in the FAQ section but is checking it out and will let me know the definitive answer. By the way, kudos to Matt Quiroz, the contest chair. He got back to me within 24hrs! That's service for ya!

You're right, but this is the only mention of it anywhere and as I said, we haven't been able to do that recently. I've emailed the contest chairman via the Contacts section of the site to see if he can shed some light on this.

I may be wrong here, but I can't find anywhere that says you can register your models via the internet. For the convention, yes and there's a place where they say the forms will be available in the future, but I can't find anything about pre-registering models. I don't think we've been able to register our models in advance for the last few conventions, have we?

I had the same track problem with mine. See my review of this kit in the review section of this web site to see how I dealt with it for another method.

Currently I'm working through IPMS/UK. They were planning of doing a tour for internationals coming to the UK. We're hoping to piggy-back on their tour. It would also involve IPMS/Canada. That means we'd have a better chance of reaching the minimum numbers needed by tour companies to make a tour fiscally possible. We've got a basic itinerary worked out and it covers a LOT of ground. Lots for aircraft guys, but plenty for ship builders and military vehicle guys as well, never mind all the basic sight seeing that's possible I hope to get an ad on this web site and into the Journal sometime early in the new year. Keep your eyes peeled and start saving your pennies and return those deposit bottles and cans.

First off, what are your intentions? Do you just want to replace the decals or will you be repainting and was anything applied over the decals, such as a dull or gloss coat?

I did this with the 1/35 kit, but I wanted one for my 1/72 collection. Since the first try, I found many things I should have done on the first project that I neglected. The Emhar kits are pretty basic and fit is only so-so, so with all the extra conversion work, it made for a pretty big project.

What you probably have is called "blush". Usually when it thoroughly dries, it goes away. However, being as its under a decal it may take quite a while. Wait a few days/week to see what happens. If it stays white, try Mark's idea. I say wait because once you apply the future over the decal, it's sealed and underneath it may never dry right and the decal won't respond to any other attempts to fix it.

It's not a PV-1, but it's a cousin, a Hudson.

Just wanted to wave the Airfix flag a bit. This is the current release of this very old kit. I think it can be made up into a pretty nice model. A real aircraft guy could make it really nice. I, of course, did it OOTB.

The ship's boats are OOTB. No work done other than to clean them up a bit. The hulls of some of them are a deep blue. Saw this in a couple of photos and thought it would make a nice splash of color. The boats that would have had "decks" and the interiors of the rest, had them painted a natural wood color. I've also seen them all done in just plain grey, interior and out. Pretty dull looking. The red thwarts in the boats by B turret are a bit of fancy to add another splash of color.

This is actually a pretty nice kit with decent detail. Old molds, so there are a lot of seams and the fit is problematic in some places, but with care, it can look nice. I used a WE PE set for the KGV, but it had mostly radars that were fit after the Bismarck campaign, which was what I was going for. A set of Tom's Modelworks generic railings was also used. Clear stretched spru was used for rigging, which is my weakest suit.

Be careful with Floquil. They now also make an acrylic line and it's easy to get the two confused.

After a lull, I'm back at working my way through the Monogram Military Models. My most recent is the M-20 Scout Car. This kit is more along the lines of the 1/32 scale offerings. It must have been done later as the figures are actually pretty good, given their age. No interior to speak of, but a nice array of exterior stowage. Next up is the M-16 gun Motor Carriage. They also did the M-8 Armored Car, but I need to change it up a bit. Anyhoo, here it is.

That's it, keep 'em comin'.

The military vehicle class includes fully tracked, half tracked, armored cars, softskins, SP guns, towed artillery and vehicle mounted rockets. Let it all fly. What are the basics? Not your personal preferences, but the real basics to be judged.

Ralph, Thanks. Already a couple there I didn't have. Anyone else have more?

I'm working on a project of my own devising and want to pick your brains. In judging a military vehicle class (a la IPMS/USA national contest categories) model, what would you say are the basic requirements? I'm not looking to debate anyone's opinion, but rather want to compile a list of what those on this forum consider "the basics" of this branch of modeling to be. I'll read your ideas with interest. Thanks.

As to the number of rooms, this facility is an exact mirror copy of the one Omaha used and they did ok. Western conventions are never as large as those in the east or center of the country. I think every convention I worked with at some point had its main hotel reported full. Most of the time it was a glitch in the hotel's system or you talked to Phyllis instead of Sue at the reservation desk and Phyllis just got back from vacation and didn't know what was going on yet. I'm with Ed on this. Don't panic. Let the hosts know of any problems by emailing them via their web site as well as on the Forum and let them work on it.

I think the "official" solvent for Future was ammonia but spraying ammonia might have deleterious side effects such as death or other not nice stuff. However, you could use it to soak airbrush parts for a thorough cleaning.

Here's well wishes to all the North Florida boys! I know all your work over the past three years (including preparing the bid) will give us the best convention ever. And to all those making the trek to the Magic Kingdom, travel safe and see you there!

All those do work, but if the decal is just plain "stuck" to the backing, it won't matter. Unless the decal is of a one off/unique type marking, I'd recommend just ditching the old decals and using newer replacements. You'll save yourself a lot of trouble and frustration. Note, however, that sometimes the tint of the old and new decals will differ, especially with white.

FWIW, the official convention web site says they are 24", unless the fellow you spoke to has been officially told otherwise.