VonL

Very cool. Love the collection, too. I saw a pic of a camo HU-16 in Vietnam. Were those Coasties, too?

Used to be a huge fan. Now I only order Squadron stuff that's in stock, and not much of that, over the past few years. They seem to have focused their (kit) inventory on Hobby Boss & Trumpeter at the expense of others. Is it just me, or do a majority of their sales feature those? Not much of the cool, niche goodies that power our fanatic-sector of the customer base (and we are a sector). A never-when, Nazi flying saucer - WTF? I second the Duke's comments.

Incredible! Nice work on a bunch of very cool subjects. To paraphrase that old Army ad: "You build more models before 09 JAN than I'll do all year." And then Cold War logic kicks in...to counter all of this high-end conventional production, I'll need something nuclear...

Rick - Love the model. Your wood grain finish looks great! I picked up a couple of these as 'distressed kits' at the Nats and enjoyed them for exactly the same reason. Nick - I refuse to pick up the gauntlet. Respectfully, please take it elsewhere.

Just saw a 1/350 Delta (-III) Soviet sub kit advertised for Zvezda 4Q19 - and now the ad is gone. Does that mean: 1 - Just not gonna make 2019 "so...gimme a minute" or 2 - The CONUS distributor syringe will not accommodate or 3 - Cancelled due to lack of interest? Sure do hope it's not #3. I really want one of these menacing, iconic Cold War monsters. Any wisdom here?

Love this. Those PE details will have a super effect.

THAT is way cool. Nice work; lots of character. I can easily visualize that proto-Brown Water Navy critter, slowly steaming past the Spanish moss, lookin' for a fight.

Tom - Thanx much for this; a lot to digest, for one who is not a sub expert! General intent is to do the good ol' Revell kit in the as-built WWII configuration (with some artistic license). Not sure that I really wanna go all the way down the rabbit hole with her deck, but the limber-holes mod is do-able. Thanx for the Nautilus resin recommendations and especially for the weapons loadout - I had not yet stumbled across that.

Ahoy, ship dudes - I've always dug that odd-scale Revell USS Growler kit (1/180-ish?) and built it twice as a kid. Would like to build it again, this time as SS-377 in her WWII configuration: A Balao class boat launched in DEC 1944, that was rebuilt after the war as a Guppy-II. Nautilus Models offers those nice resin sails/mods for this kit and there are some others emerging on Shapeways. Not sure how to pick the most accurate variant, cuz' the ship's pix don't seem to show any differences...that I can detect. Suggestions-???

Thank you, sir. I will meditate upon this. Still debating the vac-chamber. I see a couple on Amazon for under 100 bux. Should that do it?

Wow - nice work!

QUESTION for Rusty: How do you eliminate/minimize bubbles from the mixing & curing phase? Vibration? Pressure pot? Temperature trick? I've usually taken a fine wire and poked around the mix as it starts to cure and that seems to get most, but not all of them. ???

I got a set from Alumilite that uses about a 10:1 ratio and it kicks (starts to cure) way too fast to mix it properly. Later got the 50/50 ratio stuff under a different brand. It kicks after about 3-4 minutes and has been much easier to use.

Some nice lookin' stuff here!

Thanx - I really enjoyed that kit and am now motivated to the Buckley Destroyer Escort with this same level of care. Your model added that much more motivation. Lookin' sharp!

This is still the best 'short answer' to the original question. Am personally dabbling in CAD, but meanwhile got some fantastic replacement deck guns for the Revell Destroyer Escort from a guy on Shapeways. He listed them for the typical ship scales, but didn't hesitate to render a set for the odd Revell box scale of my kit. Could not be more pleased. Compare the kit gun vs the Shapeways find:

B-17G 44-83872 "Texas Raiders" CAF and B-1B 830067 "Texas Raiders" (96 BMW) Dyess AFB:

Beautiful ship there! Very well done on the foc'sle scratch work and the boats. I did some of that on the Revell icebreaker 'partner' kit as the Eastwind, plus a bit of weathering. See ya at the ice-pack!

Have recently had a couple of chapter/club member queries asking for a concise list of the benefits of national membership, especially any collateral business/merchandise discounts that may be offered. Is there a list of those published anywhere? Did not find it on this website. Might also be a good piece of filler for *every* issue of the IPMS-USA Journal. Maybe a coupon, or online discount code-of-the-month? Am aware of some bid'nesses that offer an IPMS member discount, but ya sorta have to stumble across it, in their literature.

Is there a gouge here for accomplishing this? Thought I had seen one awhile back, but can't find it now. Reason for this question is that a member of our chapter sez he's tried to work this with "them" and just gets the sound of crickets. Good dude; superb modeler and chapter member, so there's no weird attitude-issue in play; just frustrated. Apparently barking up the wrong tree - ? What are we missing?

So...exactly what shade of OD green is this guy...? 😉

Maybe the way to square the corner on that food & beverage requirement is to plus-up the Chattanooga format to a ticketed, catered buffet & cash bar; keep the informality while offering table reservations, overflow seating (and the cash bar) for the awards session and go from there. Perfect way to do a Texas BBQ, for example.

Just got home from this one and enjoyed it very much. Great accommodations (Staybridge), efficient admin & programming, excellent exhibit hall & vendor set-up, cool seminars and fantastic, inspiring work to see. Through my lens, the Display-Only and the non-banquet dessert-social ideas were very successful. (Only caveat might be to make any awards to previous Nats winners by 'popular vote' only.) Fun-factor: Pegged. Shipped booty: Enroute. Top marks, crew!

Stray thought here: Include a current screenshot of this website's Chapter Map with the new member's first Journal, or welcome-packet/letter and in the Society's generic recruiting pitches. A 'big board' showing this at the Nats, etc, might recruit unaffiliated members, or even new national members. A couple of my acquaintances were unaware of IPMS chapters near them, that would likely have motivated them to join earlier. Also, whenever I moved (usually at the behest of the armed forces), the effort to scope out my new home always included finding the nearest hobby shops & clubs.

Beautiful model! Huge fort fan here...inspired to get my B-17 on...