Nick Filippone

If you Google : “ U.S. yellow ID letters and numbers decals 1/72 scale” you will find, as I did, several options. Nick

No, but I play one on T.V.! 😼 Sorry, I couldn’t resist. Yes, I am a practicing physician and surgeon.

Yes. Modify the peg and/or locating hole and turn it around. Kit designers and mold makers are only human. Part of what makes us modelers and not just assemblers is identifying their mistakes and fixing them! Nick Filippone

Well, that was easy! And the shirts are pretty cool- I went with the Thunderbirds. Thanks to the Convention staff and the National Organization for making this so smooth. Nick

Boy, Gil, have you got a good memory! The drop tank on the 1/48 Monogram Spitfire IX never occurred to me until you mentioned it. I also now recall-if memory serves- that that kit had retractable landing gear, as I believe the 109 in that series also had. Still, it seems odd that Monogram chose a Spitfire with a drop tank as it is not a feature often associated with any Spitfire, as Ron has suggested. Perhaps by chance, they were working from a particular photo of a not so usual variant of the IX. My other thought was this: could they have started designing the kit with the idea of an operabl

If you Google “Spitfire drops tanks” a lot of info and photos come up. In particular, Spitfires were equipped with drop tanks for ferrying flights to Malta. Perhaps that is what the author was referring to. Nick Filippone

According to the prospectus distributed by the Omaha representatives at the 2019 National Bids Presentations, if Omaha was awarded the 2022 National Convention, ( which, obviously, we now know they were), the dates would be 20-23 July. Nick Filippone

Clearly, they all do not look the same. To accomplish the appearance in this photo, I would mask on each side of each rib, and paint in between, by hand, with Mr. Surfacer 500 or 1000. When dry, peel away the masking tape. Then you can gently, lightly sand to remove any raised edge caused by the meniscus effect of the paint next to the masking tape. You can also lightly sand to make it less prominent if desired. If you make a mistake, you can easily remove the entire new “rib” and redo it. I use this technique to restore raised panel lines. It is actually easy and very effective. Good luck. N

Viktor, I consulted one of my references on the Tiger Moth. This is Ray Rimell’s Aeroguide Classics Number 6 on the Tiger Moth. There are excellent closeups of the wing and horizontal stabilizer upper surfaces. On the tail especially, the rib effect is quite subtle and, respectfully, as molded by Airfix, it is much closer to reality than what your rib tape efforts are achieving. In 1/72 and smaller scales, these techniques are inevitably over scale. I have used these tape techniques in scratch-building in these small scales, because there aren’t a lot of alternatives. It’s better than nothi

Tony, Examine that Lindbergh Do335 carefully. I once (40+ years ago) tried to do Do 635. This was a proposed twin fuselage Do 335. It was not possible because, due to a molding error, the wing roots are at different levels when viewed from the front. Could you do it with the Dragon kit? It is much better and much more accurate. Nick Filippone

For some members, it is about the medals. For some of us, it is about medals and models. One’s attitude toward one’s hobby ( or job, or marriage or religion) is very personal. It seems to me that the arguments against contests are employed by people who cannot win, either due to lack of skill or lack of assiduity, or people who have won all the trophies they need and want some kind of release from the onus of preparing for competition (because it does unquestionably exert pressure to be “ perfect “), or people who think that any competition is intrinsically evil ( which also, unquestionably, i

Actually, I do bother to look at what is being entered in these categories as I enter them and judge them. What kits are being entered is not the point. One of the most important reasons for creating OOB was to provide categories where perhaps more casual modelers feel they can compete successfully without having to do the major surgery or create out of raw materials the extra details often seen in the “standard” categories. While there may be an element of perception versus reality in this distinction in the minds of modelers, it is an important perception. IPMS contests have long been accuse

As an avid model builder, enthusiastic trophy hound and practicing National Contest judge, I have never had nor have I any problem with OOB. Neither do most people who enter these categories- at least in my personal experience. I agree with Jim, based on it’s popularity and participation, these categories should be kept. While changes in contest categories are at the discretion of the NCC, heretofore, they have, appropriately, based such decisions on the perceived preferences of the National Contest contestants - usually expressed in the numbers of entries in a category from year to year. T

I was very sorry to hear of the passing of Mr. W.R. Matthews. Older old-timers will remember him from before Air Enthusiast when he wrote the modeling column for Flying Review International. As a budding serious teen age modeler in America, he was for me a near mythical guru of our hobby. Everything he did in the Mother Country seemed so much different and better than what we were doing here in the colonies. His information about aircraft I never heard of and camouflage schemes never seen before was fun and exciting and educational. And as if that wasn’t enough, he had a Briton’s enviable supe

Isn’t that just a dark coloured rubber seal? Could you simulate it after painting with decal or tape? Nick