ClareWentzel

Welcome Harry. You will find a friendly group here. What do you build? Show us some of your models.

Just received my issue of the Journal. Great job. The photos of the winning models were spectacular. Also, as always, I enjoyed the column by "Dem Brudders". Lots of good photos in the column including good ones of Mark Deliduka and Scott Bregi. Great issue.

At one time, SAM Publications gave a discount to IPMS members. Not sure if it is still available.

Damn Dave!!! Those are really impressive. Very well done.

Welcome Bob. I am sure that you will find a lot of similar folks around here. What do you build?

Phenicies five and dime store in Constantine Michigan. They had a good selection of Revell and Aurora kits plus the usual Pactra paints. I thought that I was really pushing the envelope when I started painting a black rectangle around the molded-in pilot of the Aurora models.

Ed, was the Revell kit one of the four box scale kits that had plastic stands that swivelled 360 degrees? I had all four of them mounted to the wall of my bed room.

I just saw it. Great job!!

On the same subject, I purchased a shirt and it was supposed to be sent to me when you got more stock. Still haven't received my shirt.

Probably the key word is "Elder". Not sure about the "statesmen". ;-)

John, your IPMS number is a good illustration of how long you have been a member. The 14K series was a good one.

Gorgeous model. Well done. Love the Polish markings.

Great job. Love the cockpit. Realistic natural metal scheme plus, very nice but not overdone exhaust staining.

Mine was an old F9F Panther - circa early 50s.

Interesting.

Over 60 years ago, I went to the local five & dime store in Constantine to find lots of Aurora kits. Later, I got into flying models and stopped building plastic models for a while. After I got married and moved to Detroit, I got back into plastic. I found the most fantastic plastic model hobby shop that I had ever seen - Wings. He had imported kits from England, Germany and Japan!! Shortly after, Jerry Campbell started Squadron Shop on John R. I passed by there 2 or 3 times a week on my way home from work and my collection soared. Now, my only LHS is Hobby Town. I must say that the people there are great. They will get anything for me that their distributors have - and fast. Since they also have all the paints etc to keep my hobby going, I use them whenever I can.

A great addition to a modelers library. I got mine from the old John R Squadron Shop - 50 years ago!!! Good grief.

Impressive project. Looking forward to seeing progress. Also, lots of potential schemes with the MiG-21 and the Mirages, also the SAAB. In case you get bored, you can add a half dozen different versions of these models. ;-)

OK Phil, How did you find the Clipper instructions on the Airfix Tribute Forum? I clicked on "Airfix Civil Aircraft Kit Instruction Index" . From there, under 1/144 kits, I clicked on "Boeing 314 Clipper 1967" and got a message that "The requested topic does not exist.". Just an old guy trying to figure out what I did wrong. Thanks to you and Ron, by the way, for the info.

Welcome Michael. As the guys have said, this is a friendly group who share your same sickness. Love the T-34. Well done. Very grungy!!

I too received one of the Boeing 314 kits. No decals. Does anyone have a set of instructions for this kit? Looking forward to building it. The Airfix Tribute Forum does not have these instructions.

Hi Duke. Sorry that I didn't meet up with you at the Nats. I heard your name mentioned at least two times during the awards ceremony. Congrats. Was that Saturn one of them? Good looking model.

Thanks for posting this Michael. I too had noted Judys note. It is a real shame but it appeared that he didn't suffer. I have known Jerry for many years. The original Squadron Shop on John R in Detroit (actually Hazel Park but most people wouldn't recognize it) was a stop on my way home from work most days of the week. Jerry changed what a plastic model hobby shop would look like. We had imported kits available, for in many cases, the first time. We soon found special colors of paints - I really loved the FHQ brand and we saw decals, other than the ones that came with kits. When Jerry moved into mail order, he did it in a big way and soon all of these goodies became available to everyone. As far as I am concerned, he was one of the true pioneers of our hobby. RIP Jerry.

I would with the caveat that he should have some building experience plus you will be helping him. The gun is made out of normal plastic but the body, head and limbs seem to be made out of a vinyl type material. Check the fit of these parts before painting. We didn't and the fit of some of them was problematic. Also, We painted them with a coat of Tamiya primer and then Model Masters enamels. The paint would not dry and if anything, it got stickier at time went by. He had to remove the paint and then repaint the parts with an acrylic paint. This seemed to work. Enjoy.

My 17 year old grandson has been visiting this last week. He has been interested in building models for a while so we gave him a Guardians of the Galaxy kit for Christmas. He brought it along. The photo below shows the final result. I showed him how to do some of the things but virtually all of the work was his. The kit wasn't easy. We found out that some paints would not dry on the material that made up the model and the fit of many parts could have been better but he and the family were pleased with the final result. He learned how to air brush and how to dry brush plus patience. It was a good week.