ClareWentzel

Really good looking model plus a great way to display the finished model. That blue plastic is a great thought. Well done.

Love the Egg Planes.

Looks like a great kit. Complementary aircraft.

A member of our club, Paul Love, completed another 104 in the same scheme for display in the DuSable Museum of African American History in Chicago. It was part of a display honoring Maj. Robert H. Lawrence, Jr. Check out Maj. Lawrence's story at; http://www.raahistory.com/military/airforce/lawrence/lawrence.htm

Really great. Love the Small Air Forces markings and camo. Well done.

Great job Pedro. Impressive series describing your total process. I loved the eyes. You really caught what I would have expected his eyes to look like.

Impressive. Well done.

Hi Guys, You can find photos of all of the winning models at the following link; http://home.comcast.net/~wmiipms/Galleries/2014/Kontest/2014Results.htm A big thanks to Pete Litwinchuk of the Grand Rapids group for publishing this. As usual, Pete put together a great slide show to go along with the trophy ceremony. Great job as always Pete.

Great poses on the figures. Well done.

Hi Z. Maybe I can help a little. I believe that you indicated that you like the "brightness" of natural light but you find that the focus isn't always sharp. It could be that the camera doesn't know what you want to be the center of your interest and may be trying to focus more on the background which results in some details of the model not showing up too well. I usually have that problem when I photograph my models outside so I use a curved background so that the only item for the camera to "see" is the model. Here is a photo of my photography base; It is two pieces of plywood, hinged together with pieces of wood added to hold the background; This can be used indoors with lights added around the edges or with a flash or it can be used outside in natural light. I do recommend a tripod. That way, if the camera decides to use a slower speed, because of the light or the amount of telephoto used, the picture will still be sharp.

Great job John, how did you do the rigging. It looks very realistic. Yes, I agree that the Starfighter conversions are great.

Let us know when and how to order it.

Great jobs, and the "what-if" ones were really good. I also can see why you have "Factory" as a part of your handle. Well done and congrats. When will people learn that it pays to bring all of your new models to contests. It is always good to be surprised by a trophy.

Well done Bill. I love the color of the overall paint. It looks green and brown depending on the lighting. Great looking model.

Welcome to the group. It is a friendly group with lots of people available to answer any questions you have or to ooooh and aaaah over any model pics you may want to post.

We had our local contest last Saturday and I took advantage of the vendor room. See photo below. I got a twin MiG-21 kit from John of UMM. I also got an Airfix Fairy Battle and a Zvezda A-90 Ekranoplan. I even won a couple of kits at the raffle.

Thanks to all who came. It was a fun day with lots of great models and lots of great vendors. Here is a link for some photos from the event; https://picasaweb.google.com/108282433350787472041/KalamazooKontest2014?authkey=Gv1sRgCIy9mfmzmbCP5QE&feat=directlink

Welcome Bill. I am another one who has been building for more years than I want to admit. The key thing is to make yourself happy with your work. Please post some photos.

Just a final reminder of the contest this coming Saturday. Lots of last minute vendors have signed up. We will have over 40 tables of vendors plus 60 tables for model display. Looking forward to seeing everyone again.

Welcome. Glad to have new members to this crazy group.

No, they have not legalized weed in Michigan. Instead, by chance there is an interesting hot-air balloon show in Kalamazoo the week-end of our contest. Check out their web page; http://www.airzoo.org/event.php?menu_id=4&page_id=8&calendar_id=1&event_id=314 If you arrive early or stay late for our contest on September 27, you can see some great balloon flights at the Air Zoo. Everything in Kalamazoo is close so enjoy. Still looking forward to seeing everyone here.

We are looking forward to the new venue. It is on the second floor of the building but the space is larger and we have WINDOWS all along the side of the model room. We loved our previous venue at the Air Zoo but it was DARK plus they have added displays so we don't have enough space to use it anymore. The church gym that we used in 2012 was ok but for some reason, the church decided that they did not want to rent it to us again. I never got any negative feedback but they were steadfast. The Western Michigan University location looks to be great. Hoping to see everyone. Clare

I basically agree with Nick and Richard. I use MM Enamels almost exclusively. Probably using lacquer thinner for thinning helps them stick. I first uses acrylics when Polly S came out. I got big fish-eyes on some models when I didn't clean the model completely. Count me an enamel fan and hop that Testors at least has someone who still cares.

It was interesting to see it during restoration. On a number of the interior panels, the engineers and others who had worked on the original plane left their autographs. Here is the Air Zoo page on the XP-55. http://www.airzoo.org/page.php?page_id=207

Great job Bill. I love the futuristic, for its time, look of that plane. Incidentally, if you ever get to Kalamazoo, the local Air Zoo has the only remaining XP-55 on display.