Aaronw

I hope this is the appropriate place to ask. I'll be moving to Ukiah soon and I'm looking forward to actually having some kind of model club relatively close by. I stopped by the Petaluma Hobbytown, I wasn't overwhelmed with the plastic selection but was pleased to see it seems very supportive with lots of local events. The paint selection looked pretty good too, nice to see more than the just the standard Model Master and Tamiya. Anyway just thought I see if there was anyone from the area in here that might be able to fill me in on the local hobby scene. I'm kind of torn with the Hobbyexpo being the same day as NNL West this year. On the one hand an hour away beats 3 but I've been attending NNL West the past several years and always have a good time. Thanks

Thanks, along with WW1 aircraft these have really brought the fun back to modelling for me. I find learning about the subjects is part of the fun, and I knew very little about these planes so there has been a lot to learn. I mostly use Pollyscale for the colors now, they have 3 USQM colors, Olive Drab 22, Blue 23, Orange Yellow 24. The P-6E was one of my first and I think I used MM Acryl Chrome Yellow.

Thanks, I've only recently really become interested in the period, two years ago I probably couldn't have named more than 2 or 3 aircraft. Since then I've been amazed by the huge variety of aircraft and markings offered in such a short period of time.

Very nice, being a 1/72 builder the cockpit detail possible in these large scale kits just blows me away. I like the weathering too, you did a nice job of making the plane look well work without going overboard.

A couple more from last year. Accurate Minis reissue of the 1/72 Monogram Curtiss P-6E. Used as a fighter from 1931-36 when the last were replaced by the P-26. Several remained in service as utility aircraft until 1939. This is an aircraft from the 17th Pursuit Squadron, Selfridge Field, MI in its famous "Snow Owl" scheme. 1/72 Revell Boeing P-26A, 94th Pursuit Squadron, Selfridge Field, MI about 1934. Used from 1933-42, it was the first all metal monoplane fighter adopted by any nation since the Junkers D.I of WW1. The decals are from Starfighter Decals.

I got bit by the interwar bug last year when I picked up the Accurate Minis re-issue of the Monogram Boeing F4B-4 and Curtiss P-6E. 1/72 Monogram F4B-4, USS Saratoga about 1937. Used by the USN from 1933-38. Not many have survived as they were used up during WW2 as target drones. I misread the color call outs during construction and painted the fuselage silver instead of grey. A lucky mistake in the markings by AM worked in my favor. Aircraft from the USS Saratoga didn't use a white tail until 1937, around the same time the Navy started to paint metal parts silver instead of grey. So, uh yeah, I meant to do that. 1/72 Monogram Curtiss F11C-2 Goshawk, USS Saratoga about 1933. Used by the USN from 1933-38. In 1934 the aircraft received some modifications and was redesignated BFC-2. 1/72 Special Hobby Grumman F3F-2 "flying barrel", USMC VMF-2 in 1940. Used by the USN and USMC from 1938-42. During WW2 many of these were used for utility duties and as target drones. This particular aircraft was assigned to future WW2 ace Robert Galer.

Not one I've seen done before. It looks great and is a nice looking plane.

I love to see yellow wings getting built. It is such an interesting period of aviation, but it doesn't get that much attention. It's looking good so far.

For a long time I avoided the older kits from Matchbox, Airfix, Monogram etc. Then a few years ago I ended up with a couple and re-discovered how much fun it is to build something quick and easy. Now probably half the kits I build come from one of those companies. Cheap, quick and fun to build.

I can't stand Matchbox kits. Horrible, horrible things (and this was just last year)

The cheapest is Microsoft Paint and Microsoft Word which most people already have on their computer. Use MS Paint for artwork, and MS Word for fancy lettering (Word Art), and you can make a table to help lay out the sheet for printing. Adobe Photoshop, Corel Photo Paint and similar programs can also be used. The "best" would be to use a vector based program like Corel Draw or Adobe Illustrator. Unlike the other programs I mentioned these do not use pixels, so you can change the size without distortion (pixilating). I have Corel Draw and am quite happy with it although there was a learning curve to it. One of the nice things with it is I can draw something in a large size that is easy to work with, then shrink it down for making a decal.

While nowhere near the level of a Plan 9 from outer space, The Black Hole and Battle Star Galactica are not exactly good, but they did score models and action figure lines. In my opinion the model / figures were far superior to the actual movies / TV show. I love them, but all those Japanese monster movies are hardly "good" movies.

I've been rather happy using guitar string for rigging 1/72 biplanes. It is nice stiff steel wire, just cut to length and super glue or epoxy into place (I prefer epoxy due to the longer working time). A superlight E string is .008" wire, and costs $2 or so, less if you buy in bulk. In scale it works out to be around 1/2" which I have been told is about right for the support wires of most biplanes.

The N14 will be the closest of those listed being related and the same displacement (14 liters), but the 855 is an older engine. The L10 is a 10 liter engine, the M11 is an 11 liter engine so a fair bit smaller. The KTA is a V engine so completely different (most Cummins are I-6). The ISX replaced the N14 so is at least two generations beyond and slightly larger displacement (14.9 liter) The 855 is not really just one engine, but a series of related engines all displacing 855 cubic inches (14 liters). You will often hear it called the Big cam although the "small" cam is also 855 cubic inches. I think the motor in the recently re-issued AMT Freightliner COE, or the AMT Peterbilt would have engines that would be considered 855s.

Not sure when I'll get to them, but after I saw the options I got a second one, so I could do a German airliner and the radial engine recon bomber.

The He-70 is neat, I don't think I've seen one built before. I recently got the RoG re-issue of the MB kit, and thought it was a good looking kit. I was surprised at all the options available, including a radial engine version used by Hungary.

I had that happen once, the resin was old and just never cured. I was told to try using some MEK and that worked. It made the residual resin cure, it was of no value as a part, but it cured enough to get it out of the mold.

I've recently started building a lot of these older kits from Monogram, Airfix, and Matchbox. The cost doesn't have that much to do with it, I'm just finding I have more fun building them. I was scared off of them for a long time after coming back to the hobby, but I built an A-Model kit last year and that turned out pretty well. By comparison Airfix kits are a gem. I've also realized I don't care that much about super detail because the models mostly sit on a shelf when done and I don't see all the work inside. The best part is I actually get these kits built, I've mostly built these kits since January and I've finished more kits so far this year than I have in the past 2 or 3 years combined. I don't dislike the uber kits, and I still buy some, I just don't avoid the older kits anymore. An added plus is if you do a halfway decent job on an old kit it seems to be more impressive to people than a really nice job on a new kit.

I've been pretty happy using three colors, starting dark as the base coat and dry brushing two lighter colors over that, the lighter the color the drier the brush. For this I used (I think) a base of raw sienna, followed with Citadel Blazing orange and Fiery orange. This slection of colors is probably a bit bigger than life than you are going for but the same technique and milder colors would probably work for you.

I didn't mean the high speed tsunami, there was some city driving in their too. :) It looks good as is I just thought a small "bow wave" might give more of a suggestion of movement.

That looks great, only thing I would suggest is some snow being sprayed out the wide side of the plow, snowplows don't just push snow like a bulldozer, the shape of the plow and speed results in a fairly forceful spray, almost like a breaker at the beach. You can see this in this video

He knows it too, quite an ego in that little guy. :)

This is my disaster area, this has actually been cleaned up a bit, it was worse last month. Pickles frequently keeps my chair warm for me, and thankfully doesn't seem to have a taste for styrene.

Well the three I sent in answer to Italeri's "tell us what you want" question were all in 1/72 Agusta-Westland AW-139 Sikorsky HH-3C/E/F Jolly Green Giant / Pelican Bell 206L-3 Long Ranger

Yeah, the instructions in many of the old AMT truck kits are rather vague, but they build up nice once you figure things out. I haven't done the snowplow but I have built one of the other Ford LNT kits. Not bad except I couldn't get the hood lined up right so just glued it shut.