ghodges

Sad news indeed..... Praying that the Lord focuses his family on their lifetime of loving memories of him to buoy them through their grief. Gil

Wow.... you've got my 6mos to a years worth of projects going in just the last month! As for the vac clear parts..... here's my advice: 1) Coat or dip them entirely in Future. You can do that while they're on the sheet or after you cut them out; but BEFORE you try to glue them on. 2) I've found it easier to cut out clear vac plastic with cuticle scissors rather than with a knife. It tends to be on the tougher side as compared to plain white vac plastic and is also harder to sand its edges. The scissors give you greater cutting control. 3) Initially trim close to but not quite up to the part outline. It sometimes helps to use a fine tipped black sharpie and draw your intended cut line around the part so as to better see and follow the outline. 4) Once cut out, test fit, trim, test fit, trim, and repeat until you get the best fit possible. Remember it's MUCH easier to cut away more material than to fill and blend in a gap. 5) Once you're satisfied with the fit, put the part in place and tack the corners with a drop of superglue to hold it. 6) You can now use any of the following depending on how strong you need the joints to be: Super glue applied with a wire if it's going to be bearing any load and needs to be strong; liquid cement if you just want to be sure all the edges are somewhat welded but won't be subject to much strain; white glue/canopy glue to simply glue/fill/seal the seams; or even some Future for the same purposes if the seams won't be subject to any strain. The main idea is to take your time, get the best fit, and glue slowly and carefully. Hope this helps! Gil

Sharp! Gil

Quite impressive and it looks perfectly at home in the setting you created! Thanks for letting us ride along! Gil

This is the ID/Combat vacuform kit of the EC-121 Constellation built instead as the Connie used by the Blue Angels in the late 1960s. Everything except the basic airframe had to be scratchbuilt or grabbed from spare parts or repurposed aftermarket. There's a complete "in progress" post on building it and its components in the "build" topic area for anyone interested in the gory details. All of the small round windows were made by using UV cured clear resin that was then sanded and polished with a final coat of Future to brighten them. The model was (in the end) painted in Testors Gloss Dark Blue for the BA Blue (I was out of MM BA blue!) and the BA yellow was done using Tamyia rattle can Camel Yellow applied over flat white primer. The bare metal areas on the cowl sides are Alclad Airframe Aluminum while the prop spinners and cowl leading edges were sprayed Alclad Chrome. The Blue Angels markings came from 2 different sheets, BOTH of them 1/32 scale (to allow for the larger 1/48 aircraft lettering); a CAM A-4 BA Skyhawk sheet and a Draw Decals F7U-1 Cutlass Blue Angels sheet. I did, however, make stencils and mask and paint the yellow "8"s on the tail fins. The American flag decals on the center fin are actually ship decals from the spares box! And now on to the rest of the pics! And... just to answer the question "where would you put it'? I have a display case purposely built big enough for such models. The others currently in the case are a 1/48 B-29 and B-50, as well as a 1/32 B-24D, F-86H, and F-84G. Questions, critiques, and comments welcome, as always. Gil

The paint? Therein lies a tale....... The idea was to use KRYLON BLUE, which is what's recommended on the CAM B.A. decal sheet since it's (supposedly) what the team uses to touch up the jets during the show season. HOWEVER, SOME pics from the 60s (Tigers and Phantoms particularly) seem to show a slightly darker BA Blue than what you see on the later Skyhawks and Hornets the last 40 years. Thus, I decided to prime the entire model in gloss BLACK and then apply the Krylon Blue to darken it down a bit. The problem is that I could NOT get the Krylon Blue to spray on without reacting and crinkling in some places (2-3 times sanding and repainting). SO..... I fell back to plan B/C, sanding out the problems as best I could (but not all were eliminated), repriming in black, and then I used the SMALL bottles of TESTORS GLOSS DARK BLUE (I'm out MM BA Blue), thinned with lacquer thinner and airbrushed on in as "wet" a coat as I could. That worked well enough, though the color (to me) looks more "modern" than I'd planned. The good news is that IF you cannot still find MM BA Blue in the bottle, you probably can find the small Testors bottles of gloss dark blue, and it seems to work well for the Blue Angels color, especially applied over gloss black. By the way..... the BA Yellow trim was done with Tamiya rattle can Camel Yellow, applied over a flat white primer, which seems to match the decals decently if not perfectly. Hope this helps! Gil

Thought I'd post my in progress pics of my 1/48 vacuform Connie as I should have her done by the end of the week. To begin with, instead of doing any EC-121 version I decided to opt for Blue Angels markings, as used by them in the late 1960s. This not only made the color scheme a bit easier, but also allowed me to skip using the tip tanks and any of the radar domes, saving me some vac work. Keep in mind that everything but the airframe had to be scratchbuilt or pirated/adapted from spare parts or other aftermarket sets not meant for a Constellation, since no one makes stuff for this old vac kit. More info is by the in progress pics below..... This is what you get....... The basic wing assemblies. Note the brass tubing spars and how they're boxed in inside the wheel wells. This is the main wing spar bulkhead built to strengthen that area when finally assembled. Here it is in place.... The nose gear well was a little more complicated than the usual rectangular box This is the bare bones starting point for scratchbuilding the landing gear. The nose tires are from the spares box and the main tires are Eduard Brassin B-29 tires. These are the finished landing gear as detailed with soldering wire, tape, and plastic rod. Note the main gear now have aluminum tubing for their oleo sections. This is a test fit of the gear to the plane to check its sit.... the wings and tail planes have yet to be glued on... Oddly, my kit did not include a clear canopy, so I had cut that area out and glue it together to make my own mold. Here's a couple of the clear shots made using my old Mattel vacuform, which was just big enough to get the job done. I decided early on to skip building any interior except for a very rudimentary cockpit since the windows are so small. I also decided to wall off the interior so as to prevent see-through and help blacken the interior. The round windows have all been filled at this point with UV cured clear resin. Save your plastic fiber yard signs as they can come in handy! The assembled engine cowls and the assorted fuselage parts. Almost ready to close it up at this point. Note the epoxy putty on the cowls to help correct parts of them. The cowls have been primed, the engines selected from the spares box, and the vac prop spinners are now being worked on... The kit cowlings were too plain and simplified, needing cowl flaps, exhaust pipe holes, and a curved indention dipping in behind the cowl flaps. This shows how I made the cowl flaps after carving their sides down and opening them up. Test fitting the finished nose gear and the nose gear door.... All of the gear doors had to be scratchbuilt. Their interior detailing is bogus for the most part, but at least they look "busy". The hinges were made by punching out concentric rings of sheet plastic and cutting them in half. Test fitting all of the main gear doors.... note at this point their interior "skins" have yet to be added. One of the problems with a 3ft long fuselage is how to hold it for painting and drying. The model was too big to add the wings and then try to paint the entire model, so the fuselage and wings were painted separately. The wings were then added, the wing roots filled and sanded, and then the wing roots were repainted to blend them in. Here, the fuselage black primer is drying. Here she is as of today... decaled and awaiting final assembly of all of the fiddly parts over the next couple of days. Final pics will be posted then! Questions, critiques, and comments welcome, as always! Gil

Nice progress, and that interior could pass for pics of a museum restoration underway! Gil

I used to have that kit, but no longer do.... however, I found a video "in box" review including close-ups of the parts on the sprues, so try going to this link, scroll down to the video, click on it, then Fast fwd to 13:28 and stop it there. You should see parts 22/23 and if you look just above there, a shot of the back of part #24. That at least shows were it is approximately on any sprues you may have, and with further viewing maybe you can see the other side (perhaps earlier when he's showing the un-numbered side and you know where to look for it). Hope this helps! https://www.scalemates.com/kits/airfix-a16001a-focke-wulf-fw190a-5-a-6--262863\ Gil

Heck of a nice looking Harrier! Looking forward to the finished presentation! Gil

I'm actually doing this Blue Angel Connie using a combination of 1/32 and 1/48 BA decals.... Gil

What a coincidence! I too am working on a 1/48 vac Connie, though yours will obviously be much more detailed than mine! I'm finally in the painting stages and with luck will have it done in a couple of weeks. Gil

(In my best Obi-Wan voice) Oooo... "By-Plane".... now there's a name I haven't heard in a long time...... Good looking build and very nice display! What did you rig it with? Gil

Good looking Grumman! Gil

Good work, especially overcoming the problem of the too low wing that would have had the prop swinging through the canopy! The shelf of display is as good a place as the shelf of doom if and when you ever want to revisit them for more work. Congrats! Gil

I haven't used them myself, but here's a link to a full review of them using an airbrush and a brush: http://www.modelwarships.com/reviews/misc/True_North/TrueNorthPaints/TrueNorthPaints.htm Hope this helps! Gil

Excellent progress and a good tip on using the silly putty to secure and align a model for assembly! Gil

Truly impressive little jewels, even more so when you look at all of the corrections and body work done to the airframes that came out so smooth that it's not evident without seeing the in progress pics! Thanks for sharing! Gil

Great job on getting info out..... in fact, I got TWO notices! Also, kudos for opening the hotel reservations on a Saturday afternoon so more working folks have an equal shot at them. Gil

Actually, though James is close, I was fired as RC-11 for vocally (here on the DF) opposing the Eboard's proposal at the time to force ALL Regional contests to be 1-2-3 shows. I knew there were some GSB shows around the country who hosted Regionals from time to time, (Pittsburg, etc.), including one show in my R-11 that I rotated the Regional through every 3-4 years. Their rule, if implemented, would have hampered RCs from having more clubs to pick from, would have prevented clubs with years of successful contest experience from hosting a Regional, and all despite IPMSUSA having no financial stake in ANY of the shows. I wrote my dissenting opinions on this forum under my name only as an IPMS member and never as "RC-11". The irony was that after I was fired, the rule was never implemented! Oh well! If there's anything to take away from the above, it's simply that we as members have the obligation to oppose what we see as poor decisions made by the Eboard. We have a more limited ability than the Journal editor or the president, since they have columns. However, you can send them emails, inform your fellow IPMS club members (at least the ones interested in the running of IPMS) to be sure they're aware of issues, and contact your RC to let him know where you and your club stands on things. If you attend the Nats, I encourage you to attend the IPMS business meeting because it's your one chance to stand up and question Eboard members face to face to let them know that although they are in office, they are accountable to the membership. IPMS is like any other club, locally and nationally. Only a very few of the entire membership are interested in how things are run and/or volunteer to help run them. That's not going to change and those who volunteer have to accept that (which is why the President's labeling everyone else as "freeloaders" was a waste of time). It's even more frustrating when this is all about running an "hobby" organization who's sole purpose is supposed to be to help the members have fun. That, however, doesn't make any of these issues we have to tackle unimportant to those of us who want a better IPMS in the future. We'll just have to suffer through some rough times before we get back to the fun! Gil

WOW! That is some world class model building with exquisite attention to detail! Thanks for posting! Gil

I was merely defending him on the grounds that as Journal Editor he has an obligation to the membership to put things in his column, and the right to do so, including his own personal opinion. Also keep in mind that IF he happens to want to agree and support the current Eboard he has both the right and ability to do so in the Journal, even if others have a contrary opinion to his op-ed. I too missed the Nats this year and thus have written my opinions based solely on what I've read here and on the IPMSUSA FB page. My comments and positions are easy to find and I'll stand by them based on the information I've been aware of as of today. I do not support the Eboard, their actions over the last year, nor the direction they've decided to hijack and take IPMS towards. That's why I've been vocal here on those issues. The fact Chris has a larger "bully platform" is something he's earned through decades of service to IPMS, so I will not begrudge him that advantage. While it's always nasty to have dirty laundry aired publicly, that doesn't mean it should be shied away from. If Chris did indeed print only one side of the story, got some facts wrong, or only gave part of the picture then he should indeed be called out for that. As I mentioned above, there is no "letters to the Editor" anymore (and I agree with that policy) so it seems that THIS DF and the IPMS FB page is where members will have to fight back if they feel the need to do so. Does his column serve a purpose other than to start a pot that was simmering boiling again? We'll see. In my own opinion, I'd like to see these issues confronted and solved NOW instead of letting them fester for 6 months only to have them ramp up again just before the Nats. THAT has more potential for a larger disaster than getting things in the open and tackled now when we have the time to do so. I fully agree that whether we get the problems solved or not, NONE of this will make IPMS look attractive to non-members. But it IS an opportunity, IF we were to handle this in an open and fair way, to show others that IPMSUSA is an organization with integrity that is worth supporting and being a member of. We can only hope we can do so. Gil

Sorry Andrew, but I must strongly disagree with you in this case. 1) I understand that most of the membership doesn't follow and isn't interested in "politics" in IPMS. In the past, especially back in the days of the Update and Quarterly, politics were MUCH more prevalent than they have been the last 20 years in the Journal. BUT, there has come a time where there's too much going on and too much at stake to allow the important issues, controversies, and poor policy decisions recently made by the Eboard to slide by under the radar. The Journal is the ONLY IPMS item that goes out to each and every member, and thus it should be used to be sure the membership is aware of what's happening, IF they bother to read the column. 2) The editor has already been taken to task (and I believe rightly so) for not challenging the President's recent column where he called local IPMS club members who didn't join IPMSUSA "freeloaders" before actually including it and printing it. His failure to challenge the President before printing it meant there was one less filter that might have prevented unneeded backlash against IPMS, especially on the internet. The fact that he's standing up now is a sign he realizes he has an important obligation to YOU and the rest of our members to be sure you have information that is being swept under the rug by the Eboard and that most members are not aware of. He also realizes he may face consequences from the Eboard in doing so. He has an obligation as the editor of the official IPMS USA publication to be sure all members are properly informed of pertinent, important IPMS issues. The members can then decide whether or not they agree with him once they've been so informed. 3) I can vouch personally for Chris and his true concern for the future of IPMS. He and I have little in common personally outside of an interest in model building and the hope that we can steer IPMSUSA back onto a road with fewer controversies and better policies going forward. He does not overreact and if you go back and read his columns he does not inject politics into the Journal. In fact, if anything, he tries to motivate members to be better builders, build more models, and find ways to have more fun in IPMS. The very fact that he DID inject politics into his column means YOU should be very concerned because he felt he HAD to do so. It IS that bad. 4) As for using his column as "his personal sounding board"' THAT is his privilege as EDITOR. In fact, it is what he does in every issue whether it's his opinion on a show, a modeling trend, or in this case raising the alarm to the problems that the Eboard have created and their potential disastrous consequences in the next year, especially for the Madison Nats. And whether he uses his page to talk about modeling, or to try to make you take note that YOU need to pay attention to what's going on inside IPMSUSA with the NCC, and other controversies; it's his page to use and it doesn't take away from the regular content of the Journal. It's not like the old days where they had to print page after page of "letters to the Editor", which did indeed affect the modeling content in the publications. I fully understand you find the injection of politics into our modeling Journal distasteful. Knowing Chris, he gave it hard thought before he did so. He did so believing that things are bad enough that SOMEONE needs to stand up, raise an alarm, and call EVERY member's attention to the situation as best they can. I'm sure he finds it regrettable in having to do it. I applaud his display of backbone in standing up the the powers above him (the Eboard) in calling them out and shedding light on everything that's gone on in the last year. I, like you, am sorry that it's come to this, but he was right to do it. Gil Hodges

Impressive cockpit! When you say you polished the clear parts, what did you use to polish them with, and was this by hand or with a motor tool? Gil

Can't add much more to the deserved praise by the Duke! Thanks for sharing this eye candy! Gil