ajlafleche

Here is a resin bust of Jeanne d'Arc produced by FeR Miniatures. She's assembled from about 6 parts, with an optional right arm with sword. That optional arm is what sold me on the figure and MFCA in May, since the banner was well beyond my painting skills. Unfortunately, the blade was deformed and straightening it left gouges in the tip. Plan B: find some was to do the banner. I looked online and found several interpretations. One site sold the pattern for the icon, wording and fleurs de Lys which I bought and turned into decals. Her face and the banner are painted with Vallejo acrylics and the armor with AK Gen 3 acrylics: excellent stuff. The base is from Birch Tree Enterprise of Long Island. Like Comment Share

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Back around 2002, I picked up the Micro-Mania Geometric kit “The Fly,” based on the 1958 movie. I also picked up the scenic base. I’ve often considered assembling and painting it, but never got around to it. Some time ago, I decided when I did, it would need special paint for the eyes, similar to the chameleon paint used on custom cars. A few weeks ago, I finally pulled it out and put it at the front of my queue and decided to try painting it in glorious black and white to match the movie, but with the eyes in some sort of iridescent color. I found the paint at the local Michael’s and got to work on it. I found to original movie on one of the streaming services and sat down to watch. As the credits rolled, up came “Color By DeLuxe!” I guess I saw it originally on a black and white TV and that’s what was lodged in my memory. (The two sequels were, however, in B&W.) Well, I chose to not let that deter my plans. As it turns out, most of the laboratory and costumes were in shades of gray, and the figure would have had only its right had in flesh color. Using mostly Vallejo’s Black and White paint set, tried this new technique. To fill out the base, I made 5 copies of a page of math equations, a calendar and the cover of a science magazine and an appropriate back cover ad (Marlboro) form 1958. I used a square of paper towel moistened with white glue to represent the head covering the creature wore most in most of the scenes with his wife. This was draped over the edge of the computer. I processed the photos in Lightroom but did not do any adjustments to the colors. The black and white tones were all achieved with paint.

I contacted Georgi Stamov, the sculptor through Planet Figure forums and the email he provided ryan_pld@yahoo.com. He has at least one other broomrider, Granny Weatherwax.

Here is a recently completed 75mm Georgi Stamov sculpt of Nanny Ogg, a character form the Discworld series of books. The figure comes with her cat, wine bottles, packs, banjo and broom, but no base. I used a Bayardi tree to anchor a brass rod support for the packs and thought the connection of the front of the broom might need additional support so I added an ancient Tamiya plastic sign and post roughed up to simulate wood grain. The smaller trees are Joe Fixx products. I added a Shapeways digitally printed barn owl. I used Photoshop’s “replace sky” function to include a shot of last September’s harvest moon for interest. The kit was painted primarily in acrylics.

I used a piece of aluminum tubing I bent to fit. I also used a wooden figure plinth instead of the kit base. It will have a brass name plate soon.

The rod that came with the kit was straight and you were expected to heat it and bend it to shape.

90mm resin kit from "Government Issue" circa 2004, bought at a Noreastcon back then and started early this month.

Wings & Wheels Modelers, an IPMS affiliated scale modeling club which meets in West Springfield presents Valleycon 31 on 3 April 2022 at the Knights of Columbus Hall 460 Granby Road in Chicopee. Doors open to the public at 9:00 am sharp. We will have over 50 vendor tables in a fully accessible hall. We feature traditional IPMS style judging for the automotive and aircraft categories where the best three models in each class take an award. All other categories are judged in the Open System where each entry is judged on its own merits with no predetermined number of awards for each class. Our 31 classes include military vehicles, aircraft, automotive subjects, figures, ships, science fiction, and diorama. Two classes are reserved for juniors under 16. We are bringing back our popular Gundam class. Gundams are based on Japanese animation featuring giant robots and mobile suits. The kits have a wide following worldwide and dealers say they are bringing young teenagers to septuagenarians back into the hobby stores. Our huge raffle with models, reference material and surprise items returns, of course. Contest forms can be found at http://www.wwmodelclub.org/show_pages/forms.htm. Admission is $5.00 for the first three entries. Additional entries are $2.00 each to a maximum of $15. Children under 17 get in for free and may enter up to three models at no cost. For more information contact Al LaFleche at 413-306-1270 or ajlafleche@comcast.net.

Getting right to the point…our contest is cancelled for this year. We talked with K of C and looked at their schedule and other contest/holidays into June. There really were no open dates for us to move to. Further, a move to a date still close would be no guarantee of better conditions. Additionally, given many (most) of our membership and visitors fall into the higher risk categories for Covid-19. The hall is typically very crowded, tough that might not have been an issue this year, which presents its problems. We booked the hall for 28 March 2021.

Five weeks to the 30th anniversary Valleycon presented by Wings & Wheels Modelers, an IPMS affiliated club in Western Mass and Northern Connecticut. The event will be held at the Knights of Columbus hall at 460 Granby Road in Chicopee MA. Doors will open to entrants and the public at 9:00 am sharp. No early birds, please, in order to allow our vendors time to set up their tables. We 31 classes including 2 each for Gundam kits and for junior modelers. General categories include all the usual: Automotive, Aircraft, Armor, Dioramas, Figures, Ships, Sci-Fi, Collections, and Miscellaneous. Aircraft and Autos are judged in the traditional IPMS 1-2-3 style. The rest use open style judging. We currently have 61 vendor tables reserved from 34 individuals. Among the vendors are a club table, Gundam Galaxy, Craftec Hobbies, Hobby Bunker, Hobbyworld USA, Boomer’s Book, Farina Enterprises and Time Machine Hobbies. Our raffle will feature new kits valued at close to $1000 retail. Entries are $5 for the first 3 models, $2 for each of the next 5 entries, after which any number can be entered for a maximum fee of only $15. Junior contestants may enter at no cost. General admission is only $5 and children 16 and under have no admission fee. Downloadable and addressable entry forms and a flyer with directions and rules can be found at http://www.wwmodelclub.org/show_pages/forms.htm. We encourage you to fill these out in advance, preferably on your computer, and print then out to make life easier for our judges and data entry volunteers.

Thanks for the re;pis. I did get resolution on the ad. Thanks, I left a phone message with Marie. Of course, it was going into the weekend and, when I was working, I was always reluctant to reply to a voice mail on Friday. Al

A couple weeks ago, I asked a question via email of the advertising director for the Journal regarding out contest ad and got no reply. A few days later, I submitted artwork for the ad, got no reply. Email the Pres with cc to DLC and ad director, got no reply. At this week's meeting, our VP told me his membership had expired. He renewed through the club and I wrote a check for him on my checking account on 11 July and mailed it within 24 hours. It has never been cashed. Left a phone message with the office manager yesterday. As of yet, that's right, no reply. Are there issue at the top again?

Wings & Wheels Modelers, presents Valleycon 29 on 31 March 2019 at the Knights of Columbus Hall 460 Granby Road in Chicopee. Doors open to the public at 9:00 am. We will have 69 vendor tables including Craftec Hobbies, Deerfield River Laser, Farina Enterprises, Gundam Galaxy, The Hobby Bunker, HobbyWorld USA, Time Machine Hobbies, Tru North Paints and Turn 4 Hobbies as well as almost 20 individual vendors We feature traditional IPMS style judging for the automotive and aircraft categories. All other categories are judged in the Open System. Our 31 classes include military vehicles, aircraft, automotive subjects, figures, ships, science fiction, and diorama. Two classes are reserved for juniors under 16. We are bringing back our popular Gundam class. This year divided into basic and advanced builds. Our huge raffle with models, reference material and surprise items returns, of course. Contest forms can be found at [url=http://www.wwmodelclub.org/show_pages/forms.htm] contest forms[/url]. Entrants presenting prefilled forms receive a free raffle ticket. Admission is $5.00 for the first three entries. Additional entries are $2.00 each up to $15 (8 entries) after which additional entries are at no additional cost. . Children under 17 get in for free and may enter unlimited models at no cost. Parking is free and lunch is available for purchase from the K of C. For more information contact Al LaFleche at 413-306-1270 or ajlafleche@comcast.net.

For years, there have been two related themes in the modeling world: Graying and other interests killing it. I can recall reading an article in 1982 saying that the new video game craze was going to be the death knell to scale modeling. At our get togethers, meetings and shows, grand-parents far outnumber grand-children. Many of us got our start in building cars, especially colorful race cars. Corporate greed in the form of licensing fees has all but destroyed that side of car building. There seem to be more re-releases of kits I built 50+ years ago than anything new on the shelves. Add to that, a generation that seems to have not joined the car culture. And many of those who do build cars want every contest to have a gazillion car categories and they avoid events that don't cater to them. The escalating price of decent aircraft and armor and the complexity of these kits aren't a big draw for newcomers. Good figure kits, too, are quite pricey. I'm am not familiar with ship quality and price, but I'm guessing they are similar to the other groups. Again, here, I see rereleases I built in the early 1960's. There may be hope for the hobby. Maybe even a chance at rejuvenation. Gundam. If you've been in a hobby store recently (dumb question here, right?) you seen the brightly colored boxes of frenetic things from Ban Dai. Every store owner in my area sys the same thing. They can't keep them on the shelves and a whole new generation is buying them. These are based on Japanese anime like series and are the big battle bots in the Pacific Rim movies. There are about 1200 kits in the line up ranging from $10 to $260. Most are snap tite and don't require painting. The engineering is outstanding. One sprue may have several colors. All are articulated once built and poseable after assembly. Think GI Joe with more and better joints. I was in my LHS a few weeks ago and a young man was getting a couple hundred dollars of Gundams for his birthday. This year, we introduced a Gundam class and we promoted it at the fall shows. The first time ever, we had 37 entries in the class, fully 10% of our entries. There were young people in the contest room! And they hadn't been dragged their by their parents! Three of our vendors had good selections of these kits including one who had only Gundam kits. They all did very well. So, I'm tossing this out to the local, regional and national powers that be. Open yourselves to this. Promote it as part of your shows. Reach out to a new audience. Maybe, we can get these people to join and help the local and national memberships grow, keep our LHS's solvent and keep the hobby alive longer.