Ward Shrake -- From New Mexico, USA

[WardEss]

Hi all. I recently re-joined the IPMS group, and I am busy happily starting to check things out, on these forums and in the printed journals.

Twenty years or so ago (around the late 1990s and/or the early 2000s) I had been an IPMS member. I had lived in Southern California, USA at the time and I had hung out with the IPMS chapter called the "Planes of Fame" club. I've lived in New Mexico, USA since approx 2003.

Ever since my father introduced me to the scale modeling hobby in the early 1970s, and I saw what the grown-ups could do, model-wise, I had always wanted to be able to "do what the big kids could do" so I had, over time, steadily kept reading books and magazines (in all sorts of scale modeling genres: military vehicles, civilian vehicles, ships, figures) and over time I learned a lot more about various skills and tools and the like. I eventually started writing for Internet Modeler at some point. That lasted until approx 2008 or so.

Some of my most-fond articles I had written with them are these ones:

Article title: "Cheap, Simple, Portable Vacu-forming Rig"

https://www.internetmodeler.com/2008/february/how-to/vacformer.php

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Article title: "Ward's Magic Seam Powder -- Part 1 of 2 parts -- Filling seams, gaps and holes"

https://www.internetmodeler.com/2007/november/how-to/magic-powder1.php

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Article title: "Ward's Magic Seam Powder -- Part 2 of 2 parts -- Filling seams, gaps and holes"

https://www.internetmodeler.com/2007/december/how-to/magic-powder1.php

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Article title -- "Scratchbuilding a caricature car body -- Sometimes, the best thing to do is something."

https://www.internetmodeler.com/2007/october/autos/cartoon_car.php

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I doubt that many of you folks reading this would have a reason to know what I used to do, in the past (via the links above or below, I mean) but since this is an introduction post ... I was also one of the recurring writers for a publication out of England called "Sci-Fi & Fantasy Modeller". (That being their Second Incarnation -- not the earlier B&W "magazine" format; but I had loved their earlier stuff, as a reader!) I would have to look up the exact dates (these comments about SF&FM are from memory) but between roughly 2008 or 2009 through about 2015 or 2016, I wrote a total of (I think?) fifteen articles with or for those folks. After they closed down, around 2017-ish, I had asked for permission from the editor (Andy) and the publisher (Mike) and they were both okay with me scanning in my own articles, a page at a time, and posting most of them online. I believe eleven out of the fifteen total articles I had done with SF&FM can be found by scrolling through the link, below. (The only  other articles by me, for SF&FM, that are missing were the four I had done that are all in their "Horror" special issue.)

https://www.facebook.com/groups/2043682082594379/user/100068411671599/

As a bonus, there are several (three, at present?) other write-ups I had done over time, that were only ever released online. They were never "published articles" but still, they could potentially interest some folks here. They were about various techniques and "how to" information.
 

This one is about "Trash Bashing" some Gaming Vehicles, using Deodorant Containers. It was for an online contest that happened around 2011.

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=oa.534922627535179&type=3

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The next two are about using a concoction called "Plaster and Vermiculite" to make shapes; scratch-building items, using some stuff that Ed "Big Daddy" Roth used to use in the 1960s, when he made multiple famous cars, using that material.

Using P&V to make a bubble top "canopy" shape for use on a model car:

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=oa.1825095630991863&type=3

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Next up: making the shape of a "turret" for making something like Revell did in the 1970s, in their "Deal's Wheels" series of caricature vehicles. They had stuck a made-up turret on a cartoon Dune Buggy body, and called the resulting model a "Swine Hunt" kit. To my knowledge, the kit never was reissued (which, to hopeless nerds like me, was a major shame!) so I made something similar ... except theirs was WWII German based (well, loosely) and mine is loosely based on the Russian side of WWII; just so that real Swine Hunt kits could have something to fight against, I suppose. The big thing with this project was coming up with a three-part RTV rubber mold that let me make a hollow cast "turret" that was one-piece; but larger on the inside than on the outside. For me, that was a pretty complicated mold!

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=oa.172118558270737&type=3

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There's probably other stuff I forgot about having done, over time. I tend to be so fixated on learning more about techniques, and ways to do things, that once I figure it out, if I don't document what I did, in some way, chances are I'm going to forget at least some of it ... because I tend to then assign myself some other task, involving figuring out how to do some silliness that most people wouldn't attempt in the first place. (Let alone figuring out increasingly difficult ways to come up with things like caricatures of vehicles, or the like.)

Anyway ... seems like a nice place, here! I'm glad I re-joined the club!

  -- Ward Shrake  --

(AKA: "Ward Ess" on some other hobby-related forums)

EDIT -- Another publication I had some articles in was "Seaways' Ships In Scale". I had done three articles with them, on the subject of one of (to me) the most interesting early ironclads of the American Civil War. It began as a Northern utility style boat with a fast hull shape, and it went through various (by our standards as scale modelers, poorly-documented) upgrades and changes, over it's short life as a naval combatant. I loved the idea of that boat mainly because it was all happening in a technological period where change was absolutely the norm; and no one at that point really knew, with any precision, what was "coming next" for Naval Vessels. To me, the "CSS Manassas" was almost like a "lost" step in the evolutionary process, between all-wooden vessels with tall sailing masts, and "wooden walls," and all-iron vessels of (for the time) very radical design. It had much the same appeal, in my eyes, as a scale modeling subject, as some folks look at WWI biplanes and tri-planes, etc. in that everyone was "trying to figure things out" and pretty much the only way to test new ideas was to build them, and see what happened.

As far as other hobby things that I once wrote, that got published over the years, in printed magazines -- I also did a couple of short kit reviews for "AFM" ("Amazing Figure Modeler") but thus far, I've not done any full-blown articles with them.
 

Edited May 17, 2025 by WardEss

[WardEss]

While I pretty much ignore social media, almost entirely, and while I haven't had much of a consistent presence on most hobby-related / scale modeling forums, over the years, there's a few online places I like to hang out on, from time to time. From time to time I do "lurk" on more hobby forums than I'm listing, here ... the ones below are just online places where I have posted info, at times.

But yeah, I do look at aircraft-centered places like HyperScale ... and/or some online places where Mak / SF3D builders hang out ... and/or model car places. There's lots of interesting eye candy, and excellent how-to information, out there on the web!)

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There's a small forum on Pro Boards called "Car-Toons" for modelers who like seeing or building humorous vehicular subjects: mostly cars, but also the occasional aircraft or boat. Over there, my user name is "Wardster". Here's their home page:

https://car-toons.proboards.com/

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Or here's the group (linked to, above) where the admins ever so kindly let me post those page scans, showing the projects I had worked on, during my time as a writer for the printed publications under the banner of "Sci-Fi & Fantasy Modeller":

https://www.facebook.com/groups/2043682082594379/

The link above is to a Facebook group, called "Sci Fi/Fantasy Scratchbuild and kitbash modeler". (No connection to SF&FM, other than similar names and likes -- but from what I can tell, the admins over there have long been big fans of both of that publication's two incarnations, over time.)

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The next one is called the "Shiflett Brothers Sculpting Forums". It's another Facebook group. They have LOTS of members! Over there, when I post (which isn't very often) it's mostly posts related to a person making their own sculpting tools. I'm "Ward Ess" over there. Here's my member page for those forums:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/1114208771968434/user/100068411671599

And here's that group's main or home page:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/1114208771968434

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If I think of any others where I posted content, over time, I'll try to add them in, via replies below (or whatever). But off-hand, I think that's the main ones? And of course, I read a lot of printed publications. I've loved doing that, for multiple decades now!

EDIT # 01 -- Since this is an introduction, I'll also add that while I don't personally sculpt or paint gaming minis, I love to see it when other folks do stuff like that! When I buy figures of that type, I tend to mostly admire the sculpting work, and the casting work, on such small gems! I've liked seeing things like gaming minis since the days when Grenadier had released their "Comedy Lords" (I think that was the set of miniature's name?) or some other (glorious) smart alecks were releasing now-classic minis like "Dwarf With No Name". Reaper and lots of other cool companies make interesting products, these days. I buy up DVDs when I can, from places like Dark Sword: showing the top-of-the-line figure painters, explaining how they do awesome paint jobs. I also like the many (many!) videos that a person can download, from the Miniature Mentors web site. And I've read lots of other figure magazines, over the years -- (including "Amazing Figure Modeler") -- and enjoyed them. Figure Mentors is another cool publication I like reading. There's oodles of good books on those topics, too. Shep Paine's books about figure modeling, and one by Bill Horan ... yeah, that's very interesting stuff, to me!

EDIT # 02 -- I'm also picking up, retro-actively as it were, an interest in things like vacuum-formed scale models. I have some vacu-formed aircraft kits on order (mostly in 1:72 scale; with maybe some others in 1:48 scale) that I bought without caring too much what the subject matter was. I wanted them for practice! I went through my magazine collection, and my aircraft books, and found some cool articles in places like FineScale Modeler, or Aerospace Modeler, and various of Osprey's and Kalmbach's books about scale modeling. It's kind of nice knowing that those kits were made in a "Garage Kit" kind of a way, by individual human beings who were just really passionate about the subject matter; and who wanted to release kits that were unlikely to ever pick up enough paying customers to justify the costs of cutting all-new, steel, big-$$ injection molds.

Edited May 17, 2025 by WardEss

[ghodges]

WOW! You dabble in vacuforming, scratchbuilding, and are distraught over the fact Revell never reissued ALL of the Deals Wheels! You must be my brother from a different mother! (Though I dabble mostly in planes.....)

That's one impressive modeling resume! Glad to have you here with us! Feel free to jump in on the topics below wherever you want and make yourself at home.

And just to prove I'm not yanking your chain... A pic of a couple of my Deals Wheels and the 1/32 vacuform I'm currently building....

Gil Hodges

#10803

[WardEss]

Thanks much! Awesomeness that you're interested in both the "fun stuff" out there, as well as the "serious" stuff. For what it is worth, one of the first things I'd done, over on these forums (Behind the Scenes) was to compliment Ron Bell for his nicely done article in the Mar / Apr 2025 IPMS USA Journal, where he showed a vacu-formed aircraft being put together. He in turn told me your name, as one of the folks around here that he respects, and whom he felt I should keep an eye on, projects-wise. And I've been trying to do that, to some degree. I'm behind, on reading the web -- but I've actually been looking through my collection of old magazines and the like. I've been searching for (and found) some of your aircraft-related "in print, and on paper" articles in places like FineScale Modeler, and Aerospace Modeler. You wouldn't happen to have a list of what places you've been in print, would you, Mr. Hodges, sir? (And no, I'm not yanking your chain on that, either!)

EDITS -- You ought to consider joining the "Car-Toons" forums, if you're that into the old 'toon vehicular kits. I'm sure they'd love to see pics like that, over there. It's a fun bunch of folks, even if it's kind of a small-ish group.

ALSO -- Since I know you're into vacu-forming, and I'm fairly (well, very!) new to these forums, can I ask if there is a good place (thread, etc.) to throw some possible "tips" or "techniques" out there? Stuff that other folks who work on vacu-formed kits might like to see; and try for themselves? I don't have a ton of such tips, yet, but I do have at least one that "feels good" to me. It's simply this: I was wracking my brains, earlier today,  trying to think of ways to get a normal-sized straight edge onto the sheet of vac'd parts, without squishing or otherwise damaging anything; so that I could make some preliminary score lines, before trimming closer to the actual parts. As it turned out, the solution was just sitting there, on my crowded work bench / areas ... it's a cut-off section from a Windshield Wiper Blade Assembly. I usually use it as a stir stick, for paint bottles. To see what I'm talking about, here's a link to the "Shiflett Brothers Sculpting forums" where I posted some ideas for the springy, thin, stainless steel "flat wires" that sometimes come as part of Wiper Blade Assemblies. Besides all of the cool things I was already using that metal for, now I'm finding it's useful for yet another cool trick!

https://www.facebook.com/groups/1114208771968434/permalink/6402358806486711/

I'm mainly linking to that post, because of the image I had included over there, of what to look for, on used wiper blade assemblies. The little "silver stripes" vary in sizes (length, side-to-side width, and thickness) and some sizes / types are more immediately useful than other ones. But as a small straight edge that can get in-between the parts on the 1:72 scale "test pieces" I was playing with, today ... the idea has some potential.

Edited May 18, 2025 by WardEss

[ghodges]

Thanks for the very kind words Ward. Ron and I go w-a-y back.... he's put up with me calling him friend for about 45yrs now! His intrepid and fearless approach to modeling was one of the reasons I had the nerve to start building vacs. I still don't know anyone who can stretch sprue finer the he can either!

I wrote for just about everyone back in the 80s and 90s.... Scale Modeler, FSM, and Aerospace Modeler Magazine; as well as the Journal on occasion. I can't really point to any specific issues though..... and my stuff was certainly nothing extraordinary, though many of them were unique subjects at the time simply because they weren't injection molded.

As for a thin, flexible straight edge for helping on models, I have a couple of pieces I made by cutting the edge off of the largest clear plastic drawing template (like architects and draftsmen would use). I also found the it helps to make an angled cut tapering to a point at one of the ends of it. That helps it get into the tight spaces at the edge of the fuselage when the "squared off" end would leave a gap at that end.

As for where to specifically post Vac stuff.... I suggest you go to the vacuform and resin page on Face Book here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/695711033832473

Again, looking forward to seeing more of your stuff below!

 

Gil 

[WardEss]

Thanks again, for the kind words you're throwing my way; and for you guy's Warm Welcome to these forums!

Coolness, about those other forums. I signed up for that place, almost as soon as I knew it existed; but that was only a short time ago. And I haven't posted anything over there, yet. But down the road, when I get more organized, etc., I'll see about posting some stuff. It will likely be a while before that happens, but that's the plan.