Iron Modeler

Category: The Plastic Addiction

  • Who am I to Judge? (Or: I know art when I see it)

    Howdy…

    Today, I’m going to tackle a subject that I’ve skated around for a few years.  This topic, more than any other in scale modeling, can be the most polarizing thing there is in the hobby —the topic is judging scale models.  I will try to remain objective and neutral on my observations…

    Full disclosure:  I am an IPMS/USA and an AMPS member.  My last full effort for competition in IPMS was the 2000 Space Coast show.  My last model on an IPMS competition table was at the 2005 Atlanta Nationals.  Why?  One, I subscribe to David Sarnoff’s (the guy behind RCA and NBC back in the day) theory that “competition brings out the best in products and the worst in people”.  I have been witness to more bent feelings, hot tempers, and bad blood at IPMS contests that I can shake a stick at, all because someone didn’t get a big shiny to take home to prove to the world that he or she was The God of Styrene that week.  Two, the actual construction of a model falls under the heading of “craft”, but the final finish certainly borders on being art.  How do you judge art as a winner or loser?

    For the record, I have a rather large box of plaques and medals that I’ve won at model shows through the years, from a 3rd place plaque from an Embry-Riddle model show in 1983 to a Best Aircraft and “Best Between the Wars” plaque, a special award, from the 2000 Space Coast show, so this isn’t being colored by sour grapes.  I build my models for me, and if they happen to garner some ugly plaque buildup, so much the better.  I don’t do this for adulation, because after the show is over I still have to go to work and pay the bills…

    Without getting into the weeds with the various systems out in the world used to judge a model show, I will instead take a look at the two most common systems used here in the United States.  They are the IPMS/USA system—commonly referred to as a “1-2-3” system, where every category (entries permitting) has a 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place winner.

    The other system is Open Judging, the best known being the system that AMPS uses.  AMPS doesn’t so much judge a model as they do score it, and multiple awards are possible within any given category.

    These are some observations that I’ve collected over the years–some of them are actually mine, but most are from talking with others.  The general claims and observations are in standard type, my comments are in italics.

    The IPMS system works like this—your model is placed on the table, in the relevant category.  Once registration closes and all the models are on the table, a team of judges evaluates each category.  They’ll look for basics: alignment, mold flaws, construction flaws, finish, detailing, etc.  If a model exhibits major flaws, they’ll be cut out of the running.  All the while, the models are compared to each other as well as to a mental “standard” that each judge is supposed to know and grasp.

    The models that make the cut are again evaluated in the same manner but to a more focused look.  Eventually, the team arrives at the top four or five models.  The final cut is taking those four or five models and determining a 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place winner.  Remember, throughout the process the models are not only being evaluated to the nebulous “standard”, they are also being compared to each other.

    So, the observations:

    IPMS judging picks “Winners”! (and, by extension, “losers”.)

    If you “win”, you get a big shiny trophy!  (But if you don’t, you get bupkus.  This especially applies to competition newbies–they haven’t yet grasped the nuances of how the deal works.)  

    “If you want to know why your model didn’t ‘win’”, they’ll tell you, “ask a judge.”. (This is a noble effort, but it usually doesn’t result in anything.  Asking a judge is usually futile, since they want to get out and go home, too–it also seldom works, especially if the judge or  judges you consult weren’t involved with your model, because part of the IPMS judging scheme requires the comparison of your model to the others on the table.  So, even if the judge that worked your category was there and remembered the way the judging unfolded, they really can’t say for sure why you “lost”, since they don’t have the other models there for comparison.)

    IPMS awards the modeler, not the model.  (Despite claims to the contrary from the IPMS Hard-Liners, the IPMS 1-2-3 system awards the model, not the modeler.  Think about it–if it rewarded the modeler, their model’s standing in the show wouldn’t depend on what else was on the table with it.)

    Under this system, a model could win Best in Show one week and get shut out the following week at the contest a few hours down the road.  (I’ve seen this first-hand, more than once.  Any repeat-ability is purely coincidental.)

    IPMS judges learn on the fly from people who aren’t always the best teachers.  (Most are very good at what they do, but I’ve come across a few guys who call themselves “IPMS Senior Nationals Judges” who still don’t grasp what it is that the Society is trying to accomplish–they see it is a zero-sum, win-lose “bloodsport”, damn the “casual hobby” aspects of it.  In short, they’re bullies, bent on choosing only the models THEY deem as an appropriate “winner”.  You don’t see this often at the Nationals level, but it is still hanging around in the Local/Regional areas.  These guys are the ones who are insistent on judging accuracy, so you’ll know how to spot them…)

    What the IPMS 1-2-3 system has going for it is speed–you can evaluate and judge a room full of models in a few hours.  A good team of judges can take a category of 20 models and determine the winners in less than 30 minutes.  (It also appeals to most Americans’ desire to be called a “winner”, where 2nd place is the “First loser”.)

    Now, let’s take a look at Open Judging (sometimes erroneously referred to a Gold-Silver-Bronze system) as employed by AMPS:

    AMPS uses an open system where your models are placed in front of a panel of three or four judges and the model evaluated to a written “standard”, and are judged in a “stand-alone” situation rather than being compared to the other models it competes with. (That standard merely quantifies the basics–alignment, construction, detailing, and finish–the very same basics that IPMS judges are taught to evaluate.  And note that neither organization judges accuracy.)

    AMPS has several skill levels–Junior, Basic, Intermediate, and Advanced.  It is a ladder system—as your skills improve, you can be promoted to the next highest skill level.  This usually takes place at the annual AMPS International Convention.  (AMPS is one of the few hobby groups that also has a Master level–The National Model Railroad Association is the other, they feature a path to Master Model Railroader.  Rather than just proclaim yourself a “Master Modeler” because you’ve built a gazillion models, won at the Nationals, and maybe written a few articles for a magazine, in order to become an AMPS Master you must win Judge’s Best of Show at the AMPS International Convention.  And, in order to do that, you have to be an Advanced member who earns a Gold at that show, and then go on to win Best of Show.  ONE person gets elevated to AMPS Master per year.)  

    The judges write comments on the score sheet, and you get that score sheet back at the end of the show. (Most AMPS modelers want the score sheet with the judges’ comments more that they want the medal–we have one guy in our AMPS Chapter who routinely earns a fistful of medals every year, and he gives them back to us every year.)  

    AMPS certifies their judges through a standardized training system.  (Up until a few years ago, it was administered by their Chief Judge, who would travel from show to show to train new judges, ensuring uniformity.  These days, there is a team of trainers.)

    The AMPS OJT consists of sitting for two shifts after you’ve received the classroom training.  Only then do you get your credentials.  (IPMS’ OJT criteria aren’t as stringent.  Not to say the way IPMS does it is “wrong” and AMPS is “right”, just throwing it out there to compare and contrast.  IPMS judges only receive “credentials” after 20 years as a judge at the National Convention.)

    In theory (and in practice 99% of the time), a model that earns a Gold medal in a given skill level at one show will earn the same medal at another AMPS show.  (In other words, there is documented repeat-ability in the system.)

    Now, here are the drawbacks.  Open Judging, done correctly, takes time.  A lot of time.  We (AMPS Central South Carolina) host a show every year.  Registration opens at 8:30, the show runs until 5.  Judging starts at 8:30 and runs until approximately 3PM–and this is for around 100 models.  (Most IPMS local and regional shows draw a few hundred, and a National Convention draws a few thousand models.  Most AMPS local shows–they call them regional–draws around 100, and their International show draws a couple hundred for scoring.)

    The associated drawback (for some) is how AMPS actually confers awards.  If you bring seven armor models, all in different categories, you have the potential to take home seven medals.  But if you bring seven Sherman tanks, all in U.S. Army markings, you will take home the highest medal awarded to your body of work because their all entered into the same category.  In other words, AMPS rewards the modeler and his or her efforts, not individual models.  So, AMPS is sometimes seen as limiting the number of models entered by doing this.  (Those who poo-poo that idea don’t realize that AMPS has always had Display Only space at their shows, something IPMS has struggled with through the years.) 

    The only place where someone at an AMPS contest can be a “winner” (in the “I’m Number One!” sense) is in the Best Of’s.  The Best Of’s are chosen by taking all of the Advanced level Gold medal winners in a given category and judging them in an identical fashion to the IPMS 1-2-3 system: count the flaws and compare between the eligible models.  Best of Show takes all the category Best Of’s and does the same thing.  Otherwise, you are submitting a 3D research paper and getting a grade.

    All that being said, is one system better than the other?  I don’t know.  It all depends on what is expected from a model show.

    If you want to be The God of Styrene for that week and have all the bragging rights associated with the title, if you want to be the Big Winner, you probably prefer the 1-2-3 system.  It is a system, as we have discussed, that picks winners and losers.  You won’t learn much from the exercise.

    If you want to measure your abilities as a modeler, learn from your mistakes, and climb the ladder as you gain experience, the Open Judging system is probably the one you will choose.  You get that feedback from the judges telling you what they saw on your model, both good and bad.  You take that feedback and apply what you’ve learned to your next model.

    Something else you ought to know–these days there are several IPMS Chapters who have used what they call a hybrid system, where the categories are evaluated as normal in a 1-2-3 system, then the top 5 or 6 models get the Open Judging score sheet treatment.  I don’t like this–the people at the top really don’t need the score sheet and comments, as they usually have a pretty good grasp on what they’re doing (yeah, sometimes we “experienced” modelers make boneheaded mistakes and don’t realize it, but usually we’re on top of things).  The folks that don’t make the cut are the ones who could really use the coaching.  Plus, by not treating all the models entered in the show the same way, you insert a double standard into the mix.

    I’ve seen some rather pointed comments made after a show here in the Southeast concluded, the group having adopted one of these hybrid systems.  The main comment from one person I know was (and I’m paraphrasing here), “I got two Silvers, but if I wanted critique on my models with feedback, I’d take it to the club meeting.  I want to know where I stand when I’m stacked up against other modelers.”

    This all leads me to my last suggestion:  Before you enter any contest, read the rules applicable to said contest.  Don’t like the rules?  Don’t play the game.  It is as easy as that.  If you see the show is running an Open system, and you don’t like it, don’t play.  I can assure you that the show organizers aren’t going to change their judging system for you.

    Finally, here’s some good reading material for you…

    IPMS has their rules and a Modelers Guide to IPMS Contests available on their website.  They are downloadable, and are worth perusing.

    Here’s a link to the AMPS system and philosophy.

    Both make good reading.

    That’s all I have this time.  More later.

    Thanks for reading.  Be good to one another, and as always, I bid you Peace.

  • Knowing one’s limitations; The more things change, the more things…change

    Howdy, everyone!

    Have you ever seen the Clint Eastwood flick “Magnum Force”?  You know, the second of the “Dirty Harry” movies, where a band of rookie cops goes out and kills the hoods that have proven difficult to bring to justice using “the system”?  Their leader (and Harry Callahan’s superior), Lt. Briggs, plays the role as the cop who is calm and collected, and when he reminds Harry that his weapon has never been out of its holster, Callahan tells him “You’re a good man, Briggs.  A good man always knows his limitations…”

    Why do I bring this up?  No, we’re not playing Movie Trivia.  I would hazard a guess that most of us who build models seem to forget the fact that we do, no matter how much we say we don’t, have a limitation.  Or two…

    The limitations that seem to always catch me are (in no particular order) time, skill, money, and desire.  Let’s examine, shall we?

    Let’s start with skill.  I’ve been at the game quite a while, and during that trip I’ve developed my skills into what I think is a pretty formidable tool box.  There are things I can do easily and quite well.  On the other side of the coin, there are things I cannot do as well as someone with my experience should, for no other reason that I either have not attempted them or have limited experience doing. 

    For instance, to me photoetched parts are “the Debbil”!  Why?  I don’t use them often.  I find a lot of things that photoetch is supposed to “make better” actually don’t.  When I really paid attention to such things, I was always curious why Airwaves and Eduard would etch a brass replacement—a flat brass replacement—for an item like a door actuator or control stick that had depth and dimension (these days, Eduard does these in their “Brassin” lines). 

    So, by and large, I’ve avoided photoetch—until now.  I’m starting to gain interest again in ship models, which, quite honestly, require a modicum of photoetch to be “handsome”.  Without the PE parts, they look almost naked.  What this means is that I will become better acquainted with railings and other bits and pieces as I build ships.

    The skills that are holding me back right now concern armor models.  My poor little StuG IV is more or less complete, but for two things: weathering and completing the base.  Now, neither skill is completely foreign to me—I’ve weathered armored vehicles before, using “Old School” methods like washes and drybrushing.  I’m still learning some of the techniques that have been developed over the time since I last built an armor piece, and I’m confident that I can get the job done—once I start.  The same goes for the base—I just need to knock some rust off and get to the job at hand.  I’m close, really close…but somehow, I haven’t been motivated for whatever reason.  More on that later…

    Time can be a real issue.  It was when I was working 14-hours a day, 6 days a week.  It isn’t as big a crunch these days, but for some reason I don’t seem to be getting any further on projects that I have up until this point.  Hmmm…

    When you don’t have time to model, it kills your momentum on any project or projects that you may be in the middle of.  That’s largely the case for all of the half-built models I have on the workbench.

    Money.  It can be the equalizer of everything.  Fortunately, I have such a large stash that I probably have any kit I’d want to build close to hand (the only new kits I would like to buy are the Takom 1/35 Merkava 2 and the Eduard 1/72 MiG-21MF).  See my earlier comments on aftermarket—most of the time, I don’t see the need.  My decal stash is kept in two copy paper boxes, so I think I might be set there, too.  No, at this point money isn’t really an issue.  Don’t get me wrong—I still need income, but as far as buying new models?  Nah, I’m set.  Really.  Most of my hobby shop trips these days are to look more than anything else.  If I do buy something, it is either a consumable (paint, etc.) or a reference book.  Money—or lack thereof—isn’t what is slowing my production these days…

    So, that leaves what?  Ah, yes—desire.  Another way to put it is motivation, or lack of laziness.  Bingo.  I admit, lately I have been a bit of a slug.  Why?  Well, I had some heavy lifting to do when I was elected President of the IPMS Chapter, stuff that (in my mind) needed to be done.  Add to that an upcoming model show that wasn’t really being moved along, so now I’m busy running the Chapter and doing all those little things that need to be done for a model show..  In the space of three months, I managed to craft a Constitution and By-Laws for the club, design and have medals made for the show, manage the club website to include show updates, fine-tune my meeting agendas, and write something for the newsletter. 

    Once the show was over, I was hammered by an upper respiratory ailment that took a while to kick.  I was not feeling much like riding the bike, so I’d plant my fourth point of contact firmly on the couch and vegetate to whatever was on the TV.  I’ve told you about my periodic funks, and this is perhaps the largest one I’ve encountered in quite some time.

    Now that I’m on the far side of everything, I’ve had some time to think—which is something a man should not do.  One of the items on the list is the ever-bulging stash.  I actually wrote a short piece on stash management for the club newsletter, but the gist of it is that I really need to do a SIDNA sale.  Since I was part of the Show Committee in June, I really couldn’t tie myself to a vendor table, so I’ve had to think of other ways to reduce the number of unbuilt kits upstairs.  While it doesn’t all have to go NOW—I don’t need the dough to pay for a kidney transplant or anything like that—the sooner I can move it, the better.

    For those who ask, “Why would selling off model kits help your production rate?”  For me, the answer is easy—I go upstairs to work on one project, it gets stalled (for whatever reason), and I have hundreds of other potential projects staring me in the face.  In a word, it is a distraction.  Second, I believe it would help me get back on point with some of the collections I’ve outlined over the years.  And, finally, it will give me more room to work.  My workbench becomes cave-like at times…

    Were there other things that lit a bit of a fire under me?  Since you asked, sure.  First, our June show—model shows are real good places to draw some inspiration.  When you have a chance to look at everything up close during judging sure helps feed the brain.  Next, a few weeks ago, we had a display at the State Museum, where we simply put models out for people to look at.  I managed to bring several, including the Corsairs, the ER-2, and the F-111F.  And, finally, I took a few Works In Progress to the IPMS meeting last week.  As I looked at all three, I noted that none of them was beyond hope (I took the StuG, the Macchi C.200, and the 1/72 F-101B), and that if I’d only get up and actually work on them, I’d probably have them completed before too long.

    Stay tuned.

    ————————-

    Last time we met, I regaled you with stories of Stuff We Used To Have.  We covered paint, filler, and the like.  This time, let’s look at model companies that are no longer with us…

    I recall the first model magazine article I read that didn’t feature a kit from the American Big Three of my day (Monogram, Revell, Aurora)—it was the article on the then-new 1/48 scale ESCI kit of the IDF/AF Kfir C2, showcased in the March 1978 issue of “Scale Modeler”, the same issue that featured Shep Paine’s Marauder diorama (and my first taste of a modeling magazine)…

    Now, I was familiar with the Mirage series of aircraft, having built the Revell 1/72 Mirage III kit a few years earlier.  I knew the Israelis flew them.  I had read a few short encyclopedia articles on the Mirage 5 and how the Israeli order was embargoed, and how Israel worked to develop an in-house replacement, but had never seen a picture of a Kfir.  Here, in color, was a superbly built model kit, right there in the pages of my newly discovered magazine!  But the article only raised questions…

    ESCI?  What the heck was ESCI?  How do you say that?  ESS-kee?  E-sky?  (For the record, it is an acronym for Ente Scambi Coloniali Internazionali, “International Organization for Colonial Trade”; most people pronounce it ESH-he).  All I knew is that the kit got high marks, and I saw ads for others, including their only 1/48 WWII aircraft kits of the Hs.123 and Hs.129. 

    ESCI initially would design tooling, ship them to other firms (usually Italeri) to have them molded, then box and market them.  In the course of their existence, the produced a series of 1/72 scale aircraft and armor that, for the most part, were excellent kits.  They had a huge 1/72 scale armor selection by the time they folded, most of it exquisite.  Their 1/72 WWI aircraft series, likewise, couldn’t be beat.  In short, if the box said “ESCI” and “1/72 scale”, you could be pretty sure what you got was a winner…

    Their 1/48 scale line wasn’t as extensive, and certainly not as finely done, but for the most part they were viable (several exceptions exist: their 1/48 scale F-100D and A-10A were the big stinkers of the bunch—interesting, too, since their 1/72 F-100D is still one of the finest examples of that aircraft in that scale). 

    ESCI also produced a line of automobile kits—European road racers, mostly—in 1/25 scale, and some motorcycles in 1/9 scale.  Perhaps their most interesting kits were their 1/12 F-16 and F-104 cockpits.

    ESCI kits had several things going for them, but first and foremost was that they were affordable.  Their 1/72 scale kits were usually a few bucks each, and when Squadron would have a sale you could find them for as little as One American Dollar each!   

    Their fortunes waned in the mid- to late-1980’s, and by the mid 1990s the company had been sold to the ERTL Group.  They were gone by the turn of the Century.  AMT, also under the ERTL umbrella, took the F-100D and produced an F-100F kit, and produced an F-104G based on the ESCI F-104C.

    Some of their kits are still available in other companies’ boxes–for a while in the early 2000s, you could find them in Revell GmbH boxes, and some are seeing new life in Italeri boxes.  That’s a bit of a win for the better kits—as I said, I prefer their 1/72 F-100D to all other comers.  Their F-104 series was also quite nice—now superseded by Hasegawa’s efforts, they’re a great “budget” choice when/if you can find them.  Their 1/72 scale kits of the Sea Harrier, F-4C/J, F-4E, and F-15 still hold their own, too…

    Otaki was a Japanese brand who was into a lot of things—airliners, aircraft, cars, even model railroad.  My interest in Otaki came from their line of 1/48 scale WWII airplanes.  The group included the P-40E Warhawk, P-47D Razorback, P-51D Mustang, F4U-1A Corsair, F6F-3 Hellcat, Ki-43, Ki-44, Ki-61, Ki-84, Ki-100, A6M, J2M, J1N1, K5W, Bf-109G, Fw-190A, and Spitfire Mk. VIII.  These kits were quite well done, and for the most part quite accurate to boot.  They, too, were affordable.  Sure, they cost a little bit more than the usual Monogram kits, but they were less than contemporary Hasegawa and Tamiya kits in the same scale.  They also had an interesting line of 1/144 scale kits, notably a Lockheed L-1011 TriStar and C-5A Galaxy, and an Aerospatiale/BAC Concorde, each of them superb.  To wit, Airfix’s Concorde wasn’t as nice, Airfix’s and Revell’s attempts at a TriStar were lacking, and nobody attempted a C-5 until the Roden kit earlier this year…

    By the time I discovered Otaki, they were on the verge of bankruptcy.  I noticed that by the late 1980’s the boxes said “ARII” and no longer featured multiple color schemes and the color plate was missing.  The plastic was still the same, though, so I was not really concerned at the time.  Arii continued the line for several years, even sending kits to AMT, Airfix, and Matchbox to be packaged and sold in those boxes, too.  In some circles, they still exist, now in Micro Ace boxes that still bear the Arii logos, so they’re not really gone, but to me, without the color plates and multiple decal options, they may as well be.

    The interesting part of the Otaki saga is to this day shrouded in mystery and whispered rumor: before they went bankrupt, some disgruntled employees loaded some of the tooling on a boat and dumped it in Tokyo Bay!  The kits usually associated with this heinous act are the two 1/144 scale kits, the TriStar and Galaxy.  And, since we have yet to see these kits in anyone’s boxes for quite some time (Revell AG, Testors, and Doyusha all re-boxed the Galaxy while Otaki was still solvent), it stands to reason that there is some truth to the story.  I wasn’t there, I can’t say one way or the other, but…

    The last company I’ll talk about tonight is Monogram.  Yep, *that* Monogram, before their marriage with Revell, before ProModeler, before the bankruptcy…

    I discovered Monogram kits by chance.  The first “look at the model I built all by myself!” kit I built was the Monogram Snap-Tite L’il Red Baron, the caricature version of the Tom Daniel classic.  A year or so later, as I started down the path to being a “serious” modeler, I discovered their U. S. Navy aircraft—the SBD, TBF, SB2C, Hellcat, Wildcat, Corsair, and TBD.  Of course, I just had to build them all and add them to the collection.  As I would acquire and build each, I took notice of their other kits of WWII airplanes.  As I was to learn, some were great, some were good, and some were, well, in interests of being fair, products of their time.  And I built all of them, ignoring the things people cringe about today…

    As I started to build jets, I was impressed by the quality of Monogram’s 1/48 kits.  The cockpits were excellent, and the kits themselves would build up with no major issues—nothing I couldn’t handle, for sure.  I built their F-100D, F-105G, F-84F, and a couple others while I was in college—the F-84F crashed and burned for whatever reason I can’t recall, but I built the same kit again and featured it earlier on this blog.  Each of them was a treat to build…

    Not long after I graduated from the Harvard of the Sky, I switched scales to 1/72 and discovered Monogram’s F-105G, F-4D, and EF-111A.  I was just as impressed.  The cockpits were veritable jewels, the completed models were lovely to behold in the display case, and, in case you forgot, they were affordable and, they were made right here in the good, old USA.

    What made Monogram kits special?  They had the right balance of detail and ease of assembly.  They went together quickly.  They didn’t need a lot of extra stuff, even after extra stuff became a requirement for some modelers.  In short, they were just good, straightforward, well detailed model kits.  Sure, they had the dreaded “raised panel line” disease, and some of them exhibited less-than-stellar fit (anyone who has even built their A-10A in 1/48 scale knows what I’m talking about), but for the price, they packed a lot of fun into those boxes. 

    After the mergers between Monogram and Revell in the mid-1990s, a lot of the kits began to appear in Revell boxes—the united company had decided to use the Revell name for business and financial reasons—and the plastic changed from that nice, hard, shiny non-brittle styrene that was a stock in trade from Morton Grove to the soft-ish, prone to warp, high vinyl/regrind content plastic that came from overseas.  I still like a lot of their kits, but when I do build them I try to use an original Monogram boxing to get that nice plastic…

    The new holding company who bought Revell GmbH and Revell USA now owns all the history and heritage that traces its lineage back to the old Morton Grove, Illinois location.  That is good.  It tells me that perhaps we will see these kits yet again.  Hint, guys in Germany:  Have your kits molded where the quality of styrene is better, you will make modelers world-wide happy.

    There are other model companies who have come and gone, and I've talked a bit about some of them on this blog:  Lindberg, AMT, MPC, HAWK, Accurate Miniatures, Hobbycraft Canada, and others.  Fortunately, Round2 Models rescued AMT, MPC, HAWK, and Lindberg several years ago, while the Accurate Minuatures tooling seems to be in the hands of the folks at Academy (or at least the mold shops in Korea, whether it be Idea or ACE) and make regular appearances in Academy, Italeri, and (before the bankrupty) Revell GmbH boxes, as do some of the Hobbycraft Canada kits.

    STOP THE PRESSES!

    I originally had this post ready to post on Wednesday, 29 August, but as I usually do, I let it marinate overnight so I could proofread it the next morning.  Well, as Ferris Buehler said, “Sometimes life moves really fast…”

    The news was broken by the website cultvman.com yesterday:  Atlantis Models, a company started in 2009, has announced that they have acquired some of the old Revell (and this would include Monogram, Aurora, and Renwal) tooling in storage at a warehouse in Oak Grove, IL.  What exactly they got is still a bit of a mystery—the new Revell (Blitz Partners) owns most of the tooling that was being used at the time of the Hobbico bankruptcy. 

    From their Press Release: 

     Peter Vetri, President of Atlantis, states, “It’s a lifelong dream to own this historic tooling and archive material related to these molds; to be able to preserve the tooling is a real honor. We look forward to reissuing many classics that have not been available in quite some time. All of the model kits will be made here in the USA and all the tooling and the Archive have been moved from Elk Grove to our facilities in Deer Park, NY.

    Atlantis Models has, in the past, re-issued or retooled several classic kits from the Revell and Aurora lines, so these kits should fit right into their lineup.  I wish them well, and look forward to seeing which classics they have acquired.

    You can read about Atlantis here.  

    BUT WAIT, THERE’S MORE!

    Salvinos J R Models, a new American model company specializing in NASCAR Stock Car model kits, announced today on their Facebook page that they, in a deal reached with Atlantis Models, are the new owners of the Monogram NASCAR kits from the 1980’s and 1990’s:

    VERY BIG NEWS!

    You may have read some very big news from Atlantis Model Co. that they have purchased a considerable portion of the molds for Revell, Monogram, and some of the other Hobbico owned companies from Revell Germany that were stored in Revell’s Elk Grove, IL warehouse. Well we were fortunate enough to work out arrangements with Pete and Rick of Atlantis Model Co. and Salvinos J R Models are now the proud owners and guardians of the entire catalog of Revell and Monogram’s American made stock car molds from 1980 through the 1990s! In the very near future we will be adding these kits into our catalog with new drivers, new decals and some updated bodies to go on these platforms.

    ——————–

    So, there you are sports fans.  I read about the Hobbico bankruptcy (I was still employed at the hobby shop when it all started to go pear-shaped for Hobbico), and I read about the Blitz Partners purchase, and I read all the doom and gloom about how “They’re gone!  All those kits are gone!”  Well, anyone who has been around the hobby for a while knows that old kits never die.  They just get produced by different companies.  As noted, ESCI kits are now found in a variety of boxes from Revell GmbH to Italeri, Otaki’s stuff can be found in Micro Ace/ARII and Doyusha boxes, and Monogram kits are going to be in Revell, Atlantis, and Salvinos J R Models boxes.  Life is still good.

    That’s all I have for now.  Be good to one another, and, until we meet again, I Bid you Peace.

  • In the days of yore…

    (Or:  Hey, Grandpa, tell us a story…)

    As the Cajun Chef Justin Wilson would say, "How y'all are?  I'm so glad for you to see me some more!" 

    Since we last crossed paths, a lot has happened.  Our Mesa Project is over, ended prematurely by our customer.  So, no more treks cross-continent–which is a good thing and a bad thing, because as long as it wasn't in the summer months, I enjoyed the time I spent in Arizona.  This also means that I've been between projects since January, which means I have time on my hands–and time that isn't always spent in the best of manners. 

    I guess that's why I volunteered to "un-retire" and ask the guys in the local IPMS Chapter to trust me to run the club for a few years.  "I wanted a mission, and for my sins, they gave me one…"

    So, having time on my hands and something that I need to spend time on has got me writing articles for our club newsletter.  I've done a few so far, and I have two or three more lurking out there amongst my research materials on projects near and dear to me.  The first I wrote was a short piece on the various Army missile sites situated in and around South Florida during the aftermath of the Cuban Missile crisis and how those spots look today.  Since we're in South Carolina, and I have never seen anyone in the club do so, I also did a two-part history of the 169 Fighter Wing, the flying unit of the South Carolina Air National Guard.  Waiting in the wings?  I'd like to do a short piece on the 321st and 340th Bombardment Groups, two units that were assembled and trained here at what is now the Columbia Metropolitan Airport.  I've also been refining my "Model Building 101" seminar that I first presented at the 2016 IPMS/USA National Convention.  And, while all this has been fun, it has caused me to do some digging in back issues of old magazines–where I'm greeted almost every time with some sort of "Blast from the Past"…

    The first thing I recalled were the Alpha Cyanoacrylate Cements (ACC, also known as CA, "Super Glue", "Krazy Glue", and a host of other trade and nicknames) that we had available to us in the day.  Dad would usually have one of the syrette-type tubes of Krazy Glue hanging around, and every now and then he'd bring home an expired bottle of Eastman 910, the great-granddaddy of all ACCs from work–he worked at a bio-medical company for a while and they paid strict attention to dates.  The glue was still perfectly fine, except the date on the container said it couldn't be used. 

    A few years later, I found Satellite City's "Hot Stuff"–the original bottles were flat-topped and used the little piece of Teflon tubing as an applicator nozzle.  And, boy, did it work!  I first discovered it when my brother was building a Dumas tunnel-hull radio control boat.  I happened to be building my one and only "real" model (according to Dad), a Guillows large scale Spitfire.  I used Titebond for most of the construction–I wasn't concerned with weight, since I was building it as a shelf sitter–but when I needed to lock something into place NOW, I'd hit it with Hot Stuff, and pow, it was secured.  I tried it on some of the plastic models I built later on, and found that it worked fairly well on them, but that I was still a bit lacking in my technique–so what I usually wound up with was a misaligned bit of model that took a while to sort out.  But it was good stuff, and it is actually still available.  In the years since, I've used the Pacer "Zap" line of ACC, Carl Goldberg's "Jet", the "Krazy Glue" formulations, and the Bob Smith Industries products, but if it was still as readily available as it was in the early 1980's, I'd probably still be using Hot Stuff…these days, Bob Smith is what is usually available, so it is what I use…

    Another product from days gone by are fillers.  Back in my formative years, there was only one readily available hobby filler worth using, and that was good, old, Squadron Green Putty.  And boy, did I use it by the metric ton.  I'd glue the parts together, and once the glue was dry I'd smear a nice bead of putty on every seam.  I guess I liked sanding for weeks back then, I dunno.  As my technique improved, and as I realized that I didn't need to use the whole tube on just one model, I started to use less.  At some point, I used Duratite putty, and later tried the Dr. Microtools' red putty–nice stuff, but if you are painting something white, it was a huge pain in the hinder.  About the same time, Squadron introduced their White Putty.  I've used it ever since, at least as far as solvent-based putties go.  I've added a few to my arsenal–namely, CA, Deluxe Products' Perfect Plastic Putty, and Apoxie Sculp.  That last one reminded me that I originally used Duro's E-Pox-E Ribbon–you probably remember it if you used it, it has a blue and a yellow component, and when it cured it was this garish green color.  Once I discovered Milliput, thought, I switched.  And, when Apoxie Sculp debuted and I could get it easier than Milliput, I switched.

    But of all the products I look back on, the one that I always come to is paint.  In my kid days building models in the neighborhood, you were either a Testors fan or a Pactra kid–a lot depended on where you shopped for paint.  It seems to me that the drug store closest to the house (as well as the local K-Mart and Treasury discount store) carried the Testors Pla Enamels, and the drug store across the street carried Pactra 'Namel.  Back then, we only knew we needed paint, we weren't particular, but I was always under the impression that the Testors bottles held more paint that the jewel-faceted 'Namel jars did.  I used the Testors Flats, mostly, and continued to use them when I transitioned from using the hairy stick to using the airbrush for my final finishes.  That is, until about 1981…

    Remember my stories of the Otaki Corsair, and how it became my Great White Whale, and how I so thoroughly botched my first attempt that I had to wait until the shop got another kit?  Between those two, I built the Otaki Hellcat, and since I had already bought the paint for the Corsairs, I'd simply use them on the Hellcat, too.  These were different–these were the square bottles of Pactra's Authentic International Colors.  And boy, how I loved that paint.  I had discovered that using Aero Gloss Dope thinner really cut the Testors flat enamel paint and made it lay down well and flash quickly, and it held no surprises when I did the same with the Pactra stuff.  Of course, my luck being what it is, a few months after I discovered the stuff, it was being discontinued.  No matter, as I was in for a change anyway…

    When I started college, I was trying to be considerate to my roommates, so I tried the original Polly-S.  For those of you younger than 30, this was the original hobby "acrylic"–actually, it was latex paint.  It hand brushed very nicely, but to airbrush it was a bit of a crap shoot.  See, you could thin it with water or alcohol, neither of which was 100% reliable with any given bottle of paint.  Some bottles would do well with either, other bottles would only work well with water, and some bottles would curdle into a tight little ball if you tried alcohol.  I got real good at troubleshooting paint in those days, and I used it until it, too, was starting to pass from the scenes.  When I couldn't get colors like RLM02 and Non-Spec Sea Blue, it was telling me that I needed to find a new paint.  It actually found me…

    About the same time Polly-S was sinking, the gang at Floquil had begun to produce the "re-formulated" military colors, in the form of their "new" (for 1992-ish) line.  Now, I was quite content to use Polly-S (as well as the Tamya and Gunze/GSI acrylics), but given the range of colors, I just had to try the new Floquil line.  I did.  I liked it.  I used it.  Well, until the advent of PollyScale…

    There were other acrylics that I tried back in the day, too.  I liked the original Tamiya acrylics.  They were an absolute joy to use.  They then started to fiddle with the chemistry of their paints, and for several years I simply could not get it to work, come Hell or high water.  I also liked the Gunze Aqueous line to an extent, but I found that it didn't give as good a coverage as the others did.  Along the way, I also tried the Testor Model Master Acrylics (the line that preceded the Acryl colors we have now), and found them to be the most useless model paint I ever encountered.  The experience I had with them colored my opinion of the later Acryl line until I tried them. 

    Then there was "Niche"/"Red Paint".  They came out in the early 1990's with these supposed hyper-accurate paints formulated for late war Luftwaffe and Soviet colors.  I have actually had good results with the one bottle of "Soviet Dielectric Green" I bought (check out the MiG-21 I built–the antennas are all done with this paint), and wish I had bought more when it was available.  

    I tried the ProModeler paints once, too–the less said, the better.  They weren't as useless as the Testor Model Master Acrylics, but they came pretty close.

    Coming full circle, one of the last of the "others" that I really liked were the Pactra Acrylics.  And, as my luck runs, it wasn't around long once I discovered it.

    Back to PollyScale.  Bar none, this is the best acrylic I have ever used, before or since.  I liked it so much that I simply gave away all my Floquil enamels.  If this stuff was still around, I'd be using it.  No question.  But, as we have seen from RPM (the parent company of Testors, Bondo, and Rust-Oleum) a few times, well, they just couldn't bear having "sister company" (as Floquil was at the time) show up the Home Team.  Yep, they discontinued the PollyScale colors in favor of the Acryls…

    Since PollyScale went away, I have re-learned how to use Tamiya colors, I have liked the Acryls, and I have adopted a new favorite in the form of Vallejo Model Air.  Sure, it isn't PollyScale, but as I have been experimenting and getting used to it, I like the stuff.  I've been able to pull off some pretty nice paint jobs–see the Hasegawa F-111F, the pair of Corsairs, and the ER-2 as proof.  They make the best, to my mind, acrylic metallic colors, too, as the MiG-21 proves.  So, while my winding road through the world of hobby paint has been long and slightly tortured, I think I'm where I need to be.

    ———————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————–

    And this doesn't even scratch the surface of the list of the kit manufacturers we had back in the day.  We had Otaki and Nichimo, neither of which are around any more, although Arii picked up the Otaki line for a while–it is now marketed by Micro Ace in Japan.  We had Fujimi, kits from whom have only recently started to hit these shores again.  We had Life-Like, Inpact, ESCI, SMER, VEB/Plasticart–none of which have survived to today. 

    And, the latest additions to the list:  Monogram and Revell.  They were victims of the Hobbico bankruptcy.  Hopefully, the new owners of Revell Germany–who now own the entire Revell and Monogram catalog–will re-establish some sort of U.S. branch, but I'm not holding my breath.

    On the other hand, due to the efforts of Round 2 Models, the likes of AMT, MPC, Lindberg, Hawk, and Polar Lights…

    Perhaps next time, we'll take a look at those manufacturers.

    Until then, thanks for reading.  Be good to one another, and I bid you Peace.

     

  • A Toast to Old Friends

    Greetings, everyone!

    I find myself once again in the Big City of Mesa, Arizona for work.  An old college (and scale modeling) friend of mine had moved to Tucson earlier this year and had been asking if I could meet up with him at some point since my first visit back in March.  I told him, workload permitting, that I'd find my way down there for a visit.  Well, I had time this visit, so I drove down that way yesterday…

    It was a fun visit.  We went for a visit to the Pima Air and Space Museum–he has signed on as a volunteer there, and I had not been since my first visit in 2012.  As we walked through the place, he pointed out the new additions to the museum as well as the recently refinished aircraft.  The museum has been cycling their assets through the restoration hangar where most are simply stripped and repainted.  "Restoration" is sort of a misnomer here, because they rarely totally disassemble, repair, and refinish an aircraft as the Air and Space museum and National Museum of the Air Force do.  The desert climate tends to make corrosion a minor issue, but the sun takes it's toll on the paint, hence the repaints.  Right now, they have the NB-52B, "Balls Three", in the process.  I'm happy to see the museum continuing their excellent work, and I'm proud to be a member of the Arizona Aerospace Foundation.  

    New additions (to me) were the Dreamliner, the English Electric Lightning, and the new Hangar 5.  It was nice seeing the new additions to the collection.  Spending time with old friends, both of the aviation variety and the human variety, is always a good thing.  My friend and I hadn't met face to face in almost 15 years, and we spent a lot of time catching up and telling tales of our time at The Harvard of the Skies, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Daytona Beach.  A lot of time was passed remembering our days at the Air Force ROTC Detachment, recalling mutual friends, and sharing notifications about friends who are no longer with us.  I'm happy that I was able to make the trek, and I hope it isn't another 15 years until the next time…

    —————————————————————————————————————————————————

    Speaking of old friends, I received an e-mail from Eric, another friend living in Ft. Lauderdale.  He wrote to let me know that  the hobby shop we all knew, Warrick Custom Hobbies (re-branded first as "The Hobby Superstore" and later "Maniac's Hobby Complex") will be closing (alas, according to Yelp, it has closed) it's doors forever. 

    I have fond memories of Warrick.  I've written before how I discovered the shop in the early 1980's, how I finally found my Holy Grail, the Otaki 1/48 F4U-1A Corsair, on their shelves.  I discovered the first edition of Sheperd Paine's "How to Build Dioramas", the test issue of a little magazine called "FineScale Modeler", and a few other Kalmbach books there, too.  I met many friends in the aisles of the store, regardless of whether it was the Twin Oaks Center location on Davie Boulevard, the Griffin Road location, or the two locations in Plantation.  Many of those I met at the store remain friends after all these years.

    And that doesn't truly tell the full story.  For me, Warrick was a hobby shop, a reference source, a meeting place, a part-time job, and, at times, a refuge where I could tune out the world and take in all the plastic wonders one could ever want…or need.  During my days as an employee, I got to know the Warrick family.  Peter, the founder, would stop in from time to time, especially around Christmas.  His daughter Pamela worked there when she was a kid, and her brother Wally would take the reins when Peter died in 2010. 

    And that's not to mention the good folks who worked there with me, and the folks who shopped there.  First and foremost is my good friend Rick, who was the Plastics Guru In Residence when I first discovered the store.  Rick is one of those guys who not only builds a great model, he isn't afraid to help you.  Back when I met him, he was immersed in World War One and Japanese World War Two airplanes, although he would build armor and ships as well.  He would also do commission work, the first person I knew who built models for other people–and got paid for his work!  Rick introduced me to the concept of SIDNA–Shit I Don't Need Anymore–and stash purging.  And when Rick would do a SIDNA sale, it was always fun.  Rick's kits were like Forrest Gump's box of chocolates–you never know what you were going to get.  When he made his last SIDNA purge a few years ago, he gave me a large box full of various 1/72 scale airplanes he had begun and was thusly unable to sell.  In one box, I found two photoetch sets and a package of resin seats.  In another, there were three Excel #1 knives.  In a third, there were parts enough for two complete airplane models.  That was how Rick did it.  He would eventually manage the store.  He's now in North Carolina, and he's limited his collection to 1/32 World War One airplanes these days…

    Scott was the Keeper of Model Railroad Knowledge, also a scale modeler (quite talented, too!), and an RC guru in his own right.  He was also one of those folks with a quick mind and a wicked sense of humor.  More than once did Scott have us laughing for hours.  A born tinkerer, there were few things he couldn't fix.  When Peter wanted to set up a railroad layout in the window of the new shop, Scott had it up and running in a few days.  No written plan, no materials list, he thought it up, bought the materials, and made it happen.  He moved to Las Vegas in the late 1990's, and I haven't heard from or about him since.   

    John took over the store management when Rick left.  John was another hobbyist.  He was an RC boat person, and he was the person who recruited me to help do the scale judging every year at the annual regatta that the Shipcrafters of Broward would host.  John is an educator, and I believe he now lives in Tallahassee.

    Mister Mac was my Saturday part-time counterpart–he would work Saturdays, I would work Sundays, and we'd both stop by every Friday to see what the FedEx and UPS man dropped off that week.  Mac was a good foil for Scott–like Scott, he had a quick wit and deeply twisted sense of humor.  A retired Air Force crew chief, he once owned his own hobby shop and was teaching high school shop class when I met him.  He knew Rick from when Rick used to haunt his shop as a young man.  One day, Rick came in with a Revell 1/32 Hawker Hurricane he was commissioned to build.  Mac looked at the contents of the box, and remarked, "When I built big scale stuff, I cleaned up my parts the same way.  And I painted my instrument panels the same way.  And", he lifted the box, "there's a reason.  You got this kit from me!"  He would put a number on the bottom of the box, and enter it into his inventory spreadsheet.  He later moved to Kentucky, then Port Orange.  I haven't heard from him in a little while, so I owe him a quick message.

    Bob was one of the shop regulars, too.  He built armor, specifically armor of the IDF.  Bob had served with the IDF in the late 1970's/early 1980's.  Bob fit right in, since he had the same sense of humor the rest of us did.  Bob usually had about a month of free modeling time, the month during the summer when his wife and kids would go to visit family in Israel.  We knew when they were out of town by Bob's model output.  He once brought in an Italeri 1/35 M109 that he had converted to the Israeil fit.  As folks looked at it, one wag started to go off about how it was "Wrong!  All wrong!  I crewed M109's, they don't look at all like that!" within earshot of Bob.  Bob was about to go nuclear, when Scott looked the complainer in the eye and said, "Look again.  Wrong army, asshole!"  We all got a good laugh out of that one.  That, and the time one of the kids working RC drilled a hole in Bob's fingernail when he offered to hold the part for the kid.  There were times when Bob would bring his daughters into the shop, and when I think they're now both married, I realize how old I'm getting.  I keep telling him that I remember his youngest–"the little one"–when she was knee high, and would hide behind him.  Bob, his wife, and younger daughter moved to Israel in the early 2000's, and she served in the IDF and became a teacher.  

    Larry became one of our best friends over the years. When my then-girlfriend moved to Florida, she would spend Sundays with me at the shop, and she and Larry would swap jokes.  Larry would move to Venice, Florida–and later Brevard, North Carolina (he's now in Coastal SC)–and yet we would usually meet up once every year or so, most recently at several of the Atlanta Airliner Collectibles shows at the Delta Flight Museum…alas, this year he has other plans. 

    Mike, who had moved to Florida from the Los Angeles area (he later moved back to Cali, then back to Florida), would talk airliners, WWI airplanes, and ships with us.  He's back in Cali now, and he and I trade e-mails every once in a while.  When he first showed up at the club meetings, he had a 1/350 scale USS California model he built from (if I recall correctly) an Iron Shipwrights kit.  It was superb all around, and yet, when asked about it, he had an "aw, shucks, its not my best work" reply for us.  He excelled at model building, and when he moved away the club lost a major talent and mentor.  

    Mikey would bring his kids with him, too–his son is in the Air Force and his daughter is married with kids now.  Mikey would always have some very nicely done models.  His models sometimes seemed to have stories of their own, too–he once built a Tamiya 1/48 Corsair, and when he applied the Dullcote, it frosted.  As he told the story, he was about to toss it in the garbage, but for some reason started to wet sand it.  The completed model was fabulous!  Mikey is one creative guy–he's also a phenomenal jazz musician.  One of the first dates I took my wife on was to see Mikey's guys play.  He's now in Huntersville, NC, still playing jazz.  He's recently returned to the hobby, too, which is a good thing.

    Eric and Mark introduced me to the whole "spend Saturday at the airport watching airplanes" deal.  Yes, it is exactly as I stated it.  We'd meet at Mark's house, load up cameras, pile into the van, and head to Miami International Airport.  We'd stop for breakfast on the way and meet some other folks.  Once we arrived, we'd stake out a parking spot and set up the cameras.  Around noon, we'd pack up and head to Orange Blossom Hobbies.  We'd spend a little bit of time perusing the wares, then we'd go to lunch with Pat, giving him a break from working behind the counter.  We'd finish lunch, drop Pat back at the hobby shop, and go find another parking spot at the airport.  Eric would set up his tripod and video camera on the van's roof, and they knew the traffic patterns and arrival/departure schedules, so they knew where to be when they wanted to catch the afternoon British Airways and Air France 747's.  I went with them several times, and it was always a fun day.  Eric's still in the area, but Mark moved to Ocala in 2001. 

    In a roundabout way, Eric was the person who introduced me to the girl who is now my wife.  She had built an Airfix 1/144 Boeing 727, and posted pictures to her website.  I emailed and asked her if she would be interested in doing a brief write up for the club newsletter.  The rest, as they say…

    Rafe is another one of those folks.  You know them–friends with whom don't have contact for years, but if one of you needs to talk, you know that the other will be there.  Rafe was the guy who reintroduced a lot of South Florida modelers to the fun aspects of the hobby.  Like me, he dabbles in a lot of different things, but he is a gear head at heart.  Many times he'd bring in a hot rod in "Jersey Suede"–matt black primer–to show everyone.    

    Mac would move to Kentucky in 2000.  I moved to South Carolina in 2001.  The guys who took over our posts, Danny and OD, would become Keepers of the Plastics until around 2006, when the store took plastics in a new (and not in a good way) direction.  All of the aftermarket decals, photoetch sets, and resin parts?  Gone.  Reference books?  Out.  The odd collection of limited run kits?  Bye-bye.  The specialty paint lines?  The racks emptied slowly, leaving the racks looking like what they call in my parts "Summer Teeth"–some are there, some aren't.

    I ran into Danny and his wife at the 2016 IPMS Convention.  Like Bob and Mikey, his two daughters would usually be with them when Danny was a customer.  I will always remember them with their Beanie Baby sheets, ticking off the ones they had and making lists of ones they wanted.  And, like Bob and Mikey, Danny's daughters are now delightful young ladies, all grown up.

    OD is a volume of stories in and of himself.  A Marine F-4 pilot in Southeast Asia, he later flew with Eastern Airlines.  He's quote the globetrotter, having worked in Iraq for a few contract companies.  His latest travels take him to Central and South America.  He was one of the die-hard 1/72 scale modelers in the club, and, when asked, "What color was the cockpit in your F-4?" he would reply that he was too busy trying to not get shot down to worry or care about it.  When I met him, he drove a VW bus painted in the classic Eastern Airlines colors of Ionosphere Blue, Caribbean Blue, and white.  And the bus even had a pitot tube on the roof.  He's one of those characters you're glad to meet during your voyage through life… 

    My last (and, as it happens, final) visit to Warrick was in March 2012.  By then, the plastics shelves looked for all the world identical to what you would find in a Michael's or Hobby Lobby–mainstream Revell, Acadamy, and Tamiya kits.  Testor and Tamiya paints.  No aftermarket to speak of.  No short run kits.  Very few reference books…

    The saddest part of all is that Warrick/Maniac's was the last large, full-line hobby shop in South Florida.  Sure, there are smaller shops specializing in Radio Control, or trains, or paintball.  But none of them ever came close to what Warrick Hobbies was in the heydays of the 1980's and 1990's.  Between Warrick and Orange Blossom Hobbies in Miami (and, to a lesser extent, RC Hobbies/Tri-County Hobbies in Tamarac, who closed in 2014 or 2105), if they didn't have it, you didn't need it or it was never made.

    We had a new member show up at one of the IPMS/Mid-Carolina meetings a while back, and as we introduced ourselves, one of the guys made the comment that he had met some of his best friends through the hobby.  As I write this, I realize just how many friends I've made through scale modeling.  And I continue to make new friends alone the way.  If it weren't for the hobby, I would not have met my wife, so that should speak volumes…

    People have asked me over the years if I miss South Florida.  I tell them I miss people who, largely, don't live there any more and places that don't exist as they were or have closed their doors.  I'm saddened to have to add Warrick Custom Hobbies to the latter category on that list.

    ————————————————————————————————————————————————–

    Earlier, I mentioned the Atlanta Airliner Collectibles show.  I'll be heading there next weekend–I leave Mesa on Friday morning and will be in Atlanta by 5PM.  A quick hotel shuttle, and I'll meet up with my wife.  We usually spend a few hours watching airplanes from the hotel balcony, then grab some supper.  We'll spend the morning Saturday at the Delta Flight Museum, where we usually will see at least two or three other friends.  Usually, we'll bump into Patrick, Mike (a different one), Paul, Danny (another one), and sometimes Donnie, and our version of "The Alabama Gang", Mike (yet another Mike!) and Tony from Huntsville.  We always have a great time, talking airplanes and models.  Once we've had our fill, we head to Kennesaw to visit the HobbyTown (the chain's largest store, we're told, and I believe it).  And, we usually grab lunch at El Nopalito right next door.  Sometimes it is just the two of us, other times we'll share a meal with Patrick, Larry, or our friend Rob when he visits from Alaska.

    After lunch, we go back to the hotel and watch airplanes again.  If you're not an airplane geek, you won't get it…

    If you're in the area, stop in.  I'm not affiliated with the show, I just think it is a fun day…

    —————————————————————————————————————————————————-

    Thanks for reading.  Be good to one another.  I bid you Peace, and remind you to cherish your friendships, wherever you find them.

  • I wanna party like its…1980?

    Howdy!

    The hobby shop was sold about a month ago.  It is a good thing, we think–the new owner is local, he owns several other businesses, and he actually listens to what we tell him.  He has introduced (and reintroduced) several Radio Control products that this store hasn't seen in years, and he's got great ideas on how to build the business.  

    Along those lines, I wanted to revisit the selection of plastic models we carry.  We do well with armor–the local AMPS Chapter meets here every month–and we hold our own with cars.  Airplanes, on the other hand, are a mixed bag.  We try to get the latest and greatest into the store, which works well when we can meet online pricing.  On the other hand, staples–like P-40's, P-51's, Me-109's, Phantoms, etc.–tend to take a back seat.  

    In my efforts to try and have a little something for everyone, I actually ordered a high-low mix of popular subjects–one low-cost kit and one "Premium" kit.  Along those lines, one of the mainstays of the hobby throughout the years have been the old Monogram 1/48 scale kits.  We carry them–the P-51D, the P-40B, the Zero, etc.–but the prices, like the prices on pretty much everything, have ratcheted up to the point where those kits I used to buy as a kid for $1.98 now run close to $17-$18.  While I like the fact that they are nice kits, many of them are long in the tooth–their age is starting to show, with ill-fitting parts, flash, and poor (or non-existent) detail in the cockpit and gear wells.  What to do, what to do…

    Anyone who has been building model airplanes since the 1970's will recognize the name Otaki.  They produced a series of World War Two fighters in 1/48th scale that were, in a word, superb for the day–some of them are still superb to this day, to tell the truth.  So, the plan was this–whenever there was a choice between a 1950's-era Monogram kit and a 1970's-era Otaki kit, i would opt for the Otaki kit for the store shelves.

    Now, Otaki went under in the late 1970's/early 1980's, and the line had been picked up by Arii.  They have also been seen in AMT, Matchbox, and Airfix boxes.  They're still decent kits, but I had one problem–not one of the stateside distributors we deal with carries them.  Again, what to do…

    The answer came, in part, when we were looking to beef up and update our Gundam models.  The main U.S. distributor gets the tail end of the Japanese production run, so a lot of the more desirable Gundams don't reach us.  We were discussing this issue when the idea of buying direct from Japan came up.  Well, we started the process with a rather large online shop that many of you may have dealt with in the past.  We were instructed to place an initial order…

    Given the green light, I started to search for stuff we couldn't get anywhere else.  The first thought I had was to find those old Otaki kits, or die trying.  After a short while, I found these kits under the Micro Ace label–same Arii box art, they even carry the Arii nametag.  What astounded me was the price.  The pricing on these kits hasn't changed much since the last time I saw them sitting on the shelf at Warrick Custom Hobbies, which is a fair shade less than we can get the ancient Monogram kits for on a good day.  So, with that in mind, I placed the entire line on the order.  I mean, for the price, why not?  Granted, when they were under the Otaki badge they had a neat color plate and decals for two subjects, but I think they'll fill the bill nicely.

    One of the things that confounds me up here in the Greater Upper Midlands Co-Prosperity Sphere is that there are a good many modelers here, but few of them know anything outside their own personal comfort zone.  Introducing a line of kits that are foreign to them may prove troublesome.  So, in order to show people what these kits are like, I decided to put a few on display in the showcase.  I built a Hellcat a few years ago, ostensibly as the object of a stillborn model building class I wanted to host at the shop.  But I also remember one of their F4U-1 Corsair kits I had kicking around on top of the pile closest to the workbench.  I think I had it first, then gave it to my wife (who purchased a Verlinden resin set for the Tamiya kit and the Squadron vac canopies), who gave it back to me when I wasn't watching.  Rather than let it decompose into dust, I took it off the pile and started to build it.  It was much as I remembered from the example I built in 1981 or so–very basic, but convincing cockpit, anemic engine, good basic shape and proportions…

    Those last things–basic shape and proportion–are what I really grade a kit on.  I can add, change, or embellish details, but I don't like having to rework shape and dimensional issues.  So, with the kit in hand, I started to engineer how I was going to add the Verlinden parts to the kit.  After about an hour, I had the cockpit and engine constructed and ready to install.  A quick shot of paint, and some glue, and I had the fuselage zipped up.  As the model sits now, basic carcass construction is complete.  I need to add the horizontal tailplanes and landing gear, fill a few gaps,. sand, buff, and burnish, and add paint.  In the space of about two and a half hours, I have remembered why I enjoyed these kits back in the day.  Hopefully, I'll get a new audience to share that opinion.  Even out of the box, they build into quite nice models…

    I'll post photos of the completed model once I'm done.

    _________________________________________________

    Along with the Otaki Corsair, I came upon the 2014 Revell AG 1/72 F4U-1 kit.  While nowhere near as nice as their MiG-21 F-13, it builds up fairly well.  I don't usually do these airplanes in 1/72 scale, but since the kit comes with the same markings the Otaki kit will wear, I thought a nice Scale Display would be in order.  Photos once it is complete…

    _________________________________________________

    Along with the sale of the hobby shop, I have been brought out of my year-long "temporary retirement" from the world of avionics.  I'll be working from home most of the time, but I'll have to do a little traveling every now and then.  The job is the same–but different–than my last employment stop.  The basic work is similar, only some of the details and responsibilities have changed.  I'm honestly looking forward to the challenges this opportunity will offer.  For those of you who have been involved in aviation, I don't need to explain.  For those of you who have not worked in the field, there is no explanation that will adequately describe just how much it gets into your blood…

    __________________________________________________

    When I get some time, I feel a stash reduction is in order, and that right soon.  I've been meaning to do a bit of SIDNA pruning since this time last year, but I was kid of busy, what with the AMPS International Show and the IPMS/USA National Convention duties I signed up for.  As I get older, I realize that those kits bought with youthful enthusiasm and grand intent are not going to be built–or at least some of them won't.  So, better to find them new homes with folks that will do them justice rather than sit in our upstairs workshop and collect dust…

    ______________________________________________________

    That's all I have for now.  Thanks for reading, and as always, be good to one another.  I bid you peace…

  • 1984

    Greetings!

    Now, before you get all excited and start running about, I'm not referring to George Orwell's vision.  Rather, I'm looking back 30 years and remembering some of the things that made 1984 a sort of comeback year for me…

    For starters, I found myself unemployed and not in school for the first time in my life on New Year's Day in 1984.  I had taken my leave from the Harvard of the Sky–engineering physics and I didn't get along, especially when physics had backup on the beat-down in the form of Calculus 3.  Between those two courses, I had a dismal GPA for the Fall 1983 semester and decided that engineering as a career for me wasn't in the cards.  I went down to the AFROTC Detachment (I had an AFROTC Scholarship at the time) and spoke a bit with my advisor.  He and I talked for about an hour, and both came to the conclusion that all the summer terms in the world weren't going to suddenly make me a mathematical genius.  My math skills were pretty good, but not good enough.  So, I didn't register for spring semester and came home.

    Funny how things can happen–I went looking for a job on 2 January 1984 and was hired almost immediately as a parts driver for a local HVAC parts house.  After a week or so of that, one of their systems engineers found out that I wasn't just doing this because I didn't know any better, and I would sometimes be called in to watch how home and industrial HVAC systems are engineered–so many square feet of space called for so many tons of capacity, so many BTUs were required to heat X amount of space, etc.  It was all pretty neat stuff, and I appreciated all they were doing for me.  Between parts runs, I learned quite a bit–and was tempted to pursue a career in that.  But aviation, once it wiggles down into your blood, tends to have a strong pull…

    I worked there all summer.  One day I got a phone call from one of my advisors at Embry-Riddle, wanting to know what I was doing and what my plans were.  At the time, I was still trying to just chill out a bit and leave the stress and, well, disappointment of engineering behind me (and earn some coin, but that should be obvious).  I let them know what I was up to, and that I had several things banging around in my head, and that I'd let them know when the time came.  That time came in June–I took a Friday off work and drove back to Daytona Beach.  I met with some folks, and found out how easy it would be for me to come back–I never formally withdrew from the school, so I was still carried on their rolls.  I first visited my AFROTC friends.  We spent a few hours speaking with some of the other Department Chairmen, and after speaking with the man heading up the Avionics program, my mind was made up.  I would return in August.

    With my future now decided, I went back to work.  I don't say this to be self-congratulatory, but I was the hardest working parts driver/stock man/all around helper that location had.  I know this because the higher-ups told me so.  They were especially let down when I gave them my notice, but when I told them that my two choices were to learn–unofficially–from them, or go back to school and learn aviation electronics, I think it got them to understand.  I was told that if I needed summer work, they would be there.  So, I ended my employment with them in mid-August.

    Remember that 1984 was an Olympic Games year, too–back when Winter and Summer games were held in the same year, no less.  The Winter games were held in Sarajevo, Yugoslavia.  I paid little attention to them, because work and the time difference made keeping track of the events a bit difficult.  What saddens me know is to see what has become of the venues built for the Games–most of them are crumbling, the result of the unrest, fighting, and other issues between the ethnic factions that finally led to the break-up of Yugoslavia into its constituent Republics.  Sad…

    The Summer games, on the other hand, were different–they were held in Los Angeles in 1984.  The overshadowing news was that the Soviet Union, acting in response to the West's boycott of the 1908 Games, had decided to sit 1984 out.  They, along with the majority of Eastern Bloc countries, sat at home while the Games went on.  The reason I remember it so well was than coverage of most events came on right as I was getting back to the house after work, so I could pay attention to all of them.  It was the last Olympic Summer games that I really paid close attention to.  Since then, various reasons have kept me from watching…

    On the modeling front, I actually started to keep a log of kits I completed.  The first for 1984 was the ESCI 1/48 scale Fieseler Storch.  It was an easy build until I got to the part about sticking the wings to the greenhouse.  I used 5-minute epoxy, and got a fairly decent result–I amazed myself that I didn't wind up with epoxy all over everything! 

    I next turned my attention to a Tamiya 1/48 Brewster Buffalo.  It was probably the quickest "serious" model I had built to that point–everything just clicked together.  I was tempted by the early Navy scheme, but I settled on the Dutch scheme, because my metal finish techniques were sorely lacking and I didn't want to ruin the model.  My impressions of Tamiya airplane kits would be reinforced soon…

    Next on the hit parade was the Nichimo 1/48 scale Ki-43 Oscar.  If you read opinions on this kit, they're all almost universally positive.  And for good reason–the kit packs a lot of detail into a small airplane, the fit is superlative, and this all in a kit dating from the late 1970's.  I tried some weathering techniques on this one–I used a silver Tamiya paint marker to prime seams back then, and I would paint the seams and rub the excess paint off with a paper towel.  I reconed that if I added blotches of silver here and there, I could "chip" the Polly S paints I was using for the camouflage.  It worked out fairly well, I think, and I kept trying to expand my horizons from that model on to the next, and the next…

    This was also the summer when I attempted to build Monogram's 1/48 scale F-84F.  For a reason or reasons lost to history, I cannot recall why I never finished the model.  All I have from that model is the dolly and a few bits and pieces.  After that, I wound up building Monogram's 1/48 scale F-100D in Arkansas ANG colors.  I did that because, as I said before, my metal finishes at the time looked like dog poop…

    Last for the summer, I decided to refinish a Monogram 1/48 scale B-17G that I had built in the late 1970's, maybe 1979.  I had airbrushed it, but it was one of my first airbrushed models and looked the part.  There were visible seams and some other issues with the model, so I took it down from the shelf and started working on the bad areas.  Within a week, it was ready for paint again.  I had used a Microscale sheet to finish the F-100 and was suitably impressed–first time using them, you know.  So, I went in search of a sheet for the B-17.  I found one I liked (unit and aircraft are again lost to history–I didn't log how they were finished, just that I finished them) and set to work.  I used a combination of Polly S and Tamiya acrylics for the finish, and this one was the best, to that point, airbrushed finish I had ever laid down.  The model went back on the shelf, an old girl in a new dress.

    (That Tamiya Buffalo would also get a re-work in the early 1990's–which is how it still resides, hidden away in a box upstairs…)

    I returned to good old Humpty Diddle in August.  I had to register for classes.  I had remembered to change my major and catalog at the Registrar's office when I was there in June, so half my battle had been won.  Then I get to the registration lines.  I think it is a universal college policy that beginning of the semester registration is meant to be as huge a pain in the ass as possible to all involved.  See, during my engineering days, I had to re-take a few courses.  As far as the Aeronautical Studies/Aeronautics courses were concerned, I was through with all of my math classes by virture of my Calculus I and Calculus II courses.  During those engineering semesters, I had managed to complete all but maybe one or two Humanities/History courses, too.  I was only looking to register for the required Physics and first semester Aero Studies courses.  I couldn't get into any of the Electronics courses since all the sections were filled, so I settled for what I could get.  After I got through that, I had to go play housing lottery.  After about two hours of back-and-forth, I managed to get into Residence Hall 2, aka Dorm 2, aka "The Embry-Riddle Holiday Inn".  I had lived here through my engineering days, so I know what to expect.  I met the roommates and suitemates (two rooms to a suite, three people to a room), all of whom were Aero Science guys (they were all working towards pilot certificates)–except one.  He was in engineering.  He was a quiet kid, and engineering wasn't any kinder to him than it was me.  I kinda felt sorry for the kid…after all, I'm now the older, wiser me…

    Classes were literally a breeze.  By the end of that semester, I would have all my prerequisite courses behind me and the next three and a half years would be solid electronics and avionics courses, along with the Aero Studies courses.  See, there was no single avionics major, you took a major and added avionics.  You could take an Aviation Maintenance major and avionics (you wound up with an Airfram and Powerplant certificate and the avionics degree) or Aeronautical Studies with avionics, which is how I went.  Basically, you took all the ground school courses for flight, but no flight courses.  So, I learned basic aerial navigation and meteorology to go along with my electron theory.  Over the years, the school changed how they treated avionics until finally phasing it out a few years ago in favor of an Electronic Engineering degree program…

    More modeling?  You bet–I had spare time, so I decided to build a Tamiya 1/48 A6M2.  This was another fall together kit, it was done in a week.  Yep, a week.  Needing something else to occupy my time, and figuring that the ESCI Storch was a cool kit, so I decided to build ESCI's 1/48 scale Hs-123.  Now that one was a challenge–first serious biplane, first masked camouflage scheme with Polly S, and the kit was rife with minor warpage–typical of ESCI's kits of that era.  Well, I managed to beat it into submission, and painted it up as a Spanish Civil War machine.  I may still have it in a box here somewhere, too, and I was sure to pick up the AMTech "enhanced" reissue of the kit a few years ago.  After all, who else is likely to do an Hs-123 in 1/48 scale?

    The best part of the year?  Going back to school.  I never had any intention of *not* going back to school–my father wouldn't abide it.  He was always pushing for education-I guess it stems from the fact that he had a GED when he started working, and worked hard in correspondence classes to earn a degree.  Dad was a self made man, and he did so through hard work and trying to better himself.  I was thinking about these "good old days", and once again realized what my parents did to make sure my brother and I were ready to face the cold, cruel world–the sacrifices they made to put us both through post-secondary education, the hard work they put in to keep a roof over our heads, food on the table, and lights on in the house.  So, by going back to school–even though I wasn't overtly pushed–I was doing as they wanted. 

    On reflection, maybe I should have worked for a year after high school, then gone to college.  Maybe I should have examined engineering closer and realized that it was a bit beyond my abilities.  You can reach for the brass ring, and if you grab it on the first try, great.  I seem to reach for the ring, get a light grip on it, and then lose that slight grasp.  Rather than giving up, I'll take a breather and try again.  I usually grab that sucker for all I'm worth on the second go around, and once I have it in my grasp I never let go–I seem to cherish it more when I do that.  It has worked for me my entire life…

    Oh, yeah.  The Apple Macintosh also goes on sale in 1984, Constatin Chernenko succeeds Yuri Andropov as General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, Pierre Trudeau steps down as the Canadian Prime Minister, and Marvin Gaye's father shoots and kills the singer. 

    Musically, Van Halen released their "1984" album, giving us "Panama", "Hot For Teacher", "I'll Wait", and "Jump".  Duran Duran were touring, suppoting "Seven and the Ragged Tiger", which gave us "The Reflex", "Union of the Snake", and "New Moon on Monday".  Meanwhile, Prince and the Revolution topped the Billboard Top 100 with "When Doves Cry".  What was #100?  "Yah Mo Be There", by James Ingram and Michael McDonald…

    (I can't poke too much fun–my beloved Jethro Tull released "Under Wraps".  Not one of their best albums ever.  By far.  Even Tull's then-bassist Dave Pegg said the songs cut from 1983's "Broadsword and the Beast" would have made a better album.  Trivia time–it was the only Tull album with no live drummer–drum machines were used instead.  Doane Perry would be hired shortly after this album and was their full-time drummer until 2011.  He still occasionally tours with them.)

    The big news items in the United States for 1984, though, were generated by President Ronald Reagan.  In August, during a sound check for a radio broadcast, he says "My fellow Americans, I'm pleased to tell you today that I've signed legislation that will outlaw Russia forever.  We begin bombing in five minutes".  He alos is re-elected (with George H. W. Bush as his Vice President) in a landslide victory in November, beating Democrats Walter Mondale and Geraldine Ferraro, carrying 49 states and 59% of the popular vote.

     Oh, and as an aside:  When you get an ROTC scholarship, you are basically sworn in as enlisted personnel.  Because I vacated my AFROTC scholarship, a Review Board convened.  It was decided that I wasn't vacating the scholarship for any reason other than it would be a waste of money to have me keep banging my head against a wall as an egineering student.  For my troubles, I received a package from the United States Air Force sometime in April.  Now, some fellow scholarship recipients were receiving orders to attend basic training at Lackland AFB, Texas.  I was slightly concerend until I opened the envelope.  I was granted an Honorable Discharge from the United States Air Force.  As an Airman Basic.  No orders.  One of my roommates at the time wasn't as lucky–his orders appeared a week after he got home in December, 1983.  He showed the Air Force, though–he went down and joined the Army before the Air Force caught up with him.  Many who knew this guy swore he joined the army only so he could get a good, up close look at an M1 Abrams tank so he could build a superdetailed model of one…

    I hope this finds all of you in good health.  Thanks for reading, and be good to one another.  I bid you Peace.

     

     

  • “The hobby is dead, Long Live the hobby!”

    I finally was able (once again) to get a weekend off, so the wife and I took a ride to Aiken, SC and Augusta, GA (part of the reason for the ride was to reconnoiter a possible driving route for an upcoming event).  While in town, we stopped in at the HobbyTown USA in Augusta.  Dave has a large selection of kits, the largest selection I've seen since I left South Florida.  So, I wasn't really surprised to see that he had several new kits as well a a whole mess of reissues in stock.  Some random thoughts follow…

    I like what Round Two Models is doing.  In case you haven't noticed, they acquired the rights to several manufacturers' catalogs from years gone by, including AMT, MPC, and Polar Lights.  Dave had the reissue of AMT's 1/25 scale 1976 AMC Gremlin X in their "Original Art Series".  You get the same AMT plastic from years gone by, and they also include an 11" X 14" print of the artwork less any other copy–no logo, no other text, just the artwork.  I just had to pick the kit up, since this is just the type of kit I grew up building.  The plastic parts are quite nice–no flash, very nice, very clean.  It looks like it will be a fun build, too.  The other things about this kit that caught my eye was that Round Two encloses a small fold-out catalog of their products as well as a postcard that asks the buyer "What do you want to see from Round Two Models?"  It warms my heart to see a company is once again willing to listen to their customer base.  The other Round Two products that caught my eye were a Limited Edition of the 1/16 scale Dodge Charger in the guise of a "Street Charger"–rumor has it that the NASCAR version (the Petty Charger) will be released shortly.  Also, their 1/25 scale Big Rig collection has been joined by the reissue of the Diamond Reo.  Very nice…

    The other kit that caught my eye at HobbyTown USA was the new Revell 1/48 scale PV-1 Ventura.  Twenty years ago, I would have been all over this kit like a fat kid on a box of Krispy Kremes–I lived for 1/48 scale WWII aircraft, and the Ventura was one I would have loved to build back in the day.  Since then, I have switched scales to 1/72 for multi-engined subjects, but the Revell kit still interests me by the fact that is is a new release from the re-re-reborn Revell.  By all accounts, it is quite the kit.  I'm happy to see Revell back in the game.  I'm also happy to see Revell reissuing recent kits (if you call 10 year old kits "recent") like the 1/48 SB2C, P-47N, and the Prowler/Intruder series.  If that doesn't wake you up, have you seen some of the Renwal kits that Revell has been reissuing?  Sweet…

    Then there's Moebius Models.  If you haven't seen them in stores yet, their 1/25 scale kits of the 1952/1953 Husdon Hornet are out, and they are very nice, indeed.  My wife preordered the Tim Flock 1952 NASCAR version of the kit, and I am impressed.  Build reports from the Internet are saying wonderful things about this kit and its 1953 street version brother.  Next up from Moebius is a 1955 Chrysler 300, and I can't wait to see it.

    Even better?  All of them are offering some sort of newsletter or modeler's club.  Nice, right?

    I think what we're seeing here is a return of hobbyists having a say in how model companies are run.  Back in the days of Lew and Royle Glaser (Revell), Jack Besser and Bob Reder (Monogram), Joe Giammarino and Abe Shikes (Aurora), to name but a few, the model companies were run by modelers and hobbyists.  There was a sense of business behind them–after all, if the company made no money, they were out of business–but the driving force was the hobby.  These folks were hobbyists themselves, and they knew what they wanted to see.  They'd research a subject, and if they thought it would sell, they'd design, tool, and produce the product. 

    A lot changed, and not for the good, when Nabisco bought Aurora and Mattell acquired Monogram.  The hobby people were either out for good or shunted to the side while the businessmen made the product decisions.  Now, granted, not every hobbyist running a company had the Golden Touch–when Royle Glaser began running her late husband's company, she did some trimming, since Revell had a huge catalog, but was never very stable financially.  But in the end, Revell, too, was sold to a business group.  With the departure of the hobbyists, these companies did continue to thrive for a while.  But things weren't as rosy, I guess, as they appeared.  Monogram merged with Revell.  They were bought and sold several times.  The Monogram name has all but gone away for new kits.  The last new aircraft kit from Revell (not Revell-Germany!) that comes to mind was the 1/48 scale F/A-18E and F kits from around 2005.  The names MPC and AMT all but disappeared when Racing Champions acquired the company in the late 1990's.  Nabisco liquidated Aurora in 1977.  Hawk Models went away, many of their kits reappeared in Testor's boxes. 

    Recently, though, things have been looking up.  J.Lloyd International has the Lindberg, Hawk, Weird-Ohs, Frantics, and Silly Surfers lines in their catalog.  Round Two, as we've discussed, has AMT, MPC, and Polar Lights under thier banner, and they have been busy reissuing kits from years past.  Moebius is going quite well with their Sci-Fi, vehicle, and various comic book and movie character kits.  With the Revell release of the Ventura, one can only hope they are on the road to many more new releases and reissues of their kits from back in the day.

    Add to all this the recent releases and reissues from Dragon/DML/Cyber-Hobby, Hasegawa, Trumpeter/HobbyBoss, and Tamiya, several new issues from Italeri along with their extensive back catalog, the availability of Fujimi kits once again in the United States, Academy's releases and reissues, Roden's ever-expanding line of kits from WWI crates to airliners to, well, whatever strikes their fancy…and that's just airplanes, folks.  We haven't begun to discuss autos in depth, let alone armor and ships.

    If there is any modeler out there who can't see that we are living in another Golden Age of modeling, they haven't been looking very hard.  I, for one, am being reenergized…

    On another note, I'll be once again heading out to our comany's Dallas facility for a week.  I hope to have more time to see the area than I did last November.  No rest for the weary…

    Thanks for reading.  Be good to one another, and I bid you Peace.

  • The late, lamented Orange Blossom Hobbies

    We finally have an empty hangar again.  While not necessarily a great thing–no airplanes in the hangar means no work, which means no income for the time being–it does give us some time to catch our collective breath and reset the place for the next job.  In the meantime…

    One of the hobby shops I used to frequent–although not to the extent that other modelers I knew did–was Orange Blossom Hobbies in Miami.  Just getting there could be an adventure, as the shop was located in a not-so-great neighborhood on NW 36th Street.  Let's just say that when there is a Security guard and a walled-in parking lot with a gate, you need to be heads-up at all times.  Carrying a firearm–legally, of course–didn't exactly hurt.  Once you made your way through the 'hood and parked in the semi-secure lot, though, you were in for a treat.

    OB was located in an old bowling alley.  Right next door was their wholesale operation, Pan American Distributors.  As you walked in to the place, you immediately noticed the layout.  The ceiling had staggered tiles, the floor was skinny strips of harwood complete with the lane diamonds.  No matter, though–the place was usually packed with merchandise.  The first thing you noticed at the entrance was the RC counter directly ahead of you–it was usually three deep with people looking to buy that latest RC truck, car, or airplane.  It was the center anchor of the store, so to speak, since it really did occupy the center of the store (as well as one wall).  Off to the left, though, was plastic treasure…

    From the first visit I made to the store to the last, one thing remained constant–the guy behind the counter.  Pat Parnther was always there, always working, and always had some story or joke to tell.  His favorite quips were, "That's life in the tropics!" and "Happiness is a winning lottery ticket!"  I don't think I ever went in there when Pat wasn't selling the latest stuff to come out of the hobby industry.  You'd spend a few minutes with Pat, then check out the shelves.  The shelves…well, they were packed.  If you couldn't find it on the shelf at Orange Blossom, they either just sold what you wanted or it hasn't been made.  You could (and I'm speaking from experience, here) spend a day just hunting among the boxes on the shelves.  But wait, there's Pat, telling another joke…

    Another fun feature of the shop was the row of cabinets behind the counter.  After a visit or two, you'd get to know Pat–and then, he'd say, "Go back there and look–I don't even know what's there."  And he was usually as surprised as you were when you pulled some oddity from one of the drawers.  He had decals–stacks of decals–from anyone and everyone who ever made decals.  When airliner models had their heyday in the mid- to late-1990's, Pat would have multiples of not only kits, but the decals that went with them.  Aeromaster was pretty much the house brand, too, so there were plenty of Gaston and Company's latest and greatest.  If it was made in the form of a decal, resin update, white metal update, conversion, or limited run kit, it was there.  I'll never forget the day we found a stash of ATP's 1/144 scale Metroliners in one of the drawers…

    Along with the accessories, there were resin kits.  At one point, Pat had several of the Blue Water Navy kits in multiples.  If you were even remotely interested, Pat would go get one and let you fondle it.  After a while, he's sweeten the deal a bit.  And, before I knew it, I had quite the collection of them.  But that's the way the store worked–you'd take your stack of soon-to-be attic insulation and plop it on the counter.  Pat would pull out a calculator and total it all up, then say, "Ahhh, give me ____ bucks."  With that, you handed over the coin of the realm and concluded the deal.  But there was more to see…

    Up front, on the side of the store that butted up to NW 36th Street, was where the entrance to the old bowling alley was.  The restrooms were up there, as were the display cases.  After spending hours searching the shelves, you could spend even more time looking at the models in the case.  Some of it was done using the Aeromaster products as sort of a sales aid, but most of it was from the local club guys and the regular customers–much the same, dare I say, as many hobby shop display cases the world over.  I still remember some of those models, and I still remember talking with the guys who built them.  One time, there was a model in the nicest bare metal finish I had ever seen–and was then told that the finish was Aerogloss Silver dope.  I never did get around to trying that on one of my models, but it certainly looked the part.  Gaston was one of the proponents of using dope–it went on smooth and dried hard.  Trouble was, you had to be careful in your prep or the dope could craze the plastic.  I was still using Floquil's silvers at the time and figured they worked well enough for what I wanted.

    My last visit to Orange Blossom was about ten years ago–I was about a month away from moving out of South Florida, and I wanted to hang out with the gang one last time, since I didn't know when I'd be back.  Stories had begun to circulate, too, that they were in financial trouble and may be closing.  I went by, picked up some stuff I had noticed during one of the foraging sessions in the cabinets, and spent a while talking with Pat.  He was not happy, since it was becoming more and more apparent that he'd soon be out of a job…

    The end came sometime that October or November.  The next trip we made to South Florida was in December of 2001, and during that trip we stopped at another haunt, Pearl Art and Craft.  There, on a table out front, was a pile of model kits.  There was no mistaking where they came from, for prominently printed on the original price tage were the words "ORANGE BLOSSOM HOBBIES" and under that, "Miami, Florida."  The kits were being sold at closeout prices.  We had been informed of Ornage Blossom's demise some week earlier, but here was visual confirmation of the same.

    My wife and I often think about the treasure trove of out of print decals and other goofy things in that row of cabinets.  We often wonder what became of them.  And when we do, we look back to the day when you could go into the store, spend a few hours uncovering some long-forgotten kit, or decal sheet, and then hear those magic words:  "Ahhh, give me fifty bucks…"

    Those were the days, when hobby shops were made of bricks and mortar and run by hobbyists.  That's becoming a rarity these days.  And that's a shame.  It is one reason that I will visit the local hobby shops, no matter where my travels take me.  There's something about finding one of those shops where they have stashes of oddities, stacks of old kits, and a guy behind the counter who knows models.  When you find one, you don't forget–and you want to go back to that shop as often as you can.

    Thanks for reading.  Be good to one another, and I bid you Peace.

     

     

     

  • Modeling Philosophy

    I can't speak for anyone else when it comes to the what/why/when/how they build, and I won't try to.  I won't presume to tell anyone else how to build their models, or why they should.  I will tell anyone who listens that they can do whatever they put their mind to–an answer to the proclamation,"I could never do that!"  Yes, you can.  It isn't difficult to do–back in the day, we experimented with techniques, products, and materials until we happened upon something that worked.  Later on, as clubs gained in popularity, you could ask the other members.  Now, with the Interwebs, you can post the same question to a few dozen forums and get hundreds–if not thousands–of answers within an hour.

    As for me, I fall into several of the loose groups of "categories" that modelers tend to get dumped into these days.  Most of the time, I'm a casual builder, building models largely out of the box to suit one person–me.  Usually, the model is anticlimactic–as Deep Purple said it in "Knockin' At Your Back Door", "It's not the kill / It's the thrill of the chase."  The meat of the project is the research for almost all of my projects.  Sometimes, the research will be brief, but I will find something that interests me–unusual paint scheme, interesting history–and take it from there.  Sure, there are the times when I'll pick up a kit and have at it.  Even then, though, I do manage to do a quick bit of research on the subject.  

    From time to time, I'll get involved in a project that requires more research than others–and these projects usually involve a limited-run kit.  Some of the earlier efforts lacked details and the only way you could discover them was to look at photos.  Some examples include Special Hobby's 1/48 Ju-87A kit where you were instructed to add some details in the cockpit.  The instructions weren't clear on what and where, so I had to source some photos to help in the additions.  Digging for the information was a bit of a challenge, since it wasn't exactly thick on the ground.  I haven't done a web search, but I'll bet there is more information floating around cyberspace now than there was ten years ago.

    Another project that I'm in the middle of that has required more research than I usually put into a project is Special Hobby's 1/48 Macchi C.200 kit.  While it is better out of the box than their Stuka was (the benefit of four or five years experience on their part), there are still areas that come up a bit short.  The details are better, for sure, but I didn't like their method of attaching the main gear struts.  There was a shallow dimple in the upper wing and a small pimple on the top of the struts, which in this kit were a bit on the oval side.  Even if they managed to be round, I knew that the gear attachment wouldn't hold up for a minute.  So, I did what I thought would make a stronger landing gear system–and, in effect, rebuilt 99% of it as well as add missing details.  Some photos of the gear well:

    Here's the left side, unmodified–see the dimple?

    DSC_0156

     

    And the right side–notice the strut well liner (not quite complete) and gear trunnion with a moutning hole for the new strut made from scrap sprue

    DSC_0155

    You'll notice that the added detail isn't superdetailing by any stretch–it is merely adding bits and bobs until the end effect approaches what I see in photos of the 1:1.  I don't try to represent every hose, harness, line, fitting, and connector–but I have great respect for those modelers who do.  A friend said to me, "I could never do that.", to which I answered "Yes, you can.  All it took was some basic materials and time."  Sorry, I can't locate the strut photos right now, but they were rebuilt using aluminum tubing and paper that had been saturated with CA (aka Super Glue)–when the CA cures, you're left with a thin, flexible material similar to plastic.  The only parts of the struts I kept were the fork castings.  It took maybe an hour for each strut, and the wells took an hour each.  Nothing difficult about that–Chef Martin Yan used to sign off on his shows with his signature, "If Yan can cook, so can you."  Well, If I can do the detailing work, so can you.  I'm no modeling God…

    Back when I first started surfing the Web, I made the acquaintance of Al Supercynzski.  His signature was "Build what YOU like, the way YOU want to…and the critics will flame you every time!"  I can think of no wiser words when it comes to modeling.  Each one of us derives our own satisfaction, enjoyment, or compensation from the hobby in our own way.  Build your models to the best of your ability.  There's more than enough room for all of us.  Al's gone now, but his words live on…

    Thanks for reading.  Be good to one another, and I bid you Peace.

  • Collection(s), backlog, back burner, and SIDNA

    (This is another post from the Early Years of the Iron Modeler blog. 

    In the interceding years, I’ve sold kits at several SIDNA Sales, and I’ve bought new kits as subject that interest me are released.  It can be a vicious circle–a new, State-of-the-Art of a kit comes out, so you have to decide whether to keep the older kit or sell it and buy the new kit.  One of the models I have on the workbench that is close to completion is one such kit–the Eduard 1/48th scale P-39Q.  I have one of the new Arma kits, too, but the Eduard kit is still viable.  Given the fettling you’ll need to do with the Arma kit, the Eduard kit is no more difficult to build…

    As for the backlog I discussed back then, only three of them never were finished.  The Monogram F-106 was deemed fit for the spares box when I inventoried the box and realized that, over four moves, some parts had gone missing, and I determined it easier to start over.  The Minicraft C-32 made the trip to the plastic boneyard once the Zvesda kit was released–it is a quantum leap over the Minicraft effort.  The only one never finished that’s still in work is the Neil Armstrong figure…)

    I’ve already told you a little bit about the stash I’ve assembled over the years. By some standards, it is large, by some it is paltry, but all the kits were acquired because I intended to build them. I still do, as a matter of fact, but…

    My current inventory count is somewhere in the high 1,800’s. Why so many? Well, the first reason is access—having worked in hobby shops, the kits are readily available and carry an employee discount. That would explain the half-dozen copies of Classic Airframes’ P-6E kit to go with the four of their F4B-3 (the plan was to kitbash a few of them to get an F4B-4). It also explains why I have every variant of the F-111 in 1/72 scale, and how I managed to get a bunch of the Hasegawa 1/200 scale “Purple Box” L-1011 TriStar kits and decals to go with them.

    But I digress. I do have collections mapped out for all those kits. To wit:

    1/48 scale World War Two aircraft. This was my original collection, and much of the stash fits this description. At the beginning, everything was 1/48 scale—fighters, trainers, bombers—but these days I limit it to fighters and twins in 1/48 scale, all the four-engine heavies are now in 1/72 scale. To be honest, even the twin bombers are in 1/72 scale, but they’re repeated in 1/48. One of these days, I’ll decide which scale to stick to for the larger subjects…

    1/72 scale modern aircraft. I branched into jets after building Monogram’s then-new F-105G kit while in my sophomore year of college—I’m a Thud fan, and the kit was then and still is a very good kit. I donated that model to the AFROTC Detachment there at the school, and a year or so later decided I wanted an F-111. Well, back in those days, the only ‘Vark kit in 1/48 scale was the Monogram revision of the Aurora kit—it ain’t much to look at. The more I started to look critically at the kit, the more I was convinced that I could never get it to meet my standards (which were then and still are fairly lax—if I can compare the model to a photo and see discrepancies, I’ll either fix them, ignore them, or simply don’t build the kit.) and I gave it to a friend who thought it was the best think since bottled beer. I went to the local hobby shop and found Monogram’s 1/72 F-105G and built it. Basically, it was a smaller version of the kit I built the year (or so) before. I decided that a 1/48 scale Thud was the same size as a 1/48 scale B-25, and I had already started to downsize that group, so I stuck to 1/72 for the jets as well. A few years ago, I realized that there was no way that I would ever build one-let alone two—1/72 scale Convair B-36 Peacemakers. Hobbycraft had just released their 1/144 scale kits, so I decided that modern bombers would be done in 1/144 scale, so that became a collection-within-the collection…

    1/35 scale armor. After college, I caught the armor bug. It came on slowly—a Sherman here, a Panther there—and before I could say “General Patton”, I had a whole bunch of armor kits. When we moved, I culled the stuff I was sure that I’d never build—mostly German WWII—and sold it off in favor of the modern tanks, multi-wheeled armored cars, and anything from the Middle East wars. I’ve been pretty good at keeping within the framework, although I’ve added WWII Mediterranean Theater equipment to the list—which has had the consequence that I’ve replaced a lot of the kits I sold off. Never fails…

    1/350 scale ships. Ship fever has always been with me, since I built Revell’s Arizona kits—1/720 and 1/426 scale—multiple times. I’ve settled on U.S. Navy and selected others in 1/350 scale. I dallied with 1/700 scale (and still have some aircraft carrier kits in the smaller scale) and 1/400 scale, but I’ve decided that I can get most of what I want in 1/350 scale without a lot of hassle, and wait on the rest. If nobody does an injection molded kit, there’s always resin.

    1/144 and 1/200 scale airliners. I’ve always had a soft spot for Air Florida and Braniff, and those two carriers form the basis of my airliner collection. I also have been known to toss in some Southern Airways, Delta, Eastern, and European carriers into the mix, too. Narrow-bodies get done in 1/144 scale, wide-bodies in 1/200…

    1/24 and 1/25 scale automobiles. I started out collecting MOPAR musclecars (Road Runners, ‘Cudas, and the like) and NASCAR Stock Cars. Well, the sheer numbers of subjects I want to do has meant a pretty large collection…

    100mm and 120mm Military Miniatures. I’ve been ignoring this group for far too long—I started collecting figures when Michael Roberts was producing his superb 100mm figures from the American Civil War. It has been a few years since I painted a figure, I should probably get back to work on one soon…

    Also, each collection has some collections-within-the-collection. I have a 1/72 scale USCG collection, a 1/48 scale Century Series collection, a 1/48 scale Florida Air National Guard collection, and the beginnings of a 1/48 scale South Carolina Air National Guard collection. I’ve already mentioned the IDF and WWII Italian and Braniff and Air Florida collections as well.  Sometimes, they can be pretty straightforward, other times, they can get convoluted a bit…

    Having all those models in the stash can be troublesome. Moving them all is a hassle—and I’ve done it eight times! They take up a lot of space, for sure. They add temptation to stray from a current project–or, on the flip side, they get forgotten.  And, even if I were to finish one model a week for the rest of my natural lifetime without buying anything new, I’d wager I still wouldn’t finish what I have. The answer? SIDNA…

    SIDNA—Shit I Don’t Need Anymore—is exactly as the name implies. Every now and then, I’ll do what a friend calls a Fleet Rationalization Plan where I go through the stash and cull those kits that have either been superseded by better ones or subjects that I’m fairly sure that I’ll not build anytime soon. They get sold off at shows, via the Interwebs, or at kit auctions. I’m about due again…

    And even after I cull the dead inventory, I still have a backlog of kits in work. Right now:

    1/72 scale FineMolds Ki-100b, started by a friend. He gave it to me several years back, all it needs is a tailwheel (the original got lost) and paint. Not my usual scale for single-engine WWII fighters, but this is a nice little kit—or so it appears. I’m looking forward to getting it finished.

    1/48 Revell (Monogram) A-10A. This is one of those “For Someone Other Than Me” kits, and it is shaping up nicely.

    1/700 USS Independence, being converted to USS Cowpens. This is one of those rare small-scale ships I have in the collection, and is currently more of a back burner kit than anything else, especially since Dragon released their 1/350 scale kit a few months ago!

    1/35 Sturmgescheutz IV. This is one I’m doing as part of a group build with the local AMPS Chapter, and I’m woefully behind…

    1/48 Special Hobby Aermacchi C.200. No progress lately, and there really needs to be some soon. I have to get this one finished and in the books. There’s a review that needs to be done…five or six years later (don’t be alarmed–the in-box look was done in a timely fashion).

    And, on the back-burner, I have:

    1/48 scale Monogram F-106A. If there ever was a back-burner project, this is it. I started this one in 1995. I decided to re-scribe the panel lines. What was I thinking….

    1/24 Monogram 1995 Dale Earnhardt Silver Monte Carlo SS Stock Car. This is another kit I started years ago (1995), I finally unearthed it during the latest inventory effort. And now I find out that there might be a new set of decals for the same scheme coming out—this one might wait a little longer.

    Reheat 120mm Space Shuttle/SR-71/U-2/ER-1 pilot. He’s painted for the most part, I just need to do some of the detail painting. You’d think I’d sit down for a few hours and do it….

    120mm Reheat Neil Armstrong on the moon. Someday, I’ll finish this one. The basic figure is built and primed…has been since about 1999!

     1/144 scale Minicraft C-32/Boeing 757 with Ethiopian Airlines decals. Another review sample (the review was done ages ago—1998 or thereabouts), the decals were produced by a company that’s been out of business for at least five years. If the kit itself weren’t so horrible…

    I promise, I’ll make the time–once the days stretch to thirty hours long….

    Thanks for reading.  Be good to one another, and I bid you Peace.