Good day gents; the July meeting was well attended.  There were lots of models on display.  Hats off to Tom Lacy for his nice Fw-190 and M-60.  Andre’s B-52 with those gorgeous SAC markings was quite nice as well.  Good job guys!  Thanks to Tom S for his how-to on bending acrylic.  I was a bit nervous when he whipped out that torch!  I was plotting my run to the door!   Scott’s resin build truck was outstanding and KJ’s cad designed engine was impressive. Jeff’s orange vehicles looked real good and will be a strong contender at PennCon.  If you were not impressed by John’s tow truck then you need glasses more than I do!

Mark and Randy are off to nationals.  Best of luck you two and we look forward to getting a readout of your time there.  Welcome back to the States for Marcin.  I enjoyed his proud-filled briefing of his family’s visit to his home country and great NATO member Poland!

Remember, the next meeting in August is on the 3rd instead of the 10th due to the Roanoke show.  I would like to task us all to bring in a member!  Scott already did so he can take a rest on this one, but having a membership in the 30-35 range would be ideal.  That’s just 4 to 9 folks.  Bring your shy model building buddy in and get him (or her?) signed up!

There’s a lot of talent in our chapter and it was good to hear Jeff talk about working with Scott to improve his already good skills.  Like in baseball, you cannot get to homeplate if you don’t swing and try!

Cheers and everyone stay cool in this wicked heat,,,whew

– Chris

An update on my Tamiya 1/24 Mercedes CLK GTR Build. I was able to get a bit of work done on this project. I had a bit of a setback when one of the Cabinets over my workbench fell onto it before rolling off and getting trapped between my chair and support pole. Took a few weeks to clean up the mess, put up a replacement cabinet,  get my “mojo” back,  and to sit  & work again.

Chassis is mostly finished. I need 2 more tire stems, as I ran out. They will arrive while I am in Wisconsin (They come from a land “Down Under”). Body has been painted and polished. I am also out of Mr Leveling Thinner, so I only had enough to clear the front half. The grill screen is for the lower intake. I used a stencil to paint the lettering.  Tires markings are from the kit. Surprisingly still worked. Tamiya Tire Decals are Hit and Miss. The Tire Stencils I have were too large for the front tires and just not made correctly to use in any case. They barely covered the tire, so this was my only option. Next update will be on the decals on the body. Hopefully before it snows.

– Mark

Latest project destined for PennCon.

So this wasn’t even on my radar for Carlisle. Went to Hobby lobby to get some paint and saw it was 40% off. Well hell, let’s see what we got. Picked this truck & trailer up and thought, I could make this work. I already had my orange Thunderbolt race car and thought this would make a nice little setup.

So I dove in with both feet. Trailer was relatively simple. Added some spare tires that match what’s on the car and chained them to the tire rack. The truck had several options and lots of extra parts. The kit came with either a flathead V8 or a Desoto Fire Ball hemi. Not happy with the engine options, I added my own. I found a 390FE that I didn’t have a home for. Took a little massaging to get it in, but it’s in there.

All of the extra detail bits in the bed we kindly supplied by Scott. I think it really adds to the realism of what the weekend warrior needs to go to the track. I did some weathering, but asked for advice from the master. Learned a few techniques and applied them. Panel lines the cab, beat the bed up and added more to the ramps. I’m really happy with how this turned out.

Thanks again to Scott for the detail pieces and the critiques to make it better. Fingers crossed it does well at Carlisle.

Jeff

Hi gents. Here are some update photos of the Death Dealer’s horse.  About 4-5 different layers of color for the horse itself were applied.  Green Stuff gold range was used for saddle highlights and Ammo Mig steel was used for the neck ring.  Still a lot to go but pretty happy with the horse so far!

– Chris

Been busy getting ready for PennCon. Got the trailer done for my Bicentennial Patriot Pete. Went together mostly without too much fuss.

Taking a note from Ross, I finished 6 orange “classic” cars for my car carrier. A few rebuilders and few new builds.

Jeff

Many builders have a special kit they always wanted to get their hands on! I grew up with a love of over the road big rig trucks. I had a favorite truck, the Mack F700 cabover!

I recieved a resin cast Mack F700 1/25 scale cab with interior and exterior parts. I found which chasis would work with this cab. I found that the AMT Mack Cruiseliner is perfect fit for the build, and purchased one for this project.

The Mack F700 was a pure work truck with no chrome and fancy options. This truck will be a reproduction of a Matlack company of Pennsylvania.
Matlack always painted their rigs deep green  color. They painted tire rims light ivory.  I am using 2 hole Bud wheels made by Chad Kennedy.

The cab has no attachment to hinge it to the chasis to make it tilt to expose the engine. A scratch built hinge had to be created.

The cab has no windshield and I had to get creative coming up with a material for the windshield. I am using a photographic clear acetate for the windows. It is thin and flexible and should work well.
There will be updates progress shared as the build goes along. A tanker trailer will accompany the Matlack Mack.
Cheers 🍻

– Scott

Latest build completed. AMT 1/25 International 4300 tractor has been completed. It’s a nice kit with little flash on the parts. The assembly is quite precise as parts fit very well. There are 2 issues a builder of this kit should be aware of.

The front axle needs to be moved forward 1/4 inch. The front wheels then will then be centered under the fenders. The 2nd issue is the windshield. It does have the slight bend in the center and doesn’t fit flush in the cab. Easy fix! Just cut the windshield right in the center using a hobby saw.

I used Light Ivory white for the body base color. The decals are from the kit. The sleeper doors open and close on the drivers side, its a nice feature and the interior details can be seen unlike other Big Rig sleepers. The model build is box stock.

– Scott

Hey gents,

I took the comment of Ross’s about a car carrier for my Mack and ran with it. This is the Revell 6 car carrier painted to match my most recent Mack. The kits looks intimidating, but it goes together very well and without much fuss. The only part of the build that is a pain in the a$$ are the hydraulic lines. The lines have posts to attach them to the handles and the distribution blocks, but not the cylinders. Is I were to build an other, I would drill small holes and add a small piece of wire to glue the tubes to. All in all, u think it turned out well.

Jeff

More progress on the Model A. Turns out, getting a Buick Nailhead into an otherwise stock Model A is not for the faint of heart. The frame, fenders, floorboards and transmission ALL required major alteration to achieve the fit you see in these photos. The ride height and stance have also been “adjusted” to my liking. A process which also required extensive reworking of the axles, and mounting points to achieve.

Next up is paint. The plan is a metallic Washington Blue with gloss black on the fenders. The interior will be saddle brown. I’m deciding on the wheel color currently, but am leaning towards a light yellow color called “straw” with matching pin striping of the body.

Body and fenders in paint, body fit to chassis has been finalized. Trying out a pinstripe that matches the wheels, which I really like. Just haven’t decided on whether I need more pinstriping yet. Still have the interior paint work to get done, then it’s on to details and final assembly.

– Ross

Gents.  If you are wanting to jump into figures then you have to get good at doing the eyes.  You are in luck as Fine Scale Model magazine July/August 2024 issue has a very nice primer on doing eyes.  The article is relatively short and well written.  Doing eyes on a 54mm (1/35 ish) figure is quite hard due to the small size but on large figures and busts, you can do a lot of detail.  The eyes have it!

– Chris