My latest build, an excellent 96 Nissan 300Z. I fitted it with the wheels left over from the 2024 Nissan Z wide-body project (which IS orange) they fit the look and style of the older car surprisingly well. Other than a stormtrooper paint scheme and the aforementioned wheels this was an out of box build for me. I have been exceptionally busy since mid-July and haven’t been modeling much at all. Looking forward to the ORANGE festival (uhhh PennCon)

-Ross

I know it isnt model related but my wife and I headed up to MD for the airshow yesterday. Since it was just the two of us I went ahead and bought tickets for a better spot.  I’m glad I did because we ended up with one of the best viewing angles on the beach.

The Frecce Tricolori headlined and they did put on a good show. Not quite on par with the US or UK teams, but it was still really impressive to see maneuvers with 10 aircraft.  And it was very colorful too.

The highlight for me, as at most shows, was the F-18 and F-22 demo teams.  Both are incredible aircraft to watch.  The F-22 also deployed flares this time, which was new for me and pretty cool to see.

The A-10 team was a bit disappointing, unfortunately.  Seeing 3 together was cool but they didn’t do any of the more impressive maneuvers I saw the single aircraft perform at the last show.  They also stayed farther from the crowd and most of their stuff happened to the right of the crowd, and they clearly had no idea where show-center was.

We hung out on the beach for a while after the show and had some pizza.  As we were leaving I met some of the Tricolori support crew which was pretty cool. Just happened to be at the right spot at the right time.

I don’t have the photography skills that some of our club members have and my camera is terribly old at this point, but I got some photos I’m pretty happy with.  Everything on this post is straight out of the camera with some cropping.  Once I find time to sit down and edit some I’ll throw together another album for anyone interested.  There’s a couple terrible videos I need to splice together as well.  For now here are a few more photos from the show:

– Chad

Finished up this 69 Yenko Nova. Gonna add this to my carrier setup. Nice kit. Went together very well and parts fit without issue. Fun little build.

Jeff

Maybe it is just me, but the B-1 bomber just has to be one of the most graceful looking warbirds ever made.  This B-1 is at the line at Nellis AFB for Red Flag.  I have a 1/144 B-1 but it will be awhile till I can get to it.  FYI all, my 1/144 SOC-1 just fell apart.  Chad, you have a good  buffer of time before I even get halfway competent at this small scale!
Thank heavens for FIGURES!!

– Chris

So I’m plugging away finishing the models I’m taking to PennCon and this is the latest. I can’t decide if I’ll do one or two more for the show in Orange. Kinda getting tired of the color. Anyway, here’s a 1970 Mach 1 done in the proper Grabber Orange. Thanks to Dan at the hobby shop for the paint. The hood decals are a pain to get to lay flat. I think next time I’ll just paint the stripes and transfer just the number for the engine size.

Jeff

Hi gents. Worked on a bust figure of me before I get my morning coffee.  Randy won this in a raffle at Nats (funny, I don’t remember posing for the bust but the maker, Blackheart Models, sure captured my likeness!).   Coffee is the great elixir right??!!

-Chris

Here is my last minute build for the Roanoke show. It’s the 2n1 1964 Fairlane Thunderbolt setup as the street version, which was a true sleeper. Putting this in the Thunderbolt Shootout category. It’s an out of the box build, so here goes. One blasted glue spot on the windshield and the side windows are gonna cost me, but nothing I can do about it.

-Jeff

Hey folks wanted to share this 1:1 scale project.  It took about 2 months.  I took what was on this room down to the walls and floors.  I then rebuilt all the wall (grey) wall pieces out of mdf board; all the baseboards and crown work put of mdf boards.  The cabinets were custom made by a vendor I have used from Connecticut.  The navy wall art came from Etsy.   The window treatment was custom made from another Etsy vendor and I hung them up Sunday and Monday.  Just a few more finish ups and done! 

-Chris

I have enjoyed box build models but there’s nothing like a creative kitbash! 

I used 2 kits, AMT/Ertl International 4300 tractor, and an AMT Peterbilt 359 Big stick wrecker. I stretched the Intertional chasis 2.25 inches to accommodate the wrecker bed from the Peterbilt kit. There were no decals that would fit the build. I masked off the hood, cab, sleeper, and wrecker bed and airbrushed the blue stripes. Perhaps my best paint job to date.

Enjoy!

– Scott

Mark your calendars, boys!  I finished a kit!  This is the fantastic A5M by Sweet.  It took me just over 2 months to assemble the 25 or so pieces and get it all finished.

The base is a piece of wood from Hobby Lobby with a pre-made tree by a company called Ashland.  All I did was paint over the wood so it looked less like plastic.  The back side of the tree has a bare spot, but i couldnt really fix it so we’ll just pretend those branches fell out during a storm.  The grass is static grass applied with a barely functioning applicator, with larger tufts made by Army Painter.

For painting I used Krylon, Alclad, and Vallejo paints.  I applied some Tamiya panel line wash and almost ruined everything.  One of the side hinomaru were damaged during process and I had to touch it up with a brush.  Looks fine at arms length but up close you can definitely tell.

All in all this was an enjoyable build.  Sweet makes really nice kits and if I was more focused I could knock these things out in just a few days.  Looking forward to bringing this one to the next meeting and hopefully to Roanoke as well.

– Chad