The Raven-Hood

Gents, just wanted to take a moment to speak to our “Raven-Hood”.  It is such a positive thing to see almost 30 guys who did not know each other (most of us) before we started the Shenandoah Valley Modelers reach out and help one another.  Just this week, John offered to take some entries for me to the National Capital Model Soldier’s Society event on September 7.  John passed to me a whole lot of pricey stuff he gave to Scott for free when we met on Monday.   Chad has made 3D items for several of us who asked him for only a cup of coffee in return.  Mark served as a head judge and represented all of us at the Charles Town Cruze-In car model contest.

I know there are many other instances of members of our club helping one another – perhaps a lot were “quiet” and done between two or three members with no fanfare.  All of these instances speak to the rapport and camaraderie between us sprue-dudes.  Go Raven-Hood!

– Chris

GT500 Eleanor

So I got this transmit from Texas 3d customs a while got.  It takes the AMT 67 Shelby GT350 and turns it into the GT500 Eleanor from the remake of Gone in 60 Seconds. The kit included a new nose piece, wheel flairs and rocker panels to transform the body. Also included the correct wheels and tires and the all important 428 Cobra Jet engine.  I detailed it with ignition wires and heater hoses. The clear messed up the decals, but otherwise a dune and challenging built.

Jeff

It’s Not Orange!

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

Ocean City Airshow 2024

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

B-1 Bomber

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

Another One in Orange

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

No Coffee

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

Roanoke Show Wrap up

Good day gents.  Several members attended the Roanoke Chapter of IPMS’s August 10 show at the Salem Civic Center.  Mark, Mike, Scott, Ben, Jeff, John, Chad and Mrs Chad, Randy, and myself were there.  Thanks to Tom’s kit donations and Mike’s reference book donations, Chad’s 3D sales, and John’s photography sales, we made $252 for the day.  Not a bad showing on that score and a great boost to our bank account!

Speaking of great boosts, we did pretty well.  Here is the bling breakout:
Chad:    One 2nd place and two 3rd place awards
Randy:  One 1st place and  one 3rd place awards
Jeff:       One 2nd place award
Chris:    One 1st place and two 3rd place awards
Scott:   One 1st place, one 3rd place and one Best of (Dioramas) award (WOW!!)
Ben:     One 1st place, one 2nd place,  one 3rd place and one Best of (Miscellaneous) award (WOW!!)

The contest also had a shootout tally; the club with the most points (from place awards) won and this year it was the Tidewater Chapter.  We did not make the leader board at all,,ugh.  We had no models in the 1/72 and above aircraft and only one ship.  The bulk of our entries were figure related or car/truck related.  That said, we do have aircraft builders!  We had no space ship entries, but we have space ship builders!  Support your club’s team effort by coming into the arena and compete as well as enhancing club camaraderie.

All of the members who participated in the show were very happy to have Mrs Chad sit with us at our booth and to add grace to our crowd.  We hope to see you and other wives and gal pals at future shows!! 

– Chris

Sleeper Fairlane

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