Roanoke Show Wrap up

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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

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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

1:1 Scale

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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

Beacon Models Kickstarter – 1/144 Spitfire and Bf-109 Kits

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As you probably saw in my email earlier this week, Beacon Models out of the UK has set up a Kickstarter to fund a second round of Spitfire and Bf-109 kits. They met they’re funding goal in just 2 days, so it was a huge success.

Those who attended this month’s meeting were able to see the kits that were released in their first production run.  There were a few people interested so I went ahead and pledged support for the highest tier while they were still offering discounted pricing.  That package will give me 6 of each aircraft.  I want to keep 1 or two of each, but I’m happy to sell the extras to members at cost.  They are expecting to ship in November so I may have them in time for the Dec or January meeting.

If anyone is interested in buying for themselves or knows someone who may be interested, the link to their Kickstarter is below.  New model manufacturers don’t show up too often so if you’re interested in 1/144 models, please consider contributing.  They have big plans for the future, but it all depends on how well these first releases go.

View the Kickstarter here:  https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/beacon-models/the-few-part-2/

Saturday, August 3

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The 03 August meeting went very well.  Many thanks to Mark for his brief on Nationals and hobby industry news.  Congrats to Randy again for his two medals at Nats.

Chad’s Japanese aircraft vignette was outstanding and Ben’s robot war machine was very cool.  All the trucks were superbly built as well.

We are set to judge the car models at the Cuze-in in Charles Town WV 31 Aug.  Thanks to Jeff, Mark and Scott for volunteering.  Anyone interested in possibly doing commission builds that may come from the Cruze In?  Might be an excellent way to earn some funds for the club!

Welcome Jeff as a guest. We hope you decide to join us!

See several of you at Roanoke next week.  Happy building!

-Chris

Resin cab: Matlack Mack F700 tractor and trailer

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My first resin cab build is completed! This is the ultimate kitbash! I used an AMT Mack Cruiseliner chasis and drive train. All Mack top to bottom, thus the Gold Bulldog emblems.

The resin cab had to be hinged and attached to the chasis. Plastic hinge system wouldn’t work as the cab is quite heavy. I used coat hanger wire and a plastruct tube to create the hinge. It worked great!

I used Chad Kennedy’s 3-D printed 2 hole Bud wheels and fellow club member KJ Humphreys custom made tires! They look so authentic! Thanks guys!

The trailer is an AMT Gulf fuel tanker. Matlack truck lines were known as the pipeline on wheels.
Decals are custom made by Modeltruckin.com / Jerry Reeter.

Note: Modeltruckin.com will take their last order on August 31, 2024. Noone knows if the big rig decal company will be purchased by someone else. Buy em now before it’s too late.

– Scott

Kitbash International 4300 Big Stick Wrecker

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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

1/144 A5M Claude by Sweet

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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

Pitch Black

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Hey gents, This photo on CyberMidels.com was posted today and it is a fantastic one and I wanted to share it with you all.  The photo was taken at Exercise Pitch Black (cool name) which is taking place in Australia and is a multinational armed forces exercise.  In fact, for the first time ever, the Italian aircraft carrier deployed to the Indo Pacific Oceans to participate in the exercise and Italian F-35’s flew there supported by Italian AF tankers.  Anyway, enjoy the great photo.

– Chris

Nationals

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Gents.  I am so pleased and proud to report that Randy won at Nationals!  He took a 2nd place for his striking Stryker and a 3rd for his zippy Schnellboot.   Please pass a well earned hip hip hooray to Randy for this impressive win at Nationals.   Shenandoah Valley Modelers rule!!

-Chris