After building Big Rig trucks and trailers, and large automotive dioramas I tried something new. 1/12 Harley I Custom Springer motorcycle made by IMEX.
Motorcycles are far different than a Big rig tractor. Most builds you can assemble parts then paint them. Not the case as there are abundant chrome parts that are part of the sub assembly. The larger scale did help ease the stress of tiny parts. The details of the kit are surprisingly awesome. It was fun to build with one exception. The decals were original and extremely old and took a 1/2 hour to release from the paper backing.
Overall it was a fun project and I will be building another Motorcycle kit.
If any of you guys were thinking of riding down to Frontline soon, you might want to consider a trip this weekend with a stop off at Shenandoah Valley Airport. The Capital Wing of the CAF will be there taking folks for rides in a few of their aircraft, but there will also be a Fuji LM-1 on display.
The LM-1 is a very rare creature and with its relation to the T-34 Mentor, I will definitely be going to check it out. There are some more details on the SHD Facebook page for anyone interested.
Feeling pretty good after the NOVA show and it inspired me to work on one of my shelf queens. This is the AFV Club F4U Corsair in 1/144, one of my favorite kits and one of my favorite aircraft. The kit comes with 2 planes and I built one probably 2 years ago. This one I built and painted the first 2 colors over a year ago, then added the dark blue a couple months later, but parked it when I neared the finish line. I just couldn’t bring myself to finish it for some reason.
I added a clear coat Saturday night and finished adding the decals Sunday evening. Snapped a photo while the MicroSol was doing its thing. Next I need to paint and attach the landing gear and weapons, etc, then touch up some of the green areas before a final satin or matte top coat. Not planning to weather this one at all so it’s going to wrap up quickly and join my other carrier aircraft.
Club members, let’s all give a hip hip hooray for our NOVA winners. The NOVA show is a tough one, with lots of competition and by-the-book judging. That said, the Shenandoah Valley Modelers came away with a solid performance at this popular show. We are a talent-force to be reckoned with as we have shown since forming in March 2023; when we show up to a show, we win each time! I am very proud of our competitors and how great our chapter is in helping newbies to the world of shows so they too can jump in the arena and walk away with bling. What I like most is that we do all this with camaraderie and laughter at our meetings – we love modeling but don’t take it so seriously that we can’t chuckle at each other and help each other. This is what is best in the hobby.
Join me in giving a shout out to our flag wavers, they were:
Scot, with a 2nd in commercial trucks and two 1sts in civilian diorama and humor
Marcin, with a 1st in 1/72 armor and a 2nd in all scale figures (fantasy)
Chad, with a 1st in 1/144 military aircraft and in 1/32 and smaller civilian cars, and a 3rd in 1/144 commercial aircraft
Mark, with a 2nd in 1/24 Cars & Trucks Street Stock, and a 3rd in 1/24 Cars-Racing
Jeff, with a 1st in commercial trucks and a 3rd in collections
Ben with two 2nds in out of the box sci fi and sci fi figures
MaxMedalMan, aka Randy, with a first in military diorama and 1/35 armor and a 3rd in 1/35 out of box armor and triathlon.
Ross with first place in 1/24 or larger racing vehicles.
It took me a long time to figure how to mount the dragon to the castle base but I (hope) I got it. I drilled a hole in the monster’s back right foot and inserted a mounted metal pin then matched that up with a spot on the castle to drill a matching hole. The pin was superglued in place and the front right foot got a little dab of super glue to prevent the dragon from “swinging on its anchor” (how’s that for nautical reference from a Navy guy!).
Hey gents. I have several figures in the que. One of them is Pegaso Models 200mm Knight Hospitaller bust that also includes the knight’s horse. The first picture is day 1 and the rest was done on day 2 of painting. I will finish the horse then do the knight. The base color of the horse was a blend of AK lacquer orange and earth red; highlights came from adding British sand yellow to the base. A coat of black was applied first to get shadow areas done. The reins/harness were done with acrylics.
Still not sure I’ll be able to stay for the entire show but I’m building as if I can. Trying to enter a handful of models, but still have some final details to finish on these two.
The first is a 1/144 Platz Beechcraft T-34 Mentor which I’ve converted into a Fuji T-7 of the JASDF. 3D printed parts, custom decals, etc. Just need to apply a final top coat, touch up some details, and attach the gear. Hoping to enter this in the Collections category along with 3 other T-34 kits and a Beech Bonanza. None are good enough to win I suspect, but they sure do look neat together.
The other is the 1/48 Lotus I started on a few weeks ago. In the same condition as the T-7. Needs a top coat, details touched up, and the suspension parts attached (hopefully the Molotow chrome is dry – more discussion on this disaster of a process in the future).
Shenandoah Valley Modelers 