Swine!

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Hey gents. Working on a fun little project from
Danielle Found Miniatures.  These are the heads of the 3-figure vignette set.  I just took a swab at pig skin color mixing signal white, red, and desert tan.  For the noses, I added a few extra drops of red to get a slight pink and for the highlights I added more white.  For depth I added more desert tan. All three shades were airbrushed and were from the AK lacquer paint line.  The eyes and skin-crease lines were hand-painted with British khaki using a 10-0 brush from the AK acrylic 3G paint line

Now to their bodies.  It’s not what you think!  Stay tuned. Oink oink

-Chris

Saturday, February 1st

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Good day gents.  Sorry, no photos to share as I just forgot to take any at the February meeting.  The meeting went very well with Randy taking the lead on what judges look for in competitions with a good assist from Scott from the builders point of view.  The use of the room by the kitchen at the church is a much better venue as it gives more space.  Everyone welcome our new members Robert the Big and Robert the small (father;son duo) to the club.  Robert (the dad) was offering good conversation on car builds so we look forward to hearing him out on other occasions.  The models on display were quite good.  I especially liked Scott’s before and after versions of the same model truck – a neat display idea.  Scott’s idea is to place those two trucks on a nice display board with a simulated road way.  Should be another of Scott’s wins at a upcoming show.

Speaking of Randy, he brought the first diorama he ever made many moons ago.  When I asked him why he kept it all these years, he said he used it as a reminder of where he was skills-wise to where he is now (which is remarkable).  That was a neat story.  I thought it might be a good idea if others might want to share a good modeling story like that.

Speaking again of sharing, it is 2025. Everyone think of topics they would like to have presented during this year.  Ours is a teaching club so let’s continue to learn from each other by having presentations on this or that technique, this or that paint or paint method, this or that anything.

It came out in the meeting I am running for IPMS/USA Secretary.  The election is sometime in 2025 and one other person is running for the office.  Voting is done by IPMS/USA members so when that comes out I would appreciate your vote and your getting the word out to friends in other clubs near and far.  It would be a great thing for propel the Raven-hood forward.

Best
Chris

Saturday, January 18th

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Happy Monday, everyone. The January meeting went really well despite being delayed a week due to bad weather.  We had a few folks return after long absences and even had a few new faces! I believe there were 21 people in attendance.

The main focus of this month’s meeting was an airbrush demonstration by Dave Monet, the instructor that Tom has been taking classes with.  He was generous enough to come down from Hagerstown and give an introductory lesson for us at no cost and was able to answer some questions folks had.  He also gave a few of us a chance to try using an airbrush for the first time.

Dave said he’s more than happy to come down again in the future.  If enough people show interest in having him come back then perhaps we can make a list of things we’d like to see covered and let him tailor a more specific session for us.

As a reminder, make sure you’ve updated your calendars to show our new meeting schedule.  We’ve switched to the first Saturday of every month which means our next meeting is just 2 weeks away!  No big demonstration is planned so be sure to bring in anything you’ve been working on or want to talk about.

For those of you who didn’t pay your dues at the January meeting, please remember dues are….due… between now and the March meeting.  See you guys in February!

-Chad

Fighting Fires with the Thunderbolt

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With the fires in California being all over the news lately, it reminded me of an article I had seen in a magazine about P-47s being used to fight wildfires. I’m sure by now we’re all familiar with the large tankers and specifically-designed aircraft that are currently used to drop water and suppressants on fires, but it’s probably not as well known that aircraft like the P-47 were used with converted napalm tanks.

Anyway, not entirely model-related but maybe it’ll inspire someone to make a US Forest Service P-47 at some point…

Click the image below to read the entire article.

-Chad

D.A.M.N. Ferrari Group Build

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Last summer I received a gift in the mail from one of my D.A.M.N.* friends. It was a 1/43 Ferrari 121 BBR kit. A very expensive and gorgeous kit. A few days later, I get an e-mail from my D.A.M.N. friend asking if I had gotten a box with the kit in it. Shortly thereafter, another of my D.A.M.N. friends told me he got one of these kits. Once all of my D.A.M.N friends got their kits we were told he was never going to build all of the Ferrari 121s kits he has but wanted to see them finished. All of these D.A.M.N. guys are award winning 1/43 builders, so what a better way to get them built than a building challenge. They are all due by the 2025 Old Dominion Open. So far, two have been finished, the the last two are almost done. One of the D.A.M.N. guys passed away, so we are now 1 short of a club entry, sadly. Still, these are amazing kits and we will love to see the expression on some of the guys to see not 1 but at least 4 of the beauties on the table at the same time.

The Ferrari 121 was their Sports Car /LeMans entry in the mid-1950’s. Contemporary of the C & D-Type Jaguars and Mercedes 300SLR. Fastest of the 3, but the Jag had better Tech and Mercedes had better drivers.

I still need to add the final details: Windshields, Racing, Brake, and Marker lights, various straps and lock pins, and other details. I polished the paint with Tamiya Polishing compounds using my Proxxon and cloth buffing wheels. Panel lines with Tamiya Black wash. The completed model will be revealed at the O.D.O. along with the other 3.

Mark Tutton
Starfighter Decals/Marks Models & Toys
starfighter-decals.com

*D.A.M.N.= Distinguished and Accomplished Modelers of Note

-Mark

GMC Astro 95 with triple axle gravel trailer

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My latest model builds. Special thanks to Chris King for picking up the MPC triple axle gravel trailer kit for me. I thought a cabover tractor would be cool to build for the trailer. You don’t see many cabover tractors hauling stone and gravel. Definitely old school idea.

The trailer is box stock. The chrome spider wheels were painted as there are never chrome spider wheels on trucks. I decided to paint the dump bed and Metallic deep blue, something different than the silver beds everyone does. I used shaved Styrofoam roughed up and airbrushed semi-gloss black for the load of coal in the trailer. Looks quite realistic.

The AMT GMC Astro 95 is a good kit and it goes together quite well. I changed the wheels from spider wheels to 2 hole Bud wheels made by fellow club member K.J. Humphreys. Each wheel has a set of lug nuts that are glued into individual holes on the wheels. The front wheels are from Chad Kennedy. I used only one fuel tank and added a storage box on the passenger side. Airlines were added and hook up to the gravel trailer. It’s going to the NOVA IPMS Spring show and contest.  Cheers 🍻

-Scott

Mercedes CLK GTR

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I finally finished my 1/24 Build of the Tamiya Mercedes CLK GTR GT1 on New Years Day. I doubt I will ever try one of these again- not to this level that is for sure. These were great cars from this time: Porsche GT1 and GT1 EVOs; McLaren GT1; Nissan GT390s; Saleen S7r; and so on. Having to cover every part of the chassis and interior in Carbon Fiber Decals without any detailed photos or masks was more tedious than I want to do again. If I can’t find the Studio 27 Carbon Fiber set for the car, not going to bother.

Enjoy the photos. I may take it to Richmond IPMS show as I have a BTSK entry I have to take & enter for that show. Photos of that soon.

-Mark

Make-Believe Air Force

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I recently bought up a large lot of aviation magazines from the 50s looking for old advertisements to hang in my office at work.  In the process I came across a pretty cool article about scale modeling in a copy of Air Force Magazine from December of 1958 and wanted to share it.  It includes some photos of a Revell F-104 (which I presume is their 1/64 kit from 1956) as well as photos of the Revell factory.

Click the image below to read the entire article:

And here are some of the ads I’ve started hanging if anyone was wondering about those.

-Chad

SeaRAM

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Gents,


Here is a 1/35 SeaRAM-like a CIWS system on US Navy ships.  Instead of a chain gun the SeaRAM uses surface to air missiles to increase the close in defense range from 1.5 miles (or so) to 10 miles.
The RAM component is pretty much done (less decals) and the tophat is still to go.  The tophat is the fire control radar system that is mounted atop the missile housing.


The kit was okay but I have to say it is frustrating when a vendor uses photo etch for some part when a sprue/plastic part would have been just as good.
I made the deck from stryrene and added non skid around where the SeaRAM system would be mounted.  The black base was also made from styrene.

-Chris