Brown Water Navy

Gents.  Here is a 1/35 Dragon Light SEAL Support Craft under construction.  The kit came with no engines so I added one from Rye Field Models.  I scratch built the engine compartment, primed, and painted it with cream white after the primer dried.  I added weathering in the compartment to make it look used and dirty.   The  engine itself was base-coated black and then highlighted with various shades of metal colored paints.

I added the handle bars inside the boat’s bay and added non skid to the port/starboard skirts.  As this was a tactical boat used in Vietnam it will be green overall instead of Navy grey.    Should take another 3 or so weeks to finish up the boat itself.  The plan is to make a scene of it being dockside and under light maintenance.

-Chris

Saturday, December 21st

Good day gents.  The annual Christmas party was a big hit.  The food was fantastic.  My personal favorite was Chad’s banana pudding dish-or more correctly Chad’s wife’s banana pudding.  Randy brought his Bunkeramania best of Armor award-it was a full size wrestling champion belt!  It was great seeing Marcin and son again.

The gift exchange event was much fun.  Marcin, who went second, opened up a 1/48 Eduard P-51 and amazingly not one person after he went stole it!   But I was stolen from over and over again!  That was not right-just saying.  Just kidding, I wound up with a neat WW2 Soviet ski sleddee that should look pretty cool on a snow base.

Remember. Our meeting in January will be on the second Saturday but all meetings thereafter the meetings will be on the first Saturday of each month.
I sent the article about our club to IUJ Monday morning (22Dec) and before dinner the same day they responded that they liked it and will get it in a edition soon.  Woohoo!

-Chris

Hobby Emporium

All,

I was up in New Hampshire for Christmas.  Sorry I missed our club holiday event. I seem to be at the North Pole right now. It’s 5 degrees outside.

I stopped at Hobby Eporium in Tynsnoro MA last night. Here is their aircraft aisle and armor aisle. I did not get a picture of the auto, ship, and space aisle nor the paint and accessory aisle as they were closing. They also have an aisle of games and diorama. HO trains are along the back. Best to visit between May and September to get  any 2 days of 30% any regulator priced items.



Scalehobbist is about 15 minutes away from Hobby Eporium in Hudson NH. No storefront but you can pickup at the warehouse to save shipping. Bonus, NH does not have sales tax.

Mecha Warehouse is 45 minutes north of Hobby Eporium in tax free Concord NH.

Double Day Consignments in tax free Milford NH is 20 minutes away. Look them up also.

May need to plan a long club field trip or your personal vacation!

Seems like the plastic modeling capital of the New England area!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Tom

Akutan Zero

I participated in a “wrong markings” group build. A subject with markings it wouldn’t normally have. My subject was the Akutan Zero. In 1942 the Japanese attacked the Aleutian Islands, bombing Dutch Harbor twice. During one of those attacks a zero was damaged and attempted to land on Akutan island. The pilot was killed during landing, and the plane was subsequently recovered by the USA, fixed, and used to study the Zero’s characteristics to share with our pilots. This was an Eduard kit in 1/48. A great kit with a load of photo etch. I didn’t use a lot of it because many pieces were tiny and disappeared into the ether when I tried to work with them.

Cheers!

Nick

Hunting Party

Hey gents. Just about finished with a 54mm (1/35 equivalent) Indian figure with horse.  I have to finish the figure’s head feather and highlight the horse’s saddle-blanket.  The base came with the kit but I added the grass and snow.  Acrylics were the paint medium for most of the project but the white base of the horse was done with lacquer.

-Chris

Abarth 695

The Abarth Monster is coming along nicely. Got the interior figured out and assembled. I finally had some success with the tiny little metal transfer emblems.

A few more shots of the engine and rear suspension. Lifted un-modified from the Indy car kit. Amazingly enough the tiny little Fiat and an Indy car from the early 90s are almost exactly the same width. Go figure.

Decals all done. The shame of it is, you really can’t tell what has been done to the little fella unless you pick it up, which is unlikely in a judging situation. Oh well, I do this stuff for my own enjoyment anyway.

-Ross

Weathering Techniques

Hey gents if any of you do not have a subscription to Fine Scale Modeler I recommend you visit your favorite bookstore and get the latest edition (Jan/Feb 25).  It is chock full of articles on all techniques to weather your model.  There are good photos that go with each article to help you understand the technique better.  Go weathering!

-Chris

Abarth 695SS Monster

My latest project, a Tamiya Abarth 695 which is the hot rod version of the Fiat 500. I originally intended to install a Ducati 916 engine and trans but ran into a scale issue. That being the bike is 1:20 and the car is 1:24 (no bueno). Instead the little fella now sports a Dalara BBC turbo from an Indy car!  I have the chassis modifications done, the stance is all set. My current challenge is figuring out how and where to put the seats, as the interior is a little crowded. Lol. More photos to follow as I get it figured out.

-Ross

Mechanized Cavalry

Gents.  Here is another 75mm fantasy figure set of a knight riding his battle lion.  The knight’s armor was brushed on using acrylics using Green Stuff’s gold/bronze acrylic paint set with his face being painted with Scale 75 flesh tones paint set.  The lion was airbrushed using AK lacquer paints with 4 different tones.  

-Chris