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The meeting minutes:
I’m back; I’m back in the saddle again.
It’s been a few months, but I am back at the helm and
cranking out the newsletter again. Thanks to
the folks who stepped up while I was gone.
It’s been quite a ride; I’ve been to
Fort
Benning,
Fort
Monmouth, Fort Lee,
Detroit Tank Arsenal,
San Diego and
Redding
California,
Frankfurt,
Germany,
Kuwait and
Iraq.
I may have missed a few. I was in a
plane that got hit by lightning on final. It
sounded and looked like a grenade went off in the cabin.
That was special. Well, I don’t have a
lot of notes; it was nice to see everyone again.
We got an invitation to participate in a mall hobby display
in
Iowa City the same
weekend as our meeting and the Des Moines Show.
Sadly, the notice came late and did conflict.
Based on the request on the club email list, we did not
have any one who could commit. I asked the
Mall management to keep us in mind next time and give us at least
a month’s notice so we could set it up at one of our meetings.
The Lippisch show has a new
venue, hopefully larger, see the show notes below.
The Plastic Surgeons have a new venue as well and hopefully
will have primary vendors again, so I am going to head up there
for the show. There will also be a meeting for
those who wish to come in and talk models. If
any one else plans to go to
Des Moines, let me
know. Ronbo
reported that the
Madison show was huge
and very successful. There were lots of models
on the tables; Ronbo was building a M4
High Speed tractor from Hobby Boss. It looks
like a nice kit. There was a Tamiya Char B-1
Bis from Ron that was painted olive
drab with a big white star. The scheme is in
the Char B book and was used by the Free French.
Whether it is aircraft or tanks, no one
does ugly like the French. I brought
some of my
Iraq
pictures and laptop to the meeting, for some reason there was
little interest in them, only a few sat and watched.
If there is some interest, I can bring them in later.
Christopher Broman will be back from
Iraq
in mid April and should be home for the May meeting.
We may have a combined
Iraq
equipment debrief at a future meeting, provided there is interest.
I apologize for the lack of club content in the articles,
but I have been busy since I got back, and a week out wit the flu
didn’t help, so I haven’t written anything. I
did get a 1/350 Trumpeter USS San Francisco that was sweet and
two, yes, two kits of the new 1/72 Airfix Nimrod.
Very nice.
Since I may not build both Nimrod’s, if you are interested in a
trade, let me know.
The Dates:
April 10-12, AMPS
National contest and Show. World War 2
Victory museum, 5634 County Road,
Auburn,
IN
www.amps-armor.org.
April 12: Chapter meeting.
April 12:
IPMS/West Des Moines Plastic Surgeons;
14th Annual Surgeons Contest;
Point of Grace Church,
305 NE Dartmoor Dr.,
Waukee, IA;
contact Robert Folden,
viper.models@gmail.com
May 3:
Alexander Lippisch
Chapter show on
Cedar Rapids, 9-4.
New
Hiawatha
City Hall,
101 Emmons Street,
Hiawatha,
IA.
Contact Charlie Kucera, 319-389-0877.
May 10: chapter meeting. Club photo shoot
May
16-17:
Omacon
’08 (2008 IPMS/ Region 5 Convention);
Mid-America
Center,
I-29 at I-80,
Council Bluffs,
IA;
contact ipmsftcrook@cox.net
June 14: chapter meeting.
Club barbecue and annual club contest.
July 12: chapter meeting
August 9: chapter meeting
September 13: chapter meeting
October 11: chapter meeting
November 8: chapter meeting
December 13: chapter meeting.
Christmas party, Annual “What if?” contest and gift
exchange
Gooood Morning
Region 5 ! (My best Robin Williams
impression)
I was just visiting the IPMS USA website and noticed some
interesting threads on the Discussion Forum. Two threads were of
particular interest, one about the Out of the Box Category and the
second about creating a National Database of vendor contacts.
Allow me to ramble here. For the record, our DLC has been
encouraging us RCs to create a vendor
list for each region. So for those who may not be aware, many of
the IPMS officers have continually been working to aid our
Society. On being named RC, which is one of the things Dick
Montgomery suggested that I try and get together. I have been
working on it, believe it or not. At the Regional, I requested
their list of vendors. I have also spoken to a number of venders
about such a list. One thing that I noticed was that the vendors
seemed very supportive of the idea. They generally seemed to feel
that they would be able to keep up with more events as they
figured that they would receive emails/mailings about more shows.
I have spoken with a few different members from a couple of other
chapters and found that there seems to be a belief that ‘so and so
is our vendor, we found him”. It appears that by sharing vendor
lists, some folks fear “losing” a vendor to another show. Both
concepts have some merit. Sooooo……..
What do you guys think? Especially, those who host shows, would
you share your list of vendors? I will be happy to create and
maintain the list. I can even post it to our Region 5
Coordinators webpage. Contests. I
don’t know how many of you visit the IPMS USA website. They have
a very lively and vocal group who express their opinions of the
Society. Although there are only about 600 or so who have signed
up for the forum, there are quite a few who are, shall we say
passionate, about their opinions. Currently there is a lot of
discussion about the changes that the NCC made to the Out of the
Box categories. I highly encourage you folks to visit the
USA
website and read about the changes. More importantly, as this
will likely affect the Regionals, I would really like to hear your
opinions. As you folks have often heard me
say, part of my job as the RC is to keep IPMS USA informed of what
is going on with the chapters. IPMS USA is only as good as its
chapters and its membership. Probably the biggest surprise of
being the RC of Region 5 is the amount of feedback I have gotten
from you folks. In some cases, I got a lot (like the
conversations I had with members at the 2007 Regional in
Ottawa). In others I
get very little. In fact, I actually got about 4 emails about my
last update and my opinions expressed there (particularly about
the state of the Hobby). That’s about 3 more than normal. I
really do appreciate your feedback and hope you folks will
continue to let me know what you think. A
reminder, deadlines are upcoming for a
number of issues. I would like receive any bids for the 2009
Regional by April 1st. That gives me time to look them over and
ask the bidders for any information not given that is pertinent.
It gives the bidders time to get that information back to me.
Also I need nominations for Chapter of the Year, Person of the
Year, Newsletter of the Year and Website of the Year by March 1st.
In parting, let me wish the folks in
Rochester
MN good luck with the
Hope it Don’t Snow show. It snowed a lot here in
St. Louis (about 8
inches last night). I hope whatever snow they got does not affect
their attendance. Hello Icy Region 5……
Boy it was a real shock returning to
St. Louis after 75 degree sunny
Florida. Temps about
freezing and now an ice storm! You guys want to hear something
really funny? I actually to took 2 models to
Florida and actually
worked on them. I can’t seem to find time to even work on a model
unless I go on vacation. On to IPMS stuff.
Our Region 5 Regional. The
Ft.
Crook folks
have emailed me their forms. I immediately forwarded them to the
Chapter Contacts. They don’t have a Trophy form/letter yet but
assure me it will be sent out shortly. They will very shortly be
doing a mailing to the Chapter Contacts as well so watch your real
mailboxes. Visit their website for more information at
www.ipmsfortcrook.hobbyvista.com. Time is
waning on nominations for Chapter, Person, Website and Newsletter
of the Year nominations. I need them by March 15th
(I have postponed the normal Mar 1st deadline as I was having
computer/ISP issues for a week or so). In fact I have already
received the nice shiny plaque from IPMS USA to be given to the
Chapter of the Year. Ahhh, but whose
name will be engraved on it? For those who don’t know me, I visit
Florida every year
during February. It used to be for
Speedweeks but since the
Speedway stole my
tickets from me, I visit other things now. I have been going down
there since 1990. I have pretty much been to everything in
central
Florida. This year I
revisited Sebring Raceway, Group 44 aviation and Fantasy of Flight
(all for the 3rd time). I also visited a new place next to where
the old Reilly Aviation/Flying Tigers place was. They didn’t have
much but do have a nice start. I have some nice pictures that I
will be sending to the IPMS webmaster so you fine folks can enjoy
them as well. The Region 5
website. I know I am WAY behind in getting some updates to
it. I have given my webmaster some updates to put on it. So
hopefully in the next week or so, there will be some new things to
check out. My main page will shortly have a somewhat lengthy
write-up on modeling in general. I would like to know what you
and your members think of my opinions therein.
Scheduling your chapter’s shows. I think we have
everything in our Region up to date. Since a few shows (outside
of R5) have not been following the plan here is a summary of the
show approval process. Step 1. Send
the necessary information to yours truly. I will verify it is a
good date (no conflicting dates) and send you the OK.
Step 2. Go to the IPMS USA website and
go to the upcoming events section. Fill out the Event
Registration Form (link is at the top of the page). For the
record, sending the info directly to the main office or the DLC
does not make things happen any faster. If anything it will slow
the process down. When I send you the ok on your show, I cc that
to Dick Montgomery as well. That way as soon as he receives the
Event Registration request, he can post it. If he has not
received the ok from me, then he has to send that info to me. I
do my thing and send it back. You can see that this slows the
process down and even more so if it is sent to the IPMS main
office.
Enough for now....
Mike George
R5 RC
Something from Bob Horton:
Hi, my name is Carol Fisher. I am the owner
of AeroplaneBooks.com. We supply thousands of modelers across the
world with reference material for the models they build, so I
thought this might be of some interest to the people in your
club. If you agree, please pass it along. We are trying something
new at AeroplaneBooks.com, something we
hope will become a regular feature. It's called "Ask the Aviation
Author." Lynn Ritger, who has
written two books, Modeler's Datafile
#9 and #10, The Messerschmitt Bf 109: A
Comprehensive Guide for the Modeler, Parts 1 & 2, has kindly
agreed to be our first author. The Bf 109 is
one of the biggest selling topics at
Aeroplane Books, so we thought this would be a great way to
start off our "Ask the Author" series. Here's how it will work:
You can submit any questions you might have about the Bf 109
through our website. We will choose a number of questions to give
to Lynn, who will answer them to the best of his knowledge. Then
they will be put into question and answer form and posted on the
website. People who submit a question will also automatically
have the final Q&A e-mailed directly to them. You can start
asking right away by clicking on the link below:
http://www.aviationauthorsqanda.com/
Thanks
Carol
http://www.aeroplanebooks.com/
Press Release
Meteor Productions Permanently Closes.
This is not a joke. After fifteen years of
serving the modeling community with superior
decals & resin conversions, Meteor Productions, Inc., will cease
business operations at
8 AM,
Monday,
February 18th, 2008. We are closing due to factors
entirely unrelated to this Company, the hobby, the hobby industry,
and the general business environment. I want
you to know how much I have enjoyed and appreciated my many years
of working with so many fine people in
America
and around the world. You have been wonderful and I'm privileged
to have known you. May God bless you.
(However, I'm not likely to miss the seven-day workweeks, 16-19
hours per day!)
Good luck and good modeling!
Dave Klaus
AFA Daily Report
Wednesday March 5, 2008
Fighter Ace Lopez Dies: Donald S. Lopez, an Army Air Forces flying
ace of World War II, engineer, test pilot, author, historian, and
a longtime leader of the Smithsonian's Air & Space Museum, died
March 3 after suffering a heart attack. He was 84. After winning
his wings, Lopez was sent to
China
to join the 23rd Fighter Group, formed from the Flying
Tigers, flying P-40s and later P-51s. He later wrote of his
experiences in the war in a critically-acclaimed memoir, Into the
Teeth of the Tiger. Lopez also flew early jet fighters as a test
pilot at
Eglin Field,
Fla., and the F-86 in
combat during the Korean War. He retired from the Air Force in
1964 and went on to work as an engineer for Bell Labs on the
Apollo and Skylab manned space programs. In 1972 he joined the
staff of the
National
Air & Space
Museum,
serving as deputy director from 1983 to1990 and continuing as a
senior advisor and advisor emeritus until 1996 when the museum
installed Lopez as deputy director again, following the Enola Gay
exhibit controversy.
Subject: Nationals Update - 6 months to
go
(note: This update came in last month, things
have picked up since then)
Well Nationals 2008 is creeping up on us -
just 6 months to go. We have 93 vendors lined up with 323 tables
sold. Dragon
USA
promises to bring many manufacturers and is in Nuremburg as I type
this, firming commitments. We have re-tooled general admission and
made it a one price ticket to get into Nationals and Dragon EXPO.
A good deal for those club members who do not want to register but
still want to enjoy the show. We are seeing a
pick up in activity and interest especially in hotel reservations
and trophy packs. Still we have a good number of hotel rooms
available, but I would not wait; at the
DoubleTree 45 rooms have been reserved in the last three
weeks. We cleared up an error at the Doubletree - they started
asking for deposits - that was not supposed to happen. If someone
had to make a deposit, they can contact the hotel and ask for Rita
Mahoney - she will make it right. As for trophy packs, early birds
get their choice! I have attached the list as of the 7th and the
sponsorship form. Fighter factory and banquet tickets are also
selling. My other pitch is that we have lots of sponsorship
opportunities including a ads in the
convention program. It is a good opportunity for a business to
reach its demographic. Fell free to pass this form on to
businesses that might be potentially interested.
We keep tweaking the website improve the information
provided and functionality. Please contact the webmaster, Lynn
Ritger, with any recommended
improvements. The rest of the update is below
and hits the highlights of what I provide the E-board.
Best regards and see you in August!
Charles Landrum
Chairman
IPMS-USA
2008 National Convention
www.ipmsusa2008.org
Vendors
Vendors to date - 93
323 of 344 tables sold/reserved (90%).
We are still shy on car, sci-fi and figure
vendors and are looking for assistance lining some up.
Hotels
Doubletree - 589 of 850 room-nights booked so far, with 145
for the peak nights; this up from 400 room-nights less than a
month ago. We have a verbal commitment from Doubletree to make
more rooms available as necessary, but the max number is only 250.
Doubletree is working on an online registration page.
Howard Johnson's - 11 rooms, 44 room nights (pending update)
Ocean Front - 13 rooms, 75 room nights (pending update)
Convention Activities
Confirmed or pending displays:
NORAD
Great White Fleet
Large Nimitz Class Carrier Model
Monster trucks
Re-enactors
RC vehicles
Race Cars
We are in the process of lining up military vehicle displays, so
far we have 13-14 and some artillery pieces. Dragon is helping out
with space and is working to get more vehicles and
militaria displays.
We are finalizing prices for tours and will
have those posted soon.
Fighter Factory BBQ. Tickets are
moving. Just found out that the Fighter Factory has acquired
military vehicles for display including: A
Bren Carrier, a Dingo, a 1938 Hanomag
and a 105mm Howitzer.
Dragon EXPO08 - continue to coordinate with Adrian Leung at Dragon
USA.
He is at the Nuremburg Toy Fair lining up Manufacturers for the
EXPO. He expects in addition to Dragon:
Hasegawa
Italeri (Strong interest)
Mini-art
ICM
Zvezda
Fujimi (strong interest)
Masterbox
Tamiya (perhaps)
Kit Review—Ed Mate
Modeling notes for Monogram’s
1/48 F-86D Sabre Dog
Courtesy Will-Cook Newsletter
This kit started like many of my kits do –
cutting parts off of the sprues late one evening while keeping my
wife company while she does something she wanted to do after the
kids have been put in bed. I started it
shortly after it was released and it languished on the shelves for
a while. Somewhere along the way I picked up
an Eduard detail set for the kit. While going
through some old kits in my collection I found my old Entex F-86D
and discovered a Superscale decal
sheet inside. The “Big
Viv” markings matched a color profile in my
F-86 Sabre in Color book, so things started
coming together to complete the kit. I started
assembly in the cockpit per the kit instructions.
I ground off the seat belts from the seat to prepare it for
some photo-etch replacements. I also filed
away all of the instrument panel detail to prepare that for a
photo-etch replacement from Eduard. I painted
everything FS36231 dark gull grey per the instructions, and then
painted the instrument panel and side panels black.
After a little dry brushing, I detail painted per the
illustrations in F-86 Sabre in Color.
Finally, I gave everything a wash of dark brown oil paint
and then put all of the cockpit pieces together.
One of the less pleasant tasks of this kit was cleaning up
the ejector pin marks on the insides of the intake trunk halves.
I filled mine with putty, followed by tedious sanding, Mr.
Surfacer, and more tedious sanding.
After gluing the halves together, it was on to more Mr.
Surfacer along the seam and even
tighter tedious sanding. Once everything was
smooth the inside was airbrushed silver. Then
I glued the intake to the nose piece and filled the nose with
BBs and epoxy so the model would sit
properly on the landing gear. Both the intake
and exhaust assemblies were glued to the right fuselage half.
Once all of the detail painting of the cockpit was done,
the instrument panel was added and the assembly was fitted inside
the right fuselage half. Now I was ready to put the fuselage
together. This went very easily without any of
the issues I had with my Hasegawa F-86F [editor’s note: see this
review on the F-86F in the June 2007 issue of the Newsletter].
After the glue was dry, I went to work with sandpaper to
make the seams disappear. I brought the kit
with me to a club meeting and rescribed
all the panels across the center seams. I used
very little filler, just a little Mr.
Surfacer on the bottom fuselage seam behind the wing.
This kit fits together very well. One
spot that is the downfall of many Sabre Dogs I’ve seen built is
the large air scoop on the right fuselage side (these are the
parts that are glued into the holes). It could
be on both parts, but I’ve seen it on a few right side scoops –
sink mark! Take a little time and fill this
sink mark – it will definitely show up with a natural metal
finish.
The wings are nice moldings.
The kit provides for extended leading edge slats and
dropped flaps. My parts had a slight warp, so
when I glued the top half of each wing to the bottom piece, I
sandwiched the wing halves between a chunk of lead on top and my
workbench underneath to make sure they dried straight.
The wheel bays are made up of several parts and all of them
fit well. After a little sanding of the seams,
I added the wing pylons and electronics box.
Now I was ready to join the wings to the fuselage.
This went very easily; this kit fits together very well.
I slipped a rubber band over the nose and slid it down to
the wing. I pulled it back and hooked it over
some of the wing slat rails and had the right tension to close the
wing to fuselage gaps. As a well-engineered
feature of the kit, the stabilizer tabs pass clear through the
fuselage and engage the slot on the opposite fuselage side.
This virtually assures properly aligned parts.
I started the painting process with Gunze acrylic white
paint. This is the surface primer I used for
the Alclad II metallic paints and
serves as the white trim areas on the model (which were masked
with masking tape prior to painting the various silvers).
The base color is Alclad
aluminum. Various panels were masked with
Parafilm, post-it notes, and masking
tape, then painted with other
Alclad colors.
Again, I had cracking paint problems, and the seam between the
canopy and fin showed up once silver was on the plane.
Not too bad at first, so I solved both problems by spot
sanding down to the plastic, fixed the seam with super glue, and
primed the plastic again (this time with
Alclad grey primer since I had it out for the F-86F).
However, while I was completely re-doing my F-86F, more and
more cracks showed up until the F-86D was a total loss.
Out of frustration I put the model in the box and put the
box back on the shelf for a while. After the
appropriate amount of time (about 6 months), I took out the kit
again and started removing paint. I
experimented with Pine-Sol to remove the paint on the drop tanks.
The paint came off, but there was a softening of the
plastic that rendered them useless. I built
some replacements from another kit and cast some new, resin,
tanks. A small 0.010” plastic wedge added
above the tank fin on the right side of each tank will make the
mold mismatch disappear. On the airplane I
used wet 400, then 500, then 600, then 800 grit sandpaper to
remove the paint and polish the surface scratches in preparation
of new Alclad grey primer.
After all of the sanding, two missing panel lines on each
fuselage half became more apparent, so I scribed them to match the
rest of the kit. Just in front of the
stabilizer is a vertical panel line which appears as a small ridge
on the original moldings; this is where the mold change takes
place for the two kit versions (with and without
para-brake housing).
Also, a diagonal panel line from the cockpit to wing is
depicted the same way (why? …Was
Monogram planning to give us an F-86K but never completed the
project? …if so, too bad).
Now, the painting started all over again
starting with the primer. After sanding the
primer coat with 800 grit sanding pads I was getting excited about
finally finishing the project. I started
thinking that the red and white stripes on the rudder may be
better to paint rather than use a decal over the trim tab and its
actuator. Then looking at the decal, I noticed
it wasn’t going to be wide enough to cover the entire trim tab;
hmmm, why would a decal not be designed to fit?
Then I started looking closely at photos of the rudder of
F-86Ds, and I realized I never noticed a trim tab that stuck out
farther than the trailing edge of the rudder – hundreds of photos,
no trim tabs like the kit! The kit’s rudder
trim tab is too wide (it should not stick out farther than the
trailing edge of the rudder, and it is too tall (it should end
before the lower hinge). I cut the chord to
size and filled the hinge line with stretched sprue in preparation
of scribing a correct size tab. After this
small detour, I re-primed the area, re-sanded, and painted the
stripes. The stripes marking are a
representation of the
US
flag, and the decal was missing the 13th stripe!
Then it was on to the base color -
Alclad aluminum, followed by various panels masked with
Parafilm, post-it notes, and masking
tape, then painted with other Alclad
colors. The nose is
Floquil black. At this point I masked
off the wheel and speed brake wells and painted them chromate
green, followed by detail painting and oil wash.
The model was sealed with Future before decals were
applied. The kit markings are nice but I’ve
read complaints about the shade of red used for “Dennis the
Menace”. This didn’t matter to me since I’d
already decided to use the Superscale
decals for “Big Viv”.
Interestingly, the alternate markings in the kit are also
for the same unit, Geiger’s Tigers. OOPS!
One afternoon I was spending a little quality time with
Ginter’s North American
Sabre Dog, Part 2 and found out the base of the rudder
was changed to add a parachute housing
with the –45 model. Most of the pre –45 block
models were put through project “Pull Out” to update them to –45
standards (afterwards the dash number was increased one to denote
the update, so a –30 became a –31, etc.). I
couldn’t find a photo of “Big Viv”,
but the 520th FIS went through Pull Out fairly early,
followed by inactivation and then “replaced” by the 498th
FIS. The bottom line is that “Big
Viv” is very likely a –45 or later
model Sabre Dog and my project now needed another color scheme.
Superscale 48-0954 to the
rescue – an 85th FIS –35 model based out of Scott AFB,
Illinois.
As an added bonus, the Ginter
book has a nice photograph of this airplane.
Once all decals were on the model, another coat of Future sealed
them in and a dark brown oil wash was used to highlight the panel
lines. The shininess was toned down with a
coat of Floquil crystal clear.
Finally, the anti-glare panel was masked and painted olive
green. The best way to get a really flat
finish on an anti-glare panel is to paint it last!
The model was finished by adding all of the remaining parts
– flaps, leading edge slats, landing gear and gear doors, speed
brakes, ejection seat, drop tanks, and canopy.
I replaced the nose wheel with a True Details (Sabre - late) resin
part because the spoke pattern matched the photograph.
The True Details wheel is larger in diameter than the kit
wheel so I added a piece of plastic to extend the leg.
Since this “add” was right above the wheel axle, I drilled
a hole up the middle of the bottom, added splice and top, and then
inserted a piece of wire for strength. The kit
supplied a tow tractor, but that will have to wait for some other
day to make it into my display case. I enjoyed
building the kit and will likely build the Revell copy (with
parachute housing) that I have in my collection as “Big
Viv”. This kit is
as good as or better than what Tamiya and Hasegawa are offering
the modeler. I rate the kit a 9.0 out of 10 on
the Mate Meter – a demerit for the odd trim tab and no use
punishing the kit rating for all of my painting problems, but
don’t ask for my rating on Gunze paints!
Italeri 1/35 MTM “Barchino”
MSRP: $35.00
Imported by Model Rectifier Corporation (MRC)
Cortesy IPMS
Tacoma Green Dragons newsletter
Background:
The MTM "Barchino"
was a touring boat modified by the Italian Navy to be run into the
sides of enemy vessels at the water line and explode, either
sinking or severely damaging them. This was not a suicide boat as
the operators ejected themselves off the back of the boat just
before impact. The most successful operation for these small boats
was the sinking of the Royal Navy heavy cruiser H.M.S. York and
the Tanker Pericles on the night of
25-26 March of 1941. Six MTMs
participated in the operation and all six operators were captured;
in fact not one single MTM driver ever lost his life during any of
these operations through out the war.
Contents:
The kit consists of 44 plastic parts molded
in light grey with a decent amount of detail for Italeri, a one
piece figure, and a photo-etch fret containing 40 parts, 30 of
which are tiny butterfly nuts. It all comes packed complete with a
reference manual containing some great museum photos of the MTM
and a box sized "poster" of the box art very suitable for framing.
Unfortunately the box art shows a red-hulled MTM speeding across
the water but yet I can find absolutely no reference indicating
any MTM had a red hull. The figure is a very nice treat
considering it is a one piece mold with no assembly.
References:
The only reference I used was the
Photographic Reference Manual that Italeri refers to as the RPM
series of kits.
Construction:
This was a very easy and quick build. It took
me longer to detail and paint than the basic construction did.
Parts fit was generally good for an Italeri kit, but I did have to
add some scratch built spares to the interior where the explosive
drum was stored as it is a very visible area if you leave the
cover off. Piece 5 is a bulkhead that separates the engine
compartment from the stored explosive compartment and in photos it
shows to be a solid wall and that's about the only serious
modification I made. I also added a throttle quadrant and all the
wires and hoses that I could see in the reference photos from the
manual that is provided with the kit. The most time consuming item
was the 28 photo-etch butterfly nuts that were supplied. Italeri
gives you 2 extra so don't lose more than that. I probably spent
somewhere around 10 hours on the entire project.
Painting:
The entire kit was sprayed with Model Master
Light Ghost Grey and then Dark Grey pastels were added in all the
recessed areas, followed by a flat coat and then dry brushed with
an extremely light shade of Humbrol
Grey. Except for black on the bottom of the hull, the only other
color used was a light Blue-Grey used in the cockpit area. The
stand the boat sits on has more colors on it than the boat does. I
decided to add a little contrast to the stand by painting the
colors of the Italian flag before applying the only decals used on
the whole kit, which was the "MTM Barchino"
logo. For the review I have used the stand, but I've also started
on a diorama base that will be used for the craft sitting dockside
in the water.
Conclusion:
I hope this is the beginning of a new era for
Italeri exploring subjects that are sort of "off the beaten path"
for 1/35 scale modelers. It's easy to complain about the lack of
detail on a kit that probably didn't have much detail to begin
with. The big disappointments is that Italeri could have supplied
the Alfa Romeo 90hp 6C 2500 six cylinder engine with the kit and
if a manufacturer is going to supply a "Reference Manual" with the
kit than they should look at it before producing molds. Thank you
to Italeri for making g the kit, to Akiko and Bob at MRC
(importers) and to IPMS for allowing me to build it.
Subject: Sturmgeschutz
(Stug IIIB)
Author: Alex Valz
Courtesy Spare {Parts newsletter, IPMS
Richmond
Model Type: Injected Molded
Manufacturer: Tamiya
Scale: 1/35
Recommended: Yes.
This is an attractive model when finished.
Problems: The biggest problem with this model
is that Tamiya includes four small coiled wires that attach to the
front and back bogie wheel axles inside of the vehicle. This
enables you to pivot the front and back bogies. This isn’t
entirely satisfactory as I found when I stretched the one piece
vinyl tracks over the entire suspension and found that both front
and back bogies were slightly higher than the rest. I partially
solved this problem by building a base with a slight incline so
that the front bogies were elevated and the back bogies sat flat.
I would suggest that anyone building this model consider leaving
the springs off and super-gluing the front and rear idler arms
even with the other idler arms. A set of individual track links is
also an option. There are the usual sink holes on the rear
interior wall of the crew compartment and some major seams on the
bogies, which you will spend some time scraping and filling. I
found that there was a gap between the superstructure and the
lower hull after I assembled the two parts. However, this filled
in nicely with Mr. Surfacer. At about
$45 retail, this model is a little pricey for what you get as
there is only one figure and no additional stowage. Comments:
Introduced early in World War II, the
Sturmgeschutz IIIB (Assault Gun) was intended as an
infantry support vehicle and was considered artillery rather than
a tank. It was a modification of the Panzer III with a low
superstructure housing a short barreled 75 mm howitzer in place of
a regular tank turret. This gave the vehicle a low anvil-like
appearance. The kit comes with a small photo-etch fret including
grills, headlight covers, and some other small parts. There is
also a nice turned aluminum gun barrel. The model could benefit
from some metal cables to replace the one piece plastic coiled
cable that attaches to holes on the back of the vehicle. If you
don’t want to use this piece, you will have to fill the holes, of
course. The instructions include a very pretty full color layout
that serves as a color and decal placement guide. The decals are
quite colorful with a choice of three skull and crossbones
insignias for the Totenkopf Division
in white, yellow, and red. Decals for several other units are also
provided. I chose to make the Stug a
“pirate tank” with the white skull and crossbones.
Everything fit together well with the exception of the
things mentioned previously. I painted the
Stug III interior with Tamiya flat white and the exterior
with Tamiya dark gray. I used white, gray, and burnt umber oils to
simulate rain and rust streaks on the exterior and mixed European
Dust MIG pigments with lighter fluid to make a wash for the
wheels, suspension, and fenders. I put the vehicle on groundwork
made with celluclay and added an
assault gun ammo loading crew from Dragon. This is a nice set of
figures and I would recommend it too. This is basically an
enjoyable weekend build and a welcome break from the sometimes
overly complicated Dragon kits.
First Glance: Kinetic Models 1/32
F-86F-30 Sabre
By: Brian D. Casteel,
Courtesy
IPMS
Orange
County
newsletter
I have the first offering of a 1/32 scale
F-86 in my collection, It is the Hasegawa kit first released in
the early 1970s. It's not a bad kit, but it does have raised panel
lines. I think it’s been a long time coming for a second offering
of this fine aircraft from American aviation history. I believe
this is Kinetics second offering, the first being the F-84
Thunderstreak a few months back. This
is their first 1/32 scale kit. This kit is comprised of 164 parts
molded in the standard model grey and clear. There are two decal
sheets one of mostly stencils and then another of everything else.
The decals allow you to build one of two variants,
"Beauteous Butch II" or "Mike's Bird" Two well known aircraft from
the Korean War. The instructions are comprised of 10 pages of well
illustrated steps. The exterior detail is bountiful; even if a bit
soft in a couple of spots, but it is all recessed. There are many
rivets present to accentuate the detail. The kit comes with a
metal nose weight. The kit can be built like most Saber models out
there with the plane split in half so that you can show off the
engine detail. Other detail includes the gun bay and plenty of
ordnance for display. The cockpit seems to be a bit sparse but
perhaps the Avionix guys (formerly
CAM) will give us a new resin
cockpit for this plane. Or maybe the current one will fit. I have
the Eduard’s photo etch set from the
Hasegawa kit, looks like some of that will match up. To me the
plastic seems really thick and I am wondering if this will be
difficult to work with or not. But like I said, the detail is
nice. There even seems to be a stressed metal effect in the
plastic. The Kinetic Models F-86 goes for $43, not a bad price but
not great either. But it IS imported by Steven's
International. I have to say that I am looking forward to building
this kit. Several times I have pulled down my hold Hasegawa kit
only to be discouraged by the big ugly raised panel lines and put
it away again. I will bring this kit to the meeting.
A Blonde's Year in Review
Sent in by Mike Valentine
January: Took new scarf back to store because
it was too tight.
February: Fired from pharmacy job for failing
to print labels..... Helllloooo!!!.......
bottles won't fit in printer !!!
March: Got really excited.....finished jigsaw
puzzle in 6 months..... box said '2-4
years!'
April: Trapped on escalator for hours ... power
went out!!!
May: Tried to make Kool-Aid.....wrong
instructions....8 cups of water
won't fit into those little packets!!!
June: Tried to go water
skiing.......couldn't find a lake with a slope.
July: Lost breast stroke swimming
competition.....learned later, the other swimmers cheated, they
used their arms!!!
August: Got locked out of my car in rain
storm..... car swamped because
soft-top was open.
September: The capital of
California is
'C'.....isn't it???
October: Hate M & M's.....they
are so hard to peel.
November: Baked turkey for 4 1/2
days ..
instructions said 1 hour per pound and I weigh 108!!
December: Couldn't call 911. 'duh'.....there's
no 'eleven' button on the stupid phone!!!
THE BEST BLONDE JOKE OF THE
YEAR - SO FAR
A man was in his front yard mowing grass when his
attractive blonde female neighbor came out of the house and went
straight to the mailbox. She opened it then slammed it shut and
stormed back in the house. A little later she
came out of her house again went to the mail box and again,
opened it, slammed it shut again. Angrily, back into the house she
went. As the man was getting ready to edge the
lawn, here she came out again, marched to the mail box, opened it
and then slammed it closed harder than ever.
Puzzled by her actions the man asked her, 'Is something wrong?'
To which she replied, 'There certainly is!'
(Are you ready? This is a beauty...)
‘My stupid computer keeps saying,
'YOU'VE GOT MAIL!'
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