2012 IPMS-Seattle Spring Show impressions

The 2012 IPMS-Seattle Spring Show is in the books, and delivered its usual level of large crowds and expertly created modelling masterpieces. The day was warm and sunny, which can sometimes interfere with good attendance, but it seemed as though every modeller in the Northwest had emerged from his modelling dungeon, blinking in the sunlight like a mole, and brought something to the show.

The walkup attendance was especially encouraging. Sometimes we as a community feel like pop culture has passed us by, given that our hobby is one of meticulous craftsmanship rather than instant results. But even if we are a bit out of the mainstream, we are at least holding our own. And though most members of the club attended, there were clearly a lot of outsiders at least interested in our hobby. That’s always a good sign.

Aircraft were very heavily represented in the model numbers, as you would expect. Seattle is an aviation city, what with Boeing and all of its attendant industries. But we have a large number of armor modellers as well. Cars are never very heavy at our shows, since the car guys have a separate large organization in town as well. Not much in juniors, but that is to be expected. Though we usually have large representation in ships, they seemed to be down in numbers this year.

1:72 had a very healthy number of entries. Some of the most interesting ones were in the commercial/airliner category. DC-6, DC-3s, F-27, Consul etc. And the multiple engine categories, which can be a little sparse, were also pretty heavy, including an XB-70 and a Tu-95. Helicopters were a little vacant as well, but biplanes more than made up for it, with well executed Gotha G-2 and Felixstowe.

Though some of our national vendors couldn’t make it this year (Draw Decals and Nostalgic Plastic were elsewhere), there were local hobby shops and people culling the stash herd, so it seemed that a lot of cash was changing hands. I managed to resist the temptation; my focus has been on targeting models that I want to build rather than padding the stash.

Below are a couple of items that caught my eye during the competition. No statement as far as quality of build goes – though even the average models were formidable – just the ones that I particularly liked.

Photobucket is struggling a bit with their download process today. All of my photos have been loaded to my laptop, but I haven’t been able to get them on Photobucket yet. As soon as they are there I will issue a blog post with the link.

Congratulations to IPMS-Seattle for another fine show to begin the display season.

Airfix BAe Hawk T1

Time for the other shoe (or in this case Hawk) to drop. I managed to get a couple of these new Airfix Hawk T1s in their Red Arrows boxing cheap from Sprue Bros. Thankfully Airfix did not follow Italeri’s example and mold them in red plastic, which may be helpful to the kiddies, but makes painting them a serious chore. But these are in standard prison grey.

Having one overall exterior color is well within my wheelhouse as well, though I am feeling the need to produce some Hawks in earlier greys or even green/grey camo. Raspberry ripple will take some additional mulling, however. My next Hawk is liable to be a T2 (I have that Airfix kit too) when Xtradecal produces their History of 4^th Squadron sheet, which promises to feature that T2 in full squadron markings. Alas, with the budget cuts that the RAF has been going through, it is liable to be the only T2 squadron for the near future, at least until the T1s start being retired at the end of the decade. Not really a problem, since I think the Hawk’s lines are much cleaner and more attractive on the T1 anyway. That T2 nose is the visual equivalent of a clown shoe.

Construction went pretty well, given that I've built a number of these new-tool Hawks now. I did manage one rather head-shaking public gaffe - getting the gear legs reversed and then posting the finished product on Britmodeller. I rectified the error and took the new pictures below.

The decal designer split the motif that goes from tail to forward fuselage into two pieces per side. Although this requires some lining up, I do prefer this method. If you trim extremely close to the decal at the base of the fin, the two decals can touch more efficiently than if it was one piece that you must try to press down into a 90 degree angle. Very often even setting solution won’t save you (experience speaking here).

This was the 2009 solo display Hawk from 208 Squadron at RAF Valley. The markings were designed to commemorate the 90^th anniversary of the RAF Benevolent Fund. It really is an attractive scheme, and I’m sure it was nice to see for those of you lucky enough to have caught it on the airshow circuit.

This is completed model #383, finished in March of 2012 (#8 for the year).

Coming up: IPMS Seattle Spring Show

I do want to put in an unsolicited plug for anyone within driving distance of Seattle who has this Saturday free. It is time for the annual IPMS-Seattle Spring Show. Historically, we are the biggest show north of San Francisco and west of Chicago. We usually pull about 600-700 models into the Renton Community Center and the quality of work is impressive.

I’m already charging my camera batteries, since I try to snap a photo of at least every 1:72 aircraft model in the show. I’ll feature my personal favorites in an upcoming blog entry, and then put in a link to the Photobucket account where the main block of pictures will reside. If you’re looking for other scales or non-aircraft, keep an eye on the IPMS-Seattle site; they usually publish a good selection of shots from the show.

The date is Saturday, 4-7-2012. You can get more details from the website http://www.ipms-seattle.org/. I’ll be wearing my pin from the forum site 72^nd Scale Aircraft.

Getting a stalled project moving again

I decided today that it was time for the stalled Me-262 project to move back to a front burner. I don’t want these models ending up on the Shelf of Shame due to neglect – or I may have to build some additional shelving…

One nice thing about moving 5 late-war types through the production line is that they share similar paint schemes. In fact, all five require RLM76. The Me-262B, Me-262C, P-1099, and Bf-109TL all need it as a lower surface color, while the Me-262 3-seater uses it for a top color. Though I doubt they’ll all be ready at once, I can still group them up when the time comes for a paint shop visit.

The P-1099 still needs some seam work and masking of wheel wells, but major construction is complete and the canopy is masked and attached. The Me-262B also has its canopy, but I ran into some trouble here. Along the way, I have managed to lose the frontmost canopy piece. Not having another 262 kit (they’re all on the production line!) I decided to build the frames in place and, when painting is complete, to recreate the three flat panels with Kristal Klear. Yes, I can hear all of you asking if the man has learned nothing from the various disasters in the last stage of model completion. Apparently I have not. The 3-seater needs some more masking and it will be ready for paint. The -B, -C, and 109TL all need some additional construction or masking, but it won’t be long.

Airfix BAe Hawk T1

I mentioned earlier that I was doing some complex decal work on two BAe Hawks. Looks like one of those is now ready for its debut. I first saw the 2011 solo display Hawk for 4 Flying Training School in an issue of Air Forces Monthly. I’m a sucker for special schemes and while not as flamboyant as some display aircraft, it looked like it would be an easy one to apply.

Sooner or later, I figured, someone would do the decals. And, sure enough, Xtradecal included it on their 72137: Hawks and Tucano sheet.

I’ve gone through enough of the new Airfix Hawks that I have the process down well. I do still have some issues with the landing gear (they don’t seem to seat into their placement holes very well) and of course painting is always fraught with danger… until it is completed. The problem that popped up late in the game this time was the tan line on the canopy for the internal glass partition. The new rule #6 (there is NO.....rule #6) is that I am not allowed to brush paint anything that is masked with yellow Tamiya tape. It’s just too easy for thickly applied paint to cause seepage underneath.  Brushpainting cockpit details is still allowed, but not on the exterior. Ah, there is always something.

These decals were indeed complex to apply. But I struggled against my natural inclination to hurry through the procedure. Apply some decals, follow with strong setting solution, and let the model dry for a few hours. I managed to mostly avoid pitfalls, though there is one leading edge stripe repair that is necessary and of course the pitot tried to escape.

Coming up shortly will be another display Hawk, this one from 2009.

This is completed model #382, finished in March of 2012 (#7 for the year).

Moving along the paint queue

Another paint session that helped move forward no less than 5 models.

First came the cockpit Grey-green, which was sprayed onto the Swordfish, Halifax, Wellesley, and Katsuodori. Although I routinely use this grey-green for both Italian and Japanese interiors as well as British, it may be that the IJN ones at least were a little darker and less grayish green. But given that the little IJN 46 fighter is so small, and very little can be seen through the canopy, I think I will let the loose rules for factually nonexistent fighters take over. In other words, close enough.

Later I also was able to shoot the Black undersides of the Special Hobby 3-seater Me-262. This model has gotten together pretty well for an early SH kit (excepting the slipped canopy, which was fully my fault and not the kit’s). Also, I took the opportunity to paint the Black undersides of the Vickers Wellesley.

Finally, there was a matte topcoat to shoot on a few nearly finished models. Lots of result for a minimal number of paint changes.

Republic P-47 bubbletop

While as a Profoundly Average modeller, I don’t lay claim to any model of mine as being perfect, it’s not always that I make a total pig’s ear of a silk purse kit. However, that did happen with today’s completion (and utterly appropriate for the April Fool's Day entry).

It’s a Tamiya kit, so you know the engineering and fit is excellent. However, excellent fit cannot prevent a small part from twanging away for Parts Unknown (the home town of many masked wrestlers). In this case it was starboard the wing leading edge gun insert. It’s not a big part, but it is pretty crucial. I considered calling Tamiya America for a replacement part, but realized I would probably have to buy the entire A sprue and add shipping, which didn’t look like an attractive idea. I did get the bright idea of scanning the database on Hannants.com to see if anyone had done a detail set that might have included the part. Quickboost had a set for the inserts plus individual gun barrels with hollowed ends. So on my next order I picked one up.

The rest of construction was a breeze, at least until the time came for overall paint. As I mentioned in a prior entry, Alclad did it to me again, though I suspect that this time I am to blame for the results rather than an incorrect mixed paint formula. Usually when I do an aircraft with a NMF (natural metal finish) it is all metal with no other colors on the exterior. But this particular P-47 had not only a yellow cowl and canopy surround, but a red tail tip and the standard Olive Drab anti-glare panel. There was some significant overspray, but I didn’t give it a thought until I shot the Alclad.

And that is where I went wrong. Alclad will perform differently depending on the primer coat you use. Typically I don’t prime at all, and unless the model’s finish manages to pick up the little sworls from the plastic injection process that isn’t a big problem. But this time the overspray acted as a primer, and caused some really serious variances in surface shine. Where there was overspray on the surface, the Alclad looked entirely too shiny, and where there was no overspray, it was much duller and more natural looking. To me, the shiny surface (not unlike the Bare Metal Foil technique, which I also think looks unnatural) looks toylike, and takes you out of the moment and reminds you that you are looking at a model.

Given my experience with trying to repair the problematic surface of the B-47 – covered previously – I decided that I had had enough with this one and applied the decals. By the time I had issues with the remaining dangly bits (resin guns and plastic pitot) I was thoroughly ready to get this one into the display case. I put on a heavy matte coat to try and dull down the bright surface, with mixed results. The new rule is: no overspray when using Alclad. Mask everything other that the target painted area.

The decals, which performed well, were from the EagleCals 72104 set. It is “Chief Seattle”, flown by Joe Murphy for the 379^th FS, 362^nd FG, 9th AF. EagleCals has a pretty lengthy writeup on the aircraft, including details of a confrontation with 40 FW-190s over Bastogne in late 1944.

This is completed aircraft #384, finished in March of 2012 (#9 for the year).