January Meeting

This Saturday quite a showing with 23 members in attendance, although a few were late as the server at the Sidelines must've been overwhelmed.

10 members brought either finished models or works-in-progress, which is an impressive showing as well. Dave Lockhart started us off with some updates to club business such as logos, dues and our impressive showing in Chattanooga.

John Vallrugo made some progress on his Frog Fairey Firefly Mk. 1 detailing, He used acetone to help smooth some putty by the rudder, but it reacted with the old styrene. He did a great job of fixing the damage. He's detailing the wheel wells too.

Ryan Vallrugo brought in a vignette in 1/48 scale, depicting a Tiger I Initial Production in snowy conditions as experienced in the Leningrad Front. He did a great job building the Tamiya kit, then built the scene with no commercial goods (paper-mache hill and baking powder snow). A super effort from this young modeler. Looking forward to his next project!

Paul Crawley had his latest 72 scale airliner project. He converted a Mach 2 C-131D into a Convair 440 in Brazilian Real Aerovias airliner colors. He had to convert the exhausts and scratch-built the integral air stairs. His efforts were awarded in Chattanooga with a silver medal.

Yep, he just nailed the stewardess

Gary Litavis went a little out of scale with a 1/25 scale military jeep. This is the MPC kit originally marketed as "Hogan's Heroes", and the kit includes a recoilless rifle and .50 caliber mount, as well as the litter bearer, which Gary chose. He did some nice weathering with Mig Pigments.

Mike Wolfe had a selection of models. He had two Fujimi 1/72 Junkers JU-87 Stukas, a whitewashed D5 and D3 in splinter camo. He also finished two Airfix Gloster Gladiators, a Swedish volunteer with Finnish markings on skis and a Mediterranean theater bird piloted by Marmaduke St. John Pattle. A fifth aircraft was Revell's 1/72 Boeing B-17F Flying Fortress done as the Memphis Belle.

Mike also has two 1/700 scale U. S. Navy battleships, both of the pre-World War I variety. The U.S.S. Michigan and the U.S.S. Wyoming he built are both Samek kits with photo-etch cage masks.

Rob Holfels had a neat TIE fighter, scale unknown. This is a one hour kit which he said took about 3.5 hours to build. He does warn to FOLLOW THE DIRECTIONS to prevent from unfolding things you just finished folding...

Mike Idacavage had his McDonnell Douglas MD-82 in a special livery from Scandinavian Airlines celebrating the 1994 Olympics in Lillehammer, Norway. He used the Minicraft kit with Lima November decals, and finished it in his usual realistic finish. He also received gold at Chattanooga for this build.

Ken Scruton has a few nice works. First was a completed Horten 229 in 1/72 by Revell. He was able to freestyle a neat blue and gray camouflage with colors he mixed. He also is resurrecting an Me-109G in 1/48. This is the Otaki kit, to which he needs to source a propeller and landing gear which disappeared over time. He also had a beautiful Hasegawa 1/48 F-22 in "factory finish". He created the paint masks for each of the separate panels and mixed some unique colors to depict the last bird off of the assembly line.

Dave Lockhart brought his Mach 2 Sikorsky HO3S-1 in 1/72. As the kit glass side windows were unusable, Dave wrapped clear acetate inside the fuselage to fill in the windows. Future helped with the main canopy.

Fred Heil brought a few aircraft from the 1/200 scale U.S.S. Hornet kit which has just been released. The 16 B-25s, plus Wildcats, Devastators and Dauntlesses are all molded in clear plastic, each with multiple parts and fine scribing. Unfortunately the photos of the aircraft didn't come out. We'll need to reshoot them after Fred paints them.

Rob Morales had a monster of a kit, literally. The Creature is a remold by Polar Lights of the old Aurora Creature From The Black Lagoon. He airbrushed various shades of green in thin mixtures to shade and highlight the scaly skintone. Rob was awarded a silver in Chattanooga for this throwback. He also brought his in-progress 1/144 scale Douglas DC-4. He used the kit markings for Pan American World Airways as the first of a series of propliners each with a lineage to Delta Air Lines.

Paul's Convair was awarded the Model of the Month by the attendees. Patrick Cook won the gift certificate.