First, many thanks to Frank C. for preparing this report.
Twelve people attended the March 11 Zoom meeting of the Brooklyn
Plastic Modelers Society and showed the Club’s usual variety of pandemic
work-in-progress (WIP), plus some interesting tools and insightful
techniques.
Mark N. revealed his varied WIP with a 1/35 scale Tamiya R35 French
tank, Trumpeter T62 Soviet-era tank with reactive armor, Meng 1/35
Bradley armored personnel carrier, Dragon Hetzer anti-aircraft vehicle,
Tamiya Panzer D tank and
Meng Rolls Royce armored Car from early WWII North Africa. To add a
little variety, Mark is also building a Revell 1/32 Spitfire. Mark
showed the group how steel 1-2-3 blocks work like a vise to help align
wheels and other vehicle parts.
Frank C. finished his Dragon 1/72 MiG-17 Fresco in Angolan markings
with a helpful Cuban conscript figure glued in place to keep the
tail-sitting jet fighter on its nose wheel.
From his Connecticut workshop, Gil showed a 1/24 scale Mad Max/Road
Warrior interceptor made from the Aoshima kit. Gil also recommended
using plastic parts the Tamiya 400-Grit diamond file made to clean up
photoetch. His tip of the
week was that he scans decals sheets from any model over 10 years old
to keep a ready-to-print replacement in his decal library.
From the not-so-deep South, the always-productive Bob K. showed off
an Amiot 351 pre-war French bomber nicely built from the “unbuildable”
Mach 2 kit and an Italeri C-47 Dakota finished in olive drab. Bob also
told the club the best
way to ensure a totally flat finish with Testors DullCote is to pour
off the standing thinner from the bottle and replace it with fresh
lacquer.
Vaughan continued to make progress on his 1/48 Hasegawa SH-3
helicopter and showed his almost-finished wood model of the America
racing schooner with cloth sails rigged by hand. He confided, “I learned
how to sew. I now have a sewing
machine.” Vaughan also showed how ParaFilm stretch plastic can be used
to mask models for painting.
Steve continues his work building 1/72 wargaming tanks to represent
the Battle of Kursk in mid-summer 1943. He showed how simple Pegasus
T34s can be spruced up with generic sandbags, tools, and stowage items
from Value Gear.
Jimmy reviewed some recent mail order acquisitions including the
Meng 1/48 Super Hornet, AFV Club 1/35 Dragoon, and numerous tank
accessories. His tool of the evening was a Tankraft aluminum base to
keep spill-prone glue bottles upright
on modeling benches.
Bobby continued to show off the improving quality of 3-D printed
figures, this time with a rookie Judge Anderson from the movie Dredd
smoothly printed in one piece and a heavily armed Joe Pineapples from
the UK comic book series 2000
AD.
Angelo meanwhile showed of a less-than smoothly molded 1/48 P-24B
from MisterCraft and an enigmatic Scithian Warrior from Black Dog.
The night’s discussion focused on kit instructions, and why even the most seasoned modelers should still look at ‘em.
The quality of assembly instructions varies with the kit manufacturer.
Frank C said the instructions in the otherwise excellent Kinetic Mirage
III/5 kit left some small parts out altogether. Nearly everyone has
found ways to make assembly easier and cleaner
by changing the assembly order in kit instructions. Mark reminded the group of those unfortunate instances when aircraft need holes drilled out
before wings are assembled, and Vaughan confessed that he masked
and painted areas on his Sea King only later to find the markings were
on the kit decal sheet. More embarrassments are likely at the next BPMS
Zoom meeting on March 18. Invites to follow.
~Russ
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