Work Bench

Modeling Blog  (For latest IPMS/USA reviews and news, click HERE.)

Something New from Something Else – a Kit Mash-Up Adventure
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I have to say I really have been enjoying our club’s annual Build Challenges as they indeed challenge me to get something “done” by giving me a deadline.  Admittedly, I have only been ready once out out of the past … Full Article→

2017 Club Challenge: 3-kit ‘Mash-Up’ or Channeling Your Inner Frankenstein
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The club’s annual build Challenge theme for 2017 was to create a ‘mash-up’ using the parts from three different kits (and for extra spice, from different genres such as plane-ship-tank…)  The goal was to use only the parts provided by the … Full Article→

What is it? A Bird, A Plane… No, the 2016 Club Build Challenge
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The latest club model build challenge was completed at the November meeting with five entries on display.  Originally scheduled for October, the low meeting attendance made pushing the Challenge to the next meeting a reasonable move for those present. As … Full Article→

Accurate Miniatures 1/48th “Doolittle Tokyo Raid” North American B-25B Mitchell
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I obtained this kit (#3430) soon after its release in 1999.  Construction, however, was finally started in January 2012.  Overall, the kit was excellent, but it had a few inaccuracies.  In a nutshell, the B-25 Mitchell had a glorious, historically … Full Article→

Kit Smash! or “Making a mountain from a mole hill” – Pt. 2
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Tail Surfaces:  After cutting apart the P-38 kit’s tail booms, I was left with four vertical tail surface halves, each with good sized gaps to be filled, both from the opening for the horizontal tail and from the trimmed boom … Full Article→

Kit Smash! or “Making a mountain from a mole hill” – Pt. 1
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Challenge: Turn a 1/48 scale P-38 Lightning into an experimental WWII Japanese fighter plane. For the November 2014 Club Theme Challenge, we decided to “compete” using any scale or make of P-38 kit, built to any result (in other words, … Full Article→

Vacuform Aircraft Modeling – Part 5
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Basic Techniques (Con’t) Creating Bulkheads: Being able to fabricate ‘bulkheads’ is a useful modeling skill and pretty much required when working with vac kits since they often need extra support and rigidity.  But, bulkheads are also needed when making up … Full Article→

Vacuform Aircraft Modeling – Part 4
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Basic Techniques (Con’t) My basic method of removing parts from the ‘backing sheet’ is outlined below.  However, there are actually some things you want to do prior to removing the parts, if you follow best practices.  These would include: Washing … Full Article→

Vacuform Aircraft Modeling – Part 3
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Basic Techniques Don’s Model Works, home of the late Don Bennett’s vacuform kit outlet (now taken over by his son Chuck) has an excellent writeup of the method similar to the one I use in removing and cleaning up vac … Full Article→

Moebius 1:72 Scale SSN Skipjack: Development and R/C Conversion – Part 10
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Report to the Cabal: Part 10 Outfitting the Sub-driver The objective here is to install, set-up, and test for correct operation all the devices and mechanisms needed to get the Sub-driver (SD) operational. The end-game: an outfitted 3.5 SKIPJACK Sub-driver, … Full Article→