The club 2014 Build Challenge was completed on 21 November with 7 entries and two incomplete WIPs available for inspection.  The completed entrants were:

• Mike Schine – P-38 Lightning (1:48 scale, Hobbyboss)
• Tom Kean – F-5A Photo Lightning (1:48 scale, Monogram)
• Ed Rose – Twin-engined Space Fighter w/ pilot (1:48 scale, Monogram conversion)
• Mike Nerino – Italian Air Force P-38 Lightning, fictional camo (1:72 scale, Hasegawa)
• Bob Bradford – P-38 Lightning “Yippee”flight test, inflight display (1:144 scale, Minicraft)
• Gary Telecsan – P-38 ‘Flight of Glacier Girl’, inflight ‘squadron’ composition (1:700 scale, Pit Road – probably)
• Joe Montes – P-38 Lightning, Wild Warbird fictional paint scheme (1:72 scale, AMT)

The two WIP displays were:

• Skip Paetz – SW inspired Starfighter w/ Lego pilot & digital paint camo (1:32 scale, Revell)
• Robert Beach – Ki-98 Experimental WWII Japanese fighter prototype (1:48 scale, Monogram ‘conversion’)

By Popular Ballot, the winning entry was Ed Rose’s Space Fighter.  1st Runner-Up was Mike Nerino’s Italian P-38 and 2nd Runner-Up was Mike Schine’s NMF & noseart adorned Lightning.

In spirit of the Challenge theme, Mike Hilliker also displayed his F-35 Lightning WIP of the Academy 1:72 scale kit.

Congratulations to all who presented their models with such creativity & flair.  The goal of stimulating some creative building and experience ‘out of the comfort zone’ was certainly achieved.   Hopefully, this event will inspire confidence and whet appetites for the next Challenge Build.

Mike Schine wished he’d had more time to deal with the metal finish – something he tackled based on his prior ‘practice’ on the Polar Lights UFO kits – but he got it done!  However, he advised “don’t look too closely…”

Tom Kean noted the Monogram kit’s nose area was a challenge because of the multi-part construction (due to the many version options the kit provides.)  He felt it to be a poorly fitting kit overall.  [Perhaps understandable for a 40 year old mold…]

Ed Rose was inspired by his wargaming projects and included details & decals from those sources.  He also found putty useful working with the Monogram kit.

Bob Bradford found the tiny Minicraft kit quite a challenge – but to make it more so, he came up with a way to depict the whirling props using 1) disks made from a CD crystal case (too thick) then 2) vacuforming clear sheet over the thick disks and painting on a prop blur.  Not using the gear simplified things a ‘little’.

Skip’s opinion of the Revell kit [another really old mold, BTW] is that it makes good fuel for the fire-pit.

Gary Telecsan found his vast ‘stash’ was surprisingly lacking a P-38 kit!  However, he did find a ‘ship scale’ accessory set that included some Lightnings.  He admitted he didn’t attempt to paint the canopy frames…

Joe Montes had this to say about the little AMT kit: “The build itself was straightforward with very little kinks.  Had I been confident of my scratch building prowess, it would have been ‘wheels-down’.  The red upper layer was all hand brushed and the belly of the aircraft was can sprayed.  I opted to blacken the interior of the canopy so as to save time on detailing the cockpit.”

And finally, I noted when presenting my WIP that if I were building a Ki-98 again, I’d not do it by restricting myself to a P-38 kit’s parts!