115: Show and Tell

The Theme of the November meeting was "Your First Model".  While there were lots of great "My first model" stories, a few of us were able to bring the models along as well.  While none of them were the actual "first model", they were reproductions of our first kits, and were certainly built in the spirit of the theme.
 

Our first subject for the monthly theme is the Hawk Gloster Javelin built by Tim Holland, which was featured in his monthly theme column.

Next up is Nate Swift's 1:48 Testor's PT-20.  Nate built this model as the Dutch floatplane version, but in US Army markings, just as he had done as a kid. A considerable amount of time was spent cleaning up seams with various grades of polishing cloths to make sure the seam didn't show through the metallic finish.  Nate also tried out the Tamiya thinner technique for setting the decals, and he says it worked out very well, especially on the rudder stripes.  The OOB build looks great sitting on the kit included water base.

Our final theme model is this MPC 1:32 Futuristic Dragster Snap kit was built by Dave Fuller. Dave painted the model Testor's Italian Red to better match the original color of the plastic in his first kit instead of the yellow plastic that this example was molded in.

Moving on to our normal Show and Tell subjects, we have two models by Austin Whiteside.

First we have the Revell 1:24 Jedi Starfighter, complete with astromech droid and figure of Anakin Skywalker.

Austin also brought along his Megablocks model of a Covenant Seraph from the popular video game series Halo.  It's always nice to see something out of the norm, and Austin never fails to disappoint.

And while we're on the subject of the Whiteside family, we have this beautiful little Heller 1:72 Curtiss SBC-3 Helldiver built by Gerry Whiteside.  Gerry built the model OOB with Starfighter PE rigging and a combination of Microscale and  Starfighter decals to portray an aircraft from VB-4 Tophatters to contribute to the Museum's Tophatter Squadron build.

Continuing in 1:72 scale we have this very nice Ju-87C built by Ken Kelly.  Ken started with the Airfix kit of the Ju-87B, and started his conversion by clipping about 3/16" off of the wingtips to transform it into the carrierbourne version of the venerable Stuka.  Ken also scratchbuilt the tail hook as well as internal structure to the radiator.  To top it off, Ken sanded off all of the heavy raised details, thinned the overscale control surfaces and completely rescribed the model.  Ken continues to claim that his models are brush painted with Polly scale paints, but I think he's been using an airbrush all along.

Rounding out the 1:72 builds is this Matchbox P-12E built by Dave Fuller.  Dave originally intended to have this model completed for the Matchbox theme, and then the Between the Wars theme, but managed to miss them both.  The kit was built OOB with Starfighter Decals representing an aircraft serving with the 16th Pursuit Group in the Canal Zone, circa 1934.

We finish out the Show and Tell with a trio of 1:48 models built by Joe Hegedus.

In a somewhat uncharacteristic move, Joe brought along this decidely non-glossy sea blue, F6F Hellcat.  Joe started with the Hasegawa kit, applied the striking tri-tone scheme, and then went further into uncharted territory and applied some very subtle weathering over aftermarket decals.

Joe continued this non-glossy sea blue trend with this very nice Sea Hurricane Mk. II.  Like the Hellcat, this was built from a Hasegawa kit with aftermarket decals.

Rounding out this Show and Tell update is Joe's very nice Monogram OA-4M Skyhawk.  No, that isn't a black and white picture, we actually have a third non-GSB build from Mr. Dark Blue himself finished in the standard gray over gray lo-vis scheme found Skyhawks from this era.  Joe added outer weapons pylons from a Hasegawa A-4 to complete this otherwise OOB build.   

That's at least three months now that we have failed to see an unweathered, factory finish clean, glossy sea blue model from Joe.  On top of that, he has actually been seen bringing British and Japanese subjects, a sailing ship, and even (gasp) a car!  What can this be attributed to?  Is there a worldwide shortage of Testors no. 1717?  Has the news of the demise of the Twinkie gone to his head?  Is it yet another sign of the coming apocalypse?  We'll find out next month, same Bat time, same Bat station.