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Seattle Chapter IPMS/USAAugust 2010

PREZNOTES

In This Issue

Tamiya F4U-1A 3Blank Canvas 4Airfix Canberra B(I)8 6Eduard Canberra Detail Sets 7Dragon Flak 38(t) Ausf. M 8Hurricane Bookshelf:

Over Some Humps 10Boxing Practice 12The Way the Future Was:

2011 Modelfy Kit 12The Lent Papers 13Brandenburg W.29 13Golden Age Stars of IPMS 14Heller Honda RC211V 15Upcoming Shows 16

“It was the best of times, it was the worstof times...” to quote Charles Dickens, ATale of Two Cities. The reason that quotecomes to mind in regards to modeling isthat on the same day, the Wingnut WingsAlbatros D.V and the Fonderie-MiniatureHorsa Glider came home with me. Whatcan you say about Wingnut Wings kits?There aren’t enough superlatives out therefor the Wingnut kits. The focus of thiscommentary, however, is on the Fonderie-Miniature 1/48th scale Horsa kit. A fewyears ago I was nearly finished with theSanger Vac Horsa kit when Special Hobbyannounced that they were releasing aninjection molded kit of the Horsa (whichhas happened to me more than a fewtimes). Unfortunately, the listing of theHorsa kit disappeared from their lists and Ifigured it was a project that was destinednever to see the light of day. Then, to myamazement, a few weeks ago the owner ofour favorite local hobby emporium calledand said that “my Horsa kit” will be in theend of the week. That was a major shock.The thing that surprised me the most wasthat it wasn’t Special Hobby, but Fonderie-Miniature.

F-M kits are a limited production runmanufacturer, with kits that have areputation of being a “challenge” to build.The Horsa kit will be in that category. I willsay that it compares favorably to other F-M kits that are in my collection in thatregard. All the main airframe members willrequire clean up of some sort, with flash,thick trailing edges and control hinge lines

that will require straightening. Theadvantage to the F-M kit over the Sangervac is that it has a completely detailedinterior. But, all the interior bits will requirea lot of cleanup. A considerable amount ofcleanup. The kit comes with a transparentcanopy that is well molded but will need alot of work to make it...well... transparent.The instructions are the most basic, withhand drawn exploded views, and thebarest of information on where some partsneed to go. A small decal sheet is providedfor one British aircraft. My guess is that insome areas, this kit will be easier than theSanger vac, but in others, like the interior,will provide more of a challenge, especiallywith all the cleanup required. I’m up for thechallenge, as what I learned on the Sangerkit (especially painting and detailing), I canapply to the F-M kit.

I’m hoping some of our members whotraveled to the Phoenix Nats will havedetails on how that show went, and maybesome of the goodies they found in thevendor room.

We’ll see you at the meeting,

Terry

SEATTLE CHAPTER CONTACTS

President: Vice President: Treasurer: Editor:Terry Moore Marilynn K. Laird Spencer Tom Robert Allen3612 - 201st Pl. S.W. 1825 South 330th St. F-201 318 N.E. 81st St. 12534 NE 128th Way #E3Lynnwood, WA 98036 Federal Way, WA 98003 Seattle, WA 98115 Kirkland, WA 98034Ph: 425-774-6343 Ph: 206-491-0096 Ph: 206-522-8414 Ph: 425-823-4658

[email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected]

IPMS Seattle Web Site (Webmasters, Norm Filer & Tracy White): http://www.ipms-seattle.org

Public Disclaimers, Information, and Appeals for Help

This is the official publication of the Seattle Chapter, IPMS-USA. As such, it serves as the voice for our Chapter, and depends largelyupon the generous contributions of our members for articles, comments, club news, and anything else involving plastic scale modeling andassociated subjects. Our meetings are generally held on the second Saturday of each month, (see below for actual meeting dates), at the NorthBellevue Community/Senior Center, 4063-148th Ave NE, in Bellevue. See the back page for a map. Our meetings begin at 10:00 AM, exceptas noted, and usually last for two to three hours. Our meetings are very informal, and are open to any interested modeler, regardless of interests.Modelers are encouraged to bring their models to the meetings. Subscriptions to the newsletter are included with the Chapter dues. Dues are $25a year for regular mail delivery of the newsletter, and $15 for e-mail delivery, and may be paid to Spencer Tom, our Treasurer. (See addressabove). We also highly recommend our members join and support IPMS-USA, the national organization. See below for form. Any of the memberslisted above will gladly assist you with further information about the Chapter or Society.

The views and opinions expressed in this newsletter are those of the individual writers, and do not constitute the official position of theChapter or IPMS-USA. You are encouraged to submit any material for this newsletter to the editor. He will gladly work with you and see thatyour material is put into print and included in the newsletter, no matter your level of writing experience or computer expertise. The newsletter iscurrently being edited using a PC, and PageMaker 6.5. Any Word, WordPerfect, or text document for the PC would be suitable for publication.Articles can also be submitted via e-mail, to the editor’s address above. Deadline for submission of articles is generally twelve days prior to thenext meeting - earlier would be appreciated! Please call me at 425-823-4658 if you have any questions.

If you use or reprint the material contained in the newsletter, we would appreciate attribution both to the author and the sourcedocument. Our newsletter is prepared with one thing in mind; this is information for our members, and all fellow modelers, and is prepared andprinted in the newsletter in order to expand the skills and knowledge of those fellow modelers.

IPMS Seattle Chapter Newsletter Page 2

Upcoming Meeting DatesThe IPMS Seattle 2010 meeting schedule is as follows. All meetings are from 10 AM to 1 PM, except as indicated. To avoidconflicts with other groups using our meeting facility, we must NOT be in the building before our scheduled start times, andMUST be finished and have the room restored to its proper layout by our scheduled finish time. We suggest that you keep thisinformation in a readily accessable place.

August 14 September 11October 9 November 13


Tamiya 1/48th ScaleVought F4U-1A

by Hal Marshman, Sr.

This is the third of my Tamiya 1/48thCorsairs. In this case, I decided to do the-1A verson of the U-bird. The kit providesthe new semi-bubble canopy, and simplerwindscreen. There are also two new piecesfor the area just aft of the cockpit. As I saidwhen reviewing the -1 version, assemblethese halves to the fuselage halves beforemating them. With this version, you canadd the little fairing just beyond the rightwing fold, that made carrier landings muchsafer. When I reviewed the -1 and -2Corsairs, I neglected to mention the littlestep-in that Tamiya casts into the righthand inboard flap. This was not presentuntil the -1D Hose nose came along, if Iremember correctly. I found the easiestway to fill this was to use Squadron WhitePutty, applied from the inside beforeassembling the flap halves. Force enoughputty through the hole to make a littledome on the outside. Glue the flap halvestogether, and once the putty is dry, justshave it even with the flap surface withyour hobby knife. Really easy now, to justdress it down with fine sandpaper.

On this model, I used EagleCals VF-17decal sheet, duplicating the Hog flown byLt. Butch Davenport, USN, LonesomePolecat. I scratch built the seatbelts/buckles and brake lines, and wired theengine. All lights with the exception of thaton the spine and the wing tip navigationlights are MV lenses, I even managed tofinagle one into the tail cone. Paint schemewas Model Master Enamels, Flat Sea Blue,Intermediate Blue, and white. Weatheringwas accomplished with blue and greenshades of eye shadow, paint chipping inwork areas duplicated with Prismaco silverpencil. Antenna cable is 2-lb test monofila-ment fishing line. As before, I reliedheavily on the work of William Reese forcockpit, wheel well, and landing gearcolors. Corsair Jim Sullivan was of assis-tance when it came to verifying themarkings for Davenport's machine.


Blank Canvas

by Doug Girling

Several people were interested in what Iused for the sail material in my 1/72 scalePARASEV I glider, and rather than tell youjust what I eventually used, I thought itwould be more useful to share the materi-als I've used and experimented with in thatscale before settling on my final choice forthat model.

The PARASEV I used a cotton duck(canvas) for its sail while the more suc-cessful PARASEV II used Dacron. I'veused high density polyethylene (HDPE) inthe past for things like the Dacron blind-flying hoods used in the T-33 and FougaMagister. HDPE is the material found inthose shopping bags which have a"crispy" sound when you crumple them.It's also marked with a "2" in the recyclinglogo. I really like it for lightweight fabricbecause it has the right translucency, isavailable in a huge range of colors and pre-crumpling it gives very scale wrinkles. It'sa tad glossy, but nothing a little Dullcotewon't solve. The downside is that it'snearly impossible to glue, though for myblind-flying hoods I've been tacking theend in place with CA and then crumplingand tacking successive folds, which givesa good representation of the retractedhood. My first attempt at the sail usedHDPE, but I found that while it had thetexture I wanted, it was too translucent tomimic the cotton duck. (If I were insaneenough to also scratchbuild the PARASEVII, I'd use it in a flash.)

Tim Nelson suggested using tissue paperand white glue. Like a dolt, I tried facialtissue first, but it has too coarse a texturefor that scale. It's also basically impossibleto handle when wetted with white glue,variously tearing apart at the first sternlook, or rolling into an armadillo-like ball.

My third sail used tissue wrapping paper(what I'm sure Tim originally meant). It wasa bit thin for canvas, and the canvas colorI wanted fell somewhere between the

available white and beige, but if it worked,I could worry later about how to dye it. Toavoid some of the handling problems, Icarefully glued the sail to the frame first,and after that had dried, painted on somedilute white glue, suspended it upsidedown (so the sag would mimic the sailinflated by the wind) and bid it a goodnight. Morning broke to reveal the oneflaw with white glue: like airplane dope, itshrinks the material. So, instead of the sailnicely inflated by an imaginary breeze, Iinstead had something more like a fallenangel food cake. It was very flat and hadshrunk to the point where it had started tocrush the frame. Also, the wrinklesimparted to the tissue had a definite grainwhich looked most uncanvas-like.

Attempt #4 repeated the above, but usedartist's matte medium instead of white glue.This solved the shrinkage and glossproblems of the white glue, but the tissue'sgrain was still a problem.

I needed a new material, so for the nextexperiment, I tried some drafting vellum. (Iworked as a plotter operator while in

college and scrounged the scrap ends ofthe plotting paper and Mylar rolls becausethey might be useful some day. Little did Iknow "that day" would come 30 yearslater!). The vellum is a lot stiffer thantissue, so I pre-formed the sail beforeattaching it to the frame. This time, Iattached the edges to the outer 'V' of theframe first, let that dry, and then attachedthe center to the central spine. Thisseemed to address the problem of thepanels never having enough loft to them,even though I was working from a scaletemplate. When all of that was dry, Ipainted on the matte medium and let it dryinverted overnight. The morning revealedsuccess at last. The matte medium soakedinto the vellum, causing it to swell slightlyso that as it dried, it puckered a little, whileretaining its overall shape. I didn't have thefine wrinkles that I had with the HDPE, butI did have a soft random waviness thatnicely mimicked a light breeze blowingthrough it. It had the right level of translu-cency and a bit of faint randomsplotchiness to mimic the cotton duck.This would be my solution (besides, I wasgetting tired of experimenting by now!)

L to R: HDPE; tissue and white glue; vellum and matte medium


So, to summarize:

- HDPE is excellent at simulating light-weight fabrics like Dacron in 1/72nd.- Drafting vellum and matte medium do avery good job of canvas in 1/72nd.- Use matte medium instead of white glue(unless you actually want the shrinkage)


Thoroughbred

Airfix 1/72nd Scale EnglishElectric Canberra B(I)8

by Jacob Russell

The Plane

The English Electric Canberra B(I)8 was atwo-seat night interdictor/tactical bomberwith an offset fighter-type canopy forimproved visibility in the ground attackrole. It was designed in response to AirStaff requirement 1B/22D&P, which calledfor a "specialized interdictor" for low-leveloperation in visual ground contact able tocarry a wide range of bombs, rockets andguns. The B(I)8 was a popular plane withits crews, despite the fact that only thepilot had an ejection seat! It was poweredby a pair of Rolls-Royce Avon RA.7 Mk109jet engines, and was also fitted to carry anuclear weapon. The Canberra wasproduced in many different variants andserved in air forces all over the globe formore than 50 years. Approximately 1,352aircraft were produced and the Canberrahas only recently been withdrawn fromservice.

The Kit

The new Canberra kit comes in a verystout cardboard box with colorful com-puter-generated artwork on the lid. Theinjection-molded parts are containedwithin a large plastic bag. The separatelybagged clear sprue is in the same bag. Thekit consists of 160 parts, seven of whichare clear, on seven sprues. My overallimpressions of this kit are very positive.The panel lines are recessed, and althoughthe Matchbox "trench maker" is still out ofwork, the panel lines ARE somewhat wide,and the depth and width of these areuniform throughout the model. The sprueattachment points for most parts are easyto reach with your cutting tool and theyare fairly small as well. Ejector pin marksare very minor, and are found in hard tosee (and fix) places, such as the wheelwells and inner faces of the landing geardoors.

The wheel wells are separately molded, asare the fenders for the front landing gearwheels. The wheels themselves are moldedin halves and are subtly flattened. Thecockpit is a multi-piece assembly. Detail inthe cockpit is somewhat simplified. TheB(I)8 canopy did not open so this impor-tant area will look appropriately busy withthe careful use of washes and dry brush-ing. The cockpit entry door is an individualpiece and can be posed open, and thereare two figures included. The rudder, flaps,and horizontal control surfaces areseparately molded, and the model can bedepicted either "in flight" or on the tarmac.The flaps can be posed open or closed.The fronts of the jet engines have con-vincing detail. The B(I)8 had a bomb bayand the kit allows this area to be depictedopen or closed.

If the closed bay option is selected aBoulton Paul gun pack (which containsfour 20mm Hispano cannon) is included,which attaches to the bomb bay doors.The open bomb bay option includes four750-pound bombs and bomb rack. The bayis composed of five pieces: front and rearbulkheads, the bay itself, and the doors.Underwing stores include wingtipmounted drop tanks, 1,000-pound bombs,a pair of Matra SNEB rocket launchers and

a pair of Nord AS-30 air-to-groundmissiles. I am not 100% certain about theidentity of the last two items. The clearparts are very well molded. They includethe forward nose, canopy and windscreen,lower port window, and wingtip navigationlights.

There are three decal options in the kit:

1) Canberra B(I)8, No. 16 Squadron,Laarbruch, Royal Air Force, Germany, 1972.This aircraft had a distinctive sharkmouthon its nose, and was in the familiar greyand green camouflage with natural metalundersurfaces.

2) Canberra B(I)12, No.14 Squadron,Ohakea, Royal New Zealand Air Force,1968. This plane was also painted grey andgreen with natural metal undersurfaces.

3) Canberra B(I)12, No. 12 Squadron,Waterkloof, South African Air Force, 1969-1975. This plane was overall natural metal,and carried the Boulton Paul gun pack.

The decal sheet is very well printed and inregister, with common and unique stencilsfor each option. The instructions are welldone, with good drawings, a logical buildsequence, and color callouts for Humbrolenamels - what else?


Accuracy

According to Mike Whye, who reviewedAirfix's 1/48th scale B(I)8 kit, the 12engraved horizontal on each rudder halfare incorrect, and should be filled. I did nothave access to a set of 1/72nd scale plans,but the kit certainly looks like a Canberrato me!

Conclusions

I think this is a good kit, with few vices. Ifeel it will build up into a superb replica ofa historically important aircraft. I recom-mend that you pick one of these up. If youtake your time you will be happy with thefinished model.

I would like to thank Mike Whye, whoshared the information he gathered for his1/48th scale review, at http://www.internetmodeler.com/artman/publish/flaviation/Airfix-1-48-E-E-Canberra-B-I-8--FL.php. Mike also provided useful linksto some interesting Canberra websites. Iwould also like to thank Hornby Americafor providing the review sample.

Links

The English Electric Canberra Tribute Site:http://www.bywat.co.uk/canframes.html

Plane Photos UK: http://plane-crazy.purplecloud.net/Aircraft/Jets/Canberra/english_electric_canberra.htm

Eduard 1/72nd ScaleCanberra B(I)8

Detail Parts

by Jacob Russell

B(I)8 Landing Flaps

Eduard set #72501 is a set of photo-etchedlanding flaps for the new Airfix kit of theCanberra B(I) 8 night intruder bomber/

interdictor. This is a complex set. You arefaced with the assembly of very smallparts, the installation of some plastic rodswithin both halves of each flap, and theusual folding. You will also undertakesome sanding of mating surfaces. All ofthese steps are outlined in the directions.

You will probably want to use a photo-etched folding tool, such as the Hold N'Fold, or Tamiya's photo-etch foldingtweezers, to achieve the best results withthis set.

I am a fan of the Canberra, and I think thisset will greatly enhance the new Airfix kit.

B(I)8 Self-Adhesive Photo Etch Set

Eduard set #72353 is a photo-etched setthat complements the Landing Flap setreviewed above. It is designed for the newAirfix Canberra B(I)8 night intruderbomber/interdictor. The set consists of twophoto-etched frets. There are 40 pieces onthe self-adhesive fret, all of which are forthe aircraft interior. These parts includeharnesses for both seats, ejection seathandles, instrument panels, side consoles,throttle quadrant, etc. The majority of partson this fret are pre-painted, which is great,because many of them are very small! Thefret is attached to a piece of waxed paper,and the instructions have a separatesection devoted to the successful use ofthese self-adhesive parts.

The second fret is non-adhesive andunpainted. It is devoted to general airframedetails. The fret includes details such as aboarding ladder, canopy mirror, landinggear door details, static dischargers,

engine details, etc. The wheel wells,landing gear, engine nacelles, wings, andtail surfaces gain significantly finer detailfrom this fret. The usual advice aboutusing photo-etch folding tools alsoapplies.

I like this set. Ejection seats usually lackdetail in injection molded kits, so theseparts save you from springing for aftermar-ket seats. This set adds finer detail tomost areas of the airframe. This set is wellconceived and executed, and, in conjunc-tion with the flap set, will greatly enhanceyour Canberra kit.

I would like to thank Eduard for providingthe review samples.

[Thanks to Chris Banyai-Riepl andwww.internetmodeler.com for permissionto use Jacob’s and Stephen’s articles. -ED]


DML/Dragon 1/35th ScaleFlak 38(t) Ausf. MLate Production

by Andrew Birkbeck

Herewith one of the latest "super kits"from DML/Dragon's "Smart Kit" series: aFlakpanzer 38(t) Ausf. M "Late Produc-tion" variant. As anyone familiar withDML's recent releases will discover, uponopening the box the modeler is almostoverwhelmed by the number of sprues andparts contained therein. In this case 24 (!)sprues of various sizes and shapes,together with three PE frets, two bags of"magic tracks" plus a small decal sheet.And as one has come to expect with DML,the modeler's first duty should really be tocarefully review the instruction sheet,especially the sprue/part diagrams, andmake some initial construction notes!

The first potentially confusing item is thatthere are a number of sprues with the sameletter attached to them. I don't mean thereare say two "H" sprues, with identicalparts on them. I mean that there are two"A" sprues that are completely differentfrom each other, and two "J" sprues,likewise different from one another. Theway you tell the different parts one fromanother is that one sprue "A" is listed onthe instruction sheet in blue lettering,while the other is listed in black lettering!So CAREFULLY read these instructionsstart to finish a couple of times, and makenotes! Add to this situation the fact that aswith all DML kits these days, there aremultiple optional parts: different drive

sprocket configurations, idler wheelconfigurations, etc.

The kit provides the modeler with a verywell detailed interior: engine/radiatorcompartment in the middle of the hull, andthe driver's area at the front of the hull,with nicely detailed drive shaft andtransmission parts etc. DML provides themodeler with lots of separate hatches inorder to give you the option of showingoff all this internal detail. For the reviewmodel, to save time, I left these parts offmy model. The flak gun compartment isalso well detailed, with lots of ammo boxes,two radios etc. Missing is the cablingbetween these radios, and the radioheadsets and mikes, but these are easilyfabricated with some solder wire and scrapplastic, and access to suitable diagrams orphotos from your reference library. In anideal world, a wiring diagram would havebeen provided by the kit manufacturerthough. The flak gun itself is also very welldetailed, with various options available forthe modeler to chose, such as PE parts orplastic parts, to complete this stage.Carefully check the options in Construc-tion Sequence 18, and choose the partsappropriate to the angle of incidence thatyou wish your gun to be aimed.

Problem areas I found in the ConstructionSequences: generally, the fit of parts isvery good, however as I have found withmost of the DML kits I have built, carefullyview the instructions, and test fit partsbefore applying glue, as the exact locationof a part or sub assembly is not alwaysclear from the instruction diagrams.Section 11: flak gun base. Note that listedpart M33 should be M32, and listed partM32 should be M33. In section 14, the partlisted as D15 should be D14, and thatlisted D16 is actually D15. In section 15, bevery careful that you install parts A67 andA68 on the correct side of A53. Make surethe part with the mounting hole for theejected shell casing catcher (see parts A3/A6/A46 and MD1, MC1/2 etc. in Section17) is on the correct side. And when youget to Section 17, note that parts A59 andA60, on the gun shield, have the rivetsfacing inwards, not outwards as shown inthe diagram. Look at the shape of theparts, and where they fit correctly. Finally, Ihad difficulty getting the base of the flakgun unit (the round base part, A66 fromSection 16) to sit nicely into its cradle inthe final assembly Section 19. Was it me, orwas it the kit, you decide! Also in Section19, the assembly of the Magic Tracks:these are very nicely detailed, if extremelytedious to construct.


Painting and Decaling: The review modelwas firstly given a thorough coating of MrSurfacer 1200 primer, in order to give thefollow up color coats something nice tobite into. I then applied a coat of TamiyaXF-60 Dark Yellow, lightened with a goodlyamount of Tamiya XF-2 White. Then,using my Badger Sotar airbrush, I thinneddown Tamiya XF-61 Dk. Green and TamiyaXF-64 Red Brown, and carefully appliedthe mottle camouflage colors. Paints in allcases were thinned with the superb MrColor (lacquer) Leveling Thinner. Then Igave the whole model a couple of thincoatings of Tamiya X-22 gloss clear, inpreparation for the decals. The kit providesthe modeler with a choice of four markingsoptions, three are listed as "Normandy1944 Pz. Div. Hitlerjugend", while one islisted as "Test Run, BMM Factory, 1944". Iapplied none of them as I discovered bycarefully studying the decal applicationdiagrams that all would be hidden if I builtthe model with the upper superstructure ofthe flak gun position folded down! If not,the decals are extremely well printed, byCartograph of Italy. The model was thengiven an overall wash of burnt umber oilpaint, to pick out the rivet details etc.

Despite the complexity of this kit, in termsof the high number of parts, and the lessthan perfect instructions, I very muchenjoyed building this kit. The parts areextremely well detailed, and lack anyobvious ejection pin marks or sink marks.And once you study the instructionsthoroughly, and note the odd error hereand there in the diagrams, the modelershould easily sail through construction.The resulting model is very pleasing to myeye, and I recommend this kit unreservedlyto anyone who like me has a fascinationwith vehicles based upon the Panzer 38(t)chassis, or German flak guns. My sincerethanks to DragonUSA for providing IPMS/USA with this excellent kit for review.Check out their web site for all theirexcellent kits.

MSRP: $55.99

Website: http://www.dragonmodelsusa.com/


Hurricane Bookshelf:Over Some Humps

by Scott Kruize

A book I originally purchased came backinto my permanent possession recently.

The book is Flying the Hump (In OriginalWorld War II Color), by Jeffrey Ethell andDon Downie. (Copyright 1995 and 2004, byMBI Motorbooks; paperback, 168 pages.)Our impression, for decades, was thatWWII was fought in black-and-white,based on textbooks and newsreel footage.But Kodachrome came out in 1935, in16mm movie reels, and in 35mm cassettesto fit the ‘new’ miniature cameras of theera, and during the war, many of the 11million former civilians who served withthe American military carried their cameras,some loaded with Kodachrome, to the farcorners of the world. “Kilroy Was Here”,as we all know. The late Mr. Ethell andothers have been coaxing these moviesand slides from Kilroy’s closets, wherethey’ve lain obscurely for decades, andthis book is one of the results.

Since I started modeling at age 11, I'vetaken in all kinds of subjects: First WorldWar fighters, modern jets, the starshipEnterprise while the first TV series wasrunning, and even old Pyro horse-drawn,Dalmatian-escorted firefighting wagonsfrom before the turn of the prior century.

But warplanes from the Second World Warhave taken most of my time and effort, fora variety of reasons. The sheer variety, intypes and liveries, as the numbers ofplanes, and the sizes of air forces from thatseven-year slice of history, dwarf anythingbefore or since. The interesting techno-logical perspective: the beginning of thewar saw what seemed like only slightly-refined WWI-like fighter biplanes, themiddle the absolute peak of high-perfor-mance piston-powered monoplanes, theend introducing jets and rockets thatpointed to the future. But mainly the cool

color schemes: camouflaged war paint setoff with a wide variety of national insignia!

There's another reason. World War IIseems particularly real to me, and buildingreplicas of its important artifacts isparticularly satisfying. I wasn’t in that war–for which I’m eternally grateful—but myfather was.

He enlisted in 1942. Not in any furiousbloodlust for combat, but because hislifelong philosophy was “Do what has tobe done.” Reading accounts of veterans,and listening to them at Pierce College's‘World War II Week’, gives the impressionthat most American servicemen were likemy father in this. They were clueless,innocent ‘homeboys’ when they signedup. Most hadn’t previously been any-where, done much, or known anything.They certainly started out knowingnothing of war, and weren’t ‘warriors’ inany recognizable classic definition of theterm. They just wanted to do their bits toget the war won and go home

again…which they did…and in theprocess, we note, thoroughly stomped theprofessional and fanatically devoted‘warriors’ of the enemy…

Father was bright and had already accumu-lated some time in college, so when hejoined the army, they put him into technicaltraining: radio communications for theArmy Air Force. He hadn't previouslyknown anything about radio, but studiedhard and well, was given the rank of StaffSergeant, and sent to the China-Burma-India Theater of Operations.

Anyone who’s heard of this theater,enough to have noted the lack of spec-tacular allied advances and victories,would do well to read Flying the Hump.Providing the means for the Allies tomaintain even the small forces there, andother military resources to help theChinese, so far back in the mountainousinterior, meant flying everything from Indiaover ‘the Hump’: the Himalayan moun-tains. It was very difficult and expensive.The India Transport Command (the Chinawing of the U. S. Army’s Air TransportCommand) lost some 600 aircraft duringthe war, few to enemy action. Most werewrecked in the hazardous terrain, trying tofly over it through its vile weather.

Father himself made the trip safely, butonce at his base, assigned to duty on theradio, he sometimes took distress calls,and had to listen to the voices of mengoing down to their doom. He nevermentioned this to me, but told all to mymother during courtship when he returnedfrom the war, and more recently told mybrother James about it, while he was ailing.


There were other ‘humps’. Father did tellme about Imperial Japanese Army aircraftdropping bombs on his head, fortunatelynot quite closely enough. (Hence myexistence!)

Japan surrendered, a major ‘hump’ for himand the other servicemen that occurredmuch sooner than they’d expected, due tothat surprising, terrible superweapon. Hehad to stay on a few months, nervouslyguarding American military assets, whilethe Kuomintang and Communists resumedtheir internal conflict for control of China.On guard duty, he’d contemplate how littlehe wanted to be killed in an ‘incident’ afterhaving survived the huge war against theAxis.

That didn’t happen, and of course he waseventually released and sent home,completing a trip around the world atUncle Sam's expense. Back in the States,he finished his college education, marriedmy mother, and provided for me and threesiblings.

So I always thought modeling World WarII subjects was cool. When Dad’s parentsgave me God Is My Co-Pilot, and theIdlewild School Library had 30 SecondsOver Tokyo, of course I had to buildMonogram’s old ‘Forty-Niner’ P-40. Fatherrecalled meeting General Claire Chennault;how cool is that! I was also excited torecognize a tentative connection betweenDad’s service and the Hawker Hurricane,my favorite WWII fighter. He never sawany in northern China, but Hurricanesfought to the south of him in Burma,alongside the Flying Tigers and later the

14th Air Force, and had been the primaryaerial guards of India as he passedthrough it.

Dad was never garrulous, but did mentionseeing Mustangs at Chinese air bases,later in the war as the P-40s wore out. I’dthought of them only in the Europeancontext, guarding the 8th Air Force bomberfleets, but they did serve in China with the14th Air Force, and (sure enough!) Flyingthe Hump has a color shot of several,warlike in their olive drab paint, set off bywhite identification stripes along the aftfuselages and tails. This book is a greatboon to modelers who want to accuratelyreproduce the aircraft and other equipmentin service in the CBI.

I bought the book a couple of years ago ata vendor’s table at a southern California airshow. I visit my brother Chris in L.A. everyyear so, and he takes me to air shows,often larger than any in the PacificNorthwest. We enjoyed looking it over,and Father was grateful for the gift when Ibrought it home.

He didn’t actually set me on the road tomodeling, but when I was very young,

occasionally some friend or relative wouldgive me a model kit. Of course at age sevenor so, it was way beyond my ability toassemble one, but Father would take anhour so with me in the evening to build it,and I would watch, and help put on thedecals. (See the photo for the survivingexample of his handiwork, and mine. Tothis day, I get a special thrill out of dippingthose first decals in water, as the com-pleted kit sits before me, awaiting itsdecorations.)

Then, as I've told you before, on my 11thbirthday party I was given the Monogramkit of the B-58 Hustler, and borrowed mymother's small stock of Testor’s enamels,plus Father's No. 11 X-Acto knife, tocommence my modeling career. Dad wassupportive, back Then, even buying someof my kits. In my mature adulthood Now,after a long time in the ‘Dark Ages’, Iresumed plastic kit modeling. From amodern discount department store,probably his nearby Fred Meyer, he mademe presents of Testor’s Chance VoughtF4U Corsair and Nieuport 17 kits. Closelyexamining them, I realized Dad hadmanaged to give me—again—kits he’doriginally bought for me back Then in theearly '60s.

Like so many of his Generation—not mis-labeled as the ‘Greatest’—Father is gonefrom this world now. All the World War II

continued on page 16


Boxing Practice

by John DeRosia

Who keeps saying, “You can’t take it withyou...?” Dad burn nabbit! I think they areright.

Okay - here’s where this short articlestarted. Looks like I am now a qualifiedupper mature person whose time has cometo take in the elderly. My mother will bemoving in with us for health reasons, fromall the way down in Florida.

Being we don’t live in a 40,000 square footmansion, and only having a smaller two-bedroom house with a large ‘hobby room’– guess where she gets to go? Yup - youjust got 12 extra bonus points.

Let’s take John’s hobby room and dividethat by two. Thank goodness we had acalculator on hand to do that complicatedmath equation. Two (2) as in half of whatwas so crowded to begin with - now youhave 50% less. Sorry folks - didn’t mean toget that advanced math thrown in.

Take the fact I’ve been a modeler for goingon ‘well over 30 years’. Even though I stilllook like those southern California beachlifeguards…hey - who laughed? Well - inmy mind I do, okay! Why do you think Idon’t have any full length mirrors in thehouse?

In the hobby room, I had two huge floor-to-ceiling file cabinets as well as a fewsmaller ones and other cubby holes I hadmodel related stuff in. Being that I was wellexercised in the college level 101 course:“WAIT TILL THE LAST MINUTE”, Iemptied out all the stuff from the filecabinets and put them in no less than 15+book boxes in two evenings. By waitingright before she moved in, I had no time tosort anything. Yes - many of the items werebooks, magazines, articles and such. Imean, would I use a book box for a model?Okay - I cheated and did put a few modelsin book boxes.

In the midst of ‘speed packing’ – I cameacross stuff I personally hadn’t opened in25+ years. Stuff that brought back greatincredible memories of when I used to readand dream about the airplanes in thebooks, about building the tanks shown, orabout some cool new sci-fi vehicle seen inold model magazines. I came acrossmodeling tools which I were sure sank withthe Titanic, only to find them hiddenbehind some other stuff blocking the viewfor 30 years. I think I had some of theoriginal kits that Fred Flintstone sold to meat one of his garage sales. Bottles of paintwith 12¢ stickers on them. I still remember‘back then’ being upset that they sellpaints ‘sooooo expensive’! Now we plopdown $4.99 for something we use once andit dries out in the next three days after that.

I haven’t even told you about the extragarage we built several years ago - whichby pure accident - seems to have morethan 97.34% of my hobby stuff in it. Thenthere is the basement - another billionmodels in there, give or take three.

Where am I going with this whole story? Istill don’t know. I’m just all of suddenoverwhelmed by so much personal hobbystuff. Like some of you ‘more maturemodelers’, I’ve been collecting prettymuch my entire life. Ft. Knox doesn’t haveenough money/gold in their vaults if wewent out and tried to buy it all at once.

My wife Theresa, who fully supports me inmy hobby, bless her heart, doesn’t have aclue at the sentimental value of my stuff.Let alone when someday they glue me inthat 1/1th scale plastic coffin, she will notknow what to do with my stuff. During mypacking up the hobby room, more thanonce I wanted to put a sign in the yardsaying “FREE” stuff. All my storage roomsare already overflowing with stuff I canbarely store now.

I thought about giving a lot of the booksaway to some young kids - but do theyeven read anymore? What to do with thekits? I don’t know yet. I suppose I shouldFacebook or Text some of the young kids Icome in contact with. Or do I Twitter or

Twatter them? Can you tell I’m not one ofthe newer generation?

I know some of you are/have been insimilar shoes. When the ‘great man’designed us, why did he have to make usCOLLECTORS? I’m getting more and morejealous of our pets. They have everythingthey ever need 100% on them. None ofthem came to us with moving vans,suitcases, or keys to storage places where‘the rest of their stuff’ is kept. Plus theyget owners (us) who love them, feed, themand spoil them rotten.

As soon as the dust is settled, the extraroom built, the bathroom redone and thekitchen remodeled, I promise to sort out alot more of my packed away stuff and makedecisions. I just didn’t write down whatday, month, year, century, or millennium I’dget to it…

The Way the Future Was

by Doug Girling

Since the Spring Show, I've receivedseveral good suggestions for next year'sModelfy subject, and I gratefully thank thecontributors. In spite of that, I decided togo with my own idea anyway. Tired of theseemingly inevitable aviation startingpoint, the 2011 model year will break withtradition. No more just building from thesame kit! No more just building the samesubject in the scale of your choice! Nextyear, choose any 1950s style car model inany scale to build something completelydifferent. The catch? The fine print? I'mglad you asked! The finished model mustincorporate the fins from that wonderfullychrome-encrusted era.

Freeform creativity within constraints(think of it as modeling Haiku)! You have awicked sense of humor and a quiver full ofpuns, so I expect there will be a good cropof err, "unique" offerings pushing throughthe spring snow next year.


The Lent Papers,by Peter Hinchliffe

reviewed by Hal Marshman, Sr.

This biography of Oberstleutnant HelmutLent, Luftwaffe night fighter pilot and ace,was a bargain purchase from one of thebook catalogues I receive at my housemonthly. At $7.95 (suggested retail is US$39.95), plus a like amount for shipping, Ifound it hard to resist. The book is printedin a matte finish, that's absolutely flat. Atfirst I found this finish somewhat discon-certing, but I became acclimated to itrapidly. At least it resists glare andreflected light, unlike many books I'veread. The Lent Papers is very heavilyillustrated, with at least one photo on

nearly every page. The photos are ofcourse wartime pictures, some are grainyor blurry to an extent, but I've not seen atleast 90 percent of them before. For thestudent of Luftwaffe uniforms anddecorations, they are very valuable.Outside of the various pictures of Lent, hisfamily, fellow airmen, and occasions duringhis life and career, there are duplicates oflog book entries, letters and messages,telegrams, and his various award docu-ments. For the aviation enthusiast, thereare pictures of all the various airplanes

Lent trained in, and later flew combat in,not to mention each and every type heclaimed as victories during his nightfighter career. Many of these photos weregleaned from family sources, in particularthose taken before he entered the military,and the multiplicity of those taken at hisfuneral. In my opinion, the illustrations arewell worth the price of the book.

Oberstleutnant (Lt. Colonel in US services)Lent started his career just prior to theonset of World War II. He flew Bf 110 twin-engined fighters during the Polish andNorwegian campaigns, acquiring eight ofhis victories as a day fighter. After beingtransferred to the night fighters, it took hima little while to make his first score, butonce started, embarked on an almostmeteoric career, with victories, promotions,and decorations following each other infairly rapid succession. At the time of hisdeath in a landing accident in October of1944, Helmut was an Oberstleutnant, theKommodore of a night fighterJagdgeschwader. and a holder of theKnight's Cross with Oak Leaves, CrossedSwords, and Diamonds, and all this at theage of 25. Between his day and nightvictories, he accumulated 110 kills.Testimonials written by Geschwader matesabound, and all show Helmut as a strictbut human commanding officer, showinggreat concern for his men. He also showedconcern for the crews of the aircraft heshot down. As a practicing Christian hemurmured a prayer for his fallen enemies.He appears to have not been a convincedNational Socialist. but as a commandingofficer, he was obliged to give lip serviceto the regime he served. I mentioned hisChristianity, and as a member of theGerman Evangelical Church, he didpractice his religion, indeed, his lettershome tell of a great devotion to his God. Itis not my purpose to argue the incongru-ities of a faithful Christian serving a regimeas foul as that of Nazi Germany, just toreport to you my impressions after readinghis biography. I would have to say, "Readthe book, and form your own conclu-sions".

In summary, I found The Lent Papers to bea valuable record of an expert practitioner

of his trade, that of a night fighter ace, fullof insights into his personality, and in theprocess, a detailed study of the RAF'snight assault against Germany, and thesteps taken by the Luftwaffe to counterthat attack. Published by CerberusPublishing, Ltd, 2003/2005.

Windsock Datafile #55:Brandenburg W.29, by PM

Grosz

reviewed by Stephen Tontoni

For any modeler or just an aficionado ofthe aircraft, this book, although apparentlythin, will provide an amazing amount ofinformation. The 1/48th drawings showdevelopment illustrations, multi-view,exploded view, all the necessary visualinformation that you – as the modeler –could really ask for. If you're a 1/72ndmodeler (which I tend to be) it's a snap tosimply scale them down or if you're a1/32nd modeler (shudder) it's not that hardto scale them up. Before you get to thedrawings, the text is clearly written, andexplains something of the developmentand history of the aircraft. It doesn't getheavily into it there, but that's not whatDatafiles are about; it's about data so don'texpect a lot of anecdotal information here.

This book was originally published in 1996and was updated in 2009 and 2010, sothere is extra information in the appendix.In the appendices, there's a bounty ofinformation about the numbers of airframesthat were produced and their disposition,specifications, things like that. Also, thereare updated tables that list the kits thathave been produced of the W.29 from 1980to 2010 and that's changed significantlysince this was originally published.

If you plan on building a W.29 any time, Iwouldn't hesitate to get this on your shelf.My thanks to Albatros Publications for thereview copy.


Golden Age Stars of IPMS#31

Back in the early 2000s, I had a regularseries in the newsletter that featured moviestars (mainly) of the ‘30s, ‘40s, and ‘50s,pointing out their connections to aviation,WW2, or even modeling itself. I neverreally ended the series, just seemed to runout of subjects. When I saw this photowhile surfing the net recently, I knew I hadto revive it. And before you say, “he usedthat photo of an actress sitting in a P-38cockpit before”, I didn’t – that was LindaDarnell (see May, 2001)!

Patty Thomas, who was originally fromErie, PA, only appeared in a handful ofmovies – she was best known as a tapdancer. She was a regular on Bob Hope’sUSO tours during WW2, appearing inskimpy outfits to dance a number or twofor the troops on some hellish, insect-ridden South Pacific island or freezing coldEuropean base in winter. During a USO tripto Europe in 1945, she was photographedsitting in the cockpit of a Lockheed P-38.

Patty is still around – she struck up afriendship during the war years with singerFrances Langford, another regular onHope’s tours, and has lived with Langfordand her husband onLangford’s estate in Califor-nia for many years.

The Veteran's History Project,a government site thatcollects the experiences ofveterans, has a videointerview of Patty discussingher USO tours athttp://lcweb2.loc.gov/diglib/vhp-stories/loc.natlib.afc2001001.08272/

It's a long interview (49minutes), but if you don'twant to watch the wholething, it's broken up intoexcerpts, including one thatrecounts the forced landingon a sandbar of the plane inwhich she was a passenger.


Heller 1/24th ScaleHonda RC211V

by Jacob Russell

The Motorcycle

Honda Racing Corporation (HRC)developed the RC211V to replace theearlier 2-stroke, V-4 engined NSR500, dueto changes in World Championshipmotorcycle regulations. The new regula-tions allowed 4-stroke engines of up to990cc (60 cubic inches) and from three tosix cylinders, whereas 2-stroke engineswere limited to 500 cc and four cylinders.

The name of the class was also changed toMotoGP and the class was limited to raceprototypes only. The RC211V, in thecapable hands of Valentino Rossi, domi-nated its class and in 2002 won theconstructor's championship by more than100 points over the closest rival. TheHonda RC211V won 48 out of 82 races itcontested - more than half (58.5%, to beprecise) - in five seasons of MotoGPracing. It also won three rider worldchampionships (2002, 2003, and 2006) andfour constructor titles (2002, 2003, 2004,and 2006), an impressive record by anymeasure.

The Kit

The kit consists of 38 parts on four sprues,four parts of which are rubber and threeare clear plastic. The rest of the parts arewhite injection molded styrene plastic. Theparts are well molded, with moderate flashand seam lines. The detail is somewhatsoft, although reasonable for the scale.The detail on the chain and rear sprocket iswell executed. There are a moderatenumber of ejection mold pin marks butthese are confined to the inner faces of theaffected parts. Sink marks are few and farbetween, and these will be easy to cleanup. The fairing is on the clear parts sprue,and it is well molded with slight distortionon the windscreen due to its thickness.The other clear parts might be bestdescribed as "show stands". One of these

supports the model by the front wheel in a"wheelie" position, and the other holds themodel by the rear wheel. There is a thirdstand, molded in white, which is quiterealistic in appearance - at least comparedto the other two!

The tank and seat base are a single-piecemolding, and they look pretty good. Theengine, frame, and swing arm are molded inhalves. The detail on these parts is OK andwill come up nicely with careful maskingand painting, followed by washes andsome drybrushing. The front forks come intwo pieces with slight sinkmarks at thebottom near the disc brake calipers. Thehandlebars are integral with the fork crownand have good detail. The front forkassembly includes a pair of front discbrakes that are cleanly molded and welldetailed. The exhaust stacks and mufflerare also individual pieces. Some additionaldetails include the single rear shock, reardisc brake, and front and rear wheels ofappropriate widths.

A three-piece rider figure is included. Theone-piece helmet is somewhat simplifiedbut the overall detail is pretty good. Theinstructions have a logical and clear buildsequence, feature very good illustrations,and are easy to follow. Color callouts arefor Humbrol enamels. The decal sheet islarge, in register, has good colors, and iscomprehensive. It includes 45 decals, 18 ofwhich are for the figure. The decals are for

Valentino Rossi, winner of the ItalianGrand Prix, June 2, 2002.

Accuracy

Scale plans? What scale plans? I don'thave any! It looks like the RC211V to me!Seriously though, it DOES resemble the


Meeting Reminder August 1410 AM - 1 PM

North Bellevue Community/Senior Center4063-148th Ave NE, Bellevue

Directions: From Seattle or from I-405, take 520 East tothe 148th Ave NE exit. Take the 148th Ave North exit(the second of the two 148th Ave. exits) and continuenorth on 148th until you reach the Senior Center. TheSenior Center will be on your left. The Center itself isnot easily visible from the road, but there is a signpostin the median.

vets are dying and will soon be gone. Iwish there were a way to thank them all forhaving won a great war, crossing all thosehumps…and beyond that, for having comeback, established normal lives, and siredand provided for us Aging Baby Boomers.I’ve added to my tangible worldly trea-sures the book I gave Father, but I can’tcount, weigh, or measure the intangibles Istill owe him for. Help me imagine askinghim—and all his veteran contemporaries—if their exertions and sacrifices were worthit, if only to make possible a world wheretheir progeny could indulge in the hobbyof modeling. Don’t you agree they wouldhave laughed—but after a moment’sreflection, said “Yes!”

Over Some Humps from page 11

real thing and that's good enough for me.However, I am skeptical that Humbrolenamels will provide an accurate match forthe motorcycle's colors. I could be wrong. Iwould refer you to Tamiya's 1/12th scaleversion of the RC211V for more exact colormatching. You can find the instructions forthe Tamiya kit at http://www.1999.co.jp/eng/10029764.

Conclusions

This is a good little kit. No one willconfuse it with the very intricate andhighly detailed 1/16th Tamiya motorcyclekits, but Heller is focusing on a completelydifferent market - modelers searching for asimple, easy-to-build, and reasonablyaccurate motorcycle kit that won't breakthe bank. I recommend this kit, and Ipurchased mine from Skyway Model Shop.

References:

Print:

A) “Simulate metal using Alclad Paints”,Clay Kemp, Scale Auto magazine, April2010

2010 Shows

Here are the dates, as currently known, for2010 shows. More information will begiven when it's available:

8/4-7/10 Phoenix IPMS Nationals9/18/10 McMinnville OHMS9/25/10 Lynnwood Galaxy Sci-Fan??/??/10 Silvana 5th Annual10/2/10 Moscow ID Bring out Good Stuff10/9/10 Burnaby IPMS Vancouver ??/??/10 Clackamas OSSM

Thanks to Carl Kietzke.

B) “Box Stock Race Bike-Building andpainting Tamiya's Grand Prix Suzuki”,David Durst, Scale Auto Magazine, April2002

(These two articles offer GREAT tips ondetailing motorcycle models)

Web:

Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Honda_RC211V

Documents

Seattle Chapter News - IPMS · My guess is that in some areas, ... would be more useful to share the materi- ... avoid some of the handling problems, I