Sommaire pour July/August 2023 de FineScale Modeler

Canada’s biggest model show just got bigger! HeritageCon 15 packed the Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum in Mount Hope, Ontario, with a record-setting 1,003 models exhibited on the contest tables. Among the capacity crowd jockeying to see the models and shopping the vendor booths were FSM editors looking for exciting models to share with you. See the superb scale tanks, planes, cars, ships, Gundams, and more by visiting FineScale.com/show-galleries. The nuts and bolts of building armor models Are you a beginner looking for advice for building a tank model? Maybe you’ve been away from the hobby for a while and need help getting back into armor modeling. Whatever your skill level, FineScale Modeler is here for you! Visit FineScale.com/how-to and let FineScale Modeler Editor Aaron Skinner lead you through building a…

Patrolling the dystopian future (of 2019!) seen in Ridley Scott’s 1982 film Blade Runner, the blue spinner has become a classic sci-fi vehicle. Created for the movie by acclaimed neo-futurist and industrial designer Syd Mead, the idea has been replicated and paid homage to in numerous subsequent movies, TV shows, and comics. Although kits of the vehicle have been produced in vinyl and resin, it wasn’t until 2011 that Fujimi produced one in injection-molded plastic. Characterized by generally good exterior detail, Fujimi’s 1/24 scale kit has a couple of mistakes inside and the wheels are completely smooth with no tread on the tires. I set about to fix those flaws and light the police car without using aftermarket parts.…

I wanted to try my hand at a type of diorama I’ve seen a few times recently — boxed scenes built into custom picture frames. It can be challenging to re-create a scene in a tight spot, but done right, plenty of atmosphere can be produced. My vision was a long abandoned wooden building deep in the woods, so I employed several techniques to weather the components. FINAL THOUGHTS WITH THE BUILDING DONE, I added groundwork, trees, and shrubs in the foreground and placed everything into the frame. Looking at the finished scene feels as if you are glimpsing a dilapidated house deep in the woods — in a 3D photo. Framed dioramas can be used for scenes both rural and urban as you can see in another one of…

The M48 Patton tank served in many conflicts in the mid to late 20th century and has been, with upgrades, used by many countries around the world. Takom’s new 1/35 scale M48A3 Mod B plastic model kit comes with posable hatches, multipiece tracks, clear parts, and markings for four vehicles (two U.S. Army, one South Vietnamese army, and one Marine). All the suspension parts are added to the lower hull. Don’t glue the torsion bars in place until you’ve checked alignment. Do not glue suspension arms K32 and K33, letting them float free, until Step 4. After the upper hull is attached, you’ll install the engine deck, exhaust grilles, and gun lock. I left off the driver’s periscopes until final painting. After painting and installing the road wheels, I checked…

What is modeling responses Ed.: In an episode of FineScale Modeler Weekly, Tim Kidwell and I addressed the question, “What is modeling?” and we asked viewers and readers to respond. Here’s a sampling of those comments. – Aaron Skinner I just watched your video on “What Qualifies as Modeling” and wanted to say that I couldn’t agree more. At its core, modeling is replication of something real or imagined. Designing parts yourself, whether by hand or for 3D-printing, is just a different level of detail some people use the same way some modelers use aftermarket resin details. 3D-printing is a medium, like all the other materials (PC, PS, wood, PE, resin, etc.) that go into our kits and dioramas and does not inherently affect the definition of what is and…

AIRCRAFT 1/35 SCALE 1/48 SCALE 1/144 SCALE ARMOR 1/16 SCALE 1/72 SCALE AUTO 1/20 SCALE 1/24 SCALE 1/25 SCALE 1/32 SCALE FIGURES 1/35 SCALE SCIENCE FICTION 1/35 SCALE SHIPS 1/144 SCALE OTHER 1/35 SCALE BOOKS 1/35 SCALE…

DOUGLAS SCOTT FOUNTAIN INN, SOUTH CAROLINA Douglas built his Academy 1/350 scale Cutty Sark out of the box. He painted with Vallejo acrylics using a combination of airbrushing and hand-brushing to get it just right. To give the sails a weather-beaten appearance, Douglas blended shades of white and tan with an airbrush. After noticing that the molded flags at the top of the masts were out of scale and lacked decals, Douglas cut them off. ARIEL HORTON VERNAL, UTAH For her second solo build, Ariel built an Airfix 1/48 scale P-51D kit. Not a fan of military paint schemes, she does like modern-day racers, the more colorful the better! So, she made this “what-if” Jelly Belly-sponsored aircraft. Ariel plans to build Miss America and Amelia Earhart’s red Lockheed Vega next.…

When Spain sought a replacement for its army’s M60 tanks, it settled on the German designed Leopard 2. In addition to surplus German 2A4s, they built more than 200 of their own, designated the 2E, which is similar to the 2A6 with some differences mostly in the turret and targeting. Looking to add one to my collection of Spanish military vehicles, I picked up HobbyBoss’ 1/35 scale kit of the 2E. It’s pretty good, but it misses some of the features unique to the Spanish tanks. I could have picked up an aftermarket turret for the 2E but instead decided to make a few modifications and work pretty much straight from the box. FINAL THOUGHTS AS A FINISHING TOUCH, I added a little dirt and dust around the lower hull and…

MPC released its original 1968 Dodge Coronet convertible plastic model kit in 1969, and I built it as a kid. I don’t remember anything specific about it other than that I painted it just like the box art and was rather proud of it. But this isn’t a reissue — a re-pop in common parlance. No, this is an all-new tool of the old kit. The parts are molded in white. As you might expect from a new tool, the details are crisp, and flash is non-existent. The clear parts are like crystal, and the chrome is mirror bright. A new decal sheet provides lots of vibrant markings including three “bumblebee” stripe options. And if all that isn’t enough, a nice little utility trailer with accessories is included, too! The…

KalmbachHobbyStore.com If you’re planning on modeling a UH-1, David Doyle’s book The Huey in Vietnam is a great resource for superdetailing projects and will provide outstanding inspiration for dioramas. Part of Schiffer’s Legends of Warfare Aviation series, the 112-page hardcover brims with photos of Huey gunships and transports in combat. Pick up your copy at Kalmbach Hobby Store for $19.99. The Huey is by far my favorite helicopter, especially the longer body UH-1D. It and the earlier versions were widely used during the Vietnam War. Dragon offers the only 1/35 scale UH-1D with a kit that originated as a Panda Models release in 2002. It’s not great, with thick plastic and clunky moldings, but Dragon added photo-etched metal (PE) parts that improve many internal and external details. There are also…

Let’s see your Model A Visit contribute.Kalmbach.com to share your personalized hot rods with FineScale Modeler! Two of today’s most popular hot rod kits are the Revell 1/25 scale Ford 1929 Model A roadster and 1930 Model A five-window coupe. Accurate, fun to build, full of options, and largely reflective of the latest trends in the 1/1 scale hot rod world, they are also, once again, widely available. Such popularity means many modelers build the kit and that can make it tough for your hot rod to stand out from the others parked around it. What can you do to make this kit truly your own and give it your own spin? Plenty. You might go with a simple alteration, like different hubcaps and taillights, or get ambitious and drop…

There are three 1/48 scale A-10C kits on the market, and you might be asking, “Which one is the best?” Academy’s is the newest, so let’s see how it stacks up against the HobbyBoss and Italeri offerings. When opening the box, you’ll see it packed with trees of light gray plastic. Academy provides the aft fuselage as a single, slide-molded part marked with fine recessed panel lines and raised rivets. Most kits split this area in half, risking damage to or the elimination of surface detail through filling and sanding. Three faint mold seams are visible, but I removed them easily by lightly scraping them with a No. 11 blade. The same process was used for the engine nacelles. Such awesome engineering! Sharply molded clear parts include a two-part canopy,…

From the late 1950s to the early 1970s, AMT and JoHan negotiated yearly contracts with automakers to design and produce 1/25 scale dealership promotional giveaways. This allowed those companies to affordably produce spin-off promotional assembly kits each year that resulted in kits of real cars that otherwise would have never seen boxings, including luxury brands Cadillac, Lincoln, and the Chrysler Imperial. Imperial hardtop and convertible 1/25 scale kits debuted in 1959 as otherwise identical kits under both the SMP and AMT brands. The follow-up 1960 Imperial kit was newly tooled and carried on through 1963 with yearly design revisions, including adaptations to add an engine in 1962. SMP branding alone appeared on these kits in 1960-61, while both AMT and SMP branding graced the otherwise identical 1962 kits. (With AMT’s…