Another good meeting with lots of input and participation by everyone. Thanks to everyone for coming today.
We started off with a follow up of UV glue form Blake. Blake used the UV glue for filling gaps in his Dragon 1/700 Ticonderoga that he purchased from Daniele the previous week. Blake concluded that UV Glue was not ideal for filling but did believe that it had a lot of useful applications in our hobby. I'm wondering about using this to attach crew members to decks. Tap their little feet into the glue, place on the model, and hit it with the UV light. We're going to have to give that a try!
Sam then continued with part 2 of his presentation on the recovery of the ships at Pearl Harbor. This time it was about the ships that weren't rebuilt. Interesting discussion about the Arizona and what is her current classification within the Navy. According to the official Naval Vessel Register, USS Arizona was classified as "Memorial" on 5/30/1962. I found a very interesting link that provides the status of US Naval Vessels. http://www.nvr.navy.mil. Sam shared a second resource book which is "Pearl Harbor Air Raid, The Japanese Attack on the U.S. Pacific Fleet, December 7, 1941" by Nicholas Veronica. Sam warns that there are some inaccuracies.
I (David) followed up a presentation on modeling ships with battle damage. I came across a Facebook page called The Museum Modeler who is doing some wonderful 1/700. The modeler is Jonathan Scott who is the curator at the Southern Museum of Civil War & Locomotive History. I've been to this museum and it's a must see. Check it out and the next time you're in Georgia stop in and see Jonathan. Jonathan has put together some real nice videos which I'm going to add a link to with the other videos. But go check out his page and feel free to reach out and introduce yourself.
Next we had a discussion painting waterlines. Victor started by going through his process for brush painting. We're all still impressed with your skills Victor! Victor discussed how he makes his marks with a pencil attached to a wood block. We also saw how in this case the split hull seam is hidden with the edge of the black boot topping.
Here are some examples of commercial and home made markings. The key is a stable model and stable marking device.
Next John gave us a discussion on a method he learned from Hugh for waterline models. He uses decals in his 1/700 models. John likes to elevate his model using mounting tape. After his model has been painted he gives it a clear gloss finish. Then stripping decals are used for adding the boot topping. But John doesn't stop there. He uses red decal in cases where there is no boot topping but you would like to see just a hint of the red bottom. These stripping decals are available from Microscale, Xtradecal, and others. John had a very good tip about using older decals as well. Testors and some other companies have clear flexible fixative designed to spray over decals. This helps hold the decals together and make them useable again. Another excellent tip that came from Jerry? Use a sliding cutter. I added an example from Fiskers down below...
Hugh also pointed out that you can take plane decal paper, paint it the appropriate color, and apply it instead of trying to mask off areas. This can be used for splinter patterns and such. The result is nice sharp lines in the exact color you need.
Hugh also has an excellent suggestion. We all complain about the accuracy of Trumpeter kits. But how do you go about correcting those mistakes to make a more accurate model. Everything from research, to construction, to aftermarket parts, to finishing. While we're not likely to get everyone to do the same kit. Let's have Hugh and perhaps Roger talk about how they make corrections to the Trumpeter Maryland. The rest of us can think about the issues we've run into and how we go about correcting them. As an example Victor was discussing the problems he's having incorporating Pontos update set into his 1/350 Trumpeter kit. This will be good discussion over the next few months.
Bill Smallshaw gave a nice talk on how he moved his giant collection of ship models from California to his new home in Colorado. Using carpet tape to secure the models to the bottoms of plastic containers all of his ship models made it to Colorado in great shape. What Bill didn't show us are the beautiful wood cases he had made for his collection. I'm hoping he'll share that with the group in an upcoming meeting.
I hope I didn't forget anything! If I missed some important narrative let me know and I'll get it added in. When you get a chance check out the video from Jonathan on attaching railings. Maybe we can get somebody to step up and show an alternative method to what Jonathan does.
I'm also going to add another page for research and reading material. I've read some really terrific books from James Hornfischer on WWII in the South Pacific. Incredible books!
I think we've got some interesting stuff for the March meeting. Sorry I'm going to miss it. Maybe Jerry will video tape it for me with his new GoPro camera! ๐
One last thing. CoMMiESFest will be on next weekend at Jeffco Fairgrounds. While their club focus is Sci-Fi the contest is for most of the normal IPMS categories. It's always fun to go to these shows and see what others do. It will get your creative juices flowing. In addition to the show they have vendor tables and have seminars. Here's the link to the contest page. It would be nice to get a report from the show.
