This month we were able to complete one maritime craft. This is the 1/72 scale Revell Swift Boat: That's it for this month, hopefully more to come down the slipways next year. My apologies for the picture quality, I still haven't found my camera.

Finished this one up today. This is a pretty good kit, that certainly looks like a Liberator when done. The Davis Wing contour on the top of the wings at the root is missing; which is odd because they got the offset leading edges of elevators and rudders correct! The fit over all is good, except for the fit of the gear bays in the wings, which are too thick and require significant thinning to close the wings up. The ailerons and flaps are designed to be trapped when building the wings, but the hinges can be clipped so they can be added later. The kit has over 20 sprues and LOTS of heavy sprue connections and nubs on the parts. You'll need a very good set of nippers and #11 blades to trim all of the parts. Also, many of the connectors run OVER onto the gluing surfaces, making for extra trimming to make parts fit properly. There two other significant engineering anomalies to work around. The first is to clip the top off of the stem from the nose gear fork so it can be added later in the build. The other is the need to clip two big pins inside the wings (top and bottom) so that the wings can be built and then slid OVER the wing spar. The instructions would have you build the wings around the spar making for a massive assembly to handle for much of the build. Doing this mod allows the fuselage and wings to be assembled and painted separately, which eases things greatly. The fit of the wings to the fuselage is very good, by the way! The kit has plastic landing gear, which appear to be robust enough to support the model. However, Aercraft Models makes brass replacement gear and would be a better idea over time. The weakest area of the kit is the rubber tires, which fit their hubs horribly. I heartily recommend the Eduard resin tires if you build this kit! The detailing is good throughout, except for the radio room and the nose. The radio room only has 2 small windows, as the details aren't missed there. The lack of detailing in the nose is baffling. The instructions only show a seat and an ammo box, even though a Norden bomb sight IS in the kit (along with some other "J" parts), and do NOT tell you to add it. I built up a structure for the sight and added extra kit parts to at least detail the nose area. Here are some in progress pics with comments to better illustrate.... I used tape tabs to marl the numerous sprues, making it much easier to find them during the build... The kit cockpit deck is good. I cut the kit decal and used it on the main instrument panel. The blue throttle handles are PE parts, which are easier to apply if they're cut apart. This shows the upper nose gear installed on the nose gear floor. Cutting off the very top of the stem to the nose gear fork/mud guard allows it to be slid in later. Typical waist area detailing... This shows how much grinding/trimming I had to do to make the gear bays fit. You can also see the 2 large pins/sockets that need to be removed to allow the assembled wings to fit over the wing spar. This shows how I first installed the bomb sight (rebuilt a higher support structure later) and the kit parts I added to detail out the nose. I weighted the model with lead fishing sinkers that could be smashed flat/shaped to fit. You can also see the full bomb load added into the well detailed bomb bay. The kit glass is very clear with sharp framing that allows masks to be cut on them using Tamiya tape and a NEW #11 blade (wore out 5!). The turrets are well detailed, though the interior parts for the rear turret need some trimming to get it to close. It also has an unsightly seam on the top center that I hid with a bogus center line frame. Enough in progress pics.... on to the completed model Gil !

This was done for a step by step demo build over on the Britmodeler site. It's OOTB with the exception of the landing gear as most vacuform landing gear is not too good, and canopy as the kit canopy had yellowed over the years. The undercarriage, canopy and decals were donated by an old Matchbox kit of the same subject. It's got lot's of problems and is very basic, but as I said, it was done as a demo build to show how to do a vacuform. but here it is, warts and all.

Can an individual enter one of my models in the Nationals in my absence? Thanks Chris

Most cameras I own are film cameras manufactured between the early 1970s to the mid 1990s. 35mm SLRs, medium format and even a couple of Instamatics in the collection. Since 2012, I have been using either a Canon PowerShot SX150 IS or my smart phone. My smart phone and Canon Powershot are normally sufficient for most tasks, but photographing entries at the local MMSI and IPMS Butch OHare contests would be easier with a DSLR. However, - as is the case with any tech device- cost of buying new and the expectation of rapid obsolescence delayed my DSLR purchase. Oddly, it waas the purchase late last year of a little used Nikon F3 for $20.00 USD in a thrift store that prompted the purchase of a used Nikon D3300 this month. The question I have for members is: Do members use DSLRs to photograph their models or smart phones?

Found this vignette in the November 2022 issue of Military Illustrated Modeller. I glad to see someone--Daniel Buchmeier did something besides more SS figures. The SS were the bad guys, and it is time people remembered their crimes. Dak

You thought this was going to be a Star trek scene, but it is a pair of Nazi SD guys raiding resistance members putting up posters. The Figures are from D-day, the car Tamiya and the kiosk from Custom Dioramics. The pigeons are Miniart along with the streetlamp and bench. The pavers and sidewalk are all done with grout. The Paris uprising began on August 18th. Dak

Does anyone know what the antenna on the aft fuselage, just behind the national insignia, Is called and what it does?