In this Issue…

PLUS… - Club News brings us all the coverage of past and upcoming events from the Sonoran Desert Model Builders.

- In Model Reviews Dick Smith brings us a review of Hasagawa’s 1/72nd

scale P-2V Neptune .

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- In Model Shows we bring you the results of our third annual model contest, ScorpFest.

SDMB MODEL OF THE YEAR 2016

Mold Lines is the official publication of the Sonoran Desert Model Builders Modeling club. We publish it on a monthly basis and it is your source for Club news, interviews, model reviews, photos or our member’s modeling work as well as articles on modeling techniques and other articles of interest to our

members.

WHO ARE THEY? The Sonoran Desert Model Builders is a chartered IPMS model club in Tucson, Arizona dedicated to advancing each other’s skills through tip sharing, encouragement and, most importantly, hands-on building. Our members enjoy a deep camaraderie and level of respect for each other as well as a passion for model building. We build it all... cars, airplanes, armor, ships, figures, sci-fi...

Our mission is simple… LET’S BUILD!

WHERE CAN I

FIND THEM?

We meet at the Northwest corner of Alvernon and 22nd from 6:30 to 8:30 P.M.

1100 South Alvernon Way Tucson, AZ

MEETING DATES 2016

JANUARY ……………… 7 th

FEBRUARY ……………… 4 th

MARCH ……………… 3 rd

APRIL ……………… 7 th

MAY ……………… 5 th

JUNE ……………… 2 nd

JULY ……………… 7 th

AUGUST ……………… 4 th

SEPTEMBER ….………… 1 st

OCTOBER ….….……… 6 th

NOVEMBER ..…….…… 3 rd

DECEMBER ……..…… 2 nd

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Now with the new year, yes you guessed it, come new year’s resolutions. At our last meeting our friend Dick Smith brought in a completed 1/72 English Electric Lighting. Now according to Dick, he will dedicate this year to work on completing models from his collection that have already been started, and I thought to myself, “that is a cool resolution!” So, I am planning to join our fellow modeler in setting the same resolution for 2016. I will work on completing models from my collection that have already been started. So I would like to ask you al to join us in this resolution and declare 2016, The Year of The Shelf Queen! Until next time. Model on!

Editor’s Workbench

Hello once again. The new year is marching on and already our club is off to a great start. Last January the 16th we held our annual scale model contest show in conjunction with Model Mania of Tucson. We had an amazing show, with modelers joining us from Albuquerque and Las Vegas, we even had a representation from IPMS Hermosillo in Mexico who delighted everyone with their great modeling work. To top it all off we had a whooping 30% increase in entries this time around!! This month we also bring you the best of 2015 with the winner of out Model of the Year award. This award is given to the most liked model completed during 2015. This year the award went to Pat Harrington's beautifully painted P-51D Mustang.

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2016: The year

Of the shelf queen

CLUB NEWS

RECENT EVENTS

4 Kent Week’s 1/35 German SWS

• Sonoran Desert Model Builder monthly meeting - The monthly meeting for the club was held on January 7th 2016. We had a great turn out and a great time in spite of a torrential rain storm that battered the city for almost a week! Also we would like to congratulate Kent Weeks as he was the winner of the Tamiya 1/32 F4U Corsair.

Vinve Welsch showed us his medieval armor he used during his reenactments. All hand made!

Clara Triem’s 1/32 Morene Saulnier Type N1

GOING TO THE BATHROOM DURING BATTLE IN THE MIDDLE AGES WAS NOT FUN!

CLUB NEWS

RECENT EVENTS

5 Bob Duke’s 1/25 White Freightliner

Joe Goodwin’s 1/35 KV-1 diorama with Soviet tank rider. Nice effects on the

explosion.

LAST ONE IN BERLIN IS A

CAPITALIST!!!

CLUB NEWS

RECENT EVENTS

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Models on Display at our January meeting

See more awesome

model photos from our

meeting at:

www.sdmb.yolasite.com

Dave Faust’s 1/35 KV-85

Annette Sostarich’s Boeing 307 Stratoliner

CLUB NEWS

UPCOMING EVENTS

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• Make and Take at the Pima Air and Space Museum - This event is designed to introduce children to the hobby of model building and the math and historical research used to build accurate scale models. The event will take place February 6nd , 2016 from 1:00 PM to 2:30 PM.

• SDMB Monthly Meeting – Our club’s next meeting will be held on February 4th, 2016 from 6:30 – 8:30. It will be held at our regular meeting location. (See Page 2 for details).

• Don’t forget to support out monthly raffle! Every month we give away one item from our raffle stash for every 10 tickets . Tickets are only $1.00!

Dick Smith’s 1/72 Trumpeter English Electric Lighting. The first Shelf Queen to get knocked off the pedestal in 2016!

SDMB Model of the Year

As is the custom during the last meeting of the year our club members get to select the Model of the Year. The rules were simple. Each club member could enter one model that had been started and finished during the past year. After that each member voted for their favorite model. We had 12 entries all wonderful work, but the best was Pat Harrington’s 1/48 P-51D Mustang “Contrary Mary”.

Pat’s initial idea for the complex checkered pattern was to make a custom decal. After initial trials it was revealed a decal would not be a feasible idea so Pat used the decal as a stencil and painted each checker one by one. The results were pretty amazing.

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SDMB Model of the Year

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Model Review

Hasagawa’s 1/72nd scale Neptune for the

Hanger One Museum Display

By Dick Smith

Hasagawa’s 1/72nd scale Lockheed P-2V Neptune kit is not one for the inexperienced modeler or for one with little patience. It was released early in the 1970s and has appeared many times as a reissue with only decal changes. Construction starts with a very sparse cockpit that even lacks control columns. Decals are given for the center console and the instrument panel. There are no specific colors indicated for the cockpit or the navigator/observer’s position in the nose other than “matte gray.” A safe bet would be to spray this area with dark gull gray, FS-36231.

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Model Review

The pilot and co-pilot’s seats can be sprayed the same color but a gray darker or lighter would add interest. I added seat cushions painted bright orange, FS-28913, and seat belts made from typing paper dipped in black coffee.

The completed cockpit is glued to the nose gear well and then the whole assembly is cemented to the right side of the fuselage. This model is a “guaranteed tail sitter” so it is necessary to place as much weight as possible under the cockpit floor and in the radome. I used many B-B’s that were sunk in a pool of white glue for this task. Keep in mind that when you think you have enough weight here…you’ll need more.

The plastic used in

this kit is somewhat

soft and the use of

super glue filler is

not recommended

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Model Review

Since only the very early models of the P-2V carried a top cannon turret this area will have to be closed up using a clear part provided. Be aware that this piece does not fit well and several coats of putty will be required to completely fill in this area.

There are several clear window parts that you’ll have to decide on using at this point. I opted to leave these off and use Micro Crystal Clear after the painting was complete. The instructions call for the building of the Wright R-3350-32WA radial engines next. Having been warned about the poor fit and difficulty in construction of this phase, I decided to put this job off until later.

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Model Review

Instead, I assembled the horizontal stabilizers and glued them to the fuselage from the inside. This technique eliminates any cement creeping out of the seam and no clean up is required.

The top sections of the wings were then glued to the fuselage in the same manner. When these parts had dried solid, I glued the bottom parts of the wings into place. This left only filling to be done on the bottom side of the wing joint. With the wings and stabilizers solidly in place, I glued the fuselage sides together and set the basic construction aside to dry solid. While waiting for the basic airframe to dry solid, I painted the tires Model Master “aircraft interior black,” the landing gear, inside of the gear doors and wheel wells gloss white.

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Model Review

The props are eight individual blades that are very thin and very fragile. The blades are painted black and then the tips are masked and sprayed white. When dry, I carefully masked the white tips in order to paint thin red stripes in the center of the white areas. This is a very time consuming job but the results add to overall appearance of the model.

Since this model was for the Glenview Hanger One museum project, I painted the aircraft in the 70s scheme of flat light gull gray on the lower fuselage, horizontal stabilizers, vertical stabilizer and wings. The top of the fuselage is flat white. I used historical photos of the aircraft to duplicate the paint job. With the fuselage painted and sealed with a coat of Future, I set the model aside to prepare for the decals.

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Model Review

I decided to attach the main landing gear at this point. It is a project that requires several more than two hands to accomplish. Suffice it to say that the job is difficult. I used white glue to attach the parts and when dry beefed up the assembly with super glue. At this point it was possible to check if the model would stand correctly on its gear. I found that I needed to add additional weight forward. I accomplished this by pouring white glue into the hole in the fuselage where the astrodome bubble fits. I then dropped B-Bs into the hole until the aircraft sat on the tricycle gear.

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Model Review The markings for the aircraft came from various sheets from Super Scale, Micro Scale and Scale Master letters, stripes and numbers. The stylized bird on the top of the vertical stabilizer was made using the historical photo as a pattern and then the shape was cut from Tamiya masking tape to form a stencil.

With all of the markings in place, I sprayed a coat of Testors Dullcoat over the model. When this was dry I attached the clear parts in place with white glue. The small windows were filled with Micro Crystal Clear. The final job was to attach the pre-painted prop blades to the spinner backs and then attach then to the engines.

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Model Shows

ScorpFest 2016

January is the time of the year for our annual scale model show. This year we started off with a bang as we had yet another record breaking show. A whopping 30% increase in entries and modelers from several states as well as from Mexico showed up for a day of great models and awesome model shopping. The event featured our Gold-Silver-Copper award system that rates each model individually as well a Best of Show, People’s Choice and Best in Category awards. As always, the success of the event was due to the efforts of all the club members and other modelers who volunteered, especially those who stepped up and helped judge.

This year Jim Stute took the Best of Show award with his stunning Imperial Japanese Navy aircraft carrier.

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Dave Diaz’s 1/72 F9-F Panther took Best Small Aircraft.

Jeff Wallen took the Best Automotive Award with his amazing 1/24

Model Shows

BEST AUTOMOTIVE

BEST SMALL AIRCRAFT

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Pat Harrington took Best Large Aircraft with his 1/48 P-51D

This category was a close one with no less than three models tied for best in category! In the end it was Chris Porche who took the Best Figure award with his wonderful Ork Pilot Ace bust.

Model Shows

BEST LARGE AIRCRAFT

BEST FIGURE

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John Pattison took Best Miscellaneous with his 1/8 Dinosaur.

Model Shows

BEST DIORAMA

BEST MISCELLANEOUS

Mike Mcfaden’s amazing “Wolf’s Lair” shadow box took Best Diorama and also took the People’s Choice award.

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Chris Porche took home yet another Best in category, this time it was Best Sci-fi and Space with his 1/56 Imperial Knight.

Model Shows

BEST LARGE AIRCRAFT

BEST SCI-FI / SPACE

Best Armor went to John Brubaker and his 1/35 King Tiger.

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SDMB Club Officers

& Contacts

HOW CAN I JOIN THE SDMB?

Test the water before you join!

Here's how: Drop by and say "hello" at one of our monthly meetings (see our Next Meeting page for date and location details). If you like what you see and hear then drop by again the next month

and be sure to bring your questions and we'll help you get started! The first two meetings are free so drop on by! After your second meeting we would appreciate you joining our club. Our club dues

pay for various things such as community programs and sponsorships of trophies in contests. We are happy to have visitors but even happier when you join our club of award winning modelers.

Dave Brown arizonadesertdave@gmail.com (PRESIDENT)

Kent Weeks kentanddeanna@centurylink.net (TREASURER)

Derek Campbell 4nagato1@gmail.com (SECRETARY)

Mike Bilcik mbilcik1@cox.net (CLUB IPMS POINT OF CONTACT)

Dave Diaz EDITOR_SDMB@Yahoo.com (NEWSLETTER EDITOR) (Vice President)

Steve Barlow redsteve921@gmail.com (CLUB WEBMASTER)

Visit our website at www.sdmb.yolasite.com You can also find us on Facebook. SDMB is an affiliated club of the International Plastic Modeler’s Society www.IPMSUSA.org