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Seattle Chapter IPMS/USADecember 2004

PREZNOTES

In This Issue

IPMS UK Nationals Report 3PST 3HC-42 (ZiS-42) 62005 NWSM Show 11Hurricane Bookshelf 122005 IPMS Seattle

Meeting Schedule 13Special Hobby Ro.57 14Nakajima Ki-27 Book 14RAFDec “Between the Wars”

Sheet 15IPMS Seattle 2005 Renewal

Form 16

This was going to be a continuation of lastmonth’s “airline preznotes” - my returnfrom Orlando squeezed into steerage,knees being crushed, etc., however, uponrereading my notes, I thought I’d spareyou the ranting and general nonsense sixhours in an airline seat that’s too small inevery dimension. Nope, I’m going to go ina completely different direction...

I have felt a great sense of accomplishmentin the last few days. I have finished one ofmy major projects of the year and I amnearly finished with my second majorproject. The completed model is my Battleof Britain B-25 camera ship and the modelnearly finished is my PBY from the movieAlways. I’m really pleased about these twoprojects because they are the mostextensive that I’ve dealt with in quite sometime. Both required extensive modificationsto the basic models, in addition to be realpainting challenges for me. Neither onewere my usual out of the box projects. Ithink finishing something like thesemodels gives a real boost to the enjoymentof the hobby, probably more so than a

Continued on page 13

simpler project would bring because of thedifficulty involved. Now, I’m definitelylooking forward to a few of those out ofthe box projects. I’m ready to tear into aFine Molds A7M Reppu and an AcademySpitfire XIV which are both started. I’m

SEATTLE CHAPTER CONTACTS

President: Vice President: Treasurer: Editor:Terry Moore Keith Laird Norm Filer Robert Allen3612 - 201st Pl. S.W. 528 South 2nd Ave. 16510 N.E. 99th 12534 NE 128th Way #E3Lynnwood, WA 98036 Kent, WA 98032 Redmond, WA 98052 Kirkland, WA 98034Ph: 425-774-6343 Ph: 253-735-9060 Ph: 425-885-7213 Ph: [email protected] [email protected] [email protected]

IPMS Seattle Web Site (Webmasters, Jon Fincher & 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 plastic modeler, regardless ofinterests. Modelers are encouraged to bring their models to the meetings. Subscriptions to the newsletter are included with the Chapter dues.Dues are $24 a year, and may be paid to Norm Filer, our Treasurer. (See address above). We also highly recommend our members join andsupport IPMS-USA, the national organization. See below for form. Any of the members listed above will gladly assist you with further informa-tion 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 or WordPerfect document for the PC would be suitable for publication. Articlescan also be submitted via e-mail, to the editor’s address above. Deadline for submission of articles is generally twelve days prior to the nextmeeting - 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

Upcoming Meeting DatesThe IPMS Seattle 2004/2005 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.

December 11, 2004 January 8, 2005February 12 March 12


Orphan Andy’s MagicalMystery Tour to Telford,

UK, or, Is All That I See forReal?

by Andrew Birkbeck

On Thursday November 18, I had the verygood fortune to set off on a little tour ofthe UK and France, my primary goal beingto visit this year’s IPMS UK Nationalevent, held at the Telford InternationalCentre, northwest of Birmingham. Theshow covered two days, Saturday andSunday, November 20 and 21. Also inattendance from IPMS Seattle wereStephen Tontoni, Will Perry, and formermember Woody Yeung. Sadly, I was unableto travel with these fine gentlemen, as Iwas traveling on the cheap, using upUnited Airlines mileage points before theypotentially become worthless, what withUnited currently residing under theprotection of the bankruptcy courts. I hadto fly via Chicago, whereas Stephen andWill did the intelligent thing and wentdirect Seattle-London, via British Airways.

The IPMS UK Nats are a very big contrastto an IPMS USA event. For anyone whohas attended an IPMS USA NationalConvention, you will be familiar with theset up: three days devoted mainly to IPMSUSA members, and to three main areas:model contest entries, vendor tables, andfor those interested, tours and seminars,with the vendors and the contest modelslocated in separate areas. The key word is“organization”, with an organized contest,organized tours and seminars, and anorganized banquet/awards ceremony. Andwith all this organization comes heftycosts: $25 to enter the show, $25 or more toattend the banquet/awards ceremony, yetmore money to take a tour, with even someof the seminars charging fees. The eventsare usually held in carpeted venues,usually hotel exhibition rooms. Someevents run by IPMS USA are moreorganized than others, and some mighteven state that the true word to use for the

banquet/awards ceremony is “chaos”, butI digress. The model contest at the USANats is where you will see the models ondisplay, and it is a dog eat dog world, witheveryone trying to win with their entries,and the way many approach the event, a“Second Place is First Place for losers”mentality is a commonly held belief. At thebiggest conventions, you will see perhaps2,100 models on the contest tables.

Contrast this to the event I witnessed atTelford. For a start, the event is only twodays, and there are no “organized” eventsother than the contest. Entry is free toIPMS UK members, but unlike the USAevent, there seemed to be as manymembers of the general public in atten-dance as IPMS members, especially on theSunday. No tours, no seminars as such,and no banquet or organized awardceremony. The event takes place in twocavernous exhibition halls, without thebenefit of carpet, or even heat for thatmatter. Within these two huge display hallsstand the content of the show: vendor/manufacturers tables interspersed withdisplay tables, and way off in a dark, coldcorner, the contest.

The vendor/manufacturers consist of amixture of UK and European merchantsselling their wares, from the hugeHannants mail order firm, to tiny one manoperations selling various cottage industryproducts. The latter this year included thevacuform manufacturer Dynavector,Neomega Resins (cockpits), Model ArtDecals, etc. The manufacturers were theones you would expect: Airfix, RevellGermany, Academy, Tamiya/Italeri, andMinicraft.

Book dealers are a big thing at the UKNational event, including large firms suchas Midland Counties with a stunningrange of aircraft, armor, and ship books,from the inexpensive to the very pricy. Atthe other end of the spectrum were thelikes of Warpaint Books and Scale AircraftModeler International, each with arelatively few aviation titles on offer. Theadvantage for the modeler here is that youcan peruse the titles in person at greatlength, before deciding whether or not atitle is worth your hard earned cash. Whiletrying to keep a sane grip on things, I didsuccumb to the temptations of a few WW1aviation books. However, for the thirdstraight model show, I didn’t buy any

Part of the Between the Wars SIG display


photo by James Tainton

models or model accessories. My wifethinks I am ill, but I believe I have finallyrecovered my sanity.

The main difference between the IPMSUSA and UK events are the models; boththe numbers present, and how they aredisplayed. The contest entries at the UKshow are the least numerous in atten-dance. In fact, given the very poor displayconditions at this year’s event, it was awonder they bothered at all. In terms ofnumbers of entries, there were fewer thanyou would see at even the IPMSVancouver show, let alone our IPMSSeattle Spring Show. The quality of theentries was extremely high for the mostpart, and there was an amazingly eclecticseries of entries, including many morescratch built models than you wouldexpect to see at the IPMS Seattle show.That said, it was very difficult to see thequality, due to the abysmally poor lightingconditions. In fact it was so bad, youcould have been mistaken for thinking youwere in a dungeon, complete with colddrafty air coming through the perforatedwall from outside, rather than at a modelcontest. A real disservice to the viewing

public, and to the contestant entrants, inmy opinion.

Thankfully for the person wishing to viewmodels, the lack of decent contest facilitieswas more than made up for by the mainvenue for models: the SIG and Chapterdisplay tables. And it is here that there is amassive difference between the USA andUK Nationals. Unlike the USA, the venuefor the UK Nats is within about threehours or less drive for the vast majority ofmembers. As a consequence of this, manyof the local chapters put on their ownchapter displays on display tablessupplied by the event organizers. Thesedisplays range from the simple, to theextremely elaborate. Simple displays beingjust a group of assorted models, perhapsnumbering a couple of dozen, provided bythe club members, and simply laid out on asingle 6 x 4 foot table, without even a tablecloth to cover the table. At the otherextreme, the club may have a theme fortheir display, such as “Aircraft of the 1956Suez Crisis”, with multiple scales repre-sented, on a very elaborate “base” such asmaps showing the conflict, together withaccompanying photographs etc. Some of

the larger chapter displays consist ofupwards of 100 models. And many of thesemodels are as good as, if not better than,the quality of those entered in the contest.Entering one’s kits in the club displayallows a modeler the chance to display hiswork, without the “stress” of being judgedin a contest setting. And with over 60chapters in existence, there were scores ofthese displays. Add to these someexcellent “national” chapter tables from thelikes of IPMS France, Belgium, CzechRepublic, Malta, etc., and you can seethere were far more models on the chapterstands than in the contest.

The other groups of models are providedby the SIG, or Special Interest Groups.Under the umbrella of the Nationalorganization, special subgroups haveformed to cover the more specializedinterests of modelers. Examples of SIGsare: Aerobatic Display Teams; F-4 Phan-tom; Dassault Mirage; Battleships; Racingand Record Aircraft; Formula 1 &Motorsport; Spitfire; Portuguese MilitaryAviation etc. In all there are just over 60such SIGs, and the majority of them haddisplays at Telford.

Examples include the Spitfire SIG, with over60 1/48th scale Spitfire models, coveringevery Mark of this illustrious aircraft. TheJapanese Aviation SIG had an excellentand large display of WW2 and pre-warJapanese aircraft models, in 1/144th, 1/72nd, 1/48th and 1/32nd scales, numberingclose to 100 models, including suchinteresting items as a B-17 in JAAFmarkings, (see top left). Another veryinteresting display was the Battleship SIG,which had numerous 1/700th ship modelsof subjects I didn’t even know had beenkitted. Again, with so many SIGs inattendance, the number of models on showat the Telford event exceeded 5,000individual subjects, and so while thecontest is much smaller than a USANational event, the total number of modelson display is more than double.

The largest amount of pleasure I derivedfrom the Telford event wasn’t shopping at


the vendors, or looking over all theamazing products for sale in our greathobby, nor necessarily looking over all thegreat models. What gave me the biggestkick was chatting with all the modelers atthe various display tables. One simplywandered from display to display, spottingmodels that were of interest, and thenasking those manning the table who builtthe kit. Most of the time the builder waspresent, and a great discussion ensuedcovering the kit itself, the various tech-niques used, etc.

This for me is what modeling is all about,the camaraderie of the hobby. Over the twodays I met a number of extremely goodmodelers, and had some excellent conver-sations, all in a very non-competitiveenvironment. All in all a superb show, and Iwould recommend that if you are ever inthe UK in late November, you take theopportunity to pop into what must be theworld’s largest model show.

Clockwise from top: The Airfix display announcing their upcoming 1/72nd scaleBAC TSR.2 kit; IPMS Sweden displayed a collection of (naturally) Swedish jets;

A figure of Carrie-Anne Moss as Trinity from The Matrix


PST 1/72nd (or 1/76th) Scale3HC-42 (ZiS-42)

by James D. Gray

3HC-42 are (close enough) the Cyrillicletters for ZiS-42, the model I’ve built here.I’d intended to build another GAZ truck,but the ZiS came on-line as sort of abackup, and as Robert Benchley said, “aman can do any amount of work, so longas it isn’t the work he’s supposed to bedoing.” So the ZiS took over while theGAZ languished.

Since Soviet transport is a somewhatobscure subject, let me inflict a littlehistory on you. Pre-revolutionary Russiawas largely agricultural, with little heavyindustry, and what industry there was, washeavily damaged in the First World Warand the ensuing Russian Civil War. Forcedto build an industrialized society out ofvirtually nothing, the Soviet Union freelysought technical assistance abroad. Oneaspect of this was their automotiveindustry: rather than attempt to start fromthe very bottom, they decided to get a“jump start” by building tried vehiclesunder license. The ZiS medium truck was aslight adaptation of an American Autocarcompany design.

Instead of continuing to purchase new andimproved designs abroad (an expensivebusiness) the Soviets preferred to developand improve the basic designs they hadpurchased already. The ZiS-5 truck thusbegat the ZiS-6 truck with dual rear axles,the ZiS-5V wartime version (designed to beproduced more cheaply and using fewerprecious resources), and at least threedifferent sorts of halftracks, the last andmost common of which is the ZiS-42.

ZiS stands for “Factory named afterStalin.” After de-Stalinization, theychanged the name to “Factory named afterLenin,” which some might recognize as theZiL factory.

This kit has been around a while, and like alot of kits from former Soviet countries, themanufacturers try to get as much mileageout of the molds as possible. PST, whocurrently has them, produce over a dozendifferent versions of this kit, including aself-propelled 37mm gun, workshopvehicles, and even fire trucks. The kit hasits good points and its bad points. Thebasic parts look good, and fit properly. Thedetail, on the other hand, is often missingand where present usually crude - some-times inaccurate as well. It is advertised as1/72nd scale, but when compared withNikolai Polikarpov’s drawings it scales outpretty close to 1/76th.

I started with the cab and chassis. Thesego together pretty well, with a bit of care,and the final result does indeed look ZiS. Iwanted to have a crewman with his arm onthe windowsill, so I left the roof open togive me access inside the cab. The fenderslook pretty good but are too thick, ofcourse, and benefit a lot from some carefulthinning. I spent a lot of time scrapingthese and other details down with a sharpblade. The front leaf springs are molded

solid onto the frame, its worst feature. Thisshows quite plainly forward of the frontwheels. Probably the best thing to havedone would have been to cut the springsoff and replace them with scratchbuiltsprings, but I always try to use the kitparts if I can. I drilled and cut out the gapbetween spring and frame, and eventuallygot a fairly good looking result; it wouldstill have been better to replace it, though.The upper front corners of the frame need


to be rounded off. I found that the front ofthe frame needs to be 2-3mm shorter too,but that came later. The front of the frameis held together by a rod between the two“horns”, which isn’t present in the kit. Iincluded it, but in the halftrack variant it’sa waste of time; it is virtually invisible.

I moved onto the rear halftrack units andthe driver. The driver is a white metalcasting from AB figures, who mostly dovery good wargame figures in 15mm. Their1/76th scale model figures are good buthave a tendency to wargamish “bigheads”, as does this little guy. Whilesomehow it’s not so obvious in person, inphotographs this big-headedness is quiteapparent. Otherwise it’s a good figure; Ithink next time I’ll try a Frankensteinianhead-swap with one of the excellent headsout of Preiser’s luftwaffe set. But anyway, I

wanted a figure with some life to liven upthe vehicle, and he looked pretty stiffsitting there, head to the front, arms rigidlyfixed to his sides. I cured this paralysis bycutting his head off (a radical cure, to besure) and turned it a bit to the left. I alsocut off his left arm and replacing it with aPreiser arm, sticking its elbow out thewindow. The left hand was cut off as wellto fit it carefully to the steering wheel. Ihad to test-fit him into the cab severaltimes to get everything lined up correctly,but the result was most pleasing whencomplete.

After doing several 1/72nd scale figures -not as accessories to models, but asfigures in their own right - I’ve abandonedthe subtle approach to painting them. Thedelicacies of painting 54mm figures arewasted in this scale. The detail andpersonality of the figure disappears at

normal viewing distances. I shade andhighlight my figures boldly, otherwise noone will be able to see what I’ve done. Asa finishing touch, I put a cigarette in hisright hand. Very politically incorrect thesedays, but back in the ‘forties everyonesmoked like chimneys.

The rear halftrack units were the mostonerous parts of the model. The kitdoesn’t even come with all the parts youneed to build them up! Each of the four bigwheels is made up of three parts, only twoof which are in the kit. I cut the extra disksneeded out of sheet plastic using a pair ofsharpened dividers; an old technique anda good one, but tedious on plastic thisthick. The rear wheels are spoked (perhapsthe front ones as well, but I can’t see themclearly in any of my sources) and there isno representation if this anywhere in thekit. I drilled them out and then cut theremaining plastic between the holes intospokes with a sharp X-Acto knife. Thencame the really tedious bit; the link-and-length tracks have no detail on their facesat all. I had to cut a lengthwise groove ineach one, and then make a tread out of twobits of lead wire, cut into elongated Ushapes. It doesn’t help that the individuallinks (not really links; it’s a continuousrubber track like US halftrack tracks) in thetrack are differing sizes. But, in the end theresult looks good, and the plastic is justright for bending into a good sag.


Oh, and I left the treads off the bottom runof track since these would be buried in anysurface but concrete or asphalt, and thesewere in short supply in the Soviet Union. Ihate seeing tracked vehicles standing ontheir tippy-toes like they don’t weighanything!

Additional work involved was filling andre-drilling the holes for the rear axles in thetrack units; these are way too low and toofar back. I added some reinforcing plates inthe upper side of the halftrack frames.There just wasn’t room to make these thecorrect shape but I did the best I could.The return wheels don’t have anything toattach to so I glued them onto the bottomof the upper track run; instead of holdingup the track they are suspended from it!

The rear suspension was another problem.The kit has some featureless blocks withholes in them, ugh. The real thing is acomplex setup with inner and outer leafsprings. I replaced the kit blocks withlonger blocks (the rear end of all these oldtrucks sits high, and comes down levelonly if the bed is fully loaded) but Icouldn’t stand that for long. It’s not hardto see those blocks from the outside. So Icut them off and replaced them with a verysimplified representation of the springs.

Then after a modeling session or two Icouldn’t stand those either and redid themwith as much detail as I could manage.They are still too tall but otherwise lookgood.

A word to other modelers trying to put thiskit together; when it was almost done Ifound the kit tracks sat much too far to therear, a fact not apparent until I tried toinstall the rear fenders and they bumpedthe tracks, while loads of room was stillpresent behind the front fenders. I“fudged” the tracks by moving the axle-hole yet again, but a better solution wouldbe to assemble the track units first, get agood idea where your fenders are going tobe, and then put your rear springs and

differential in the right place between them.The towing pintle is a toy, not a modelpart. It’s a simple vertical spike, mostunsatisfactory. I cut it off and replaced it.The real thing has two triangular platesabove and below the drawbar, with avertical hole through them for a pin. I leftthis pin loose so I can someday tow a loadbehind.

The bed is fair, the fit of the parts is good,but the details are again lacking. There isnothing to hold the tailgate up! I wentback to the photographs and drawings andmade my own latches out of truly tiny bitsof wire, plastic, and sheet aluminum. Iadded hooks on the sides of the bed fortying down tarps or loads, and mountedtwo big boards to the outsides as well;these are not on all these vehicles but thephotos show them on many. I wish I knewwhat they were for…

This vehicle must have had bad gasmileage; the original truck has a gas tankunder the driver’s seat, while the halftrackversion adds not one, not two, but threemore tanks in the spaces of the frame,under the bed. Two are difficult to see andI whittled them out of a bamboo chopstick,but the third one is larger and a part of thebed’s foundation is actually cut away tomake room for it! The X-shaped stampedribs on the tank’s end I made out of thinplastic rod, scraped down one side to makeit half-round. I didn’t add the fill pipe untillater since it has to co-ordinate itself withthe front halftrack fender.

There is a “pan” or perhaps you’d call it a“sled” under the bottom of the front


suspension, and over the top of the frontof the frame. This protects the engine andfront suspension and steering gear fromgetting ripped out on big rocks, and helpsthe vehicle make it over rocks and mudeven without a powered front axle. There isa kit part, which isn’t worth anything.

Throw it away. The top is sheet copper,bent to shape and with two louvers cut outof it. I formed the louvers by hand; I cut aslit in the metal and bend the metal abovethe slit out with a burnisher. They neverdid get completely satisfactory, remainingobstinately uneven and unequal in size.Eventually frustration made them “goodenough”. The bottom of the pan is alsosheet copper, with bent brass “legs” andcopper wire ribs on either side. Unfortu-nately, when all assembled and glued tothe frame, it just didn’t look right. Thewhole thing stuck out way too far in frontof the front wheels. I tried to convincemyself to live with it, but it didn’t work andI pried it off (thank goodness for the lowstrength of metal joints held together withsuperglue!) and cut several millimetersmore off the front of the frame. You’llremember my mentioning that earlier.Happily the pan was little damaged by itsadventure and, with some trimming, I refitit easily back into place.

Once the bed is glued in place I made andinstalled the fenders for the rear halftrackunits. The kit comes with fenders, andperhaps the rear ones might be used. Thefront ones were useless. The correct shapeis complex, curved in one dimension and inthe other it has to fit over the complicated

shape of the side of the cab. I fashionedthese fenders out of sheet copper. Nothingis better for work of this sort; the copper isfar more co-operative than plastic wouldbe, sands well, bends well, and keeps itsshape after bending. The rear fenders arejust sheet styrene with copper wire for thevertical strengthening ribs. There weremudflaps in addition, but many photo-graphs showed these missing and I’d hadjust about enough so mine went missingas well.

The headlights are much too big, and Icouldn’t think how I was going to replacethem. In the end, I made the kit parts workby scraping and sanding them down to amore reasonable diameter. This wasn’tmade any easier by the bar that is moldedon them, to hold them up between thefront fenders. I managed to do what Iwanted to do without breaking this bar off,thank goodness. I drilled out the frontfaces with a large drillbit, glued in a disk ofshiny aluminum foil, and then made lensesout of epoxy glue.

Another very frustrating (but in the endsatisfying) struggle took place with the

brushguard. This item is a vertical set ofbars which protects the radiator andheadlights. The kit item is very coarse,with enormously thick bars of triangularcross-section. I sure didn’t want to have toproduce this item from scratch, though, soI very carefully thinned and flattened theplastic bars with a very sharp X-Actoblade, file, and sandpaper. When this wasdone, without even breaking it, I insertedanother vertical bar of strip polystyrenebetween each kit bar. With care lining themup, this made a much more convincingrepresentation of the brushguard thanwhat came out of the box.

I do my painting as-you-go, to keep fromdying of frustration trying to paintinaccessable areas. My system is simple,and generally effective. The base is a darkgreen (my favorite, Humbrol Deep BronzeGreen) heavily drybrushed with a lightergreen (another favorite, Pactra LightOlive). This gives the effect of darkercolors in the inner corners, grooves andholes that you would get with a wash, butI prefer this since it gives me more control.After the model is about finished, I dirtythings up with a drybrush of Humbrol


German Armor Yellow, and then I go backover it with that Light Olive to tone the dirteffect down, and eliminate the overempha-sis on corners and edges that drybrushingtends to produce. Black areas (the chassisand tires) get the same treatment, only withblack and a very dark gray instead of thegreens.

The last item to be added is the glass. I cutthis from the sort of thin clear flexibleplastic you find stiffening a shirt collarwhen you buy a new shirt. Maybe there isan easy way to do this, but I don’t knowwhat it is. I cut-fit-cut-fit-cut-fit until it fitsor I cut it too small and I have to throw itaway and start over. I didn’t have to throwany of these bits away and start over!Maybe I am learning patience. They areheld in place with white glue. One tip; wayback at the beginning, when I was buildingthe cab, I installed some very thin strips ofstyrene edging the inside edge of thewindows. This made it a lot easier tosecure the glazing in place. Another tip; ifyou blacken the edge of your glass beforeinstalling it, it makes the edges of the glassmuch harder to see, and gives a morerealistic effect.

Finally, I would like to suggest that if youwant to do really good work, photographyour model at frequent intervals duringconstruction. Flaws that your eye justskips over, or that your mind is trying toignore, just pop out at you when you lookat the pictures. After the pictures I took forthis article, I had to go back and take theroof off the cab and sand it flat, and re-attach the roof. In person it looked justfine, but in the pictures it wouldn’t do atall.

Now it’s back to that GAZ truck...


2005 Northwest ScaleModelers Show

by Tim Nelson

Before you do another thing, please markFebruary 19-20, 2005 on your calendar. Oneof the most important modeling events inour fair region will occur that weekend: theNorthwest Scale Modelers show at theSeattle Museum of Flight (MOF).

This show is a display, not a contest. It’san opportunity to spend some quality timewith your fellow modelers, admiring theirwork, showing off yours, trading tech-niques and stories, and generally having alow-stress good time. No judging, nomeetings, no awards – just fun.

You are very much encouraged to partici-pate and show off your models. This is theonly event where you can show off notjust your latest handful of completedmodels, but your whole freakin’ collection.

The primary theme for the aviation part ofthe 2005 show is “The Epic of Flight inMiniature”, with aircraft displayed by eragroupings. As always, all other subjectsare welcome: autos, armor, ships, figures,sci-fi, etc. Come one, come all. Admissionto the MOF is free to model exhibitors.

We are back to a two-day show for 2005,so another element of stress, the one-day-set-up-and-take-down fire drill, has beenremoved. As in 2004, we are staging theshow in the MOF Great Gallery, in thevicinity of the Blackbird. The foot guardssurrounding the Blackbird have beenremoved, so we will take advantage of theopen space for optimum display of themodels.

Galaxy Hobby is returning on Saturday, 19February to host “Make & Take” work-shops for kids. The 2004 effort was sosuccessful that they will be loaded for bearthis time with more models. They appreci-ate our assistance with the program, and it

is a fun way to get some kids excited aboutmodeling.

In addition to the model activities, twoTuskegee Airmen, Ed Drummond and BillHolloman, are tentatively scheduled topresent their wartime stories on Saturday,February 19.

For questions, please contact me at ameeting or at [email protected].

Is your calendar marked?


Hurricane Bookshelf:Colorless Hurricanes and

Other Psychotraumas

by Scott Kruize

Is it too long after Halloween to exorcisesome daemons? It is? Too bad: As I’vesaid before, “It’s my column and I’ll writewhat I want to!”

My illustrious career in plastic airplanemodeling spans two definite epochs. Theearly one was very “Calvin-esque”; recallhow, with Hobbes’ help, he tried to buildan F-4 Phantom jet. I identify with hisbotching the job, and especially theobservation that he spent a whole after-noon at it!

Like his, my planes were assembled ingreat haste, over a maximum of two hours,with only a dab of paint here and there.But with the base plastic molded in“authentic” colors, hey! Who neededpaint?!

My early efforts included Aurora WW2“Famous Fighters”, gifts for Christmas ormy birthday: a Focke-Wulf 190, a “Japa-nese Zero”, a “British Spitfire”. I had anAurora catalog whose pictures I frequentlyadmired, and was about to get aMesserschmitt 109 when my wholemodeling career took a left turn into the“Airfix72” Series.

Now in ‘modern’ times, I’ve built severalMesserschmitt 109s for the “Axis Allies”series Ken Murphy started. Each time Ifired up my airbrush, a little voice in myhead said, “Messerschmitts are purple!”Similarly, I built a Turkish Focke-Wulf 190,and inside my head I hear, “Focke-Wulfsare black!”

Worst of all, as I was working on my“They Weren’t All Zeros” series (some ofwhich were Zeros) that same voice keptcalling, “Zeros are yellow!”

If you know exactly what I’m talking about,you date yourself! Those of you tooyoung to understand: be advised that theAurora Focke-Wulf was molded in glossblack, the 109 in a sort of maroon, and(Heaven help us!) the Zero in a sock-you-in-the-eye bright gloss yellow!

See how psychological damage can persistfor forty years? No wonder people have togo to psychiatrists for prolonged therapy!By the way, before you ask: no, I neverhad any such compulsions to paintHurricanes any particular color. There’s noHurricane in the Aurora “Famous Fighters”series, nor Hawk or Lindberg lines, oranyone else’s from way back when. Myfirst encounter with a Hurricane kit wasyears later. It was the Revell kit I recently‘NABBROKE’-ed.

Nor had books steered me towards Hurrisin any particular color. It was impossible totell from the pyrotechnic cover of PaulGallico’s The Hurricane Story just whatcolor it was supposed to be, and when Icame across a real account of the Hurri-cane, it was in William Green’s FamousFighters of WW2 series – with black-and-white photos.

But back to 109s, 190s, and Zeros. Withexpensive psychiatry out of the question, Idevised my own alternate therapy…

The thing to do was actually build thesemodels in purple, black, and yellow, justlike the old Aurora box art showed!Believe me when I say that, neurosis ornot, if I happened to stumble across any ofthese kits now, they’d go straight to eBay


for really big bucks! What I needed was acheap substitute…

There’s some convoluted conspiracygoing on around me that I haven’tcompletely unraveled yet, but it involvesclearance items at Emil’s Skyway Hobbiesand an ostensible attempt by our Presi-dent-For-Life to clear up some of hisaccumulated junk. Whatever: I’ve woundup with semi-complete, semi-trashed Fujimiand Monogram kits of all three airplanes.Way back when, they would’ve been waybetter than anything I could afford to getfor myself – the Monogram kits, datingthough they do from the late 60s, are reallyquite nice, and the Fujimi kit would havebeen unprecedentedly exotic – and quiteout of my reach. But nowadays they’repretty much dime-a-dozen junk.

So I set to and this time let that little voicein my head have its say and select paintcolors. Here’s the results over the plaingray plastic, just the way the little voicesaid it remembered – and as some graphicfiles, surreptitiously gleaned from theWorld Wide Web, confirmed. If they lookfamiliar, too bad for you!

Anyway, the daemons in my head are nowplacated. Hopefully, they’ll go away andleave me to paint future models in peace.And who cares what you guys think aboutthese models? My niece Katie will think

PrezNotes from page 1

anxious to spray the interiors, slap thefuselage halves together, paint theexteriors, and get them in the display case.I’m also regaining somewhat more of aninterest in a few of those half-finishedprojects that have been inhabiting thenether regions of my work bench for a yearor more. I love this hobby.

That being said, I’ve got a few projects onthe near horizon that are going to take meinto more difficult realms, including scratchbuilding. And you know what? I’m lookingforward to the challenge with muchexcitement! Bring ‘em on. Oh, how I lovethis hobby!

I’d like to take this opportunity to welcomeall the new members to our group and towish all the modelers of IPMS Seattlehappy holidays, season’s greetings, andbest wishes for the new year.

Bring your models, finished or not, to themeeting Saturday, plus any edibles youdesire for our annual holiday sugar fix.

We’ll see you at the meeting,

Terry

2005 IPMS SeattleMeeting Schedule

Here is the schedule for IPMS Seattle’s2005 monthly meetings. All meetings,except for the April 16 Spring Show, will beat the North Bellevue Senior/CommunityCenter.

January 8February 12March 12April 9April 16 (Spring Show at Renton Commu-nity Center)May 14June 11July 9August 13September 10October 8November 12December 10

IPMS Seattle Show in FSM

The December issue of FineScale Modelerhas a nice two page spread on our 2004IPMS Seattle Spring Show with some verynice comments promoting it from MarkThompson. (Thanks to Keith Laird fornotifying me of this - ED)

these are fine colors for model airplanes.They’ll hang over her crib, move slowly inthe breeze, and drift her off to sleep...she’llnever need psychiatry. Or be like Calvin, oreven her Uncle Scott…


Special Hobby 1/72nd ScaleIMAM Ro.57

by Chris Banyai-Riepl

From the instructions (the most informa-tion I found on this plane): Early in 1939,the prototpe Ro.57 designed by theIndustrie Meccaniche e AeronauticheMeridionali (IMAM) took to the air. It wasfirst displayed in public in May at aninternational congress of aviation journal-ists. The twin-engined interceptor waspowered by two Fiat A 74 R.C. 38 enginesand was of mixed construction, with a

metal skinned metal fuselage and plywoodcovered wooden wings. After a reappraisalof the Ro.57’s role, it was considered that itwould be too vulnerable against single-engined fighters and was redesignated asa fighter-bomber. The re-roled aircraft wasknown as the Ro.57bis. Although 200aircraft were originally ordered, this wasreduced to 90 and eventually only 60 wereproduced. It entered service with the 97°Gruppo in February 1943.

Special Hobby’s kit of the Ro.57 isprobably the only one we will ever see ininjection plastic of this odd little plane. Forthose who absolutely must have a modelof everything Italy ever flew, the goodnews is that this is a rather well done kit. Ithas a combination of injection plastic andresin pieces, with the plastic in a mediumgray with recessed panel lines and theresin in the usual tan, with very fine

detailing. The decal sheet providesmarkings for two aircraft.

Starting with the interior, this is all resinand includes a separate seat, separateinstrument panel, and a separate controlstick, all of which fits onto a one-piece tubthat incorporates the rear bulkhead as wellas the floor. There is an option for the firstdecal option, which has a retractabletailwheel. The second option has a fixedtailwheel that is spatted, so if you want tomodel the first one, you will have to cutout the tailwheel well and add a resininsert. Also on the bottom is a windowinsert.

Once the fuselage halves aretogether, the rest of theassembly is fairly simple. Thewing is in three pieces, with theone piece lower wing incorpo-rating part of the lower fuse-lage. The engine nacelles areseparate, split into right and lefthalves, with separate one-pieceresin cowlings. The enginesthemselves are quite nice, withthe double row Fiat A 74 havingseparate cylinders. Resin

exhausts add just that much more detail tothe kit. The landing gear is an odd arrange-ment, but looks sturdy enough.

The decals are well printed with goodregister and should pose no problems inapplication. There are two schemesprovided. The first option is what you seeon the box top: an airbrushing nightmare.Lots of small brown dots, surrounded by alighter brown, all over a dark green field. Atleast the undersides will be easy to paint,as they’re solid gray. The second option ismuch easier to work with, as it is just greenover gray, with a white fuselage band.

This is an interesting model of a little-known aircraft and could be just the thingyou need for breaking out of that P-51/Bf109 monotony.

Nakajima Ki-27 Nate byLeszek A. Wieliczko &

Zygmunt Szeremeta

reviewed by Chris Banyai-Riepl

The latest in the Kagero monograph seriesis the first to move away from Europe andthe United States with its coverage of aJapanese subject, the Nakajima Ki-27. Theattractive lines of this late 1930s fighteraircraft are presented well in the 120 pagesof this book. There are plenty of photos, awell-written text, and several pages ofscale drawings, making this a great singlepoint reference on the Ki-27. Additionally,there is a small decal sheet with 1/72nd and1/48th scale aircraft options.

Starting with the text, this is presented inboth English and Polish in a side by sideformat. The authors go back to the late1920s and the fighter competition for theKo-4 replacement. This was the first timefor local manufacturers to produce aquality fighter aircraft, and it gaveNakajima experience in developingfighters. The company built on this initialexperience to create both monoplanes and


biplanes, until finally in the late 1930s, theKi-27 was born.

After this initial creation and developmentsection, the book gets into the operationalhistory of the Ki-27. By 1937, Japan was atwar, and it was not long before the Ki-27found its way into combat. These earlybattles pitted the Ki-27 against a widevariety of aircraft flying for the Chinese,and against modern Soviet fighters suchas the I-16 and I-153. As Japan expandedthe war to include Southeast Asia and theislands, the Ki-27 faced Western designsflown by the British, Dutch, and Austra-lians. By the time Japan attacked PearlHarbor and brought the United States intocombat, the Ki-27 formed the backbone ofthe IJAAF, with the Ki-43 only beginningto supplant its earlier stablemate. Evenwith the advent of the Ki-43 and Ki-44, theKi-27 managed to remain in service in oneform or another until the very end of thewar.

To complement the well-written text areplenty of excellent photos showing the Ki-27 in a variety of guises. The earlyschemes were quite colorful, while some ofthe foreign options have some interestingcamouflages. Many of these are presentedin the color profile section, which has 50full side view illustrations and 70 scrapviews that include at least three full uppersurface illustrations. Out of these, eight areprovided on the decal sheet included withthe book, which is printed by Techmodand is quite well done. Coupled with thecomprehensive scale drawing set, this isan excellent reference on the Ki-27.

©2004ISBN 83-89088-51-7Softbound, 120 PagesAvailable from Squadron for $22.96

[Thanks again to Chris andwww.internetmodeler.com for permissionto use his articles. - ED]

RAFDec 1/72nd Scale“Between the Wars RAF”

Decal Sheet

by Robert Allen

RAFDec is a small decal company thatspecializes in making decals for, naturally,RAF aircraft. This sheet, #RF7210, markstheir first foray into an area often over-looked by decal manufacturers – that ofBetween the Wars aircraft.

The instructions are printed in full color,with large profile drawings where needed,and specific instructions given for theHumbrol, Xtracolour, and Lifecolour paintlines. Interestingly enough, although onlyBritish paint brands are quoted, FSequivalents are given for all the colors,making it easy to match them to US paintlines. One nice touch often overlooked ondecal sheets covering this era is a goodselection of stencils for each aircraft, andin the case of the Hawker Hart, twoalternate sets of stencils are given,dependent on the time period modeled.

Five Royal Air Force aircraft are includedon the sheet. The only twin-enginedaircraft is an overall painted aluminumAvro Anson Mk.I of 269 Squadron, 1937,which is a real contrast to the camouflagedwartime example given in the Airfix kit.Also overall painted aluminum (with aNivo upper decking) is a Hawker Hart,which is from 605 Squadron, circa 1934.The Aeroclub kit is recommended, al-though I guess you could also use it onthe ancient Airfix Hart, if you have one.Apart from the large squadron badge onthe fin, this scheme is fairly unexciting.

Another aircraft for which the Aeroclub kitis recommended is the Gloster Gauntlet.This example is a 111 Squadron machinefrom 1936, with a solid black bar on thefuselage and upper wing, and a smallsquadron badge on the fin. Althoughthese decals are superbly done, the 46 and74 Squadron markings included in the kitwould make more colorful and attractivemodels than this 111 Squadron aircraft. It’snice to have the choice, I guess.

One welcome option on the sheet which Idon’t believe has been done before is a 29Squadron Bristol Bulldog with red X’sinside red bars on the fuselage sides andupper wing. The Airfix Bulldog is one oftheir best kits, and these markings wouldlook great.

Rounding out the sheet is a spectacularHawker Fury trainer from 1939, for use withthe Matchbox kit. This is camouflagedDark Green/Dark Earth on the top fuselageside and inner upper wing, with TrainerYellow on undersurfaces and outer upperwing. Throw in a white number 7 on a bluebackground, large underwing serials, and apolished natural metal cowling, and you’vegot a striking model.

These decals are beautifully printed – andon my copy are in perfect register, with allnecessary roundels and serials. RAFDecsare hard to find in the US, but Hannantshas them via mail order.


Meeting Reminder December 1110 AM - 1 PM

Bring goodies to eat, and (non-

alcoholic) drinks!

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.

2005 IPMS Seattle Dues Renewal

2005 is almost here, ready or not. And of course it is dues payment time again. As is the normal practice, a renewal form is includedbelow. You will get the January, 2005 newsletter with a reminder if you have not renewed by then, and unless you renew then, you willnot get the February and on, 2005 IPMS Seattle Newsletters.

You can renew by writing a check for $24.00 to IPMS-Seattle and mailing to the treasurer, Norm Filer, at the address below. . Or you canbring the form and payment to the December or January meeting. Please be very careful when filling out the form. Many of ourreturned newsletters are the result of my poor interpretation of handwritten address information. Thanks, Norm.

IPMS Seattle16510 NE 99th St.

Redmond, WA 98052

IPMS Seattle 2005 Dues Form

Full Name _________________________________________________________________________

Mailing Address ____________________________________________________________________

City _________________________________ State _________ Zip Code ____________________

Telephone (Area Code) ( ______) ______________________________________________________

E-mail address (optional) _____________________________________________________________

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