Felixstowe F.2A

This is Felixstowe F.2A diorama in 1/72 scale built by Pierre aka Madman aka Scalephantomphixer. 

Click the image to see the whole building and detailing process. Marvelous and genius!

Pre-war US Aviation

Here's the great collection of US aviation between WW1 and WW2. Really great pictures - especially Kitty Hawk flight.

(Click the picture to see the whole gallery)

Cleaning Aztek Airbrush

Here's a great article for those lucky Aztek airbrush users - Aztek Airbrush Nozzle Cleaning

Eduard's 1/32 Bf109 wheels

Last year, just after Eduard had published pics of their 1/32 scale Bf 109, I did a small preview of the kit with my feedback on the kit here. The kit was (and still is) a popular. But what I like about Eduard is that they respond on the feedback and critique. They implement the changes and fix the kits. 

So in October Eduard started selling 1/32 early Bf-109 resin wheels from their new Brassin series. Just check these photos:

- the original early Bf 109 tyres

- early Bf 109 resin wheels by Eduard in 1/32 scale

 

- Eduard's 1/32 Bf-109E series wheel in the kit

The difference is obvious to see, I guess. So should get myself a 1/32 Emil?

Interview with Chuck Wojtkiewicz aka chukw1

- Hi Chuk! Really glad to see you on the blog. I guess everyone would be interested to know more about you and what do you do when you're not modelling? 

Hello, Arseny- nice to be here. When I'm not hunched over my bench in reading glasses and optivisor, I'm hunched over my drawing table or tablet at blur studio in Venice, California. I'm the lead concept artist there, and design and illustrate characters, environments, props and vehicles in historic, cartoony, sci-fi, fantasy and realistic styles. I storyboard a lot of our features as well. It's the greatest job in the whole wide world! At home I enjoy life in Redondo Beach with my dear wife Marc and our English Bulldog Dynamite. 

- Standard question: How long have you been modeling and what was your first build scale model kit? 

Batman made me do it! I got that Aurora kit of the Caped Crusader for my birthday when I was six or seven- and was immediately hooked. My big brother Marty helped me glue it together and paint it- he was an expert car modeler at the time. He's now a sculptor at GM. I built tanks and dioramas as a teenager, thanks to those wonderful Shep Paine pamphlets in the Monogram kits of that era. In college I got hooked on balsa free-flight models, and stayed with them for twenty years. After we moved to LA in 2001 I switched to styrene. There's simply no room to fly, and too much wind from the sea. I sometimes miss the smell of balsa dust... 

- Your online builds really stand from the crowd. That's most probably because of those funny (and informational as well) cartoon style pictures, which are very unique - tell us more about the cartoons. 

I really fell in love with the online modeling community and wanted to contribute. My first posted work was just typed text and photos, but I can't type and hate to do it. I got a Cintique 21UX drawing tablet at work, and within a week I was so hooked I had to buy one for home. That meant I could simply write my captions on the screen, and readers seemed to like it. My little friends evolved from hand-drawn smiley faces, to simple chuk heads, to the curvy assistants I have today. Lil' Chuk was the sailor who guided my Helldiver build, and I thought long and hard about who would be featured on a Nazi plane feature. In the end it seemed that a good girl and a bad pfennig would be a nice balance, and the other characters grew naturally from it. The Kommandant is Lil' Chuk's evil twin- I never thought I'd use that cliche, but it is fun to play the villain! The art is really an excercise to learn to draw better directly on the screen. I've been getting faster and more accurate as a result, I like to think. 

- What do you like most about the scale modelling? Is it scratchbuilding, gathering information, painting, weathering, etc. ? How often do you model? 

My favorite part of the hobby is and has always been problem-solving. Figuring out the best way to replicate some complicated and beautiful shape or mechanism in the tiny scale of our models is endless fun for me- and so satisfying when it works. Painting and weathering are a close second- today's techniques amaze and delight me. Filling seams remains a chore- maybe someday I'll come to relish that as well, but don't hold your breath! ;D 

- How do you choose your next builds? Are all your models built involving scratchbuilding or are there OOB (out-of-box) as well? 

My wife will tell you that I'm a real nutcase when it comes to the next project. I have a rather daunting stash, andjust about every kit cries out to be built. Often it is the level of detail I can cram ionto a project that brings it to the fore, but often a kit's simplicity will plunk it down on the bench. AmTech's Huckbein won out for it's simple grace- but I still had to animate the flying surfaces and jazz up the cockpit a bit. I'm hopeless! My next build will be Planet Model's Ju 388- MPM gave me a vac canopy for the 410 and a choice of any kit from their catalog in exchange for me building it with Fritzi and Hannah. How could I turn down such a generous offer- and such a fabulous kit? 

- What's your favorite model and is there one? Are there models that you've started to build, but left unbuilt? How many scale models have you built already? 

I still have a soft spot in my head for my He111- it was the first scale model kit I built after more than twenty years, with all the new technologies- PE, Resin, etc. I'm tempted to build another! A few balsa models laguish on my shelves, along with a Marvel Incredible Hulk that just needs some paint. I try to keep just one project on the bench, but I'll be juggling a few in the coming year. I'm participating in the Well Done group build at the Tank s & Things forum, featuring a French well from Monroe Perdue as the common element. An armor build after thirty years? This ought to be fun! 

Cheers! 
chuk



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Here're some of the recent Chuck's builds and articles online:
Me 410- Promodeler plus kitchen sink

Helldiver, all out build!

Photo Phixes with Lil' Chuk!

Egg of the ApeDog!

1/48 Tamiya Avro Lancaster Mk.III

1/48 Tamiya Avro Lancaster Mk.III with many modifications and scratch-building by Alex Kontiveis. Click the pictures to see the whole building progress. No comments...

P-47 Razorback weathering

Here's another great example of P-47D Thunderbolt Razorback weathering. You can see the wing root chipping quite nicely in this photo:

FW190 A8 Tamiya's 1/48

Here's a little update of my Tamiya's 1/48 scale FW 190A-8. There're some details to be added, but the model is almost ready. But most of all I wanted to show that I build models too. :) Sometimes.

Please feel free to post your comments and critiques.

 

I also would like to thank JimMrr from Aeroscale for supplying me with fresh new canopy. The kit's canopy was ruined while experimenting with Klear - not far as good as Future Floor Mix... 

Thank you Jim! Without you this model would never be built.

Superdetailed F-18A

Guys, I think I must share this one with you. Check out the models of the colleague from Tenerife - Diego Quijano. It's simply fantastic! It's 1/72 scale!

 

 

Simply outstanding work! I've subscribed to Diego's blog and can only highly recommend you doing so as well - I bet we'll see more jaw dropping models from Mr. Quijano. Here's the link to the blog - dqscaleworks.blogspot.com

WW2 Allied Aircraft Weathering

For all you weathered aircraft fans, here's the collection of great WW2 allied nicely weathered (some more and some less) aircraft photos:

All pictures via D. Sheley's photostream

Tank Weathering and Color Modulation Technique

This goes for all you that build afv (armoured fighting vehicle) and tanks modellers. Plus all you interested to learn more about weathering techniques.

Tamiya 1/32 scale Supermarine Spitfire Mk.VIII

Check out the pics of Tamiya's new 1/32 scale Supermarine Spitfire Mk.VIII built by Brett Green and painted by Chris Wauchop. Just jaw-dropping!

Read the article here. Brett also announces his new how to build guide called "How To Build Tamiya's 1:32 Spitfire Mk.IXc and Mk.VIII". Looks like a must have for every Spitfire fan.

Spoked wheels

Found couple of great online articles about making scale spoked wheels. These were mostly used by WW1 aviation. So some modelers fear rigging WW1 biplanes, but some even experienced WW1 aviation modelers fear spoked wheels. 

Anyway, I've found two great online articles of how to build WW1 scale aviation spoked wheels:

1. Spoked wheel construction technique by Mark D. Smith

2. spoked wheels from "Scale Model Aircraft in Plastic Card" by Harry Woodman

1/32 Scale SWS01 SHINDEN by ZOUKEI-MURA.

Almost every week the new scale model kit sees the light. 

No matter what scale. 

No matter how good or bad is the global economy. 

No matter the weather outside your window.

But the kits that set the new standards in scale modelling and scale model engineering are not so often. Recently I've discovered  the new company from the country of Rising Sun called ZOUKEI-MURA INC. Their first model is 1/32 Scale SWS01 SHINDEN which is already available online.

What have caught my eye is this approach to kit engineering:

This unique internal structure that dispenses with the one-shot frame means that you can develop the internal structure as you please depending on your own plans. 

So basically your model can look like this:

 .. or this:

It seems that even if building this kit OOB (out-of-box) it will look very detailed. It's up to you which panels to remain opened or closed. Whether your're building a diorama or enjoy OOB models. What coming next? Try this one:

I bet we'll hear more from ZOUKEI-MURA INC in future and their models will definitely set the new standards for hi-tech scale model kits!

Late August update

Well, the hot summer of 2010 is almost over. Frankly speaking, I didn't have much time for modelling this summer. What about you? Although I was reading blogs and watching in-progress feature articles and learning some new stuff. Somehow the blog has started to attract spammers and hackers, so the blog started receiving spam comments almost weekly and I've also noticed a blogpost that had links to adult sites, which I've deleted. 

What another great thing that happened is that I've purchased couple of PYN-UP decals for P-51D - Pretty Fillies Part 1 and Part 2 (product #PYND48004 and #PYND48003). Those are very rare and are quite expensive. All I can say that print quality is just awesome. I don't think I should do another review because Steve from AircraftResourceCenter.com did a great job in his reviews. 

What I wanted to share with is another feature article by the fellow modeller from Belorussia - slava trudu. This time he builds resin Fairey Delta 1 (PRO Resin 1/72 scale kit). The in-progress are very inspiring although the whole article is in Russian. Anyway, enjoy!

Anniversary Sale at LuckyModel.com

I have received LuckyModel newsletter e-mail today with information on LuckyModel.com 7th Anniversary Sale. Lots of stuff with big discounts.

Find out more about LuckyModel.com sales here