I'm sitting here in my model room writing this article late on Saturday night two days before my Tim Hortons Challenge entry is due. The Sea Harrier is not yet complete, but will be by meeting time. For the last two years, I prided myself on not waiting until the last minute to get my model done in time. This year was different because I was discouraged about the decals. As I wrote last month, the Hasegawa kit is getting to be close to thirty years old. It's a really nice kit - engraved panel lines, fine detail and not a lot of parts. The decals looked good when they came out of the box, but were yellowed. This means that the clear carrier film that the decals are printed on get a distinctive yellow tint to it due to age and oxidation. One suggested solution is to tape them to a sunny window and allow nature to bleach them back to clarity. I did this for two weeks and lo and behold, clear carrier film! Woo-hoo, let's roll with this!! The decals went on superbly. Slid right off the backing and snuggled right down onto the surface and with a touch of setting solution, sunk right down into the panel lines, and none of them broke up like some old decals will; life was pretty good so far. Being the patient lad that I am, I let the model sit for about a week, just to give it time and I had other model projects I wanted to work on. I picked up the diminutive Sea Harrier and re-evaluated my efforts to this point. Much to my chagrin, I saw that my previously bleached decals had yellowed once again. This was especially disturbing to me because the paint scheme on the Harrier as used by the Royal Navy in 1982 was Extra Dark Sea Grey topside and White on the bottom - the jaundiced decals on the bottom stuck out like a very sore thumb! What to do? What to do? I could remove them, re-paint and re-gloss and re-apply new decals from the aftermarket. Unfortunately, aftermarket decals in this scale, for this subject were not to be found. So, the model sat for a month as my enthusiasm for it dropped like a rock. I do take pride in my models and consider myself a slow, careful modeler. For a problem like this to occur drives me nuts and due to my perfectionist nature and not having a realistic solution the model just sat until yesterday when I realized that my team mates for the challenge are depending on me to finish. I have yet to paint and add the ordinance, paint the nose black, mask, paint and apply the canopy and she will be finished. Now, as I sit here in my model room typing this article and after looking at my Sea Harrier I realize that while she may not win any awards at BuffCon next year, it's a really nice looking piece and looks every bit a Sea Harrier... as long as I don't turn her over!

Improvise, adapt, overcome...

John R. Zaranek
President
IPMS Niagara Frontier
IPMS USA No. 47993

Model Table Round-up for July 2013

New member Johnny Newman brought in an impressive collection of US Infantry gaming figures in both white metal and plastic in 25mm. He also brought in a Cthuluh fantasy figure. He says the plastic is PVC-esque and applied the basic paint via an airbrush.

Paul Hines once again is impressing us all with his pencil drawings of cars. This month he shows us a Formula 1, a deuce roadster and a modern street rod.

Jim Lewis shows us his latest car creation: a 1955 Cameo Chevrolet pickup truck. Jim lowered and chopped the suspension and applied an eggplant colored nail polish as a final finish.

Bob Collignon demonstrated several different modeling subjects. The first is his Tim Hortons Challenge entry, a Games Workshop Warhammer Mk. III Space Marine Land Raider which looks like a futuristic version of a WWI battle tank to which he's added some scratch-built additions to the basic kit with "crap" off of his workbench. Bob has no interest in "gaming" and says it's a fun kit but not a very good one as far as quality goes. We're impressed because it has more than three parts which is most unusual for Bob. Secondly, he showed us his home built rack to hold oil pastels while applying weathering to a model. He also showed us what are called "oil bars", which, he explains, are larger versions of the oil pastel sticks and are made by Windsor & Newton.

Joe Vallone took us down memory lane with his huge 1/24th scale MPC kit of the venerable Hawker Hurricane fighter of the RAF in World War II. Joe built this kit in 1985 and showed us his scratchbuilt gun and engine covers.

Brian McFee brought in his Tim Horntons Challenge; a completed Smirnoff/Slovak racer based on the Hawker Sea Fury. Brian's only disappointment with the finish is the under-sized decals. We're all disappointed by this, Brian.

Speaking of memory lane, Larry Osolkowski showed us an Ebbro kit of the Team Lotus Type 72C racer of 1970. Larry explained that he saw Emerson Fittipaldi race this exact car at Watkins Glen in 1970. Larry also mentioned a pretty neat website, www.scalefinishes.com which offers pre-thinned automotive lacquers and have started offering model paints in the military and fire/emergency vehicle line. They have also been a strong supporter of BuffCon for the past several years. Be sure to check them out.

Al Germann demonstrated his really neat Ford GPA amphibious vehicle used by the US Army in World War II. Al says it's the Tamiya kit in 1/35th scale and he used a ceiling tile as a piece of rock wall for the vignette the vehicle is mounted on.

Rich Bernecki brought in his new Tamiya 1/32nd scale Birdcage Corsair of World War II Pacific Theatre fame. Looks like a nicely engineered kit and quite an ambitious project.

Cindy Klukowski showed us her 1964 Ford Galaxie. Cindy says the chrome yellow paint and bright red hood was shot onto the model with rattle cans and used "old school decals for racing" - nice work, Cindy!

Dick Schulenberg brough in a collection of 1/72 scale aircraft: a 1/144th scale Grumman Albatross by AModel, a Convair XFY-1 and Cutlass by Anigrand Resin, and a Fouga Magister Trainer by Heller. Dick explained that all of his models were painted with Tamiya spray paints and he applies panel lines by drawing an Xacto knife across the surface of the finished paint; a very beautiful job, as always Dick!

John Zaranek showed his nearly completed Tim Horton's Challenge: Hasegawa's Hawker Sea Harrier FRS Mk.1 in 1/72nd scale. John states that the kit is building nicely but after bleaching the yellowed decals for two weeks in his kitchen window, the decals yellowed again about a week after they were applied to the model.

Lastly, Matt Klukowski showed off his Tim Horton's Challenge: his 1973 Ford Mustang Mach I.

There were a few more unidentified items on the tables.

Rich Bernecki gave an excellent demo on the use of Pledge Floor Care, formerly known as Future floor wax, as a gloss coat. It can be thinned using an ammonia solution.

Finally, a few around-the-room shots of the meeting.

Thanks to Bob Colignon for the photography.