Luft46's Blog

It’s been over three weeks with no modelling, way too much paint in full scale. Down to the last room but it seems to be dragging on a bit. I’ve taken one or two kits for a quick fondle but nothing else.

Above is the parcel that I got some decal solution in , gotta love old school parcels.

Below is what happens when a seventeen year old boy is cranky, not my child but he did apologise and did come and help fix it, definitely full marks for taking responsibility for what happened!

Pity I had finished repainting the wall two weeks before………..

Sitting here with a delayed flight for my first Tiger airlines flight, at least 20 minutes though I think that is on the low side as the flight due half an hour earlier has not boarded yet. Had to laugh at the attached photo from my tablet camera, a major mistake here and no it is not the trashy magazine!

Presented here for the convenience of all spelling Nazi’s like myself.

As it turned out the plane was two hours late into Sydney arriving 20 minutes before the 11pm curfew.

Last one from Bnamodelworld.com is this magazine on weathering concentrating on rust. This runs to eighty pages on a nice glossy paper and the content looks good, covering many aspects of depicting rust. Featured products are mostly from AK Interactive which is associated with the magazine as publisher but other products are shown also. The only strange thing is the unusual addition to the pages, I thought I had stumbled onto  a car or bike magazine, anyway you be the judge via the picture on Page 4 and others.

Next up from Hannants was this V-1 two seat trainer from Bronco in 1/35.  Not my usual scale of 1/72 but as the MAC version in 1/72 that I entered in Expo a number of years ago is still at someone elses place in Melbourne I thought I would do this version. Like the MAC version this look like a nice kit and may well get built quickly.

Ok last up is the stuff from the Sydney Model Show disaster of last weekend. Three Master details sets in 1/72 being guns for a FW190 and a He 162 and some FuG 220 radar. Rounding off this was some acrylic Peel off Medium, designed I believe to allow irregular stripping off of a top layer by mixing this with the top layer paint. At $12 for 17ml I thought this was a little steep but we will see, again for the dump bin vignette. Go to http://www.true-earth.com for more info.

That’s it for the moment, back to modelling tomorrow.

First up is more a more detailed  photo of the GBU24 from Eduard. This is much better than what I had in the old Flightpath version. Notable improvements are a fully detailed seeker head which will look good after painting and a wash to bring out the detail, pity I don’t need this for the GOB project. The hedgehog section before the tail is much better as it is in resin. The tail fin movable sections are nice and thin but too easily bent,  fortunately as these are not so easily seen on my dio this will not be an issue. The main saddle and attachment lugs are cast as one piece on the bomb and done very nicely. You also get eight Remove before Flight tags,  four each in black and white lettering which again I will not be using.  Unusually a piece of Scotch Brite TM is included,  possibly for clean up. The body and tail section are on two moulding lugs which will be quick to cut with a razor saw and then attach to each other. This project may get going again in the New Year as the base is already done. Till then it should be happy Dalek painting!

Next up is the carpet for the Reference Material vignette, this is quite impressive considering the price of less than $4.00 for 6.5 x 10 cm area.

Next up is the AK Interactive Rust Effect Colours, this company has some relation to Mig Productions as the main person is the same bloke, Mig Jimenez.
They look ok, being six colours for $27, reasonable value as each is 17ml. For my wife’s benefit that works out to $264 per litre. The colours are light, medium, dark, old and shadow rust and a dark brown chipping colour. these are destined for the dump bin project. Name for this escapes me today!

Just the pile of masking tape from painting the kitchen. Normal service will resume soon!

This was good fun and I am happy with the results – thanks Kim, Steph and Adrian!

Ok thats a big claim but of the dozen or so model shows that I have attended over the years this one is the most dissapointing. I attended last years effort which was their first. It wasn’t great but was ok for a first effort, the tables were not overfull then despite the small hall size. I had turned up mid morning and was a little annoyed to find that the models could be entered up until 12.30 so I may have missed out on some entries later.

This year aware of this issue I turned up about 12.20.  I walkedinto the hall and paid the modest fee of $2.00 which is a bit on the low side compared to others. It was suggested by the gentleman behind the desk that I should join one of the model clubs associated with this event, but I mentioned I was already a member of Axis Eagles which he said he had never heard of, yes Sydneysiders can be very parochial! As usual I expected some paper for info on the event and maybe a peoples choice form but none was forthcoming.  I wandered slowly off  and eventually was called back to get this stuff. The hall layout was the same as last years with the traders on the right and the models on the left. I flipped a mental coin and decided to go to the traders first so I could be sure all the models would be there before photographing them, silly me.  I spent the next while wandering around the traders and briefly talked to one remarking that there seemed to be less people here than last year which he agreed with.

Finished with the traders I wandered over to the model section. I had just finished taking my first two photos when someone got up on the loudspeaker to announce that everyone should leave the model area as judging was about to commence. The huge crowd of maybe fifteen people filed out. To say I was unhappy would be an understatement. On asking when someone who looked like they were associated with the event how long the judging would take place I was told ” a couple of hours”.

I left then in utter disgust, I thought about asking for my money back but why bother. Next year the show moves to Parramatta,  which is close to the middle of Sydney rather than the far north Shore where it was this year, this is a good move on their part and should attract more visitors.

So how could this grief been avoided, firstly put enthusiastic people on the door, secondly use the PA to advise people of what is going on and finally maybe think about how to run a show so that Joe Public will attend. If I was an average punter turning up with the whole family then I would not be very happy to be turned away from viewing the models,  other shows manage to run judging either overnight if it is a two day event or discreetly whilst the event is on. Lets face it there is never enough judges but simply blocking off a small section that is being judged would have been a better solution rather than punting everyone out.

The other bad thing is that there were less models  and people than last year which does not auger well for the future.

The ultimate question is will I go back and the answer is no. I suspect I will not be alone.

I will however go to the Wollongong show next May, it is modest compared to Expo in Melbourne but it is well run and the organisers seem to get a lot of people along for this two day event because they actually seem to care. I think the Sydney one is run for the members only with little consideration of the public or non member modellers.

Below are my two photos 😥