Manuel Castro
East Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania
Manuel built his diorama “Firebase” around Italeri’s 1/35 scale M110 8-inch self-propelled howitzer on which he replaced the kit barrel with an aftermarket resin gun cut to the correct length. The rounds are from AFV Club, the base is a Verlinden item, and he crewed the gun with figures kitbashed from MasterBox, HobbyFan, and Bravo6. A scratchbuilt round hoist and powder bags finish the scene.
Marc D. Tyler
The United Federation of Planets
“This is the old AMT USS Enterprise model from the ’60s,” says Marc. He painted with Vallejo Model Color and Model Air paints before he applied decals from JT-Graphics.
Mike Walston
Highlands Ranch, Colorado
In the final episode of the 1978 TV series Battlestar Galactica, the crew searching for Earth narrowly miss a transmission of the Apollo 11 moon landing. Mike modeled a follow up scene that indicates Galactica’s crew did intercept the signal using Monogram's 1/32 scale Colonial Viper in front of Monogram's 1/48 scale Lunar Landing diorama. Both kits were built straight from the box. “I left out the LEM ascent stage and put the astronauts' backpacks at the foot of the descent stage to show that the Earthmen had already gone,” Mike says. “I detached a wing and added light scorching and weathering to the crashed Viper. I call the scene ‘Almost Made It.’"
Phil Pucher
Rochester, New York
Using an Accurate Miniatures 1/48 scale B-25 as the base, Phil built a Marine Corps PBJ-1D operated by VMB-612. He added the nose radar by melding two 1/48 scale 500-pound bombs and shaping them to fit the plane. The fuselage radar antennas came from a Monogram P-61, waist windows from a Monogram B-25J were grafted into the Accurate Miniatures, and he corrected the dorsal turret by adding the metal ring it sits on. The bomber was painted with Model Master colors.
Greg Kolasa
Wantage, New Jersey
A lot of added details went into Hobbycraft’s 1/72 scale F2H-3 Banshee courtesy of Greg. He added an Obscureco resin cockpit, ejection seat, and nose-wheel bay, corrected the nose gear leg, used a Squadron vacuum-formed canopy with a scratchbuilt internal frame, corrected the exhausts, and built up the wingtip tank mounts with styrene and filler. He painted with Model Master enamels using poster putty worms for a soft demarcation between the upper and lower camouflage colors. With the kit decals proving unusable, Greg pieced together the markings from his spares.
D.J. Williams
Out in the world
D.J. wanted to build a ’57 Chevy gasser that looked tough and had the stance these cars had back in the day. So, he detailed MPC’s 1/25 scale Spirit of ’57 kit with watch parts for the carb linkages, copper wire brake and fuel lines, beads for line fittings, and parts from his spares box. After modifying the hood to open and close properly with the fuel tank in the grille, he painted it with Rust-Oleum orange and Tamiya Pearl White.
Mike Warner
Penn Yan, New York
Mike spent five years building his 1/700 scale diorama of the battleship USS Colorado in floating drydock with USS McCord, PT boats, and other support vessels alongside. The Colorado is from Trumpeter, the McCord from Skywave, and he scratchbuilt the drydock using wood and styrene with photo-etched metal railings and cranes from Five Star Models. The work paid off when the model won Best in Show at IPMS Rochester’s ROCON 39.
Daniel Duna
Newport news, Virginia
Daniel painted Alexandros Models’ 200mm bust of Vasily, a Soviet sniper in Stalingrad with Vallejo and Citadel acrylics.
H. Davis Gandees
Lutz, Florida
Davis built Hobbycraft’s 1/48 scale P-36A out of the box as a fighter flown by Lt. Phil Rasmussen during the attack on Pearl Harbor; he painted it with Alclad II lacquers and Model Master enamels.
Claude Zeringue
Pearl River, Louisiana
Claude finished Takom’s 1/35 scale 12.8cm FlaK 40 Zwilling antiaircraft gun with Floquil enamels, Prismacolor pencils, and powdered graphite.