WonderFest USA 2018

Dennis St. Pierre, Melbourne, Florida

Dennis, the owner of Starcraft Models, painted the company’s 1/1400 scale Vulcan D’kyr science vessel with Testors model master enamels; many of the panels are decals. To add depth to the finish, he applied layers of red-tinted Pledge Floor Gloss.

Peter Fay, London, Ontario, Canada

After airbrushing a base color on Geometric’s 1/6 scale warrior from Aliens, Peter hand-painted shadows and highlights with layers of Vallejo acrylics and Citadel washes.

Bob Hickl, Birmingham, Michigan

Bob built Cretaceous Creations’ 1/18 scale Pachyrhinosaurus out of the box. To paint it, he applied Tamiya acrylics over a taxidermy color, bass-belly white, with an Iwata Eclipse airbrush at 11 psi. He improved the kit base with a layer of Celluclay, silt, and small rocks, then planted bits of asparagus ferns and leather leaf for prehistoric foliage.

Curt Haskell, Huntsville, Alabama

“I build a lot of different types of models,” says Curt. “This looked like a fun build and a way to practice my photo-etch skills.” He assembled Alliance Modelworks’ 1/144 scale steampunk submarine out of the box and finished it with metallic paints from Alclad II and Testors Model Master.

Scott Owen, Morgantown, West Virginia

Modifying Three Kings Resins’ 1/8 scale kit of Denzel Washington in The Book of Eli, Scott drilled out the holes in the sword, re-sculpted the backpack for a better fit, and added a trigger to the shotgun. He hand-painted the figure with Tamiya acrylics, and used acrylic washes and powdered pastels for shading.

To reproduce the team’s U-wing transport from Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, Steve painted Bandai’s 1/144 scale model with a base of white, then pre-shaded panel lines and airbrushed another layer of white using Testors Model Master acrylics. After masking and spraying the color panels, he weathered the ship with washes and pastels.

Jim Krause, Louisville, Kentucky

The pilot of an armored fighting suit takes a well-earned break after a battle in Jim’s 1/20 scale Maschinen Krieger diorama. He scratchbuilt the suit's interior before placing it and a Brickworks pilot on a homemade base. Tamiya acrylics and artist’s oil washes finished the model.

Rob Schmitt, Colorado Springs, Colorado

Paying homage to Ray Harryhausen’s stop-motion movies, Rob anchored the joints of Kaiyodo’s 1/12 scale skeleton warrior with Aves Apoxie Sculpt. He painted the bones and armor with Testors Model Master acrylics and weathered with artist’s oils.

Scott Washington, Fairburn, Georgia

An anti-gravity forklift charges its batteries in Scott’s scene. Don’t go looking for a kit of this futuristic hauler as Scott scratchbuilt everything using styrene and brass.

Yancy Mailes, Dayton, Ohio

Things didn’t end well for scientist André Delambre in the 1956 movie, The Fly. But Yancy’s bust of the titular character has a great finish thanks to acrylic paints and pastel shading. He clipped bristles from an old paintbrush to add spiky hairs to the 1/4 scale Geometric kit.