Johann Graff
Port Ludlow, Washington
Johann shares his Airfix 1/72 scale Tomahawk that he built from a FineScale Modeler Modeler’s Toolbox: Airbrushing Basics. “This build was a lot of firsts for me,” he says. “The first time using an airbrush, putty, and scribing lines. Early in the build, it was obvious the wing roots of the Tomahawk had an excessive gap that would detract from the overall look. Taking a deep breath, I broke out the brand-new tube of putty and went at it. It would be a kindness to describe the initial results as looking as if a cement truck exploded on it. Nevertheless, it cleaned up surprisingly well and, using the back of the hobby knife blade, I was able to bring out some of the panel lines that had been filled in. The steep learning curve of a double-action airbrush is not a myth. However, the included book as well as the Airbrushing with Aaron videos did an excellent job to prepare me for what was coming. I had a blast learning how to use Silly Putty to create the camouflage pattern. Still amazes me to see the results.”
Jim James
Winter Garden, Florida
Jim combined a 3D-printed Blurgg with a repainted cake topper of Kuill for his scene from The Mandalorian.
Manuel Castro
East Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania
In Manuel’s diorama "Waiting for Orders," three Panthers from the Panzer Lehr Division wait for orders to counterattack the Allied landings on D-day. He built two Tamiya Panther Ausf As, adding Cavalier resin waffle-pattern Zimmerit and an Italeri Panther A with Zimmerit. All of the tanks have individual-link tracks, are marked with Archer transfers and decals, and crewed by figures from Italeri, MiniArt, Tamiya, and Warriors.
Mike Walston
Highlands Ranch, Colorado
To depict the destruction of a Klingon ship at the beginning of Star Trek: The Motion Picture, Mike mounted Polar Light’s 1/350 scale K't'inga-class battlecruiser on a 1/8-inch-thick Plexiglass disc. Then he sandwiched the disc and a 12-inch blue Luminglass plate in a circular frame. He removed a section of a wing but otherwise built the kit straight from the box. It’s lit with LEDs powered by a 9-volt battery and finished with a variety of green spray paints.
Phil Pucher
Rochester, New York
The VsKfz 617 was a prototype vehicle designed to detonate mines; it proved to be unsatisfactory. The vehicle now resides in the Kubinka Museum in Moscow. Phil base-coated Meng’s 1/35 scale kit with gray, then weathered with a black pinwash, artist oils, and pastels. The wheels were painted flat black and Ammo by Mig Jimenez Track Color before being weathered with rust-colored oils. Rust colored pastels sprinkled over the wet oil paint was worked in with a stiff brush. He added oil stains with black artist oil mixed with graphite.
Steve Wellman
Ellenton, Florida
“I got a Dremel Digilab 3D20 printer as a gift,” Steve says. “After numerous failures, I was able to get my computer and the 3D printer to talk to each other to print this Curiosity Mars rover. It has artistic license, so it is not exactly accurate.” He painted the robot explorer with Model Master, Floquil, and Alclad II colors, and weathered with pastels and powders. “I believe there will be more and more 3D-printed models presented at shows and in magazines,” he says. “It was time consuming. Printing the parts took close to 50 hours. Then there is creating the detail from wire, sheet plastic, and raiding the spare parts box. Never throw anything away if you are a model builder.”
William Horton
West Hartford, Connecticut
“I was fascinated by all the food items and wanted to try my painting techniques on them,” William says of building Ebbro’s 1/24 scale Citroën H mobile kitchen. “The basic truck is rather simple, but the food items make it interesting! I spent a lot of time on the painting and details, such as the magazines for the magazine rack.” He built the French food truck mostly out of the box but added small items like the fried egg in the pan and the black coffee in the mug.
David Sampson
Bear Valley Springs, California
“I was inspired to build this model by an FM-2 on the Warbird circuit with these same markings,” David says. “I especially like the ‘Kitten Rampant’ insignia of Navy Composite Squadron VC-13.” He used HobbyBoss’ 1/48 scale kit to replicate a Wildcat of that unit aboard the escort carrier USS Tripoli in 1944. To improve accuracy, he replaced the cowl with a Vector resin item, and added resin .50-caliber machine gun barrels, M.V. Products lenses for the navigation lights, and an Eduard cockpit under a vacuum-formed canopy from Squadron so he could pose it open. “I made my own VC-13 squadron insignia decal from a picture of the real airplane I took at an airshow,” David says. “The national insignia were painted using Montex masks and all the numbers are from the kit’s decals.”
Raúl Rodríguez González
Fuenlabrada, Madrid, Spain
To improve Italeri’s 1/35 Willys Jeep built as an airfield "Follow Me" guide vehicle, Raúl scratchbuilt many details, including the canvas roof, fire extinguisher, radio, and engine.
William Bower-Leet
Saint Louis, Missouri
William modified Kotobukiya’s 1/100 scale Metal Gear Rex kit with kitbashed parts to make it unique and ground it in a more realistic context.