George Clover
Catheys Valley, California
George finished Hasegawa’s 1/48 scale F-104C with Alclad II Airframe Aluminum (No. ALC119) over Mr. Color Black Gloss (No. C2). After protecting that layer with Alclad II Aqua Gloss Clear, he masked and airbrushed assorted panels with various shades of Alclad II. For more detail, he used Eduard parts in the cockpit, for the ejection seat, and wheels.
Clarence Novak
Lawrenceburg, Tennessee
There are about 3,000 parts including photo-etched metal in Clarence’s build of Aoshima’s 1/45 scale DD51, a Japanese diesel-hydraulic locomotive built from 1962 to 1978. He detailed the dual engines and transmissions as well as the cab. In addition, he added brass handles and railings, LED lighting, a sound card, and turned-aluminum wheels.
James De Pietro
Woodbury, New Jersey
James built Trumpeter’s 1/700 scale liberty ship SS John W Brown in honor of his father who served aboard liberty ships and tankers during World War II. He finished it with Tamiya and Testors paint as well as artist oil weathering, before photographing the model together with a photo of his dad and his Liberty Medal.
James V. Roy
Lawrence, Massachusetts
Inspired by an article written by Gary Kerr who helped restore the Star Trek USS Enterprise filming miniature at the Smithsonian Air & Space Museum, James built AMT's classic 1/650 scale kit matching the colors with Testors paint mixes as called out in the article. “After that, I needed a good way to protect and display it,” James says. So, he came up with an inexpensive way to do both inspired by the Smithsonian display case.
Richard Davenport
Lansing, Michigan
Richard finished Airfix’s 1/48 scale Supermarine Spitfire Mk.Vc as a fighter flown by Sgt. George Beurling in Malta, July 1942. “I was unable to locate any photos of Sgt. Beurling’s plane and illustrations of it are dissimilar,” Richard says. “However, there are numerous photos and film clips of Spitfires aboard and launching or being unloaded from aircraft carriers to Malta. These show the aircraft in a darker (not desert) camouflage scheme. Since many of them were loaded and shipped directly from ports in England, I concluded it was likely they were originally painted day fighter scheme and not repainted in desert camouflage.” He painted the camouflage with Vallejo Model Air Dark Green (No. 71.324) and Ocean Grey (No. 71.273) over Medium Sea Grey (No. 71.307). He detailed the Royal Air Force mainstay with Eduard Brassin exhausts and a cockpit and main wheels from Aires.
Tom Roylance
Tampa, Florida
Basing the colors on the bold markings of the Imperial shoretroopers from Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, Tom reimagined Bandai’s 1/12 scale K-2SO as tactical droid M-3L1. He designed and printed his own decals and weathered it with dot filters, washes, and scratches applied with a sponge. The base started with a piece of stone and insulation foam to which Tom added AK Interactive Beach Sand for the sea floor. After attaching the model with brass rod and walling in the lower section, he poured tinted AK Interactive resin water; the surface was textured with AK Water Gel Transparent, Water Gel Effects, and Water Foam. Debris was added and finally more beach sand was applied to the exterior of the base.
Mike Walston
Highlands Ranch, Colorado
To create a Ghost in the Shell diorama, Mike added battle damage to Wave's 1/24 scale Tachikoma mini-tank inside and out with a soldering iron, messed up one of the camera balls, and blasted open the passenger compartment. He also extended one of the robotic arms with wire from a paperclip; twisted wire added damage to one of Maj. Kusanagi's cybernetic arms. For the Tactical Police Hovercraft, he kitbashed Boba Fett’s ship from MPC with parts from an AMT Klingon Bird-of-Prey, and at seven LEDs. The building is scratchbuilt in a and detailed with parts from his spares box.
Yannick Veillette
Longueuil, Quebec, Canada
Yannick says he had fun building Revell’s 1/25 scale 1969 Chevy Nova. He detailed the engine and interior and painted the body with Tamiya Mica Red.
Steven van den Berghe
Antwerp, Belgium
Steven scratchbuilt this Citroën-Kegresse P19, a halftrack used during the French expedition to Asia in 1930. “I always loved these ancient expedition vehicles and this one spoke to me right from the start,” he says. “It was nowhere to be found in kit form, so I decided to build it from scratch making extensive use of 3D printing.”
Martin Daniel
General Escobedo, Nuevo León, Mexico
After seeing a battered C-3PO in a scene in Star Wars: Attack of the Clones, Martin grabbed a Bandai 1/12 scale model of the droid from his display shelf, one of his early builds and set to work. “The base color was a combination of blues and grays,” he says. He used hairspray to create chipping effects between colors, then added layers of artist oils and pigments to produce an aged patina.