Blog – Page 5

Interviewing Jake

This is a bit strange, but I’m going to try it anyway. I’ve seen this interviewing technique done elsewhere and it always seemed fun. So here we go… Jake interviewing Jake. 1. How long have you been modeling and what got you into the hobby? I started when I was in middle school, some 25+ years ago. I did most of my “first round” building in high school. I even entered (and placed, as a junior) in a number of shows. This was back when materials were mainly what you found or repurposed, after market kits almost all came from Verlinden and a small number of cottage industry companies. My “dark ages” story is pretty typical: went to college, had a roommate, limited space, time, and interest in things other than girls and grades. In 2000, I went to work for LEGO doing Web development and fan relations. (I worked with [...]

By Jake|2016-10-29T19:09:31-05:00September 11th, 2016|Random thoughts|0 Comments

That time I drove a FAMO (or pretended to)

Jealous?

By Jake|2016-10-29T19:09:31-05:00September 10th, 2016|Random thoughts|0 Comments

Great new cutters for metal track assembly

Friul tracks are great… the metal weight shows just the right amount of sag, the details are super realistic, and the way you can naturally “rust” the metal makes them fantastic. But assembly can be … tedious and often troublesome. I wrote a long how-to article about this topic a while back. But one of the things I’ve struggled with is cutting the pins that bind each track link together. Each type of track is much different in design. A modern track link is much different than a German WWII Sd Kfz 9 is much different than a German Sd Kfz 11. Because of that, I’ve found that a strong brass wire can be better than a softer spooled wire like Friul included with the tracks. But either way, there’s a challenge to assembling the tracks: how do you cut a bunch of precise length pins? Some people put a longer [...]

By Jake|2016-10-29T19:09:31-05:00September 10th, 2016|Reviews|0 Comments

Review: Alliance Modelworks FAMO mit Flak 88 conversion

A few years back, I ordered the Alliance Modelworks FAMO mit Flak 88 conversion kit. It's been sitting on my workbench since then, calling my name so sweetly. Well, I finally listened and busted it out. This conversion kit takes the Tamiya FAMO (#35329) and the Dragon's 8.8cm Flak37 (#6287) and reworks with resin and photoetch. At $150 USD, it's a pricey kit for a big vehicle. I have mixed feelings about this kit. At first glance, the instructions are clear, the resin parts have crisp details, and the photoetch was nicely done. And the subject was an interesting one, so I was excited looking at the parts and instructions to get started. Like so many conversion kits, however, it's the details that matter. While the instructions are some of the best for conversion kits I've seen, they are still lacking in a number of ways, in a number of places. [...]

By Jake|2023-09-14T17:02:24-05:00September 3rd, 2016|Build Logs, Reviews|1 Comment

German surrender footage [VIDEO]

I’ve always been fascinated by the “rest of the story”. The battlefield tales are interesting, but learning how local residents survived or rebuilt after the battle is infinitely more interesting. I came across this footage of Germans surrendering at the end of the war. Fascinating look at how things can turn from brutal to something much different. There’s also a TON of diorama ideas here! [Watch the video] UPDATE: The moment I posted this link, I went back to the video. It had been playing and I noticed that the FAMO mit Flak vehicle was driving along in the video. Hilarious, considering finding pictures of this low production, end of the war vehicle has been incredible hard. And now here’s a color video! Nice!

By Jake|2016-10-29T19:09:31-05:00September 2nd, 2016|Fun Finds|0 Comments

Amazing model railroad [VIDEO]

If you're not following Atlas Obscura, you should. It has some amazingly interesting content! This article caught my eye, and the video below is a great watch. An Up-Close and Personal Look at the World's Largest Model Railroad

By Jake|2016-10-29T19:09:31-05:00August 30th, 2016|Fun Finds|0 Comments

Friday Fun Finds – August 25, 2016

Cool old school video about how Matchbox cars were designed and produced Impressive, recently released WWII allied photos Awesome, self-referential diorama Using sawdust for foliage Moson Model Show 2014 - diorama collection Impressive colourized WWII photos Overview of the lifecolor Guns & Weapons set (I'm a big fan) “Carrier” — Landing on a Pitching Deck Cool video series on painting a figure, especially around non-metallic gold Captured German armor dump photos The challenge of pricing pre-owned model kits

By Jake|2016-10-29T19:09:31-05:00August 27th, 2016|Random thoughts|0 Comments

Rant: Lady modelers are just modelers

When my Boresight magazine arrives, I'm always excited to tear open the envelope and read. I usually get through at least half the magazine standing in the spot where I open my mail. When the Nov/Dec 2015 issue arrived, I was... Frustrated. Right there on the cover the top story was "Lady modeling comes to Bulgaria". "Lady modeling", you say? Is that some sort of special sub-genre that focuses on female figure painting? Is that a style of airbrush technique that a group of women have perfected? Is that a group name acronym...Lazy Articulated Dioramas of Yesteryear? Nope. Basically, it was an article that took a talented modeler, prioritized her gender, then said "LOOK! There's a female in this hobby after all!!". For those keeping score at home, this is flat out sexism and it make us all look like the mostly homogenous group we happen to be. And it's frustrating [...]

By Jake|2016-10-29T19:09:31-05:00August 27th, 2016|Random thoughts|0 Comments

My portable build studio

In the last few months, I’ve been spending more and more time at my finance’s house. I don’t have a dedicated workspace there, so I’ve created a portable build kit that I’m pretty damn proud of. I thought I’d share! I started with what I believed was the bare minimum footprint of tools and materials to be able to build a kit out of the box... not paint, weather, convert, etc. I’ve added items that were missing or that I found myself really needing for regular usage. It’s surprised me how much I can also remove (or re-org, as you’ll see) as well. But I’m getting ahead of myself. I’ve discovered that whether in this portable build studio, or in my portable paint studio, the works starts in finding the right single transportation device for your necessary materials. Portability goes out the window if you’ve collected up a series of small [...]

By Jake|2016-10-29T19:09:31-05:00August 20th, 2016|Modeling thoughts|0 Comments

Gorilla Glue Gel is Great

Holy mother of pearl, have I found something amazing. Gorilla Glue Gel. Have you tried it? No? Stop reading this and go order/buy/steal some of this stuff. It’s OK, I’ll wait. My go to CA (super) glue has always been the Zap-a-Gap line. Whether the green thin, yellow thick, or even the purple foam, I’ve used them all. But as I’ve been working on the building the Alliance Modelworks FAMO mit Flak 88 conversion, the Zap products just weren’t working on the resin they’d used. (NOTE: Check back here shortly, I’m going to post some thoughts on that conversion kit) A while back, I’d grabbed several various brands of super glues at Lowe’s and they’d been sitting on the shelf. Out of frustration with the Zap, I grabbed the Gorilla Glue gel and BAM! Magic. Here’s why: It worked. Whether resin to plastic, resin to resin, or resin to PE brass, [...]

By Jake|2016-10-29T19:09:31-05:00August 19th, 2016|Modeling thoughts|0 Comments