Modeling thoughts

I recently posted pictures of my high school era models. I noticed that several of them had ribbons/trophies next to them and it reminded me how much I loved the contests. They really had an impact on me. I wasn't trophy hunting for the sake of collecting, I was working hard to learn and grow and create something that would be recognized. It wasn't about the ribbon or the plaque, it was about the validation that what I was proud of was something that other people, talented modelers recognized as something "good". This meant a lot to me. I still remember the period of time where I didn't want to win in the Junior category, I wanted to compete (and almost certainly lose) in the main categories. With all the kerfuffle happening with the IPMS and judging and so many grumpy old men saying "it's just a plastic toy why are you [...]

In my modeling career, I've not done a ton of scratchbuilding. The occasional fix or replacement part here and there, but not full blow scratchbuilding of full units. But this week, I've spent several evenings playing around with replacing the poorly molded bench seats for my Sd. Kfz 9 FAMO mit Flak build. It's not perfect, and I may rebuild this one to get the spacing of the slats better, but I'm feeling pretty great. It's surprising how creating something out of nothing makes you feel like a modeling god! My only disappointment is that try as I might, I couldn't figure out how to get the "wave" in the bench seat, so I just made it flat instead. (By "wave", I mean that if you look at it from the side, it's an S shape) And so I can remember in the future, I used Evergreen strip and rod in [...]

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 [...]

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, [...]

Nearly a year ago, I connected with Jose Rodriguez of MiG Productions via email. I asked him to answer a few questions for the blog, and he kindly agreed. Interesting stuff, and I’m sure you’ll agree.  Thanks, Jose! Sorry it took me so long to get this published! --- Jake: Tell me about yourself...how did you come to start MIG Productions.  Jose: I was born in Havana, Cuba in 1962 and immigrated first to Madrid Spain, moved to Barcelona a year latter and then came to the USA in the Summer of 1974.  I have been a modeler since I came to this country, and started building the big Monogram 1/32 scale bombers.  I started my Tiger Productions Diorama Products cottage industry company back in 1993 to try and fill voids in the scenery market.  I started first with only plaster based products such as buildings, cobble stone streets, rubble and [...]