It's been a while since I posted, but I was busy doing models and I won!

May 1st 2011 was Kingston Modelrama, in Kingston, Ontario. The mood was good and the models were absolutely stunning! That only adds to the fact that I won 1st place in the Modified Die-Cast class which for me was the highlight of my day. I was the only competitor in that class, which makes for an easy win, but a win is a win and it is my first! Add to that, I picked up a few cool kits. I bought a AMT 2009 Dodge Challenger, a Monogram '65 Corvette Street Machine and Revell Pontiac Banshee, all for under $20 total! All this and I got to go Go-Kart racing at a local Kingston track! It was a great, fun day! Anyway, here's a few pics.

Brush painting made perfect.

I read some interesting tips lately about creating the perfect brush painting job. The tips have proven very useful in my own modeling, so I figured I would share them. The worst thing about brush painting is the brush strokes it leaves in the finish of parts. This streaking can be minimized, if not eliminated. First off, your paint has to be the right consistency. About as thick as whole milk or a bit thicker. Too thick of paint will cause brush marks, as will too thin. Secondly, don't run your brush dry, always have enough paint on the brush, so dip often. Lastly, and this really helps, don't over brush. Going over an area repeatedly will leave marks, one to two strokes maximum.

Kingston Modelrama is coming up soon!

This is the moment I wait for every year. The Kingston Ont. Modelrama contest! Whether I win anything or not, it's the deals I go for!Almost my years supply of model kits comes from this show/contest. $2 and $5 models, here I come! I'm not entering many models this year, but I'm hoping my efforts on my VW Pig at least get an honorable mention for it's uniqueness. What category though? Customs? It is a custom, I guess that's where it will go.

The 2011 Pontiac Trans-Am is here!

Good news! the new 2011 Pontiac Trans-Am has been revealed!

The Bandit is back! This new car was created for the new Smokey and The Bandit movie by ASC (for GM) and you can bet that since it is based on the Camaro that GM plans to manufacture and sell this baby because they are bleeding money again and need a new "cool" car. Now let's hope some company like Revell or AMT Ertl picks up the license to make a model of it, so we can build it!

The VW Pig is progressing well!

So my VW Pig model is coming along quite well now. The nose, ears and tail are attached and molded in with putty and have a couple of coat of paint brushed on over the puttied areas. It is looking more like a pig with each piece. Here's a few pics.

The pigs nose for my VW Pig is done!

If you read my last post you would know I'm working on a VW Bug turned into a pig. The problem was finding a suitable kids toy that had a proper sized nose I could use. Well, I had no success and decided that if I could not find one, I would have to make one. So, that's exactly what I did and it turned out great! I could not use clay or modeling putty as they are not strong enough for the grinding and sanding I was going to be subjecting it to. I was looking in my craft box and found some of that repair putty for household repairs (also known as Mighty Putty) and figured "this should be strong enough. It turns out  this stuff dries rock hard and was perfect for my uses as it was sand able and did not chip very much when I was grinding it. Here are a couple of pics of this finished and partially painted piece.

My latest project, a VW Pig!

I saw this picture of a real VW Pig and it just so happened that I had a new style bug kit just sitting around, waiting for an idea like this! You might be thinking to yourself, easy enough to paint a bug pink. Sure it is, the challenge is getting the rest of the stuff for this model. I found a toy plastic pic that has perfect ears and tail, but the nose was too small. Now I am on the hunt for a perfect pig nose. Then the challenge will be shaping it to the hood and using model putty to blend it into the hood. Here is what I have so far.