Thanks D.J. A small part of me keeps reminding me that I am building for fun and enjoyment, but the other sometimes louder voice says crush the competition! I hope at the end of the week I will be able to live with whichever voice wins out!

I am pretty sure I will survive either way!



Dave

great work on every front Dave, a real joy to see the efforts you are putting in on the details.

whether there is a gold, silver or bronze in this project's future is a moot point because of the fun you had making it brought you pleasure you have won the best prize of all.

look forward to seeing the next updates and perhaps the chance to see this one in person. kudos from a fellow albertan modeler. cheers, bd.

Thanks Bruce and you are absolutely correct with your comments.

I have had a blast these last couple weeks trying to get this project finished and presentable for the WCRMC, as that was one of my goals way back when I started.

That being said it has been the pushing of myself to continue to build & improve on my skills that have brought the most pleasure to me at the end of each day.

I have regained a love for a hobby that I used to spend hours doing with my dad way back in the day, and that love has brought many good memories of the short time we spent working together before he passed away.

At the least I will enjoy the opportunity to see the way others see my handy-work and hopefully they will get the idea of trying something like this too.

I hope to see you up in Edmonton Saturday. It would be great to connect!

Gotta go, adding some turf grass to the courtyard...and a major oil leak!

Dave, a handykindaguy.

Yet another update everyone!

Where do I get the time to model when I am always posting photos?

There must be time because I keep doing it... and here they are for your enjoyment:






Wanting to originally do a fall or early springtime diorama I thought I needed a splash or two of colors to balance out the brownish tones of the building & Armor.



I thought and still may try to put some fallen leaves ( like a bazillion) from the tree in the courtyard, but knew that this wouldn't be enough to offset the overall dreariness of the tones already present... and since I manage turf-grass for a living there was only one solution.

Grass. Dry, dormant and slightly overgrown grass! Trampled down and bruised, oil stained grass!




I hope you like the before & afters of the grown in. Heki produces these grass mats, and be warned if you are going to try this the grass fibers fall out like crazy and get EVERYWHERE!!!





I am starting to love using my airbrush and Vallejo Acrylics BTW, and have enjoyed using the transparent colors both on the copper roof and know on the grass to give it a more fall/spring like look.

Again have a great weekend. Supposed to rain down here in Lethbridge tomorrow, and was a bit cool today for the last weekend in May. Kinda made it easy to choose modeling over golfing that is for sure!

Dave

Dave-- so, how did you make out at the contest?
DJ

Hey DJ I will let you know Sunday as the show is this Saturday which is nice cause I have quite a bit left to do

Dave

Dave-- we are all pulling for you. Do well, your work is outstanding.
DJ

Thanks DJ!! I appreciate your support. My only concern at this moment is that my figure painting skills may bring the overall quality of the total work down somewhat... you know what they say; that the whole is judged by the weakest of the parts?

But regardless of the outcome I am going top enjoy the weekend away from the real world as it were. See some good friends and hopefully make some new ones at the competition! And hopefully get a round of golf in at the course I left last year to take over the one I am now at.

But now I must go and glue some more branches on my tree and epoxy the 2 tanks into their permanent locations so I can finish up the groundwork and concentrate on the figures.....

To take a line from Zon,

Happy modeling everyone!

Dave

2 heavy cats permanently parked in the churchyard, although the one appears to be just passing through! No pictures now...but some coming soon!

Dave

Dave: Looking good so far. Best wishes for you here in the home-stretch.

Happy Modeling, -zon

Thanks Zon! Just painting up some figures and about to tackle the tree for a bit before bed.

I tell you time flies whether you're having fun or not, so you might as well enjoy what you are doing anyway.

I am not a confident figure painter but am enjoying the process more each time I paint one!

Gotta go....

Dave

Competition day today. 3 hours till registration and still so much to do!!!! Oh well, it will be fun to go and see all that we can see and enjoy the atmosphere of the day. Good luck to all and have a great show!

Dave

And the judging has begun. We get to come back in 3 hours and see the results. Many great models have been photographed today!

Dave

Dave: Good Luck!!!

Happy Modeling, -zon

Well the judges judged and the verdicts are in and a silver award in the multiple vehicle diorama category as well as a Sponsors award for Best German Subject! Pretty happy overall, as I know I left a lot on the workbench table because I waited till the last minute to " get er done!" and simply ran out of time.

Lesson learned but I had a blast and took lots of photos of some spectacular models of all genres.

And we spent some quality time with good friends too!

More later. Take care everyone!

Dave

Awesome Dave!!! Congratulations. I look forward to some "final" photos.

Happy Modeling, -zon

Thanks Zon!

Yeah it was a really cool event, my first competition since I was 14 and won a junior category in the town I grew up in. And that was 34 years ago.

I found it odd that they did not have any digital or paper form of their judging criteria for builders to use in their preparations, which because I left so much to the last couple days would not have been a help to me anyway; however from the standpoint of my next effort or entering this one in another event I don't know for a certainty what I lacked or missed or didn't do correctly to achieve a higher mark. Know what I mean?

Anyway it's almost 11:30 and I have been up since 6AM after another 12:30 bedtime yesterday so I can finally go to sleep with nothing cranking around in my noggin and not set my alarm for an ungodly early time.

Enjoy the rest of your great Hawiian evening Zon!

Dave

Well a week has come and gone and I may finally get a chance to post some of the "final" pictures of my Sunday Service Cancelled diorama. We all know that I will continue to rework some of the last bits done since I am not totally satisfied with the figures uniforms and the crane portion of the diorama, a focal point of the story is IMHO well below the standard I set with the church building.

That said I am moving to a newer house a few blocks away in just two weeks so all my modeling paraphernalia is soon being boxed up for a time to be determined later.

I have some photos of the current condition of the work, as well as some shots of the magnificent works of some other fine scale modelers at the Western Canadian Regional Model Competition, which I will post over the next day or two.

Here are a few of the figures that I painted up for the scene. I wasn't completely happy as I said with the way the uniforms came out, but I think I was quite satisfied with the painting of the faces and hands etc. I must take more time in the future to shade and apply thinner layers of color on the uniforms. Again I simply didn't allow for the time it really takes to do a good job. Lesson learned I hope?






This is the Hornet head I used for the Panther Commander. I used Vallejo basic skin tone, sunny skin tone, and ivory, as well as the fleshtone wash and the red wash and the umber wash all also from the Vallejo line.



This is the old Tamiya figure I used to represent on of the Sturmtiger's crewmen, taking a snooze up against the wall. A Hornet head was in his future too. A coat of Vallejo resin primer was sprayed on followed by a coat of black-grey.



I love his casual look and the fact his eyes are closed! I have probably tried to nap in that very position on at least one occasion...





The commander in his perch...

All for now, gotta get ready for the morning service at my own church. More to come later today.

Have a good Sunday!

Dave

One more, of the final result of the competition.

I did alright! I am glad i went and glad I entered. I am wiser for the going and ready to keep going.

G'day Eh!

Dave

Speaking of the contest, here are a few of the other entries I photographed. I was able to capture some with my Canon, but soon discovered that my SD card was full so I reverted to my backup camera called iPhone 4S.

Some are not as sharp as I would have liked but also the lighting was sorta poor and I didn't have a tripod either.

that's life sometimes...

Enjoy as I did.

Dave


This Panther was heavily modified with many scratchbuilt details including if I'm not mistaken a totally handmade turret made out of aluminum and scratched Schurzen railings out of brass and plastic.

I was a little off in my description of the modifications but found that I did take a photo of the description of the work done. Absolutely unreal!

One last of this beautiful work. I don't recall how it fared?




These next 2 started as busts and were sculpted as complete figures by the artist. He won several figure awards for these and others, the Piper getting the award for most impressive figure. That it was.



Sci-Fi was well covered...



and both Best of Show Awards, judges & peoples, went to this very large (48 scale) C130 Hercules painstakingly painted in the new style digital camo. I forget how many hours the fellow spent masking it all but I know it was a LOT!

Some of the Armor:

More Armor & Support vehicles etc...

And some of the smaller entries:



this was one of 3 separate but joined dioramas in my category.


self explanatory:


The title says it all for this one as well.



some ships:


well technically the last one is not quite a ship, but it did ride the waves.

Some planes, no trains, and some automobiles...

One more from the show... a couple of shots of another diorama in my category. The diorama that got the gold in our section was a good one of the retreat at Dieppe. I took some shots of it but they turned out to de ones i took while my SD card was telling me it was full!


Oh & a few of the diorama I thought might win the big prizes, but which actually did not receive any awards, not even a bronze in its category? I thought that was crazy, but the builder did win for his other dio in the same section so he was pretty happy!


Gonna go for a bit, maybe take a nap. All this reporting is making me tired. Or maybe it was my 4AM alarm.

Dave