Butch O'Hare Chapter, IPMS-USA
Butch O'Hare Chapter, IPMS-USA
Recently, we had the opportunity to interview Keith Ward. We were invited to his home, where we got to experience firsthand the many wonderful results of Keith's work that he has done throughout the years.
I've always been interested in SF and space subjects - it was hard to avoid them in the early 1960's anyway, and I happened to like what I saw. I have vague memories of a show called SUPERCAR from the British producer Gerry Anderson (one of his efforts in SuperMarionation - puppets with electronically controlled eye and lip movements), but the first TV show I really watched was FIREBALL XL-5 (also from Anderson). Always wanted a model of that ship, but there have been no reliably available kits and I have yet to scratch build one.
The kit I used at the demo is "The Subterrain Scenery Kit" part # S929. It contains all the stuff you need to complete the model you saw. All of the trees that were used on my model were from The Tree Lady Trees. They are some of the best-looking trees I've seen, and by far the best I ever modeled. You can check her out at the Wheaton Train Show every month, usually the second Sunday of the month. She gives little clinics there at the show...
A step-by-step tutorial on casting resin parts.
About 11 years ago, I decided to convert the ancient Testors Convair 440 into a turbo-prop Convair 580. This build required new engines and props, which led me into my first efforts at scratch building props as well as resin casting. After I developed some techniques, the task of scratch building props became less and less daunting. I also began to realize that my scratch built props were better looking than many of the 1/72nd and 1/144th kit props, and so I began building props for those kits as well. The process is a little tedious (especially for four engine aircraft), but if you give it a try, you may decide that the results are well worth the effort.
About five years ago, as my display shelves were getting full of gear down aircraft, I realize that if I put some aircraft on stands, I could almost double the number of models I had in each case. I remembered the neat Revell stands--a clear base disc with a clear support--so I started looking at the McMaster-Carr supply catalog for possible materials. I wanted a stand that was easy to make and inconspicuous. Click below to see what I came up with.