Blohm und Voss Bv-138. 1/72nd scale.

The model in the photo is not a 1/72nd scale styrene kit. It is, instead, a 1/72nd scale fiberglass kit that was created and produced by Jene Procknow. He built one and provided extra parts to me so I could build the one you see here.

Jene first created masters out of wood, then produced hollow parts by laying fiberglass cloth over the masters and coating the cloth with multiple layers of polyester resin. When cured, parts were removed and trimmed to their final shape. Smaller parts were cast solid from resin in RTV molds. Once all the parts were assembled in a similar manner as a standard styrene kit. Obviously, this is a highly simplified description of the process, but it gives you a general idea of how it was done.

As it turned out, Supermodel (who eventually became part of Italeri) released a 1/72nd injected styrene kit of the Bv-138 (actually two of them) only a few months after Jene completed his. I built them as well and, when placed next to Jene's fiberglass version, you were hard pressed to tell which was which.

North American F-86H. 1/48th scale.

I built this Collect-Aire resin kit of an F-86H in order to showcase bare metal finish techniques in my book How To Build And Modify Resin Model Aircraft Kits. As you know, there are many way to attain a realistic. The approach for this model utilized a combination of Model Master Metalizer, Floquil Silver and/or Old Silver, Testors Chrome Silver and lacquer thinner. Most of the model was airbrushed but individual panels were toned by hand using a chisel point brush. Lacquer thinner was used sparingly to accelerate drying time, especially where the Testors Chrome Silver was concerned since it is so highly concentrated.

Aircraft Gallery

Blohm und Voss Bv-138. 1/72nd scale.

North American F-86H. 1/48th scale.