Y-Wing Fighter (1/72 scale model)

I've liked the design of the Y-Wing since I first saw it on Star Wars trading cards back in 1977 (true story: I didn't see Star Wars until years later; Empire was the first SW film I saw in theatres (twice)). I didn't exactly know why back then, but over the years I've felt increasingly that there's something classic about it; something timeless and somewhat obvious, yet still fresh and original (it's hard to explain...) so when I was getting back into modelling and saw Bandai's gorgeous kit of this ship, I knew I had to build one (this is a recurring theme).

I saw a couple of video reviews of this kit online and they reinforced my need to build this ship. The one that clinched the deal was a comparison that showed how the new Bandai kit was a great improvement in detail and accuracy over the earlier Fine Molds kit (which was already quite nice).

The ship, being a snap-together kit, came together rather quickly in just a few hours. I painted a few bits of piping (the orange "rusty" bits) before attaching them, and, despite being a snap kit, I glued some of the more delicate pieces, just to be sure.

(underside)

Once it was all together, I used some Tamiya flat paint, thinned with water, to give it a dirty wash, then wiped away most of the excess with a tissue, leaving behind nice detail-defining grey all over the ship. My goal was to paint it as close as possible to the ILM models used during filming (within reason and my limited abilities; this ship is much tinier than ILM's hero versions) so I used as much photo reference as I could find (I've been collecting Star Wars art books for decades now, so I had tons of material to look at, including the movie itself).

I should have applied the decals before painting, but I got carried away with the weathering. Still, they went on well. Once the decals were dry (after about a day) I shot the whole model with a flat coat from a rattle can (also from Tamiya).

I had planned to install one of the two droids (one round headed (R2 style model), one flat-ish-headed (R5 style model)) included in the kit, but I assembled both of them out of order (the legs go between the body segments, not after they're assembled) and then I put the top plate over the droid slot on the hull before installing the droid...anyway, I kind of like the slot remaining empty (I painted it dark grey inside to emphasize the void).

There were two pilots included (one standing, one sitting), but I didn't plan on using either of them, and they're still unpainted and attached to the sprue. I did paint the cockpit instruments but you can't see them with the canopy on. There's an option to have the canopy open, but I didn't feel ready to try that yet (complicated decals). Still, it can pop off, so we'll see how I feel about that in the future.

Apart from the challenge of attaching super fine piping (the instructions, while in Japanese, were generally easy to follow, but many of these pieces were so tiny), I was overall very happy while building this kit, and I'm quite pleased with the results. Too bad the scale is 1/72 so it looks tiny next to my 1/48 scale A-Wing, but perhaps Bandai will issue a 1/72 A-Wing one day...

Axel Foley's Chevy Nova (1/25 scale model)

Multiple tributes, here. I remember first seeing Beverly Hills Cop on video at my friend Chris K's house, 'cause his family had a VCR and we'd watch tons of movies (and record music videos) together. The summer of 1984 was a special time for us (having created a strong bond in school since Grade 6 a few years before), going on biking adventures around the 'burbs and into the city, etc., and home video played an important role from then until I moved to the opposite end of Scarborough just before we started high school. We liked the movie a lot, both of us fans of Eddie Murphy from his Saturday Night Live days. I don't think I'd seen the movie since then (it would have been 1985, probably summer, since the movie came out in late 1984) and I became curious to see if it still held up. It did. It does. I found Murphy as charming as ever and the comedy (and even the action) holds up very well and its very re-watchable and very entertaining. Beverly Hi

City of Angels

17" x 11", watercolour and digital, 1999 Ah, City of Angels . I thought I was getting cool film noir but got a cheesy musical instead (Google it if you must). Still, it was fun to make the poster and associated images, mostly because the research consisted of watching real films noir and buying a great book on movie posters of the genre. I made tons of sketches and a few digital mock-ups. For the final poster above, I made three separate watercolour paintings (one of the couple and one each of the two black and white heads) and composited them in Photoshop, where I also added the text. In true movie poster fashion, I wanted the actors names to be the top two names, but I lost that battle and had to use the characters' names instead. It looks fine, but it implies that "Kingsley and Stone" are the lead actors in the show. Oh, well...it's only community theatre... By making the "angel" above half black and white and half colour, th

Small Pond Arts Puppet Wagon (1/24 scale model)

I dreamed up the Small Pond Shipyard for my fanciful scratch-built sci-fi airship creations (which still only exist in sketch/Photoshop mock-up form (and boxes in my closet) for now), but more and more ideas kept coming ( this wind turbine , for example, will be part of a rather elaborate diorama I'll be working on this winter). But the Puppet Wagon was a sleeper surprise, to be sure. [Really, though, I don't know why I was so eager to build this right away since I was planning to slowly develop my modelling skills with simpler builds first and the work my way up to more complicated projects.] Not all parts were used/needed. Most of these ideas have come from watching modelling videos online, and when I saw a review of this sweet little Japanese "Ramen Shop" food truck by Aoshima (right-side drive!), my brain started making jokes about customizing it to the weird food truck ideas I'd been posting on Facebook. But the more I thought about what the co

The Naked Silo

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