VPAF MiG finished. Telford, a personal report.

  Hi chaps.  I am so please with the response with the Facebook page.  I really am overwhelmed so thank you for your support.  I really hope this can be a fun place to talk all things weathering so feel free to post your reference pictures, models and comments and build up the database of cool stuff.

  Telford:  Wow, in my opinion this was the best year ever.  Once again the Saturday was carnage trying to get in but even though the queue was long it all moved pretty quickly and the wait wasn't too bad, that didn't stop the usual vocal dweebs on the forums complaining.  Actually, Telford was a great subject for Forum Twattery, they complained about everything from the queues to the price of coffee!

  Once again I entered the competition and once again there were the usual baffling judging decisions.  A 1:350 Shar got gold in the little class, it was shite.  proper shite!  Black painted canopy with wobbly hand painted frames, scratch bult pylons and sidewinders which looked way over scale etc etc etc, I could go on for ages!  But, according to our favourite forum it deserved to win cos it was small and a lot of effort went in!  Whatever!  Our favourite forum even came up with the classic statement that the Best in Show winner shouldn't have won because that modeller won last year, or even that it wasn't a model at all as the real thing didn't exist therefore accuracy couldn't be proven.  WTAF!!!!!  This model was quite simply the best piece of model porn I have ever seen, it almost made me weep it was so good!  Talking of dodgy decisions, I did OK myself; 2 golds, a silver plus best allied aircraft and best natural metal aircraft.  But once again I seem to have won with stuff I chuck in at the last minute because there is room in the transport box and the stuff which I thought would do really well in didn't get a bean!  It is my mission to change the competition for the better, to make it fairer and increase the credibility of judging however I am not unexpectedly experiencing considerable inertia.  But that's IPMS for you!

Sorry about the small images, I got them from the IPMS UK website.

  On to the MiG.  As you may be aware this is for The Weathering Magazine which as you saw in the last blog post is returning soon.  No doubt there are still some difficulties to be resolved but it looks like Rick and Mig are almost ready to publish the next issue which is fantastic news.  I have knocked up the Hobby Boss MiG-17 for the Vietnam special which should be out some time next year.  It's a dog of a kit, really ill fitting which is a shame as I quite fancied doing a natural metal machine however there are some fantastic examples of chipped aircraft so I went with this.  Once again Mal Mayfield came up trumps with his Miracle Masks for the markings which really help with the chipping.  Before you all shout "he's got the wing markings in the wrong place"  I know, unfortunately I followed the instructions, I must learn to check those from Hobby Boss and trumpeter as they seen to drop the ball not infrequently!

  Ok, that's it for now, next time I hope to show you some more progress on the Academy Phantom which has ground to a halt but I am all inspired from last weekend so the creative juices are flowing!  Oh, and don't forget to catch the Facebook page (shameless plug)!

  Cheers,

  Jamie