December 2023 Meeting

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Our December meeting is always a special one as it closes out the year for us. We take the opportunity to have a bit of a competition where members can submit a model from the year they have entered into any club competition.

We also take the opportunity to present club perpetual trophies for various club build competition during the year.

For our end of year competition we had 3 categories:

  • Large scale Plane (1/35 and above)
  • Medium Scale Planes (1/48)
  • Small Scale Planes (1/72)

Large Scale Planes

There was only a single entry in this category but it was still won by Martin Reid with an exquisite example of modeling in the form of a Wingnut Wings Pfalz D.XII in 1/32 scale.

Medium Scale Planes

This was a very tough category with many excellent models submitted for judging by the club. There were a lot of sighs and groans as people grappled to find the smallest of faults to find something…..ANYTHING!….to make the judging easier.

The subjects ranged from modern jets, to WW2 warbirds, Vietnam era planes and Cold War planes.

This really could have gone several different ways but eventually a strong winner came out in Gary Storr with his Monogram B-58 Hustler in 1/48 scale.

Small Scale Planes

Finally our small scale planes were presented. This scale is one that is gaining a lot of momentum with modellers as the quality of the kits get better and people search for space in their house to display all their models.

Also tough to judge, with a eclectic mix of countries and airframes represented.

The winner was Mike Dawkins with a Tamiya Tornado F3 in 1/72

Members Choice

The members choice was the model that everyone enjoyed in any scale. With the all the tough competition there was a chance someone who didn’t get a place might win this but pretty convincingly the winner was Gary Storr with his Monogram B-58 Hustler in 1/48 scale.

Club Shield Awards

Our meeting closed out with the presentation of the Club Annual Shield Awards.

The Warbirds AMG Theme Build shield went Jason van Lint for a Hasegawa F-16N 1/48 scale in Marines livery.

Finally here is a pic of all the place getters and winners of the end of year competition.

That’s it for 2023. It’s a been a great year for the Warbirds with some new club members and some great wins in various comps throughout the year including several place getters in the Nation Model Expo this year. We’re looking forward to seeing what kits everyone gets for Xmas and get building again in 2024.

November 2023 Meeting

/ jvanlint

Our November meeting saw the judging process for one of the club’s time honored traditions. We have a yearly competition called Build a B*tch, which is a collection of kits kindly donated by Mark Bujega from Sprue Finders (also a club member). As per name sake these kits are chosen for their flaws or perhaps the amount of work required to build them into something as the box art suggests.

Some club members (I am definitely not one of them) like to torture themselves challenge themselves and showcase their modeling skills to turn a really bad kit into something passable. All club members judge the winner and generally have a laugh about how crappy these kits are.

A sample of some of the kits that were submitted.


This year’s winner was Martin Reid for his Yak UT-1 by Mikro-Mir in 1/48.


Jason van Lint
Web Admin

Filling Seam Lines Demo

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Head on over to our ‘Resource page’ to have a look at our latest club demonstration presented by Martin Reid and Laurence Farrugia. This is an excellent two part video on the technique of filling seam lines for scale models. A skill set that can make a huge difference to how a model can turn out and is a must for modellers at all levels.

Michael Tabone
Club President

Melbourne Model Expo 2023 (40 Year Anniversary)

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This year is a special year for the Melbourne Model Expo celebrating 40 years of the event. In honour of the show, Warbirds has assembled a magnificent display of P-40s that we are using to wish the the Expo a “Happy P-40th”.

The display features QR codes taking people to individual pages that give the history of the model they are viewing. If you’d like to see the models built for the display, please click here.

MENG Fokker Dr.1 Guide

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We all love to get he very best out of our kits, and with this comes the process of gathering references and all the necessary products to make your build the best it can be. I think that most modellers in general will go down this road in some form, with some going to the enth degree to get things perfect.

With some kits new or old, there can be a mine field of changes that are needed on top of the base kit. This can be to take things to the next level with additional details or simply to correct a series of omissions or errors ….eeeeek.

MENG recently released the Fokker Dr.1 Triplane which from initial reviews and the sample I have on my bench looks to be a nice little kit. However and to be fair, like many other kits this one falls a little short in some areas when it comes to this boxing.

Fellow club member Michael Turner has completed some much needed research for those interested in building this kit. Click this link to access Michael’s work on the ‘Resources’ page. The content of the guide is one persons view but I think the work done is fairly exhaustive given the references available to complete this work.

Having said that I have just started removing parts from the sprue ready for the classic Red Baron version, and after reading this guide found that I was slowly going down the wrong path. Now that I have access to the guide it will surely be a great reference for me to get the best out of this kit, which take me back to my opening statement……….

I hope that you find this as useful as I have so far, and a big thank you to Michael for taking the time to put this excellent guide together.

Michael Tabone
Club Secretary

Warbirds Return for 2021

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The good new is that the Warbirds 2021 meeting dates have been confirmed by the Ashburton Library so we are all set for our February meeting. We will be able to attend our normal venue as well as run our COVID Skype format on alternate weeks – more to follow!

2020 was a year that disrupted the modelling community in every possible way due to COVID. From the cancellation of scheduled modelling competitions to the inability of clubs to hold meetings at their various venues. Our favorite walk in model retailers were mostly closed but eventually opened with limited numbers of customers and strict 1.5 and handsan on entry. The real savior was that the online retailers were alive and well and most items were easily available. Although is some instances the supply of some stock was either reduced or just not available due to wholesalers/distributor supply issues, mostly coming from overseas.

Even though we are a modelling group we are all members of the wider community who has felt the punch of all things COVID. We were all looking in dismay as people began to hoard toilet paper which drove store shortages and how people then moved onto cleaning out staples like pasta, rice, sugar, flour etc etc. It was crazy out there, and when you did get toilet paper it was like you needed a security guard just to get it to your car. I can remember looking out of my office window to see a massive line of people lining up for CentreLink. It really made me value the fact that I had a job and it hit home that people out there were doing it tough. Masks became mandatory and more and more people were now working from home. Social distancing became the norm, and a huge amount of effort and cost was put in place to make it work – and it did! For a while my son couldn’t leave the house to earn some more driving hours, and booking a licence test was put on hold for thousands of learners. Boarders were closed and you needed permits to travel for work. Pubs were closed, restaurants were closed and many other retailers were closed so life wasn’t easy for most. Small groups began to protest about restrictions and police were fining those who were breaking the new COVID rules. Mind you all of this was in Victoria and the approach was different for all states, which made me wonder why a national unified plan wasn’t formalised.

2020 was really a crappy year but it gets better, or worse depending on how you look at it as its not really over. Victoria had gone 60 days without any new cases until we got 3 new case a day ago and Sydney is becoming the new Melbourne of a few months ago. At least now things in Victoria are looking much better than earlier in the year and we did come out of COVID and enjoyed a xmas with family and friends.

One of the positives for me during this time and for many others who I know is that my modelling time has increased with more kits being built. I have a feeling that once the comps return there will be a flood of kits, which will be a great thing of course. Our members have continued to keep in contact using Skype which really helped to break the feeling of isolation. Even though Skype has been around for years I think COVID showed us what a great tool it is especially for our more remote members. We will continue to use it or perhaps explore some of the other similar tools available.

Lets hope that 2021 is more brighter and that our Ashburton meeting schedule kicks off with out any COVID surprises. Please check out our new 2021 meeting dates.

See you all there!

Michael Tabone
Club Secretary