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.

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

Check out Martin Reid’s excellent build of the Tamiya 1/48 HE219 A-7 – click here

Michael Tabone
Club President

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.

W&T was on today and was a great show with  around 100 entries on the tables. The standard was as high as usual, which gave the judges a real challenge to come up with the placings. This event was supported by a number of traders who made sure we poor old modellers emptied our wallets – a terrible sight!

Once again the IPMS boys and the traders made this a great day  – click here for some pics.

Cheers,

Michael Tabone
Club Secretary

 

On the weekend of 23rd – 25th August a few members took the trip down to our Phillip Island holiday house to do nothing but build kits. We also took the time to eat, drink and listen to music and various comedy shows which generated a lot of laughs.

Between the members we had a whole bunch of kits that we brought along to keep us busy for the three days. Making sure you covered all bases with all the associated gear was a small challenge but I think we all did pretty well there.

The accommodation was comfortable and within walking distance to the shops, but sorry to say there was no hobby shop for any emergency supplies. All meals were by way of pies, pizza,  chips, eggs and toast and most things in between all washed down with the finest of beverages – mmmm.

Overall is was a great weekend with plenty of kit building and time to relax and enjoy each others company and humour – thinking about next year already…….

Click here for some pics of the weekend.

Our last meeting saw the start of a new format with a focus on member modelling and more demonstrations. Our required formalities have been reduced to allow for greater member interaction and more general discussions. We will still be bringing along our kits in progress, completed builds and anything new to continue with our already busy atmosphere.

At this meeting Martin Reid and Michael Tabone presented a demonstration on Rigging WW1 Aircraft, which covered perhaps one of the greatest fears of modelling. This was a thorough demo covering all the tools and supplies as well as documentation illustrating the steps and processes involved. Martin and Michael used the Wingnut Wings kits as a basis for their discussion with a Sopwith Pup as an example of fine rigging and turnbuckle creation.

We will see a lot more demonstrations moving forward and if this meeting was anything to go by then I think we will be on a winner!

You can find our link to the demonstration documentation on our ‘Demonstrations’ page.

Images of the demonstration