Tuesday, August 24, 2010

DVD: AFV Acrylic Techniques by Mig Jimenez

Today I received my copy of the new DVD: AFV Acrylic Techniques by Mig Jimenez.
This DVD shows various techniques to paint and weather armor using Vallejo Acrylic paints and pigments.

This video is full of very useful information as well as clear demonstration on weathering a tank from start to finish.
The DVD is narrated in English with Spanish subtitles.  It also includes a brochure describing all the products used in this video.

The only fault I find with this program is that the narration seems hurried and clearly read from a script.  The description of the Vallejo products is brief, so brief that at times I had to "rewind" a bit to see what it was. I guess the enclosed brochure makes up for that.
In my opinion, this is money well spent and a must have in your collection for as far as I know, there are is no other DVD available at the moment describing this process with Vallejo Acrylic products (now if they would do something like that for the aircraft modelers....).  Oh and the music track is awesome!

I give it two thumbs up!

Friday, August 13, 2010

It Begins

I've been away from modeling for a long time.  I used to build model airplanes when I was a kid and, for some reason I just can't remember, I stopped.
Oh I got into other things like sports, music, chasing girls, photography, you know the drill.

As I got older, my interest in photography grew as well.  I got into fashion photography.  I moved took a Government job that would allow me to live in NY so I could explore the real world of fashion photography.  Well I didn't like what I saw and, after 11 years, I quit.  I still have the job but I no longer do fashion photography.

So, now what to do?  Well I decided to get into aviation and learn how to fly.  My Dad was a pilot, my Uncle is a pilot, so I figure I'd give it a shot. Besides, I love airplanes.  Unfortunately I was diagnosed with Diabetes so I've had to put those plans on hold.  But I still kept looking at airplane websites and visiting museums and airports and what not just to feed my desire to be around aircraft.

One day, I decide to go to an airport a little distance from me.  I'm told there is a museum there with active aircraft from WWII.  Well I found the American Airpower Museum.  Nice place, lots of aircraft. But what got to me was the display of scale model aircraft and dioramas they have on exhibit.  I was amazed by the kind of work being done by regular folks with these plastic kits.
I needed to know who made these things and found out it was a collective effort by members of the Long Island Scale Model Society.

I went home and got on the Net and found their website.  An email later and I'm given info on membership and time and place of the next meeting by the club's Corresponding Secretary.  So I joined the club and started talking to people and surfing the Net for website dedicated to the hobby.  I spent a year collecting information, tools, paints, kits, etc., but didn't have the time (or the nerve) to actually start building.

Well it finally happened, about a month ago I built my first kit in 40+ years since the last one I did.  This was a 1/48 scale Tamiya M4Sherman early production.




Not impressive but hey, I did it. It was a lot of fun and now I can't think of anything else but building models.  I still have a lot to learn and I will be using this blog to show and share with others what I do and how I do it, my success and my failures.
It's all part of the learning process.

So, until next time.