Hey Hobzobbers!

We know it's been a while since we've had a contest, we thought we'd let you recharge your competitive batteries a bit.

September's contest is a fun one though! All you have to do is write a couple of paragraphs about why you love your hobby, how you got into your hobby and how you share your hobby with the people around you. Once you write your paragraphs, you can post them in the "September Contest 2010" forum on the official Hobzob Contest Group page.

Go here: http://www.ho..._contest_2010 to paste your stories.

You have from now until September 30, 2010 to post your stories and we'd love to read them! Plus all that time means writer's block shouldn't be a problem! At the end of the month, we'll choose the top 3-5 stories to send to Hobby Outlook--an online ezine published by HobbyTown USA. Feel free to include any pictures you'd like.

You can see Hobby Outlook here: http://tinyurl.com/249w2ho

So start sharing your stories and post them in the forum for your chance to be part of Hobby Outlook!

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This is the second half of the tutorial, and dealing with having to cut, slice, poke, and further manipulate decals to make them go where you need them.

Again, I do sincerely hope these videos lend some idea to assist my fellow modelers in working with decals.

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This is the second half of the tutorial, and dealing with having to cut, slice, poke, and further manipulate decals to make them go where you need them.

Again, I do sincerely hope these videos lend some idea to assist my fellow modelers in working with decals.

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I've often been questioned as to "how" I attach decals, and manipulate them into contoured surfaces. I've finally gotten some time and a project to film a live instructional video on how I do these things.

This first video is the basic tools and techniques I use to set decals in to place on contoured surfaces.
I hope that this series is of some help to you all. With that, I bring you the Decal Hell 101 tutorial video series. The end of the video is cut short. However, it repeats the same process as mentioned in the first part of the video and essentially causes the decal to shrink and conform to the surface.

One thing to keep in mind with decals is PATIENCE, PATIENCE, AND PATIENCE. :D

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You think you know the whole to this picture? Post the link to the comments section and we'll be the judge of that!

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You think you know models? We'll be the judge of that! Post the link to the complete photo in the comments section if you think you've got it.

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Thanks to everyone who participated in the Hobzob Hunt this month! We'd also like to thank Horizon Hobby for donating the Losi Mini-Rock Crawler for our prize this month.

We know those of you that entered have been waiting to know who closed the case and we'd like to congratulate:

Jose Huerta aka Sheriff on his win!

Sheriff was the winner of our drawing to win the mini-rock crawler!

Thanks to everyone who participates in our contests every month, we appreciate all of you!

We've got an awesome contest for May that will make you famous (well sort of)... you'll at least end up in R/C Car Magazine in our Hobzob ad--we'd like to give major props to Kuppler for giving us the idea for the next contest--it's going to be one of the coolest contests yet!

Thanks again Hobzobbers!

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There's two days left to enter April's Contest, a scavenger hunt. And do you know why you should do it?

Because we have an awesome Losi Crawler sitting in our office that needs a new home...unless you all think we should keep it and have our own fun! ;) But seriously, it's an awesome prize and we want everyone to have the chance to snag it!

It's really easy to win too. All you have to do is go to:
http://contests.hobzob.com, download the scavenger hunt, fill it out (15 easy questions) and send it to:

katlynnd@hobzob.com

That's it. That's all you have to do, it takes 20 minutes to find the answers to our questions and then you have a chance at winning a Losi Rock Crawler!! Once you submit your answers, we'll hold a drawing with everyone who got the answers right.

So what are you waiting for?

Have you closed the case?

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Oh sure, most folks have heard of Revell and Monogram. And, depending on where you are in the world, you're probably familiar with makers like Airfix, Heller, Aoshima, and others. And if you're a modeler? I'm sure you've heard of the big dogs, like Dragon, Tamiya, Hasegawa, and Italeri. Of course, there's a bunch of other "household names" for modelers out there such as Trumpeter, Hobby Boss, Academy, Bronco Models, Minicraft, and literally dozens more. And that's just for real-world subjects. When you start going into sci-fi, names like Polar Lights, Aurora, Bandai, Takara, Wave, Kotobukiya, and others are likely to show up high on the list.

They all produce models for mass consumption. Models that you can find on the shelves of virtually any hobby store in the world. Models that tread familiar--and popular--ground. I wouldn't say that they're the tip of the proverbial iceberg. They're more like the floors of a building that you can observe above ground. Exposed to sunlight, and recognizable. There is a basement, however. It's the place that most people don't see where objects aren't as familiar for some. But for those of us looking for the things you don't "normally" see, it's the place where we often end up.

This is where you find kit manufacturers like ICM, MPM, AeroPlast, and--to a lesser degree--Eduard. Sure, they make little dents in the mainstream. Eduard kits are easy enough to find, they licensed the kits for the movie "Flyboys", and their recent F6F Hellcat has certainly caught the eye of many modelers. And you can find ICM figures in some Tamiya boxings. On the whole, however, they're not as well represented. And that's a good thing. These are plastic kit makers that aren't trying to run with the big dogs, so they can afford to focus on subjects that might otherwise be overlooked, and certainly never be given recognition in plastic.

I've previously built one ICM kit--a 1/72, Polikarpov I-16 Type 24; and I'm currently working on my second ICM project: A 1/72 Polikarpov I-15bis. The kits are just different from mainstream offerings. The sprues aren't quite up to the same mass-production quality as you'll find in a Tamiya kit, but the detail tends to be even better than what you'd find in similar, more readily available kits. Whereas a mainstream kit might have three pieces for fuselage halves and the front of the engine cowl, my I-15bis has seven. The cockpit for the I-15bis consists of eight separate pieces. When was the last time you saw that on a 1/72 propeller aircraft kit with a price tag under $10? But it's not about the numbers. "The devil is in the details"--and that, in combination with the obscurity of the subject matter, is what sells these kits.

Speaking just of my experience with ICM kits--and observation of others--like MPM and AeroPlast, they do things wrong and they do things right (just like everybody else). The engraved detail tends to be a bit more shallow, and the plastic is a bit thicker on parts like the fuselage, but there's just more detail there. For example, if you wanted to build the kit with a panel removed for engine maintenance, you'd have some engine making to do, but the kit itself would require a lot less surgery. Not only that, but they give you options right in the box. In this I-15bis, there are no less than three different landing gear options. On the other side of that coin are Hasegawa and Dragon--who absolutely love issuing new kits for some airplane or tank that rolled off a 1943 German production line on a Thursday versus the one that rolled out on the previous Monday.

The moral of the story is that there's a lot more plastic scale models out there than you're aware of, if you're new to this. And if you're not new to this, you may want to give some of these "little guys" a try some time. Some aspects of these kits will most likely impress you, while others--like the shallow engraved lines--may very well distress you. The challenge is greater, but so is the reward.

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Sorry we didn't try to stump you last week, but hopefully we did alright this time...though we're pretty sure everyone will get the right answer pretty fast anyway!

You think you know the whole to this picture? We'll be the judge of that! Post the link to the comments section if you think you've got it.

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