The date for our annual Sproo-Doo Contest, September 27, is quickly closing in on all of us and it seems as though this one is setting up to be the best in the history of CASM. It seems as though we will have the largest number of vendors in several years, perhaps ever, and the venue, the Statehouse Convention Center in downtown Little Rock, is definitely the best (potentially) that we have ever had. Cliff Bullock has busted his behind in securing a great many offerings for the show to pass on to attendees in the form of raffles and auctions, not to mention sponsors for the show’s trophy packages. Not to sell the rest of the club short and especially not those members on the show committee, they have all done a bang up job all the way around. I am sure a vast majority of the 40 members of CASM will be attending and participating in the show, now if the out of town guests would just match that number.

Through the years I have been fortunate to visit and participate at many IPMS clubs including North and South Carolina, Florida, Tennessee, Georgia, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, Louisiana and Missouri and three different organizations in Arkansas. I can not recall any club with the number of members that we at CASM are blessed with, or the range of skills and talent. I am not saying that this was not the case, just that I do not recall such, but then I am getting older. I am talking about folks like Jeff Griffin, Ron Leker, Rusty Nail, Tom Brown, Ray Smith (even if he does build paper airplanes), Rick Knapp, Dave Branson, Noel Lawson, Matt Bond, Daris Long and Kenneth Childers. All of them willing to share their knowledge and techniques with anyone who wants to learn and is willing to ask questions.

We all enjoy our hobby, and we enjoy seeing new people come into it, or return to the hobby after being away for several years. But what if we try something new, at least for CASM, to make more people aware of the club and to possibly bring in a few more folks?

Before you start throwing stones and saying, “Oh there goes Wilson again wanting to change things,” please hear me out.

We have been having our club group builds for a while now, and while it’s great to see some finished models three or four times a year, beyond Sproo-Doo, I’d like to suggest something a little different and hopefully one or two of you may find the suggestion something of interest. The group builds usually see from three to eight entries at any of the competitions. Let’s take it a little farther.

What I am suggesting is that at each monthly meeting we have an open contest. We would have some flyers printed and post them where we meet at HobbyTown, and hopefully at Rail and Sprue, to let other modelers outside of CASM know about the contests. I know the first efforts would draw a small turnout, but if we tried this for a year or two we could see an increase from other modelers as they learn more about the contest. Club members would pay $1 for every model they enter, while non-dues paying members would pay $2. This would offset the cost of the prizes, perhaps gift cards or something they could use to further their hobby, for the top three finishers at each contest. This would serve to not only bring in other modelers but also to help our own members to learn more about judging. If the contest grew and we began to see a consistently larger number of entries we could begin to break the models into classes as they are needed.

When I first joined a model club, Central Arkansas Modelers Society (CAMS), way back in 1977 I went to my first meeting after looking at the great models in the showcases at Jack’s Hobby Shop and talking to one or two of the club members while shopping there. I never really expected to win or anything, I knew my work was not as good as most of the models I had been looking at for the past months.

I joined CAMS because I enjoyed my hobby and I wanted to meet other folks that enjoyed the same hobby. But most of all I wanted to improve my work. I found that talking with these other modelers helped greatly, and I learned from modelers of all genres. The competition every month at CAMS did more than drive my efforts to improve more, I wanted to be able to hold my own and to win against some outstanding models, and I am glad I went to the meeting because of what I got from the other modelers and for the friends I made there. Maybe we can do the same for someone else.

     I’ve done vignettes and dioramas set in urban areas before, but never without some degree of trepidation beforehand.  Scenes set in the countryside can involve nothing more than a patch of dirt and grass.  Rocks, bushes, even trees, don’t involve a lot of complex effort.  A miniature story set in a town or city, however, can involve any number of factors that will require thought and planning. 

     I have just completed an urban diorama setting with dimensions of 12 by 16 inches.  The diorama, to be set in France in late July, 1944, during Operation Cobra, will include a pair of vehicles, a partially destroyed building, and several figures.  Since a building will be part of the scene, I followed my usual practice of increasing the height of the base by first putting down a layer of cork panel.  Even if it has no basement, a building’s ground floor will be some distance above the ground.  The cork layer makes it possible to replicate this.  In addition, the cork provides a convincing-looking substrata for either a town or a country setting.

      I had already laid out sections of Synergy Dio Products sidewalk and marked off areas where I would have piles of rubble and shell craters.  These areas would be cobblestone- free, thus cutting down on the quantity of Dutton bricks required.  Once the streets were completed, I dug the shell craters out of my cork layer with a none-too-sharp knife and followed up by digging even deeper into the wood base beneath with a Dremel tool.

     I “cut and pasted” and otherwise ravaged parts of a Verlinden Products Ardennes farmhouse to create a ruined building.  Verlinden buildings being detailed on their exteriors only, carving and scribing was required to give detail to my ruin’s interior.  Exposed brick and stone as well as cracked and pock-marked plaster were added to the inside surfaces.  Whether destroyed by artillery, bombs, or a combination of the two, a lot of shrapnel and debris fly through the air when a building is brought down.   The exterior of my destroyed building was liberally pock-marked too, representing damage from fragments coming from shell hits in the streets. 

      The Synergy Dio sidewalk is broad enough to allow the building walls to be glued to its back edge, with plenty of cracked and chipped sidewalk left exposed.  This gets the building’s floor even higher off the base.  As with the shell holes, the area behind my destroyed building was dug out.  The idea is to simulate a fairly deep rubble-filled area under the remnants of the building’s flooring.              

      Mounds of rubble on the building’s exterior started with heaps of papier-mâché groundwork.  Once this had set, it was time to break out the white glue, bricks (mostly broken), gravel (small and large), and sand.  Be advised, especially you married types, this makes quite a mess.  One thing to keep in mind here—following the advice of Shep Paine, I made sure none of my bits of gravel were too big for the thickness of my walls. 

     I painted that initial layer of rubble with Tamiya khaki.  I find that, once weathered, it conveys the look of old concrete and masonry very convincingly.  Once the brick and cobblestone colors had been painted in, I added the wooden bits of the ruin, followed by more rubble to blend that wood into the mess.

     The remains of my building’s floor were made with white glue, balsa, and some basswood strip.  It’s important that support beams be lighter in color than floorboards and relatively unweathered save for the all-pervasive dust generated by the building’s destruction.  Rubble on the broken flooring was done as on the rest of the diorama—it takes surprisingly little there to look convincing.  Enough to justify the apparent destruction without completely obscuring the floor, sidewalk, or street that so much effort has been expended on is the object with the rubble.

     A building needs certain minimal details, like the vestiges of windows and doors, and such things as some sign of how curtains or shutters might have been supported.  I made what was left of a door with stained balsa and Verlinden photo-etched hardware.  Window openings were lined with stained balsa, and fragments of the windows were made from pieces of HO scale frames with slivers of clear styrene sandwiched in between to replicate glass.  Fragments of window frame are also part of the rubble.

     The cobblestones were painted with Tamiya flat earth, with random stones given a diluted touch of burnt umber craft paint.  The bricks of the building and the broken bricks and bits of brick in the areas of rubble were painted with Tamiya red brown.  Some bits of rubble were left in khaki, since part of the building’s construction is stone.  Random stones in the lower reaches of the building’s exterior were painted lighter or darker than the prevailing khaki.  All the Tamiya paints used were mixed with approximately twenty percent flat base for a dead-flat finish.   

     Some of the last touches to the rubble were fragments of glass, cut from clear styrene and pressed onto drops of white glue, along with some black-painted wooden roof shingles.  Those latter are an O-gauge railroad product from Kappler.  Again, a bit more brick, gravel and sand helped to blend those last additions with the rest of the debris.    Lastly, everything was washed and daubed with very dilute Tamiya khaki, to represent the dust that covers all when a building falls.  This helps to blend things and tie all the rubble together.  Assuming this structure had been destroyed for more than a day or two, the khaki wash was used to add some subtle streaking from the weather outside and inside the structure.

     One important note about my diorama’s ruined building:  Once details had been scribed into the interior and the edges of its sections, I glued those sections to the sidewalk edges and to each other and filled gaps with acrylic modeling paste.  That way, the mounds of groundwork could be added, and the building could receive a base coat of khaki along with streets and sidewalks.  The drawback to this was that some contortions were required to finish painting and add details.  Completely painting building sections and adding door and window details before putting the sections on the base would have had its own problems, chiefly with the filling of gaps and repairing the damage that would cause to the pre-painting.  Either way will work—modeler’s choice. 

     Although a diorama such as this can be constructed and painted with a rougher touch than a vehicle or figures, an urban scene presents difficulties in the form of the many aspects that must be considered.  If done thoughtfully and with attention to detail, though, it can provide an interesting setting for the men and machines of war.  Creating a convincing urban scene isn’t easy, but it can be quite satisfying.                  

BENEFITS OF YOUR LOCAL CLUB

Modeling is a singular hobby.  Most of us build, modify, and paint our kits with our own thoughts to the final end of our project.  But with no feedback or knowledge of other techniques we often end up with our creations with no idea if it is a truly something that another modeler would like to view.

The benefits of becoming a member of a modelers’ club gives us the chance to approach our techniques with the benefit of the sight of a peer who may shed an entirely different view of how we can approach our work.

If we attend a meeting of a local club, or present feedback on an internet forum (in case we live in an area with no club) most often we are intimidated by the gathering.  But it is important to grasp that most of the others in the club have our same skill levels or at least in the past were in the same position we see ourselves in level of skill.

But seeing and listening is crucial to an increased level of skill and enjoyment of the hobby.   I joined my club, the Central Arkansas Scale Modelers in late 2008 after a long absence from the pastime.  Here in my own words are the concise lessons from my experience in attending meetings of the club:

1)       The Color Wheel  is king.  Be it armor, naval, science fiction, fantasy or any other subject regardless of complexity of the build remember the relationships of color in the color wheel. 

2)      When you start with the hobby always begin with simple kits.  Kits with more than 300 to 400 parts should be avoided for the first year.

3)      Take your time.  When I  attend a meeting of our local club I often feel the need to immediately start a project, regardless if I already have one in process.  Only build one at a time and never rush the job.  Observe at the meetings that even the more advanced modelers often take months to complete their projects.

4)      If the club offers airbrush classes, or when you find the demonstrations on You Tube take note on the techniques.  Buy a simple,  single-action airbrush on your first purchase and ask for advice from your club members.  Airbrushes elevate our hobby’s level but they can be frustrating for the first-time users.

5)      See number 1.  Remember the primary and secondary colors and how they relate.  Some of our most advanced builders at CASM use only a few colors and mix their own variations to achieve results.

6)      Remember that you are an artist.  Regardless of feedback, regardless of winning prizes at hobby shows you are the final judge if your creation has been worth your time.  

Don’t become a member of CASM to GET a 10% discount from Hobbytown USA.  It is true you will receive the benefit of a 10% discount.  Join CASM because you want to be associated with an organization that emphasizes relationships within the modeling community.  Join CASM because you would like to learn to become a better modeler from face-to-face contact with other modelers.  Join CASM because there are other people like you who love to build models.  Join CASM because you want to contribute to the community of modelers.

I can recall a time when people wanted to become a member of something because there was a pride in being associated with a group of people.  The “benefit” of joining was the feeling that came from being identified as a member of a specific group; to be accepted by people who had a similar interest in something.  There came with this idea a sense of “pride” to be known as a person who was part of a specific organization.  It was an “honor” to wear the club t-shirt because it identified you as a member of the group and you wanted to be known as a member of that group.

The reason to become a member of something is because of the human bond that forms with other people who gather together with a common purpose, not to get a discount.  There is a sense of pride that comes with membership that occurs when we identify ourselves as a member of a body that gathers together with a common interest.  A club is not about club business, it is about the fellowship that comes when people gather in a place with a common interest.

CASM is an active member in the modeling and local community.  Members of CASM are known and respected around the world because of their willingness to help others and the contributions they make to the modeling community.   It is an organization that is more than “just” building models. 

There are levels of participation in the club that reaches out to people who do not model and to those who are infirmed and unable to come to the model meetings.  Meeting with other club members can provide a sense of normalcy when tragedy strikes us personally or we are feeling lonely and isolated.  People of the club get together outside of the club meetings and travel to contests in the Southern United States and socialize locally.  Members gather together and talk about modeling and model together.  The gatherings are as much about modeling as they are about friendships.  CASM provides an avenue to be a part of these smaller groups where you can come to know others and be known.

Being a member of a club is not based on the idea “I” should get something.  Being a member of a club is based on the idea that “I” get to contribute something to a group so the group will be better. Some people may think that they ought not be a member because their modeling skills are not good enough.  The truth is all members gain from members of varying modeling skills.  

Becoming a member is an idea that is necessary for the present and the future as so many current communication methods distance us from direct contact with others.  Being a member of a club provides for us with a sense of belonging and being a member of a community that cannot be replaced through electronic means.

Join CASM so you can be a member of this community, so you can develop friendships with others, and care about the members of the community.  Membership implies contributing and giving to others instead of thinking only about what you can get. 

Join CASM.  Enjoy the 10% discount.  Contribute to a community of people who care about one another and who enjoy modeling.

Editor's Note:  If you are not in the Central Arkansas area but live somewhere else, what is stated above applies to the model club in your area.  If you are not a member, look them up.  If you are a member, contribute to the club!