Photo: ScaleACT 2019 People’s and Members’ Choice winner – “In the Dark…” 4Q19

President’s Report

FIVE HUNDRED AND SIXTY-SIX! However, that is just one metric from

ScaleACT-19 that we, as the Club, should be proud of. Chatting to a number

of patrons, traders and other scale modellers, it shows that our reputation is

growing amongst the scale modelling fraternity. I also sensed that there is a

growing awareness of our hobby amongst the community that was borne

out by a busier/larger crowd and a growing number of junior entries.

There were many highlights during the weekend that culminated in my great

pleasure of bestowing an Honorary Life Membership to Jerry Cashman – a

stalwart of the club!

As always, the show’s success is dependent upon many moving parts from

the Committee, Club Members, Traders, Competitors, Sponsors, and visitors

alike. Thus, I would like to thank the following:

Traders. Traders are an integral part of the show, and many go the little bit extra in sponsoring many of the

judged categories. In particular, Runway 13, SMS, Star Hobbies, Red Roo and ModelArt Australia. And Toyworld.

To all – your support is always greatly appreciated.

Associations. A heartfelt thank you to Lions. This has been the seventh year that they have provided us with their

BBQ skills. And to the RAAF Association and both the Ottawa and Farnborough IPMS clubs as category Sponsors.

Club Members. To all club members who provided their time, labour and skills in making this event a success.

From setting up special displays, setting up, signage posting, judging, cleaning up – there are many tasks to

accomplish during the weekend.

Next, the Competitors. Without you we would not have a show, it is after all the main reason we bring all this

together.

ScaleACTION

President’s Report P1-2

From the Editorial Team P2

Treasurer’s Waffle P2

Chief Judge’s Spotlight P3

VP’s Corner and ACTSMS Calendar of Events 2020 P4

ACTSMS’ Newest Honorary Life Member P5

ScaleACT-19 – Chief Organiser’s Debrief P6-7

ScaleACT-19 – Wrap-Up P7

ScaleACT-19 – Statistics and Results P8-24

Summary Statistics P8

Competition Entries by Category P8-9

Category Winners P10-20

Special Awards P20-24

In the Dark… P25-31

ACTSMS Exclusive: Best of Show ScaleACT-19 P32-34

Committee Contact Details P35

ACTSMS Page 2

Honourable mentions go to Callum Bowen, for parking the DeLorean outside all weekend, Tradie Tony for helping

out with the test and tagging (Territory Tag and Test) and Oscar, our photographer on the day.

Media. To all the media that promoted ScaleACT 19 to grow the community awareness of our hobby.

Brad, Min and Dave – the Chief Judges. A job well done considering that the focus of all the weekend falls upon

your shoulders.

And finally, Mike Grieve. He has been doing this essentially for 21 years. Enjoy the airbrush (and all the

frustrations that it will bring!).

ACTSMS President Tony Allocca

From the Editorial Team

This being the final newsletter for 2019, the focus will, unsurprisingly, be on ScaleACT-19. A new record for the

number of competition entries was set (again!) with a total of 566, up from 2018’s then-record 503! I echo Tony’s

sentiments above that awareness and participation in our hobby appear to be on the rise. As members of the

ACTSMS, you should be proud to know that the Committee undertook numerous initiatives to support this:

significant effort was invested into marketing both our club and ScaleACT via media channels in the lead-up to the

event. We had our usual social media channel via the ACTSMS Facebook page, and ScaleACT was advertised on a

number of media outlets including print and on the radio.

We set ourselves the goal to grow our hobby and ScaleACT, and despite what the doubters had to say I’m happy

we proved them wrong!

Editor Min Hwang

Treasurer’s Waffle

With the dust settling from Scale ACT 19, the society continues to have a healthy financial position however we expect to make a loss of about $2,000 for the weekend. We have yet to receive the account from the school for the hall use and also the wages of the caretaker.

Overall, the society had more people entering from both the general public and competitor entrants. We also received a $1,000 grant from Callida for which we are extremely grateful. Toyworld also sponsored the production of the Scale ACT 19 booklet.

The society now has 88 financial members – 1 down compared to the same time last year. It’s never too late to become financial though and you can still pay direct to the society’s account or come and see me at the monthly meeting.

As always, if you are interested in seeing ‘the books’ come and see me.

ACTSMS Treasurer Elaine Jones

ACTSMS Page 3

Chief Judge’s Spotlight

As mentioned in the last newsletter before this, ScaleACT-19 was to be Brad Fallen’s last outing as Chief Judge. I

would like to extend both my, and the Society’s, heartfelt thanks and appreciation for his contributions in that

role over the past 4 years. Brad will hopefully now get to enjoy more quality modelling time, having passed the

torch on to Dave White and myself.

And so, the Society will now have 2 Chief Judges. Why so? Because, at 566 competition entries, we have now

surpassed the Queensland Model Hobbies EXPO (QMHE) as the second-largest scale modelling competition in

Australia! A competition that large places an immense workload on the individuals responsible for assessment

and judging – and most of all on the person(s) occupying the Chief Judge role. Having 2 people in the role will not

only help distribute to load, but also offer a means of ensuring additional balance and independent points-of-view

in finalising the competition results.

The competition side of ScaleACT-19 followed much the same format as what we saw in previous years. Some

additional work was invested by a team consisting of Brad, Jerry, Mike and Min on the evening before the

Saturday to sort and finalise the competition entries. This took us past 10pm on the night but resulted in a much

more streamlined process on the morning of the competition (yet another example of the significant effort that

goes on behind the scenes).

It has been stressed, and made abundantly clear, to members that whilst judging takes place on the Saturday

afternoon, the Chief Judge makes the final decisions on placings the following Sunday morning during the

validation process. This is the Chief Judge’s responsibility and prerogative, this is the ACTSMS’ process, and

ScaleACT is the ACTSMS’ event. Unfortunately, certain guests from outside the Society who volunteer to be a part

of the process appear not to understand, either that or they are unwilling to accept this.

I stress again: this is our event, and this is our system – the system which has served us well and that we will not

be changing. We will work to avoid any misunderstanding next year by making it clear to one and all that placings

are only finalised by the Chief Judges on the Sunday morning, not during the Saturday triage/assessment process.

To all the Society volunteers who assisted in the competition process at this year’s ScaleACT, a massive thank you

for your efforts, time and contribution.

Co-Chief Judge Min Hwang

ACTSMS Page 4

VP’s Corner and ACTSMS Calendar of Events 2020

With ScaleACT 2019 out of the way the focus shifts to next year. In January the first club group build will be

commencing at the January meeting. There will be prizes available and raffle tickets for all completed models that

meet the following criteria.

Group build 1/2020 will be “Anything Qantas” with the goal of trying to boost numbers for hopefully a very

impressive 100 Years of Qantas anniversary display, completed models will also be eligible for next year’s Grail

competition. A full list of Qantas operated aircraft will be emailed out and up on Facebook in the next week or so.

Rules are simple, commence building your Qantas model at the January meeting or, if you can’t make it, on the

same night as the Club meeting in January. You then must complete the kit within three months of that date, with

the meeting falling after that date being the night of judging. All completed models will receive four raffle tickets

with prizes of first, second and third being issued in the form of Toyworld vouchers ($50, $30, $20). If you have

any questions, please let me know via email or Facebook.

If building something Qantas does not appeal to you, then bring whatever kit you feel like working on. If you start

and finish a kit between the group build dates you can still be eligible for four raffle tickets but not the main

prizes.

January 18 and 19 we have been asked to assist in a workshop at Toyworld Fyshwick. There will be four sessions

running for approximately three hours each over the two days. This is to try and encourage members of the public

to come along and learn how to build a scale model. This will hopefully encourage new people to take up our

hobby in some form. The importer Southern Model Supplies has provided Airfix starter kits for the weekend and

Toyworld will be providing tools and glue over the weekend. This is a great way the club can assist give back to

Toyworld for their very generous support throughout the years. If you can assist, please get in touch with me and

let me know. If you can’t, there will be other opportunities like this throughout the year to help the club out.

That’s it from me for now, see you all in January, I hope you all have a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

Month Opening Break Main Break Closing Other January 15 Hellenic club Woden

Admin Group build – Anything Qantas see details in the Vice President Section.

• Current build progress table

• People’s Choice Draw

• Raffle

February 12 Hellenic Club Woden

Admin Workshop – How to use photoetch by Paul D’Orival Two minutes from two modellers

• Current build progress table

• Build table (open after admin)

• People’s Choice Draw

• Raffle

March (TBA) Hellenic Club Woden

Admin Workshop – Airbrushing

• Current build progress table

• Build table (open after admin)

• People’s Choice Draw

• Monster Raffle

Vice-President Peter Davis

ACTSMS Page 5

Jerry Cashman – ACTSMS’ Newest Honorary Life Member

The ACTSMS 2019 Committee hereby awards an Honorary Life

Member to Jerry Cashman, the highest honour the ACTSMS can

bestow on an individual.

Life Membership is only awarded in exceptional circumstances for

special or meritorious service to the ACTSMS. The four criteria

for Life Membership set by consecutive ACTSMS Committees,

comprise:

• Contribution to Corporate Administration by way of

Committee participation;

• Passion for participating and driving ACTSMS activities;

• Aptitude for managing tasks and taking the lead in

various projects; and

• Overall general contribution to the wellbeing of the

ACTSMS.

In effect, while a reasonable length of time of service is also important, the overarching criterion set by the

ACTSMS Committee in final judgement is the quality of service provided by the individual.

Jerry Cashman meets and indeed, exceeds every single milestone as the society’s foremost ‘ideas man’. He is a

well-respected member of the ACTSMS and has been a member for approximately twenty-one years. In this

period Jerry has consistently made a substantial contribution to the ACTSMS and shown and maintained

extraordinary interest in its operations, activities and new endeavours.

Jerry’s service, strategic vision and influence has well and truly exceeded that of others which in itself has helped

craft the ACTSMS to be regarded by its peers as one of Australia’s premier scale modelling clubs. He has diligently

served and participated directly or indirectly in most Society activities.

To exemplify this contribution, some but not all of Jerry’s key achievements can best be summarised as follows:

• maintained an active role in successive Committees including various sub-committees;

• a frequent ‘voice of reason’ in difficult discussions that the society has had to face over the years;

• webmaster since the society website was created, including the tech support expert for the society’s

Facebook and other electronic services;

• stint as the ACTSMS newsletter editor;

• presenter of many meeting workshops and tricks-&-tips presentations;

• leading role in organising special ACTSMS projects, whether it be the ordering and/or production of club

shirts or trophies, or the presence at events such as the Royal Canberra Show and Malkara;

• led oversight and development of the Scale ACT electronic entries and results database; and

• creator of the annual Blitz Build.

It is the Committee’s view that Jerry’s membership has resulted in the ACTSMS being substantially, demonstrably

and positively changed by his contribution deserved of the highest recognition, that of Honorary Life Member.

ACTSMS President Tony Allocca

On behalf of the 2019 Standing Committee of the ACTSMS

ACTSMS Page 6

ScaleACT-19 – Chief Organiser’s Debrief

I thought it might be appropriate for me to write up a short 2019 show debrief before I “retire” as ScaleACT Chief

Organiser. I should stress that I’m not intending to step away from ScaleACT organisation entirely, rather just be

part of the subcommittee, and not as the lead organiser.

By any measure ScaleACT-19 was a huge success:

- A new record set for number of competition entries (566, of which 66% were from non-ACTSMS

members)

- Another great outing for our new cars special award

- A big response to our “Grail: At the Movies” themed competition (20 entries), rivalling 2017’s “Grail:

Emergency & Humanitarian Services” competition. These broadly themed special competitions appear to

be popular with builders

- The new 1st place trophies appear to have been well-received

- The presence of the real DeLorean for added visitor interest

- Heaps of visitors through the doors, it seemed like many more than in the past (especially the previously

quiet Sunday morning session)

- Lions did a roaring trade, which earnt them plenty of money for their charitable activities

A big ‘thank you!’ to all of the volunteers who helped make the show a success, no matter what you did. To the

traders and interstate visitors for making the effort to travel to be with us, your enthusiasm to join us is both a

pleasure and an honour, and our thanks go to our many sponsors for their generous support.

Feedback received during an following the show indicates that we have work to do in a number of areas:

- This year saw a huge increase in thefts, most seriously from the Swap & Sell and of valuable equipment

stored by entrants underneath the competition tables. We will look at a greater presence of “yellow

vests” as a visible deterrent, as well as offering a lockable space for entrant valuables. This, of course,

means more society members will be needed to volunteer as the “yellow vests”.

- Encouraging safe photography and model viewing practices around the competition tables. A quiet word

from one of the “yellow vests” loitering in the vicinity of the tables should do the trick.

- Review judging processes (which happens each year anyway).

- Review handling of models.

- Further streamline the competition entry process.

- The early packing up of models on the Sunday afternoon was a huge disappointment, and not fair on our

paying visitors – when we’ve advertised that the models will be on view until 3pm on Sunday, having the

competition tables almost empty by 2pm is not reasonable. Unless prior arrangement for early departure

is made, models need to stay on the tables until after the awards presentation, so how this can be

achieved will be investigated.

- Further develop the presentations/workshops programme.

- The ACTSMS info desk was a good idea, but the execution was a bit rushed.

- Saturday morning ushers to help the competition entrants worked very well, develop this idea further.

- Print the competition category on each of the model entry sheets – apparently a fair few entrants forgot

which categories they’d entered

- Review the show awards and consider if we need to streamline the voting processes and/or delete some

of the awards. For example, the Member’s Choice award (ACTSMS members-only vote on the best model

in the comp) is very poorly supported.

- Look at different ideas for the use and arrangements of the various rooms and review parking options.

- Explore options for co-displays of real-life stuff, similar to this year’s DeLorean.

- Continue improving show advertising.

ACTSMS Page 7

Don’t just leave the above to the committee - if you have any ideas at all, please speak to the committee at a

meeting, or send an email through to the Society account: actsms@hotmail.com

Finally, please start thinking about ScaleACT-20 themed displays. They don’t have to be huge showstoppers such

as the 2018 RAF Centenary display, they can be a one-table effort. Really, anything to get more models on display.

Nor does a display have to be based around an anniversary – just pick a theme and run with it. Having said that,

I’d like to have a go at arranging a “75th Anniversary of 1945” display.

And, with that, it’s goodnight from him!

Outgoing ScaleACT Chief Organiser Michael Grieve

ScaleACT-19 – Wrap-Up

There many great reasons to celebrate ScaleACT-19 and it is only through reviews and feedback that we can

continue to improve the experience for everyone – competitors, traders and public alike. The committee reviews

all feedback – good and bad – in good faith in our endeavours to make our ScaleACT an event people would want

to participate in.

Importantly, the committee judges whether the feedback is appropriate or relevant to our club and our show –

what may work for one club may not necessarily work in our circumstances. There is, however, feedback that we

will gladly adapt or adopt. In this his debrief, Mike provided a list of feedback items. However, I need to expand

on a couple of things a little to provide some context.

It saddens me to say that this year it is very likely that Swap & Sell, and traders were targets of malicious theft

during the weekend. One member actually caught a member of the public shoplifting a trader. While we have had

instances in the past where some items have gone missing at Swap & Sell, they were insignificant compared to

what we noted this year. What does this mean for the future? It means that we will be increasing club member

presence around the displays, traders and Swap & Sell to provide a visual deterrence. It also means that we will

have strict entry rules for Swap & Sell – essentially no bags or other purchases allowed. The increased visual

presence will also be beneficial in ensuring errant cameras/bags/hands etc don't damage any competition entries.

We have a task to review the judging. Not the process, but how and when we conduct the judging. We will always

be time constrained. Conduct the judging after hours will incur a substantial financial penalty on the club that I

am not willing to burden us with. Thus, we will look to refine our current practice. There was some feedback

regarding coaching/barracking from the sidelines directed at the judges. Whist I did not witness this in action, I

can confirm that any such attempts were disregarded. I have to stress here that, during the Sunday morning

review where we have the privilege of quiet time and none of the white noise the judges had to deal with, we

had reason to re-judge only two categories and make some minor adjustments in a couple of others. To me and

the rest of the review team, the judges did a great and commendable job. Thank you.

I noted before ScaleACT that next year there will be a general price increase to cover any expected losses and stay

revenue neutral. This year there will be a loss - partly due to an increase in the hire fee per day at the school and

the pay rates for the school attendant. No area, bar one, will be immune next year. So, expect an increase in

competition entry fees (for everyone), Swap and sell fees (for everyone), table hire and site fees. Financial

members will still benefit, but maybe not as much as before. The only area that is likely to remain as it is will be

entry costs for the public.

ACTSMS President Tony Allocca

ACTSMS Page 8

ScaleACT-19 – Statistics and Results

It’s almost getting boring; it appears that every year we triumphantly announce that the most recent ScaleACT has been the biggest and best ever! – Well, sorry team – it’s happened again ScaleACT 2019 has again been a high-water mark for the Society’s annual event, achieving record numbers for just about every metric.

Summary Statistics of Competition Entries

• 122 Entrants

• 566 Competition Entries

• 40 ACTSMS Members entered 192 models

• 82 Non-ACTSMS visitors entered 374 models

• 7 Junior modellers entered 12 models

• 9 ‘Young Guns’ modellers entered 31 models

• Sentinel Shield: 11 entries

• Kittyhawk Cup: 5 entries

• The Grail: “At the Movies”: 20 entries

• Special: “Best Supercar”: 13 entries

• Special: “Achievement Unlocked”: 8 entries

Competition Entries by Category

ScaleACT 2019 saw us initially offer 66 categories. As usual, there is a bit of fiddling with categories prior to judging to ensure we have valid competitions (the rule is ‘at least 2 entries from at least two different entrants for a category to be valid’) – so in the end we judged a total of 52 categories this year.

It’s hard to be definitive about the hobby based on entries from any single year as each year varies quite a bit, but this year we got a healthy entry count in Sci-Fi and Gundam – so there’s one trend to watch as we go forward!

Category Entries

01: Military Aircraft. 1/32 – Pre WW2 4

02: Military Aircraft. 1/32 – WW2 10

03: Military Aircraft. 1/32 – Post WW2 9

04: Military Aircraft. 1/48 – Pre WW2 6

05: Military Aircraft. 1/48 – WW2, Single Engine, Allied 16

06: Military Aircraft. 1/48 – WW2, German 11

08: Military Aircraft. 1/48 – WW2, Japanese 5

09: Military Aircraft. 1/48 – Post WW2, Single Engine 17

10: Military Aircraft. 1/48 – Post WW2, Multi Engine 10

11: Military Aircraft. 1/72 – Pre WW2 8

12: Military Aircraft. 1/72 – WW2 – Single Engine – Allied 19

13: Military Aircraft. 1/72 – WW2 – Single Engine – Axis 15

14: Military Aircraft. 1/72 – WW2 – Multi Engine – Allied 9

15: Military Aircraft. 1/72 – WW2 – Multi Engine – Axis 6

16: Military Aircraft. 1/72 – Post WW2, Single Engine 11

17: Military Aircraft. 1/72 – Post WW2, Multi Engine 15

18: Civilian Aircraft. Single engine 9

19: Civilian Aircraft. Multi engine 4

ACTSMS Page 9

20: Helicopters 11

22: Military Vehicles. 1/35, Pre-'45, Allied 15

23: Military Vehicles. 1/35 – WW2, Axis 17

24: Military Vehicles. 1/35 – Post WW2, Tracked 7

25: Military Vehicles. 1/35 – Post WW2, Wheeled 4

27: Military Vehicles. 1/48 16

30: Military Vehicles. 1/72 9

35: Cars. Street. Pre-1980 9

37: Cars. Street. Post-1980 13

38: Cars. Competition. Pre-1980 4

40: Cars. Competition. Post-1980 6

41: Civilian Vehicles. Motorcycles 7

42: Civilian Vehicles. Trucks 6

43: Dioramas. Class A (0~1 Vehicle + 0~3 Figures) 12

44: Dioramas. Class B (Not class A) 11

45: Figures & Busts – Historical. Large (76mm +) 17

46: Figures & Busts – Historical. Small (75mm -) 8

47: Figures & Busts – Historical. Busts 12

49: Sci Fi, Fantasy, Movie. Figures 23

50: Sci Fi, Fantasy, Movie. Ground Vehicles 14

51: Sci Fi, Fantasy, Movie. Air / Space Vehicles 18

52: Gundam 20

53: Ships. 8

56: Ships. Subs 4

57: Rail 4

58: What-If? Air 6

59: What-If? Land 3

60: Scratch-built/Open. All scales, all subjects 11

61: Juniors (<13yrs) 12

62: Young Guns (<18yrs) 31

63: Special Competitions. The Kittyhawk Cup 5

64: Special Competitions. The Sentinel Shield 11

65: Special Competitions. The Grail 'At the Movies' 20

66: Special Competitions. Achievement Unlocked 8

ACTSMS Page 10

Category Winners

Please note that higher-resolution photos are available on the Society’s ScaleACT-19 Results webpage

(https://actsms.asn.au/scaleact/scaleact-19-results/).

Aircraft

1: Military Aircraft. 1/32 – Pre WW2 Lukas Kasuba; Hansa Brandenburg W.12 (Early)

2: Military Aircraft. 1/32 – WW2 (Sponsored by ACTSMS Member Michael Cooper) Eric Galliers; CAC Boomerang

3: Military Aircraft. 1/32 – Post WW2 (Sponsored by ACTSMS Member Michael Cooper) Brent Simpson; F16i Sufa

4: Military Aircraft. 1/48 – Pre WW2 Brad Cancian; Caproni Ca.20

ACTSMS Page 11

5: Military Aircraft. 1/48 – WW2, Single Engine, Allied (Sponsored by Red Roo) Sam Dwyer; Spitfire Mk.1

6: Military Aircraft. 1/48 – WW2, German Stuart Coleman; FW-190D

8: Military Aircraft. 1/48 – WW2, Japanese Stuart Coleman; Aichi Seiran

9: Military Aircraft. 1/48 – Post WW2, Single Engine Lukas Kasuba; Avia S-99/C-10

10: Military Aircraft. 1/48 – Post WW2, Multi Engine Calum Gibson; F-15E Strike Eagle

ACTSMS Page 12

11: Military Aircraft. 1/72 – Pre WW2 Brad Cancian; Sopwith 1 1/2 Strutter

12: Military Aircraft. 1/72 – WW2, Single Engine, Allied (Sponsored by Red Roo) Herman Zhang; P-51D Mustang

13: Military Aircraft. 1/72 – WW2, Single Engine, Axis Jiri Kure; Tachikawa Ki-55

14: Military Aircraft. 1/72 – WW2, Multi Engine, Allied Matt Lyons; Bristol Beaufighter XXI

15: Military Aircraft. 1/72 – WW2, Multi Engine, Axis Stuart Coleman; Ki-67 Peggy

ACTSMS Page 13

16: Military Aircraft. 1/72 – Post WW2, Single Engine Min Hwang; F-8E Crusader ‘Shamrocks’

17: Military Aircraft. 1/72 – Post WW2, Multi Engine Min Hwang; Tornado ECR Tiger Meet 2011/12

18: Civilian Aircraft. Single Engine David Muir; Mignet Flying Flea

19: Civilian Aircraft. Multi Engine William Spargo; Alaska Airlines

20. Helicopters Clayton Ockerby; Fletcher FI282 Kolibri

Military Vehicles & Artillery

ACTSMS Page 14

22: Military Vehicles. 1/35 – Pre 1945, Allied Matt Hampton; Whippet

23: Military Vehicles. 1/35 – WW2, Axis Sam Dwyer; Jagdtiger 331

24: Military Vehicles. 1/35 – Post WW2, Tracked Ron Puttee; IDF Shot Kal (Gimel)

25: Military Vehicles. 1/35 – Post WW2, Wheeled Luis Pinzon; MAZ 537

27: Military Vehicles. 1/48 Clayton Ockerby; Knocked out King Tiger

ACTSMS Page 15

30: Military Vehicles. 1/72 Herman Zhang; Soviet T-28 Medium Tank

Civilian Vehicles

35: Cars. Street. Pre-1980 David Muir; Austin 7 Van

37: Cars. Street. Post-1980 Lee Adams; Porsche Carrera GT

38: Cars. Competition. Pre-1980 Chris Swarbrick; Lotus 79

40: Cars. Competition. Post-1980 Lee Adams; BMW M3 e30

ACTSMS Page 16

41: Civilian Vehicles. Motorcycles Luis Pinzon; Honda RCV211

42: Civilian Vehicles. Trucks Andrew Evans; American Fire Truck

Dioramas

43: Dioramas. Class A (0~1 Vehicle + 0~3 Figures) Sam Dwyer; “No Photography!”

44: Dioramas. Class B (Not Class A) Min Hwang & Ben Winter-Giles; “In the Dark…”

ACTSMS Page 17

Figures & Busts

45: Figures & Busts – Historical. Large (76mm +) Andrew Judson; Mursi Warrior

46: Figures & Busts – Historical. Small (75mm -) David Hay; Minute Man

47: Figures & Busts – Historical. Busts Andrew Judson; Boudica

Science Fiction, Fantasy, Gundam & Real Space

49: SciFi, Fantasy, Movie. Figures Andrew Judson; Dryad

ACTSMS Page 18

50: SciFi, Fantasy, Movie. Ground Vehicles Anthony Barnes; Field Repairs

51: SciFi, Fantasy, Movie. Air/Space Vehicles Chris Leeman; Star Destroyer

52: Gundam Ben Winter-Giles; The Nightingale

Ships

53: Ships Ronald Zhang; KMS H-39 ‘Hutten’

ACTSMS Page 19

56: Ships. Subs Craig Stanley; U-49 Type VIIB U-boat

Rail

57: Rail David Low; German high sided gondola

What If?

58: What-If? Air Eric O’Brien; F117 Stealth ‘NachtJager’

59: What-If? Land Min Hwang; USMC VMFA-232 Red Devils Gundam Bael

Scratchbuilt/Open/Other

60: Scratchbuilt/Open. All Scales, all subjects Eric Galliers; The Tip of the Spear

ACTSMS Page 20

Young Modellers

Juniors (under 13) Sponsored by the Kerroby Model and Star Hobbies Joseph P; TIE Advanced

Young Guns (under 18) Oscar D; “Diesel and Dust”

Special Awards

In addition to the competition categories above, we also have a set of special awards at ScaleACT with sponsored prizes generously contributed by participating vendors or by the Society itself.

Best of Show

As chosen from the category 1st place

winners by the ACTSMS President, Chief

Judge and Frank Morgan, sponsored by

ModelArt Australia

Ben Winter-Giles – The Nightingale

ACTSMS Page 21

People’s Choice

As voted by show visitors, sponsored by

the ACTSMS Life Members Group

Min Hwang & Ben Winter-Giles –

“In the Dark…”

Members’ Choice

As voted by ACTSMS members,

sponsored by Platypus Publications

Min Hwang & Ben Winter-Giles –

“In the Dark…”

The Kittyhawk Cup

(Eduard/Revell 1/48

“Weekend Edition” series)

Sponsored by Runway 13

Min Hwang – MiG-21MF

Slovakian Air Force

ACTSMS Page 22

The Sentinel Shield

(Tamiya 1/48 Tiger I/Sturmtiger

series)

Sponsored by Ronnel’s Hobbies

Peter Davis – Sturmtiger

The Grail: At the Movies –

Competitor’s Choice

Ben Frohling – Greased Lightning

The Grail: At the Movies – People’s

Choice

Brad Cancian – Pfalz D.III from “The

Blue Max”

ACTSMS Page 23

Achievement Unlocked!

Sponsored by Akikambara, SMS,

Runway13, and Ray Wearn

Andrew Pondaag – B1B Lancer

Best RAAF Model in Show

Sponsored by The RAAF Association

(ACT Branch)

Simon Wolff – GAF Beaufighter

Best Supercar in Show

Sponsored by the ACTSMS Committee

Lee Adams – Porsche Carrera GT

Best Painted Model

As chosen by the ACTSMS President and

Chief Judge, sponsored by The Scale

Modellers Supply

David Hay – Lord Byron

ACTSMS Page 24

The Masochist’s Award for Courage

in the Face of a Difficult Project

Sponsored by Runway 13

Graham Carter – Savoie-Machetti

S55

Best ARMA Hobby Model

Sponsored by Red Roo

Peter Davis – PZL P.11

The Commonwealth Cup – Best

Australian/British/Canadian Model

in Show

Sponsored by ACTSMS, IPMS Ottawa &

IPMS Farnborough

Matt Hampton – Whippet

ACTSMS Page 25

In the Dark….

The collaboration build between Min Hwang and Ben Winter-Giles, entitled “In the Dark”, took out not only 1st

Place in its Dioramas (Class B) category, but also People’s Choice as well as Members’ Choice. This entry

showcases a number of key points often overlooked in our hobby: firstly, that although as modellers we often

work alone on our individual projects, there’s opportunity and value in the social aspect of engaging directly with

fellow modellers. In this case, new skills were learnt, greater appreciation gained for, and exposure to, other

genres; resulting in an end product that was more than the sum of its parts.

Second, and perhaps more importantly, friendships were formed and strengthened, developing into something

akin to brotherhood. Min and Ben have found in each other differences in approach, thinking and execution, yet

in coming together these differences emphasised their similarities in values as people who support each other.

There had been a question about this joint entry into ScaleACT, that a person considered to be “an individual

competition”. This completely missed the point, and on multiple fronts: the competition is about the model

presented, not about the individual(s); cooperation and collaboration yield more than can be accomplished by

any one person and should be encouraged/celebrated; and finally no person is an island, things are always better

with friends!

Below is a chronicle of the WIP from Min and Ben, as posted to Facebook in the lead-up to ScaleACT-19. The full Google Photos album set is available at: https://photos.app.goo.gl/QM3kXSGvLnViSKfRA

Part 1: And So It Begins

Things kicked off on 12-June-2019, at the monthly ACTSMS meeting where I presented my Tiger Meet Tornado at the People's Choice competition and Ben submitted his Kampfer. I was amazed by the metallic candies on the Gundam and Ben liked the tiger striping on my jet.

This prompted a conversation between the two of us and a suggestion was made: "Let's work on something together, those stripes will look dope on a 20-metre tall robot!". The rest, as they say, is history.

Stay tuned for more of this history to unfold......

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Part 2: In Soviet Russia, Model Builds You!

It took us some two weeks It feels to resolve what we were going to do, and the story evolved from doing a singular build in 1/100 scale... talking modified parts, resin conversion kits and scratch bases all the way through to working over a perfect grade or a full resin build. And that’s when we started to talk… what’s the actual story here?

So, we went trawling through endless streams of photos of custom builds and dioramas. Which is when we started joking about great military battles. Soviet Russia and the USA came up.

We wanted to present something that expressed who we both were, that demonstrated the largest spectrum of our known skill sets the limit of what we could do. Jokingly, because the theme was starting to overcome us, we made the gag “In Soviet Russia, model builds you!” which is where the storage cloud drive for all our WIP photos came from.

So, we drew on inspiration from old Soviet Russia war propaganda and US military jets.

Ultimately, we came to an agreement that each of us would build our way, without influence from the other because we both painted and built in very very different ways.

My first visit to Min’s bench and I was gob smacked, everything had its place, everything was clean and ordered. As opposed to mine, which is a veritable war zone.

We managed to finally select our kits, and weren’t we stunned when they arrived!

So, I cleaned my bench and even marked the occasion with a video to commemorate the start.

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Part 3: Cold War!

In Part 2, Ben touched on our individual styles. People in the club and hobby who know me know I'm an

aircraft modeller first and foremost, whilst Ben is himself a Gundam and Sci-Fi person.

Not only are our genres different, our workstyles and approaches are as well. I have my workbench

organised because it is so small; Ben's on the other hand was so expansive he has space to spread out

and have all his tools on hand. Makes me more than a little envious, to be honest!

And so we have 2 different modellers each with his own specialisation. We settled on a Gundam build as

a base, this to allow flexibility in creativity. Then we thought: what better way to showcase a

collaboration piece than by combining two distinctly different styles in a Cold War, USA vs USSR setting!

Something along the lines of "sleek fighter jet vs big, bold, Russian!"

This would then go on to influence our choice of paint schemes (and application), markings, finish, and

posing. Elements of the final product would give a distinct 'Ben-style' and 'Min-style'. More to follow....

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Part 4: Quintessentially Ben – No Ragrets & YOLO

Kit selection, debate and consensus achieved, we started the builds of the base kits.

This was where a lot of the fun started . Min, I discovered has a highly disciplined approach to building. I’m more... a “No Ragrets” and “YOLO” kinda guy.

During design, Min was “Hmmm this colour set, these particular colours... all nubs, paint everything!”. Meanwhile I’m like “Dude... Ima slap this together and see what I get and work from there.”

The look on Min’s face... #priceless.

I’m quite sure statements from me of “Yeah, dunno... maybe have it like twisting around and… kinda… you know pew pew with the guns…”was setting Min’s OCD off like an incendiary round in a fireworks shop.

Meanwhile watching Min agonisingly sand and even polish nubs on the inner (unseen) frames was literally bringing me to tears.

“What references you using Ben?” – “Dunno maybe a tank? ...Or a missile? ...Oh what about this race car?”

Me after cleaning up about 20 parts: “How you are going there Min?” Min: “Well I’ve finished the forearm armour!”

“What about colour sets Ben?” – “Blue... maybe red... likely white. I was thinking orange...YOLO.” ~Ben .......#longpause “What about red Ben?”.... “I SAID YOLO!” #sigh #facepalm.

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Part 5: Paint Me Up!

Now that we've had a good laugh about my 'disciplined' (read: anal) approach to building, thanks

Ben, it's time to talk paint. Once again, our difference in styles and approaches became evident. Ben,

who is used to painting Gundam and various mecha/sci-fi subjects finds glosses, candies, metallics

and texturing to be second nature and blasts ahead.

Meanwhile, I'm used to flat/satin paints in traditional FS (Federal Standard) aircraft colours. Yeah,

think shades of grey, nothing colourful. And because Gundam was completely new to me, I agonised

over how I was going to paint my model. So much so I fell into the dreaded 'analysis paralysis' trap,

and dithered and delayed until time had almost run out.

In the end, it was Ben's almost-finished model that gave me the inspiration and motivation to pull my

finger out, break down the various parts and subassemblies, lay them out, and just kick on with the

painting process!

For aircraft colours, we chose the USAF Aggressor Digital Splinter paint set from SMS - these sprayed

on beautifully and the results speak for themselves. You can't go wrong with Aggressor White, Blue

and Grey!

The Big Bold Russian received the full Gundam custom paint treatment. Being Russian it had to be

Red of course, but oh what a red! There were to be 3 distinct tones in the armour: two of which were

metallic, and one flat. The metallic reds were achieved with white/black basecoats, aluminium / gun

metal as the second layer, and finally 3 coats of clear red!

In the next part, Ben will talk about the design process and how we brought our two parts together.

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Part 6: Bringing it Home!

Welcome to the final chapter of this story. And what a tale I have to tell.

Min and I have been working hard on this build. Accumulating some 200-250 odd hours together

on it.

As with all great things, it started with an idea.

Early designs for what we had conceived had centred around heavy weathering, lots of battle

damage, entire dioramas and elaborate clasping systems to hold the bases together.

A key principle for us was to ensure the piece while being two... presents as one.

We went through draft design after design and plenty of sketches and renders; which was both

fun and daunting. My usual devil-may-care attitude set the pace here. Which was daunting if not

actually legitimately frightening for Min. And if I’m completely honest... even I was feeling like I’d

properly bitten off more than I could chew.

The design called for scratch-built dioramas, specially built to enable exceedingly dynamic poses

and we were insisting that there would be no visible support systems for either of our builds.

This alone was a massive challenge as we were envisaging the Hi-Nu to actually be in the air mid

leap.

I progressed through my part of the build quite uneventfully, everything was going to plan – this

wasn’t my first rodeo. Min however, was really starting to worry me. Weeks passed, and I had all

but finished my part of the build. Min’s was still in raw plastic, barely past the dry build phase.

Partners make a commitment in projects like these. I couldn’t let him down. I saw all the

hallmarks of Min being stuck in a rut, unable to progress. The fear now was that this was starting

to threaten the build. Sure, I could have just abandoned him but that’s not how this is supposed

to go.

So, Min took advantage of some time off to really get stuck in. I played cheerleader. And the

result was stunning. He did such a great job, and you could see his hand in the work.

Yet... we weren’t done. The incredibly intricate fuel pods were still in bare unassembled resin,

the pose was still in debate, the support systems weren’t figured out. And even the base wasn’t

done let alone started.

This is when we had to make some hard decisions and re-design. But to what?

Days passed as to how we were going to get past these problems. To the point where we almost

abandoned the build. Nothing was coming together as it was planned. And the time we lost was

the fire under the belly of the beast.

That’s it. We had officially come to a standstill…

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And that’s when it happened. I was talking to my beloved, who just simply said. “Why don’t you

just have them exploding out of the boxes? You know, like they’re coming to life?”.

If ever a mic was dropped!

I instantly phoned Min and told him of the idea, and that was it! New direction set and we were

back in action!

Scale replica boxes were crafted and placed. Prototype boxes made to establish position. Parts

and materials scavenged.

Then... it struck again. Min was running out of time. So, we teamed up again and I took on a

‘hands only’ role to paint and assemble some of the elements of the backpack for Min under his

explicit direction.

Then we were up to final assembly to the bases. We had these beautiful scale replica boxes,

lined and insides painted in Black 2.0. The blackest black paint in the world (excluding Vanta...

which isn’t a paint). The time had come to destroy the boxes.

I was at Min’s house working with him on that evening. I said “Ok... let’s do this!” and grabbed a

pair of scissors, a Stanley knife and was about go heave in. Min was over my shoulder, and

then... he wasn’t. He was gone! He just lost it. Here I was, destroying this beautiful box that took

ages to make... chopping into it with scissors and knives, tearing at it like a dog with a bone. Poor

Min was in the other room... I suspect in the foetal position. I don’t blame him... I was petrified

when I did the box for mine, snipping at it gingerly like it was made out of fine lace.

Gingerly he came out when I called out “I’m done!” …and his jaw dropped. It looked great!

We didn’t finish that night until about 2:30 am, from a 4pm start the previous day.

All of the following day we were both a wreck, messaging each other about how shattered we

were. It was like watching kids whine and groan about house chores.

The end result, the result which we both proud show to you now, is here. Please enjoy the full-

length movie “In the Dark” https://youtu.be/aLkpzwQxaEI

See it in person at ScaleACT19, UC Kaleen High School this weekend.

Thank you to everyone for your support, especially our wives, Noon and Trin. Your support

means the world to us.

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ACTSMS Exclusive: the ScaleACT 2019 Best of Show Winner

I have to start with this... Having won Best of Show in 2018 with the NZ-667 Kyshatria build, heading into the 2019

competition was incredibly daunting. I could almost feel the eyes watching and anticipating what I was going to

drop next. Lordy, the stress!

Planning for “The Nightingale” started earlier this year, back in

April. I knew I wanted something complex again, something that

let me showcase my personal style and trademarks for high levels

of details, and varied textures. But I had to take it up a notch... or

three.

So, I finally made the selection to start work on “The Nightingale”.

A handmade resin model again from the Gundam universe. This

kit came from a small company called Extreme Squad.

I particularly liked this model due to the quite extreme details, and

how they contrasted against the less detailed armour. The design

of the kit itself was very unique and certainly stands alone in the

Gundam Universe as being quite ‘out there’ even for a sci-fi /

mecha build.

I did a lot of modifications to it, particularly with the

amputation and scratch building of certain “appendages”.

Which if you’re familiar with the original design you’ll know

what I.... rectified. That alone was at least 20 hours of work

with custom pinning, armour fabrication and panel

scribing.

For the most part, the build went nicely. I used a

combination of SMS and GSI lacquers, and a lot of different

GSI aqueous colours too. Variations of satins, flats, and

glosses were used to give me the natural variance in

texture that I like.

Most of the metallics are from GSI GX paints... I think. There’s a lot of metallics

in there. You have to look underneath for that.

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Coming into the last months of it was when it started to go south.

I dropped it, twice fracturing many parts which had

already been painted. So that was a rebuild and repaint

exercise. The tail armour broke twice, the shoulders at

least twice, I broke off the propellant tanks I can’t count

how many times. The head antennae had to be hand

fabricated, both feet shattered and repainted and pinned.

All of this was going on at the same time I was mid build

on the “In the Dark” diorama I was building with Min

Hwang! No small project either.

Then came time for weathering. I wanted a light weather and had a range of techniques in mind that I wanted to

use. Usually, I’ll use a streaking grime from Vallejo, so that was my go-to. And that’s when the tragedy really

struck. I don’t typically topcoat at all. I prefer to use the natural finish of the paint I’ve applied. I love the realism

of the natural differences in texture. It’s like that in real life so......

The base flat I was using was a GSI Carmine Red flat, thrown on with a

0.3 Sotar 20/20 at 15psi. It went on beautifully. I went to apply the

Vallejo streaking solution, and the pigment bit. Bit so hard, that I couldn’t

work it as I usually do to get the streaks. Instead, it just ruined the whole

tail section. All of it. Specialty high resolution decals, custom cut decals,

special chipped white finish on the stripes... everything.

At this point I was perhaps two weeks out, and I couldn’t face another

breakdown and rebuild. I had to finish my half of the “In the Dark”

diorama I couldn’t let my partner down. I was faced with perhaps not

entering “The Nightingale”.

So, I sat looking at it for about two whole hours. Contemplating how to

trouble shoot this. The weathering had bit right into the paint. It wasn’t

coming out. The masking option was almost impossible due to the

complexity of the decals and stripes.... So, I did this:

Out came the black surfacer, thinned right out. And without any masking, just small shielding where I could do it,

and tiny hand cut masks for the decals, I re-sprayed the primer, then the base colour to get the shadows and

depth in. Then finished up spot spraying in more of the colours at about 2cm range at 10 psi.

This whole process took me over five hours. Cleaned up decals with some delicate swabs and thinner and

HUZZAH! It was back!

I really am proud that I was able to be honoured to win the Best in Show again back to back 2018 and 19. I’m

proud to have had the honour to work with Min and be successful there too. I’m so grateful for everyone who

entered. The skill you all show is what keeps me on the edge of my seat. And don’t you dare think for one second

I don’t sweat hard looking at what you all produce. It’s daunting.

A massive thank you to:

• My wife for putting up with my late nights, swearing and the noise of my compressor and air box. For

helping me select colours and to listen to me contemplate details for hours.

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• My two sisters for also helping with colours choices (I’m colour blind) and for your endless support of

what I’m doing.

• My kids for ignoring me when I need to be ignored.

• And to my friends, Min Hwang, Ryan Dunbar, and Denno Singh for your support as I was building this

thing.

I hope I can do you justice again next year.

Build well friends! (And use carbon fibre and epoxy for pinning. Trust me. Been there, pinned that!)

Ben Winter-Giles aka ‘Bny’

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Committee Contact Details

President Tony Allocca tonyallocca1962@gmail.com

Vice-President Peter Davis peter.davis100488@gmail.com

Secretary Mark Napier mark-napier@hotmail.com

Treasurer Elaine Jones quiltbear@internode.on.net

Editors Min Hwang minjih@gmail.com Dave White whitettd@hotmail.com

Events Coordinator Len Partridge len_partridge@hotmail.com

Chief Judges Min Hwang minjih@gmail.com Dave White whitettd@hotmail.com

E Coordinator Jerry Cashman jerrycashman@gmail.com

ACTSMS Post Box PO Box 600 Woden, ACT 2606

E: actsms@hotmail.com W: www.actsms.asn.au

Justice of the Peace John D. Purcell Life Member ACTSMS