The Winter edition of Random Thoughts arrived on the first day of Winter this year. Good timing. As usual, I was eager to read the variety of articles included within and this one was up to their usual high standards. An additional four pages to boot. This edition had a nice editorial, but none of the other usual preliminary articles. Within I found five build articles on a variety of subjects.

The initial article is on a 1/144 CC-177 (C-17 to we south of the border). Frank Cudden used the Revell 1/144 kit for this one and found it not exactly the easiest kit he has ever built. However, the results belie the struggles in building it

Next up, Al Magnus built a pedestal mounted 88mm flak gun. This took some ingenuity and some scratch building and there is no kit that provides that mount in 1/72 scale. Al used the Revell kit for this article.

Third is the main cover subject. In this case it is the Wingnut Wings Bristol F.2B. Those into WWI really do need to find one of these kits as they build up into near museum quality models right out of the box. Gary Barling added a few additional touches to make it just that much nicer.

For 1/35 helo fans we have Barry Madden's huge Trumpeter CH-47A Chinook. Barry added a lot of additional detail and plunked a couple of crew figures into the cockpit to add to the appeal of this model.

Finally, a bit of fantasy/s-f with Brian Latour's Bandai RB-79 Bal from the Gundam universe. Brian did a superb job of painting on this one to add the sort of finish that makes you look twice at the model. As usual with experts, he makes the painting sound easy, but it does really add to the finished product.

Another fine edition and one I look forward to every quarter. So, you are wondering, just how do I get this great club magazine. Well, it is simple. Just trade uncolorful money for full color magazines. IPMS Canada is a great group of people so you will be in very good company. Can't get much better than that, eh? (BTW, Canadians don't really say 'eh' at the end of sentences. Blame a pair of comedians for that).

But wait, there is more. If you join, you also get the electronic Beaver Tales delivered straight to your computer, and you can get the periodic decal sheets that are only provided to members. 

January 2022

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