Frank E. Stein  (Aurora -  No Scale)

Gallery Article by Terry Davis on Jan 5 2011

Silly Week 2011

 

Some of us are fairly new to modeling and some of us have modeled for years.  But at a recent IPMS contest, I came across a gentleman who has been at the hobby for "Centuries"!  He goes by the moniker of "Frankie" and is a man of few words, mostly grunts and snarls.  After a few minutes of conversation, I learned that he comes from a small town somewhere in Western Europe and builds mostly the old Aurora monster kits when he can find them but also has an interest in naval aircraft.  After learning that his hobby room consists of a dark, cold, dungeon-like atmosphere, I was amazed at the quality of his modeling.  His efforts did pay off, as he was awarded Best Diorama, Best Naval Subject, Best of Show and Peoples Choice Award, etc.  The judges seemed to be more than willing to make sure Frankie had a memorable day and wouldn't leave empty-handed.

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Frankie started out as a re-issue of the old Aurora kit.  He was built mostly OOB except for the following: I added bolt heads to his neck using plastic rod and small gauge wire to represent the threads.  A jewelry chain provided the bracelet and I scratchbuilt the watch and wedding ring.  I added strip styrene to his Levi's to represent the seams, pockets, fly, belt loops and belt.  The belt buckle is a small bit of styrene and a Ford decal. Strip styrene was used for his sweater neck and an IPMS decal was applied to the sweater front.  His shoes were detailed with strip styrene for the lace holes and pull up straps, with the laces made from sewing thread.  After the boots were painted, I then applied fuzzy fur to get the suede look. 

The aircraft came from one of the old Otaki 1/400 kits and I scratchbuilt the display base for it.  Frankie's display base consists of counter-top sample tiles (from Lowes) and craft store wood base.  All wood surfaces were varnished and I used Model Master paints for all of the plastic parts.
Enjoy the pictures.

Terry Davis

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Photos and text © by Terry Davis