Wednesday, May 4, 2011

New Gallery Section is Launched!

Finescale Modeler bigwig Paul Boyer built all three P-47s in 1/72nd scale from BarracudaCals BC72002. We love this kind of submission. It's just too cool!

We are pleased to announce that the long promised Gallery section of the BarracudaCals website is now up on the Barracuda Studios website. Follow the link at the end of this post to take you there.

The Gallery section has been up for almost a week now, and there are already 11 features on it. I have at least another 5, and they will be rolled out every few days, so stop by once in a while and check it out.

I am actively looking for submissions. The rules are pretty simple for inclusion. Your model needs to have utilized a Barracuda Studios product. Models featuring Cooper Details products are also more than welcome. You do not have to be a modelling god for inclusion. Just get the decals on the right side up, and a nice clean build, and you are in!

Jens Haakon Brandl has done a great job converting and accurizing the Hasegawa Spitfire IX into a FR. IX in the special pink scheme. Bet those pilots never got razzed for flying pink airplanes!

The most important aspect of your submission is decent photography. A solid color background is helpful, but not absolutely necessary. Good lighting and in-focus images are the only thing I insist on. You can get some pretty decent images with a large sheet of colored paper or cardstock, a pair of swing arm lamps, and a point and shoot digital camera with a macro function are all you really need.

Remember to adjust the camera settings to match the light source you are shooting. If you are shooting indoors with tungsten light, set the camera to tungsten lighting, and you will avoid the red cast that is common to pictures taken without changing this setting. Shooting out doors will give you tons of light usually, but be careful not to shoot on windy days. We don't need action shots! Again, remember to set the color balance for where you are shooting.

All that said, the images do not have to be award winning! In-focus is about the only real criterion that must be met. If you are not Ansel Adams, don't sweat it. We can crop and color correct and stuff like that. Most important is that we want to see your models!

Gallery images do not have to be of finished models. See the existing galleries that show cockpits in progress. Modelers love to see how its done. And you can certainly send an update later on, with shots of the completed model. We will be happy to add them to your Gallery.


Closeup shots are great, especially when it reveals hard to see details. Jereon Veen's nicely built and painted Spit IX cockpit in 1/32nd scale.

So, shuffle on over to BarracudaTown (not an actual website) and check out the new feature. I hope you will find it inspirational. Send your submissions to :

barracudacomments@gmail.com

Please send a few sample images first, so I can check out the quality of the photos first. No need to send a lot of pictures if they might need to be reshot. Along with the photos, I will need a least a paragraph describing the subject and any notes about building the model. If you want to rave about how great our products are, we may be a little embarrassed, but will not stop you! We also need the scale, kit used, your name and city, state, and country where you currently reside.

In particular right now, I am looking for a gallery on a 1/48th scale Airfix BAC Lightning built using our stencil sheet, more P-47s, and any P-40 variants, either USAAC or British, in any scale.

Hope you enjoy this new feature. You can click on the link below to take you there right now. Please fasten your seat belts and return your tray tables and seat backs to the upright position. Thank you for flying BarracudaAir...


Happy modelling! Roy

Monday, May 2, 2011

1/32nd Spitfire Cockpit Upgrade Status Report


Hi Guys,

Just a quick blog entry in response to a number of questions I have gotten recently regarding the status of BarracudaCast set number BR32003, the Spitfire Cockpit Upgrade set.

It has been out of stock for a few weeks now. The reason behind this is that the decal sheet that is included in the set that supplies you with all the stencils and placards for the cockpit is out of stock. I somehow overlooked the fact that they were running low. I went to get more in order to package up a new batch of sets, and discovered that they had indeed sold out. The problem is that they need to be printed on a sheet with another project, so there has been some delay in getting everything done. The sheet is just about finished, and should go out to the printers very soon.

The good news is that I took the opportunity to revise the sheet somewhat, to include a number of stencils not found on the original sheet. The cockpit door stencils have been added, as have stencils for the oxygen cylinder, the radio selector box, the remote contactor (found in the new Starboard Sidewall Set), the morse key, and the windshield de-icer tank. A number of generic small white text stencils are also included as a bonus.


I will let you know when the sheets have arrived and shipment of the upgrade sets can resume. It will be worth the wait. I will also be announcing another cool little product at the same time. It's something that has been strangely missing for a very popular kit for a long time!

Above, you can see an image of the revised decal sheet. I think you will find it have been worth the wait.

Happy modelling! Roy