PHOTOS: River City Rumble model car show in Memphis

IPMS/Memphis Belle member Glenn Foutch checked out the River City Rumble model car contest and swap meet hosted by the Riff Raff Scale Auto Model Car Club on June 20, 2026, at Immanuel Lutheran Church in Memphis. 

Below are some of the photos he took. Some of the shots include the entry form with more information about the build. Click on the photos to make them larger. 

Postcards: Chris’s Adventures in Wonderland

By Chris Vandegrift

I’m on vacation in Edinburgh (pronounce that with uh sound at the end), Scotland, this week, and the family already lost me Day 1 to a hobby shop 435 feet from the hotel ​​​… Google is apparently rejecting the metric system, so in local speak that’s only 132 meters. I’m at Wonderland!

Wonderland was established more than 50 years ago and is Scotland’s largest model specialist.

It was truly a happy surprise! I had no idea till the girls were looking for a boba tea place and I saw this across the street!

Lots of Airfix as you might guess, it’s a full wall for sure. It’s a huge shop with R/C, LEGO, Warhammer and such. They’re not afraid to stock the big stuff either – multiple kits in each of 1/16 armour, 1/200 ships and 1/24 aircraft.

The storefront doesn’t make it look as big as it is. The store goes deep back into the block and spreads out a little bit in the back in a T-shape.

I found everything in here from plastic-bagged kits to vacuum-form models, but oddly, none of those all-photoetch kits. My fav though, was the Italeri custom show trucks that are on the European circuit. We can never get those in the States.

Prices include tax, also known as VAT here. And don’t bring Euros, they only take pounds in the UK, or the Scot version of the pound note, though you can’t use that outside of Scotland.

I really found it hard not to come home with a kit to add to my stash. Go figure!

So, I went back up to the Wonderland shop to look at those show trucks. I decided the determining factor would be, “if it fits in my backpack, I’m gonna go ahead and buy one.” Guess what? Of course, I found one that fit, and I bought the Abarth you see in the picture!

For those who may end up traveling, there’s no tariff, tax or duty due upon reentry to the U.S. Just book a $1,300 ticket and get your shipping for free! 

Postcards: Good fortune finding kits in MENG country

Dear fellow glue sniffers, 

You must have seen, owned, built or at least heard about MENG kits made in Taiwan. They are high-quality kits. Especially the 32nd-scale Fokker Dr.I Triplane that they licensed from Wingnut Wings.

Map of Ximen in downtown Taipei. Do you find the hobby store?

My good fortune and scientific collaborations with a Taiwanese professor from the late ‘90s landed me an appointment with National Taiwan University (a.k.a. NTU) some 10 years ago to visit Taipei annually, teaching a graduate-level research course. NTU is the Harvard of Taiwan with brilliant and highly motivated students. 

The course always ran from 4-7 p.m., hence I had the rest of the day to trace MENG kits in Taipei hobby shops.

In MENG country, I thought it would be an easy goal to accomplish. As it turned out, I was dead wrong.

The first year I went to Taipei, my host and friend, who is also a fellow armor modeler, gave the order to the students to take me downtown to Ximen in Wanhua district to his favorite hobby shop. I rushed the class a bit in hopes that we would then go to THE HOBBY SHOP. 

And so we went, by metro and then on foot for 10 minutes in a fancy shopping district, into a department store-like building, up and up on the escalator, to arrive at a hobby shop in the corner of the floor. The place was overwhelmingly loaded with kits. 

The green building.

I asked for MENG kits and was directed to a shelf in the fourth row in the back, where I found a Convair F-102 “Delta Dagger” piloted by President George W. Bush and a Kayaba Ku-4 “Katsuodori” Ram-Jet, both 1/72nd scale. Because there were literally many, many hundreds of kits, I decided that I would visit this shop again.

The next visit came several years later, last October, when I took the metro to Ximen station. And then the adventure began. 

Look at the map in the picture. I hope you can read Chinese characters — traditional Chinese, not Mandarin, which is used in the PR China but not in Taiwan. I cannot. So, where is the hobby shop?

I combed the streets and finally remembered that the building was green. I found a green building. I went to the entrance to take the escalator, but the building was closed. 

Daa – it was Sunday at 11 a.m. The building opens from 2 p.m. to 10 p.m. I asked myself, “Is this the right building?”

It was my lucky break because on the list of shops at the door, there was ONLY ONE in Roman characters that read “U2” and something in Taiwanese. 

The Apollo 11 Saturn V kit in 72nd scale from Dragon  

This must be it! Nobody in the right frame of mind would name a shop U2 unless he knows that it is the name of the famous Lockheed spy plane. 

I went back the next day just to realize that the U2 shop on the 9th floor was a music store. 

Disappointed, I took the escalator down and on the 4th floor, I saw a Gundam ad. I walked around the 4th floor, and Bingo! In the corner, there was the model store. 

This time, I was shopping for old spacecraft kits, wanting to get the Apollo 11 Saturn V kit in 72nd scale and the LLM in 24th scale. After half an hour searching through the shelves, I found both of them and more. 

The problem then became how to fit them into my suitcase. You probably know that I wasn’t going to leave them behind.

This April, my wife and I went back to Taipei to give my last course under the contract that ended on May 31, 2026. 

My wife is into birds like I am, but not the kind of birds that I like, called airplanes. I have tried to convert her once before. I found a kit with a dozen HO scale pigeons, but she has not finished painting their fancy camouflage yet. We have only been together for 46 years, so she still has time to learn how to weather a pigeon.

Now, back to the store in April. The store had even more kits since the last time I was there last October. 

The kits fill the store shelves from floor to ceiling.    

You have to be a slim person to fit between the shelves that are covered with kits from the floor to the ceiling — look at the pictures. 

With her waiting for me outside the store, I quickly realized that I would not have the usual hour to browse through the shelves for rare kits. 

It was hopeless because the kits are in random order. I tried, but after 10 minutes glancing at my wife’s impatient face waiting for me outside, I had to come up with a quick fix.

The store owner, an elderly gentleman (80+), spoke as much in Hungarian as in English, both equal ZERO. But when I wrote on a piece of paper that I wanted the 1/72 Revell kit of the space shuttle with the Hubble telescope and the Chinese Tiagong 2 spacecraft kit, he smiled and waved to his granddaughter.

She disappeared between the kit-loaded shelves, and not a minute later, she brought the two kits and handed them to me. 

Typical Taiwanese efficiency!

I paid and was out of the store in record time with my marriage saved.  

Your Sprue Brother,

Gabor

Meeting notes: May 2026

We’re officially on the IPMS/USA website, y’all! You can find IPMS Memphis Belle on the IPMS/USA website at https://ipmsusa.org/chapter/ipms-memphis-belle or find us listed under Region 3.

During Saturday’s meeting at Mid-South Hobbies, Larry Montgomery showed the gang the trophies for our upcoming “Red, White and Blue Revue” contest planned for the July 25 meeting. A friend of Larry’s made the red, white and blue trophies for the contest on his 3D printer.

Larry said models entered must have at least one of those three colors in the finish of the model. It can’t be the national insignia on the model. Members will cast votes for their favorite entry and we’ll give awards for 1st, 2nd and 3rd place. The entry doesn’t have to be something you recently completed. Any model that you have built can be entered. 

If you have questions, reach out to Larry at sabredog2@hotmail.com

We also now have a space inside Mid-South Hobbies to display our models if we want. IPMS Memphis Belle president Ron Campbell pointed out that a display case was recently moved to the spot outside of our meeting space. While the case is currently displaying several aircraft and automobile models built by the late Greg Seek, club members are welcome to display their finished models in the space.

The club will meet again at 10 a.m. June 27 at Mid-South Hobbies, 4862 Summer Ave., ​in Memphis. 

Show and Tell

In Progress

Glenn Foutch’s 1/72-scale F-14D (right) and 
Stan Parker’s 1/48-scale F-14A (left), both from Tamiya.

Stan Parker brought the cockpit of the Tamiya 1/48 F-14A he’s working on. He’s completed the cockpit using 3D decals. The jet will be done up in the VF-213 “Black Lions” livery. 

Glenn Foutch is also working on a Tamiya F-14, but it’s the D variant in 1/72 scale. Glenn’s Tomcat is all black in the VX-9 “Black Bunny / Vandy 1” scheme. It’s about half built, and he’s already applied some of the decals, which he bought separately because the kit didn’t come with the VX-9 decals.

Randy Bloom showed the 1/72-scale Airfix C-47 he’s been working on as he chips away at his World War II collection. He said the seams had been a nightmare and that it was tough to get together. Randy really likes the C-47 and wants to build it again with a better kit, though the gang assured him the Airfix kit was the best one for this aircraft.

Ron brought in an assembled fuselage for a 1/100-scale Tamiya MiG-15 and an Otaki Fw190A-8 Focke Wulf. He’s got the fuselage of the Focke Wulf put together so far. 

Ashley Craig showed her Hasegawa F-18 Hornet 1/72 scale, which is mostly put together. Relatively new to the hobby, she’s been working on filling seams and gaps with this attempt and has the aircraft primed in white. She’d intended to go with the navy blue and gold YF-18 Hornet paint/decal scheme, but couldn’t locate the correct decals and is now going with a NASA scheme. 

John Mahaffey’s scratch-built 1/25-scale 
Green Monster jet dragster.

John Mahaffey brought a scratch-built project that he’s been working on. Using various extra parts from other club members’ kits – a fuselage here, an engine there – John’s building a 1/25-scale Green Monster jet dragster. Though the project isn’t finished, John says it’s already been sold.

Completed

German Candia’s 1/35-scale Italieri sWS 
with Panzerwerfer 42 German rocket launcher

On the armor side of things, German Candia has been working through his stash and finished an Italieri sWS with Panzerwerfer 42 German rocket launcher in 1/35 scale. He said the kit was great until he had issues with some of the tank’s tracks. 

William Foutch’s 1/144-scale Bandai Black Knight Squad Shi-ve.A

One of our younger members, William Foutch, brought in the 1/144-scale Bandai Black Knight Squad Shi-ve.A gundam figure he and Jackson finished. The figure is black and came pre-painted. The boys put it together and applied the decals. William said the Gundam “gives me Darth Vader vibes.” The gang agreed.

Randy Bloom’s 1/72-scale Matchbox PB4Y-2 Privateer

Randy showed off the F8F Bearcat in 1/48 scale that he finished. The kit, from Testors, didn’t have any directions and lacked a lot of detail. Randy said he hadn’t expected much out of the kit, which also didn’t have many parts, but that it turned out well. 

He also brought in his 1/72-scale Matchbox PB4Y-2 Privateer painted up in a lovely shade of blue.

“This was a beast,” Randy said. “The toughest I’ve built so far.”

Nothing fit well, and the delicate props and guns would break if he so much as looked at them the wrong way, Randy said. But it was worth it in the end.

“I just always thought it was a beautiful-looking plane, and I wanted it in my collection,” Randy said.

Stan brought in a small herd of Mustangs. He’s working through his collection of every Army Air Corps aircraft that flew in World War II. All three were painted using Vallejo’s metallic acrylic in semi-matt aluminum after being primed in flat black. Stan’s photos and model notes are better than what we would have taken at the meeting, so we’ve included some of them below.

Stan Parker’s 1/48-scale Meng model of the P-51D flown by 
Lt. Col. Richard Turner, commander 356th Fighter Squadron,
 354th Fighter Group, circa 1945

The first was a 1/48-scale Meng model of the P-51D flown by Lt. Col. Richard Turner, commander 356th Fighter Squadron, 354th Fighter Group, circa 1945. 

Stan described the aircraft as “part model and part toy.” It’s a heavy model, but it went together well and wasn’t bad on the details, he said. The decals came from Aeromaster sheet 48-226, 9th/15th AF Mustang Aces.

“The Meng kit is nicely molded, with excellent detail,” Stan said in his notes. “Almost all the parts fit along panel lines. The parts also press together when fitted, so no glue is needed for the majority of the build.”

He said it would be a good kit for someone getting into building models. 

Stan’s 1/48-scale Eduard model of the P-51D (sans fin fillet) flown by 

Capt. John Mack Simmons Jr., who was assigned to the 317th Fighter Squadron,  

325th Fighter Group, Lesina, Italy, August 1944

 

The next was his 1/48-scale Eduard P-51D (sans fin fillet) with the markings of the Mustang flown by Capt. John Mack Simmons Jr., who was assigned to the 317th Fighter Squadron, 325th Fighter Group, Lesina, Italy, August 1944. 

Stan said he didn’t have too many problems with this one, but that it had a lot of very tiny parts. He used Eduard’s aftermarket 3D-printed instrument panel in the cockpit, and it fit perfectly.

He said he didn’t like two things about the kit: one being the thinness of the tail wheel strut (which means being careful when setting the model down as not to break it), and the other being the under-wing forward fuselage fit.

“Normally, the fit is just forward of the wings,” he said. “On this kit, the join is further forward, so the part has to bend upward to fit. I needed to press the part up into the fuselage to get it to fit.”

Stan’s 1/48-scale Eduard model of the P-51B (with fin fillet) flown by
 Lt. Duane Lawson, who was assigned to the 504th Fighter Squadron,
339th Fighter Group, circa 1944  

His last was the 1/48-scale Eduard P-51B with the fin fillet modeled after the Mustang flown by Lt. Duane Lawson, 504th Fighter Squadron, 339th Fighter Group, circa 1944. 

Stan said this one was a little easier to put together because the assembly was really straightforward and the fit was excellent.

He used Eduard’s aftermarket 3D-printed parts for this kit as well. Both the seat and instrument panel fit without a problem. Just like with the P-51D above, Stan said the tail wheel strut was very delicate. For the marking and stencils, Stan used Furball Detail and Scale sheet 4835, P-51’s Part 2, and Kinzey’s D&S P-51B book for coloration.

“I like the Eduard B better than the D, as the parts seem to fit better than the D,” Stan said. “The lower forward wing fits to the forward fuselage, which fits just forward of the wings, whereas the D fits further forward.”

This and That

Larry Claus strikes again! We were good modellers, so Larry brought us presents. After Chris Vandegrift brought micro brushes to the last meeting, Larry decided we all needed them and shared several packs with the group. Commonly found in the beauty care section of a store and intended for applying remover or primer to eyelash extensions, these tiny brushes can be used for various purposes in scale modeling, including applying superglue or paint to small, hard-to-reach places. He also passed out bottles of LocTite superglue with a special cap that prevents the glue from drying out.

To close out the gathering, John Doherty led a demonstration on cleaning up kits and getting a good fit. Some of the tools he used were Zoukei-Mura double-sharpened nippers, a superfine buffing glass file, a Flexi-file, and a curved-edge blade, all of which he passed around for us to view. 

John Doherty (center) leads a demonstration on cleaning up model kits 
for a good fit.

John said flush cutters have a single blade and often crush the plastic when cutting. The sharpest tool is needed to avoid crushing or gouging the plastic. He cited Larry’s wisdom about blades – “The sharpness of your tools is non-negotiable” – when using the double-sharpened nippers to cut through the plastic.

John went about his process. For bigger parts, for example, an aircraft fuselage, he removed them from the sprue to begin cleaning them up. For smaller parts, like landing gear and such, he prefers to file away any seams or flashing while the part is on the sprue. The smaller parts are easier to hold and maneuver while on the sprue.

“I have a theory that when you start cleaning everything you won’t be able to see, that you’ve already cleaned up everything you will be able to see,” John said.

He also dry-fits and works the part as he’s cleaning. He said he will also put a slight bevel along the inside edge of the receiving part to give the glue a place to go and to keep it from getting on the outside of the model.

“My goal is to not have any putty or glue on the surface of the finished model,” John said.