Celebrating America’s 250th with the Red, White & Blue Revue

IPMS/Memphis Belle held its first-ever “Red, White & Blue Revue” contest during the July 25 meeting, and though the contest entries were mostly aircraft, the non-aviation entries took the top two spots. 

The winners of the IPMS/Memphis Belle Red, White & Blue Revue contest held on July 25, 2026.

In honor of the United States’ 250th birthday, the contest required entries to feature the colors red, white or blue in the finish of the build, outside of the national insignia, according to the rules set forth by Larry Montgomery, the club’s director of activities and frivolities. The build could be anything the modeler built, older or more recent.

German’s 1/35-scale British Scimitar done in a white     
UN scheme rolled away with first place. 

German Candia, one of the club’s armor builders, won first place for his model of an AFV Club British Scimitar in 1/35 scale. German and other armor builders had noted in the months leading up to the contest the difficulty in finding an armored vehicle with the required red, white or blue colors.

“It’s hard to find red, white or blue on a tank,” German said, while explaining his model.

He used the UN scheme for the reconnaissance vehicle, painting it white. The build was out of the box, except the flags, Verlinden figures, and the vehicle’s tankers. He changed the soldiers’ heads, swapping out the helmets for a British variation.

William’s Gundam Freedom in 1/144 scale,
armed with a blue and red shield, won second place.

Second place went to William Foutch, one of the club’s junior members, for his Bandai Gundam Freedom. William said he built the 1/144-scale Gundam in one day. The figure is white with blue, red and gray accents. Though some of the parts needed to be superglued together and the figure’s backpack was backwards, he said it all went together pretty easily.

Stan’s 1/48-scale A-4E Skyhawk done with
the “Memphis Marines” scheme won third place. 

Stan Parker took third place with his Hasegawa A-4E Skyhawk in 1/48 scale. Stan did the jet in the scheme of VMA-124, a Marine Corps Reserve unit that was based out of Millington at one point, complete with the “Memphis Marines” and “Tennessee Travelers” decals. The white used on the bottom of the jet is Tamiya flat white. He saw the life-size version of this jet while in Canada some years back, he said.

Larry Montgomery, director of activities and frivolities, 
in all his patriotic glory.

Each of the winners received a trophy for their entry. The red, white and blue trophies were 3-D printed by a friend of Larry’s for the contest.

There were eight entries for the contest. Each entrant had three minutes to talk about their model. After the ballots were cast, it was determined that tiebreaker votes were needed to settle the order.

The three models above emerged victorious. 

Larry unofficially won “Best Dressed” for coming to the meeting dressed for the theme. 

Other contest entries included: 

Few decals were used on this 1/72-scale T-38 done in the Thunderbirds
scheme. Glenn masked and painted most of the red and blue lines. 

Glenn Foutch’s 1/72 Hasegawa T-38 done in an Air Force Thunderbirds scheme.

“I built this aircraft because the Thunderbird scheme has always scared the heck out of me,” Glenn said.

Glenn made a #2 decal for the jet to honor Capt. Willie Mays, the Thunderbirds pilot who was flying the #2 jet when he was killed in the 1982 “Diamond Crash.” Mays was from Ripley, Tennessee.

Glenn used Gunze Mr. Color’s insignia white, insignia red and insignia blue to paint the jet. He used the bicentennial markings, national insignia and curved lines on the rear fuselage that came with the kit. All other lines on the jet were masked and painted.

Steve did this 1/48-scale F-14A in the VF-2 “Bounty Hunters” scheme.

Steve Nimtz entered a Tamiya 1/48-scale F-14A Tomcat in the VF-2 “Bounty Hunters” scheme.

“This was a project I’d wanted to do for a while,” Steve said.

He said he wants to do a Tomcat in the VF-1 “Wolfpack” scheme but has had a hard time finding good decals. For this VF-2 model, he used the decals from the kit (calling them the best Tamiya decals he’s ever used) and Gunze Mr. Color paint. Everything was out of the box.

Larry’s F-11F-1 Blue Angel jet was done with Model Master
colors Blue Angel Blue and Blue Angel Yellow. 

Larry entered his 1957 Revell 1/65 scale F-11F-1 done in the Blue Angels scheme. He painted it using Model Master’s Blue Angel Blue and Blue Angel Yellow. He chose to display it with the landing gear up, but that created extra space around the landing gear doors, as it’s meant to be displayed gear down. 

Larry said the model had been a Christmas present for his girlfriend. She’d asked where the rest of them were, since it was supposed to be a diamond, so he built the others as well.

Ron wanted to do something colorful, so for his P-51D he went with
blue accents on the canopy and tail and bright yellow on the nose.  

Ron Campbell brought in his Airfix 1/72-scale model of a P-51D. He said it was something a little newer that he’d finished. For the bare metal, wings were Vallejo Metal Color Duraluminum over Mr. Surfacer Black 1500 (not glossy) he’d used to prime the aircraft. He painted the yellow nose with Testors square bottle enamel, what he called “schoolbus yellow,” and painted the black and white D-Day invasion stripes on the bottom of the aircraft.

“I wanted something colorful or different than what I have,” Ron said.

Abel’s 1/72-scale black F-117A was hiding red and white stripes
and a blue field of stars on its belly, visible with a mirror.

Abel Arce couldn’t make it to the meeting, but sent his 1/72-scale Tamiya F-117A for the contest. Sitting on a patriotic display with a pair of mirrors, the black plane was hiding its color on its belly. The red and white stripes and blue field of stars covering the underside of the aircraft were only visible using the mirrors. Abel said in an email later that the decals came from an Italeri kit that was produced later and he used a combination of Tamiya and Ammo paints.

“It was pretty much an out-of-the-box build,” Abel said.

The club will meet again at 10 a.m. Aug. 29 at Mid-South Hobbies, 4862 Summer Ave., Memphis. The meeting was pushed back a week so that members could attend the IPMS/Huntsville Plastic Modelers Society Model Show on Aug. 22 in Huntsville, Alabama. For more information on the Huntsville show, visit: https://ipmsusa.org/event/49th-annual-hpms-model-show.