MEET GARY BRANTLEY OF SPA MODELER
Hi Gary! Do you remember your first model?
My first model was the ancient Aurora Zero in bright yellow plastic. I think it first appeared in 1953, and I got mine probably in 1958. I remember my dad helping me assemble it with Duco brand tube household cement. My grandmother sat on it after I foolishly parked it on a chair seat!
What’s your preferred scale?
That would be 1/48 for aircraft builds and 1/35 for armor. My OCD prevents me from mixing scales; it would bug me to no end to have 1/72 birds displayed with 1/48 models.
What’s your preferred subject?
I like aircraft models best, but I have to admit that it's more fun building tanks. I love having a nice finished airplane on my shelf, but I enjoy the process more when I do an armor kit. It's easier hiding mistakes and there are no damned canopies to mask!
What’s your favorite model built to date?
Oh, that's easy. It's been my Tamiya M41 Walker Bulldog tank. I spent about a year on it and had a really good time. I had good success scratch-building some stuff and experiment with some new finishing and weathering techniques.
What’s your hardest model built to date?
Hmmm. I think that was the AMT Grumman Tigercat build. There were several challenging steps, including fairing over the nose guns, refining the rear cockpit, addressing the tail-sitting issue (unsuccessfully I might add!) installing the main landing gear without drama and handling the allover yellow paintwork. It didn't help that I futzed up the big, underwing decals and had to remove them with white vinegar. It was another year-long project!
What’s your Holy Grail kit?
I don't think I have one. If I built ship models though, I'd want a model of BB35, USS Texas!
Who is your favorite kit maker?
Monogram would be my favorite, I guess, simply because I've built so many of them. And still have several unbuilt Monogram models in the stash that I want to do, the F-105 and F-106 would complete my Century Series collection.
Let’s talk about glue! Favorites?
I used to really like Ambroid Pro-Weld liquid cement but can't find it locally anymore. Now, I use Tamiya ExtraThin, some Mr. Hobby liquid cement and Faller cement in the applicator-tip bottle. I like to have three kinds of CA on hand, but use more of the medium in typical construction.
Now let’s talk paint! Favorites?
My favorite paint is Humbrol enamel and second favorite was Model Master enamel. For NMF I liked the old SnF Spray Aluminum best of all, followed by Floquil Old Silver and Bright Silver. Sadly, all three are now gone and out of the picture. I also rely a lot on the Humbrol Metal-Cote line, especially dull and polished aluminum and the polished steel, as well. Their Metal-Cote gunmetal is the best I've found for gun barrels. I have used some Vallejo acrylics and eventually will most likely use more and more acrylic paint if I keep on modeling much longer. I would like to explore some of the more recent metallic out there in acrylic and lacquer form too.
What started you as a modeler?
Well, what restarted me as a modeler, back in the mid-late '80s was all the then current "new" fighters; the F-14, F-15 and F-16. I was very curious about their respective sizes and as I couldn't see them all together in one place (I hadn't been to a big airshow yet!), I thought that building models of them, in the same scale, would be as close as I could get. Hey, there's that OCD rearing its head again! I had been a model builder as a kid, doing ships, planes, cars, etc. The pinnacle of my car modeling were my several funny cars with tube chassis made of PicUp Sticks, and "aluminum" cockpits of cardstock. They even had wire and tubing hinges in the back to all the one-piece bodies to tilt up. Even now, history, both old and current, drives my modeling choices. I may be inspired by reading about some classic warbird or action and decide that it's too interesting to not attempt. My love of history has also influenced my few what-if builds! It's fun to play with actual history in plastic and of course, alter the course to suit our own needs and whims!
Tell us about your model photography which is quite unique!
I've always enjoyed using our airport, and that of another small town 20 miles away, to photograph my models. I remember being kind of shocked to see how they looked out there after my first digital images; it was a true Eureka moment! Suddenly, the natural light and airport background made my four-footers look pretty good. They almost looked real!
By moving the table/base to "see" different backgrounds, using different positions of the model on the base, adjusting the height of the camera on tripod and the angle of the shot one can achieve a lot of different "looks". The ever-changing skies are also a cool feature of photography out there. There have been sessions in which I just could not get in the groove, and other times, great shots seemed to be everywhere! Sometimes, I just don't get my mojo workin'! My friend, Richard Krall, gave me valuable advice on depth of field. With that advice, I've tried to bring both fore and background into better focus and a more realistic aspect. He did help some on some of the location pics of the Bulldog tank; it was his first experience in photographing models and he was quite methodical. In the time it took for him to set up one pic, I would've already made five of six, lol! But, the results were show it. I think my best model photos are the ones done in my lightbox with our Nikon DSLR. I was shocked by their quality when I first looked at them. That made me want to reshoot some aircraft models that have only been photographed at the airport. Perhaps that will happen soon.
Thank you, Gary! A version of the interview will be published on SPAM’s FB tomorrow.
Jes' sayin'... 
