2019: Some good modeling memories

Since model-building is sort of half-work/half-play for me, I end up doing more models than most. These aren't all the models built, but they are the models I liked for various reasons...

Airfix: I guess if you build four of a kit, it means you like it a lot. I definitely liked the Airfix Spitfire XIV kit a whole lot. Finally! A Spitfire XIV that's right, out of the box. The P-51D kit is the best one out there for affordability and in my mind would be the best one out there if Eduard hadn't jumped in with both feet. The Hawker Hunter is as close to "definitive" as it gets.

Tamiya: The Tamiya Spitfire I showed me they're still a force to be reckoned with. And the P-38 demonstrates they're way beyond even that.

Eduard models: Yeah, Eduard's a class of their own. Beautiful detail. I love the Tempest V kits, the P-51s are amazing. The Focke-Wulf's and 109s are both Best In Class.

Amazing Ukrainian Limited-Run Kits: 2019, the year I discovered Modelsvit: the XP-55 Ascender was an amazing kit and an incredible model, but it was bested by their P-51H - all I can say about this kit is, when it's finished you can sit it next to an Eduard P-51D and people would think it came from the same place. And then there's my personal Kit Of The Year, the AMG Hawker Hind, which I did as a Demon. The best surface detail you could ask for, beautiful detail, and a great result.

Surprise of the Year: the Kitty Hawk FJ-2 Fury. Yes, for once they not only didn't screweth the poocheth, but came up with a great result. I'm looking forward to the FJ-3. Second surprise of the year, the Freedom Models Hawk III, which was an easy conversion to the BF2C-1, and one of the best-designed, best-detailed kits.

ICM Goes Wild: the He-111 is superb, but it's beaten by the B-26 Invader, which finally appears as a dimensionally-correct model, with more of them to come next year. I've only looked in the box, but the 1/32 Gladiator is definitely "up there" too.

Nice To Be Reminded That Just Because It's Been Around Awhile Doesn't Mean It Isn't Still Great: the three Tamiya Mosquitos I did last Spring. Just a super series of kits. The A-M SBD-5, regardless of who's pressing the kits and releasing them now - 24 years later still about as close to the "perfect kit" as anyone ever got.

Well, that's what I remember on the workbench.

Also nice to have a book - "MiG Alley: the U.S. Air Force in Korea, 1950-53" - get A+ reviews at places where books like this don't normally get reviewed and be selling gangbusters.

2019 - the rest of the world may have gone to Hades in a handbasket, but life at Le Chateau du Chat's been OK.

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