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Chuck A. Villanueva
128 articles

A Review of 2022

This year seems it was a blur. With uncertainty with the pandemic here not here, masks no masks, economy was in disarray, gas sky high especially here in California. The year was cruising along but in April I received a note from the new landlord that he now owned the house I was renting and was flipping it and needed me to move. Of course he also knew it would not be that simple as I made him know that I need more than 30 days, more like 90 for unplanned move in a crazy difficult time to find a rental in such a short period of time. The housing environment is much different today than it was 10 years ago, vastly different and extremely difficult. So start packing up the good while searching and found a much better place in a nice rural town. Still organizing even after a few months. Now I am pretty much getting back in spending more quality time back on the bench. Despite the interruption I was able to finish some projects along the way. First year not completing at least one modern jet.

In January it was the DML Ju-188E Racher in the original DML box.

Next the excellent 1/48th B5N2 Kate

Hasegawa 1/48 P-38J USAAF

1/72nd RAF HC1 , Falklands GB

Nichimo 1/48 Ki-45 Nick

Revell 1/48 Me-262

1/48 P-38F Lightning USAAF

Tamiya 1/48 Bristol NF RAF

1/48 B-26B USAF, Korean War GB

1/48 B-26C Invader USAF, Korean War GB

1/35th T-34/85 N. Korea Korean War GB

Tamiya 1/35th M8 Greyhound USMC, Korean War GB

Happy New Year, and hope that new adventures abound in 2023!

Fly Navy

Reader reactions:
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31 responses

  1. You still managed to finish a good number of models, Chuck! All are wonderful, oozing quality! Now that you have settled in, even more projects are to come! Congratulations my friend and Happy New Year!

  2. A great variety Chuck

  3. Wow ! That’s a lot of great models ! All are excellent !

  4. Well done Chuck, with both models built and the upgrade house move, the 262 is a jet ! happy new year.

  5. Thanks Allan as you have a headstart for the New Year, I goofed, meant to say modern jet. I will correct that.

  6. Besides all the hectic you had in 2022, you still produced quite some nice builds, Chuck @uscusn
    Glad to hear you were able to find another place where you can still work at your bench.
    Happy New Year.

  7. Looks like a very productive year to me, Chuck, despite your accommodation hiccup, which I’m very glad to hear you seem to have solved. Every one of your models is finished to a very high standard, mind you, I would never have expected anything else. Here’s to 2023, what can possibly go wrong this year?

    • Thanks George, I stopped building in May, didn't really get back into building until September, I would tinker for a bit, but just didn't have that mojo going to just sit and build in a sustained manner. Amazed how much I was able to build and repair a few of the models that suffered some damage during the move

  8. Superb Chuck. I am glad you found better and less costly accommodations.
    California is super competitive in the greed factor. It is changing however.
    Now you have a more secure way to keep up your excellent work !
    Go for more in 23 ! Navy Air is Great !

  9. Nice output! And yes FLY NAVY!

  10. Good recovery. Modelers thrive on diversity (I think). Hope 2023 is more stabler for ye.
    All are beauties indeed. My fave is the T-34.

    • Thanks Bill, good point, over the years we pickup techniques to make the building process fun or more complicated, guess it would be out point of view. Looking forward to a more productive 23. Happy New Year

  11. Some great classics you polished off for 2022 - well done!

  12. Great collection of models, Chuck (@uscusn). Sorry you had to move on short notice, moving at any time is a real trial. After 30 years in San Antonio, we decided to move to be closer to our daughter, and granddaughter. It took 14 months to build the house during the pandemic, then we only had a week's notice before we closed on the new house and moved. It takes a while to get back to modeling after a big move. Looking forward to your new builds. Have a great New Year.

    • Hi George, funny you should mention you departed the very nice city of San Antonio, I was pretty close to moving there. No luck in finding anything here competing with so many others. It was an unexpected challenge, and caught me off guard, as I prefer a planned move not a quick one despite asking for 90 days and ended up getting only 60. I knew that would be a tight window. Already had relatives looking for places of interest on my behalf. Let me tell you that the properties are much more cheaper in the Alamo city. Very interesting choices. My parents are both from San Antonio, so my core family is still there. 6 generations. But the final week when that window started to close in finding a place here I was ready to make that drive on the Christopher Columbus Transcontinental Highway as we commonly know as Interstate 10.

  13. Great work. Happy New Year.

  14. A very good modelling year it seems Chuck! @uscusn
    Lots of inspirational models, my fav is the Nate

  15. Great job on all of your builds, Happy New Year!

  16. Lots of really good work here! Especially like the Tamiya P-38 and Monogram A-26. Great work on all! Happy new year!

  17. Hope you didn’t lose any pieces or kits during the move! Glad to hear things worked out.
    Amazing work all around Chuck, but the Invaders always make me do a double take.

  18. Well someone got quite a few kits done in 2022 in spite of all the hiccups. Nice collection and they all look great.

  19. G'day Chuck (@uscusn),
    Wow!
    You achieved a lot of quality builds on top of packing up and moving home.
    Well done, and all the best for 2023.

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