19 articles · 2K karma · 7 friends · active 19 hours, 50 minutes ago

Retired (March 2019) after 30 years in outdoor education, but still work part-time in the field.
Born on RCAF base Baden-Söllingen, Germany home of 4th Fighter Wing where my dad, Aldo Sr., was a meteorological officer and my mom was a nurse.
Live in Richmond Hill, Ontario, Canada (near Toronto).
Interested mainly in WWII aircraft in 1/72
*Other hobbies: hiking, canoeing, cross-country skiing, camping, guitar and mandolin.

2020 Vision

Happy New Year Fellow Modelers. Did short articles on some of these, but the Twin Otter and Mosquito are technically works in progress as they are meant to be in dioramas for display at an outdoor education centre (they are posted in [...]

A Heller of a Spitfire

When I started going to model shows with my modeling guru Archaeo Bob, prior to restarting the hobby, I picked up a lot of $5 specials from the vendor tables. Came to realize you definitely get what you pay for when it came to actually [...]

Exploring the Dora

So back when I first started going to model shows with my Modeling Mentor, I was stocking up on cheap kits (long term retirement planning of the less practical kind) - 5 bucks or so, often multiple kits jammed in to the box. Eventually I [...]

MagneStand

So to take up from where I left off in my previous article...( (link) ) Now having a lovely flying aircraft, I needed a stand, but I couldn’t bring myself to drill holes in the lovely underside detail to accommodate the tab of the stand [...]

Spitfire HF VII by Italeri in 1/72

Found this kit in the giftshop of the RCAF museum in Trenton Ontario. Loved the paint scheme of PRU blue under with Medium Sea Grey over, the D-Day stripes, the "B" Roundels, the extended high altitude wings. Had to have [...]

À la recherche des maquettes perdu

One of my resolutions on retirement was to finally re-indulge in the long-abandoned pleasure of scale model building. I built my first models when I was confined to hospital for long periods around age 8 to 12. My dad, a former RCAF [...]

Tamiya Fiat 500 1/24

The Fiat "Cinquecento" (Italian for five hundred) is the iconic people's car of Italy during the 50's, 60's and 70's. It is to Italy what the Beetle is to Germany and the Mini to England. Like those classics, you still see them [...]

RAF Mustang III – Revell 1/72

Hi iModelers: Here is kit #2 from my modeling renaissance. The kit has pretty good detail for 1/72, but some flash and fit issues. Added a Squadron vacu-form canopy, two tiny photo etch levers you can't even see in these pictures, a [...]

Airfix Desert Spitfire IX 1/72

Hi iModelers: I built a lot of models up to my teens, then abandoned the hobby for years. With my recent retirement, I've built a couple and hope to build a lot more. This is my first one (after a special car model I built as a present [...]