119 articles · 11.3K karma · 30 friends · active 55 minutes ago

69 years of age, Modeling since birth. Do planes, armor, or whatever hits my fancy. World War 2 is main interest but will stray back in time, never forward. Competition shooting, collecting Military rifles and reading History occupy the non-modeling time. I was a mechanic by trade, now retired and loving it. Married 41 years to a lovely long-suffering woman and have one 35-year old kid, who builds better models than me and also appears on these pages on occasion.

A Pacific Devil-P-39Q

One of my "Built a while agos"... Eduard's 1/48 P-39Q. The Q model was the last of the line, featuring underwing .50 cals in pods. Many users removed these, especially the Russians who were it's major operator. "Devastating [...]

It’s Hurricane time so…1/24 Trumpeter IID “Tank Buster”….

One of Trump's better efforts, IMHO. The spinner is a bit too long but otherwise I think the lines are pretty good and the rivets work in this scale. What possessed me to do a kit of such largesse I'm not sure, but I do love Hurricanes, [...]

Believe I’ll post something today, too….

Built this Special Hobby 1/32 A5M when it first came out. A fairly easy build, added some interior and engine details. Finish is Alclad White Aluminum mixed with a littleTestor's flat yellow, to get the "Japanese Navy protective [...]

Yay! My “Major Award” arrived today….

My prize package from the March contest has come in. And a beauty it is. 4 Tamiya 1/48 models is a good thing, but these are even packaged pretty as a boxed set. I opened it very carefully to peruse the contents, now I have the urge to go [...]

OK if nobody's going to post today...over 1000 I go....

Such a nice number. I'll "Rocket" over the top with this hasegawa 1/32 Komet I did last year. For it's age it's still a cool kit. Pretty much kept to what was in the box, except for making a couple of "Luftstanders" to [...]

Karma almost at 1000….Shameless use of kid’s model….

to get 20 points closer. Classic Airframes Curtiss Hawk III, Chinese Air Force late '30's. Hawk III was China's main fighter of the time, did well against unescorted bombers but faded when the monoplane Japanese fighters showed up. Not an [...]

Zero from Zuikaku….

Just finished, Hasegawa's venerable 1/48 Zero A6M2. This is the newest boxing, Zero "Super Ace" that features a resin figure, of Testuzo Iwamoto, supposedly the 2nd highest scorer of the IJN. This guy flew from China to War's [...]

Airfix early Spit....

When this kit first came out I was happy to get an early model Spit with a two blader, my favorite version. It turned out to be kind of toylike, "soft" looking somehow. I dunno maybe my head is soft. The "straight" [...]

Yay! Half a day today. Figured I’d post one up…Pac Coast Hurricane I….

Fabric wing model 1/32 scale. To me the early Hurricanes are the best looking-that pointy nose just does it. The Pacific Coast kit is pretty good, the only big issue being poor wing fit. It has a real good interior, nice surface detail and [...]

OK here it is, the wait is over for Bill Koppos's Favorite model....and the winner is..............

Special Hobby's 1/32 scale Brewster Buffalo Mark I. Ta Da! (Cue Fireworks...) The maligned Brewster has always been a fascination of mine-why, I'm not sure. I like the looks, the barrel shape, different landing gear, cool glasshouse [...]