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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, rarely 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 42 years to a lovely long-suffering woman and have one 36 year old kid, who builds better models than me and also appears on these pages on occasion.
Much was expected of them. 51 brand new crated Hawker Hurricane Mark IIb's had arrived by convoy at Fortress Singapore. The Brewster Buffalo fighters that had been attempting to defend Malaya and Singapore had been very roughly handled by [...]
Time for the annual trip to the cabin on gorgeous Lake George N.Y. Been bringing a Tamiya with me the last couple of years, and knocking it out sitting by the Lake in my "Free" time. This year's selection was the new Panzerjager [...]
"Mythical", according to Merriam-Webster, is defined as :existing only in the imagination: fictitious, imaginary. Well, for how many years now has a Trumpeter 1/32 scale TBD Devastator been dangled in front of the modeling [...]
The ROC Air Force grows again. This time it's Polikarpov's I-16, innovative retractable gear monoplane of the 30's. Joe Stalin was suspicious of Japanese intentions in the Far East, which included threats to Soviet territory. So seeing as [...]
Retirement, decent weather, new releases of liked models and a return of model shows (incentive) have combined to fuel a higher than average yearly output for Koppos. Thaks to all who have commented and Happy Christmas and New Year to all [...]
6:40 AM, December 7, 1941. "Captain, come on the bridge!". Lieutenant William W. Outerbridge had been summoned to the bridge of the U.S.S. Ward, straight out of bed and wrapped in a Kimono. He had taken command, his first, of the [...]
There's plenty of info out there on this one, so won't go hunting and pecking too much. Just suffice to say, this one was the load carrier of the Panzer divisions for most of the war. Tamiya just came out with two "F" versions, [...]
Merriam Webster Dictionary says: ICONIC - adjective: "Widely known and acknowledged, especially for distinctive excellence". I guess few would argue that the shark-faced Curtiss P-40's of the American Volunteer Group do not fit [...]
Well the Koppos ROC Air Force has grown again. Yes, it is officially a Boeing 281, the export model P-26, of which the Chinese Government got 10. There were 12 altogether, one crashed in China and the other went to Spain, fate unknown to [...]
Sooner or later, all good fighters need an upgrade. The Kawasaki Ki-61 Hien JAAF fighter was still running around with a Diamler Benz DB 601 copy in 1944, which had gone out with the Bf109E model in 1941. The Ha-140 was the [...]
