63 articles · 8.7K karma · 45 friends · active 1 month ago

I like aircraft, cars, armor, ships and figures. I'm always interested in finding new techniques to try. I am a long time IPMS member, currently belonging to four chapters here in Florida. I spent many years in Minnesota. I belonged to the IPMS chapter, Twin City Aero Historians, and I am now a life-time member. These days I rarely compete, but build mostly for my own enjoyment.

I retired in 1995 from a career in advertising and marketing. I was born in Pasadena California, but grew up in Nebraska and Colorado. I spent my service time with the US Coast Guard in New England which included a trip to Greenland.

I have been married to the same woman for 55 years and we raised two children. Our daughter was in the Navy where she met her husband who has since retired as a Master Chief. Both are living in Maryland and work for government contractors. Our son was also in the Navy and now works in computers and lives and works in the Fort Lauderdale area. We have 4 terrific grandkids. One granddaughter in a Captain in the Army, one grandson is going to school here in Fl, a granddaughter is going to school in Boston and the other granddaughter is attending Drexel in Philadelphia.

Big Friend,...Little Friend

One of the fun things of belonging to a club is the “Club Projects” that pop up throughout the year. So it was that one of my clubs (We are blessed here in Florida with many such clubs) decided it would be fun to give everyone a 2x2x2 [...]

A Couple Of Cool Cats

Don’t know exactly why, but I just think the Jaguar XJR-9LM is a really cool looking racer and I knew I wanted to build it one day. I have had both the Tamiya and the Hasegawa kits in the stash for quite some time, and I finally pulled [...]

Building Northrop’s XP-61C/D

About a zillion years ago when Monogram first released their 48th scale P-61 Black Widow, I built the black version but I have no recollection what ever happened to it. Over the years I always wanted to do the natural metal version, which [...]

Building Eduard’s 48th Scale Fw-190D-9 ProfitPACK

I will have to admit up front that I am not a German aircraft expert, but I did manage to talk myself into building one of my favorite aircraft. I was really interested in this Eduard offering and was curious to see how it compared to the [...]

Building Monogram’s 48th Scale Vought OS2U Kingfisher

The Kingfisher took to the air in 1938 and quickly became the Navy’s eyes of the fleet on any ship that had a catapult. I was fortunate enough to hear a talk given by one of the few who flew this aircraft and still remember some of his [...]

Building the Shelby Cobra 427 S/C

Arguably the best-known American sports car in the world, the Shelby Cobra appeared on the race circuit and the rest is legend. The Cobra and the Corvette Grand Sport rivalry entertained and excited race fans all over the world. The Cobra [...]

Building the AMT 1970 Chevelle 454 SS American Muscle Car

Way back in 1964, GM prohibited the use of engines larger than 400-ci in their A-body intermediates, for some stupid reason, right in the middle of the muscle car wars. It wasn’t until 1970 when they lifted the ban, due to stiff [...]

Back to The Classics

(Google is my friend) The Mercedes-Benz SL-Class (formerly known as the SL Roadster prior to 1994) is a grand touring roadster manufactured by Mercedes since 1954. The designation SL derives from the German Sportlich-Leicht, (English: [...]

Building High Planes Awesome 48th Scale Rare Bear

The Bearcat that became Rare Bear was a severely damaged wreck when discovered by Lyle Shelton in 1969. It had been abandoned next to a runway in Valparaiso, Indiana after it crashed there from a throttle-on torque roll in 1962. The [...]

Building A Bearcat Champion Racer

I started out to build the Bearcat in the Glenview scheme, but as you can see, there was a change in plans along the way. I know racing aircraft is not everyone's cup of tea, but when one is looking for something colorful in a scheme, one [...]