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I've been around the block a few times. A few people here might even remember me from years (or decades) back. Modeling off and on over the decades.
I stopped the hobby in 2009 after having a serious case of burn out on a 1/32 Trumpeter P-38 kit. Sold everything I had, making the decision at the time to not return to the hobby, hah!
A few years later I decided to build a wooden cabin cruiser and that occupied most of my free time for over a decade. However, in 2017, before the boat was finished, I also started getting back interest on model building and decided to start back up right at the end of that year. It took me about two years from then to get back into the hobby on a consistent basis (the wooden boat was still occupying a good portion of my time). In that two years I started a few kits and started re-familiarizing myself with what was available in model building. It was amazing to me what had changed and my enthusiasm grew.
I primarily build 1/48 and 1/72 aircraft, but have dabbled in ships, cars, figures, and dioramas. My preference is build aircraft in flight, but I will usually make a display choice based upon multiple factors, so gear down builds also populate my display cabinet.
I like to use the kits as a blank canvas to try new techniques on or improve on them if I can. Some kits I will do very little on as they don't really need it, but I get a certain perverse satisfaction out of taking older kits and bringing them up to more modern standards, either through scratch building details or aftermarket, or both. The goal for me is to have a reasonable representation of the item I am modeling. And in the last few years, my goal has been to get better at building, painting, and weathering. I am also a big proponent on having a hobby area that facilitates building, so I am constantly tinkering with my workbench, tools, and organization so that I can focus my energies on building.
Several years ago, I wanted to build a Curtiss Hawk 75 with fixed landing gear in Thai markings. At the time, the only kit available was the Hobbycraft Hawk 75 in 1/48 scale. The problem with that kit was the cowling was very misshapen and [...]
When painting our models, we are often faced with challenges with regards to finishing the model. We have to balance requirements for different finishing techniques that often place restrictions on how we can apply them. For example, [...]
It's been a real treat to be able to devote more time to modeling now and even though 2024 was not quite as productive as 2023, I still managed to get five done. But what was special about it for me was the chance to try out several new [...]
Here in the U.S. it is turkey day (Thanksgiving) and with this day, there is typically a baked turkey covered with a foil tent. But another bird is seeing the light of day today, namely an aluminum foil covered P-47.
I have been [...]
For Christmas in 2022, my son bought me a few model kits that he thought I might like. Now my son is not a model builder, and therefore knows nothing about the various pluses and minuses of different kits. He was more interested in the [...]
This is my build of the Hobby Boss North American FJ-4B Fury in 1/48 scale. I started this kit earlier this year prior to knowing about the “Sabre and FJ Fury” group build here in IModeler. Therefore, I initially started a build thread [...]
I’ve completed my build of the photo reconnaissance version of the P-38E Lightning. The particular version I built was an F-4 Lightning (versus F-4A as often seen) used by The Royal Australian Air Force in 1943.
This has been a fun [...]
After about three months, (give or take), my update on the old 1963 release of the Airfix Hudson kit is finished. It was a fun project, but as usual for me, it highlighted some areas of my building skills that still need improvement. I [...]
The title says it all, 2023 was the year I hit my stride as pertains producing models, nine total. I chalk this up to a combination of factors. A work bench I've tweaked continuously to make modeling easier, retirement giving me more time, [...]
This kit was the first one I bought back in 2017 when I returned to the hobby. It was a bagged kit with no instructions and the decals were trashed. I think I paid $3.00 for it. It has gone through heck getting to this point. I will refer [...]
