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I've been doing modelling for about 15 years now, having returned to the hobby I dabbled in as a kid. It was a steep learning curve but the Internet was a huge help in picking up tips and techniques and figuring out where to get the necessary tools. Now armed with several airbrushes and a spray booth, I feel reasonably well equipped to work my way through my growing kit stash. Luckily, I have just enough space for a good sized pile of kits, collecting being one of the great secondary pleasures of this hobby.
I build mostly 1/32 and 1/48 aircraft but also some 1/35 armor (WWII and Modern) and am now branching out into 1/200, 1/350 and 1/700 scale ships and subs. I also have a couple of the 1/72 giants, the U-Boat VIIC and the Gato under assembly, as well as an S-Boat.
As for my life outside the hobby, I am a teacher and one time administrator with a strong interest in history, particularly family military history, which has led me to archival research and regimental reunions to interview veterans. . I also enjoy international travel, cycling, hiking and archery, among other pastimes. I also love motorcycles but can't afford one currently.
With Spring finally here, I decided to do some outdoor photography. I rigged up a two-sided light tent on my deck. In shooting this model previously, a lot of the pre-shading mottling effect was lost in indoor lighting. In some ways, [...]
Here is my Special Hobby Brewster Buffalo Mk. 1 in 1/32nd scale. I will say a few things about this high quality short-run kit later, but first I would like to give some historical background to the subject.
The History in Brief
The [...]
Here is my big 32nd scale Hasegawa N1K2-J Shiden Kai. It is painted and weathered to represent the aircraft of Squadron Leader Lt. Naoshi Kanno operating out of Matsuyama Airbase, Japan, April, 1945. Kanno had ground crew hand paint the [...]
Here is my Iraqi Army T-72M completed as part of the Gulf War/Desert Storm Group Build. I corrected the 1/35 Tamiya kit with a more accurately-shaped SBS resin turret, including supplied photo-etched details for the searchlights and [...]
Here is my attempt at modeling the CF-104 Starfighter in 1/48th scale. This is my one and only Bare Metal Foil model - it was pretty labor intensive but worth the effort. I applied the BMF panel by panel and mostly used Matt Aluminum [...]
Here is my Tamiya Mitsubishi G4M1 "Betty". This was a fairly long project, partly documented in the Empire of Japan Group Build (so I will keep description here to a minimum). It is finished in Tamiya XF-11 JN Green, XF-64 Red [...]
Here is a build that was a real learning experience for me. I built it out of the box without photo etch and used the kit decals with serial number rearranged to represent an aircraft of Coastal Command - flown by Flight Lieutenant Nunn [...]
Here is Trumpeter’s massive, over-engineered, but still impressive P-38J Lightning in 1/32nd scale. Some of you may know that this is not an easy kit. The sheer size of it, coupled with the fact that you need a ton a weight in the [...]
This is my build of the Tamiya 1/48th P-47D Razorback. Tamiya’s p-47s must be some of the best kits ever produced. No need for a lot of photo etch in the cockpit , which has excellent detail OOB. I did add a few small things, [...]
Here is my build of the Hasegawa 1/48 scale Hawker Typhoon 1B. This is a great kit, even with nothing added. I used aftermarket decals for an aircraft of 137 Squadron RAF, June 1944 operating over Normandy. I also went with the Eduard [...]
