103 articles · 3.5K karma · 13 friends · active 1 month, 2 weeks ago

Building models since age 7 (except for a short respite in my military years). Enjoying it now more than ever. I build across the spectrum but am biased towards towards historical miniatures and military vehicles.

Review: Gustav v. Gustav – Hasegawa vs. Tamiya 1/72 Bf 109G-6

The Bf109g series was the most produced variant of the Bf109 fighter. It has been a popular subject in scale modeling. Scalemates lists 256 kits--126 in 1:72 scale--starting with a 1959 Airfix kit. I thought it would be interesting do a [...]

Trumpeter 1:72 Soviet T-28 Medium Tank

I took a detour from a couple of long-term in-progress projects to build up this multi-turret 'land battleship.' It is a nice little kit of an interesting subject. But given the small scale, there are some delicate fiddly parts, [...]

1:72 ARMA Hobby FM-2 Wildcat

Another really nice kit from ARMA Hobby and another fun project. This kit has an abundance of detail for its scale. This Expert Set version comes with PE, painting masks, and decals and color guides for 6 options. The fit was terrific [...]

R35 French Light Tank Tamiya 1:35

My first wholly 2021 build--bought, started and finished this year. This is another great Tamiya kit. What more to say? I included Monsieur Le Commandant de Char to give a sense of the size of this petite 2-man tank. The peculiar [...]

Airfix 1:35 M3 Stuart 'Honey'

First build completed in 2021. Off to a good start. This is a rebox of the Academy M3 with different markings and camo scheme. The quality is decent but definitely not comparable to current Tamiya, Meng or Takom standards. The [...]

A (Reluctantly) Productive 2020

Taking advantage of the extra down time from the Covid social distancing lockdown I tried to reduce my stash by finishing some simple no-frills OOB builds (**) in addition to ongoing work on regular long term projects. No frills means no [...]

Last 2020 Project: Hawker Hurricane Mk II b 1/72 ARMA Hobby

My last completed build of 2020 (finished on 12/31). I can't say enough about ARMA kits in general and this one in particular. Meticulous detail--better than some larger scale kits by other brands. High quality plastic, comparable to [...]

Academy 1/72 USMC F-35B

I'll start off by saying this is a great kit that led to a really fun project. I was initially intrigued by the the complex stealthy coloring and the complex VTOL architecture of this aircraft. I figured it would present some interesting [...]

Graf Spee 1/700 Trumpeter

This is my first surface ship project since doing a few in my youth. This kit has no PE or resin but it has some very fine plastic parts. I used nearly every type of tool, glue, paint and technique I know of. The last steps were [...]

Tamiya 1:48 Tamiya Marder III

Since March, when California's social distancing lockdown began, I have been reducing my stash and hone some modeling skills by doing monthly simple no-frills OOB builds from my personal “hobby shop” in addition to working on regular [...]