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I’ve been building models since a wee boy, minus a long gap between 18 and 40, thanks to my late uncle Paul who worked for Revell in Venice, CA in the 50's - 60’s and, later, AMT models. In those days, the family Christmas tree was always loaded with kits underneath much to my delight, but it drove my mother nuts who viewed them as dust collectors, sadly enough.
I used to be a self-employed graphic artist/writer who has always been a fan of aviation art. I’ve designed logos and images for air museums all over the U.S. as well as illustrated a line of WWII warbird t-shirts that made the rounds in air museum gift shops and aviation catalogs. Many of my built models provided the inspiration for those designs.
I laid myself off a couple of years ago and decided to call it a day and enjoy life and build models for fun. My wife and I are proud parents of two adult daughters, both married to Costa Ricans (!) so we spend a fair amount of time there. Our home headquarters are in Santa Cruz, California.
DISCLAIMER: I’ve never piloted a plane but I have sat in a P-51.
Hawker Aircraft is now a century old, so for this GB celebration build I chose Hasegawa’s venerable Typhoon Mk Ib Bubbletop kit that’s been sitting on my Shelf of Doom since the late 90’s when it was issued and I just had to have [...]
I’m by no means a Star Wars fanboy or have any Star Wars doo dads in my work cave and office nor have I watched one episode of the new Mandalorian series. Along with my future wife, I did join the jubilant sidewalk party while waiting in [...]
Arriving too late at the end of WWII to see any real combat, the Hawker Tempest II proved its mettle in the Far East and Middle East circa 1948. When the British left India in 1947, the bulk of the remaining RAF Tempests left behind were [...]
The DB-7B/Boston Mk III was the exported British version of the Douglas A-20C mid-1941. So many Bostons were modified and assembled on British airfields and elsewhere that it can be difficult to pinpoint the actual airframe model just by [...]
Aoshima has long produced excellent curbside car kits that are superbly engineered and a heck of a lot of fun to build. I had to take a break from building nothing but airplanes over the last three years and this was the perfect remedy. I [...]
The Beechcraft model G17S was the last of the Staggerwing series and approximately 20 of these were built between 1946 -1948. Staggerwings are considered one of the world’s most beautiful vintage planes. A grand total of 781 of various [...]
The Boeing Stearman is probably the most well recognized biplane of all time with plenty still regularly flying today since its inception in the mid 1930’s. Used by the military during WWII, the PT-17 was the primary trainer for both the [...]
Thought I would pass this on.
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The IA-58 Pucará is an Argentine ground attack/counter-insurgency aircraft manufactured by Fábrica Militar de Aaviones (FMA) and capable of operating from less than ideal airstrips that were too short or rough for jet fighters. Pucarás [...]
“Major Walter "Nowi" Nowotny (7 December 1920 – 8 November 1944) was an Austrian-born German fighter ace of World War II. He is credited with 258 aerial victories in 442 combat missions. Nowotny achieved 255 of these [...]
