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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.

1/48 AMT/Round2 Staggerwing G17S

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 [...]

1/48 Revell Stearman PT-17 "Kaydet"

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 [...]

Spifirepalooza!

Thought I would pass this on. (link)

1/48 Kinetic Pucará IA 58AGuerra de las Malvinas (group build)

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 [...]

Eduard 1/48 Fw 190-5 Light FighterWalter Nowotny

“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 [...]

Dora Wings 1/48 P-43A Lancer, 1943

This is my first Dora Wings kit, which is produced in the Ukraine. I really enjoyed building this P-43 Lancer. It’s very well executed for the most part but one has to keep in mind this is a limited run model with delicate recessed panel [...]

Würger Time! Fw 190A-8 "Blue 4"

This is Eduard’s 2019 release of their superb 1:48th Fw 190A-8 dressed up as “Blue 4” W/Nr.350189, 12./JG5 based at Herdla, Norway in Spring of 1945. Eduard says this plane was photographed on several occasions, but darned if I could [...]

Review: Assembling and Using a Model Jig

For over 20 years I’ve been lusting after a jig to hold my model airplanes in place so I can work on them without gumming up everything with fingerprints, glue splotches, errant paint and breakage. I was just too cheap to buy one. I [...]

Barrel Role: The Stipa-Caproni

For those of you who aren’t already acquainted with this early 30’s Italian flying barrel of an experiment, here is the Stipa-Caproni for your reading and visual aero-tainment: Disclaimer: The above color photo of a Stipa-Caproni is [...]

Classic Airframes 1/48 Westland Wyvern S.4

One thing for sure, Westland’s Wyvern won’t win any beauty contests. It’s a real ungainly beast. Nor does it have the graceful curves of the mythological, two legged dragon for which it was named. But it does have a forked tail of [...]