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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.
“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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
Plenty has been written on these iModeler pages about the history of the Douglas TBD-1 Devastator. Let’s just say that this wasn’t one of Douglas’s finer achievements. All fifteen TBD’s of VT-8 were shot down during the battle of [...]
The de Havilland Hornet/Sea Hornet used wooden construction techniques pioneered by the Mosquito. The aircraft was to conduct Royal Navy Air Service long range fighter operations against Japan. The war ended before the Hornet reached [...]
I built this 1/48 Hobby Boss Brazilian EMB-314 Super Tucano about 4 years ago or so. I think this plane is a strong candidate for one of the most attractive aircraft currently in production and deserves a little attention.
The Super [...]
The internet is awash with Nakajima Ki-84 Hayate (Frank) kits in all scales and brands. Judging by the multitude of completed Hayate photos out there, it seems to me this well designed fighter is just as popular as the Zero, the only other [...]
