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I’ve been building models since a wee boy, minus a long gap between 16 and 40, thanks to my late uncle Paul who worked for the original Revell in Venice, CA in the 50's - 60’s. In those days, the family Christmas tree was always loaded with kits underneath much to my delight but not so much my Mom who viewed them as more clutter.
I used to be 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 to 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.
Here’s my grimy looking Blue Angels’ F8F-1 “Beetle Bomb” Bearcat circa late 1949 as it might have looked after a hard weekend working an airshow. Note the attached photo of the actual plane.
By early 1948 the Blue Angels were [...]
Now this was one blast of a car to put together! Brought back high school memories when my pal took me out for a weekend pre-rally warm up drive in his mid 60’s S when it was almost new. I was his navigator. We went around a hairpin and [...]
I don’t do cars. Since I resumed modeling in the early 90’s, I’ve built nothing but planes. Sure, I’ve slapped together a couple of Tom Daniels/George Barris silly cars along the way, but for the most part, strictly the airborne [...]
Yes…another P-51 build and another “Big Beautiful Doll”.
This “Doll” is painted in its last known markings as piloted by Col. John Landers at the time he took over command of the 361FG in England July 1945 after VE day. Landers [...]
Thought you all might find this die cut P-38 kids menu interesting. Printed on both sides with metallic silver ink and dated 11-29-1945, this was an option for families who patronized the Sky Room Café, a restaurant and bar once located [...]
I really like modeling propeller driven X-planes. When Kitty Hawk came out with this 48th scale XF5U-1 “Flying Flapjack” in early 2016, I jumped on it.
I built this straight out of the box as it has everything you need including PE [...]
Here’s what I thought would be an E-Z weekend build: Eduard’s 1:48 He 280 ProfiPACK 2018 re-pop. The molds have held up well considering they date back to circa 2005 when Eduard was just starting their rise to excellence and began [...]
This is Meng’s most excellent 1:48 P-51D. I’m sure most of you have read how it is possible (but not quite) to build this kit without glue. It’s true, but believe me, this is no beginner’s model. Nor is it a bang it out build. [...]
The Erickson Aircraft Collection Museum is located at the Madras Airport, a 45 minute drive north of Bend, Oregon on Hwy 26 near the intersection of Hwy 97N. The collection was originally founded by Jack Erickson of sky crane and aerial [...]
I’ve had a great time building the last few years’ worth of 1/48th Airfix new tools, so I figured why not give their 2016 issue Gloster Meteor F.8 a go. I assumed this kit would live up to the ease of Airfix’s recent Spitfires, [...]
