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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.
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, [...]
Here’s a few not so great photos of Revell’s 1/48th scale Ventura Mk. II which I completed on Christmas Eve 2017, my final build of the year. It’s a great kit and fun to construct, but it does take up a lot of shelf space and looks [...]
This is my first completed build of 2018, and my first submission to iModeler. It’s also the first 1/72 scale model I’ve tackled since I was 14 yrs old. And tackle it I did with Special Hobby’s Fw 187, released in 2003.
I built it [...]
