45 articles · 15.9K karma · 27 friends · active 10 hours, 30 minutes ago

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 Meng P-51D “Da Quake”

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. [...]

Roadtrip Flyby: The Erickson Aircraft Collection

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 [...]

1/48 Airfix Gloster Meteor F.8

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, [...]

1/48 Revell Ventura Mk. II

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 [...]

1/72 Special Hobby Fw 187A-0

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 [...]