44 articles · 13.7K karma · 41 friends · active 3 hours, 57 minutes ago
After 17 years as a social studies teacher at a small, rural Junior High School in central Texas, I retired at the end of the 2016 school year. I started that career at age 45. Prior to that, I was a professional painter and prior to that, a sheet-metal mechanic/tinsmith. I am married, and my wife Jackie and I have two children, Ann, 42, a financial advisor and Carson, 40, a Mechanical Engineer.
Our kids have now provided us with two grandsons, Ann and her husband Robert had a baby boy on August 11 2014, John Carlos ("Johnny") Huerta and Carson's wife Amanda delivered their baby boy, Sullivan ("Sul" or "Sully") on the following December 18. Needless to say, they are both beautiful babies and yes, the grandparents are somewhat STOKED, lol!
I am glad to add an update. My first grand-daughter, Nora Wade Brantley, was born Nov. 8, 2016. Of course, she is beautiful (looks a lot like her brother Sullivan). Just one more blessing in my life!
And yet another update- our second granddaughter, Chloe Marie Huerta, was born on Pearl Harbor Day, December 7, 20017 and now is 4 years old and counting...
My other hobbies include shooting and collecting firearms, music, reading and hot-rod cars and motorcycles. I also assist (read: doing the heavy lifting, lol) with my wife's antique business. We bought a brand new 47 HP 4WD Kubota L4701 tractor in Sept. '16 to use on our ranch in the country, "Brokenoak". I've been busy and having a lot of fun as a Country Squire out there. Yes, life can get rather hectic for ol' Squire Brantley! š
When I was 13-14 years old, my family and I lived in Geelong, Victoria, Australia, where my Dad worked for ALCOA ( in Geelong 1966-67). My passion then was slot car racing! I had two commercial tracks within 100 meters/yards of our house. Oh man, did I have fun over there! Hey wait, that was over 50 years ago?!?! Wow, where did the time go? š
The M41 Walker Bulldog, officially known as 76-mm Gun Tank M41, was produced by the Cadillac Motor Car Company division of General Motors from 1951 to 1954. Originally built as a light tank replacement for the WWII-era M24 Chaffee, it was [...]
"Black Magic" is the name I gave her way back when she was first built. It has now been about 20 years since I came up with a "what if" plan for the Monogram kit. I had the kit in my stash for awhile before deciding [...]
I'm not sure this is an appropriate place to ask for help, but I couldn't find a dedicated "space" for help questions. If this article doesn't fit here, please feel free to move or delete, but I'm hoping someone will have some [...]
The F-102 is my most recent finished model and when it went to the airport, it was accompanied by another photo-virgin, this AV-8B Harrier II. Done in Marine markings, she was built during the spring of 1989. It was the fourth model I [...]
I took this model out to the Cameron Airport yesterday. I started it around May 1st, working on it in fits and starts, I finally got her across the finish line. It is the 1990 release of the 1/48 Convair F-102A from Monogram and it [...]
I want to show the first models I built after returning to the hobby in 1988. I was 35 years old and hadn't built a model plane since I was around 10. I wanted to compare the new aircraft of that era and thought building 1/48 scale [...]
The kit directions have a note that I started putting paint to plastic on July 16, 2020 and I finished the model July 5 of this year. During that time, I did manage to complete one other model that had been set aside, and also started [...]
An earlier build (early 1990s) and only photographed fairly recently at the Cameron Airport, the Testors 1/48 F-104A Starfighter is a very basic, simple old model. Originally, it was a Hawk release from 1957. I love these birds and [...]
I have no idea just how old this kit is; I know it was issued in the early 1970s at least. So, it won't have the features found on today's great models. But, perhaps we can see how much improvement manufacturers have made since then? [...]
This little air racer was built back in the early 1990s and had never been photographed before May 20 of last year, almost a year ago today in fact. I donāt know why I had overlooked it all these years but I decided to rectify that by a [...]
