151 articles · 36.5K karma · 43 friends · active 20 hours, 35 minutes ago

I mostly do 1/48 USN and British Commonwealth aircraft, all eras. I also have a weakness for WW1 German planes and 1/700 ships.

1/48 Hawker Hurricane IID.

This is the Hobbycraft kit that first appeared in 1988. I pulled this from the stash to work on while I awaited delivery of parts for my Dora Wings Vengeance. I have a soft spot for these Hobbycraft kits. They were doing subjects that [...]

1/35 Char B1 Bis.

This is the excellent Tamiya kit built straight from the box for the most part. I’ve come to enjoy dabbling in simple Tamiya armor kits as a break from airplanes. This one sat on the side of the bench for a couple of years, slowly [...]

1/48 Dehavilland Mosquito Pr.IV.

This is the well known Tamiya kit which I acquired at a swap meet for $15 USC a few years back. Another long term stash dweller who’s day on the bench finally came. There’s not much to say about this kit that hasn’t been heard by [...]

1/48 Folland Gnat T.1

This is the Airfix kit which was released in 2014. This kit features some unique engineering that I honestly thought was over complicated for such a small plane at first glance. Once I started building it, I realized the genius of it [...]

1/48 Dewoitine D.520

This is the Tamiya kit from 1996. Sadly, mine dwelt in the stash since around 1997. I finally got around to building it as a companion for my Hobbycraft Hawk 75. Not much to say other then it’s an excellent kit that builds really [...]

1/48 Dehavilland Vampire F.3

This is the brand new Airfix kit. It’s well engineered and fits great. I did trim the bottoms of the cockpit consoles to get a better fit between the upper and lower fuselage parts. One other thing to be aware of is that Airfix [...]

1/48 French Hawk 75.

This is the tried and true Hobbycraft kit. All in all, it’s not a bad model when you consider that it’s pushing 30 years old. The Hobbycraft Twin Wasp ( my French Hawk and P-36s) versions are generally ok, the Cyclone powered [...]

1/48 Condor Legion He-51B Imperial German Air Service/Luftwaffe Group Build.

This is the fairly recent Roden kit. All in all, not a bad kit. It’s engineered very nicely and has good cockpit detailing. It’s best feature is that the landing gear struts are molded to the fuselage halves. This guarantees [...]

1/48 Condor Legion Bf-109E-3. Imperial German Air Service/Luftwaffe Group Build.

This is the tried and true Tamiya kit from 1996. I spotted it on a vendor’s table at the Butch O’Hare IPMS show in Illinois last month. For $15, I couldn’t pass it by. I figured it would be a worthy kit to finally use some of my [...]

1/144 DC-9-33FSAS 75th Anniversary Group Build.

This is an original issue Airfix kit from 1973. I picked it up at a show back in 2017 for $4 US. I dabble in airliners and Douglas products are my favorites. It’s not a bad kit 50 years later. It’s only real failing is that the [...]