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My modeling career followed a typical trajectory. I built kits in day and played with the model as a kid, then girls and college happened. I returned to the hobby in my mid 20s. I've held numerous jobs along the way, among them as the Exhibits Manager at the Museum of Flight In Seattle, WA. (I got to create a full-scale diorama for one exhibit) where I met many famous and interesting aviators and even handled a space suit. (It was used in training Apollo astronauts.) Another job was for a season as a Mechanic Assistant on a ground crew of a helicopter fighting forest fires. I'm now retired and do volunteer work.
This was a fun project to research. I have the markings accurate, but the colors are my best guess.
On the Modeling Madness website, ((link)) I wrote: Introduced in 1927, the Lockheed Vega was the first product of the newly reorganized [...]
According to BAE Systems, The success of the Gloster Meteor led to the De Havilland Aircraft Company being approached to design and build an airframe for the Halford H1 turbojet engine (later to become the DH Goblin). Initially designated [...]
The Stinson Reliant is a popular single-engine four- to five-seat high-wing monoplane manufactured by the Stinson Aircraft Division of the Aviation Manufacturing Corporation of Wayne, Michigan.
The Reliant is a high-wing, fixed-tailwheel [...]
This build was all about the decals. The airframe is just the foundation for their application.
Courtesy of Skytamer.com
The Extra Flugzeugbau EA-300 is a two-seat aerobatic monoplane capable of Unlimited category competition. It was [...]
The DH.114 Heron was developed as a follow-on to the popular DH.104 Dove. It was designed to be used in less developed regions as a more rugged four-engine upgrade. As well as switching to four-engine, the Heron also had increased wingspan [...]
Say the name Bugatti and race cars should come to mind. Beautiful, fast, and sleek, the Bugatti racers dominated the European racing scene during the 1920s and ’30s. But the company also had an aviation connection, and a unique one at [...]
In 1936, a group of wealthy residents of Long Island, including E. Roland Harriman, approached Grumman and commissioned an aircraft that they could use to fly to New York City. In response, produced the Model G-21. It was a high-wing [...]
Three weeks before the 1930 Thompson Trophy race, held in Chicago, Lee Shoenhair of the Goodrich Co. placed an order with the E.M. Laird Airplane company for a racer based on their Speedwing designs of commercial aircraft and featuring the [...]
History
Courtesy Wikipedia
The General Dynamics F-16 Fighting Falcon is an American single-engine supersonic multirole fighter aircraft originally developed by General Dynamics for the United States Air Force (USAF). Designed as an air [...]
After deciding on a building strategy, a test fit of the fuselage halves and wing gave me some idea of how to install the frame members that can be seen through the windshield. Those parts were also were cleared of flash and the raised [...]
