154 articles · 8.1K karma · 34 friends · active 4 years, 5 months ago

Retired, Ocala Florida resident since 1978. I build 1/72 and 1/48 aircraft primarily, but delve into 1/144th. 1/72 (or close) Boats, 1/24th cars, 1/32-35th and assorted stuff, fill in the gaps, and prevent "burn-out". I'm a member of IPMS since 1983, a currently an officer in our local chapter. My current collection is over 400 on the shelf, and an equal number in my stash. I'd like to be able to share "the good, the bad, and the ugly", with my fellow modelers.

Airfix 1/72 Harvard II

This is the old Airfix Harvard II (T-6 Texan) kit of years gone by. It's a simple, nice fitting kit which I did OOB, without a lot of hassle. As old as it was, I was still able to use the kit decals. The story of "why" is [...]

Academy (Easy kit) 1/144th SU-25 Frogfoot

The SU-25 Frogfoot is the Russian equivalent of the USAF A-10. It's not graceful looking, but is pretty much "purpose built". I guess that's what has always attracted me to it. In this particular case, I had little choice but [...]

Matchbox 1/72 Hawker Hunter Mk 12

This Hawker Hunter Mk 12, XE531 was used by the Royal Aircraft Establishment (RAE) for equipment development trials (fly by wire) 1980-81. The idea came from the old soft cover edition of "Flying Colors", a state of the art [...]

Revell 1/48 B-25B Mitchell

"Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo" was a favorite movie (and book). Who could ever forget Van Johnson and the "Ruptured Duck". And so it was with me, when back in 1979, I built this BIG 1/48 rendition of one of my favorite [...]

Aurora/Heller Prestige Series 1/72 Bucker Bu 133 "Jungmeister"

In 1933, the "Jungmeister" (Young Champion) 133 was the flegling Luftwaffe's primary trainer. As an export, it was flying in 20 different countries by 1937. It's still flying, in a modified form, aerobatics at todays airshows. [...]

Revell 1/72 Blackburn Skua II

This is an old kit which has been re-poped several times. From what I've read it's totally inaccurate, but I just wanted an easy, quick build. The decals offer two options. I chose the No. 806 Squadron, FAA, HMS Illustrious 1940. [...]

Revell 1/72 British Vosper M.T.B.

To me this was one of the more confusing boats of a late WWII (?) design to be modeled. It's a British design, U.S. built, for Russia, but doubtful that it saw WWII service. Somewhere along the line, one or two were [...]

1/72 Rescue. "dio"

The two most rescued aviators in model aviation history ! These lucky fellows are just two of the figures that come with every Monogram Hu-16 Albatross. Anyone who has built the Hu-16, has these guys laying around somewhere, remember [...]

Monogram 1/48 Messerschmitt Me 109E

Copyright 1962... This "Me 109" has to be one of the oldest kits on my shelf. Even the instructions show it's age, beginning with the title "Me 109 E", and then explaining that the "Me" was the popular [...]

Revell 1/48 Messerschmitt Bf-109 G-10/U2

This is another kit from days of yore ! Anyone remember the "Big Toy Box at Sears"? That's where I picked it up loooong ago. The instruction sheet says "1978 by Revell". The instruction sheet is one page of [...]