169 articles · 64.7K karma · 197 friends · active 1 week, 2 days ago

I'm a retired Lieutenant Fire Fighter / EMT. Prior to working as a Firefighter, I also served in Law Enforcement for several years.

In following with our long line of family military service, dating all the way back to 1776, I'm a US Army veteran (tanker). I served mostly in the M-60A1 and eventually the M1-A1 series tanks. I was a crew member in the Abrams only for a short while.

My Dad was kind of like "Lt. Dan" from the movie Forrest Gump. Fortunately dear old Dad broke our "family curse" of having members killed in every major conflict that the United States has ever had. My Dad was wounded in the Korean War, and thankfully he was not killed. Otherwise I wouldn't be here if he was. I accidentally happened some years later...

My other hobbies include restoring old "Mopar" muscle cars from the late 1960's and early '70s. I also enjoy building aircraft in 1/48 & 1/32 scale, along with 1/35 Armor. I especially like the WW2 stuff. Lately I have been gravitating towards the First World War 1/32 scale aviation kits though...

I built my first model (Revell 1/32 P-40 "Flying Tigers" version) when I was 8 years old. I currently have about 600 kits ( of which about 1/4 are built).

1/48 ICM 48195 Ki-21 Ib "Sally" Japanese Heavy Bomber with 60th Sentai markings.

This is a model I recently built. I knew when I heard it was coming out I immediately placed one on Pre Order with Squadron. I am a huge fan of WW2 era Japanese aircraft. When it finally arrived, I posted a kit review on the kit. Next I [...]

Review: 1/48 scale MiniArt P-47D-30RE Thunderbolt "basic" # 48023 Kit Review

This is a model that I knew I had to get my hands on once it was available. Lo and behold, it was offered for "Presale" at Squadron a month or so ago... Just when I spent too much on other kits for Christmas and I thought my [...]

Review: Kit Review for 1/48 scale ICM Ki-21 "Sally" #48195

This is a model that I have been wanting for many years. I have not included any of the history behind this aircraft. Several years ago I read that ICM was going to someday be releasing a kit of this plane in 1/48 scale. Once I knew [...]

It’s finally here ! ICM 1/48 scale Ki-21 “Sally” kit number 48195

This is a model that I have been waiting for every since I first heard about it becoming a reality. I pre ordered it from Squadron Mail Order when they announced it would be available for pre order purchase. The anticipation was great. [...]

Airfix 1/48 scale Curtiss P-40, 10th Air Base Squadron, Chanute Field, Illinois

This is a build that I had started a while ago. My very first model I built was the old 1/32 scale Revell P-40E "Flying Tigers" model. I was 8 years old. I was captivated by the box art, showing a P-40 diving through a [...]

1/48 scale Eduard FM-2 "Wilder Cat" kit number 11175 USS Nehenta Bay, VC-8 August 5th, 1945. Lt / JG O'Connor

When I first heard that Eduard was going to be releasing a brand new FM-2 Wildcat in 1/48 scale, I was very excited. I had the older Hobby Boss FM-2 kit, and it fell short in some areas. So I was not in any hurry to spend as much money [...]

1/48 Revell PV-1 Ventura, Bureau Number 34623, of VPB-145 at NAS Deland, July 29th, 1943

This true story is based on actual events that happened here at the Deland airport exactly 80 years ago today... on July 29th, 1943. I wanted to tell their story by writing this article, and building this PV-1 Ventura model, as a tribute [...]

Korean War Group is coming to a close soon....

Hello again everyone. This is a friendly reminder that the Korean War group will be closing soon. The last day to accept any new build journal entries will be on July 27th, 2023. So if you wanted to build something for the group, the [...]

Reminder: Korean War group Build is about to end.

The anniversary date for the "Cease Fire" on July 27th, 1953 is quickly coming up. Since we recently started the Jim Sullivan memorial group build, I mentioned that I would make some minor changes to the Korean War group. Here [...]

Jim Sullivan Memorial Group Build Started !

Hello everyone. This is a short note to let you know it's official. Our website owner / admin Martin (the wonderful fellow who has made Imodeler possible), has kindly given permission for us to have this brand new group build, held in [...]