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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).

Second 1/48 Hasegawa Kawasaki Ki-61 Hien “Tony” flown by Major Kobayashi, Commander 244th Sentai

I have been anxiously awaiting the arrival of the new 1/48 scale Tamiya Ki-61. To me, the Ki-61 Hien “Tony” is one of the most graceful looking Japanese WW2 planes. I purchased the new Tamiya kit from a hobby shop in Japan and [...]

1/48 Hasegawa Kawasaki Ki-61 Hien “Tony” flown by Major Kobayashi, Commander 244th Sentai

I have been anxiously awaiting the arrival of the new 1/48 scale Tamiya Ki-61. To me, the Ki-61 Hien "Tony" is one of the most graceful looking Japanese WW2 planes. I purchased the new Tamiya kit from a hobby shop in Japan and [...]

Tamiya 1/48 F4U-1A Corsair flown by Major “Pappy” Boyington VMF-214 Blacksheep, on January 3rd, 1944

I just finished my first model of the new year. This is the final one of the three Corsairs that I started last year. These planes were from my very first posting here on Imodeler. I want to thank my friend Jim Sullivan for his assistance [...]

1/48 Ryan PT-20 US Army Air Corps Trainer

Here's one for your enjoyment that's hot on the heels of my XP-51. Tonight's "Pre War" themed article is about the ancient Testors kit that I finished early last year. It was the first plane that I completed in 2016. I'm [...]

1/48 Accurate Minatures P-51A Mustang XP-51 s/n 41-039

Here's a few pictures of my Accurate Miniatures early P-51A Mustang that I built a few years ago. I've always been a big fan of early / pre war colors on both the US Army Air Corps / Army Air Force, and US Navy "Yellow Wings" [...]

Display cases as requested… Happy New Year!

Some of our Imodeler friends made a request in the comments section of my last article which was about the Tamiya F4U-1 #15 as flown by Capt. James Cupp. It was requested that I post up some pictures of my display cases. So without [...]

1/48 Tamiya F4U-1 Birdcage Corsair “Daphne C” Bureau number 03829, VMF-213, Captain James Cupp

Tonight's article is about the second F4U from my very first article here on Imodeller. This one is hot off the work bench. It's one of 3 early Corsair builds that I had going on at the same time. Two were by Tamiya and one was from [...]

(Revised) 1/48 Hobby Boss F4U-1 “Early” Corsair, Great Lakes recovery Bureau Number 02465 “F-21”

Tonight I revised the article on my latest build, a Hobby Boss F4U-1 "early", which is hot off the work bench. The revision is due in part by observations and information from our fellow Imodeler members, namely my friends and [...]

21st Century Toys 1/32 Messerschmitt Bf-109 of JG 54 Geschwader Kommodore Hannes Trautloft

Here are some pictures of a model that I built several years ago. I have always liked the different colors that were used by JG 54 on the Eastern Front. I had some left over decals for some 1/32nd scale Bf-109's, and was able to piece [...]

1/35 Tamiya M-48A-3 90MM from the 11th Cavalry in Vietnam

Tonight's article is about this model that I built about 3 years ago. This is Tamiya kit number 35120 and I built it with a few modifications. I used the kit decals that were provided for the 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment. The first [...]