63 articles · 2.1K karma · 9 friends · active 4 hours, 46 minutes ago
Interested primarily in WW II aircraft carriers in 1/700 scale, but branching out lately into some 1/72 aircraft, starting with carrier planes but more recently RAF and Luftwaffe as well. And hoping to get somewhere on my backlog of Star Trek kits. A scratchbuilt launch umbilical tower for my 1/200 AMT Apollo/Saturn V is my white whale.
I had so much fun with my last Essex-class double build of a 1945 and 1968 USS Bon Homme Richard (CV/CVA-31) that decided to try it again, this time focusing on a better way to convert a model of a straight-deck WW II Essex into a postwar [...]
The first half of 2021 was the same as 2020 - multiple 1/700 Essex-class carrier builds. But the second half was something completely different.
The first several months of 2021 were devoted to finishing a "double build" of the [...]
My latest project is one that I have had in mind for a long time.
When I was about 10 years old, and just starting to get interested in World War II and aircraft carriers, one of the first books I had access to was Barrett Gallagher’s [...]
During the Battle of the Coral Sea U.S. Navy Lieutenant John A. Leppla and Radioman 3rd Class J.A. Liska were pilot and gunner of SBD-3 BuNo 4547 from Scouting Squadron 2 (VS-2) based onboard the Lexington, and were credited with shooting [...]
After a decidedly unsatisfactory 1/72 Spitfire build three years ago I decided to try my hand again. Fortunately, Airfix has a new tool version of their classic kit, so I was able to compare the two.
The kit is really good with the [...]
Back in mid-August I decided to take a little time off a nearly-complete 1/700 carrier model - yet another Essex-class ship - to try something a little different. I wanted to build one of the 1/72 aviation subjects I had been adding to my [...]
Airfix’ 2013 new tool 1/72 Hurricane shows the aircraft at the beginning of its career with a fabric covered wing, and options for the original wooden two-bladed Watts propellor and the later three-bladed DeHavilland, as well as fuselage [...]
This is an out of the box build of DML’s 1/72 Ar 234 Blitz. I used the kit markings for the aircraft in the Smithsonian, and the FL Models M7226 masks and Vallejo Model Air paints. Underside is RLM 76 Lichtblau, and topside is RLM 81 [...]
This build has a story.
In 1992 I attended the “1942: Issue in Doubt” symposium by the Admiral Nimitz Museum (now the National Museum of the Pacific War). Featured speakers at the event included several pilots who had fought at the [...]
This build is of a 1967 boxing of the 1964 Frog kit, alas, without the “F 20 Spin-a-prop motorizing kit!” I had read in numerous Detail & Scale books about Frog kits, but had never built one, as such. So when I saw this one for [...]
