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Sometime around 1970 , I started building plastic model airplanes and ships, off & on. Back then it was mainly kits from Aurora, Hawk, Monogram, Revell, and sometimes exotic foreign brands such as Airfix or Hasegawa.
1940s & 50s fighter planes in 1/48 or 1/32 scale are my favorite model subjects. Other subjects & scales also find their way in to my collection. O.O.B. Is my usual M.O.
To help pay for this hobby, I’ve been working as an aircraft mechanic for a large airline for over 30 years. I’m also a former Air Guardsman with a short stint in the USAF Reserve. A-7s, F-16s, KC-135s and one particular Convair C-131 were the aircraft I was around during my military service as an “Airframe Repair Specialist “ back in the 80s & 90s.
I’ve been married 35 years and have two grown up kids & one dog.
For my second build of 2024 I chose this MiG-21 kit. The model is the 1988 OEZ kit made in Czechoslovakia.
By today's standards it is a basic & primitive kit, but when it first came out it was considered by many to be the best MiG-21 [...]
This is my newly completed Curtiss P-40 Tomahawk. It is the Hobby Craft / Trumpeter kit. My first completed model for 2024.
While researching this project online , I read many negative reviews of this kit because of various [...]
This is my recently completed 1/48 Minicraft/Hasegawa A6M5a Zero.
A few months ago I found it’s worn & battered 1985 dated box on the consignment table at the LHS for $10. Given the price of new kits these days, it seemed like a [...]
This Hasegawa kit was a gift to me from my friend , Morné @mornem. He shipped it to me here in Oklahoma from South Africa…. so this is really a South African Hurricane !
I used my airbrush, Tamiya paints, and AML paint masks to paint [...]
Peachy was assigned to the 482nd Bomb Squadron of the 505th Bomb Group, 20th AF. They were stationed on Tinian in the Mariana Islands.
The usual crew that flew Peachy was commanded by Robert T. Haver.
He was a native of Pueblo, Colorado. [...]
On a recent trip to Colorado, I visited the Weisbrod Aircraft Museum in Pueblo, Colorado. While there I noticed that their Lockheed Neptune had been repainted and looks pretty nice for an outdoors display aircraft.
It inspired me to [...]
This Nichimo 1/200 I-19 Japanese Submarine was a Christmas gift to me from my parents in about 1977 , or so. Over the years it’s gotten a little “ war weary”, dusty, and beat up looking. I was considering finally throwing it [...]
Inspired by the recent posts of vintage kits, I thought I’d add a few . Almost everything in my model collection can be considered “Vintage” , “Classic “, “old”.
The unbuilt kits are ones I’ve acquired over the years and [...]
This is a Monogram 1/48 P-47D . The box is dated 1967 and was still shrink wrapped. It’s from the collection of a modeler, Mr Claude Good, that passed away about 1 year ago at age 86.
It is my interpretation of Captain Frank [...]
These two 1/48 P-40s were kindly sent to me as a gift from Bob Torres @v1pro . Bob also sent along some extra AMtech decal sheets with these two kits. I’ve been working on them off and on for several months. Warmer weather recently paid [...]
