36 articles · 13.2K karma · 40 friends · active 3 hours, 20 minutes ago
The early 1970s is when I started building models, almost always airplanes. The earliest I remember is a Monogram P-39 my dad helped me build.
1940s & 50s fighter planes in 1/48 or 1/32 scale are my favorite model subjects. Occasionally other subjects & scales sneak in.
To help pay for this hobby, I’ve been working as an aircraft mechanic for a large airline for nearly 35 years.
I’m 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.
This is the well known Tamiya P-51D Mustang.
Although not the latest Mustang kit, I think it’s still a great model. It went together without any fit problems and required no filler. The cockpit doesn’t have much detail, but little of [...]
Just a few days before Christmas , 2024, a package arrived in the mail from my friend, Liliya. She had sent gifts for everyone in my family. My wife was given a cool set of nesting dolls, mine was this new release Zvezda kit that Liliya [...]
This is the Academy 1/48 scale F-16A/C kit.
It’s not as detailed as many of the newer F-16 kits that are available , but it isn’t a terrible kit.
I’ve had some Super Scale decals for Air National Guard & Reserve F-16s for [...]
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 its 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 [...]
