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I've been modeling for over 50 years, with the usual break in my twenties when I was busy learning about (ahem) other things and playing music full time (bass, guitar, banjo). I build mostly aircraft, almost all to 1/72 scale, but I'm not immune to the odd dino, figure, or ship kit (I've got a little of everything in the stash). I mainly focus on aircraft from WWI through the 1970s, with a particular emphasis on US Navy subjects. I have a rather perverse attraction to vacuform kits. I live in Southern California with my wife and two teenage daughters, where I teach middle-school art and media arts. When I lived in San Francisco in the 90s, I was a member of IPMS Golden Gate, and I'm currently a member of the Temecula Valley Modelers Club.

Grumman F4F-4 Wildcat, Airfix 1/72

My earliest memory of the Wildcat was seeing Jack Leynwood’s classic box art on Revell’s original release of their 1/32 kit in the late 60s. It shows a pair of Wildcats led by CDR Jimmy Thatch flying over a frantically maneuvering [...]

Airfix 1/72 Buccaneer (old mold)

Here’s my build of the 1/72 Airfix Buccaneer S.2B (1989 mold). It’s an old kit, and I decided to build it side-by-side with the new Airfix Buccaneer. Since there is little detail in the wheel wells and cockpit, I decided to build it as [...]

Airfix New Releases 2021

I just watched the Airfix new release video on YouTube, and here are the highlights. New Tool: 1/72 Hawker Tempest Mk.V DH Mosquito B.XVI (two-stage Merlin engines) 1/48 DHC Chipmunk T.10 DH Vampire F.3 1/35 Austin K2/Y [...]

LFG Roland D.II, Pegasus 1/72

I’ve liked the look of the Roland D.II ever since I first saw it in Kenneth Munson’s "Fighters, Attack, and Training Aircraft, 1914-19" back in the late 60s. It wasn’t a particularly successful fighter despite its good [...]

Sea Harrier FA.2, Airfix 1/72

Introduction: One of the advantages of building in 72nd scale is that kits are small and cheap enough to allow me to build aircraft that I’m “kind of” interested in (basically every airplane ever made). As an example, I picked up [...]

Fokker E.V, 1/72 Sign

Time to push another little birdie out of the nest, in this case a Czech limited-run kit made by Sign in the late 90s. A few bakelite-looking plastic parts, a couple of chunks of white metal (prop & engine), and a bunch of [...]

Revell 1/28 Sopwith Camel “Donner Wetter!”

First post here. This is the classic 1/28 scale Revell Sopwith F.1 Camel from 1959. I mainly build 1/72, but was inspired to build this kit that's been sitting in my stash by a desire to build one of the Wingnut Wings Camels that came [...]