A Little History Lockheed began developing the P-38 Lightning in 1937 and in January 1939 the prototype made its maiden flight. The Lightning was a unique looking aircraft with tricycle landing gear, twin booms and a central pod bristling with guns. It had two 1600HP liquid cooled engines and fully loaded it weighed some 10... Continue Reading →
I have been a 'consumer' of scale model related videos on YouTube for some years now. Some are great and some need work but all required some effort to get finished and published to the masses. I have been thinking about doing some how-to videos for a while. It only took a global pandemic and... Continue Reading →
In the Spring of 2019 I made the trip to Dayton Ohio in order to attend WrightCon and to visit the Museum of the United States Airforce. My collective 6+ hours in the museum felt incredibly rushed because there is simply too much to look at. The report of my USAF Museum visit also seems... Continue Reading →
Unless you are making a UAV, your model airplane will have a cockpit. After radial engines, cockpits are probably my favorite part of an aircraft build. Today's kits typically come with excellent detail right out of the box that just need paint. Of course, there is always room for an aftermarket resin set or some... Continue Reading →
Do we really need a new Tony? I always find it hilarious when I hear: "Do we really need a new kit of the [insert new kit] when the old [insert kit from ancient times] is perfectly fine?" I have heard and read arguments in support of certain Monogram, Aurora and Revell kits from 40+... Continue Reading →
I've had these Tamiya Wildcat kits on the shelf for a long time. It seemed that every time I considered building one, something else bumped it down the pile.  However, I read that Eduard was planning to release a series a new mold Wildcats in 48th scale sometime in near future. If the Eduard Wildcat... Continue Reading →
Hardly the new kid on the block anymore, Zoukei-Mura (makers of the Super Wing Series) brought us the Ki-45 Nick in early 2019. This beauty follows on from their line of gorgeous 32nd scale WW2 kits. This one is the first conventional twin (the German 'Anteater' is technically a twin as well, but...you know what... Continue Reading →
A Sleeper Build? Ever pick up a model kit on a whim? It was not on your radar and you may not have known about it. Perhaps you saw it cheap at a show, got it from a buddy or it was on heavy discount at the hobby shop or online. Not expecting much from... Continue Reading →
I’ve written an "Airbrushing and Finishing" feature for Finescale Modeler magazine about my Little Nick. As I described in a previous post, I added most of a resin cockpit, scratch built the engines and gear bays and added other details.   I then painted the model, including the markings, with Tamiya acrylics. You can read about the... Continue Reading →
When I decided to go to the 2018 Nationals, I wanted to compete and not make a fool of myself. I figured the only way I could safely bring a model with me was as a carry-on. That meant something small that could be protected in a small box; something that could easily fit into... Continue Reading →
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