F7U-3 Cutlass

I built this for a former employer who worked on the Chance Vought production line for the F7U Cutlass in the 1950s.



This is basically a stock Fujimi 1/72 Cutlass kit with minor weathering and pencil accent of the kit panel lines.



The display base is a scribed, painted piece of styrene sheet, and the entire rig was mounted in a clear display case.

PT 109, the semi-hard way

This is a heavily-reworked Revell 1/72 Elco PT Boat, in the markings of - what else? - Lt.j.g. John F. Kennedy's PT 109.



Except for the main hull, deck and deckhouses, everything has been either modified or scratchbuilt. The 37 mm deck gun - well documented in words and marginally so in photos - is a reworked Hasegawa anti-tank gun mounted on scratchbuilt lumber and with thread tiedowns.

Torpedo tubes were reworked from the original four-piece assemblies into roughly 30-piece tubes each.



The .50 cal. MG mounts were also rebuilt with ammo chutes, detailed gun breeches and assorted other details.

Scratchbuilt depth charge racks, detailed engine mufflers and a correct paint scheme and correct (rough) deckhouse boat numbers round out the model.

And another . . .

The Revell 1/28 scale Fokker Dr. 1 first came into the world three years before I was born. This is the fourth one I've built in 36 years. It's old, but it's familiar and the detail and construction are still pretty comparible to much younger kits.
Suffice it to say, though, that a lot of the parts needed refinement and a few needed outright replacement. But given what's in the box and the quality time one can get building it, it's still a bargain.



Below are photos of the real Dr. 1 on which this model is based.




And a few detail shots of the model

Another resume' addition

This is my 1/16 Wehrmacht infantryman in late-war winter gear, from the Tamiya kit.
More on this piece here.

Establishing a little credibility . . .

I've been building since I was 8. The piece above (a Tamiya Spitfire Mk. Vb) was built in 2002. More on this piece here.

Testing - under construction

Eventually this blog will represent my alter ego - model builder and modelmaker - and will reflect that not only in some small sample of my own work but posts on other modelling-related topics.