Iron Modeler

Category: Well, I don’t like to talk about me….

  • Modern Music, Plastic Insights, and an Update

    Howdy, all…

    A few weeks ago, I traveled to the Big City of Atlanta.  Normally at this time of year, a trip to Atlanta would be to go to the Airliner Collectibles Show at the Delta Museum.  Not so this year.

    A few years ago, a couple of friends turned me on to a band.  At first, I was lukewarm about them–the videos they pointed to were a little outside my tastes.  But one day, YouTube decided to throw another one of their live videos into my daily mix.  I had to stop what I was doing to see who was behind the music I was hearing.  I listened, and then replayed the video several times.  And I gotta tell you, I was hooked.  As I explored their YouTube catalog, I became more and more impressed with this band.  Now, 20 years ago there would have been no way I would have taken such an interest in a new band, primarily because “new” music 20 years ago sucked rocks…

    So, what is this band?  None other than Band-Maid.  Yep.  A J-Rock band comprised of five thirty-something Japanese women who dress in maid costumes and play some kick-ass music.  There’s more to it than that, but that’s what catches people’s attention.  If you look up their history online, you’ll find out how the founder, Miku Kobato, after her Idol band fell apart, pitched a concept to the management company–she wanted to form an all-girl band that wore cute outfits and played cool music.  How the band came together largely because the founder saw a guitar player’s videos online and tapped her as the lead guitarist, how the lead guitarist knew the drummer, and the drummer knew the bassist, and the management company was working with the girl who became the lead singer.  You’ll hear about the early struggles–the lead singer would up having vocal cord surgery, the founder–who was the original lead vocalist–decided she needed to learn how to play rhythm guitar so she wouldn’t find herself the odd person out, or how the bassist wasn’t happy because in the early years they were playing music written by someone else…

    My original reaction was “A band in costume?  My hitch in the KISS Army ran out when I was 13”.  Another friend told me to approach it in this manner, and if any of you are curious, here’s how to become a Maidiac.  Pick a song.  A live version is better, I’ll explain shortly (and might I suggest “Play”, “Puzzle”, “Freedom”, “Real Existence”, “Ready to Rock”, or “Super Sunshine”).  Start the video, but just listen to the music.  Listen all the way through.  Now, go back and watch the video.  Watch how the band interacts with the audience (the reason for choosing a live version).  Then watch their faces.  They’re smiling, they’re laughing, they’re trying to get each other to break focus.  They’re bouncing around the stage.  They’re interacting with the audience.  In other words, they’re having the time of their lives…

    Why attend a concert, then, if the live videos give this to you?

    Let’s back up.  Band-Maid doesn’t do concerts, they do “okyuji” (“servings”) for the audience (whom are referred to as “Masters and Princesses”), all based on the maid cafés where Miku worked.  During the okyuji, they have a few MC breaks where the band members interact with the audience. During the first MC segment, they’ll introduce themselves, they’ll goof on each other, they’ll welcome all the Masters and Princesses in attendance.

    The second MC segment is called “Omajinai Time”, or Magic Spell Time.  It starts with chants or “Moe, Moe, Kyun, Kyun“, and from there it can get really goofy and really funny.  Miku leads Omajinai Time (), and the chants will cover things specific to the location like Coca-Cola, pecan pie, Georgia peach (to which Miku pointed to herself), and finally, as she makes hand antlers, Buckhead (the venue was Buckhead Theatre) as she gallops around the stage.

    The show following Atlanta was in Dallas, and Buc-ees got the Omajinai Time treatment, complete with Kobato hopping around the stage trying to imitate a beaver (looking more like a cross between a rabbit and squirrel)…

    Omajinai Time is the reason to go to an okyuji.  You can catch videos of it on YouTube, but there’s nothing like being a part of it.

    An interesting tidbit I observed as I was standing in line–their audience skews older in the States.  The guy in front of me had just turned 70.  I’m in my early ’60’s.  The guy behind me was in his mid-40’s.  I asked the guy in front of me what hooked him.  He said the following:

    “Think about what we listened to in the late 1960s and early 1970s.  That music was rapidly swept aside by (and he rattled these off rather quickly) disco, punk, New Wave, New Romantic, Hair Metal, Second New Wave, Glam Metal, Hip-Hop, Rap, Speed Metal, Grunge, and ‘Alternative’–whatever you want to throw in that bin.  The bands we listened to that are still around haven’t released new material in years, and most of them are no longer the same bands–some of them don’t even have any original members.  And here comes J-Rock and K-Rock, with these bands taking 1960s and 1970s rock and metal and putting their own spin on it.  It is refreshing.”

    As an aside, that is one thing that kept coming to my mind–my favorite band to that point was Jethro Tull.  I like the unusual, sue me.  But in the past 40 years or so, that band had been stagnant.  Heavy Metal Grammy aside, they stopped releasing albums in 2009 (The Christmas Album).  The founder and lead vocalist, Ian Anderson, can no longer sing–between his own vocal cord issues and a recent diagnosis of COPD, he cannot sing.  At all.  Then came 2011, when IA gathered the band in a room during the US leg of their tour and told them that Jethro Tull was done.  He was tired of “making money off a dead man’s name” and wanted to tour solo.  He had already branched out with some different musicians for some tours, so he already had The Ian Anderson Band in place.  The big shock of this was how casually he tossed the band’s long-time lead guitarist, Martin Barre, to the curb after 43 years.  And the big insult to the injury came in 2016, when IA resurrected the Jethro Tull name an released several albums with the new band…

    Other examples:

    • Townshend and Daltrey appearing as The Who (my wife and I call them The Why)
    • Mick, Ronnie, and Keith touring at the tender ages of  83, 79, and 82
    • Styx without Dennis DeYoung and Chuck Pannozzo, headed by a 76-year old James Young and 73-year old Tommy Shaw
    • A reconstituted Rush without Neil Peart–Anika is good, but the band should have honored their decision to end once Neil died
    • REO Speedwagon and Journey have both finally pulled the plug after most of the founding members moved on, were levered out, or died.

    The one “legacy” act I give a pass to is Ringo and his All Starr Band.

    Anyway, check these ladies out.  They’ve quickly become one of my favorite bands.  They’re taking a touring hiatus in 2027, but their 15th anniversary as a band in 2028–I’m expecting they will embark on a World Tour, and hopefully the North American leg will be longer than it was this year…
    ~~~~~     ~~~~~     ~~~~~     ~~~~~     ~~~~~

    As I near the completion of the 1/350th scale USS New Jersey, something dawned on me.  Back in the 1980-1981 time frame, I remember buying a Revell 1/32nd scale F4U Corsair.  I had just read an article in Scale Modeler magazine by Shep Paine where he unleashed his superdetailing mojo on this kit.  I had been following Shep’s models since I got one of the Monogram kits with the diorama brochure in the box (the B-29, if memory serves).  The Corsair was (and still is) one of my favorite airplanes of all time, and I wanted to see what I could do.

    I remember some of the thoughts I had as I embarked

    “This is going to be a lot of work!”

    “What if I mess up?”

    “Can I pull it off as well as Shep did?”

    I was just entering my “serious modeler” phase, so doing a good job on this was important.  Not getting something just so could be a deal-breaker.

    I remember the project for another reason, too–I went out and bought my first Squadron-Signal “In Action” title.

    As I progressed through the model, there were some things I didn’t do–he modified the engine using one from a Revell P-47.  I couldn’t find one, and even if I could, it was outside my modeling budget.  He added Waldron doo-dads, which again fell outside my finances.  He folded the wing.  I was going to try, but in the end I could not find enough clear reference photos of the areas in question, so I glued the wings in the spread configuration.  If memory serves, I also left the flaps retracted, although I did cut the ailerons, elevator, and rudder free so I could reposition them.

    I decided to do Tom Blackburn’s “Big Hog” because it featured the mid-1943 insignia with the red outlines.  Couldn’t find acceptable decals (and again, my wallet had a say in the matter), so I took a 3/0 brush and thinned Testor’s Flat Red enamel and “converted” the kit items.

    For the paint scheme, the only paint I had at my disposal were the Testors square bottles.  I tried mixing my own colors, and was marginally successful, but in hindsight I know the colors were way off.

    The most important thing about the model?  I worked through my issues and got it finished.  Was it perfect?  Far from it.  But I learned stuff–which should be the goal of every modeler on every project.

    How does that relate to the New Jersey?  The New Jersey is the largest ship model I’ve built where I incorporated a lot of aftermarket.  Now, I had used ship photoetch before–mostly railings–but nothing that required some of the folding and bending that these parts did.  And I faced some problems along the way.  How did I deal with them?  I used everything I had learned on every model I had built previously and applied those lesson learned.  Again, is this model perfect?  Nope.  None of my models are perfect.  But it is a handsome model of the ship named after the state in which I was born.

    Which is what I wanted from the beginning.

    ~~~~~     ~~~~~     ~~~~~     ~~~~~     ~~~~~

    I’ve got the Olympic Airways 737-400 on the base, it just needs placards.  The Revell 1/72 Gannett T.5 is close, too–the decals are on, it needs final clear coat, final assembly, and the base needs to be finished.  The Tamiya 1/48th M8 HMC is in the same boat.  Here in a few weeks (if I get off my fourth point of contact) I should have some pictures.

    The parts for the F-80s have been removed from the runners and are ready for clean-up.  Then, away we go…

    ~~~~~     ~~~~~     ~~~~~     ~~~~~     ~~~~~

    That’s all for now.  Thanks for reading.

    Until next time, be good to one another, and, as always (now more than ever), I bid you Peace.

  • To Quote the Rossington-Collins Band…

    Howdy, again!

    I’ve heard from some people about my latest post:

    “Why are you so against new kits”?

    “If we didn’t get new kits, we’d still be building wood models!”

    Don’t misunderstand me.  I love seeing new kits–from any manufacturer, of any subject, in any scale–whether it falls into my wheelhouse or not.  I hope they sell boatloads of them.  Why, if a new kit isn’t my cup of tea, do I care?

    Let’s use the new 1/48th scale Airfix Westland Sea King as an example.  It looks to be a neat kit, but being a 1/48th scale kit, it doesn’t fit in my rotary wing collection–I build helicopters in 1/72nd scale.  But my take is this–if the kit sells well, it puts money in the bank for Airfix.  With that money, they can later produce other kits.  At some point in time, they will produce something I will want to buy and build.  Its as simple as that.  It goes for any manufacturer–keep producing kits that sell well, so you can invest the money in even more new kits.  Sooner or later, there will be something I’m interested in.

    Another comment–“I don’t like to wrestle with ancient kits, I’d rather build a State-of-the-Art model!”

    What makes you think I find wrestling with a rough kit fun?  I know where this person is coming from–they’re “kit replacers”.  For example, they had several Otaki P-51’s in their stash when the Hasegawa kits came out in 1991.  So, they sold off their Otaki kits and replaced them with Hasegawa kits.  A few years later, they repeated the exercise when Tamiya’s P-51 came out in 1995.  The scenario was repeated again with the Meng kit, the Airfix kit, and, most recently, with the Eduard kit.  And look, I’m cool with that–your model, do what you want.

    I still have at least one each of the Hasegawa and Tamiya kits hanging around here, but that did not stop me from buying a couple of the Airfix kits and the “Chattanooga Choo-Choo” version of the Eduard kit.  And I’ll probably buy more, as the need arises.  But at some point, I’ll probably still drag out a Hasegawa or Tamiya kit and build it.  Why?  I have it in my possession–I don’t need to spend more money to get a decent Mustang model.  Same goes for the Grumman Wildcats and Focke-Wulf 190’s (a few Tamiya and Tri-Master/Dragon kits rest in the stash, but I have one or two of the Eduard kits, too) and Mitsubishi Zero (Hasegawa, sure, but I also have the new-ish Tamiya kits.  An Eduard version isn’t outside the realm of possibility, either…)…

    Quite honestly, a new kit doesn’t always make an older kit obsolete.  I give you the Trumpeter F-105’s in 1/72nd and 1/48th scale.  They may not fill a magazine rack, but they still have issues.  Frankly, I still find the 1/72nd Revell and Monogram kits (I divested myself of all my 1/48th scale Thuds) to be better in all aspects than the Trumpeter kits–raised panel lines and all.  And again, here we are–yo’ pays yo’ money, yo’ takes yo’ choice.  Some people will do anything to avoid a kit with raised panel lines, and will opt for Trumpeter, warts and all.  And again, that’s cool.  As I’ve said before, there are as many different ways to enjoy the hobby as there are people enjoying it…

    Whether a newer kit is “better” than the “ancient” kits of the same subject is a personal matter.  I say the same thing about modelers who brand people “rivet counters”.  Without the “rivet counters” (and I loathe that term, by the way), we wouldn’t be seeing these wonderful new kits.  Whether or not you personally buy and build them, or stick to the older kits is your choice.  Whatever you do, enjoy the ride.

    ~~~~~     ~~~~~     ~~~~~     ~~~~~     ~~~~~
    If you’ve paid attention, the 2023 IPMS/USA National Convention was held in San Marcos, Texas last week.  Two items of note:

    1.  Apparently, there has been a rash of Covid infections amongst the attendees.  While I hope everybody affected gets well soon (I am just over a very mild case, myself), I have some heartburn here.  We all saw the same thing play out after last year’s Convention–no sooner did people get home, reports of Covid infections started to hit the forii.  This year, as the photos from San Marcos started to roll in, I noticed that there was nary a mask in sight.  Didn’t we collectively learn anything from the Vegas show?  C’mon, guys and gals…

    2.  “Cell Phone Guy” has probably become a popular meme.  In case you missed it, a photo of a judge holding an armor model over his head while examining the underside using his cell phone light is making the rounds.  It has spawned bushels of debate.  So…

    I get it–the IPMS/USA Competition Handbook says clearly that judges will be allowed to pick up a model.  However, Cell Phone Guy had to do some fancy juggling to get the model in the position shown in the photo.  Plus, he was bare-handing the model–no gloves, just his naked meathooks.  I don’t think this meets the “greatest care” clause in the CH.  Apparently, this guy was also absent from the Judges’ Meeting.  Why he was allowed to judge is a mystery.  Why no other judges called him out is even more curious.

    In all the comments, it has been also brought to the world’s attention that several (I’ve seen as many as a dozen or more) models were damaged during judging.  One had a prop sheared off when a judge dropped his flashlight.  One figure fell off the base when the judge decided to see if the modeler painted the underside of something.  A few aircraft had landing gear or landing gear doors sheared off.

    If I were a modeler walking in to the display room on Saturday and found my model damaged with a Post-It note that only says, “Sorry”, I would be livid.

    All of this could be avoided by two changes:

    1.  Contest staff members do not touch the models.  At all.  Ever.
    2.  Judge the model as presented by the modeler, i.e., as it sits on the table.

    There is no reason at all for any judge at any model show to touch a model.  None whatsoever.  Never.  Ever.

    You can try to debate me on that all you want, but you will be wrong.

    “But we’re trying to find that one thing that separates 1st from 2nd…”

    Of course, this stems from the IPMS/USA “triage, 1-2-3” judging system.  The judges have to compare the models to each other, and if they can’t find anything on the readily visible areas of the model, they have to dig.  Upturning models, sticking those million candlepower TactiCool flashlights up exhausts and down inlets, using 20X magnifiers, measuring wingtips with a caliper–that’s why these stupid methods are employed.  Heaven forbid there ever be a tie in the IPMS squared circle…

    This is yet again being used as an argument for juried exhibition style shows.  But the IPMS Purity Posse won’t budge:

    “It says ‘Contest’, what part of that don’t you get?”  I dunno, I don’t understand the bloodlust some modelers have to get some trinket that proclaims that they are Number One on that day for something they do as a hobby.

    “We’ve always enjoyed this healthy competition!”  Healthy?  I’ve told this story before, but when a modeler threatens to beat six shades of s*** from a contest judge because “My model shoulda won!”, that’s “healthy”?

    I like the Shep Paine approach.  “Wanna compete? Go play tennis…”

    At our show–a juried exhibition–judges are reminded that if a model needs to be moved, we will find the modeler and let them move their own model.  We do not pick models up during judging.  We allow flashlights to illuminate the visible areas of the model–face it, most venue lighting is piss poor.  We do our best to judge the undersides and hidden areas, but the mantra is “if you can’t see it, leave it be”.  We do not allow magnifiers (reading glasses, yes, if the judge requires them), we don’t allow judges to measure anything–either with a measuring gauge of some sort or the old “finger ruler” or “pen gauge”.  Why?  Because we don’t see the need.

    All participants are reminded to be careful of camera straps, hanging jewelry, and hats.  We don’t use lanyards for ID badges.  All that dangly stuff can wreak havoc on a table full of models in a nanosecond.  We also remind judges not to hold lights or pointers (we prefer laser pointers or bamboo skewers) directly over a model–if they drop is, it has less chance of becoming a missile.

    I can tell you this–I’ve been judging model shows (of all types) since 1989.  In that time, I have never picked a model up, turned a model over, or damaged a model. Why?  There’s simply no need to do so.  If you don’t touch the model, the chances that you’ll break something are minimized.  There’s never a 100% guarantee, because stuff happens, but the  danger is minimized.

    ~~~~~     ~~~~~     ~~~~~     ~~~~~     ~~~~~
    As I said above, we’re getting over a few mild cases of Covid at the house.  My wife got the fever, headache, sort throat, and cough.  I got the mental fog and lack of energy.  I’m just now, two weeks later, starting to regain a little spring in my step.

    I shudder to think what it would have been like had we not boosted our immunity via vaccines…

    Covid is still with us, and a new variant is making the rounds.  Please be careful.  It might not be as deadly as it was in 2020, but it’ll still knock you in the dirt.  I don’t know about you, but I don’t like being sick.

    Thanks for reading.  Be good to one another, and, as always, I bid you Peace.

     

  • On Reunions, Friends, and Families (and an introduction, for those who arrived late to the party)

    My 40th high school reunion is coming up next year.

    That means two things—I get to hear (and tell) stories from the good old days, and I’m really getting old.

    I missed my other reunions—combinations of finances (usually lack thereof) and those “life things” got in the way.  This time, I am going to do my best to attend.  In the build-up, my nostalgia rush—bad enough of late when left on its own—went into overdrive, and the memories came pouring back.  What can I say?  I guess that’s why I like history, too—I like looking back and analyzing the past.

    So, here’s to old friends!

    Somebody once made a comment about what it means to be friends, and how you can’t truly be friends if you never interacted in person.  And they probably have a point, but let’s consider what Messrs. Merriam and Webster have to say.

    Friend: One attached to another by affection or esteem: “She’s my best friend.”

    So, the definition seems to indeed indicate that yes, friends should be closely associated.  But then there is this word listed as an alternate:

    Acquaintance, or “a person whom one knows but who is not a particularly close friend.”

    So, in the “according to Hoyle” sense, one can be a friend without being particularly close.

    One of our reunion organizers has made the case that we are family.  I have agreed and said we share a kinship, or fellowship.  So, let’s flip through the ol’ dictionary again…

    Family:  A group of people united by certain convictions or a common affiliation.

     Affiliate:  Associate as a member (of a group).

    Fellowship:  Community of interest, activity, feeling, or experience.

    And there we have it.  We share a fellowship.  We are associated as a member of our high school class, which is a community of interest.

    We are indeed a family.  But we didn’t need to go through all those research steps to figure that out.  I did the research because I enjoy it.  I’m weird.  I admit it.

    Of course, high school classmates aren’t the only extended families we have.  There are fraternities, sororities, military and police and fire units, trade groups, unions, civic organizations, Scouts, religious groups, and others.

    But a high school family is special to most of us because of when it happens in our lives.  We are close to each other at what can be an awkward time in our lives, that time of transition from child to teenager to young adult.  Piled on top of the usual adolescent angst is the societal expectations placed upon us—this is the time when we are supposed to figure out what we want to be when we grow up, and this time it is for real.  Or so we’re told. Like several others among my classmates, I am still trying to answer that age-old question.

    Add into the mix that wonderful time in every child’s life when we experience that first girlfriend-boyfriend relationship, and first kiss, and possibly a first intimate encounter, and boy, we had a lot on our plates.  We literally watched each other grow up and navigated adolescence together.  Some experienced broken hearts as they found, and then lost, what was thought to be true love—somehow they managed to pick up the pieces and move on.  Others found soul mates sitting in the desk in the next row, and have been married for many years.

    My extended family contains people from all walks of life: doctors and other medical professionals; lawyers, judges and other legal professionals; civil and military veterans; musicians, actors, and other entertainment professionals who worked to bring us the music, movies, and television shows that entertain us; service industry hosts, waiters, chefs, and salespeople who provide the food we eat, the stuff we buy, and manage the places we go when we want to get away; and any number of blue-collar “nine-to-five ham-and-eggers” who keep the world moving.  They are moms and dads, aunts and uncles, stepmoms and stepdads, and grandmoms and granddads.

    Tinker, tailor, soldier, sailor, rich man, poor man, beggar man, thief,

    Or what about a cowboy, policeman, jailer, engine driver, or a pirate chief?

    Or what about a ploughman or a keeper at the zoo,

    Or what about a circus man who lets the people through?

    Or the man who takes the pennies on the roundabouts and swings,

    Or the man who plays the organ or the other man who sings?

    Or what about the rabbit man with rabbits in his pockets

    And what about a rocket man who’s always making rockets?

    Oh it’s such a lot of things there are and such a lot to be

    That there’s always lots of cherries on my little cherry tree.                                                     

               — Now We Are Six, A.A. Milne

    Alas, my extended family has also mourned the loss of too many of our brothers and sisters.  Whether by disease, malfeasance, or (sadly) by their own hand, each loss was profoundly felt, and they are missed.

    We celebrate together, we mourn together, and we are, at times, dysfunctional.  We also have our fair share of crazy aunts and uncles.

    If that’s not family, I don’t know what is.  And I can’t wait to reconnect with my long lost family.

    *****     *****     *****

    For my new readers, I hope you take some time to have a look around.  Admittedly, the blog that I started in late 2010 as a cornucopia of various topics has fallen into an aviation research and scale modeling rut lately, but, as Samuel L. Jackson’s Jules Winnfield says to the guy robbing the diner in “Pulp Fiction”, “I’m tryin’ Ringo.  I’m tryin’ *real* hard…”

    If you like what you’ve read, there are several teachers to thank, starting with my dear departed mother—she was the Latin teacher at St. Thomas Aquinas High School for 30+ years between 1980 and 2012.  I inherited the liberal arts part of my personality from her.

    You can then add Ralph Bucci, Sam Rogers, Hope Reinfeld, and Gloria Warrick, my English teachers at Boyd H. Anderson High School.  They taught me everything I know about grammar, spelling, sentence structure, and proper creative and technical writing.  A hat tip also goes to the late Cecilia Carballo, my high school Spanish teacher, who saw that I had some aptitude in several other languages, most of which I am sadly no longer fluent.  She became a special mentor to me in school, and I was saddened to hear of her passing several years ago.

    I am also guided by my best critic, a college-level journalism professor and book author who also happens to be my wife.  While she doesn’t proof everything I write, I see her cringe when I break some obscure style rule.  When she does, I always imagine her as Miss Shields, the teacher in “A Christmas Story”:

    “You call this a paragraph?  Margins!  Margins!  ‘F’!

     My life’s work, down the drain. 

     A semicolon, you dolt!  A period!  ‘F’!

    Oh, I should weep if I have to read one more ‘F’!”

    Incidentally, she’s seen this piece, and she gave me an A++++++++++++.  So I have that going for me–which is nice.  I already had the Red Ryder air rifle…

    The research thing comes naturally to me—I was an inquisitive child—but I was pointed in the right direction by a good many enthusiasts, historians, and researchers whose skills far outstrip mine.  I got my technical aptitude from my dad, and my technical writing skills come as a by-product of 30+ years working on corporate jets as an avionics technician.  It’s also what I get paid to do these days.

    For my regulars, rest assured that I’ll continue to do regular updates on my normal irregular schedule.  Keep checking back…

    Thanks for reading, all of you.  As always, be good to one another and look after each other.  Until next time, I bid you Peace.

  • Some Insight

    Howdy, all!

    Last time out, I made a comment that my hobby of scale modeling led to my career/vocation paths.  To refresh your memory, they were (in no particular order) history, aviation, research, writing, and hanging out at the hobby shop.

    This is one of those “about me for myself” pieces I talked about last time, but I thought this one might be fun to share.

    When my father brought home a Revell 1/32 scale Wildcat model kit, I don’t think he realized the vast worlds he was opening up to me.

    I was an early reader.  I’ve been told that I could read before I was four years old.  As I got older, I loved to read.  I would read pretty much anything I could get my hands on.  When we started building that model, I was only concerned about the three-dimensional puzzle in the box.  However, one night, as I waited for Dad to come to the table for our modeling session, I started to read the side of the box.  Then I noticed that the instruction sheet contained more than just how to get the parts together—the front page had a capsule history of the airplane and its exploits during WWII.  Before I read it, I just thought the little pudgy airplane looked neat, but as I read about how it was the Navy’s front line fighter airplane in the early days of the war, and how it was flying against faster, more maneuverable enemy airplanes, my interest grew.  I looked for books in the school library about the war, and learned about the Battles of the Coral Sea, the Battle of Midway, Wake Island, and the Solomons.  Each new discovery led me to learn more.  I’d find one nugget that would lead me to three more.

    That’s research, kids.  I do a lot of research to this day—most of what I do uses what are known as secondary sources, so it is technically “Research Lite” (Less Filling!  Tastes Great!), although I did start to use primary sources when we were up to our necks in the Fire Support Base RIPCORD project a year or so ago.  What’s the difference?  Primary sources are from either official accounts from the units involved or from the guys who were actually there and participated.  SITREPS, diaries, After Action reports, first hand witnesses—those are all primary source materials.  Secondary sources are what you find on the shelves at the local Barnes and Noble—books written about events where the author may (or may not) have used primary sources.  (As “true” researchers know, you take all secondary sources with a grain of salt…)

    As I researched things, I’d write about them.  I wrote a lot of book reports, sure, but sometimes I’d write just for myself.  They were more a collection of notes, but every now and then I would collect those thoughts into an article for the local modeling club newsletter.  I laid off writing for a while, but with the COVID shutdown I’ve managed to get a little of my groove back, and have once again been pumping out modeling articles, and they’re now being published in the national organizations’ magazines.

    The more models I built, the more I wanted to build.  Unfortunately, like most things, it takes money to acquire and build models.  By the time I hit high school, I was at the age where I started to take my modeling more seriously.  A long-time modeler and author, Roscoe Creed, made mention of it when he “wondered where all the cracks went?” in one of his books  a book that I still refer to from time to time.

    I wanted to get rid of the seam lines.  I wanted to make it look like the pictures of the actual item.  As I learned of such things, I began using putty, decal setting solutions, these new-fangled super glues, and an airbrush.  Like the kits themselves, that stuff isn’t free.  More experience led me to discover the then-emerging world of the aftermarket—decals were the first thing I think most modelers encounter from the aftermarket, but later things like photoetched brass details, white metal and resin parts, vac-form kits, and other additions and conversions also became part of my repertoire.

    Of course, by doing so, I was honing my skills as a craftsman and, dare I say, artist.  I was learning how to solve problems.  I developed a sense of spatial relationships–how stuff goes together.  It goes without saying that I developed a good eye for small details.

    After I graduated from college, I started to visit the local shop more frequently.  I became a regular, and eventually I was asked if I wanted to do some fill-in work.  Before long, I was a regular part-time employee, and would remain so until I moved out of state.  During a layoff period about 10 years later, I got a job at the local hobby shop here.  I was only there for a few months, but when my next full-time employer picked up and left, I went to work for the shop again.

    What helped me get the job, I think, is that I was familiar with all the stuff one needed to complete a model.  I was also interested in going the extra mile when I built my models, and I knew what that took, so I could guide others when they came looking for hobby stuff.  Many see retail sales as a drag, but I saw it as a chance to get paid while playing with toys.  Hence, my days hanging out at the hobby shop…

    Now, how about the aviation thing…

    I have no idea what first got me hooked on airplanes.  Perhaps it was the Wildcat model.  More likely, it was reading of the exploits of the men who flew them in the war; the Wildcat model was merely the first step on the path.  For many years, I wasn’t interested in a book if (A) it was not related to aviation; or (B) the word “fiction” was not preceded by “non”.  I have to believe it was that—the more I read, the more I learned, and the more I wanted to be part of that world.  Interestingly, I never really wanted to be a pilot.  I can’t say why, I just never saw that as where I would be.  More on that shortly…

    In my day, teachers were almost always matronly ladies in their late 30’s to early 50’s.  However, my fourth grade teacher was an exception.  I guess she was in her late 20’s–I seem to recall she had only recently received her teaching credentials at that time.  She was a pretty, petite, energetic lady, blonde with a deep tan, and was always smiling.  Her name was Miss Gerstle (Nancy, if I recall correctly).  Her last name rhymes with the chocolate company’s name, and we often called her “Miss Nestlé-Gerstle”.  From the little bit I managed to gather on her by listening to her, she lived with a few roommates and they all worked on the weekends as flight attendants (we called them “stewardesses” back in the day) for Mackey Airlines, a small scheduled airline that flew from Ft. Lauderdale to the Bahamas, in order to earn a little extra money.

    I don’t know if she lined it up, but one day we took a field trip to Ft. Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport and got to walk around some airplanes.  I seem to recall a Mackey airplane, maybe a DC-6, and it sat next to an Eastern Airlines (IIRC) 727 which was powered up, and we could walk through it.  We spent a few hours walking around the airplanes, asking questions, and talking with the pilots and “stews”.  I loved it.

    An interesting tidbit—when I graduated from college and landed my first “adult” job, I worked from that same ramp, by that time occupied by the National Jets/Florida Aircraft Leasing facilities.  Small world, right?

    I don’t know what happened to Miss Gerstle, but wherever she is, I hope she is still smiling brightly and doing well.  She was a breath of fresh air for me…

    Later, while going through the steps to earn my Aviation merit badge, somehow I got what we call today a “Discovery Flight”.  We went to the airport bright and early, got the whole briefing, got to do the preflight on the airplane, then we went out for a flight over Ft. Lauderdale.  Sitting in the pilot seat, I couldn’t see over the glareshield! I enjoyed the flight, but decided that while it looked like fun, I wasn’t interested in being a pilot.

    As I started high school, I was shunted into what we would call a STEM program—back in those days, it didn’t have a name, but it put me on a track that emphasized math and science.  We only had to take two science and two math classes over four years, but I had four of each.  Somewhere along the line, it was intimated that I should become an aeronautical engineer, but as I related a long time ago, that didn’t work out so well.  But I never abandoned my interest, and eventually went back to school and earned two degrees from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University that said I had what it took to be a genuine wire stringer, smoke wrangler, electron herder, and spark chaser—I became an avionics technician.

    For most of my 30+ years chasing sparks, I worked in the world of corporate aviation—Learjets were my bread and butter, along with Hawkers and Citations.  From time to time, I also worked on General Aviation craft—the little Cessna and Piper “puddle jumpers” that you see at your local airport—and business class turboprops like the Beechcraft King Air and Cessna Conquest families.

    It was a demanding career, to be sure.  I worked in 100+ degree heat and 20 degree cold.  I worked in the sun, the rain, and sometimes even snow.  Many times, we worked from “can” to “can’t”—we did what we needed to do to keep ‘em flying.  It was hot, dirty, demanding work at times—especially at my last stop, where I was also the airframe electrician.  If something provided electrical power or had a wire or air data line leading to it, it was in my wheelhouse.

    I was always acutely aware that if I failed in my job, people could be injured or killed in a most loud and grotesque manner.  I accepted the challenge.  Not everybody is cut out for such a critical job, and as I began to supervise others, that would be my first question to them.  If they were cavalier or flip, I wouldn’t hire them.  If you wanted to work with me, you had to not only be aware of the consequences of your actions, you had to accept that any little deviation, a nanosecond of inattention, and you could possibly kill someone…

    Incidentally, I don’t really like to fly.  Maybe it has something to do with the fact that 95% of the flying I have done in my lifetime has been done because I *had* to in the line of duty.  Flying for me was almost a mandatory thing, and much like running on a treadmill—we made a lot of noise and expended a lot of effort to basically go nowhere–it quickly became work.

    For most folks, flying is a way to get from what you know to an unexplored exotic location on the other side of the globe, some sort of personal adventure, and flying is merely a gateway to that adventure.  It is quite different when you know how the sausage is made and have to do it every day.

    When the folks I was working for picked up stakes and left in 2016, I stayed put.  I decided that my days of crawling around on hard hangar floors or cramming myself into ever smaller spaces were behind me.  Since I had done a lot of the documentation that aircraft modifications required, I decided to use my writing skills and my avionics knowledge to start down the path to being a Technical Writer.  My mother, who taught Latin, always said that I had technical hands and a liberal arts brain, and this seemed to be the best of both worlds.

    And that’s how scale modeling made me who I am today.  A gift from my father awakened an interest in history, and also fed my reading and research habit.  What I learned through my reading led to an interest in aviation, helped along by a teacher and a merit badge.  The technical aspects of the hobby sharpened my problem solving skills, helped me develop good hand-eye coordination and spurred me to develop a keen eye for small details and a sense of craftsmanship and artistry.  The marriage of all this led to where I am right now.

    And it started with a model airplane.

    Thanks for reading.  Be good to one another, and look after each other.  As always, I Bid you Peace.

  • Christmas memories

    Howdy, all!

    As Christmas draws near, I get nostalgic.  I've waxed on about my occasional bouts of nostalgia, and they get especially strong in December.  My memories, in no particular order:

    Going to the hobby shop.  I've told you several times that Christmas was about the only time we'd go to a real live hobby shop back in the day, with the purpose of buying a grass mat for under the tree.  Sometimes, we would pick up a little something for the train layout, too–a new structure kit, or a piece of rolling stock in addition to rail joiners and other required parts.  As my brother and I got older, we would get each other's gifts there, too.  It wasn't much of a surprise–we'd each pick something, hand it over to the other, who would buy and wrap it.  We tried to be surprised on Christmas morning…

    Playing with the trains when we were little, and setting them up as we got older.  I still have both the Lionel O-Gauge set my parents bought in 1971 (our first Christmas in Florida) and the HO-gauge train set our Grandmother gave us in the late 1970's.  Perhaps I should find a place to put them up?  Of course, our Feline Justice Units will probably have something to say about that…

    Slot cars.  After we moved from the apartment we rented when we first moved to Florida into a house, Santa Claus gifted us a genuine AFX by Aurora race track (you know, the ones Jackie Stewart used to advertise), and a few years later my brother got a Tyco TCR (Total Control Racing) set for Christmas.  I can't be sure, but I think my brother still has the TCR set, and maybe the AFX set, too.

    Decorating the house.  We had what my Mom called "pixies" (some call them "elves") that were Elf on the Shelf before EOTS was even thought of.  We'd place them wherever they'd fit, and invariably forget one when we took the decorations down.  It wasn't uncommon for us to find one hanging out as late as Easter.

    Decorating the house, part 2.  As kids, we'd watch Dad hang the lights on the house.  When we got older, we got to do it.  After a while, my brother took over the duties, and he could teach Clark Griswold a thing or two about external illumination.

    Decorating the house, part 3.  Setting up the tree(s).  We had a large artificial tree and several smaller ones of various construction.  Mom made a ceramic tree in the early 1970's that we'd put in the Family Room, and my parents had this vacuum-formed translucent plastic tree with colored lights inside that randomly flashed.  It was definitely a product of the 1960's.  Eventually, I would be tapped to do the lights on the big tree, and we would all do icicle duty–until the family had a cat.  We stopped doing icicles for the most part when one year we noticed Samantha, the family cat, tearing through the living room with a shiny streamer coming from her hind quarters…

    Getting the annual visit from our Grandmother.  Both of my paternal grandparents died before I was born, and my maternal grandfather died when I was six.  My grandmother would come to visit every other year or so, but after she married her sister's husband (her sister passed away from cancer in the early 1970's), she and my uncle would come down and spend a few weeks with us.  I had to give up my bedroom, but as I got older I learned to appreciate the time I could spend with them.  (Before I went off to college, between mid-December and late February I might get the use of my bedroom for maybe two weeks–as soon as my grandmother and uncle left, my father's sister and her husband–the Marine I built the models for–would arrive.  Again, I treasured every moment with them, although a younger me wasn't happy sleeping on the couch for the better part of two months every year!) 

    Shopping.  Back in the day, it was slower paced and more relaxing.  During my college years, it was fun to be able to come home and cruise through the town to see what had changed.  It was always fun to listen to my grandmother joking about going to the mall to "push and shove" every year, too, especially knowing that she and my mother had finished their shopping.  It was usually an excuse to take us to lunch. 

    Food.  My mother made cookies by the dozen (Toll House, Quaker Oats' "Vanishing Oatmeal Cookies", and Spritz), and cranberry nut breads by the pound.  Along with those, there were meringue cookies, and what we called "Five Cup Salad" (one cup each pineapple chunks, mandarin orange slices, miniature marshmallows, shredded coconut, and sour cream–add a garnish of halved maraschino cherries, nuts are optional).  One year, my grandmother and uncle decided they wanted to make pecan pies, and we must have made a half dozen pies, all from different recipes, between 20 December and just after New Year's Day.

    Of course, once Mother Butler Pies became established in South Florida, they got our pie money and we moved on to other things.  It was truly a sad day when they went away…

    One of the strangest items we made one year was a coconut pie that was as simple as tossing a bunch of ingredients into a blender, whirling them up for a minute, then pouring the result into a greased pie pan and baking it.  Sounds strange, but the pie was rather tasty. 

    Eventually, once my mother bought a pizzelle iron, she added those to her repertoire, although she waged a constant campaign to get someone else to make them for her…

    And when I say cookies you might think, "What's so hard about that?  The recipes are on the bag/container!"  You obviously never met my mother.  She would routinely add nuts and raisins to both the chocolate chip AND oatmeal cookies (she would have added them to the Spritz, but then the dough wouldn't pass through the cookie press!), and anything else she thought they'd go with (hence the nuts in the Five Cup Salad).  She'd always use walnuts, too.  She'd also play around with spices–she'd add cinnamon, nutmeg, ground ginger, ground cloves, and ground mace to the cookie dough.  Those cinnamon-scented gewgaws you see in the stores these days had nothing on what our house smelled like during Christmas cookie season… 

    These days, as I've chronicled a few times, I'll bake the Big Three cookies, pizzelles, and cheesecakes.  On occasion, I'll add more different types of cookies to the mix, and I really need to pester my cousins again.  My Aunt Madeline made spectacular Italian treats, and I want recipes!  The shame of it was that I didn't get them when she was still alive and visiting us every year…  

    Christmas dinner was usually a ham.  Back before places like Honey Baked Ham arrived on the scene, Mom prepared it the old-fashioned way–pineapple slices, cherries, brown sugar, and Ginger Ale for the glaze, throw it into the oven, and let 'er rip.  We'd have turkey some years–a lot depended on what we did for Thanksgiving.  The sides–aside from stuffing and smashed potatoes, which tended to be turkey-only deals–were pretty much standard.  Baked macaroni and cheese, green beans almondine, cheesy broccoli, and some form of rolls were constants.  Dessert was pies, cookies, the aforementioned Five Cup Salad (a friend of the family called it "Three Prong Salad"), and whatever else Mom and Dad had received as gifts at work.  Of course, dinner was preceded by the snack trays–pepperoni, cheese, crackers, olives (green and ripe) and pickles (dill and sweet).  Yeah, it was a pretty big feast.  

    After I moved up here, Christmas is different, but I actually prefer the way my wife's family does it.  Biscuits, country ham, sausage patties, bacon, chips and dips, sausage pinwheels, pigs in blankets, all served buffet style, and everyone helps themselves when they're hungry.  After we arrive, my cookies get added to the feast, too (but not the cheesecakes–they're whisked off to undisclosed locations as soon as they're delivered–and if you believe that…).  It's a fun time, and everything is easy to prepare.  No fuss, no muss…

    Mom was a teacher, so she would always get food gifts.  Cookies and candy were common, although one year she got a rum cake–and the final glaze was more like a dunk in a vat of rum–you'd blow a 3.3 on the breathalyzer and get a DUI by just standing next to the tin!

    A couple of the people Dad worked for would give out Christmas baskets, and, working in the insurance industry, he'd also get booze–this was before the days of corporate rules against such behavior.  I still remember the year he got this huge bottle of Amaretto in a wrought iron tilting pouring stand.  He'd get several bottles each year, and by the time my brother and I were old enough and in school, a bottle would usually go back to school with each of us.  One year, I recall a bottle of Cutty Sark (my folks, when they did take a drink, preferred bourbon or rum) that came to Daytona Beach with me.  I later came home for a weekend in February, and when I got back to the apartment that Sunday evening, I noticed that the bottle was empty.  Dry.  My roommate gave me some cock and bull story about some masked man who knocked on the door, told them he smelled Scotch, and held them at gunpoint and wouldn't leave until he watched my roommate pour the bottle out on the ground.  (I knew better.  The masked man held them at shot-glass point and made them drink the stuff!  I know this because I knew my roomie wouldn't waste free Scotch, even the blended variety…)

    Christmas SWAG.  Oh, the stuff we would get.  From Life Savers Story Books (every year, you could bet on it!), to clothes, models, toys, and other stuff, we were fortunate.  Some years were leaner than others, but we never went without.  I recently came across a picture of our back yard, with two brand-new tents airing out.  One year, we received air rifles–but not Daisy's OfficialRedRyder200shotrepeatingactionrangemodelairriflewithacompassinthestockandthisthingthattellstime (my Mother- and Father-In-Law did, however, give all their young'uns each a shiny new Red Ryder a few years ago).  Nope, these were original, genuine pump action Crosman Model 760 pellet rifles!  Yes, sir, the Big Time!  Another year, we got Marksman air pistols that could shoot darts–you know the guns, the ones that look like .45 automatics and where you can literally watch the BB dribble out the muzzle.  We got pretty good at tuning them up.

    Spending time with friends.  We had a family friend who we knew from Scouting.  He and his father had bought a house on Lake Istokpoga after their wife/mother passed away, and we'd head there with them on weekends.  Often, we would go  go to each other's place for a while over the holidays, too.  When his father died,  Bob would come and visit us at the house.  One year, we (Bob, me, and my brother) took a ride out to the then-new Markham Park range.  We spent the afternoon punching holes in paper and trying to educate the pair of young Hispanic gentlemen in the lane next to us how to feed and care for their veritable armory's worth of small arms–they go so bad that the Range Master had to show them the gate.  The funny part of the day came later, when we were cleaning the firearms.  We had some PVC-framed furniture on the patio, and the webbing on the chair I was sitting in failed–voom, and I went from looking across the table to staring at the bottom of the table.  Bob thought that was hilarious, and as he was laughing his ass off, his chair followed suit.  Yeah, who's laughing now…

    When we were younger, we would visit a couple of other families we got to know through Scouting.  Both families were Jewish, and it was interesting to see how they celebrated their holidays.  One of the mothers was raised Catholic, so their family celebrated both.  We used to joke about whether it was a Christmas tree or a Hanukkah bush.  We lot touch with one of the families in the early 1980's, but the other family has kept touch with ours throughout the years. 
     
    Spending time with family.  Yeah, as kids that was a given.  But as we got older and moved away, it was great to come home again.  My immediate family now is my brother and sister-in-law, whom I have seen once (f
    or a few hours, tops) about six years ago.  My extended family (cousins, aunts, uncles, etc.), I haven't seen in a loooong time (my Grandmother dies in 1992, so it has been that long or longer!). 

    I haven't even seen my in-laws (who live an hour away) since last Christmas. 

    Once COVID-19 gets tamed, I'll have to change that.  Because without family and friends to celebrate with, Christmas just isn't Christmas, is it?

    Thanks for reading.  I want to wish each and every one of you a safe, happy, and healthy holiday season.  As the old-timers say, Season's Greetings to all of you!

    Be good to one another, and I bid you Peace.  

     

  • Game-Changing Moments

    Howdy, all…

    Set the Wayback Machine.  The date:  July, 1982.  The place:  Warrick Custom Hobbies, Ft. Lauderdale, Florida.

    The summer was winding down.  I had graduated high school in early June, and we went north for a few weeks to celebrate and visit family.  This was my one and only (so far) visit to the Air and Space Museum in Washington, and I literally could have spent a week there alone–as it was, we went twice because one of the other places were wanted to visit was closed.  I must have taken a hundred pictures with my new 110 Instamatic.  Yeah, I have no idea where any of those photos went.  To this day, I haven’t been able to find any of them…

    A week or so after we got home, I went to my recently-discovered hobby haven to look at the latest kits.  On my previous visit several months before, I had previously spied a few kits that I might want to bring home with me.  So, I grabbed the car keys and set out.

    I strolled around—I was only beginning to discover the depth of merchandise housed within the store.  There wasn’t anything in the stacks that grabbed me on that day (I know, right?), so I went to the magazine rack and started looking at the books.  The first to call to me was Sheperd Paine’s How to Build Dioramas.  Having pored over his diorama sheets from the Monogram kits for a few years, I decided that I probably should pick this up.  Back in the day, it was only about 9 dollars American, about the same as one of the Otaki kits of the day.  Next to it was Hints and Tips for Plastic Modelers.  I flipped through it, and there was quite a lot of information packed into the book.  Four bucks—yeah, I can swing it.  Then, as I turned the rack, a magazine cover caught my attention:

    I gave the magazine a quick once-over, verified that I had the extra two and a quarter (plus the 4% for Governor Bob Graham), and took my finds to the counter.  The guy at the counter—who had previously saved me from buying a Nichimo Avenger, noting it was nothing more than a re-box of the Marusan 1/50 scale kit, itself a poor copy of the Monogram kit—told me he liked the new magazine, and thought I would, too.  I settled my tab–so much for that $20 bill–and drove home.

    When I opened the magazine at the house, the following words greeted me:

     
    (Images:  Kalmbach Publishing)

    As I scanned the articles, I noticed the editorial in action.  Unlike the previous scale modeling magazines I had read in which the articles were text-driven with a few shots (mostly in black and white) of the completed models, the articles in this magazine actually took time to show me what the process looked like.  There were detail drawings.  Color references.  Notes about where to find the stuff they used to build the models.  Also unlike the other magazines, the history of the prototypes was mercifully brief—a paragraph or two, tops, but the meat of the article was the model and how the builder made it look that way.

    At the time, I was still an airplane geek—sure, I built a few tanks and ships, and more than a few cars—but I found myself reading and re-reading all the articles in the issue.  The scratchbuilt 1/76th scale Abrams captivated me—I thought the Abrams was a neat-looking vehicle, and the MERDC color schemes (which I found quite attractive) were just coming into vogue, and were certainly more interesting that straight green.  But the color scheme was only the tip of the iceberg—the way Steve Zaloga wrote the article was almost begging me to try to do the same.  All along the way, he made it sound like any modeler could do this, and he did it without treating the lesser skilled modelers like imbeciles or idiots.  The tone was advanced, but the undertones were inviting everybody to give it a try.

    The only article of a subject in my area of interest was Ernie Pazmany’s Fw-190 conversion, and I certainly learned a great deal from his model.  The same holds for Richard Stazak’s vacuum-form kit article—I had only seen one vac kit to date back then, and I wondered how you built it.  Now I knew.  And, true to Bob Hayden’s word, I managed to take something away from every article in the issue, even though I didn’t build armor, or Navy jets, or space ships, or boxed dioramas.

    I must have read and re-read that copy a dozen times before I decided that I needed to subscribe.  I had to scrounge for the twelve bucks (introductory rate, IIRC—the ad in the first “real” issue said $15) for eight issues, or two years, but to me, it was well worth the price.  Twelve dollars would have bought a nice model kit and the paint it needed, but I could buy them any time.  As I matured (ha!), I reasoned that it was like the parable about men, fishing, and eating.  I could have bought a model that kept me busy for a few days—and yeah, I would have learned something, I’m sure—or I could buy the magazine that would teach me how to build better models for years to come.  I would still subscribe to that other magazine, but it paled in comparison to FSM.

    Of the early issues, I remember most of the articles, simply because I read them over and over, extracting as much knowledge as I could from each page and every image.  To this day, I can still remember the sense of amazement I experienced when I read Boh Boksanski’s article on combining a vacuum formed and injection molded kit into a fabulous model of an airplane I had only read snippets about (the B-50D) that was painted with…dope?  Pactra Silvaire Aluminum dope?  Yep.  Dope.  Wow.

    Or Mike Dario’s conversion of a vacuum-formed F-89D to the earlier cannon-nosed F-89C, painted with what to me seemed to be a strange concoction of Floquil’s Crystal Cote, Dio-Sol, and Pactra Silver.  I would later rely on the recipe and alter it to come up with a home brewed acrylic metal finish paint many years later, a recipe I used until Vallejo’s Metal Colors made their debut.

    My all-time #1 modeling article of all time is still Bob Steinbrunn’s cockpit detailing article from the October (Fall) 1983 issue.  My original copy of that issue became so shop-worn and dog-eared that when I found a mint condition copy in the late 1990’s, I snapped it up.

    To give you an indication of how much I ate this stuff up, my first copy of Shep Paine’s book on dioramas that I bought with that Test Issue of FSM was likewise (as they say around here) “slap wore out” by 1984 or 1985…I finally bought a new copy, as well as the Second Edition, in 2000.

    I would go off to college shortly after I read that first “Test” issue, but I would look forward to reading the new issues when I would go home for the occasional weekend.  Since it was a quarterly back in the day, and since I wasn’t at the house but three or four times a semester, the wait wasn’t too horrible.  And once the new issue arrived, I was off to read it from cover to cover, several times.

    Through FSM, I learned of IPMS, and of local clubs.  After I graduated and came home, I would spend more time at the hobby shop—doubtless looking to buy all those kits I had read about in FSM.    I started to meet fellow modelers who said I should start going to the IPMS/Flight 19 meetings.  I went to one in late 1989, and as the story goes, was a bit gun shy to bring anything, but I did—I had a Nichimo Ki-43 Oscar in 1/48th scale that I built a few years earlier.  I had dipped my toes into weathering on that one—I used a Tamiya silver marker to check seams, and added a few patches here and there for good measure.  I would swab the paint on with the paint marker, and then wipe off the excess with toilet tissue.  When I applied my finish colors (Polly-S in those days), I let them dry for a few minutes, then used a tight roll of masking tape to pick off spots of color to reveal the silver underneath.  I thought it was merely okay, but by the number of questions I got from the other guys you would have thought I had invented beer.

    As I looked at the other models on display, I was impressed by the scope and quality of the work and it seemed like everybody was there to help each other.  That was my kind of group, and I was a member from that night in 1989 until I moved away in 2001.  For some odd reason, I got roped into serving as the club President from around 1993 until we moved.

    A funny story about that first meeting—I knew the guys from the shop, and as I was socializing and meeting the rest of the gang, I bumped into an old high school friend.  I hadn’t seen him in seven years, and had no idea he built models.  He had, like me, been building since he was a kid.  Without clubs, that’s pretty much what model building was in the day…a lone wolf hobby.

    Between discovering FSM (and the Kalmbach books) and joining IPMS/Flight 19, I was on the way to being a better model builder.  What I learned back then has become the foundation of the skills I use to this day.  Further, and I’ve already discussed it, I met people who are friends to this day.  For what can be a solitary pastime, that speaks volumes.

    *     *     *     *     *     *

    One of the hobby manufacturers who was noted as introducing a line of paints matched to Federal Standards in Mr. Hayden’s editorial was none other than Testors, through their Model Master line.  In fact, the ad inside the cover of the next issue was for Model Master products.  In the nearly 40 years since then, the Model Master line was expanded to include the Metalizer products (bought from the originator), new colors, acrylic colors, brushes, blades, knives, tools, clear finishes, and a whole raft of modeling “stuff”.

    Republic Powdered Metal (now RPM International) had acquired Testors a few years previous, along with Floquil/Polly-S, and were in the process of acquiring Pactra.  They also owed or would eventually own Zinser, Bondo, and Rust-Oleum.

    Testors got into the airbrush business in 1991 when they first marketed the Aztek airbrush as the “Model Master Airbrush”.  I bought one, sight unseen, as soon as Warrick Hobbies could get them in stock, and I used it until the early 2000s.  Aztek was a UK-based manufacturer of airbrushes and within a year of Testors marketing the Aztek, RPM (Testors parent company since the early 1980s) would buy Aztek and expand the line.

    That 40-year run is coming to an end.

    RPM has announced that all Pactra, Floquil, and Model Master Products have been discontinued.  Apparently, they are contracting the line back to where it was in 1978—square bottle enamels, their original tube and liquid cements and putties, and the inexpensive brushes.  It seems like several big steps backward, but apparently RPM had to answer to the shareholders, so they have moved the focus of their efforts to the craft scene.

    There has been a lot of wailing and gnashing of teeth over this decision, but as I wrote on one of the online forums, there is nothing Testors made or marketed that you cannot obtain replacements for elsewhere.  The bite comes when you will have to order it, since the local stores might not carry it.

    *     *     *     *     *     *
    In related news, Revell has announced they will be marketing their paints and finishing materials in the U.S., including enamels, acrylics, and spray lacquers.  They should be hitting the stores before the end of the year.

    *     *     *     *     *     *
    I have a few model-related research projects underway.  One is fairly straightforward and will probably become an article on the F-4J(UK), the surplus U.S. Navy Phantoms purchased for the Royal Air Force and put into service by No. 74(F) Squadron in 1984.

    The second project is more complicated.  From the time I first saw one of the photographs of a 340th Bombardment Group B-25 buried under ash after the 1944 eruption of Mount Vesuvius, I wanted to recreate it in miniature.  The sharper ones out there will see the problem right away: the lack of good, comprehensive documentation of the Twelfth and Fifteenth Air Forces in Italy.  It has been a bit of a hidden treasure hunt so far.  The books that are out in the world are either rather dated (Kenneth Rust’s books date back to 1975), limited in scope, or are nothing more than picture books.  The websites, too, are disjointed and scattered.  I even sent one of the webmasters an e-mail suggesting that the various sites join forces, like the old Web Rings.

    We’ll see how that pans out…

    That’s about all for now.  Thanks for reading!

    Stay safe and healthy!

    Be good to one another, and, as always, I bid you Peace.

     

  • 1984

    Greetings!

    Now, before you get all excited and start running about, I'm not referring to George Orwell's vision.  Rather, I'm looking back 30 years and remembering some of the things that made 1984 a sort of comeback year for me…

    For starters, I found myself unemployed and not in school for the first time in my life on New Year's Day in 1984.  I had taken my leave from the Harvard of the Sky–engineering physics and I didn't get along, especially when physics had backup on the beat-down in the form of Calculus 3.  Between those two courses, I had a dismal GPA for the Fall 1983 semester and decided that engineering as a career for me wasn't in the cards.  I went down to the AFROTC Detachment (I had an AFROTC Scholarship at the time) and spoke a bit with my advisor.  He and I talked for about an hour, and both came to the conclusion that all the summer terms in the world weren't going to suddenly make me a mathematical genius.  My math skills were pretty good, but not good enough.  So, I didn't register for spring semester and came home.

    Funny how things can happen–I went looking for a job on 2 January 1984 and was hired almost immediately as a parts driver for a local HVAC parts house.  After a week or so of that, one of their systems engineers found out that I wasn't just doing this because I didn't know any better, and I would sometimes be called in to watch how home and industrial HVAC systems are engineered–so many square feet of space called for so many tons of capacity, so many BTUs were required to heat X amount of space, etc.  It was all pretty neat stuff, and I appreciated all they were doing for me.  Between parts runs, I learned quite a bit–and was tempted to pursue a career in that.  But aviation, once it wiggles down into your blood, tends to have a strong pull…

    I worked there all summer.  One day I got a phone call from one of my advisors at Embry-Riddle, wanting to know what I was doing and what my plans were.  At the time, I was still trying to just chill out a bit and leave the stress and, well, disappointment of engineering behind me (and earn some coin, but that should be obvious).  I let them know what I was up to, and that I had several things banging around in my head, and that I'd let them know when the time came.  That time came in June–I took a Friday off work and drove back to Daytona Beach.  I met with some folks, and found out how easy it would be for me to come back–I never formally withdrew from the school, so I was still carried on their rolls.  I first visited my AFROTC friends.  We spent a few hours speaking with some of the other Department Chairmen, and after speaking with the man heading up the Avionics program, my mind was made up.  I would return in August.

    With my future now decided, I went back to work.  I don't say this to be self-congratulatory, but I was the hardest working parts driver/stock man/all around helper that location had.  I know this because the higher-ups told me so.  They were especially let down when I gave them my notice, but when I told them that my two choices were to learn–unofficially–from them, or go back to school and learn aviation electronics, I think it got them to understand.  I was told that if I needed summer work, they would be there.  So, I ended my employment with them in mid-August.

    Remember that 1984 was an Olympic Games year, too–back when Winter and Summer games were held in the same year, no less.  The Winter games were held in Sarajevo, Yugoslavia.  I paid little attention to them, because work and the time difference made keeping track of the events a bit difficult.  What saddens me know is to see what has become of the venues built for the Games–most of them are crumbling, the result of the unrest, fighting, and other issues between the ethnic factions that finally led to the break-up of Yugoslavia into its constituent Republics.  Sad…

    The Summer games, on the other hand, were different–they were held in Los Angeles in 1984.  The overshadowing news was that the Soviet Union, acting in response to the West's boycott of the 1908 Games, had decided to sit 1984 out.  They, along with the majority of Eastern Bloc countries, sat at home while the Games went on.  The reason I remember it so well was than coverage of most events came on right as I was getting back to the house after work, so I could pay attention to all of them.  It was the last Olympic Summer games that I really paid close attention to.  Since then, various reasons have kept me from watching…

    On the modeling front, I actually started to keep a log of kits I completed.  The first for 1984 was the ESCI 1/48 scale Fieseler Storch.  It was an easy build until I got to the part about sticking the wings to the greenhouse.  I used 5-minute epoxy, and got a fairly decent result–I amazed myself that I didn't wind up with epoxy all over everything! 

    I next turned my attention to a Tamiya 1/48 Brewster Buffalo.  It was probably the quickest "serious" model I had built to that point–everything just clicked together.  I was tempted by the early Navy scheme, but I settled on the Dutch scheme, because my metal finish techniques were sorely lacking and I didn't want to ruin the model.  My impressions of Tamiya airplane kits would be reinforced soon…

    Next on the hit parade was the Nichimo 1/48 scale Ki-43 Oscar.  If you read opinions on this kit, they're all almost universally positive.  And for good reason–the kit packs a lot of detail into a small airplane, the fit is superlative, and this all in a kit dating from the late 1970's.  I tried some weathering techniques on this one–I used a silver Tamiya paint marker to prime seams back then, and I would paint the seams and rub the excess paint off with a paper towel.  I reconed that if I added blotches of silver here and there, I could "chip" the Polly S paints I was using for the camouflage.  It worked out fairly well, I think, and I kept trying to expand my horizons from that model on to the next, and the next…

    This was also the summer when I attempted to build Monogram's 1/48 scale F-84F.  For a reason or reasons lost to history, I cannot recall why I never finished the model.  All I have from that model is the dolly and a few bits and pieces.  After that, I wound up building Monogram's 1/48 scale F-100D in Arkansas ANG colors.  I did that because, as I said before, my metal finishes at the time looked like dog poop…

    Last for the summer, I decided to refinish a Monogram 1/48 scale B-17G that I had built in the late 1970's, maybe 1979.  I had airbrushed it, but it was one of my first airbrushed models and looked the part.  There were visible seams and some other issues with the model, so I took it down from the shelf and started working on the bad areas.  Within a week, it was ready for paint again.  I had used a Microscale sheet to finish the F-100 and was suitably impressed–first time using them, you know.  So, I went in search of a sheet for the B-17.  I found one I liked (unit and aircraft are again lost to history–I didn't log how they were finished, just that I finished them) and set to work.  I used a combination of Polly S and Tamiya acrylics for the finish, and this one was the best, to that point, airbrushed finish I had ever laid down.  The model went back on the shelf, an old girl in a new dress.

    (That Tamiya Buffalo would also get a re-work in the early 1990's–which is how it still resides, hidden away in a box upstairs…)

    I returned to good old Humpty Diddle in August.  I had to register for classes.  I had remembered to change my major and catalog at the Registrar's office when I was there in June, so half my battle had been won.  Then I get to the registration lines.  I think it is a universal college policy that beginning of the semester registration is meant to be as huge a pain in the ass as possible to all involved.  See, during my engineering days, I had to re-take a few courses.  As far as the Aeronautical Studies/Aeronautics courses were concerned, I was through with all of my math classes by virture of my Calculus I and Calculus II courses.  During those engineering semesters, I had managed to complete all but maybe one or two Humanities/History courses, too.  I was only looking to register for the required Physics and first semester Aero Studies courses.  I couldn't get into any of the Electronics courses since all the sections were filled, so I settled for what I could get.  After I got through that, I had to go play housing lottery.  After about two hours of back-and-forth, I managed to get into Residence Hall 2, aka Dorm 2, aka "The Embry-Riddle Holiday Inn".  I had lived here through my engineering days, so I know what to expect.  I met the roommates and suitemates (two rooms to a suite, three people to a room), all of whom were Aero Science guys (they were all working towards pilot certificates)–except one.  He was in engineering.  He was a quiet kid, and engineering wasn't any kinder to him than it was me.  I kinda felt sorry for the kid…after all, I'm now the older, wiser me…

    Classes were literally a breeze.  By the end of that semester, I would have all my prerequisite courses behind me and the next three and a half years would be solid electronics and avionics courses, along with the Aero Studies courses.  See, there was no single avionics major, you took a major and added avionics.  You could take an Aviation Maintenance major and avionics (you wound up with an Airfram and Powerplant certificate and the avionics degree) or Aeronautical Studies with avionics, which is how I went.  Basically, you took all the ground school courses for flight, but no flight courses.  So, I learned basic aerial navigation and meteorology to go along with my electron theory.  Over the years, the school changed how they treated avionics until finally phasing it out a few years ago in favor of an Electronic Engineering degree program…

    More modeling?  You bet–I had spare time, so I decided to build a Tamiya 1/48 A6M2.  This was another fall together kit, it was done in a week.  Yep, a week.  Needing something else to occupy my time, and figuring that the ESCI Storch was a cool kit, so I decided to build ESCI's 1/48 scale Hs-123.  Now that one was a challenge–first serious biplane, first masked camouflage scheme with Polly S, and the kit was rife with minor warpage–typical of ESCI's kits of that era.  Well, I managed to beat it into submission, and painted it up as a Spanish Civil War machine.  I may still have it in a box here somewhere, too, and I was sure to pick up the AMTech "enhanced" reissue of the kit a few years ago.  After all, who else is likely to do an Hs-123 in 1/48 scale?

    The best part of the year?  Going back to school.  I never had any intention of *not* going back to school–my father wouldn't abide it.  He was always pushing for education-I guess it stems from the fact that he had a GED when he started working, and worked hard in correspondence classes to earn a degree.  Dad was a self made man, and he did so through hard work and trying to better himself.  I was thinking about these "good old days", and once again realized what my parents did to make sure my brother and I were ready to face the cold, cruel world–the sacrifices they made to put us both through post-secondary education, the hard work they put in to keep a roof over our heads, food on the table, and lights on in the house.  So, by going back to school–even though I wasn't overtly pushed–I was doing as they wanted. 

    On reflection, maybe I should have worked for a year after high school, then gone to college.  Maybe I should have examined engineering closer and realized that it was a bit beyond my abilities.  You can reach for the brass ring, and if you grab it on the first try, great.  I seem to reach for the ring, get a light grip on it, and then lose that slight grasp.  Rather than giving up, I'll take a breather and try again.  I usually grab that sucker for all I'm worth on the second go around, and once I have it in my grasp I never let go–I seem to cherish it more when I do that.  It has worked for me my entire life…

    Oh, yeah.  The Apple Macintosh also goes on sale in 1984, Constatin Chernenko succeeds Yuri Andropov as General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, Pierre Trudeau steps down as the Canadian Prime Minister, and Marvin Gaye's father shoots and kills the singer. 

    Musically, Van Halen released their "1984" album, giving us "Panama", "Hot For Teacher", "I'll Wait", and "Jump".  Duran Duran were touring, suppoting "Seven and the Ragged Tiger", which gave us "The Reflex", "Union of the Snake", and "New Moon on Monday".  Meanwhile, Prince and the Revolution topped the Billboard Top 100 with "When Doves Cry".  What was #100?  "Yah Mo Be There", by James Ingram and Michael McDonald…

    (I can't poke too much fun–my beloved Jethro Tull released "Under Wraps".  Not one of their best albums ever.  By far.  Even Tull's then-bassist Dave Pegg said the songs cut from 1983's "Broadsword and the Beast" would have made a better album.  Trivia time–it was the only Tull album with no live drummer–drum machines were used instead.  Doane Perry would be hired shortly after this album and was their full-time drummer until 2011.  He still occasionally tours with them.)

    The big news items in the United States for 1984, though, were generated by President Ronald Reagan.  In August, during a sound check for a radio broadcast, he says "My fellow Americans, I'm pleased to tell you today that I've signed legislation that will outlaw Russia forever.  We begin bombing in five minutes".  He alos is re-elected (with George H. W. Bush as his Vice President) in a landslide victory in November, beating Democrats Walter Mondale and Geraldine Ferraro, carrying 49 states and 59% of the popular vote.

     Oh, and as an aside:  When you get an ROTC scholarship, you are basically sworn in as enlisted personnel.  Because I vacated my AFROTC scholarship, a Review Board convened.  It was decided that I wasn't vacating the scholarship for any reason other than it would be a waste of money to have me keep banging my head against a wall as an egineering student.  For my troubles, I received a package from the United States Air Force sometime in April.  Now, some fellow scholarship recipients were receiving orders to attend basic training at Lackland AFB, Texas.  I was slightly concerend until I opened the envelope.  I was granted an Honorable Discharge from the United States Air Force.  As an Airman Basic.  No orders.  One of my roommates at the time wasn't as lucky–his orders appeared a week after he got home in December, 1983.  He showed the Air Force, though–he went down and joined the Army before the Air Force caught up with him.  Many who knew this guy swore he joined the army only so he could get a good, up close look at an M1 Abrams tank so he could build a superdetailed model of one…

    I hope this finds all of you in good health.  Thanks for reading, and be good to one another.  I bid you Peace.