SPA Modeler

If that’s an A6M2, it’s not a shrinkdown of their 1/48 kit. Their 1/48 A6M2 Model 21 version dates back to the 70s, and has a mix of raised and recessed details. It’s a fine kit for its day, but not what you see there. They have more recently issued new tool versions of the A6M3 Model 22 and A6M5 in 1/48 that are not to be confused with their older 1980 or so vintage A6M3 Model 32 and A6M5c kits.

That new kit does look sweet Bruce! Just build it as it comes from the box, don’t over think it, and relax!

I thought Tamiya retooled all of their zeros. I've built the Zeke in 1/72 and two A6M3s that was new tooled kits. Either way Tamiya did a excellent job with this kit.

No they did not retool any of them. They just came out with new tool different versions that they had not previously released in 1/48.

Here is their 1/48 Zero family, minus the Rufe float Zero

https://www.scalemates.com/search.php?q ... 2Tamiya%22

I really hope that you back on track with some enjoyable builds, Bruce. I do think that completing a project would help reduce the "clutter"' that may be floating around in your head due to so many ongoing projects.

This was released as a new tool in 2012. There are two separate boxings, however. Box 1 is the A6M5 and box 2 is the A6M2b. I would assume that this one could be 1:48 scaled to 1:72, but I do not know the specifics. Anyway, at present I am running cool towards model building projects but I sincerely hope to continue at a later date.



8 June 1959: At Edwards Air Force Base, California, North American Aviation’s Chief Engineering Test Pilot, A. Scott Crossfield, made the first flight of the X-15A hypersonic research rocketplane.

I apologize for posting so late int this game; I've had such a hard time getting time to read these boards lately; I just finally found this. And I finally find this when you start running cool toward model building but that's cool. I myself have had incredible difficulty getting to the bench myself; despite the mandatory stay-at-home orders these past few months. I have finally managed to finish a couple models, but now I need time to get the pics taken and edited so I can post them.

So far, this is all looking good and I'm looking forward to seeing more when you finally find the time and mojo to get back to it. I can wait. Remember, it's a hobby and if it doesn't feel like one anymore, time to walk away for a bit as you've done.

Duke! So good to hear from you. I do hope you and yours are doing alright. I sincerely do. Part of my current miasma is from doing some growing in other areas which are demanding of time, and this is mainly in order to survive the lockdown with consciousness and bank account intact. I have not given in, instead I was heartened by reading the novel "The Road" by Cormac again on Saturday and feeling the reality of "keeping the fire" alive. No one I know really thinks this is just a hobby do they? Really and truly? Perhaps I'm going about this all wrong, but I look at model making as a pleasant form of work which incorporates carving and whittling as well as gluing and clamping which are all basically carpentry skills aren't they?

Nothing stamps out the feeling of the FW190 A series for me. Just as nothing stamps out the P-51D. I just need to bank the embers to the side. I also inventoried and found a couple of A-8s which well hmmmm maybe could be made into something interesting...



Be well, buddy.

Thank you Bruce. I'm hanging in there as best I can. I have been working on the Knights of Columbus Hall where we have Hobby Days this past couple weeks. Man, the weeds in the parking lot were waist high! Anyway, we are almost done with that and I'll make a small amount of money from it. Other than that, I've been home almost exclusively. I am trying to see about a Hobby Day in July since June has come and there seems to be no time to arrange one. Masks will be available for those who come without one. I know you probably won't be able to come but you are welcome anytime.

I've been trying to keep the fire alive myself, but the wife and life are keeping me from the Hobby Room far more than I'd like. I am thrilled that I did finish something; hopefully I'll be able to post pics soon. meanwhile, I'll continue to follow all your threads; they are so much fun to read since they are so rich with information and beautiful photography; not to mention the camaraderie of everyone who contributes. Even if you don't post any progress, your Threads are still thrilling to follow.

Until the next post.....

One of my favorite verses in literature is from The Road...

Once there were brook trout in the streams in the mountains. You could see them standing in the amber current where the white edges of their fins wimpled softly in the flow. They smelled of moss in your hand. Polished and muscular and torsional. On their backs were vermiculate patterns that were maps of the world in its becoming. Maps and mazes. Of a thing which could not be put back. Not be made right again. In the deep glens where they lived all things were older than man and they hummed of mystery.

—that makes me think of driving to the desert in search of the trout streams where Chuck Yeager fished when he wasn't chasing demons. I will add a quote from Cormac's Suttree which made it into the adaptation I directed and was subsequently recorded as a radio play; not to toot my own horn.

"The courthouse clock tolled two. He raised his face. There you can see the illumined dial suspended above the town with not even a shadow to mark the tower. A Cheshire clock hung in the void like a strange hieroglyphic moon. Suttree palmed the water from his face. The smoky yellow windowlight in the houseboat of Abednego Jones went dark. Below he could make out the shape of his own place where he must go. High over the downriver land lightning quaked soundlessly and ceased. Far clouds rimlit. A brimstone light. Are there dragons in the wings of the world? The rain was falling harder, falling past him toward the river. Steep rain leaning in the lamplight, across the clock’s face. Hard weather, says the old man. So may it be. Wrap me in the withers of the earth, I will be hard and hard. My face will turn rain like the stones."

There are dragons around us and when they strike, they strike hard.