SPA Modeler

Wow! Just wow!

John, you truly are a master of this hobby!

I second that motion! Stunning wood grain. Everything else looks so realistic I feel like I could sit down in there and fire this baby up! It's pretty humorous that they didn't pad the headrest. That would hurt if one hits their head during violent maneuvers!

Brother John, I love what you’ve done with the cockpit, and the horizontal stab and elevators. You’re a continual reminder that no matter how good we are, we can keep on getting better and better and better if we keep building and painting. Your game was already stellar, and you’re still leveling-up! Inspiring for sure. Great work!

Thanks guys! Not a master... just trying to improve! One of the things I identified as an area of needed improvement was weathering of the cockpit. I've received some good feedback on past builds about my cockpits looking a little too pristine. So I purposefully added more cockpit weathering on this one. Some of it obvious in terms of chipping and dirty washes but some not-so-obvious things too like subtle dry-brushing around the black boxes and gun sight assembly. Some wood-colored chipping on the edges of the instrument panel.

And of course there are always areas that didn't turn out so well. The red half of that one instrument dial still bugs me. It should be white dials on a red background but due to the limitations of black print on clear acetate, that instrument shows up as red dials on a black background. I would've replaced it with a decal but I perceived the resolution of the kit decal to be noticeably less detailed than the acetate printing so the annoying detail remains.

Your comments and encouragement are very inspiring so thank you!

I will NEVER criticize you or anybody else for sweating a detail like the red on the IP. I agonize over such things. And I’ll never minimize your feelings about it with a flippant “Nah, the rest of the build is great, that’s not even a fraction of a percentage of it!” NO. Because again, I’ve been known to lose sleep over things like that. I’m not joking. It infuriates my wife and makes her worry about me. It’s just how people like you and me are. And acceptance of such attention to detail and perfectionism is key in self-actualiztion. So I’m not saying anything more about that except that I TOTALLY GET IT.

As to the cockpit. Your cockpit work on other models is what inspired me to do a better job with mine, and I can’t speak to whether your past cockpit work was “too pristine” or not, because honestly, that’s so subjective. That said, you took the constructive feedback of other to heart and set yourself a goal to get out of your comfort zone and do a more weathered cockpit. And buddy, I applaud the effort, I applaud the risk, and in my subjective opinion you did a beautifully weathered cockpit in this build. BRAVO.

If you're not a master then, I don't know what you are. John, you are truly a master in everyone's eyes here. We all marvel at your work, your methods, & your builds. It is an honor to watch them all come together - warts and all.

As Kenny mentioned, don't sweat the tiny details. Most of the time it won't be seen once the canopy is closed up.

Your years of building kits, learning the methods and achieving the best weathering techniques you know best makes it a master of your craft. I enjoy watching your builds tremendously and try to learn your methods every time.

to what blacksheep and Kenny said! I can't think of a better way to show my appreciation to you. You showing us your builds but most importantly showing us your techniques and helping us with are builds.

Thanks guys! I appreciate the kind words and especially the empathy of those affected with a similar obsession. It's what drives our work forward but can also manifest itself as a yapping voice that won't shut up when things don't go well. I just want my work to be moving forward and not stuck in a pre-set routine. I'd like to be open-minded enough to try new techniques and materials as they become available. I took an art class in college and I remember a particular exercise that we did. The instructor asked us to pick an interesting face from a magazine to sketch. And then she told us to sketch it with the photo upside down. She said that we often draw a face as we know it in our brains without really looking at the subject we are trying to capture. That makes so much sense to me now and I try to shed my preconceptions and biases when it comes to these WW2 subjects and simply register what the photos/references are showing.