SPA Modeler

Thanks.
Beside the Ta 183 I assembled the cockpit into the fuselage which has a bad fitting. That will need some rework.

I like looking up photographs of these unique planes that you choose.

Did you resolve the lower fuselage of your Huckebein? I think that is one beautiful camo on top. Interesting specifications, too!

I got a lot of old kits on Ebay which I have had got as a kid and which were lost, Bruce. So maybe this is sometimes the reason for that chose?
I took RLM 78 for lower side and I am happy with that. It is more blue than RLM 76.

speedgraflex wrote:Good choice of lower fuselage color!

I was wondering about the fit on the Revell Eurofighter. I have a question. Is it always best to fit the halves from front to back?

I was thinking about the panel lines, mainly? is that what is your guide for lining up the two halves of the fuselage?

I remember looking at boxes of Tamiya aircraft and armor kits at the hobby store. My father would have to drive me on Saturday nights because the closest store was far away. I remember that experience with crystal clear vision. I still see the lights in the store hitting those boxes and wanting to buy every one of them.

Since I was held to either an allowance or what I was making doing odd jobs, I could not afford these Japanese wonders. I still remember them, though. I also was really excited to go to the hobby store as it was an exotic destination. I had few friends who were interested in models so it was a strange and wonderful time almost entirely to myself.

The Matchbox kits also featured some great box art. I remember wanting the trainer jet, the 'Buckeye,' pretty badly. I looked up the kit online a moment ago. Some beautiful models are being built from that kit. I also looked up Pavla resin cockpits and vacuum forms. Have you used these?

I also looked up a 1/72 Fujimi Tomcat, the 'Jolly Roger,' which looks quite good.

What was also quite incredible about childhood and going to the hobby store was visiting a steam boat that was moored up on the river. A huge boat. Over the years it was falling apart and stripped to a skeleton. The last I saw of it was the hull floating against the dock, ready for the scrappers to take away.

Fitting

 

Is that a question regarding the design of the kit or regarding the way I glued it together? If it is no. 1, I think most of the kits are designed that way because of tooling. The way it is done is always the cheapest and most feasible way of tool design. Next reason is packaging of the sprues in a box.

 


Memories
When I was young you were able to get Revell and Matchbox kits almost everywhere. Newspaper shops had them, also a shop like Walgreens hat all those Matchbox kits. And sometimes my Grandpa drove me to a real Model Shop. And they had them all: Airfix, Fujimi, Hasegawa, Tamiya, Esci, …. Those kits from Japan were very expensive and unreachable for me. So I went with Airfix, Heller. And during summer vacation we went always to France. And then I got my first Heller Air France Constellation. Built in 1988, when I was 11, it was the most wonderful kit I could imagine. 30 years later it lays destroyed in a box…can you read my tears dropping down?

 

I built my first Matchbox at the age of 5. And we played with those planes. This was so cool. Today I build them usually straight off the box. Sometimes I paint them as I used to do as a child with Humbrol enamels applied by brush. Sometimes I add some scratch parts. But I never buy any resin or vacu-parts for them. I think those kits have their own character, they are good in shape, and I want to proof, that they still look good as they are. Never change a classic.



F-14 JR

I still have one in stock. And I really want to build it. But not now. I have 25 kits on my list for 2017, only 12 finished so far…

 

Memory 2

And your memory of the boat… I have something similar. Close to a shop where Grandma and Grandpa often went to, was a Noratlas modified to a coffee shop. When I attended them, we always had to go there. It is still there, but coffee shop is gone, and nature is taking back its room….there are the tears again.

 

Bruce, thanks for sharing your memories!

Rilke in my modeling thread! This is surreal and amazing too!
Thanks Bruce!

I always think not to forget were I have been coming from. As Freddie said, those were the days of our lives.
I live often in the past, but I want to keep my memories for good. Good and bad ones!

In your words the result sounds better than my overview looks.