SPA Modeler

That's really looking quite the part Bruce. I really like the aged/ worn look of this pit so far. I continue to learn from you and several others on this forum to help me in my icebreaking back into the aviation model world.

Good to see you dabble on the Focke-Wulf again, Bruce! To be honest, I had trouble making out the work that you have done. I kept looking for brown and didn't see any in the photos at first glance. Looking at it closely... is it the two star-shaped knobs on the left hand side of the seat?

Mustang, I am learning from you. Your advice from early on keeps my sane, bud. I hope the Arado will continue to yield triumphs for you! Likewise, John—your projects are incredible. You are right of course that the marker is not opaque enough, not to read as anything other than dark grey over a dark grey blend. I need that brown you created surrounding the compass of your 109! The color must be more opaque.

Dig this: the wiring loom explained on the IP! Pretty sure thanks go to Kari who told me to go here!

Holy cow! This is the kind of work I aspire to be doing with my cockpits. It’s a hard standard to hit. This is just absolutely beautiful work. That ‘pit is looking more and more big and real every time I see a new picture.

This one’s a real corker so far. Fantastic work, Bruce.

Just incredible. Every time I look at it I see more stuff. Burned my thesaurus.

Thank you so much, Ken and Lyle! I sincerely appreciate you both and thank you for what you wrote to me. I am grateful to everyone for being so supportive and send all my thanks—and best wishes. I will follow along with you!!

That's a great looking cockpit Bruce!

Thank you, Stuart!!

Normally I hate redundancy but I’m reiterating the fact that I love this pit. Between this and John Kim’s Corsair Cockpit, I’ve got a lot to be excited about in terms of my friend’s projects. You’ve done such nice work here. I mean damn it, Bruce, I feel like I could sit right down in there and drink a beer. It looks real, and battle-hardened. I can’t get my head around this level, yet. It’s not art imitating life. It IS life.

Bravo, my man. Bravo.

Ken, Thank you sincerely! I would add that if it were not for your presence and abilities, coupled with your ability to describe your process of painting my approach would be very different—I don’t know, you just made it acceptable to try using a mixed media approach. I am even going to primer the exterior in mostly black Mr Finisher 1500, which I found online at a store called “Robots 4 Less,” which seems like it’s culled from Phillip K. Dick’s mega cities: “He walked into Robots 4 Less. The girl with the asymmetrical bob glanced up once then looked back down at the manga she was reading....” So in a way this is a grown up exploration of forward thinking from other modelers here, but—you hit this square on the head—but, but, but—it is an attempt to get real close to reality in a used way. I think Carlos or Clint nailed this down succinctly as “used but not abused,” and that is right, but-but-but—I also see like we all do the mistakes which I am trying to see past in order to get the rivets punched.

You’re also quite correct to mention John Kim because that K-4 cockpit is outstanding. I was gonna gently kid John about the strap on the ammo loader, but he nailed that color in a very interesting way—and his Corsair seat rest is just kind of... hell that just flabbergasted me. It’s nearly perfect.

I think ultimately I am grateful to be part of a very hard working group of model builders, who all have something to say about history, be it past, present or future!