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Thanks, Maru, glad you dig Big Hog! I'm also partial to bent wing thingies, I can see myself building a bunch more in the years to come, such a beautifully lethal machine.

That polymer molding material is called Oyumaru in Japan, there's a grip of tutorials on Youtube and you can find some pretty cheap deals for it on ebay. This being the scale modeling industry however, there's a Spanish company called Green Stuff that rebranded it as "Blue Stuff", which sells for significantly higher prices than oyumaru (naturally...) but I guess is more readily available at your LHS if you don't live in Asia. Either way, it's really good stuff. Epic work as usual, Chuck!

Cojonudo!

Dang, fellas, much appreciated! Not sure I'm worthy of such accolades, especially considering the talent on display here on the regular, but I'll take it. Everyone needs a little fuel to feed the fire, am I right? Hoping I can start my first LSP project sooner rather than later (easier said than done with a newborn) and finally feel like an actual member of this community of very talented modelers. Happy twenty-twenty, everyone!

Superlative in every way, best paint slinger in the west!

Cheers, dude, means a lot as I'm a big fan of your work. That first R-2800 for your 1/18 Jug looked like a true test of patience but the end result was worth it, can't wait to see what's up your sleeve for this second one. It's seeing scratch work like yours that inspires me to even try stuff in the first place. Looking forward to that next update on your -1A!

Well that just made my day my whole year, thanks Scoob! There's still WAY too many goobers, most notably the snapped and poorly re-attached radio mast (I just wanted to finish it at that point), but I'm happy with my progress nonetheless. As for getting the colors of the wheel wells right, if I spent as much time actually modeling instead of obsessively poring over reference pics I'd have built a lot more models this year... But yea, always striving to get as close to the real deal as I can. Thanks again for the compliment, here's some virtual Scooby snacks for ya! Merry St. Nick, everyone!

So good, really deserves better photos so we can bask in its glory!

New trailer just dropped, there's even a P-51 cameo (and Maverick's old Tomcat serving as a gate guardian). The aerial scenes look pretty cool, def checking this one out in the theater.

Just gob-smacking, over the top, ridiculously awesome build(s), easily some of the best paint work I've ever seen. Chapeau, monsieur Fanch, chapeau!

The app linked below is pretty amazing, full 360-degree views of a whole bunch of cockpits, the caveat is it only works on mobile devices so you can't use it on your desktop machine with a bigger monitor to really get up close and personal. Still, it's an awesome tool for anyone who is into detailing cockpits, definitely worth a download! http://acicockpit360.com/

I love weathering, even on people. Thanks, Troy, spent a lot of time with oils on this bird, staring at refs and slowly building up layers. FNG over here lost a goodly number of those subtle layers when the last coat of flat was laid down. Lesson learned, I'll be doing the majority of my oil work in the future after final "un-gloss", at least the bits I want to have the layered effect.

Oh, it's going to happen. In fact I kinda consider the 1/32 kit a holy grail of sorts, and I can't wait to get one! Thanks everyone for the kind words, hopefully bigger and better things to come.

First time ever using photoetch belts, plus some scratchbuilding in the cockpit. The seat was chipped using the hairspray method, AK Real Colors Dull Dark Green over AK Xtreme Metal Aluminum with a brown wash, also used some gray panel liner on the instruments. I still didn't have a punch set when I built the cockpit, so the dial faces are missing... But I'm hoping the X-22 over the dials is distracting enough for the average viewer. The wiring is a little underscale for 1/48 scale but it's what I had at hand at the time. This took a LOT of work, but I was pretty happy with the result. R-2800 all wired up, plus the cowl flaps I scratched from card stock and the same underscaled wire. Far from reality but still better than nothing, right? Looks okay from this angle I scratch-built the brake line, springs and other doodads on the landing gear, this is still missing the chrome paint I added to the oleo Front of the prop, minimal chipping except on leading edge Backside of the prop, where the magic happens, pretty stoked on how this first attempt at hairspray chipping came out! Tail wheel with scratched details and added lightening holes, also missing the Molotow chrome on the oleo Hope you guys likey! There's more pics, if anyone's interested... Cheers, Thomaz

Hey guys & gals, So I've been lurking here for longer than I'd like to admit, it took me years to even create a profile, much less comment and post. Mine is a common story, mid-40's guy who modeled into his teens and rediscovered the hobby once life becomes a little more settled. I've always had a passion for history and my dream as a kid was to be a fighter pilot (dashed by my poor eyesight). Once I realized that wasn't going to work out I ended up getting my kicks elsewhere, working professionally in snowboarding and skateboarding for almost 20 years. But that passion for history, most notably the air war in WWII, regardless of theater, was merely laying dormant. Cue to about a year ago, when life finally got out of the way enough that I managed to start pulling together some basic modeling tools so I could get myself back into the hobby. It's been slow going, as life still gets in the way more often than not, but I now have all the basic stuff I need, and then some. I even have a modest stash of about 4 kits, 2 of which are LSP's (Hasegawa P-47D and Revell P-51D-5). Sadly, I haven't gotten around to them yet, as I wanted to re-hone my skills on some cheaper, smaller kits before committing fully to "manscale". So far I've built three kits, popped my cherry with a Tamiya Mk. Vb Spit in 1/48, followed by an ancient Hasegawa P-38 in 1/72 that I found in my parents' attic after 30+ years and now this 1/48 Tamiya F4U-1A, which I built for my dad seeing as it's his favorite plane. Just wrapped this thing a couple of days ago, this whole project entailed a number of firsts for me: first time scratch-building, first time using the hairspray technique, first time black basing, first time wiring up a radial, and so it's only fitting this is my first time ever posting one of my models anywhere. Needless to say, considering the talent at hand on this site, I hope my work is up to par. So without further ado here's Big Hog, Tommy Blackburn's machine during his time as CO of Fighting-17, based on Ondonga, November 1943. Hope you guys like it, can't wait to get my grubby mitts on an LSP in the near future! More pics in the next post...