I have been modelling since the early 70’s. My first really cool kit was the Revell 1/32 F-4J Phantom. It was $20, when most models back then were between $1 and $5. I was at the drugstore (back then that was a cool place to be, they had TOYS!) with my grandmother and I saw that huge box and my eyes bulged out. My dad was in the Navy at the time and was serving aboard the USS Saratoga CVA-60 out of Mayport, Florida. He had taken me on board numerous times and I absolutely loved the big ole Phantom. So my grandmother sprung the $20 and got me the jet. Before that model, I had already gotten about 500 kits under my belt. My entire bedroom was lined floor to ceiling with shelves my dad had made for me to display just about every Navy fighter model that was available, and some carriers, battleships, tanks, and even a couple heavy bombers. For a long time I built mostly planes. Then in 1983, I joined the USMC. My interest starting swaying toward AF V’s. For about 20 years, all I was interested in was modern combat vehicles, and whatever arty I could find. My first few hundred kits I built in less time than it takes me to complete a single kit now! There is so much more detail to be enjoyed and while I am not too concerned with authenticity or time/period accuracy- I do enjoy the small details- if there is a radio set involved, I want it to look like it is useable…dials and knobs, handset cord- stuff like that. And then I discovered what everyone else already knew- brass rods, and photo-etching. That added a whole new dimension and a whole lot more time. Then I tinkered around with adding LED lighting to the interiors of my vehicles- after a few years of that I stopped. Today, I have about as many unbuilt kits waiting as ones I have built and on display. Sad situation, and I remember reading an article about that in FSM. For me, and for a lot of you too I am guessing, these days building one kit is akin to building 20 or 30 back in the day. Think of what we used to do with the turret mounted .50 cal back in the 70’s? Slap some black paint on it, dry-brush it with metallic grey and that’s about as far you could go. Nowadays, you can get a KIT of a .50 cal that is in itself a model that shames the ones that came with the tank or whatever you are gonna put it on. And why spend countless hours to make your model look like something you are proud of if you can’t take the time to make that dang .50 look great too? And if the .50 looks great, well, now it needs decent ammo. Got that ammo, better have a good can for it, and then the can needs to have decent stenciling, and wow. Instead of a model that can be built over the weekend, maybe I get the .50 done in a weekend. Sorry…was having an epiphany.

So having survived the USMC, I moved out to Washington state as a newly married man, and went to work for Boeing whom I’ve worked for almost 25 years now. Almost all of that time has been on the 747 program. I started out on the last few 747-300’s, then the -4