I’ve long had a particular fascination with WWII aircraft. I think it started when I was 10 and read “Duel For the Sky” by Herbert Molloy Mason. By the time I was 11 I was building models of those planes. Like so many modelers, I drifted away from it after high school. But about 25 years ago, my girlfriend (now wife) gave me a Mustang kit (1/48 Hasegawa) for Valentine’s Day. She knew me well! I took one look at the plastic bits and thought, “this is going to get expensive!”
My interests have grown a lot over the years. Broadly speaking, I love military history. From Ancient Egypt through modern. I also love aircraft and aviation. World War Two holds a special place in my fascination still. As does aviation. So World War II aircraft is sort of the ground zero of my interests. I got back in to modeling I decided to focus my attention mostly on aircraft.
With only one exception to date I work exclusively in 1/48th scale. There are a few exceptions to a purely historic World War II theme. I like “Golden Age” aircraft, and will occasionally build subjects that are pre-war. Although in most cases I build types that did see war time use, I occasionally build examples in pre-war markings. I will also occasionally build “hypotheticals”; that is aircraft in bogus markings, or paper projects that never actually flew. I also have a small collection of vehicles/armor. Ever since Tamiya started doing such subjects in my scale, I’ve enjoyed the occasional change of pace.
I don’t consider myself a “serious” modeler. I like modern, well fitting kits and am intimidated by limited run kits. I’ll sometimes get daring and try something I know to be more difficult, but not often. I mostly love painting and weathering. If you’re more serious about modeling, well I hope you don’t laugh at my efforts. I try to be as accurate as I can, I’ll always try to find the right variant and right details for any subject, but I’m no rivet counter. I do this to have fun. Details are fun to me, but I don’t obsess.
My write-ups will focus on what I found interesting about the aircraft, history, or kit. And I’ll write for the casual observer with an eye towards history more than the modeling “pro”. I hope to catch the reader’s interest, and encourage readers to look deeper on any subject that catches their attention. These write-ups will all be brief; there is always so much more to be said, but my own style is brief and to the point.
My primary purpose in this site is just to have a visual record of my own work. If some of you have fun with me, and want to discuss any aspect of what I’m doing, that’s awesome. I really look forward to the discussion.
Some of you will already know me from Chuck This Blog. Obviously there’s not a whole lot of overlap between these two interests! But I welcome old and new friends alike, and hope everyone can have some fun with this. But I must admit I was never behind any of the design or technical aspects of that site. So this may look simple by comparison. Yeah, yeah, I’m a simple guy, what do you expect?
~ Dave
One thing I would like to add having settled into this site over a couple years now. I will definitely do more museums and events. The museums will usually be my “A Day At…” series, and by events I mean air shows and reenactments. Both are favorite things for me to do, and now with retirement coming fast I expect they will remain a big part of my time.
The other special series to continue will be book reviews. Obviously I’m no pro at these things, but I do read a lot. Any book I review will be something I found interesting or useful, I will not waste your or my time with one-star type things. I also am not likely to do specialized series like Osprey or Squadron books; I read plenty of these, but they are generally basic overviews and not worthy of the energy to review.
In all cases with these non-modeling themed posts the common thread will be military history. Even if I stray from just World War II on occasion. I do have other interests (!) but this site is for military history. The focus of my energy has always been about 2/3s World War II, this site will be more than that but not exclusive.
Plane Dave 
We’re definitely twins except my wife never bought me a model airplane for Valentine’s Day.
I think my wife regrets it.
Hello Dave,
Awesome site. I have been and still am searching for a model of the original XP-59A, my very very great friend(brother) just lost his grandfather of 96yrs young, he was the last of the Hush Hush Boys working for GE that helped build the first jet engine that was in the XP-59A in 1942, hoping to find a model of the engine also, I want to give to him as a gift for him to build, I can feel the excitement he will have, but I can’t seem to find, would you so kindly for directing me to any possible link you think may be able to help ?
I thank you so very much for any response and help you may be able to give me, I’ve been at this for a bit now.
Thank you,
Greg
Thanks for the “awesome”!
I only know 1/48 really. There are probably more choices in 1/72.
But I’m pretty sure the only 1/48 XP-59A is the out-of-production Hobbycraft kit. It’s is good in outline, but not very detailed. I would expect Quickboost, True Details, Eduard maybe a few others, would offer upgrade/detail sets. I’ve seen cockpits and landing gear. The engine might be more problematic, I don’t recall seeing one, which proves precisely nothing.
As for locating things I would start with Squadron or Sprue Brothers. With an older kit like that, if they have it, it’s bound to be discounted.
Odds are, they won’t have it. So I would try e-bay, or a more specialized source like Rare Kit Detectives. We have a couple of excellent old kit sellers here in Michigan; J-Bar Hobbies (Tecumseh), Dean’s Model Stop (Flushing) and Model Cave (Ypsilanti). I believe they all do internet/phone sales.
Let me know what you find!