Your government masters…

are at work again.  Story here.

Magazine review: Small Air Forces Observer Vol. 34 #3

I just received this issue of SAFO, the publication of the Small Air Forces Clearing House.  As I have said before I have a special interest in small airforce subject and as such SAFO is a must have item.  The articles have a modeling flavor to them, but most consist of historical research, most of which is original and compiled and written by the members.

This issue has an article on F-86s used on in the UN intervention in the Congo.  There is also an article on post-WWII Greek Wellingtons and the first British WWI aircraft captured by the Austro-Hungarians. 

While the production quality of SAFO is not up to modern standards, the information contained is simply to good to pass up.

This doesn’t seem right

I’d like to know more about this story.  It seems awfully strange.

Can’t trust those Ohio attornies

Read about it here.

Required reading for lawyers

Fellow lawyer Barry Miller of Fowler Measle and Bell recommended the website Typography for Lawyers to me.  It is great and must reading for lawyers.

Magazine review: IPMS/USA Journal Vol.22 #4

The latest issue of the Journal came out just before the Phoenix Nats.  At this point I am repreating myself when I say that this is the best value for the money in the model magazine market today.  Chris and his team continue to do an excellet job.  Despite the typo on the cover of this issue, the Journal has many fewer typos that most of the “commercial” magazines out there.  In fact, SAM and SAMI ought to contract out their proofreading to the guys at the Journal.

For the 72nd scale modeler, this issue as a nice conversion build of an XFJ-2 Fury.  It is an excellent article, well written and well illustrated.  As a bonus, there is a book review by Ohio attorney Jim Bates.

Again, for any modeler reading this, if you aren’t a member of IPMS/USA, you should be.

2010 Phoenix (The Russians are coming)

More 72nd aircraft.  This time, the Russians.

Yak-9 I think

Another Yak-9

Still another Yak?

Il-2

Beautiful I-16

Moraine

????

I have no idea what this last one is.  ANybody got any idea?

Another modeling magazine?

Word comes via Jim Bates that Airfix is restarting Airfix Magazine.  I have to wonder if the market can support all these magazines.

Book review: The Hawker Hunter, A Comprehensive Guide by Paul Bradley

Reviewer’s note:  I have a causal acquaintance with the author of this volume and have met him on a couple of occasions as well as having exchanged emails in regard to modeling.  The author was also kind enough to sign my copy of the book when I bought it at the Phoenix Nationals this year.

The Hawker Hunter

Before I built my first Hawker Hunter model, I was not really a fan of the aircraft.  The Revell 72^nd scale kit, Jim Bates and the author of this book, Paul Bradley, convinced me of the error of my ways.  When I built that Hunter kit, I wish I’d had this book for reference.  If I had, I wouldn’t have made the mistake of painting a rear frame on the Hunter canopy. (There is no frame at the rear of a Hunter canopy) 

This book is what all modelers would want in a reference.  It has a nice history of the aircraft with enough detail so that the modeler knows the history of the subject, but without the mind numbing detail you find in many reference books.  One nice thing the history does is to highlight and delineate the external physical differences of the different version of the Hunter.  This, among other touches, tells you that the book was written by a modeler and with the modeler in mind. 

The Hunter was used by many different air forces and the author spends a number of pages on all the different operators, the versions they used, and the combat experience, if any, they had with the Hunter. This is accompanied by a very nice colors and markings section with illustrations of the Hunter in the colors of its many different operators. 

The walkaround and detail photos and illustrations are enough to allow any modeler to obsessively detail their kit of the Hunter with no conceivable view unrepresented.  This section alone is worth the price of the book and this section and the color illustrations have me wanting to build another Hunter. (Or two.) 

Finally there is an excellent section on models, decals and aftermarket accessories for building a model of the hunter in scales ranging from 32nd to 144^th. 

I’d be had pressed to think of a better modelers reference book on any aircraft subject.  For the $20 that this book costs, the modeler has all the information he needs to build any version of the Hunter, from any kit, in any scale.  You can’t ask for more than that.

Weekend modeling

I didn’t get much done.  I did fashion the rest of the stanchions for the German Command Boat and got some paint on the waterline and wood base color on the deck and in the wheelhouse.  Hopefully, I’ll have this done soon.

German command boat