JohnRatzenberger

Very nice, Greg !! The clipboard, baton, radio/mic really add some life to the interior. Odd paint scheme with the white doors, particularly with the extended cab. Very distinctive vehicle which you have captured well.

I am retired US Army, living in Nags Head on the Outer Banks of NC. I have been modeling, more or less continuously, since I was 6-ish, somewhere around 1951. My first kit was a wooden stagecoach, gotten I think with some number of box tops. I have had various interests in all these years -- covering a range of plastic subjects and kits and flying or floating wooden models. My time at the workbench has ebbed and flowed with real life. I have long been interested in history and have over 1800 books in my personal library. Modeling and history go pretty much hand-in-hand and I enjoy doing research on each model subject even if I use little of it when building the model -- sometimes just resolving conflicting information provides more satisfaction than anything. Despite all this I am not a "rivet counter". In the last half-dozen years, my interests have pretty well stabilized on British WW1 to early-WW2 aircraft with a smattering of British and US artillery, soft-skinned vehicles, and ships thrown in. I have no particular preference for scale or media and my subject selection is varied -- things I like or that catch my fancy. I enjoy contests, but rarely enter them -- my modeling skills "peaked" years ago and I have little desire to improve them -- it's my model and I'll do what I want and the ten foot viewing rule applies regardless. I joined IPMS sometime back in the mid-70's, dropped out after a half-dozen years, then rejoined as I got near retirement. I believe IPMS to be important to the hobby because the structure it provides allows local, regional, and national events that would not otherwise happen. For that reason I have decided to be active in the Society, just to give something back. My club is Eastern Carolina Plastic Modelers in New Bern, NC, where I am the Webmaster and Chapter Contact. I am a National Judge, a member of the Reviewer Corps, the Associate Webmaster for Reviews, and as Director for International Liaison, a new member of the E-Board. I'm also a member of AMPS. I am also the volunteer curator of the Dare County Regional Airport Museum that, among other things, honors the men and women of CAP Coastal Patrol Base 16 and the USN squadrons (including VF-17) that served there in WW2. If you are in the area, contact me for a guided tour. I also serve on several Town boards and committees. Annette and I celebrated our 40th this year. She also retired from DoD. She is a better quilter than I am modeler -- we support each other's hobbies by traveling together, etc. It gets ugly when the UPS van shows up and we both try to get to the door at the same time. Our daughter is married, living in Seattle, and has given us an absolutely wonderful granddaughter. Our son will be married shortly and they will live in Topeka.

All of which is a great example of why we are trying to do build reviews of everything, rather than the in-box looks given by most websites and magazines.

No, we don't have it up -- I do not think someone has it out either, but could be wrong. We're on a pull system with Eduard these days -- they send a list, we ask for what we'll build, and that's what they send -- so no one may have wanted it.

Here's the for-record glamour shots. I have added an extensive recap to the build thread with more pictures ... http://gregers.7.forumer.com/viewtopic.php?p=117455#117455 And my BlitzBau Family Photo ....

Nick, you are absolutely correct and I have edited the post. I cut the final two couplets(?) to save space (although the 2nd is certainly the more stirring of the 3) and took out the citation by mistake.

1945 -- Finished -- 15 min to spare. (should have built two!) I am of course assuming that all glue doesn't have to be exactly dry, but I will claim all parts are on and hanging on without external support. Here's the record pix ....(pix are 5 min after official finish) ... Here's the stats, 23:45 hours, cutting it a bit close. But unlike my other GB, I spent time doing other things -- the rocker, dinner with wifey (twice), shopping for beer (see pix), a total of 4:15 hours more or less. So my real bench time was only 19:30 hours. That's a large improvement over past builds. I'll do some glamor shots for the gallery tomorrrow and maybe some lessons learned. Meanwhile, I said this was a big puppy -- here is is with my last 2 3 BlitzBau victims .... And with that -- good night, I have some celebrating to do .... NB: 1st post gives link to full buid thread, with many gory details ...

11 July 1500 EDT = 19:00 down, 5:00 to go Well, a bout an 1-1/4 shopping, etc, but at least I have something in the house to either celebrate or drown my sorrows with .... priorities you know ... A problem cropped up painting the nacelles & the tops looked ugly. I had to spend time drying them & repainting. I took 'em out in the sunlight to hasten the drying process. Anyway, painting is done, or at least finishing drying. I am a bit concerned at this point. I have 5 hours and 8 steps to complete. -- decal wing and sg-coat (semi gloss) -- unmask fuse except windows, decal fuse, add tail assy, then sg-coat -- paint exh, radiators, air horns -- sg-coat nacelles -- unmask windows, mount wing to fuse, also cockpit & paint -- add struts -- add nacelles -- add aerial & stuff -- touch up as needed And, BTW, remember this is a Chinese repop of Matchbox -- there's a good chance the decals are worthless in which case there are several options, none pretty ... I may not be back until 24 hours or finished, whichever is sooner ... There's a breathless hush in the close to-night Ten to make and the match to win A bumping pitch and a blinding light, An hour to play, and the last man in. And it's not for the sake of a ribboned coat. Or the selfish hope of a season's fame, But his captain's hand on his shoulder smote "Play up! Play up! And play the game!" from Vitae Lampada, (Sir) Henry Newbolt, 1897

Mark, I guess it depends on how you use them also. FWIW, my favorite pair come from Squadron, I think, they have a 3/32" square tip. My next favorite, I think from Micro Mark, has about a 1/32" square tip. Then I have 2 pair of pointed tips, again from Micro Mark -- one long, one short. In my usage, the narrower the point, the greater the chance the part achieves sub-orbital velocity .... but the narrow point ones come in handy as sharp pointy things once in a while. I'm with Les, the squexze to release & I just don't work -- but I have a half-dozen or so, staright & curved, because they make great mini-vises.

A new day, I got started at 8 ... here's an update .... 11 July 1000 EDT = 14:00 down, 10:00 to go Those little "wings" above the tail/elevator & wing/aileron may be trim tabs or mass balances, I don't know. I elected to put them now so I could paint the whole surface. We'll see if I can keep from smashing them. If you build this kit: the instructions don't show, but the "wings" do have an airfoil -- I got the wing/aileron ones correct but the tail/elevator are wrong. Also the instructions sort of show putting the "wing" on the rear part of the supports, but other pix and intuition says they should go on the front part as I have done them. Also the holes on the wing/aileron are a hair wider than the support legs -- you can force 'em to fit, but a test fit & widening is probably a better idea. Anyway, engine nacelles are built and awaiting paint shop. Underhull is black and drying so I can remask and paint rest of hull. Wing & tail are waiting paint shop ... Does anyone know what a bottleneck is ? Back in a while ....

The clock is from Walmart, where else ? Oddball clocks, cups, meals, etc have been a characteristic of our BlitzBau's ... Probably put more time into finding stuff like that than preparing for the build ....

A closing update for the evening ... 10 July 2100 EDT = 12:00 down, 12:00 to go Wifey & I had a pleasant dinner & chat, so I didn't get back to this until near 7pm. Here's where we are at quitting time. Fuselage together, sponsons on, seams fixed, glass & openings masked. Tail assembly still done. Wing cleaned, corrugations restored, and partially painted. Props all painted. All struts cleaned on the sprue and given a shot of paint so all I'll need is touch up. I've started on the engine nacelles (their storage cups are under the props). Not the ideal time to break -- I should have at least had the underhull paint on so it could dry overnight and had the top of the wing painted. Oh well, lots of time tomorrow ... at least I think so. I've tested the wing to fuselage fit and it's great so no filler will be needed. This is a pretty nice kit -- fit is great, no problems. Let's see. 12 hours, 3 large cups of coffee, 2 glasses of water, 3 Guinness, lunch, dinner, and 112 songs from my playlist have been consumed .... See you 9-ish EDT tomorrow morning ....

I've just kicked off my UAMF/CBK Blitzbau .... I'll post my start up message & pix here, you can follow the rest of it on this thread. http://gregers.7.forumer.com/viewtopic.php?p=117455#117455 I'll make a couple intermediate posts also. Introductory, 9 July. I flip-flopped around, thinking about one of the Airfix 1/32 cars, but then decided to stay with my prior theme of 144th scale airliners, something I don't normally build. Of course, I don't usually build cars either ... I picked up the Otaki Dornier Do-X earlier this year, then remembered that Matchbox had re-popped it as PK-571, so I went looking for that. Unfortunately all I could find was the Chinese repop of the Matchbox repop, so my instructions are ... well, in Chinese. I relied on the matchboxkits.org website for a peek at English-language instructions to sort out the paint. Anyway, I should get some credit for a quasi-CBK, or maybe a "cbK" ... Interestingly enough, the Otaki kit has red registration letters and the Matchbox kit has black -- from what little I can find, the black appears correct. Another discrepancy is that the Otaki kit has the overall and underhull color reversed, assuming I interpreted their instructions correctly. Very few photos show the underhull color in place, and where they do there are variations. I'll go with what the kit shows, or something close ... Also the kit says the overall color should be a 50-50 mix of aluminum and lightgray -- I'm going with straight aluminum. Thers 123 pieces in this puppy -- I will resist any urges to go enhancing this kit or wandering off in a fit of AMS-lust over some detail. It's OOB all the way. So, I'll see you tomorrow(Friday) morning, maybe 9am-ish, EDT. I'll be doing a split build. 　 10 July 0900 EDT = Start Point, 24 to go Actually we were supposed to go clamming today, but the wind has kicked up too much for that so here I am. A couple thousand bluegrass, folk, & Cajun tunes, my modeling music, set up in the player. As a counterpoint to all the wonderfully neat set-ups we've seen so far, I have pushed back a perimeter to make a workspace on my bench ..... My usual coffee cup -- just for Paul Bradley -- unfortunately I think SWMBO washed it since the last BlitzBau ...What you see in it is pure coffee, I've already had my shot of Bailey's to start the day ... A clock, although I gotta admit, there's no room for this on the bench and the cell phone may come back .... And SWMBO is, so far, supportive .... I have a "plan" for this build -- just 4 letters long -- HOPE ... And with that we're off doing all sorts of prep stuff .... Back in a while ...

Which is why I keep debonder right next to me -- and have had to use it a few times.

Already learned that lesson -- I think twice -- on the super thin stuff. Now I cradle the bottle in a cloth with tip pointed away from anything important.

Need to know what a WW2 Free French bomber pilot or crewman might wear -- color of flying suit, helmet, etc ... Thx, John

Which is why I said it was safer for models than for food ... John

I almost caved in for the Brisfit but held fast. I think the RE.8 will be impossible to let pass.

No, I use it all the time with enamel -- lots safer than actually using it with food. Like Tim said, it's great if you have to quickly cover a large area, just wrap it loosely on & ensure holes closed. I haven't found it sticks well enough on the edges to be used for pattern masking but I do use it to cover the area between tape/BluTak edges .... John

Nick, I'd be remiss in my responsibilities as historian and curator if I didn't follow up on my assertion. The couple in the 4th photo are Mabel & James Basnight. The man in the family photo is Paul Green, who wrote our long-running and famous outdoor play "The Lost Colony" (Don't ask a local for directions, we already lost a colony...) John

Nick, I doubt it ... with the exception of the 1st photo, all these people were local Outer Bankers ... I'd have to be back at the museum to get their names (other than the 2nd photo and right of 3rd who was Dave Driskill our local aviation legend in the 30's & 40's) ... John

Jim, Way to go Thanks, that's exactly what it is. I thought the cockpit looked "stinson" as in the Model U but most of the places I looked are so focused on the Reliants they don't cover the R, W, U, etc .... Great, now I can tell that kid in the 1st photo (now no longer a kid) what the real airplane was -- he insisted it was a Detroiter, which of course it isn't ... Again, thanks .... John

OK, it's not modeling, but it's aviation. See 4 photos, in particulr the top one. All were taken in late 30's, the top specifically in Aug 1939. What is this airplane -- it is a rather large 6-passenger biplane; note the fancy door in the side. I've searched the major manufacturers (Stinson, WACO, Bellanca, others) but to no avail - I didn't think it would be that hard. All the shots are partial nose, so I have no manufacturer labels, no NC number, etc. In the last photo, the diamond on the wheel spats is different, but the rest of the a/c looks about the same. 2nd question. Are there are really good US civil/general aviation references covering the 'tween wars period? I find myself more & more having to look info from that era these days. Thanks in advance.

Tim, Since the 761st was a 3rd Army unit, I would think the left side would be 3 A - 761 TB ? I didn't even know they had the M-7 so I won't even hazard a guess. John

Interesting and great job !!! That's the japanese license built version of the Kellett KD-1 with an Argus engine replacing the Jacobs radial. Here's the LF Models 1/72 KD-1 done up in NPS markings as it flew here (see museum link) in the early 1940's. The cockpit detail in your Fine Molds kit certainly seems superior to the LF kit -- do they make a standard KD-1 also ? John