VonL

Yup. Just trying to be funny.

Maybe, but I really like the hard-copy issues of these, also known as "waiting room insurance." Kept handy in the car, lest one truly enjoys reading about Megan Markle's latest pet-recipes, ad nauseum.

Can I enter this one...by proxy...?

I remember that model. Super work! What's that model's wingspan?

Epic - !!!

Another nice one, Gil! Well done paint-in-lieu-of-decals. My brother flew these with VP-19 (the Big Red). Kit decals for that colorful scheme are shot, so I may try one of their rare, lo-vis versions. He flew them with those markings for DESERT SHIELD 1990. The plane in the foreground appears to have the (then) new 3-tone gray camo. The one in back appears to have the older gray & white paint scheme, with a grayed-out tail-emblem. I've never found any other pix of these birds...have you?

Nice model! You also did a great job with the camera angles and the 'scale height ground-view'. Extra credit, for capturing the size and character of the airplane!

Age five...it begins...

IMHO, Nick nailed it with "Better to err on the side of discretion and the ordinary rules of good taste." An example comes to mind from WWII Army Cartoonist Bill Mauldin's autobiography, when he was asked why he didn't draw dead bodies in his otherwise authentic battlefield (humor) vignettes. His response was that if he did his job well, it was implicit that death was likely nearby (it is a battlefield), while allowing some space for a lighter moment or topic, in that historic context. I've done a couple of these cartoons as dioramas and it works. Regarding 'discretion'': The ubiquitous 1/35 WWII German soldiers, defecating, visiting hookers, etc, are just not on the same level as, say Michelangelo's Pieta, which is an iconic death scene. If that distinction requires further explanation...

IIRC, that's how FSM started out, in the mid-1980s (cue the nostalgic music).

Both on-site hotels indicate no availability/blocks full as of tonight (15OCT). So I made a provisional reservation with Embassy, with the caveat that if a block-room becomes available, I can roll into that (rate). QUESTION: Will additional blocks will open up, between now and JUL22-?

"The Journal Has Landed" in the northern Midwest, as of Wed. Still the happiest thing in my mailbox. Thanx, guys!

As a wise man once said: "If you wait 'til the last minute, it only takes a minute!"

Bad news for me; won't make it to the '21 Nats, after all. Good news for somebody who still wants a room for two, between 18-23 AUG. See ya in Omaha...hopefully...

Thanx for your looks at this, guys. Multiple queries to various rotorheads, photo galleries and aficionados indicate that the H-3 Jolly Greens did not do the aft-ramp gunner thing over Vietnam, although I did find a technical diagram showing provision for it. (Certainly, definitive photo evidence will surface just after the model gets finished.) Now, to hunt down some nice M60s for my door gunners...