Driving to our plastic model club’s monthly build night, I loaded this album up & it made perfect driving music. Rory Gallagher was an amazing guitarist & this album proves it. He lived in Cork for some time & The Oliver Plunkett pub in City Centre has a great shrine to him in their upstairs floor.

Does anyone have any experience with 1. Decanting DupliColor paint and 2. Using it on a plastic model Since it is automotive paint, I know I’d have to primer the crap out of whatever I’m intending to paint but I’d like to know your experience with this.

2026 Shizuoka Hobby Show photo dump Part 5

2026 Shizuoka Hobby Show photo dump Part 4

2026 Shizuoka Hobby Show photo dump Part 3

2026 Shizuoka Hobby Show photo dump Part 2

Photo dump from the 2026 Shizuoka Hobby Show. The sheer talent of the model groups and their members is astounding. Most everyone is helpful and speak decent amount of English if you have questions about technique and so on. This was my third time at the SHS - every show has been fantastic.

I’m a very slow builder (a month in Tokyo for the Shizuoka Hobby Show contributed to that.) I decided to do some weathering & weapon bay detailing on the Eduard Fw 190A-8. I think it looks pretty dirty overall. I might make a diorama of the landed plane in a rainy flat field w/ thunder & lightning.

Getting to the finish line (more or less) on the Eduard Fw 190A-8. Gloss coat & about 75% of decals done. A bit of weathering after sealing the surface with another coat of gloss. Weapons covers held on with Blu Tack & will be open for display. So far a fun and, at times, a challenging kit.

A little bit crazy yard sale about 20 miles away from our residence has three plastic bins of plastic models. Lots of them are old 1/72 scale: Frog, Heller, Zvezda, MPM…many seem to be in good shape. I picked up two of the planes on my want list including a 1/32 scale Nakajima Ki-43-II.

Just a little diversion from a few years ago. (I have so many figures like these….way too many to build before my hands and eyes decide that I’m done 😀)

Next on the bench…Eduard’s Fw 190A-8. I’ve never had a kit from Eduard so it’ll be an interesting ride. I decided to splurge and get a 3D printed cockpit upgrade for the kit. I’m looking forward to challenge my not-so-nimble fingers to put some good detail here…

Ah, the Tamiya McLaren Senna…not really Tamiya’s finest hour. Poor fit on about 60% of it. I suspect that McLaren designers had final say over the usually ace Tamiya folks. I chose to mix a “papaya” color used on the F1 livery instead of Senna colors. I swore more making this build than any other

After much camo work, painting & “weathering” (seems more like dirtying), my Tamiya 1/48 F-15J Eagle is finished. This a practice run for the Fine Molds 1/48 F-15J Fighter J-MSIP in my stash. That kit is more complicated with all the extra add-ons. I’m taking a break before getting started on it.

I build very slowly but I’ve have had some free time to make progress on the 1/48 Tamiya F15J Eagle on my bench. I am just a clear gloss coat away from panel line marking & weathering. I chose to not attach wings beforehand as their fit is superb & there will be no problem fitting them afterwards.

Primer day for the 1/48 Tamiya F15J Eagle on my bench.

So disappointed to be caught up in tariff bullshit. I wanted some canopy masks, photo-etched & custom parts. Unfortunately , nearly 100% of them are offered by companies in the EU. When I ask why my order won’t complete, they nicely tell me that shipping to the US is currently not available. Sigh.😟😟

The L29 Delfin was first aircraft I built at age 16. It turned out ok for a kid. But I wanted to do it justice so I collected 6 boxes of the same kit across many years. These kits were old, I had to salvage enough parts to build 3 versions. Here are Czechoslovakian, Egyptian and Ugandan versions.

The finished kit. The Tamiya Newman Porsche 956 was a fun build. Tamiya is always spot on with tooling & assembly. There were moments of frustration with some of the tight tolerances but everything turned out well. I added a bit of race exhaust and wear in a few places. Overall, I’m happy with it.

Maybe I’ve shed my notoriously slow build pace as this Tamiya Newman Porsche 956 is nearing completion after only two weeks(!). I’m at the flat clear/decals/flat clear/seam darkening phase before a gloss clear coat. All the “glass” goes on after that. Then I’m done. Three weeks? Not bad for me.

Ok, so I’m a few weeks late. Par for the course on my bench. I finally finished my Tamiya Kawasaki Ki-61-Id Hien Japanese fighter aka “Tony”. This was fun to build & gained me more experience & patience w/ air brushing camo. I’ve got 2 on the bench now + 1 more in the on-deck circle. Progress!

明けましておめでとうございます。 皆さんが幸せで健康な2025年を過ごせることを願っています。🙏 (To all of Japan) Happy New Year. I wish you all a happy and healthy 2025. 🙏

It takes me ages to finish a build. Is it ADHD? A crippling perfection streak? I dunno but here’s what’s on the bench: Tamiya’s Kawasaki Ki-61-Id Hien (Tony). The main body is done, camo painted (not my best airbrush work) & clear acrylic coated for decals & panel lines. Target: end of January.

Finally carved out some time to follow and like some cool model builds. I'm a big fan of WWII German/Italian/Japanese planes as well as Soviet Bloc jets (early ones). My all time favorite plane is the ME-262 not coincidentally spurred on by the Blue Oyster Cult's song of the same name.