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.