The Guns of August

 

TheGunsOfAugst BarabraTuchman

 

I first read this book back in the late 1980's.  As an introduction to the beginnings of World War I, you probably can not find a better one volume resource.

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Masking Tapes for painting

Masking tape is one of the essential tools used in modeling - but not just any cheap tape you pick up at the big box stores.  Here's a rundown of the types I've find most useful for paint masking.

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Museum of American Armor

American Armor Logo Tanks 0021

The Museum of American Armor, located in Old Bethpage, Long Island, New York is a good size armor museum.  Probably the largest collection on the east coast now that the Army's own armor museum has closed. The artifacts range from bicycles, to cars, to artillery, and of course soft-top and armored vehicles.

Museum of American Armor Apr 2017

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Life and Death in Shanghai


Life and Death in Shanghai
 
Since the 1980's, with China's reopening to West and Deng's to push for economic progress in China over ideology - as long as the Communist party still hold power - there has been many books about the Cultural Revolution.  For any student of Chinese 20th history, this period of time is both fascinating and horrifying. Mao's grip on power was being challenged, and in response, he helps unleashed a power struggle that pitched people against people, resulting in thousands of deaths, many more disgraced and jailed.  Millions of High school and College students effectively stopped their education, becoming pawns in a deadly game.
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Skunk Works: A Personal Memoir of My Years at Lockheed

 This book was written the 1990's and remains the best one on the Skunkworks.  The Skunkworks was of course the nick name given to the special devision of Lockheed that developed some of the most important military aircrafts in the world.  Often leap frogging any other nation with new advanced technology and design.  This book is full of storeis from Ben Rich whio ran the Skunk works for over 15 years. 

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Supermarine Spitfire Mk. IX - Hasegawa

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This is the Hasegawa Spitfire - I took this on after realizing I have never built a spitfire. Time to rectify this oversight with a Spitfire in the colors of the Polish squadron.

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A Question of Honor: The Kosciuszko Squadron: Forgotten Heroes of World War II

AQuestionofHonor

This book is a wonderfully well-written book by authors Lynne Olson and Stanely Cloud. For cursory readers of WW2 history, the narrative of the German conquest of Poland immediately after the 'phony war' was one where the mighty German war machine steamrolled over Poland. Polish cavalry making brave but ultimately useless charges against tanks. The polish airforce wiped from the sky by the Luftwaffe in a matter of days. 
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Martin B-57 Canberra - Vietnam


B57 33Cropped

Col. Mason in his dress blues holding the model of his B57

As modelers, we all have our reasons for being in the hobby. For myself and I suspect for many others, the chance to model and relive history is a major factor. So I when I had the opportunity to build an aircraft for a veteran, I was honored to do so. T.E. Bell, the author of “B-57 Canberra Units of the Vietnam War”, who happens to be a fellow modeler and friend had made many contacts in the B-57 community and asked whether I wanted to build the B-57 flown by Col (retired) Larry B. Mason.

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Welcome to the new site

modelsgeneralWelcome to a total refresh of my website.  It's been an on going project for a few years now, not that it was that much effort. Between real life and yet another item to add, the site seems never finished.  At some point, we'll just have to call it done.  So here it is, updated with stuff that's been happening for the last years.  Some changes are:

The look and feel of the site has been completely revamped, it's currently running on Content Management System with a mobile responsive UI (meaning you can see it on the phone easily).

  • Added book review section - as many of us modelers are as interested in history as in modeling
  • Tools sections - which has yet to be filled in
  • History section - articles that accomplied my modeling articles that had been published and usually edited down.  I've included them here with the original content.  I've also added 2 more articles in my series of Text Hill and the aircrafts he flew, part 1 appearing in Scaled Aircraft Modeling.  So it's now a total of 10 articles (5 history - 5 aircraft) that covers his life from entering the US Navy until the end of WW2.  I still have a stearman to do to cover his life as a Naval cadet, then I will call it complete.
  • Comments - I've allowed comments on all the articles, please feel free to share your thoughts.
  • Finally, I'm hoping to update this site at a minimum of once every 2 to 4 weeks.  Let's see if I can keept that pace up.

Thanks for stopping by.