Homepage Text - June 2006

Friday,  June 30  2006 
Well I got the CD classroom yearbook project completed on time after some very long days and late nights.  The finished CD's were a huge hit with the kids and their parents.  This was my 5th year doing these.

Louis Chang  has done a beautiful job building his 1/48 Hasegawa F-104G.  Louis finished his F-104 Republic of China Air Force (Taiwanese) markings.   


Joel Alcantar has done a wonderful job weathering his 1/48 Tamiya F4U-1 Birdcage.  I enjoyed the paint chipping and folded wings.  


Aaron Hughes has put quite a bit of effort into his 1/72 Airfix Lightning F3.  Arron rescribed his Lightning and used decals from Cutting Edge.  


Anthony Manzoli has done an amazing job finishing his 1/48 Hasegawa Hs 129 B-2.  I always enjoy seeing the weathering Anthony does on his aircraft.  


I have a review of the  1/48 white metal B-24 Landing Gear from Cutting Edge Modelworks.  These are great replacements for the plastic kit parts.


Francois Buis is here with a review of the  1/48 VNAF : Douglas AD-6 Skyraider Decal - Part 1.  


Nissim Tzukduian is here with some Israeli A-4F Skyhawk walkaround photos. 

Thursday,  June 29  2006            
No Update today

Wednesday,  June 28  2006           
No Update today

Tuesday,  June 27  2006             Djibouti National Day  
No update today.  I'm busy making the CD year books for my 2 daughters.  As the regulars know, this project demands huge numbers of my hours and always involves a crunch time toward the end of the school year.  The CD year books this year will include 800 photos and up to 12 video clips from field trips and classroom parties and other events during the past 10 months of the school year.  I'll make a copy for every student in the 2 classes as well as all the teachers involved.  The school year ends Thursday.   

Monday,  June 26  2006         Madagascar Independence Day 

In case you missed this article the first time...here is is again.  I have an appeal for Kits for Kandahar to Support the Troops.  Please do what you can do to support this multi-national coalition......please act soon. 

Aidan Campbell begins your week with his 1/72 Eduard Sopwith Camel Diorama.  Aidan calls his diorama "Gone but not Forgotten" and I think you'll agree......it's something very special.


Alan Williamson has done a fine job building his  1/48 Hasegawa F-15 Eagle.  Alan didn't build this kit without any troubles....but the finished model turned out very well.   


Tristan Slegers is here with his  first article on ARC.  This is his 1/72 Revell P-51 that he did a superb paint chipping job on.   


Pongpeera Thiapairat has been busy building his 1/144 Revell Airbus A-320.   I enjoyed reading the article about building this Condor airliner and the fini9shed model with it's less than spotless appearance looks more like airliners I've flown on.


I have a review of the  1/32 resin F-16A Block 10 Stabilators for any F-16A kit from Cutting Edge Modelworks.  This 1/32 set includes all six static dischargers. 


Yoav Efrati is here with a review of the  1/48 AH-64D decal sheet from IsraDecal


Nissim Tzukduian is here with some Israeli A-4N Skyhawk walkaround photos. 

Sunday,  June 25  2006       Mozambique Independence Day  

 Croatia Independence Day                 Slovenia National Day

Juan Carlos Gómez y Sarzotti starts your Sunday update with his 1/48 ESCI Mirage IIIEAJuan Carlos finished his well done Mirage in Argentine Air Force from the Falklands/Malvinas War.   


Tolga Ulgur is here to show you his latest jewel in his dispaly case.  this is his beautifully done 1/48 Promodeler Dornier Do 217 E5 complete with realistic weathering and history

Saturday,  June 24  2006   Order of Malta - St. John's Day 

Carmel John Attard joins us from Malta with his two 1/72 Arado 65Although one of them  looks like it has Maltese crosses on it....they are both actually done in Royal Bulgarian AF markings.  Looking good Carmel.


Nick England joins us from Dubai with his 1/72 Airfix Spitfire Mk1.  Nick built his Spitfire out of the box and it turned out looking quite good.  

Friday,  June 23  2006

 Luxembourg - National Day and Official Birthday of H.R.H. the Grand Duke Jean 

Shawn Phantom Weiler is back yet again with his CVW-8 article.  This is part 7 and features More Tomcats.   


Joel Alcantar has been busy super detailing his 1/48 Hasegawa F6F3 Hellcat.  Joel added aftermarket detail items from 2 companies to dress up the details on his Hellcat.....along with some very well done airbrushing.   


Rob Doctor has done a fine job detailing his 1/18 bbi Bluebox Toys F/A-18C.  This is  part 2 of his article and features the mods he did on this big Hornet.   


Bla’k Ja’k  is here with his  first article on ARC today.  Guillaume has done a great job building his 1/72 Revell "Desert Storm".  Welcome to ARC Guillaume!!!   


I have a review of the  1/48 resin U-2R/TR-1A Horizontal Stabilizers from Cutting Edge Modelworks.  


Albert Moore is here with a review of the  AH-1W Cobra Photo CD from Orion Models.   

Thursday,  June 22  2006        The Invasion of The Soviet Union  (1941) 

Charles Johnson has been busy detailing his 1/32 Revell UH-1D.  Charles did some scratchbuilding on his Huey to improve upon this older kit. 


Pieter Posthumus is here with his highly detailed 1/12 Esci F16 Cockpit.  Pieter definately got this one looking good with his careful painting and finishing..   


José Carlos Simón is here with his carefully weathered 1/48 Hasegawa Ju-87 Stuka B-2.  José did extra work to get the decals right and used markings from Hobby decal.


Oishi Thailand has been busy building the big 1/32 Trumpeter MiG-21MF Oishi finished his MiG-21 in Iraqi Air Force markings. 

Wednesday,  June 21  2006 
I've added a link to the Aircraft Photographs and Air Displays website by Roger Whitcomhttp://www.milairpix.com

Marcelo Irigoyen has been busy building a very sharp looking 1/16 Scratchbuilt Skyhawk A4B.   WOW....this is one very BIG and well done Skyhawk.


Louis Chang dropped by today with his1/48 Hasegawa P-40N.   The extra detailing on this P-40 is very well done.


Nebuchednikov Nizam is here with his  first article on ARC today.  This is his 1/48 Mini Hobby Model Su-30MK Flanker.  I was impressed with how well this Flanker conversion turned out.  


Mike Williams (Mikeew) has done a beautiful job building his 1/72 Ardpol KL Pyorremyrsky.   This is a resin kit and Mike turned it into a fine looking model of this rare aircraft.  


Michael Mettman is here with a review of the new book Uncovering the Grumman F-14 A/B/D Tomcat from Daco Publications.   

Tuesday,  June 20  2006 
I'm pleased to welcome Daco Products as a sponsor of ARC.  Daco is a company with a variety of first class modelling related from Decals, reference books, resin and Photo etch detail items and even fridge magnets.

Olivier De Menech joins us from France with his good looking 1/72 Hasegawa AH-1S Cobra.  This is a very nice little kit that builds up well according the Olivier.  


Maros Cupka is here with his first article on ARC.  This is his well done 1/48 Academy F-15 C built out of the box.  Welcome to ARC Maros!!! 


Pawel Befinger is here with his nicely done Korean War USMC 1/72 Italeri F4U-5N Corsair.  It's always good to see these classic Corsairs.     


Gianni Chirico has been busy adding details to his very sharp looking 1/72 Esci British Aerospace Sea Harrier FRS Mk.1.  Gianni put some extra effort into his Harrier to get this older kit looking first class.  


I have a review of the  1/48 resin F-16A Block 10 Stabilators from Cutting Edge Modelworks.   


Yoav Efrati is here with a review of the 1/48 Kfir decal sheet from IsraDecal.   

Monday,  June 19  2006       
No update today....I had a very busy Fathers day on Sunday with my wife and 2 daughters.

Sunday,  June 18  2006       Happy Fathers Day 

Stuart Porteous is here with his sharp looking 1/72 Special Hobby Percival Pembroke C1. Stuart liked this limited run kit and gives you the whole story about building it in his article.   


Ed Kinney has built himself a eye catching 1/32 Trumpeters F-105Ed used Meteor Productions Conversion Parts and Cutting Edge Decals. and other detail parts to detail and correct his F-105 and his choice of paint schemes and flawlessly done bare metal finish couldn't be better.    

Saturday,  June 17  2006 

 Iceland Anniversary of the Establishment of the Republic 

Shawn Phantom Weiler has done an outstanding job building his 1/48 Hasegawa F-18A.  This is one of the famous F-18's that survived a mid air collision.  Shawn got his model looking just like the real thing.  


Hal Marshman Sr. has been busy detailing and weathering his 1/48 Hasegawa Bf-109E-1 Hal finished this gem in the markings of Oblt Josef Priller from the start of WW2 in Sept 1939. 

Friday,  June 16  2006 

A reminder.....the VNAF Wings of Freedom Model Show will be on June 18-19 2006 in Westminister, California, USA.  Click the image or link for more details.    

Oliver Weston is here with his nicely done and colourful 1/72 Airfix TBD-1 Devastator.  The paint scheme is from the time of Pearl Harbour.  Oliver built it mostly out of the box with only a bit of extra detailing.   


Juhwan Lee has been busy building and detailing his 1/48 Hasegwa F/A-18F Super Hornet.  Juhwan used resin detail parts and extra weapons to build his Super Hornet and finished it with Twobobs decals.  


Gabriel Stern is here with part 1 of his 1/72 Smer/Heller Amiot 143 & Potez 540.  Gabriel has a fascination with odd looking aircraft and this one is no exception.....I've got to admit I love the variety his models bring and his articles are quite enjoyable to read.   


Dean Large has built the famous 1/32 Revell Bell X-1.  Dean decided to do some extra work to get this vintage kit to look sharp when it was done....and judging by the finished model....Dean's extra effort was well worth it. 


I have a review of the  Eye On The Tigers book from Daco Publications by Danny Coremans and The Tiger team.  If you like Tiger schemes....you'll love this book.


Yoav Efrati is here with a review of the  1/48 Mohawk decal sheet from IsraDecal.  This decal sheet features 8 different aircraft.

Thursday,  June 15  2006 

Ryan Ahern has done a stunning job on his 1/48 Eduard P-40N Warhawk.   Ryan finished off his P-40 in the eye catching decals from Cutting Edge Modelworks.


Louis Chang has been very busy detailing and weathering his 1/48 Hasegawa F-14D.  This one is a beauty.....check out the photos.   


Erik "Wiggy" Smith is here with his 1/48 Boeing B-29 Superfortress.  This is the famous Kee Bird that had a sad ending as it was being brought back from it's icy slumber.   


Todd Pollock has got a cool one here today.  This is his 1/48 AM Tech Ta-183Z-2/U.   Todd includes quite the "what-if" story with his Luft '46 model.


Albert Moore is here with a review of the  1/72 Leatherneck Deltas USMC F-18D Hornet decal sheet from MAW Decals.   

Wednesday,  June 14  2006     United Kingdom   

 Official Celebration of the Birthday of H.M. Queen Elizabeth II

Emad Tabsh starts your Wednesday update with his 1/35 Trumpeter Sam-2 "Guideline".  Take a close look at the damaged aircraft part on the ground in this diorama.....amazing.   


David Cornett has been busy building and airbrushing his 1/32 Tamiya F-15J.  I am impressed....David airbrushed the paint scheme on this big Eagle and also used some resin items to improve the detail.   


Borislav Delov has been busy detailing and weathering his 1/72 Hasegawa Mitsubishi G4M1 'Betty'.  I enjoyed seeing the peeling paint on this one....very nicely done. 


Armin Knes is here with his 1/48 Trumpeter Suchoi Su-15 TM.  Armin built his Su-15 out of the box and finished with a jungle camo scheme.  


Charles Johnson has been busy building the big 1/32 Trumpeter P-38.  Charles finished it with a bare metal finish and markings from WW2 using aftermarket decals.  


Ken Middleton is here with a review of the 1/48 F-15C/D "Aggressor Eagles" 65th Aggressor Sq. Nellis AFB decal sheet from Afterburner Decals


I have a review of the  Spitfire Mk. IX in the Israeli Air Force Service 1948-1956 book written by Alex Yofe from White Crow Publications.   

Tuesday,  June 13  2006 

I have an appeal for Kits for Kandahar to Support the Troops.  Please do what you can do to support this multi-national coalition......please act soon. 


Amit Yaari has been busy getting the details right on his 1/48 Hasegawa A-4H Skyhawk.  I love the way this A-4 is set up in a diorama.   


Darrell Thompson has been busy detailing his 1/72 Tamiya P-47D-28.   Darrell added some extra details and then finished his P-47 in Alclad II with noseart.


Karl W Branson joins us with his 1/72 Airfix Bristol Bloodhound.  Karl gives some historical background on this missile and tells what went in to building this attractive diorama.   


Carmel John Attard is here from Malta with A selection of his 580 1/72 Models.  He has built 580 models during the last 40 years and his article contains some photos of his display cases and some of his models.  Amazing!!!  


I have a review of the  1/48 P-51 Mustang Pt. 1 decal sheet from Lifelike Decals.  This sheet contains markings for 4 different P-51's 

Monday,  June 12  2006      Russia National Day  

  Philippines Independence Day  

Jim "Bigman" Gonzales of  IPMS Philippines has has a quick review of the Trumpeter 1/48 Vickers Wellington Mk IC / III.  Visit  www.ipmsphilippines.com  for further information and photos.


Sunel Tan is here to honour the Philippines on this special day with his 1/72 ARII Cessna172 Sky Hawk.  Sunel made his own custom decals for the Philippine Airlines Aviation School.  Nice one Sunel.   


Vladimír Žucha is here from Slovakia on the Russian National Day with his award winning 1/144 Revell Antonov An-124 Ruslan.  Wow....this is one beautiful cargo plane.  


Tigre Del Aire is here from Colombia with his well done 1/72 Revell C-47 Dirty Nine.   And of course it's finished in the always attractive D-Day stripes.


Ralph Emerson "Shonen Red" Dabao has been busy building and finishing his 1/48 Tamiya Gloster Meteor F1 & V1 Fieseler F103.  Both models look excellent.   


Alan Sannazzaro has done a great job building the recently released 1/48 Trumpeter Fw 200 C-4 Condor.  Alan added some extra details to improve upon this very nice kit.  


Ken Middleton is here with a  review of the new 1/48 F-16C Block 40/42/50 “Wing Kings” #1 CONUS decal sheet from Afterburner Decals.  


Yoav Efrati is here with a  review of the new 1/72 Mohawk decal sheet from IsraDecal

Sunday,  June 11  2006 

Rob Doctor begins today with his 1/18 bbi Bluebox Toys F/A-18C with Upgrades.  Rob went to great lengths to improve the detail and accuracy of his huge F-18. 


Daniel Schlosser is here with his first article on ARC.  He has done an outstanding job on his 1/72 Revell Heinkel He 177 A5.  Daniel spent 2 years building this lovely diorama.....I know you will enjoy it.  Welcome to ARC Daniel!!!  

Saturday,  June 10  2006            Portugal National Day  

Damian Murphy kicks off today's update with his amazing 1/32 Trumpeter F4U-1 Bird Cage Corsair.  Damian got the weathering looking just right on his Corsair.  


Dave Gauthier joins us with his 1/32 F/A-18C Hornet.  Dave did this wonderful kit justice and ended up with a beautifully weathered Hornet. 

Friday,  June 9  2006 
LuckyModel is having their 3rd Anniversary Sale.  This is a very big sale and you'll find full details right here ------>  3rd Anniversary sale  <------

A reminder....IPMS-Firstcoast.com in Jacksonville, FL, USA is putting on JaxCon 2006 contest/show on June 10.  Go to their website for all the details.  Click here ----->  IPMS-Firstcoast.com

Jamie Philp begins today with his 1/48 Accurate Miniatures YAK-1.  This combat aircraft was flown by a female pilot with 12 kills to her credit.  Jamie provides some details about her in his article.   


Olivier De Menech joins us from France with a sharp looking 1/72 Revell EC-135 VIP.  I enjoyed seeing the paint scheme on this EC-135.  


Vladimír Žucha is here with the first of his 2 models today.  This is his 1/144 Revell Airbus A-300-600ST Beluga.  This is one of the coolest and oddest looking airbus aircraft.  Good to see.  


Rian W. Jones has done an outstanding job on his 1/48 Tamiya Focke Wulf FW 190A-8/R2 Sturmjagger.   Rian scratchbuilt some of the details for this unique interceptor and he includes tips on making this type of Fw-190. 


Vladimír Žucha is here with his second model today.  This is his 1/144 Revell Airbus A-380-800 that he converted to A-380F and finished off in UPS markings.


Graham T finishes off today's update with his 1/48 Aeroclub HS Gnat TMk.1.  Graham provides insightful history into this little known jet and gives very helpful detail about building this fine kit from Aeroclub.  Nice one Graham!!!     

Thursday,  June 8  2006 
There is an ongoing model building project that might pique your interest.  Some modelers in Milano, Italy are building a 1/72nd scale model of the USS Gambier Bay CVE-73 and it will have a working aircraft elevator, rotating air-search radar and a number of other features that are really quite remarkable.  The link to the article is:
http://www.giemmesesto.org/settori/Iniziative/progettoGambierBay.html

Shawn Phantom Weiler starts today with part 6 of his CVW-8 article.  Today Shawn shows us his Skyraider and Sky Warrior models.  Nice job on this series Shawn!!!


Armin Knes joins us with his impressive looking  1/48 Academy Suchoi Su-27.   Armin added a resin cockpit to improve upon the very good overall detail of the Academy kit. 


Ryan Ahern is here with his  1/48 Modelcraft/Belcher Bits SNJ-2 Texan.   Ryan did quite a bit of extra work on his Texan as you'll read in his article which gave him this excellent model.


Catherine Vickers dropped by today with her good looking 1/72 Revell Hunter F6.  Catherine used the Daco Decals to create a Belgian Diables Rouge aerobatic team Hunter.  


Scott Gruszynski is here with his flawless 1/48 Hobbycraft Dornier Do 17Z.  Scott spent quite a bit of effort getting the details on his model just right and he tells about this in his article.  


Andreas Sunarso is here with one of my favourite aircraft.  This is his 1/48 Dragon Horten Ho-IX complete with full engine detail and a very well done diorama base.   

Wednesday,  June 7  2006        US Carrier Yorktown sunk (1942)

LuckyModel is having their 3rd Anniversary Sale.  This is a very big sale and you'll find full details right here ------>  3rd Anniversary sale  <------

I've ordered from LuckyModel and they offer very good service.


Shawn Phantom Weiler is here with part 5 of his CVW-8 article.  Today's article focuses mostly on the F-8 and the A-4.   


Alexander L. Aydlett is a Carolina Hurricane hockey fan and is here today with his 1/48 Monogram Hawker 'Carolina' Hurricane.  Yup....you guessed it.....it's finished in the markings for his hockey team. 


Louis Chang joins us with his 1/32 Hasegawa FW-190-A8.  Louis used a Cutting Edge Modelworks resin seat  and scratchbuilt details as well as aftermarket decals to finish off his well done Fw-190.


Borislav Delov is here with his 1/72 Revell Saab JAS 39 Gripen.  Borislav finished his Gripen mostly out of the box with a few added items.  The Gripen is one unique and sharp looking jet and this one looks quite good.  


Nick England has dropped by today with his 1/48 Airfix Mosquito B Mk XV1.  Nick had some serious challenges with the painting but that didn't stop him from turning out a good looking in-flight Mosquito. 


Mark L. Rossmann is here with his 1/48 Fujimi Bf-109G-6 Hungarian Puma.  Mark chose to finish his 109 in the  Hungarian Air Force and Mark includes some history about the Hungarian Air Force during WW2.  


I have a review of the  Lockheed Martin F-16A/B/C/D & MLU book from Daco Publications.  This is THE F-16 book.....511 colour photos!!!

Tuesday,  June 6  2006        Sweden National Day 

  D-Day Anniversary 

Pete Hudson is here with the entries from the recently completed ARC 2006 ARC D-Day Group Build.  I love D-Day aircraft.


Greg Wise is here with his beautifully done 1/48 Academy P-47D Thunderbolt.  Greg finished his P-47 is a bare metal finish to create quite the sharp looking Thunderbolt. 


Santiago Duarte has dropped by with his well done 1/72 Legato Lockheed AH-56A Cheyenne.  This is quite the interesting looking chopper.  Enjoy.


Paolo "Pafdaddy" Maceren is here on this date 06/06/06 or 666 with his 1/72 Philippine Air Force F-5B.   

Monday,  June 5  2006     Denmark Constitutional Day 
  Seychelles Liberation Day 
IPMS-Firstcoast.com in Jacksonville, FL, USA is putting on JaxCon 2006 contest/show on June 10.  Go to their website for all the details.  Click here ----->  IPMS-Firstcoast.com

Philippe Dognon from ARC Sponsor Kits Discount gets your week started with his 1/48 CH-53E Super Stallion.  Philippe is quite the skilled modeller as you'll see when you look at the photos of his CH-53E.   


Shawn "Phantom" Weiler is back with part 4 of his CVW-8 article.  Today's article focuses on the F-4....Shawn has built quite a few Phantoms as you'll see in the photos in his article.  


Darius Aibara is here today with yet another limited run kit.  This is the 1/48 Antonov An-2 Colt that Darius built up in his usual style with scratchbuilt and improved details.  Darius makes these kits look so easy....   


Rodrigo Rejas is here with his  1/72 Academy Dassault Breguet Super EtendardThis particular Argentinian jet from the Falklands War and Rodrigo includes some breif battle history for this particular jet.   


I have a review of the new 1/72, 1/48 & 1/32 410 Sqd. CF-18 Demo Jet 2005 decal sheet from Leading Edge Models.  You can buy this decal sheet from  Uncle Rick Chin of Uncle Bill's Hobby.   

Sunday,  June 4  2006       Battle of Midway (1942) 

Charles Leung is here from Hong Kong with his nicely built 1/72 Trumpeter 'Xian FBC-1'.  Charles built this one out of the box and includes backgroud info on this Chinese fighter bomber. 


José R. Alvarez is here with his 1/72 Revell P-47M/DJosé gave his P-47 a full weapons load and used the kit decals complete with their artwork.....it's very nice to see this P-47.  

Saturday,  June 3  2006 

Hank Gruben begins today with his 1/48 Hobbycraft Ha-1112 Hispano “Buchon”.  This is a psot WW2 Spanish built Bf-109 without the German engine.  Very interesting to see Hank.   


L.C.Chan has been busy building the 1/72 Hasegawa F4S.  L.C. added photo etch and resin details to his F-4S and then finished it off with colourful markings and a fabulous weathering job.  

Friday,  June 2  2006                     Italy National Day  

Fausto Muto begins today's update in honour of Italy.  This is his 1/72 Hasegawa Tornado IDS complete with Italians markings.   Very good to see this model on ARC on this special day.  


Erik Wauters is also here to honour Italy with his 1/72 Italeri A-129 Mangusta.  This kit requires a bit of effort, but as Erik has proven.....it builds up into a very respectable Mangusta.  


Stéphane Aït Ouarab joins us with  Part 6 of his 1/32 F/A-18 Hornet Diorama.  Wow.....Stéphane finished his diorama with exceptional realism.  


Ioaea is here with his 1/72 Yakovlev OKB I-26-1.  This is the Yak 1 prototype and  Ioaea  explains about it in his article.  It's interesting to see this prototype of the famous Yak 1.

Thursday,  June 1  2006 
A reminder....The folks at I.P.M.S.  group XXI Mar del Plata in Argentina are having their annual model show and contest .  It will be  June 2, 3 and 4 in the Hotel Tierra del Fuego, Mar del Plata.  More info can be found at www.ipmsmardelplata.com.ar

Shawn "Phantom" Weiler is back with part 3 of his CVW-8 series.  Shawn has only F-14 in today's article.   


Vladimír Žucha is here with his 1/48 Revell F4U-7 Corsair.   I enjoyed seeing how well Vladimir did on his Corsair.


Bob Leonard has done a great job on his 1/144 Minicraft Delta DC-8-71.  Bob has talent at building airliners as you see in his article.   


Antonio Armario drops by with his 1/72 Heller Focke Wulf FW-56 "Stösser.   Wow the camo paint on this model is amazing. 


I have a review of the new 1/48 Republic P-47 Thunderbolts Pt. 5 decal sheet from Lifelike Decals.  This sheets features 3 different P-47 with noseart.