My Trumpeter #00349 LAV-25 Piranha Light Armored Vehicle sat for five years on my stack of "ready" kits intended to be put together before others in the stash. It kept getting pushed back for other miniatures until I decided to just take it down and build it. Oh, how the best intentions go away when you open the box...

M5A1 Stuart Light Tank "Babs / Paper Doll", Bambiano, Italy 1944. This is a miniature dedicated to my wife for our upcoming 15th Wedding Anniversary. Every five years, I build a model that was nicknamed "Babs". This one is an example that served in Italy during the Battle for Monte Cassino in World War II. There is a photo of it in R.P. Hunnicutt's STUART reference book. The model is Formations Model's excellent M5A1 Stuart - with a whole lot of extra items to flesh out the Interior and Engine Deck underneath the Grills - a whole lotta work no one will see or likely care about when it's all wrapped-up. After a lengthy delay, I got back into this miniature...

Finished 1/4/09: Dodge WC-62 1 1/2-ton Squad Personnel Carrier "Squirt". This is Skybow's wonderful truck, begun for the Holiday Challenge over on Track Link during the 2008 Christmas Season. Challenge is to get it done between December 20th, 2008 - January 4th, 2009. I actually finished "Squirt" on time, and am so happy. It was fun and I was able to dodge dreaded AMS and just get the miniature done by the deadline. My wife, who the truck is nicknamed after, loved it. Naturally, I have a few bits of details here at there I am going to add at my leisure in the future, but for now, it's all done.

I am proud to add that this miniature was awarded Second Place in AFV-News.com's 2010 "Art of War" Contest, sponsored by Military Modelcraft International Magazine. It is scheduled to appear in the December 2010 issue, and perhaps as a full-length article in the future. It is a great honor, and was showcased with some of the finest miniature work I've seen from around the world, and this is a bit of a departure from my traditional (romantic) style of AFV model finishing shown here prior to 2010.

My Jaguar Models M551 Sheridan AR/AAV "Hard Core 7" Tank in-progress - again. I actually began my Sheridan miniature project in 2001 with the old Tamiya beastie. Then, I decided to switch to the very nice looking Jaguar all-resin offering in 2002. If you have ever attempted this model, you'll know all too well about the Road Wheels and individual Track Links. I simply hated the tracks, and let the model lanquish in a storage bin ever since. Occasionally, I'd take it out and look at it, but put it away until I decided to purchase a set of Fruil white metal replacement tracks - at half the cost of an already expensive kit. Following the disappointment of Academy's new Sheridan model kit, I turned back to my Sheridan, bought the Fruil individual track links, and decided to get back up on this pony for one more ride. Heady with regular progress towards finishing this miniature - I dropped it off the workbench in August 2010. No colorful metaphores, no discouragement - I set out to repair all the damage and continue on...

 

Participating in the 2010 Softskins Campaign over on Armorama.com, I chose to set out on a longtime, always-wanted-to-do, project in creating a Dodge WC-64 KD (Knock-Down) Ambulance for my personal collection of Dodge T-214 Series of Trucks from WWII. Here, I am basing my scratch-conversion efforts off Skybow's excellent WC-51/52 3/4-ton Weapons Carrier. After a bit of a delay, I resumed working on my project and decided to incorporate ADV/Azimut's conversion for the old Italeri Weapons Carrier model kit. Another delay, even longer, resulted in unsuccessful attempts to correct warpage problems with the ADV/Azimut resin parts, prompting me to switch gears and reboot the project with a scratch/conversion of the remaining Skybow WC-51 Weapons Carrier parts. I probably should have done this to begin with...

KSE Firespray-41 Patrol Ship/Privateer. This is my own creation based on Fine Molds' excellent Slave I (Jango Fett) Firespray-31 Patrol/Attack Ship. I am modifying it into what I envision the updated -41 might look - and in the hands of Privateers. The bulk of the new ship's multi-species 1:72 scale crew is from Studio StarForge in Australia.

The Tholian Webspinner is a cool vessel from Star Trek: The Original Series, and updated in Star Trek: Enterprise. This resin version I'm working on is an excellent limited-run kit designed and mastered by Pat Tomlinson.

This is my M4 LaCrosse Guided Missile System in 1:35th scale. It is based on the oft-used AFV Club M35A2 Deuce kit, backdated to the gasoline-powered M35. This Launcher will be "Phyllis", photos of the vehicle helping to make this miniature.

 

Lost in Space movie version of the spaceship Jupiter 2. The model kit isn't bad, just calling for some cleanup work to make it shine. This is a backburner project for me - I do little bits between other pressing projects and activities. It will be fully lit upon completion.

Italeri's nice, and overlooked in this age of hyper-detailed model kit, M47 Patton (II) MBT. This is another one I work on between projects and reviews simply because I want a series of Patton Tanks in my collection.