Happy to announce that my latest batch of downloadable tracks – a whole gaggle of sets designed for 1/16 scale Shermans and other VVSS vehicles – are now available over on Patreon and Cults3D. 5 track types In total, 5 track types are available, all designed to fit Andy’s Hobby Headquarters M10s and Achilles (and…hopefully…future VVSS releases). T48 rubber chevron T51 rubber pad (non-reversible) T54E1 steel chevron T41 rubber pad (reversible) WE210 rubber “double-I” All of the tracks come with C55592 end connectors and full-width track pins that are designed to be press-fit, leaving you wit ..read more

It seems like every single post I make documenting my progress on the TBD-1 Devastator attracts questions I’ve already answered at least five times. In the interest of not posting a short novel with every single pic, not answering the same questions over and over again, and trying to remember that I’m the only one so deep in the weeds on this one, I’ve decided to start up this FAQ post. Where I’ll be collecting and answering common questions. What scale is it?  1/32 What kit is it? 1/32 Trumpeter Douglas TBD-1 Devastator I don’t have the patience for that Don’t sell yourself short. You ..read more

As 2023 races to a close, I find myself looking to 2024, and what I want to accomplish. I don’t particularly subscribe to resolutions. I hate goal-setting at work. But I think it can be useful, especially after a year of systemic breakdown, to have some kind of direction in mind. Besides, from bitter experience, I tend to do best when I can plant some kind of flag. Give me a fixed variable and I can build a world around it. So with that in mind, I’m going to introduce my focus points for 2024. These aren’t resolutions. They aren’t goals. They aren’t really specific enough for that. They’re mor ..read more

In order to understand my 2023, you really have to start with my 2022. 2022 was the year the wheels kinda-sorta came off my life. I spent months going to various specialists trying to get to the bottom of mystery pains. I left one job for another, and got tossed aside in layoffs six months later. I was diagnosed with diabetes. I quit smoking. I started exercising 5-6 days per week. I completely upended my diet. I started a new-new job. 2023 was the year that all of that caught up with my modeling. Things started off fine. I was having a ball with the Zoukei-Mura and Meng F-4G Wild Weasels. And ..read more

The past week or three have been so full of hot takes about creativity and innovation – or the lack thereof – that it’s feeling like the rhetorical equivalent of a Soviet artillery barrage. And watching the shells rip by, something about the whole whatever this is just hasn’t sat right with me. I couldn’t put my finger on it. So I just kinda shut up and screwed around in Fusion 360 since that’s my current hyperfixation. Rinaldi made a video. Chris Meddings wrote an excellent blog post. So did Jake McKee, taking a more analytical rather than creative look at the nature of innovation. And most r ..read more

I’m not a fan of vinyl tires. Never have been. Awful paint adhesion, difficult to remove mold seams, awkward gaps and fit with the wheels, all of it. Generally, if it has vinyl tires, they’re getting replaced by resin. The only exceptions in my display cabinet are when there literally were not wheels available (that’s now a thing of the past with 3D printers…). At the time, there were no resin wheels for the 1/32 Dauntless. Lame.The Tiger ERC-90’s tires couldn’t hold the wheels properly, so the thing would sag inward. UGH. AK’s recent forays into offroady things brought with it some awesome su ..read more

In most years, the usual post-Nats churning would be settling down by now. But 2023 is simply not most years. We’ve had sub implosions and Hawaii burning and orcas waging asymmetrical warfare against yachters. We’re gonna have a crazy eclipse in about two months. The government was like…”yeah aliens”…and NOBODY GAVE A SHIT. So I guess it’s not surprising that the fallout from the 2023 Nats would turn out to be…extra. Let’s play a bit of “previously on…” before I spill the tea. If you’re as terminally online as I am and already know all of this, feel free to scroll down a bit. Previously on… If ..read more

In March and April of this year (2023), things got bad. Life felt unrelenting, work was stressing me out, and I could feel myself bogging down on the Wild Weasels. And the AK FJ43. Every time I’d fire up a build and intend to just kinda plow through it, I’d fall into some kind of hole and lose steam. Turns out while I was feeling overwhelmed and burned out, there was another, deeper explanation – moderate to severe depression! Got diagnosed, got put on SSRIs, and have been dialing in doses with my doctor since then. And things have gotten…better. Some days, it feels like getting new shocks on ..read more

Post-Nats takes are almost as much of an event as the Nats itself. And this year things have coalesced around two main points of contention – the perennial back and forth over the shortcomings of IPMS USA’s judging paradigm, and the firestorm of indignation caused by a judge hoisting a tank to the heavens to look at its underside. In both cases, one defense is marshalled again and again. IPMS is made up of volunteers. So what do you expect? You know what that is? That’s an excuse. A justification to not duck, I don’t know, responsibility? Ambition? Know what else is comprised of volunteers? Ev ..read more

By now, most of us have seen the photo of a judge at IPMS Nats holding a Char 1B aloft like it’s fucking Simba in the Circle of Life. This has generated a lot of heated discussion about the lack of respect for the builder’s work, the absolute unnecessity of looking at the bottom of tanks, and the impropriety of picking up models unless absolutely necessary – much less holding them aloft to introduce them to all the prey animals that worship you as their god king. It’s also generated a lot of IPMS huffiness. Huff! You have to judge the entire model! Huff! You filthy peasants should just be hap ..read more