Thanks checkmate! I appreciate it. I certainly hope to keep that personal touch in my modeling. I’m not sure that I would keep modeling without it. I like the physical parts of modeling but it’s the mental parts that I enjoy the most. Working out problems is part of that, but as I am making the model planes, I envision dad a young officer flying his first plane, flying his first twin-engine, instructing I know not how many other budding pilots. I can’t fathom the fear he must have felt flying missions in Vietnam, including routine missions over the infamous Ho Chi Minh trail. When I did the Missouri/England diorama, I could imagine the spray in his face when he and the other members of the Naval Academy football team made the “UNREP”, and as I am (slowly) building the Wisconsin, I can see him watching the movies they watched in the hanger while riding out Hurricane Barbara and running football plays on the flight deck. As I was making Greenling for Travis I reheard the stories he has told me of his experiences while serving on her and the mixed feelings he still has about the experience. Those thoughts and the feelings that accompany them are perhaps the best part of modeling and why I enjoy it so much.
TomZ2 is perhaps correct. I have dabbled with sketching and water color painting throughout my life and enjoy it for many of the same reasons that I enjoy modeling. I don’t know that I have a gift, and I am certainly not a genius, but I sure am having fun.
Thanks Guys!