Steve N

And now for the main event...BOOM, TOTALITY! IMG_8727a by Steve Nelson, on Flickr I was surprised at how light the sky stayed..just a few planets and stars were visible. IMG_8729a by Steve Nelson, on Flickr A couple quick, blurry shots of the general area during totality. A friend who was in Missouri described it as a 360-degree sunset. IMG_8719 by Steve Nelson, on Flickr IMG_8720 by Steve Nelson, on Flickr ..And coming out of totality, the fabled Diamond Ring. IMG_8744a by Steve Nelson, on Flickr

Well OK then..here are the best of what I was able to get. First, just a normal sun, with no idea what's about to happen... IMG_8636a by Steve Nelson, on Flickr The first little nibble... IMG_8640a by Steve Nelson, on Flickr IMG_8657a by Steve Nelson, on Flickr This was the only time clouds moved in, and they were gone a within a minute or two. IMG_8663a by Steve Nelson, on Flickr The last little sliver before the big show.. IMG_8707a by Steve Nelson, on Flickr

Let's see if this works..flickr test. 20170821_131126 by Steve Nelson, on Flickr

Hey, I saw you! I considered Gander Mtn, but ended up in the mall parking lot outside Dillard's about a half-mile away, mosty becacuse there were a few trees that provided a bit of shade. We had a perfect view..hope yours was too! SN

Fantastic shots! I got some decent pics myself, but nothing that good. I drove down to Marion, Illinois for the show..about 500 miles. Fortunately fellow ARCer Supertom let me crash at he and his wife's place in Indianapolis, about the halfway point. I headed out Monday morning before sunrise. Google Maps said it was only 3 1/2 hours to Marion, but I had no idea what traffic would be like. Turned out getting in was easy. Traffic on southbound Interstate 57 was heavy, but moving well..I only hit a couple of slowdowns, and got there with hours to spare. Getting back out was another stor

I'm tentatively planning on a road trip to southern Illinois, about 500 miles south-southwest. I'll make a go/no-go decision in the next 24 hours based on the weather forecast. The problem right now is eclipse glasses..there isn't a pair to be found around here..the library, local science museum, and Wal Mart are all sold out. And we're only supposed to get about 81% totality. SN

I am compelled to ask: has anyone actually heard any of these supposed complaints? The reviewer simply said "some pople" probably won't like it due to the predominantly white male cast. All I've been able to find online are rants about "whiney SJWs and their PC crap," but I have yet to see any actual complaints about the ethnicity or gender of the cast (except a few who felt the French and Germans were under-represented.) The only actual complaints I've seen are just some people complaining about the complaints they assume other people are making. For the record, I consider myself a libe

I'm no 109 expert (nor do I play one on TV), but I believe the F used the same lighter-framed canopy as the late Es, and the Revell kit has the heavier-framed G canopy.

Same here..when I tried downloading my albums, I got to a box saying "preparing your download," which just sat there spinning its wheels. I let it go for a couple hours and gave up. Fortunately all I used PB for was forum posting, and everything I had there was already safely already on multiple storage devices (and in better resolution.) SN

I saw the F-4 and Huey when we visited Royal Gorge a couple weeks ago. Was gonna stop and take a pic on the way back, but it was pouring rain. There's a very nice memorial with an A-6 and Blue Angels F11F on poles at Grand Junction airport as well. And earlier in our road trip I spotted an F-14 in a park just off I-70 in the west Kansas town of Wakeeney. I'd post pics, but haven't set up a new photo hosting site yet since the PhotoBucket clusterflop. SN

I believe the model was called something like "direct ascent lunar rocket." I thought it was a Saturn V myself until I heard the announcement during the awards ceremony. SN

Duplicate Post. 😶

The wife and I are chilling in our hotel room after the awards banquet and model room stampede as everyone packs up. Had a fantastic time as always. Saw lots of great models..too many to remember! The 1/48 PB4Y-2 (using the unobtainium Cutting Edge Resin Conversion Set) was absolutely spectacular. In the sci-fi categories, this seemed to be the Year Of The Y-Wing. I saw at least a half-dozen..which was cool, as it's my favorite Star Wars ship. I didn't enter anything, just enjoyed drooling over everybody's awesome work, caught up with some folks I usually only see once a year, and picke

They got a B-47 at Yankee?

At the last Omaha Nats, there was a guy who built a ship model in the hotel common area. I think he entered it in the show on Saturday. SN

...and the news reports insist on calling it a "crash."

Since Lewis will have his A-20G at Oshkosh (it's already there, actually) I wonder if he'll make the short hop to Selfridge. I'd be there in a heartbeat if there's a chance to see a Havoc fly. SN

It's actually a shame, because other than the oversize nacelles, the old Matchbox A-20G/J is about the best of the early era 1/72 Havoc/Boston kits in terms of shape. If you're not completely committed to the G-model, and don't want to mess with the somewhat "fiddly" MPM/Special Hobby/Revell kit, the old-school (1960s vintage) Revell A-20C is actually pretty nice and can be found fairly cheap on the secondary market. SN

I have the current Revell A-20J (won it in a raffle) and can confirm it is a re-boxing of the MPM/Special Hobby kit. While I hear they are a bit "fiddly" to build, the MPM A-20 series are by far the best Havoc/Bostons in 1/72. The old Matchbox kit is pretty awful. Grossly oversized engine nacelles, extremely simplistic detail, and an odd combination of raised panel lines on the fuselage and infamous Matchbox "trenches" on the wings. SN

..and the windscreen as well. Hasegawa's 70s vintage 1/72 Mustangs and even Monogram's 60s-vintage 1/32 kit molded the windscreen and adjoining panels as a single piece..makes for a much cleaner join, since you don't have to try gluing the edges of the unpainted glass. And speaking of clear bits, what genius at Academy came up with boneheaded idea to mold the B-17 tail gunner's canopies in right and left halves, leaving an impossible-to-eliminate seam down the middle? But hands down, the one that drives me the furthest up the wall is the insistence of some manufacturer

I don't think Curtiss used DDG or BG. They used their own variation of Tinted Zinc Chromate in cockpits..any of the off-the-shelf U.S. Interior Greens would probably suffice for modeling purposes. SN

Sad to hear. I only met Mr. Marshman a couple of times at the IPMS Nationals, but he was always a real gentleman. And of course he was THE guy to go to for P-47 info. SN

Seriously? Back in my day, we had to wait THREE YEARS between Star Wars movies. And we didn't have no gol-darned fancy-shmancy "interweb" to watch trailers. We had to settle for occaisional unpredictable TV commercials and Starlog magazine, and only got to see the actual trailers in an actual theater. Kids..sheesh. "Last Jedi" does look interesting. Like others, I was a little lukewarm (see what I did there) about "Awakens." It was OK, but it felt too much like they'd simply recycled the plot of "New Hope." I realize that for a re-boot/sequel like this, it's sometimes neces

NO ONE expects the Spanish....oh wait, you said "translation." Never mind...

Nice work. I like that you didn't go overboard with the weathering. The PH strike aircraft were fairly new, clean and very well-maintained, but many modelers insist on making them filthy and beaten up. how did you do the folded aft canopy sections? SN