Darren Roberts

I am SO sorry to hear about what you had to deal with. Please remember not to spend too much time on ARC. Maybe only do weekly updates. 70 hours is still a TON of hours to be working. Make sure you have balance in your life.

Hey fellow Syracusan! Are you doing the original scheme or the viper tail scheme? As an aside, we just had salt potatoes for lunch. I've gotten many a Kansan hooked on them!

Just to clarify, there isn't such a thing as a "Bombcat". Any variant (A,B,D) could carry ordnance. By the end of the it's career, all airframes were wired to drop ordnance. In regards to what squadrons you can do, if you do out of box as an A, you can put VF-14, -41, -101, -154, and -211 markings on it. If you get ahold of a set of Revell/Monogram GE F110 parts from their F-14D kit, you can do a B model from the Academy. In that case, you can do VF-11, -101, -102, -103, and -143. I feel like I might be missing one, but I'm too lazy to double check. 😄

There was also this awesome group of guys at the table next to us at Sprue Bros. They did some sort of podcast. 😄

Nats was absolutely fantastic! 2808 was the total number of entries. If you take into account collections, it's probably over 3,000. The above mentioned companies decided to attend the Hobbytown convention rather than IPMS. It makes sense, as there's more potential money at the HT convention. In regards to COVID, that seems awfully quick turnaround. If you were there Wednesday and went home Sunday, that doesn't seem like a lot of time for symptoms to show.

You just weren't meant to purchase anything yesterday. 😄

Yeah! The Knighthawks finally got some color. The original markings had to be the most boring SH markings out there.

I live in Olathe, KS and at the airport (former NAS Olathe) there's a former River Rattler A-4L on display. They have it painted up in Marine markings, but I've been trying to get the airport to change them to VA-204 markings. Unfortunately, that's like getting blood from a turnip! I would imagine you probably worked on the one that's on display here.

Rookie. I'm up to seven times now and will see it again this week. 😂 AMC A-List is a wonderful thing to have!

They're going to repaint it? Excellent! I'm assuming they will do it correctly this time. What time frame were the red stripes on landing gear pants?

Ish, you're missing out. Don't go see the movie as a historical documentary, go for the pure entertainment of it. It is an extremely well done movie, and even actual Topgun and Naval Aviators have loved it. While there are technical errors due to the limitations of filming and keeping the story going, it is actually quite accurate in portraying what it's like to be up in a jet. I've seen it five times now, and plan to see it a couple more. It's that good.

I always get SAM and SAMI mixed up. Rumor has one of those going away. We'll find out soon enough at IPMS Nats in Omaha in a couple of months.

As they used to say on the Tonight Show...You are correct, sir! It's not unlike what's happening in the music industry. No longer do you need a label to get your music out to the general public. Some good social media exposure and you're on your way. I know it's not that simple, but it's getting there. If some kid can become a millionair for shilling toys, anything is possible.

I'll jump into the discussion, since it's near and dear to my heart. Printing costs have gone through the roof. They dropped to six printed issues, but on the "off" months there is a digital copy with new content, so you're actually getting more than before. FSM has always been a multi-content magazine. Autos are the new thing, since Scale Auto got dropped. Most modelers outgrow FSM as they get better, as FSM is for the beginner/intermediate, not necessarily the advanced builder. With that said, I find the content to be quite good, even if it's not in my genre. I've learned new tec

I either put my finished builds into museum displays, the museum gift shop, or sell them on eBay. Of the hundreds (thousands!) of models I've built, I only have less than a dozen in a display case. Of course, I live in a townhouse with no basement, so there isn't any room to display them anyway. My wife would kill me if I tried to have a display case in the family room. 😄