Sabre_days

My apologies for the long absence...I'm back and first off, a big thank you to everyone who voted for this GB and also especially for @Corsairfoxfouruncle for looking after the thread over the past few months. @wimbledon99, welcome aboard! Thanks for joining in, you have been added to the list.

Hopefully better late than never, for a variety of reasons I haven't had much (read: any) time for modelling in the past few months, but I was finally able to get underway a week ago Thursday. My entry, in the Carriers subcategory, is Academy's new kit of USS Enterprise as she appeared at the Battle of Midway. It looks like a great kit in the bags and the build so far has only reinforced that impression: I'll follow up with some in-progress pics in the next few days.

Please count me in!

Quick question - would an F-16 be acceptable as a "Lockheed" product? And if so, would it have to be one manufactured after Lockheed-Martin absorbed General Dynamics' Fort Worth division, or would any Viper in service after the merger (and therefore supported by Lockheed-Martin) be okay? Longer explanation to why I'm asking - a few months ago I bought the digital PDF edition of the January, 1992 tenth anniversary issue of FineScale Modeler, which was shortly after my first few issues of FSM but one I missed at the time...there's a full-page ad for Academy-Minicraft (as it was at the time) in that issue that gave me an idea for this GB: It starts with the line "Past, Present or Future, 1/72 Scale is the Way to Go" followed by photos of three Academy-Minicraft kits representing the present (F-15E Strike Eagle), the future (F-117A Nighthawk) and the past (B-17B Flying Fortress). Aside from the heavy irony that the F-117 is long since retired and the F-15E is still going strong, that ad got me thinking that since this GB is dedicated to the products of a particular company (Lockheed), why not focus my choice of kits on those produced by a particular company (Academy) and take the theme from their magazine ad from 26 years ago and run with it?: The Past: P-38J Lightning The Present: F-16C Fighting Falcon (or, if that's off limits, F-22A Raptor) The Future: F-35A Lightning II Time permitting, the SR-71 Blackbird and F-117A Nighthawk might also fill in different eras of the past...

Please count me in. If we're still taking nominations, what about the Airfix P-51D (either 1:72 or 1:48)? Hard to beat for sheer variety of markings that can go on a more or less OOB build...

Bit late, I know, but I suppose it's time to flag down @Enzo Matrix to let him know we're at 30 with at least two co-hosts (possibly three, depending on @SleeperService's schedule)...

Yes they are...please don't reconsider on my account though, given my track record and building pace it's highly unlikely I'll finish anything other than the Mustang. At this point, it's probably best if I don't start anything else for this GB until it's finished... Sorry for the slow reply!

I've only given it a quick look over, but based on those first impressions I'm very impressed with it. Thanks!

The Willys MB / Ford GPW Jeep may have been the most versatile vehicle of World War II, and along with the countless duties it performed for just about every Allied army, it also served as the U.S. Navy's first aircraft carrier flight deck tractor from 1942 onwards. With the increasing weight of carrier-based aircraft (for instance, the TBF Avenger), the Navy recognized that hand-moving aircraft on deck was no longer practical, and the simple, rugged Jeep proved ideally suited to the task. Carrier-based Jeeps were quite heavily stripped down, so this should be a straightforward build. References are fairly limited (the photos linked by Alex Suvorov in his writeup on his build here, along with the writeup itself, are about it for what I've got, though this one also appears in World War II Jeep in Action, which was the original inspiration for the build), but luckily flight deck Jeeps seem to have usually been pretty anonymous-looking, so in the finest armour modelling tradition this will likely be a "generic" vehicle... The starting point:

Here's my entry, the new Airfix B-25D out of the box with kit markings: It looks like a really great kit, and I'm definitely looking forward to getting started on it...

My primary build will be a 414 Squadron Mustang I from the Academy kit, converted with Special Hobby parts and maybe a few aftermarket bits. Secondary possibilities include a 418 Squadron Mosquito FB.VI, a 404 Squadron Beaufighter X and maybe a Spitfire IX...

Welcome aboard, thanks for joining in! As Dennis already said, both Gundam and Transformers would be eligible for either Sci-Fi or Movie and TV...both great choices (and there's always room for more Star Wars, of course).

Having signed up for the P-38 STGB, please count me in...

Welcome aboard, thanks for joining in!

Sorry to hear that, hope you recover soon! I'd be happy to co-host if you're okay with someone with no prior hosting experience (though I am co-hosting Pacific at War for trickyrich, so I will have co-host experience by next year). And I will definitely be building the AT-AT. That and the Space Shuttle are my top picks, though I'd like to try and fit in at least one fast jet as well. Question is which one...I also remembered that the Gulf of Sidra Incident engagement between Libyan Su-22s and U.S. Navy F-14s was in 1981, and I have the recent "VF-84 Jolly Rogers 1980" boxing of the Academy F-14A in my stash, which has the VF-41 Black Aces aircraft involved in the 1981 Su-22 shootdown as secondary decal options (I think I also have a WolfPak sheet with the appropriate markings).