Back From the Nats 2015

I'm back a few days now from Columbus, OH and the IPMS/USA Nationals 2015. It was a very nice time with terrific seminars, 2K+ models and it was a chance to meet up with old friends.  I'm a member of the Real Space Modelers Yahoo group. We use the Nats as a groups get together with either a lunch ordinance and a seminar. During the seminar a member or two of the group usually presents in what he has been working on. This year there was a short history of Vanguard from a member that scratch built a terrific Vanguard rocket. Another member also gave a double talk in the New Horizons he built as well as a new GK venture he's started.  His first kit will be a 1:24 scale Huygens probe to Titan.  He had a trial cast with him and it looks really great.  I can't wait for production to start. 

All the models were top notch. I really didn't envy the judge's job.  

Another feature for the Nats was a tour to Wright Patterson Air Force Museum.  This included the R&D and Presidential plane Hangars. It was amazing to see so much history in one room.  After we went to the Museum proper where they had 4 hangars with planes chronologically from the Wright flyer thru a mock middle silo and the aircraft after the Cold War. An amazing place. If you're anywhere near Columbus, OH, you have to stop by for at least a visit.  Oh yeah- get there early- there's a lot to see. 

Muroc AD-1

After finishing the New Horizons model, I was looking for something that I could get through quickly. 
Looking through my pile, I came across Muroc's AD-1 model. Muroc was a garage kit Co. that was based out of the gift shop of Edwards Air Force Base. They put out a number of kits before going into hiatus a year or so ago.
The AD-1 is a resin kit of an experimental variable wing aircraft . There were 79 flights between 1979 and 1982  which evaluated the basic pivot-wing concept and gathered information on handling qualities and aerodynamics at various speeds and degrees of pivot.

New Horizons in 1:5th scale

Been busy for a while. I was commissioned by a NJ Science Center to build a New Horizons (NH) probe. The only instructions I had was to make it as close to 24" as possible. Naturally I jumped at the project. 
The first thing I had to do was to get large sized plans of NH. I took the .pdf blue prints from the New Horizons site, printed them out and took them to my local Staples. what I got back fit the bill perfectly --

NH blueprint with an 18" ruler for scale.