Myasishchev M-55 Geophysica 1/48 - Abandoned...

Yes, people. I abandoned this build. The half-finished frame lies in the bin. The printed pages are in the waste paper basket. I had serious trouble with the skin of the plane. It probably is my own incompetence, since I saw Maxim's finished version, which looked fine.
Fact remains that to me, this hobby is meant to be relaxing, a means to clear my mind of bothers and most importantly, to have fun. This build was troubling my mind and wasn't fun any more. So there.
What is next? Your guess is as good as mine. We'll see!

--PK

Clear Skies, John Young.

NASA astronaut John Young has left the earth for good, 87 years old.
Being a veteran of two Gemini flights, two Apollo flights - one od which brought him ti the lunar surface - and two space shuttle missions under his belt, you can consider John Young one of the most broadly experienced astronaut of them all. No other astronaut has flown  that many different missions.
Being chosen to NASA in the second batch of astronauts,John Young trained together with Gus Grissom for the first manned Gemini flight. He was the first (and only) astronaut to smuggle a corned beef sandwich into space. He then commanded Gemini 10 with Mike Collins as his pilot. Apollo 10 was flown by Young as Command Module Pilot. His colleagues Tom Stafford and Gene Cernan descended to 15 km above the lunar surface with the LM to pave the way for Apollo 11 that would fly next and would actually land.
Young did land on the moon with Apollo 16. Together with Charlie Duke he drove around in a lunar rover and spent 71 hours on the lunar surface, conducting three moon walks.
Then, in 1981, he commanded the first STS space shuttle mission, together with Bob Crippen. They spent two days in space with the new spacecraft to test it. Young's last space mission was STS-9 in 1983. All in all he is the only one who has flown four different types of spacecraft, Gemini, the Apollo, the Lunar Module and the Space Shuttle orbiter. He kept working for NASA until his retirement in 2004, when he was 74.
He died on the fifth of january. Clear Skies, John.

photo: wikimedia / NASA

Myasishchev M-55 Geophysica 1/48 [part 1]

The first long-duration build of this year. Hopefully one with a prosperous end. Maxim from MaksArt treated us last year with a lot of splendid new models, amongst others this beautiful Myasishchev M-55 Russian (former) spy plane, designed to be built in 1/33!

photo: Wikimedia.org / Aleksandr Rebrov

The M-55 is quite an attractive plane to see, with its twin boom tail and its long wingspan. It also has an interesting history.
More on that below.

Let's start 2018 with a 1/40 PZL-104 Wilga

And a happy new year to you all.
A new year with a couple of long during builds ahead and also hopefully a busload of inbetweenies. Here's a nice inbetweenie to start it all. 

Some time ago, paper model designer Julius Perdana made a model of a very charming little plane from Poland. The PZL-104 Wilga looks like it’s a ton of fun to fly. A thin tail boom, a straight high wing (providing a good view, also big (BIG!) windows) and a cabin that makes the whole of the airplane look a little like a dragonfly. Add those cute bendy knee-landing gear struts and you have an altogether very attractive plane. Sort of a modern nephew to the Fieseler Storch. I just made this model as-is. I only thickened the tail wheel and used some ribbed cardboard for the insides of the main gear wheels.
This was practically a one-day build, with a short night rest in between the two sessions.
The plane really was fun to build and the fit was next to perfect. I even left the glue tabs as it was, so no hassle with extra inner glue strips and all that. Just good fun. 
Below you'll find more pics and comments.