Doing some modeling

As most of you know, I'm an avid modeller, and have gotten to the point where I've gotten almost everything I want for my collection built or in my stash.

Two VERY noticeable exceptions to this rule are my Unicorns, things I would LOVE to own that would round off my extensive collection quite nicely.

The first is a truly historic aircraft that is near and dear to my heart, and would round off my Golden Age, Milestones in Flight, and Pioneers collections quite well.  She is a 1/72 Junkers W33 to represent the Bremen, the first aircraft to fly the Atlantic nonstop East to West.  There was only ever one made, by RT Models, and she is extremely rare to find these days.  A pic of this kit box is below.

The other, also in 1/72 scale, and which used to be on eBay quite a bit 5-7 years ago (and I didn't pick one up then, dammit), is one of the iconic TV aircraft of my youth, the highly modified Bell 222 known as Airwolf.  This was a limited-run kit made, I believe, in Korea (if anyone knows what language is on the box and can tell me the name of the company, I'd be obliged) but it's listed in some places as made by Union/MPC.  I have the Blue Thunder by the same company already, and getting Airwolf would finish off my Hollywoodland collection quite well.

If anyone knows of someone who has these kits, or is someone, I'd be greatly appreciative of being put in touch with them so I can get my hands on these last couple of models for my collection.

 Here is one of my most recent builds, a kitbash of the Revell B-17F and the Academy B-17F Flying Fortress.  By combining the two kits, I was able to come up with a historically accurate version of the Memphis Belle, an aircraft I had the honor of visiting at the National Museum of the United States Air Force in Dayton, Ohio, and of which I met the pilot, Colonel Robert Morgan, at an airshow in Tampa the year before he passed.

COOOOOOOOOONNNNNNN!!!!! (In a Shatner voice)

As many of you are already aware, this weekend I attended the Fanboy Expo Tampa here at the Hilton downtown.  UNLIKE my usual attendance to these events, though, I wasn't working in any capacity whatsoever, whether as crowd control, photography, or as companion/gopher to the Celebrity guests, but this time just went as a fan.  And, since a few of the people I've been lucky enough to meet through Cons in the past few years are amongst the best in Cosplay, I thought I'd try my hand at it.

Since Jewel Staite and Sean Maher were the featured guests, I decided to go as Jayne Cobb, the Hero of Canton.  As you will see below....I wasn't the only one! (Although I was the tallest)

Shiny.  Let's be bad guys.  Anyone remember the grenades??

There were quite a few of us in Firefly gear, and an improptu group Browncoats shot was arranged:

 Loved this group shot so much I'm posting it from both photographers I met at Fanboy Expo, Travis Kirk and Justin Rentz.  Which reminds me......Gents, I need to order 11x17s of these from each of you!!!!

 

The "Official" photo with Sean and Jewel

 

The rest of these from Fanboy Expo are from MY camera ;)

I always seem to find a Shindig Kaylee whenever Jewel is around....takes some talent to make that frilly "Layer cake" dress!!

Got to meet another of the amazing Cosplayers on the circuit, and tell me that this Wonder Woman isn't pretty much perfect!

At one point in the afternoon, Jewel and Sean went out to goof off with a couple of the R2 units at the convention.  I fired off three or four quick shots as they started to get mobbed by photographers, and of those, I loved this shot the best, and, apparently they did too, since it showed up on both of their twitter and instagrams!!

I hope you all enjoy the pictures half as much as I did the event itself!!!

Also, if you could take a minute out of your day, one of our Con family needs help. See below:

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