And Just the Moon

 As I was taking pictures, I thought the moon looked pretty cool, so I decided to take a picture of it.

This is the first quarter phase moon.  The next full moon will be the worm moon on March 14.

A Nice Day for Spotting

 As you may have noticed, I haven't been taking many pictures lately.  Between the weather and being under the weather, I really haven't felt like going out to take pictures.  I almost fell into the same trap, but I took a look outside and wasn't going to let that happen.  The sun was shining, and it was in the upper 50s.  And if I look at the extended weather, that might not be the case later this week.

There wasn't much for me to take pictures of.  Most of the ships are still in layup and I didn't feel like driving up north, so I headed over to the airport.  The sun was perfect for that.

First up, a 737 coming in from Miami.  This is the Spirit of Seattle 737 for Delta.  I kind of wish Delta would do more of this.

A CRJ-900 coming in from Cleveland.

It was followed by a CRJ-550 coming in from Newark.

It seemed like it was going to be a CRJ day as this CRJ-900 came in from Clarksburg, West Virginia.  Not sure why though.

Of course, a plane that dragged me out.

This 757-300 was coming in from Fort Myers.

And because I love them so.

A CRJ-900 coming in from Montreal.

The other plane that dragged me out.

I love the 787.  This one was coming in from Amman, Jordan.

Because I love the livery too.

A Spirit Airlines A320 coming in from Orlanda with the moon.

An American 737 from Phoenix.

I actually thought they got rid of this livery, but I guess not.  An A320 from Houston.

An A320Neo from Fort Myers.

An American 737 from Dallas.  I think it was named Alice.

An A330-900 coming in from Amsterdam.

And the moon.

Another shot.

A United 737 coming in from O'Hare.

An A321 from Atlanta.

An American Embrear from O'Hare.

My last plane of the day was a 757-300 from Fort Lauderdale.

I can't get enough of this plane.

Because I think it looks beautiful.

Especially straight out.

With some clouds.

I hope to not be as much of a stranger.

A Brief Stop in Cincinnati

 Last week, I had to go down to Toyota in Georgetown, Kentucky for a presentation on some quality issues.  It was a nice day as I was heading back, so I first stopped at the plane spotting park for the Cincinnati Airport.

The spotting park is in a pretty nice location.  It gives a pretty decent view of most of the runways (except for the one that is behind the buildings in this picture).  Sadly, I did not have my proper camera so all these pictures were taken with my cell phone but that proves the adage that the best camera is the one you have with you.  Unfortunately, I had to use the maximum zoom, so quite a bit of detail was lost.

This was a Kalitta Air 747 that was getting loaded for somewhere.

An American Airlines Airbus A320.  I'm not sure where this was coming in from because I can't really read the tail numbers but I do like the picture.

A 737 belonging to Amazon.  It was pretty cool to see some liveries that I don't normally see.

A hawk that was flying around near the park.

An United Airlines Embrear.

This Embrear belonged to American Airlines.

A Frontier Airlines plane coming in.  This had the Grizzly Bear on the tail.

This is an A330 that belongs to Amazon.

After the stop at the airport, I stopped at Devou Park.  I love the view of Cincinnati from here.  It was still a nice enough day.

I was able to catch a river barge as she sailed along the Ohio River.

Another view of the Cincinnati skyline.  Again, I wish I had my proper camera.

One more view of the river barge before moving on my way.

I apologize that I haven't done many updates to my blog lately.  It has been pretty cold lately and I haven't felt up to dealing with that.  I think it's supposed to start warming up again, so that will help.  

A Cold Day With My Models

 It looked like a cold day and when I checked the weather it said mid-20s with gusts of wind.  I probably could handle the mid-20s, but gusts of wind, not so much.  So I decided to stay home.

Days like this give me a chance to show of some of my recent builds though.  I suppose that's a good thing.

I've seen people online who do a much better job with their models and I admire their patience but I'm happy with good enough for me.  I don't ever plan to enter any models in contests.  If I did, I would have to spend alot more time building them.  I don't think it's a case of my skills, it's more a case of my patience.  Anyway, a frontal shot of this P-40 Warhawk.  The kit is a 1/72 Airfix kit.  And these kits have improved greatly from the kits of my youth.  This one was actually a pleasure to build and didn't require much finagling. 

The plane itself has a pretty interesting story:

I would weather this one but the actual one only served about 9 months. She was issued serial number 41-13297 and delivered to the Army Air Force in June 1941. During October 1941, this particular aircraft made a wheels up landing and was repaired. This plane was undamaged on December 7, 1941. On January 24, 1942, 1st Lt. Kenneth Sprankle took off for a patrol mission over Oahu. This plane spun out and crashed, killing the pilot. The aircraft only had 56 flying hours.

It remained where it was until 1985 when the plane was salvaged. It was restored by the Planes of Fame group and was shipped to the United Kingdom. In December of 2013, it was bought by an anonymous sponsor for the Collings Foundation. In 2014, it experienced another accident but was repaired. It is currently at the American Heritage Museum in Massachusetts.

Next up is the famous P-51 Mustang.  This one was a 1/72 Academy Kit.  I think it was a fairly newer kit and was also pretty fun to build.  The decals were a bit of a challenge though.  As I lost the ones that would have had the plane's name.

A frontal shot.

This was one that I tried my hand at doing some weathering to the plane.  I used a dry brush to simulate the power from the guns firing and the smoke and oil from the engine.  

I think it looks pretty nice.

HMS Prince of Wales.  This is a 1/700 scale Tamiya kit.  I think it was an older kit but Tamiya kits have always been pretty good, so this wasn't too bad to build.

HMS Prince of Wales was one of the ships that was involved in the hunt of the Bismarck.  She went out with the Hood but had a fairly inexperienced crew.  She was able to land a couple blows on the Bismarck which lead to the Captain of the Bismarck deciding to head back to port.  The Prince of Wales was damaged later in the engagement.  After her repairs, should would be used to host the Atlantic Conference between Churchill and Roosevelt.

In October 1941, she was transferred to the Far East Fleet.  On December 10th, she would be sunk by the Japanese.

A Sopwith Camel.  This was a 1/72 Academy kit.  The only tough spot was putting on the wing struts.  I also had to look up pictures online because there weren't good painting instructions.

The Sopwith Camel first flew in December of 1916.  It would become the best known fighter of World War I.  By its retirement in 1920, over 5,000 were built.  

I will say it was a pretty cool looking plane.