“It’s time to share my latest modeling project. Terry Beatty’s posts on his figure models inspired me to start building model cars again. The first of the new projects was a fanciful scene based on Ron Fortier and I making convention trips as Airship 27. The AMT reissue of their 1934 Ford pickup was the basis painted yellow creame with gloss black running boards/fenders. I printed up the door decal with the A-27 logo on my printer. I built and wired up the engine based on photos I found on the internet (tedious and time consuming!). The unpainted figures were ordered from 3D print service Shapeways and done up to look like Ron and myself.

The pushcart is a bit oversized but is a reasonable replica of the one I use at conventions. I scratch built it with styrene rods and tubes with an aluminum tube handle. The tires are cribbed from a cheap eBay hot wheels purchase that yielded pretty close approximations with a bit of engenuity and paint. The Amazon boxes on top were swiped images from the internet manipulated in Photoshop printed on card stock. The most difficult part was the truck’s chassis and fine parts. These old eyes and thick fingers made for a few expletive filled sessions.

Most fun was scratch building the cart, mostly by eyeballing it ( hence it not being exact to scale- but I’m happy with it!). Lastly I put together the black backdrop bag in the back of the truck using sprues from the kit draped with facial tissue coated with a water/white glue mixture and painted black. Next up may be the Polar Lights 1/25 1966 Batmobile if I can get over the nasty allergic reaction from last week. That one has some etched metal parts, something I’ve never dealt with before. FUN!”

On other fronts Rob has finished assembling our Airship 27 Podcast Episode # 78 which we recorded at the Con. You can find it on You Tube here. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O8ebS7pBvA0) He adds lots of images at the end from the con floor. Don’t miss this one, Loyal Airmen.

Now for something special. It’s been almost two years since our good friend Mark Halegua passed away. Mark was an enthusiastic pulp fan, collector and seller. He was a regular at both Windy City and Pulp Fest and one of the first of the old gang to welcome the Air Chief and Airship 27 Productions into that community. He was also a diehard Yankees fan, but we forgave him for that. Mark also had aspirations of writing and before he died, he shared some of his ideas and concepts with two well established pulp scribes; Nancy Hansen and Lee Houston Jr.

After Mark’s passing, the two of them contacted the Air Chief informing us that they wanted to take Mark’s notes and write the book he never got a chance to write. And so this past eight months or so, both of them diligently worked together and last week submitted their finished novel. With fingers crossed some time early next year, Airship 27 will release MARK HALEGUA’S THE BLUE LIGHT by Nancy Hansen & Lee Houston Jr.  And that Loyal Airmen, is why we love this community so much. Because these are people who truly love each other. Amen.

Ron – Over & Out.