About Me

A little about me:

I think I first saw Star Wars in the early 90’s, but it wasn’t until I got the VHS THX Mastered version that I started buying Star Wars toys. For some reason, I never wanted the Kenner figures and vehicles; they weren’t “movie accurate” in my opinion. Yet, I loved the Galoob Micro Machines. So naturally, when the AF line came out, I started collecting them. When the AF line died, I decided to collect the Titanium series to fill the gaps in my AF collection.

I didn’t start customizing anything until around 2002-03. I started small, by creating several ships that never saw a Micro Machines release. It was during this time that I purchased a Dremel rotary tool, a real lifesaver for kit-bashing. In 2005, I started scale modeling of German WWII aircraft. Still, I kept wanting to do more with my Star Wars collection. Soon after, I began kit-bashing some of my Action Fleet vehicles. Not too long afterward, I was buying all kinds of supplies and making new AF customs based on existing vehicles.

These days, with a lot of patience and encouragement (and a great online community), I am building vehicles, starships, and some completely original designs. My hope is that I will inspire other people to try their hand at models/customs and enjoy this amazingly rewarding hobby.

A little about my philosophy on scale modeling:

I started scale models with German WWII aircraft, which is a great subject with many dedicated sites and reference material. If you talk to most modelers about this or any modeling subject, you find that they like making replicas of something. These are exact duplicates of what existed, and making them accurate is what they enjoy. Now I have no problem with that at all. I think it takes a lot of skill and patience to get the number of rivets or bolt-heads accurate on a model plane, especially when they are the size of a pinhead. But for me, I really prefer making what I think looks best, which sometimes conflicts with historical accuracy. I don’t mind if the markings are wrong, the colors are wrong, or if the bloody tires need to be flatter. I feel that this is why many younger people don’t take up this hobby; they feel too confined by the “standards.”

Therefore, I went to the sci-fi genre, which I still feel is open to the most freedom of creativity. This is not to say that we are the craftiest, but we can do anything we want and call it sci-fi...and you can’t argue that. Of course, I still know some people who feel like they have to get the battle damage on the X-wing just right, but that’s fine with me. I’m doing models the way I want and painting them the way I want. I don’t begrudge anyone their way of doing something, but this is only a hobby for me, and I would rather enjoy doing it my way than someone else’s.

I hope that more younger people will get into this hobby, and do so in a way they enjoy...regardless of how someone tells them do it.

Scale-modeling is an art:

Build it as you want

Paint it as you want

Weather it as you want

No one can tell you you’re wrong.

29 Comments

  8. Hi there, been using your site for most of the day cataloging my action fleet collection. An amazing resource! I never knew there were so many different variants of ships. One thing I noticed is that most of your ships have the black with gold text for stands. However some of the ships I have, only have the plain black text (the worst looking one) and yet there are no variants for those ships listed on your website.

    Did you just buy the stands separately, paint them yourself, or is there something i’m missing? I’m getting a display case for these and just noticed this now. It’s going to drive me crazy to not have them all match. Look forward to hearing from you! 🙂

    • Hey man, glad my site is proving useful. I think I have all of the major variants listed. Now, for stands, check of the Variations page. Originally, Galoob released the stands with silvery, rainbow-like, reflective text. After the first wave, they switched to gold for most of their releases. Then, for their final few Classic ships (like the E-wing and TIE Defender), they switched to black. Episode I stands were all black. But Hasbro resurrected the gold text for their 2002 releases, as well as the Titanium Ultras. Best!!

  9. Hi Jonathan,

    Great stuff! Really digging the Rebel tanker. It’s a little tough to tell just from the photos — assuming the door under the cockpit is about 2 meters, how long would that make your tanker, roughly?

    Thinking of doing a paper model to scale with my tiny paper Millennium Falcon, crediting you, of course! And if you don’t mind 🙂

    -David C.

    • Thanks man, that will be cool to see. The door piece I used was 1/350 scale, so I based it’s size on that. It’s about 28 cm long, so probably 98 m actual size.

      Best!

      • Great! Thanks, That’s invaluable. I’m currently working on a Medical Frigate, which is just a heckova thing to do at this scale. If you’re interested you can see my stuff at the website I entered on your form.

        If you happen to have any ortho views of your tanker you don’t mind sharing, my e-mail is david@otherlifeart.com .

        Cheers!

        • That is some insane detail on paper models. The Blockade Runner looks spot on to the movie miniature. I can’t wait to see what you do with the Frigate.

  10. Beautiful work on your projects! I was googling sci fi scratch building, hoping for something inspiring and one of your images came up (My wish came true). I ended up commenting here as your modelling philosophy is as endearing as your projects. The sci fi genre allows aesthetics to counterbalance veracity and enlivens the imagination. I hope to pilfer your roject logs for ideas that could help me build war gaming terrain. Rather than vehicles I work mostly on figures but a stirring narrative needs momentous sets as well as a heroic cast of characters. Your Skip-ray blast boat has given me some direction on how I might construct a squad transport/close support gunship. Thanks!

  11. Your doing a great job my friend. I love your work. This is my 10th time to this website. I’m just getting into the hobby. I love the Galoob Action fleet. I was to old to collect them in the mid 90’s, besides I began to have kids. Now their graduation high school and I finally have time and money. lol Some of my favorite of Galoob toys are the Star Ship Troppers and Aliens. I believe the Aliens dropship is the holy grail of this whole line. Do you have a favorite?

    • Thanks man, I’m glad it’s helping. I love the Starship Troopers, Aliens, and Predator Galoob toys. I don’t have many of them, but they are nice. I would probably agree that the Aliens dropship may very well be the rarest of the “released” Action Fleet toys. There are dozens of unproduced Action Fleet however, like the Star Destroyer and the Mining Transport from Aliens.

      If I had to pick a favorite, I love the Imperial Landing Craft. It had so many features and I love the design of it.

      Best!

  12. Fantastic work! If it wasn’t for you, where would we get all this valuable information? You are awesome! Thank you for all your hard work and dedication to the toys we all love.

  15. I just started kitbashing micromachines. the scale of ships has haunted me since the Space 1999 Eagle. yet i did fit a stormtrooper in there once,but his left arm got a truckers tan from being outside the cockpit window

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