Modelers Recognizing Warriors

Scale modelers, acting on their own, seldom think they have much impact on returning battle weary veterans who have been injured in wartime, but a group of modelers working together on a common goal can have a tremendous impact.

ANNOUNCING Lifeboats For Warriors Project

This amazing project began with intentions of being a local community program, sponsored by the city Parks and Recreation Department.

Loss Of An Old Friend

Mamoli was located in Italy and recognized by many as one of the best wooden ship model producers.

According to model Ship World the offices and factory were a total loss.

There is some speculation that they might try to bring it back in the future.

One of my first wooden ship models was produced by Mamoli.

So, How Do You Cobble Together An Air Force?

They were part of the Machal, or the Volunteers. In effect, they founded the Israeli Air Force. David Ben-Gurion, Israel's first prime minister, would later say they saved the nation.

Their remarkable story is the subject of a new Spielberg documentary--not Steven Spielberg, but his sister, Nancy.

She produced the film, called "Above and Beyond," which includes recollections by several of the pilots.

The film was screened at the Jerusalem Film Festival this summer, with the audience giving one Machal pilot, 94-year-old Lou Lenart, a standing ovation. "Above and Beyond" also opened the Calgary Jewish Film Festival earlier this month. The film was screened at the Jerusalem Film Festival this summer, with the audience giving one Machal pilot, 94-year-old Lou Lenart, a standing ovation. "Above and Beyond" also opened the Calgary Jewish Film Festival earlier this month.

The production will come to theater screens in 2015, and Spielberg told The Jerusalem Post she plans to turn the documentary into a feature film.

"One of the hardest parts of making the movie was deciding what I had to leave out. There were so many capers, so many stories, you can't include them all," she said.

In 1966, Hollywood told the story of one of the heroic pilots, Mickey Marcus, in the film, "Cast a Giant Shadow," starring Kirk Douglas. Marcus was killed by friendly fire in battle.

Tinseltown hasn't paid much attention since then. Film Trailer The American Machal pilots not only risked their lives, they also risked their citizenship. With urging from the State Department and the Pentagon, the United States had placed an arms embargo on Israel, fearing reprisals and backlash from Arab leaders that could endanger oil supplies.

The State Department made every effort to stop President Harry Truman from recognizing Israel in May, 1948. Having failed that, the leadership succeeded in an official embargo.

Israel had tremendous difficulty cobbling together the planes, military equipment, and personnel needed to stave off attacks from Egypt, Jordan, Syria, and Iraq.

Thanks in large measure to the pilots from places like Brooklyn, New York, and St. Paul, Minnesota, the new nation survived, then thrived.

Your Journey To Perfection

If you scratch build structures in N Scale for instance, how many times do you rebuild an outside stairway handrail...I wanted to say before you give up, but that is not my reality.

Even at 75 with eyesight slipping, I persist. After two or three attempts at doing it "freehand", I develop a jig to hold things steady and keep them evenly spaced.

The other and often more important element is taking the time to practice what you are attempting.

Who ever heard of practicing modeling, I’ll get my practice by working on my current project, the famous learn-by-doing model that results in many oops utterances until we reach the point of having to junk a pretty expensive kit.

How do you learn a new technique?

#1 To learn something, we must Isolate, Concentrate, Exaggerate, and Repeat.

--Isolate a particular problem, or new element you want to learn. Focus your practice time on these specifics.

--Concentrate not only on these specifics but each individual modeling technique until you get it.

--Exaggerate by slowing down your moves, to the point you can see every detail. Finishing it is not half as important as seeing everything that goes into your routine. For instance, how you hold a knife or brush, the way you apply masking.

--Repeat---Once you have the details fixed in your mind, repeat the step 10-20 times keeping track of how many you make a mistake and analyze them to correct.

#2 Only Perfect Practice makes perfect

#3 Practice drills are most productive when they are progressive drills.

#4 "Our minds can only absorb what our butts can endure!"

I can honestly say my practice sessions have not always shown a less than an “I’m here to have fun” attitude. They have shown a lack of concentration, consistency and yes even courage.

In our day to day lives, the virtue of courage doesn't receive much attention. Courage is a quality reserved for soldiers, firefighters, and activists. Security is what matters most today. Perhaps you were taught to avoid being too bold or too brave. It's too dangerous. Don't take unnecessary risks. Don't draw attention to yourself in public. Follow family traditions. Don't talk to strangers. Keep an eye out for suspicious people. Stay safe.

As a result, embarking on a $500+ build of a period warship or a $90 N Scale structure kit seem pretty low on the totem pole in terms of gauging success.

It was more fun to think about rigging a plastic model, attempting Ready-To-Fly models and even dabbling (that is the right word) with interior construction of an N Scale building. I had seen the masters complete such projects, yes, practiced, but nothing that would do my modeling any good.

What I lacked was a real solid plan for practicing. It needs to be a plan that is based on growing knowledge; therefore it needs to be flexible. It needs to provide an action strategy and though it needs certain risk to challenge me, it has a have a “Do It Now approach.

I fell back on my old Journalism tools, the three R's Reading, Researching and Writing and game up with a guide:

"Scale Model Practice Today: BYOB (Bring Your Own Brain)”.

This is a brief eBook I wrote about my journey to perfection (I haven’t reached the final stop yet) but I have devised a series of practice plans that make the trip a lot more likely

Once you read and apply it, you will use it over and over and over again... and wonder how you could ever have modeled without it.

No, it won't turn you into a John Allen of model railroading, nor will you likely produce a Carl Goldberg RC model with your first effort or ____________________ (plug in your favorite mentor).. But you will be forever more practiced and you will have goals for your hobby, no matter what your particular bent.

Master and use the irresistible and unstoppable power of Practice Makes Perfect!

It's Getting Too Late For Second Guessing

Oh sure we made it through World War II, borrowed our way through and economic collapse the left the US $18.2 trillion in debt, reaped both the benefits and the hazards of sloshing around for a century in petroleum, have dammed and piped our way around a global water crisis, and while the debate rages on about climate change who can doubt we are in the midst of global warming.

There can be no doubt about it, we're now living in post-Christian America, where mind-numbing is fstatistics and rampant immoral activities are commonplace, isn't it time we wake up and smell the coffee? I submit to you that this time it's different—that God is telling us this is not a time for business as usual!

Lessons From Jeremiah

I'm in The midst of a Bible study on the book of Jeremiah and have noticed several themes we are going to have to learn to deal with:

~Ignored warning

~Lost opportunities

~Widespread detestable practices and lewd acts

~Mutilation of God's Word

~False shepherds declaring peace and failing to distinguish between the holy and unholy

~Rejection and persecution of God's faithful messenger

Jeremiah prophesied for more than 2 decades, trying to awaken the people to what was happening in their midst so they could avert the judgment that was coming with force and speed. Like us, they did not recognize "This time, it's different," they dismissed the prophetic red flags while in church and stayed comfortable in their sin. (See anything like that today?) Then judgment fell, and the people of God found themselves ensnared in 70 years of captivity!

Notice, it did not come sneaking across the border over a period of years. It didn't follow instance after instance of broken and unenforceable treaties across. When God made His decision, it was immediate.

I am convinced something catastrophic and cataclysmic is coming our way. This is not the time to ignore that itch in your spirit, as time is rapidly running out. Today's prophets are blowing a trumpet and declaring the following: "Civilizations have a beginning and an ending point. America is already passed what historically is that end point."

Here are a few specifics to get our attention.

Billy Graham, who turned 96 last month, is trying to get people to turn their attention away from what he calls a "trendy faith and designer religion." He and his ministry team have launched a major gospel outreach because he sees America in a "sea of immorality," where we have "dismissed God, resulting in skewed thinking and consciences that are desensitized to right and wrong."

Another author who caught my attention and originally started me on my End Times journey was Jonathan Cahn, a messianic Jewish Rabbi and pastor best known for his best selling book "The Harbinger", in which he compares the United States and the September 11 attacks, to the ancient Israel and the destruction of Kingdom of Israel. In particular he sees the Isaiah 9:10 as a prophetic warning to America.

It is getting to the point that Pastors cannot pastor the same way they have been for the last 20 years. Parents cannot raise their children the same way they were raised, because the Internet has changed everything.

"Twenty years ago, the phrase was 'If you don't reach a young person by 18, you probably won't reach them.' Now atheists, agnostics and pornographers have the same access to your kids as you do. It's just one click away. ... Now if you don't reach a child by their 12th birthday, you won't reach them!

Today there is a growing worldwide hostility towards Christmas,


What Must We Do?

1. Stop living in denial and wishful thinking.

It's tempting to think, "These things are cyclical," and, "America always finds a way to come out on top."

Here's the deal: This time it's different! Judgment begins in the house of God, so unless we repent, truly turn to God, intercede for a divine intervention/awakening and wholeheartedly return to a robust biblical faith, the United States as we have known it is coming to an end.

2. Acknowledge we may be living in the days of the great apostasy.

Jesus warned of a time when "many will turn away from the faith" (Matt. 24:10, NIV), and Paul wrote of a great apostasy that would precede the return of our Lord (2 Thess. 2).

Examining what is being endorsed, celebrated and taught in certain denominations, Bible schools and seminaries today, let's recognize what we were warned about in 1 Timothy 4:1: "The Spirit clearly says that in later times some will abandon the faith and follow deceiving spirits and things taught by demons."

3. Repent of our waffling, spineless, "evangellyfish" approach and stand up and speak out.

Those who are privileged to be called leaders in our homes and churches must especially do this. We must repent, and we must speak out in a compassionate yet clear way about the moral and cultural issues of our day.

It is time to come out from behind the wall of nonchalance, Scripture teaches that many are called to be "watchmen on the wall." Amidst all the compromise and blatant immorality both in the church and in the world around us, let every leader rise up in bravery and refuse to be silent, no longer.

Until Next Month