Iron Modeler

Author: Iron Modeler

  • More on history and keeping it

    While I was putting some thought behind both of the national model shows that will be happening in Columbia next year, I was reminded that I still had one or two research projects on the go.  Both involve men who joined the U. S. Army Air Forces during World War Two.

    The first is my boss's father.  He flew B-24's from Cerignola, Italy, and I built a representative model of his airplane last year (and posted photos of the same).  But my history gene will not let it end there–I want to know more.  He flew raids on Linz, on Vienna and Ploesti, and many other places during the war.  He wasn't a member of the oh-so-glamorous 8th Air Force, the much-written about group that brought destruction to the Third Reich from the air (as the stories go)–he was with the Fifteenth Air Force, the Eight's little brother on the other side of the continent (for those new to these things, the 8th Air Force in England and 15th Air Force in Italy were considered the strategic air arms, while the 9th in England and 12th in Italy were the tactical forces).  Ask any question you want about the 8th, and you'll get the answer.  Ask any question about the 9th, and the answers will come, although not as quickly as it might for a question on the 8th.  But the 12th and 15th?  They were the red-haired stepchildren when it comes to historical documentation…

    Ahhh, but there's always an exception, right?  A man I met while working in the hobby shop a few years ago often spoke of his father who flew P-47's with the 9th Air Force, and his war ended when the engine on his airplane seized while on a mission 8 days after D-Day.  He spent the rest of the war in a German prison camp.  Since he was relatively new to the unit when he was lost, there's not a lot out there about the airplane he was flying.  Try as we may, we come up mostly empty when we try looking.  By "we", I mean the man's son and me…

    But the other part of this man's story, to me, is just as, if not more fascinating.  After the war, he stayed in the service.  He went to engineering school, did a few tours in the Pentagon, a few more at the War College, flew with the Acrojets (the predecessor to the USAF Thunderbirds aerial demonstration team), and flew some 150 missions over Vietnam.  Oh, yeah, he was also the man who made the name "Gunfighters" mean something with the 366th Tactical Fighter Wing in Vietnam–he enabled 16 of their F-4C/D aircraft to carry the SUU-16 gun pod, with good results.

    On both accounts, I'm fortunate–both men's sons know the significance of their fathers' service, and both have maintained a lot of their fathers' memorabilia from their time in the service.  The second man attained the rank of Major General, so the Air Force compiled a record of his career when he retired–one that I may be able to peruse and copy for  my research.  If it is half as valuable as I think it will be, I'm looking forward to the opportunity…

    The third is a co-worker's wife's grandfather.  He recently passed, and I found out that he was on the USS Santa Fe (CL-60) during the later stages of the war.  He was on board when the USS Franklin (CV-13) was bombed and damaged, and he served on the ship for the duration of the war.  Now, we come to the problem, one that I am trying to prevent as I get older: now that he's crossed over, many of his personal service effects were taken by other members of the family who most likely have no clue what the man's service was really all about.  I'm told he had a large painting (likely a print) of the ship, signed by members of the crew.  *Zip*  That walked out of his house no sooner was the funeral concluded.  Same with a lot of his photos and other records.  My fervent hope is that the family members who took these things really do understand and appreciate what this man went through and can honestly be the custodians of his story.  But my deepest fear is that these items will eventually be stuck in an attic or basement, only to be sent to the local landfill because "grandpa's boxes of stinky old war stuff was just taking up space and collecting dust…"

    Why am I chronicling these people?  After all, they're not family, just people I know.  Well, I have two answers here.  The first is that I also have family members who served, and I'm trying to put their stories together as well.  I'm not having as many problems with family members, but the issue that does face me is that they're all gone.  My cousins have helped some, but the folks who know the stories have gone West.  So, I have to do my best to pull from my own childhood memories and then ask some more questions.  To this day, I kick myself for not asking questions sooner.  Then again, like most veterans, they didn't talk much about their service–"I'm no war hero, I was called to do a job, I did it, and I'm home.  You want to know about the heroes?  They're still over there…"

    The second answer is more to the point:  if not me, then who will take up the cause?  The Gabreskis, Doolittles, Pattons, Halseys, and Pullers have been documented.  But what about the Miraglias and the Chiaravalottis, the Tweedies and the Benders, the Mullens, Bolts, and Smihulas?  Their kids, and some of their grandkids, understand.  But after that, their stories will most likely be lost to time.  And that, friends, would be a shame.

    If you know a veteran, ask him about his story.  Write it down.  Pass it on.  From the Generals and Admirals to the PFC's and Gunner's Mates, they all have a story.  And if you ask, they may just share it with you.

    Be good to one another.  As always, I bid you Peace.

     

  • Another one of “those anniversaries”…

    24 April is another one of "those anniversaries" that are vivid in my memory.  I'll elaborate the "why" later, but first let's cover the "what"…

    In late 1979, the Ayatollahs came to power in Iran, sparking what was then called a "student uprising".  During that uprising, the Shah, a man put into power in the early 1950's by a U.S.-led coup, fled the country.  He was, during his reign, a tyrant–he would do his best to keep the common Iranian down while also doing his best to see that the rich Iranians got richer.  At the time he left the country, he was also ill–he was suffering from cancer, a malady that would take his life soon after.

    During all the demonstrations, the insurgents demonstrated outside the Embassies of the Western powers.  To this day, I can still vividly remember the chants, "Death to Carter, Death to the Shah!", referring, of course, to President Jimmy Carter and the now-deposed Shah.  At some point, the American embassy was stormed and the workers taken captive.  Ultimately, 52 Americans would be held for 444 days, gaining their release just after President Ronald Reagan was inaugurated in January 1981. 

    However, in 1980 President Carter wanted to do more than negotiate, and had formulated plans for a massive rescue mission.  That mission would be called Operation Eagle Claw.  It involved assets from all branches of the military–Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marines.  It was a complicated plan, too:  An advance mission on 1 April transported one Air Force Combat Air Controller went into Iran and selected the first landing site, called Desert One.  He installed infrared landing lights and took soil samples–he reported back that the site was hard-packed sand.  Three weeks later, the surface had accumulated a layer of fine, powdery sand, unknown to mission planners.

    The mission as planned:  Three USAF EC-130E's (call signs Republic 4, 5, and 6) would carry the members of the Army's new elite Delta Force and some 6,000 gallons of jet fuel in collapsible bladders to refuel the Navy helicopters.  Three USAF MC-130E Combat Talon aircraft (call signs Dragon 1, 2, and 3) would carry logistical support equipment.  Eight RH-53D Sea Stallion helicopters from the aircraft carrier USS Nimitz (call signs Bluebeard 1 through 8, located in the Persian Gulf, would rendezvous with the C-130's at Desert One.  Once at Desert One, the Delta Force would embark on the RH-53's and be flown to another remote landing site, Desert Two.  There they would spend the next day.  Come nightfall, Delta Force would drive into Tehran in trucks brought to Desert Two by CIA operatives.  The helicopters would reposition to a nearby football stadium and wait.  Delta force would storm the Embassy and any other holding sites, neutralize the Iranian guards, and free the Americans.  Other members of the ground combat force would destroy power stations to keep the Iranians pinned down.  USAF AC-130 gunships would be orbiting over the area to add close air support, and Army Rangers were to neutralize and capture the nearby Manzariyeh Air Base, where USAF C-141 Starlifters would land.  The ground forces and freed hostages would rendezvous with the helicopters and the football stadium and would be flown to the air base.  They would then board the C-141's and be flown to safety.

    That's the mission in theory.  Here's how reality played out…

    24 April 1980:  All the aircraft departed from their bases as scheduled.  The MC-130s and EC-130s were able to locate Desert One and land–Dragon 1 was the first in, and sustained damage upon landing.  It was able to offload personnel and equipment and was able to fly out, but would require extensive maintenance afterwards to repair the damage. 

    Meanwhile, the RH-53s began to have problems.  Bluebeard 6 had to land in the desert because the crew were getting a warning light that pointed to a cracked rotor blade.  The crew abandoned the aircraft and were recovered by Bluebeard 8.  The rest of the helicopter group was overcome by a haboob, a sudden and severe dust storm frequent to the region.  Bluebeard 5 returned to Nimitz when its flight instruments malfunctioned.  The remaining helicopters arrived at Desert One.  When Bluebeard 2, the last to arrive, landed, they were a full 90 minutes behind schedule.  To make matters worse, Bluebeard 2 had a malfunctioning hydraulic system, leaving only a single system to operate the aircraft.

    In the meantime, Army Rangers intercepted and destroyed a truck smuggling gasoline.  This was both bad and good:  the fires lit up the night, but also provided a visual beacon for the helicopter force.  Later, a bus carrying some 44 civilians was stopped and the passengers detained on Republic 3.

    With all the aircraft that would arrive on scene, COL Charlie Beckwith (commander of Delta Force) was at a dilemma:  Mission plans clearly stated that if there were any fewer than six helicopters, the mission was to be aborted.  The Navy flight crews, all too well aware of what a total loss of hydraulic pressure would do to a Sea Stallion, decided that Bluebeard 2 was to be shut down and taken off the mission.  This left five helicopters to continue, one less than the plan called for.  Discussions between commanders on scene and in Washington led to the decision to abort the mission.  Bluebeard 2 was to be left, and the aircraft were to return to base.  The civilians from the bus were released, but the bus was disabled.

    And this wasn't the bad news.

    The helicopters needed to be refueled from the EC-130's.  Republic 4 was also low on fuel, and had already transferred its bladder fuel to the helicopters.  It was now at a point where it needed to depart immediately if it had any hope of getting home.  In order to do so, the aircraft needed to be re-arranged.  Since the ground had that ankle-deep layer of powder, the easiest way to move the helicopters was to air taxi them.  Bluebeard 3 had to be moved in order to get Republic 4 and Bluebeard 4 repositioned–Republic 4 to depart and Bluebeard 4 to refuel from another EC-130.  A USAF Combat Air Controller began to marshal Bluebeard 3 away from Republic 4, but as the helicopter became airborne it caused a huge dust cloud to form and also caused the CAC to start to move away from the helicopter.  Being the helicopter pilot's only visual reference, he tried to maintain a constant distance from the CAC, not knowing that the CAC was being blown over by the rotor wash.  Shortly, the main rotor of Bluebeard 3 contacted the tail surfaces of Republic 4.  Both aircraft caught fire.  Republic 4 still had residual fuel in the bladder tanks.  The flames spread quickly.  Eight American servicemen were killed that night on the Iranian desert, five airman from Republic 4 and three Marines from Bluebeard 3.  Along with the loss of life, we lost many classified documents on the RH-53s that were abandoned when all hell broke loose.

    It was a debacle.  There is no other word for it.

    So, why do I recall the events to this day?  One, I had the day off from school–it was a teacher workday, I think–and remember waking up to the news.  As a kid of 16, I couldn't understand how my country could fail this miserably.  I was old enough to recall the Vietnam War, and the trials and tribulations attached to it.  I thought that was bad enough, but now here we were again, embarrassed in the eyes of the whole world.

    As I got older and started to become more worldly (in other words, I not only got older, I got wiser as well), I came to learn that there were outside circumstances that were attached to our involvement in Iran.  The moral of the story is as Jack Ryan told Captain Ramius in "The Hunt for Red October": "It is good to know a little about one's adversary, don't you think?"

    In the years following Eagle Claw, the military revised procedures for their anti-terrorist and Special Forces.  Procedures were put into place for better inter-service cooperation and better intra-branch cooperation.  Better equipment was devised and purchased.  Better training was implemented.  The culmination of all this was evident during Operation Desert Storm…

    If you want some homework, I'd suggest trying to find a copy of Steven Kinzer's "All The Shah's Men".  The book covers the ouster of Mohammed Mossadegh and the return of the Shah to power.  Also, The Atlantic published a good article on Operation Eagle Claw.  Educate yourself on the history of our world, you might be surprised what you learn.

    Thanks for reading.  Be good to one another.  I bid you Peace…

     

     

  • Karma Five-Two

    In addition to being Tax Day here in the U.S., 15 April is also the anniversary of what is now being called "The first shot in the International War on Terror."  I'm speaking, of course, of the 1986 bombing raid on Libya, otherwise known as Operation El Dorado Canyon.

    For those who don't recall life before MTV, a PC in every home, and satellite television, here's a capsule history for you to chew on.  In the late 1970's and early 1980's, Libya's leader, Muammar Al-Gadhafi, started expressing anti-Western and anti-American sentiments to the world.  One of the things he did was to declare the entire Gulf of Sidra as Libyan territory, while the rest of the world respected the international standard of 12 nautical miles as the limit to territorial waters.  The United States Navy would conduct operations there, and in 1981 two Libyan SU-22 Fitters tired to intercept two F-14A Tomcats of VF-41.  They came out on the short end of the deal; the Tomcats handily dispatched both Libyan aircraft.

    Tensions continued to escalate through the early 1980's.  In 1986, the LaBelle discotheque was bombed; three persons were killed (two of them American) and a few hundred were injured.  Investigations pointed to the Libyans as the driving force behind the bombings, so President Ronald Reagan gave the approval to bomb targets inside Libya.

    The original raid was planned to use only U.S. Navy assets, but the target list expanded quickly and by the time it was close to being finalized, it was realized that there weren't enough Naval aviation assets to do the job.  So, the operation was expanded to include F-111F's from the 48 Tactical Fighter Wing based at RAF Lakenheath and several of the then-new EF-111A Raven Electronic Warfare aircraft with the 20TFW based at RAF Upper Heyford. 

    In order to make the shortest flights possible, the Aardvarks and Ravens would have to fly through French, Spanish, and Italian airspace.  All three countries refused to allow the overflights, so the mission was planned to fly around the Iberian peninsula and along the coast of North Africa before striking their targets.  The longer flight path would also require a tremendous amount of tanker support, which added more complexity to an already complex mission.  In late 1985 Operation Ghost Rider, a simulated attack against targets in Canada, was flown by F-111E's from the 20TFW to prove the various aspects of such a long mission; the lessons learned were passed along to the Lakenheath group.  (Trivia:  Libya could have been the combat debut of the F-117, but the plans were scotched because the Pentagon didn't want to let the Stealth cat out of the bag should something bad happen…the Wobbly Goblin's combat initiation would have to wait for Operation Just Cause, the invasion of Panama.)

    As the various groups of aircraft flew in to their target areas, the Libyans became aware that something was up (it is also widely believed that they were tipped off), and some of the anti-aircraft batteries started to return fire.  Reports vary, but as the Karma cell of F-111F's exited the target area, the aircraft with the call sign Karma 52 (F-111F S/N 70-2389) was lost.  It was not confirmed until all of the aircraft marshaled at their assigned tanker, but nothing changed–Karma 52 was missing.  The crew, Captains Fernando Ribas-Dominicci and Paul Lorance, were listed killed in action during the raid.  Stories have varied over the years, but it is fairly certain that the airplane was hit by AAA and the crew ejected.  Due to the altitude, it is presumed that the escape module parachutes did not fully deploy and the capsule hit the water hard.

    After denying that they held the remains of the crew, the body of Ribas-Dominicci (initially identified as those of Captain Lorence) was returned to the family via the Vatican in 1988.  An autopsy performed showed that Ribas-Dominicci had minor injuries and that the cause of death was drowning.  The remains of Captain Lorence are still unaccounted for.

    So, why the interest in this one-time, one-night raid?  Well, in short because it is still such a mystery.  What actually happened to Karma 52?  Did they indeed get shot down, or did the airplane somehow fail?  Did the crew eject?  If so, did the capsule fill with water and sink, taking Captain Lorence to a watery grave?  Was the crew unconscious after the escape module landed?  Did Captain Ribas-Dominicci exit the capsule and then drown?  And, finally, what happened to Captain Lorence?  Stories have circulated that the Libyans have both pilots' flight suits and helmets, plus parts from the aircraft, in Gadhafi's home in Tripoli.  Where are those artifacts now? Surely, somebody has the answers–but with the events in Libya over the past few years I fear that the answers–many of them, at least–have died with Col. Gadhafi and other members of his leadership council.

    Also, in my years in aviation, I have come to be acquainted with more members of the Aardvark community than any other.  My interest in the F-111 goes back to when I was a kid.  The airplane was just plan old neat to me–then and now.  The 'Vark is gone now, retired after Operation Desert Storm, but the stories of the F-111 and her crews live on.

    And so, every year on 15 April I stop and remember the loss of two Americans, crewmen on an F-111 flying a mission that, it was hoped, would stop Libya's terrorist activities.  Whether or not we accomplished that is up to history.  In any case, Gadhafi is gone now, Karma indeed caught up with him.

    As always, thanks for reading.  Be good to one another, and I bid you Peace.

  • Photoetched brass is…THE DEBIL!

    There are two products in the world that I consider to be the work of Satan.  One is Styrofoam packing peanuts, the other is photoetched brass parts for scale models.  I'm currently working on two models that feature photoetched parts, both of them (surprise, surprise) are Dragon Models kits.  Both are long time residents of my "In Progress" stack, too: The much-discussed 1/35 StuG IV and my 1/700 scale model of the Mighty Moo, the USS Cowpens CVL-25.

    First, the StuG.  Answer me this: why, oh why, did the minds at Dragon decide to use nickel steel for the schurzen parts?  Sure, they need to be rigid, but wouldn't brass of a similar thickness work just as well?  Not only are the parts hard, they have styrene parts added to them.  Even though I cleaned the parts AND scuffed them, the itty bitty plastic parts still pop loose if you jar the part by, oh, dropping them.  Yeah, I know, you're not supposed to drop the parts, but let's say someone were to drop one.  The bolt heads stay put, but the hanging brackets pop loose.  So, you have to clean them up and re-glue them.  Even applying a primer beforehand doesn't totally fix the problem–the primer AND the glue peels off.  Had they offered the hanging brackets as additional PE parts (and the schurzen in brass vs. steel), soldering would be the way to go.  As it is, you can't really solder plastic to steel…

    Now, the Mini Mighty Moo:  The instructions are altered for the releases that have the full complement of Dragon PE, yet they still tell you to assemble the superstructure with the plastic parts.  Now, that's easily dealt with–just don't use the plastic deck and bridge.  Now we get to the PE replacement parts–I've been bending PE for a while now, and the trend with Dragon parts is this: unless your bends are millimeter perfect, the folded parts don't always align properly.  I've gone the straightedge/razor blade route, and I've used a folding tool (more anon).  Neither yield a perfect result without much gnashing of teeth.  I did manage to get things more or less correct with the bridge houses, but that tower, hoo boy.  No matter how careful I was, the tower would not line up and behave.  I finally took matters into my own hands and removed the support structure from the cross structure.  I built the cross structure (basically a box) and let the glue cure.  Tonight–given that I have time to do so–I'll re-attach the support structure to the sides.  Once that is all secure, I can go ahead and add the searchlight platform.  But it seems to me that Dragon made it more complicated than it needed to be…

    Anyway, I am happy to announce that progress is being made on both projects.  The hull and flight deck of the Cowpens has been painted and needs only touch-up, and the StuG got an initial coat of dunkelgelb this week.  I need to attach a few parts and fix some glitches, and I can continue with the paint work on the StuG.  I still have a bunch of itty bitty anti-aircraft guns and other bits and bobs to paint and install on the Cowpens, but work does continue.

    I've also made progress on the 1/72 F-111F Aardvark and 1/48 Macchi C.200.  I'm planning a photo shoot tonight, I will try to post photos in the next update.

    **********

    I told you I was looking for a photoetch bender.  Well, my wonderful wife bought me a Small Shop "Bug" for my birthday.  I took it for a test drive on the bridge parts for the Cowpens, and it is one nifty little tool.  I still have some playing around to do with it, but it should handily replace the steel straightedge and razor blade method I had been using up to this point.  There may still be times when I'll need to resort to that method (like when I don't plan my folds correctly), but I thing my Bug will now be handling 99% of my photoetch bending duties from now on.

    **********

    The work front is heating up.  We sat for most of the year so far with little to do, but the last few weeks (and the next few weeks, too) have seen more airplanes in the hangar and on the ramp.  Surprisingly, I've managed to keep the avionics team to where we're not working killer shifts.  Don't know how I managed that, but I'm trying to do the work and not burn either of us out at the same time.  So far, so good…

    Well, break's over–time to get back on our heads.  Be good to one another, thanks for reading, and, as always, I bid you Peace.

  • Lunchtime musings

    Howdy and all that…

    I've been pondering a few things of late.  In no particular order:

    1. I really need to do some Spring Cleaning.  There are things I have hidden away that haven't seen the light of day in years and probably should go.  And I'm not just talking models–there are things that I have accumulated that have moved with me everywhere that haven't been out of the moving box they were packed into since the mid 1980's.

    2. I'm going to (finally) purchase a photoetch bending tool, since the itty bitty 1/700 scale Independence-class CVL has even ittier and bittier photoetch, and the ruler/razor trick ain't getting it done.  I've settled on "The Bug" from The Small Shop, I'll let you know how it works for me.  Others rave about it, so I think I've made the right choice.

    3. Progress is once again being made on the bench, albeit slowly.  I have one more color to squirt on the hull of the aforementioned 1/700 scale USS Cowpens I'm building.  So far, it looks real nice.  Then again, I still have to un-mask the hull.  Time will tell…

    4. I'm still trying to finish the camouflage on the 1/48 Macchi C.200.  Two steps forward, three steps back, it seems, but I think I'm closing in on a result that I'll be satisfied with.

    5.  The StuG IV is also progressing.  I finally got a coat of primer on the skirt armor–and knocked off three of the mounting points doing so.  Once again, did we really need to use nickel-steel for those?  Brass wouldn't have been just as nice?  Anyway, a little super glue and I should be ready to paint it–once I get the little ship and the Macchi complete.

    6.  After the StuG, I have a 1/72 F-111F in work.  I'd like to get that one done soon, but it all depends on the rest of the backlog.

    7.  Just for fun, I pulled out a 1/72 Special Hobby U-2R/TR-1/ER-2 kit that I had started for a now-abandoned project.  I'm picking away at it as time allows. 

    In the meantime, other events are in the works.  It would seem that the U.S. plastic modeling world will descend on the Greater Upper Midlands Co-Prosperity Sphere in 2016–the AMPS International show will be held in Sumter, SC in April 2016 and the IPMS/USA National Convention will be held in Columbia, SC in August 2016. I sit on the planning boards of both local Chapters of these organizations, and I can tell you that we are all working hard–even at this early date–to bring our attendees the best in plastic modeling.  Stay tuned for further details, as we can't really ramp up the full-on advertising campaigns until this years' shows have been concluded…

    On a sad note, another mom-and-pop brick and mortar hobby shop has closed.  The Great Escape in Greenville, SC has shut down the hobby shop completely.  Last year, they consolidated the shop to the Greenville store and moved all the stock that had been in Spartanburg over.  We went to the Greenville store a few weeks after, and all appeared as it always did–the shop was fairly busy, mostly in RC sales, and the shelves were full–more so than they had been in a couple of years, in fact.  Apparently, right around the end of the year the new owners decided that all they wanted to concentrate on were bicycle sales and shut the hobby end of the business down.  When we went, they were down to a couple of paint racks and some orphan kits.  I managed, somehow, to get two of the new Special Hobby 1/72 scale AH-1G Cobra kits and some of the long defunct Testor's Acryl marine colors for the little Mighty Moo.  Otherwise, there wasn't much left, and they were only going to continue for another day or so. 

    Sadly, this is becoming more common as fewer dollars chase more products.  The brick-and-mortar stores can't possible stock everything that the large mail order companies can–even if they could, it would be financial suicide to do so.  But we also have played a part in this–modelers are notoriously cheap, and in chasing the bottom dollar bargains we tend to forget the little local shops.

    As always, support your local shop.

    Well, the back-to-work bell is ringing.  Be good to one another other, and I'll see you later.  I bid you Peace…

  • So, here we are…

    Howdy again.  Been way too long…

    I've actually been off on a self-imposed digital vacation of sorts.  I was finding myself getting too wrapped up in the computer and all the series of pipes the Interwebs was bringing me, to the point that I wasn't enjoying any of my other hobbies–and I was not having any fun.  So, I decided to step away for a few weeks and only check in for about 10 minutes a day until I got some of my mojo back.  It worked, I have been churning things out of the model workshop on a semi-regular basis and I have regained some of the lost momentum on a few long-term projects.

    So, lets review what's been going on…

    1.  Eduard released a 1/48 scale Bf-109G that is actually 1/47 scale.  Or is it 1/45?  Or is it actually okay if you lop 2mm off each wingtip and re-work the ailerons?  Don't know, don't really care–I have a moving box full of Hasegawa and Fujimi 1/48 scale 109's.  I sold off all the others (Hobbycraft, Revell) that I had in the stash a few years ago.  I think I'm good for a while…

    2.  Kittyhawk released their 1/48 scale F-101A/C kit, and it has errors.  Yep, and dogs chase cars and eat their own shit, and cats get hairballs.  I have said kit.  I can spot the errors, and the good news is that I can also fix them rather easily.  It seems to also be a bear to assemble, but what does one learn from a falls-together kit?

    3.  Kittyhawk also released an "unbuildable" 1/48 scale F9F Cougar.  Funny, I'm seeing a lot of built examples that look mighty fine to me, including the one the wife is in the middle of building.  "Some modeling experience helpful" seems to be the watchword here, and that means you need to have been taught how to test-fit parts and adjust it where needed.

    4.  Airfix's new releases seem to be getting better and better.  I bought the Blenheim and the Lightning in the past several weeks, and all I can say is "wow".  I thought the little Gnat was a nice kit, but the latest are even nicer.

    5.  Revell finally got the shapes and proportions correct on a Mopar E-Body with their new 1/25 scale 1970 Barracuda.  I bought one, and it won't be the last.  Also, I got to thinking…what if the current group at Chrysler resurrected the Plymouth name badge?  More on that at some point…

    6.  I have had opportunity to check out the Vallejo color kits for armor models–in this case, the U.S. Olive Green vehicle paint set and the Green Vehicle Weathering set.  So far, results are pretty good.  More on that later, too…

    Fast forward several months…

    I originally penned those words last September.  And, as with the Road to Hell, I had good intentions of completing the post and getting back to business.  But, as so often happens, life got in the way.  Again.  And I got sidetracked.  Again.

    But here I am, back in the swing of things.  Sort of.  I still have some ruts to get out of and a bit of a funk I need to give up, but (as the song goes) I'm alive and well and living in.

    And news, boy is there news…

    Since September, I've been more than a little lax at the workbench.  I have a few projects close to completion, and one that, if I put a little effort forth, will also be looking to cross the finish line soon.  I've also started a new project, too, and all I need is the motivation to get to work on all of them.  Stay tuned.  I have a plan…

    I have managed to accrue kits, though–that never ends for those of us afflicted by the bug.  To wit:

    Eduard's 1/72 MiG-15 kit is every bit as nice as we hoped it would be.

    Trumpeter's 1/48 F-106A is a mixed bag if you compare it to the now 32-year old Monogram kit, but it does have the benefit of recessed panel lines.  The biggest discrepancy I can see with the kit (aside from the soft detail, which is fixable) are the stoop-shouldered intakes.  They appear to round off too much for my liking, but it is not a deal-breaker if you get the kit at a discount.  I plan on using some parts from a long-stalled Monogram model to improve the look of the kit.  I like it, and the fact that they're doing the F-106B, too.  Like the Kittyhawk F-101A/C, it isn't perfect but it is certainly not beyond the skill set of most modelers.  Given that the later issues of the Monogram kit (and all Monogram kits) are in that awful softish, vinyl-like plastic, this one arrived at just about the right time. 

    (Do you remember the old Monogram plastic?  Hard, but not brittle, nice smooth and glossy surface…those days are apparently gone.  And my nostalgia affliction wishes they weren't…)

    (Hey, Meng–how about a 1/72 F-106A that matches your F-102A in detail and finesse?)

    Airfix keeps on trucking, their 1/72 Supermarine Swift FR.5 is gorgeous.  And every time I see what they're doing in the smaller scales, I get more and more tempted to acquire their 1/24 Hawker Typhoon.  What I will do with it, and (better still) where I will display it, well, since when has that ever mattered before?  As M and the Minister of Defense have been known to say to James Bond, "Control yourself, 007…"  (And yet Q would probably have it delivered to me and then take hours to explain how it is such a neat bit of kit, etc…)

    And, in the Christmas Mother Lode, I got a few neat items:

    RusAir's Tu-154 and Tu-134 kits in 1/144 scale.  Gorgeous.  The 154 makes it so you have a friend for your Zvesda Tu-154M.  (And I'm looking forward to a 1/144 Il-62 this year, as soon as I can get my mitts on one.  Those old Soviet airliners have character out the whazoo…)

    Eduard's reissue of Academy's F-4B (as an F-4N) in 1/48 scale with the U.S. Navy Bicentennial schemes and upgrades.  Sweet.

    But enough about plastic.  What else is happening?

    Well, we're in that alternating feast/famine cycle at work.  I did manage to get away to a trade meeting in September, as well as a return trip to Richmond.  Trade meetings are always good, since I get to get brought up to speed on new stuff and re-connect with people I've met throughout the years.  The weather was awful the day I left, so I still have to plan a trip to the Virginia Aviation Museum. 

    I have had a chance to catch up on some reading, notably "The Eagle and the Rising Sun" by Alan Schom and "Neptune's Inferno" by James Hornfischer.  Both deal mainly with the naval battles around Guadalcanal during the campaign to take the island.  Both are very good reads, and I recommend them to any WWII Pacific Campaign fans.  Beware, modelers–it will make you want to build at least one ship model!  I know I keep eyeing the 1/350 kits of the USS San Francisco in the stash…

    Along with everything else, there are a few modeling events coming up in the area, and we're in the planning phases of all of them.  More as the time comes, but they ought to be barn-burners.  Stay tuned on that, too…

    As for the other big event coming up this weekend, I really have no dog in the hunt.  I can't root for the Patriots, it goes against every fiber in my being–growing up in South Florida and being a Dolphins fan will do that to you.  But I can't get excited about the Seahawks, either.  The Seahawks I used to remember were in the AFC, had better looking uniforms, and were a dome team…I'm sure the Big Game ™ will be good, and I'm sure I'll enjoy it…

    And, finally, this past weekend was the 53rd Annual 24 Hours of Daytona.  And it was a great race, with great weather.  One of these days, we'll get back there in person…

    Until then, I thank you for reading, and, as always, I bid you Peace.

     

  • 1984

    Greetings!

    Now, before you get all excited and start running about, I'm not referring to George Orwell's vision.  Rather, I'm looking back 30 years and remembering some of the things that made 1984 a sort of comeback year for me…

    For starters, I found myself unemployed and not in school for the first time in my life on New Year's Day in 1984.  I had taken my leave from the Harvard of the Sky–engineering physics and I didn't get along, especially when physics had backup on the beat-down in the form of Calculus 3.  Between those two courses, I had a dismal GPA for the Fall 1983 semester and decided that engineering as a career for me wasn't in the cards.  I went down to the AFROTC Detachment (I had an AFROTC Scholarship at the time) and spoke a bit with my advisor.  He and I talked for about an hour, and both came to the conclusion that all the summer terms in the world weren't going to suddenly make me a mathematical genius.  My math skills were pretty good, but not good enough.  So, I didn't register for spring semester and came home.

    Funny how things can happen–I went looking for a job on 2 January 1984 and was hired almost immediately as a parts driver for a local HVAC parts house.  After a week or so of that, one of their systems engineers found out that I wasn't just doing this because I didn't know any better, and I would sometimes be called in to watch how home and industrial HVAC systems are engineered–so many square feet of space called for so many tons of capacity, so many BTUs were required to heat X amount of space, etc.  It was all pretty neat stuff, and I appreciated all they were doing for me.  Between parts runs, I learned quite a bit–and was tempted to pursue a career in that.  But aviation, once it wiggles down into your blood, tends to have a strong pull…

    I worked there all summer.  One day I got a phone call from one of my advisors at Embry-Riddle, wanting to know what I was doing and what my plans were.  At the time, I was still trying to just chill out a bit and leave the stress and, well, disappointment of engineering behind me (and earn some coin, but that should be obvious).  I let them know what I was up to, and that I had several things banging around in my head, and that I'd let them know when the time came.  That time came in June–I took a Friday off work and drove back to Daytona Beach.  I met with some folks, and found out how easy it would be for me to come back–I never formally withdrew from the school, so I was still carried on their rolls.  I first visited my AFROTC friends.  We spent a few hours speaking with some of the other Department Chairmen, and after speaking with the man heading up the Avionics program, my mind was made up.  I would return in August.

    With my future now decided, I went back to work.  I don't say this to be self-congratulatory, but I was the hardest working parts driver/stock man/all around helper that location had.  I know this because the higher-ups told me so.  They were especially let down when I gave them my notice, but when I told them that my two choices were to learn–unofficially–from them, or go back to school and learn aviation electronics, I think it got them to understand.  I was told that if I needed summer work, they would be there.  So, I ended my employment with them in mid-August.

    Remember that 1984 was an Olympic Games year, too–back when Winter and Summer games were held in the same year, no less.  The Winter games were held in Sarajevo, Yugoslavia.  I paid little attention to them, because work and the time difference made keeping track of the events a bit difficult.  What saddens me know is to see what has become of the venues built for the Games–most of them are crumbling, the result of the unrest, fighting, and other issues between the ethnic factions that finally led to the break-up of Yugoslavia into its constituent Republics.  Sad…

    The Summer games, on the other hand, were different–they were held in Los Angeles in 1984.  The overshadowing news was that the Soviet Union, acting in response to the West's boycott of the 1908 Games, had decided to sit 1984 out.  They, along with the majority of Eastern Bloc countries, sat at home while the Games went on.  The reason I remember it so well was than coverage of most events came on right as I was getting back to the house after work, so I could pay attention to all of them.  It was the last Olympic Summer games that I really paid close attention to.  Since then, various reasons have kept me from watching…

    On the modeling front, I actually started to keep a log of kits I completed.  The first for 1984 was the ESCI 1/48 scale Fieseler Storch.  It was an easy build until I got to the part about sticking the wings to the greenhouse.  I used 5-minute epoxy, and got a fairly decent result–I amazed myself that I didn't wind up with epoxy all over everything! 

    I next turned my attention to a Tamiya 1/48 Brewster Buffalo.  It was probably the quickest "serious" model I had built to that point–everything just clicked together.  I was tempted by the early Navy scheme, but I settled on the Dutch scheme, because my metal finish techniques were sorely lacking and I didn't want to ruin the model.  My impressions of Tamiya airplane kits would be reinforced soon…

    Next on the hit parade was the Nichimo 1/48 scale Ki-43 Oscar.  If you read opinions on this kit, they're all almost universally positive.  And for good reason–the kit packs a lot of detail into a small airplane, the fit is superlative, and this all in a kit dating from the late 1970's.  I tried some weathering techniques on this one–I used a silver Tamiya paint marker to prime seams back then, and I would paint the seams and rub the excess paint off with a paper towel.  I reconed that if I added blotches of silver here and there, I could "chip" the Polly S paints I was using for the camouflage.  It worked out fairly well, I think, and I kept trying to expand my horizons from that model on to the next, and the next…

    This was also the summer when I attempted to build Monogram's 1/48 scale F-84F.  For a reason or reasons lost to history, I cannot recall why I never finished the model.  All I have from that model is the dolly and a few bits and pieces.  After that, I wound up building Monogram's 1/48 scale F-100D in Arkansas ANG colors.  I did that because, as I said before, my metal finishes at the time looked like dog poop…

    Last for the summer, I decided to refinish a Monogram 1/48 scale B-17G that I had built in the late 1970's, maybe 1979.  I had airbrushed it, but it was one of my first airbrushed models and looked the part.  There were visible seams and some other issues with the model, so I took it down from the shelf and started working on the bad areas.  Within a week, it was ready for paint again.  I had used a Microscale sheet to finish the F-100 and was suitably impressed–first time using them, you know.  So, I went in search of a sheet for the B-17.  I found one I liked (unit and aircraft are again lost to history–I didn't log how they were finished, just that I finished them) and set to work.  I used a combination of Polly S and Tamiya acrylics for the finish, and this one was the best, to that point, airbrushed finish I had ever laid down.  The model went back on the shelf, an old girl in a new dress.

    (That Tamiya Buffalo would also get a re-work in the early 1990's–which is how it still resides, hidden away in a box upstairs…)

    I returned to good old Humpty Diddle in August.  I had to register for classes.  I had remembered to change my major and catalog at the Registrar's office when I was there in June, so half my battle had been won.  Then I get to the registration lines.  I think it is a universal college policy that beginning of the semester registration is meant to be as huge a pain in the ass as possible to all involved.  See, during my engineering days, I had to re-take a few courses.  As far as the Aeronautical Studies/Aeronautics courses were concerned, I was through with all of my math classes by virture of my Calculus I and Calculus II courses.  During those engineering semesters, I had managed to complete all but maybe one or two Humanities/History courses, too.  I was only looking to register for the required Physics and first semester Aero Studies courses.  I couldn't get into any of the Electronics courses since all the sections were filled, so I settled for what I could get.  After I got through that, I had to go play housing lottery.  After about two hours of back-and-forth, I managed to get into Residence Hall 2, aka Dorm 2, aka "The Embry-Riddle Holiday Inn".  I had lived here through my engineering days, so I know what to expect.  I met the roommates and suitemates (two rooms to a suite, three people to a room), all of whom were Aero Science guys (they were all working towards pilot certificates)–except one.  He was in engineering.  He was a quiet kid, and engineering wasn't any kinder to him than it was me.  I kinda felt sorry for the kid…after all, I'm now the older, wiser me…

    Classes were literally a breeze.  By the end of that semester, I would have all my prerequisite courses behind me and the next three and a half years would be solid electronics and avionics courses, along with the Aero Studies courses.  See, there was no single avionics major, you took a major and added avionics.  You could take an Aviation Maintenance major and avionics (you wound up with an Airfram and Powerplant certificate and the avionics degree) or Aeronautical Studies with avionics, which is how I went.  Basically, you took all the ground school courses for flight, but no flight courses.  So, I learned basic aerial navigation and meteorology to go along with my electron theory.  Over the years, the school changed how they treated avionics until finally phasing it out a few years ago in favor of an Electronic Engineering degree program…

    More modeling?  You bet–I had spare time, so I decided to build a Tamiya 1/48 A6M2.  This was another fall together kit, it was done in a week.  Yep, a week.  Needing something else to occupy my time, and figuring that the ESCI Storch was a cool kit, so I decided to build ESCI's 1/48 scale Hs-123.  Now that one was a challenge–first serious biplane, first masked camouflage scheme with Polly S, and the kit was rife with minor warpage–typical of ESCI's kits of that era.  Well, I managed to beat it into submission, and painted it up as a Spanish Civil War machine.  I may still have it in a box here somewhere, too, and I was sure to pick up the AMTech "enhanced" reissue of the kit a few years ago.  After all, who else is likely to do an Hs-123 in 1/48 scale?

    The best part of the year?  Going back to school.  I never had any intention of *not* going back to school–my father wouldn't abide it.  He was always pushing for education-I guess it stems from the fact that he had a GED when he started working, and worked hard in correspondence classes to earn a degree.  Dad was a self made man, and he did so through hard work and trying to better himself.  I was thinking about these "good old days", and once again realized what my parents did to make sure my brother and I were ready to face the cold, cruel world–the sacrifices they made to put us both through post-secondary education, the hard work they put in to keep a roof over our heads, food on the table, and lights on in the house.  So, by going back to school–even though I wasn't overtly pushed–I was doing as they wanted. 

    On reflection, maybe I should have worked for a year after high school, then gone to college.  Maybe I should have examined engineering closer and realized that it was a bit beyond my abilities.  You can reach for the brass ring, and if you grab it on the first try, great.  I seem to reach for the ring, get a light grip on it, and then lose that slight grasp.  Rather than giving up, I'll take a breather and try again.  I usually grab that sucker for all I'm worth on the second go around, and once I have it in my grasp I never let go–I seem to cherish it more when I do that.  It has worked for me my entire life…

    Oh, yeah.  The Apple Macintosh also goes on sale in 1984, Constatin Chernenko succeeds Yuri Andropov as General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, Pierre Trudeau steps down as the Canadian Prime Minister, and Marvin Gaye's father shoots and kills the singer. 

    Musically, Van Halen released their "1984" album, giving us "Panama", "Hot For Teacher", "I'll Wait", and "Jump".  Duran Duran were touring, suppoting "Seven and the Ragged Tiger", which gave us "The Reflex", "Union of the Snake", and "New Moon on Monday".  Meanwhile, Prince and the Revolution topped the Billboard Top 100 with "When Doves Cry".  What was #100?  "Yah Mo Be There", by James Ingram and Michael McDonald…

    (I can't poke too much fun–my beloved Jethro Tull released "Under Wraps".  Not one of their best albums ever.  By far.  Even Tull's then-bassist Dave Pegg said the songs cut from 1983's "Broadsword and the Beast" would have made a better album.  Trivia time–it was the only Tull album with no live drummer–drum machines were used instead.  Doane Perry would be hired shortly after this album and was their full-time drummer until 2011.  He still occasionally tours with them.)

    The big news items in the United States for 1984, though, were generated by President Ronald Reagan.  In August, during a sound check for a radio broadcast, he says "My fellow Americans, I'm pleased to tell you today that I've signed legislation that will outlaw Russia forever.  We begin bombing in five minutes".  He alos is re-elected (with George H. W. Bush as his Vice President) in a landslide victory in November, beating Democrats Walter Mondale and Geraldine Ferraro, carrying 49 states and 59% of the popular vote.

     Oh, and as an aside:  When you get an ROTC scholarship, you are basically sworn in as enlisted personnel.  Because I vacated my AFROTC scholarship, a Review Board convened.  It was decided that I wasn't vacating the scholarship for any reason other than it would be a waste of money to have me keep banging my head against a wall as an egineering student.  For my troubles, I received a package from the United States Air Force sometime in April.  Now, some fellow scholarship recipients were receiving orders to attend basic training at Lackland AFB, Texas.  I was slightly concerend until I opened the envelope.  I was granted an Honorable Discharge from the United States Air Force.  As an Airman Basic.  No orders.  One of my roommates at the time wasn't as lucky–his orders appeared a week after he got home in December, 1983.  He showed the Air Force, though–he went down and joined the Army before the Air Force caught up with him.  Many who knew this guy swore he joined the army only so he could get a good, up close look at an M1 Abrams tank so he could build a superdetailed model of one…

    I hope this finds all of you in good health.  Thanks for reading, and be good to one another.  I bid you Peace.

     

     

  • More memories from days past, club contests, and my take on rapid prototyping

    Howdy…

    I was going through the pictures from the family archives a few days ago, and found a few from a mid-1970's Christmas.  My brother and I would open up the gifts, look at everything, then pile up the loot in a neat stack.  Well, in one of those stacks I spied a Revell 1/72 Mirage III kit, and can still recall building it.  Back then, it took maybe two hours from beginning to end.  I do remember that the kit had a complete engine, as I found that engine sometime later when we moved out of the house we grew up in sometime in 1989. 

    Back then, it was pretty easy to figure out what models I wanted–any and all of them, regardless of scale or subject matter.  I was a few years removed from deciding that I wanted a collection of World War the Second airplanes in 1/48 scale, so for the time being my motto was "if its plastic, I'll build it".  I recall the same year, I received a Revell 1/72 He-219 as well.  I think I built them on consecutive nights, which was not the norm when I was fortunate enough to have multiple kits at hand–and certainly isn't the norm now, with my collection of over 1,800 unbuilt kits upstairs!

    I have a few copies of that Revell Mirage.  I may have to dig one out for old times' sake. 

    ***************************************

    At our monthly AMPS meeting, we decided to have several intra-club contests over the course of the new year.  The first theme we chose was "Anything American".  In order to get out of an armor rut (yes, the StuG is still in work!), I picked up the Tamiya 1/48 scale M8 Greyhound and M20 armored cars.  I figure I can knock one of them together in a month or so and break my modeler's block vis a vis armor kits, sort of like the Gnat project did for my airplane modeler's block.  It will also afford me the opportunity to try out the Vallejo "Green Model" weathering kit I bought for a song at the local Hobby Lobby (40% off coupons do come in handy!).  Stay tuned…

    ****************************************

    One of the subjects that's come up often on the online chat rooms also came up at the meeting–the subject is that of Rapid Prototyping, better known as 3D printing.  There have been a lot of discussions (along with a lot of hair pulled, teeth gnashed, etc.) overt his online.  The proponents of this say that in a few years, rather than buying a kit from Tamiya, you'll simply pay them a fee to download and print the model.  I see a few flaws to the logic.  First, 3D printing can be awfully expensive, more expensive than a lot of the high end kits.  Do you really want to pay upwards of $100 US for the right to "print" a kit?  I doubt it.  Second, I don't think that scenario will come to pass simply because the manufacturer will lose any and all control over the quality of the kit.  Different printers will print, well, differently.  If you don't have things set up correctly, you will run the risk of printing oversize, or undersize, or with soft details because you didn't choose the correct resolution.  No, I don't see the printing of an entire kit as being something feasible for 3D printers, although perhaps it will work for limited run subjects–you know, subjects with a limited appeal.  F-RSIN got started by using 3D printed masters for some of their all-resin kits, so it might be a strong possibility that 3D printed limited run kits will take their place alongside resin and vacuum-formed kits in the "Limited Run" end of the catalog.

    What I do see as being within the realm of possibility is detail parts.  I see this being the next frontier in modeling–in fact, there are a few concerns already making 3D printed detail parts, the best known being Click2Detail.  It will be interesting to see how this shakes out. 

    ******************************************

    It is hard to believe that the year is almost over.  In the States, Thanksgiving will soon have come and gone, with Christmas approaching in the windscreen.  I do hope each and every one of you has a chance to take a break and spend some time with your family at some point during the holidays.  If you haven't made the time to do so, you might want to re-think that.  You only have one family, for good, bad, or other.  Try to spend some time together, won't you?  Enjoy the holidays and be safe.  Be good to one another, and be good to those not as fortunate as you.  And, as always, I bid you Peace.

  • More memories from back in the day…

    Nostalgia hit again.  With the events of the past year, I have a lot of my family's keepsakes in the house that I still need to go through and catalog–I imagine my brother still has to do the same with a lot of the stuff he has, too.  With the holidays approaching, I got to thinking–which can be a dangerous thing, especially when you're doing the 7 days, 12 hours a day thing…

    I was remembering back to the early days of FineScale Modeler, back when it was the fresh face on the plastic modeling scene.  Why?  Maybe because the first several issues came out in late 1982, my first year in college.  When I needed a break from the academics, I'd reach for FSM.  Why?  In no particular order:

    The early issues were cover-to-cover reads for me.  Usually, I'd read it at least four times in order to make sure I could catch every work of every article and every ad for stuff I had never heard of before.  FSM wasn't afraid to publish full-blown scratchbuild articles, or involved conversion articles, or even superdetail articles.  In fact, I have two copies of the Fall 1984 issue with Bob Steinbrunn's article on cockpit detailing–my original copy is so shop worn and dog eared that when a club member was giving away his collection of early issues, I snagged his nearly new copy.

    Compared to the competition, FSM gave me something that the other guys wouldn't, couldn't, or didn't–advanced projects, complete with either in-progress photos or drawings that helped explain what the builder did.  It really helps to see what the author did when he says he "used 5-minute epoxy to reinforce the area" rather than just read the words. 

    The articles covered the subject from beginning to end, more or less.  What finally got me to end my subscription was the simplification of the projects, or the "let's condense a large project down to a Top-10 bulleted list" mentality of the late 1990's and early 2000's.  That, along with the semi annual "How to apply decals" and "How to use and airbrush" articles, soured me on the magazine.  I had been a continuous subscriber since the introduction of the magazine (I actually found the cancelled check from my initial subscription when we cleaned up Mom's condo!), and believe me, it was hard to ignore the renewal cards.  But I did, and every time I pick up a new issue on the newsstand and flip through it, I am reminded that nothing has really changed.

    Before the naysayers start to pile on with the claims that "You've just improved your craft, FSM is as good as it ever was!", I'd like to say hogwash.  Not true.  If that were true, why did the short-lived Aerospace Modeler Magazine hit me the same way that that the first FSM issues hit me?  The projects were complete, they were fully explained, and in some cases matched those early days of FSM.

    Alas, I fear the day of the print magazine has changed drastically.  I was hoping for good things with AMM, and a few months ago I saw a rumbling that something might be in the air (no pun intended).  But these days, niche magazines certainly must walk a razor's edge between profit and loss.  I would imagine that breaking even is the goal for some of the smaller publications.  One can see why FSM, with the might of Kalmbach Publishing behind them, still soldiers on while the others tend to fall by the wayside…

    ***************************************

    With the holidays approaching, my mind tends to also wander back to those days when I would go to the hobby shop with Dad.  We were looking for one thing–grass mat for the train platform.  Once we had that, we could set the trains up under the Christmas tree.  I haven't set up a train under a Christmas tree since my short affair with N gauge in 1990 or 1991, but I do remember the Lionel set under the tree as a kid.  One of the other things that I now have in my garage is the 1972-era Lionel set Mom and Dad bought us when we first moved to Florida.  That train set was rode hard and put up wet many times, yet it still runs.  I offered to let my brother take the Lionel set since I had the Scott Paper HO gauge trains our Grandmother got for us (and the other grandkids, too) one year.  My brother let me have both sets.  If I can find a way to one day get them both up and running, I plan on doing so.  I've always wanted to actually construct a full-blown HO layout anyway.  All I need is another room on the house…

    ***************************************

    Speaking of model railroading, one other Christmas time attraction in South Florida used to the the National Enquirer's shindig.  They'd get one of those huge (very tall–like in the neighborhood of 100 feet tall) spruce trees, light it up, set it up next to their National Headquarters, and charge admission to see it.  Along with the huge tree, there was this HO gauge layout housed in several large tents.  It was the product (if I recall correctly) of several railroad clubs, and it took maybe an hour to walk through the whole thing.  When you have relatives visiting, you have to find some interesting things to go see–this was one of them.

    ****************************************

    I'll be back soon with more holiday memories.  Until then, be good to one another.  I bid you Peace.

     

  • And, like that…he’s back. Well, for a little while, at least…

    Need I say why I've been absent?  I didn't think so…but I will tell you that we're overflowing at work, and we're trying to swing a deal for more work space.

    I have noticed more military activity lately, though.  The past several months have seen visits by Army Kiowa Warriors, Blackhawks, a few Apaches, at least one Chinook, several USMC Cobras and Hueys, and several USMC V-22 flybys.  It has kept things interesting…

    ***********************************************

    On the model front, I'm still doing massive research (when I have the chance) on the Italian campaign of World War The Second.  See, I have this StuG IV that wants to be a 190th Pz.Abt. vehicle of the 90th Panzergrenadier Division in Italy.  Well, therein lies the rub–the 90th was more or less a reserve division that was divided up piecemeal and sent wherever Kesselring needed them.  Funny, since my research so far shows them as being the only Panzergrenadier Division to be completely equipped with StuG IV's (the others fielded a mix of StuG III, StuG IV, and other varieties of SPs and light armor).  Well, some of my references say they were present during the Anzio breakout.  SOme refs show them at Monte Cassino.  Others show them on the eastern side of the Appenines.  So, what to do…

    I think I'm going to simply build it, mark it, and put it on a generic "Italian countryside" base and call it good.  For now.  I will probably include at least one figure as a scale yardstick, but that will probably be as far as I'll take this one.

    Meanwhile, I'm frustrating myself with poached eggs–the WWII Italian air force variety, that seemingly simple camouflage scheme of a green base with sand yellow spots with a small red-brown spot in the middle.  Yep, the Macchi 200 has finally hit the paint shop.  I've been going back and forth on the painting every time I get five spare minutes, and I hope to soon have something acceptable to post for all to ogle.  Until then, I keep working at it…

    ********************************************

    At the same time, the local shop is having a kit sale, so I've been availing myself of more future SIDNA.  I mean, how many Tamiya Storch kits does one need?  Ahhh, but when one finds that kit for $30, why not buy a second copy?  I've also picked up a few kits that I've wanted for a while, but the price put me off–Moebius' Moon Bus kit, for one.  I had an Aurora Moon Bus, but sold it years ago.  I was happy to see Moebius re-engineer it, but when it came out at $50, well, I could wait.  But the same kit for $20?  Sold, American.  Same for the FineMolds 1/48 scale X-Wing fighter, the most expensive (at MSRP $99) Snap-Tite kit I've seen.  While still a bit steep, the $40 price tag was more to my liking…

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    We did have a chance to get to the annual Atlanta airliner collectibles show.  Delta has unveiled their plans of the museum, and I have to say that they are not planning on anything but top-drawer for the renovation/expansion.  It will be interesting to see it once it is done–Delta says the new museum will be open for business in May, 2014.

    At said airliners show, I picked up a Revell 1/115 P-3A Orion kit with a 1964 copyright date.  This issue hails from the day when Revell had box art wraps rather than printed box tops.  I was surprised to see that the contents were still in fabulous shape, given the age of the kit.  I've toyed with various build scenarios in my head: converting it back to an Electra (not likely, since I have Minicraft wings and Welsh fuselages for that), bringing it up to P-3C standards (again, not likely, especially since I got another Arii 1/144 P-3C from the same vendor), or simply doing one of the early white-over Engine Gray schemes, which I really like.  We'll see…

    I also snagged another orphan ATP 1/144 Convair 340 kit.  This one is the radar nose kit with North Central decals.  The kit itself in interesting–the fuselage is cast in Polyurethane foam, with some injection-molded parts (props, landing gear) included.  A superdetailed kit it most certainly is not, but it is a 1/144 scale Convair-liner.  Why the bigs have missed making kits of the Convair-liners (and the Martinliners–the 2-0-2 and 4-0-4) is still a mystery to me.

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    Speaking of orphan airliners, I have laid eyes on the new Roden 1/144 Boeing 720 kit.  Yes, if you've read the rest of the Interwebs, you know the engine nacelles are oversized.  But the aftermarket is coming to the rescue with that issue.  The rest of the kit?  Nice.  Not perfect, but a much easier path to Boeing's first "short haul" airliner than trying to cut and paste a Revell 720/707/KC-135 kit, for sure…

    Well, that's all I can think of for now.  Hopefully nest time I'll have a few Macchi photos, and maybe some  other stuff to share. 

    Thanks for reading.  As always, be good to one another and I bid you Peace.