A Nimrod Song, I Happen to LIKE the Fury, Even More Corsairs, An Oddball B-47, That Nate, and Any Old Albatros in a Storm

You Gotta Have a Theme Song, So Here's One For the Nimrods

Don Jay is our official Nimrod, having served with them and all, and he's sent us another bit of information on the outfit in the form of their unofficial song. This one's a little different than most Air Force songs because you can actually sing it in semi-polite company!

First, the lyrics:

On November 20, 1966, four Cricket FACs wrote this song in honor of the Nimrods. Woke up ops officer (Joe Kittinger) to sing it to him. Sung to the music of ""NIMROD BALLAD"



An old VC truck driver went out
One dark and rainy night

He would have to drive that dark trail
Without a beam of light

He knew that Uncle Ho Chi Minh
Would be so proud of him

So he loaded up his P-O-L
And headed out of Vinh


[chorus]
Nimrods, Nimrods, those truck killers of the night

He rattled through Mugia Pass
(missing verses)

The call came through the night ... Nimrod Lead this is Gombey 105 *
Lead your cleared in hot if you've got that truck in sight

They bombed and strafed and flared ... and blew that bastard up
Oh Nimrods, Nimrods ... Truck Killers of the night


[chorus]
Nimrods, Nimrods, those truck killers of the night.

(*) Gombey - call sign for the Cessna O1-E Bird Dog FAC

And he also gave us a link to a performance of the song, which hopefully will work if you copy and paste it into your browser bar (I think that's what they call it---this audio/visual stuff is a new wrinkle for me!)

http://www.woolyfsh .com/seasongs/ Nimrod.mp3

You Can Never Have Too Many FJ-3s!

That's how I feel about it, anyway! Here are another couple of shots of one of my favorite birds, obsolescent as it was when it was operational. (As were the Cougar, Banshee, and Demon too, come to think of it...)

Here's Randolph's flight deck ca. 1958. The FJ-3Ms are from VF-84 back before they assumed the Jolly Roger from VF-17---it's a heritage thing, right? Lots of aeroplanes on that flight deck!  Tailhook Association via Doug Siegfried

And some more FJ-3Ms from Fighting 121 during 1957. I don't think I ran this one before (I've had computer issues all day & am trying to get this thing published before the next crash!) but if I did please forgive the duplication. Stuff happens sometimes!  Tailhook Association via Doug Siegfried

The Argonauts of VF-33 had a crack at the Fury too. Here's one of their glossy sea blue FJ-3s in flight while deployed to the Med aboard Lake Champlain in 1955. It's possible that I'm just the least little bit prejudiced, but I don't think the Navy ever had prettier airplanes than the glossy sea blue jets!   Tailhook Association via Doug Siegfried

And finally, another blue bird. This one's from VF-51 as deployed aboard the Kearsarge during 1955. You modelers might note that both the leading edge slats and the tail bumper are deployed on this FJ-3
Tailhook Association via Doug Siegfried

Old Hose Nose

The F4U series is one of my all-time favorites, and it's time for another picture of one, or maybe even more than that. Our first shot's from the collection of Jim Sullivan and shows a -5 on the boat:

An F4U-5 launches off the USS Wright on 3 November 1948. It's peacetime and this VF-21 bird is clean, with no ordnance or gas bags to ruin its lines. The -5 was, in my opinion, the most pugnacious appearing of the Corsairs, but what an airplane!  Sullivan Collection

This -5 is loaded for bear but it's not headed for combat. The photo was taken during July of 1951 and the bird is from VX-3 while based in Atlantic City. I don't think I'd want to be on the receiving end of that salvo!  Sullivan Collection

The Reserves used the -5 too. This Glenview bird is taxiing out in early 1952. Note the absence of that pesky "V" prefix to the BuNo!  Sullivan Collection

And another Glenview bird. This one shows the International Orange fuselage band and the matte blue anti-glare treatment to advantage. Few people model Reserve aircraft but I can't understand why---this one's a beauty!  Sullivan Collection

The Navy Flew Some Oddball Stuff From Time to Time

And here's a prime example of same. Rick Morgan dropped us a quick note after the last shots from Douglas Tulsa and commented that the Navy had a couple of EB-47Es there at one time. He's right, of course, and I'm thinking we need to see a photo or two of at least one of them:

A Navy EB-47E, originally AF52-0410 and flown as BuNo 24100 by the Navy, at Douglas Tulsa ca. 1974. Note the pylon with the Whatsis (either telemetry gear or a sensor pod, but I don't know which) hanging from it. I await your letters with anticipation!  Tulsa Air & Space Museum via Mark Nankivil

What a neat photo of 42100! Of considerable interest is the OU helmet on the nose; wish we knew what that tic-tac-toe thingy was for! Guess it's time to go look up some info on this program, huh?  Tulsa Air & Space Museum via Mark Nankivil

And here's the entire airplane. Note the pylon, which appears under both wings.  When the Navy first took possession of their two EB-47E-80s (52-0410 and 52-0412) the pylons were used for the mounting of podded sensors and telemetry gear. Later on the left pylon was used to mount a GE TF34 turbofan for testing. Tulsa Air & Space Museum via Mark Nankivil

And one final shot of 4120 . I think it's time to seriously investigate this program and see if I can turn up a little more photography on it. We aren't finished with this one, gang!  Tulsa Air & Space Museum via Mark Nankivil

As a postscript, 52-0412 (not illustrated here) ended up as a display aircraft at Dyess Linear Air Park in Abilene, Texas. It's not displayed in Navy markings, though!

And another postscript, because I just checked my e-mail! Rick Morgan is pretty sure the pod under that EB-47E is in fact an ALQ-31. Here's a shot of one on an RF-8G of VFP-62 to finish out our day:

And with this photo (and the additions you may have noticed on the preceeding B-47 piece) we really and truly are done with this for today. We are. I promise...  USN via Rick Morgan

So Where's the Nate?

Not done is where it is. I'm doing the panel lines right now, and it's so close to finished that it could almost fly off on its own, but it still isn't ready and there's nothing to show you that you haven't already seen, so No Nate Today! Instead, here are a couple of photos to prove that you can build the unbuildable, even though it might be a little bit of a challenge to do it!

Back before there were Wingnut Wings kits, Roden were pretty much it as far as Great War kits in 1/32nd scale were concerned. They did some neat subjects, but you could never call the kits easy to build. Here, as a case in point, is their 1/32nd scale Albatros DIII, more or less done in the markings of Otto Hartmann from Jasta 28 ca. 1917. 

Here's a 3/4 front view. The plywood effect was done with a stiff brush and pastels over light buff paint, each panel being done individually. I don't like the way I did the prop and may redo it some day, presuming I ever build another 1/32nd scale WWI model to go with this one.

This shot shows beyond any doubt why everybody hates Roden decals. Check out the cross on the left wing. Arghhh!

It looks pretty good in this view, though. There's truth in the saying that the camera never lies, but it's entirely possible to make it fib a little bit...

I like this shot quite a bit, but that's mostly because of the lighting. I don't like the prop, but we already discussed that. The rigging, which I don't think I mentioned before, is stainless steel wire; it actually serves a structural purpose on this model which might have fallen apart by now if it hadn't been used. Roden does their struts and affiliated attachment points in scale thickness, ya'll!

Eduard makes a photo-etch set for this kit, and it was used on the model you see before you. It's a great set and is essential if you're going to build this thing! In addition to that PE I also scratch-built the engine rocker arms and wound all the individual valve springs, which was fun but pretty much counterproductive at the end of the day. I like the model, but that's mostly because I'm a sucker for biplanes. It looks ok though, doesn't it?

Sometimes We Build Stuff For Our Kids

and that's where this came from, built back in the late 80s, I think. I put it in here just to see if you guys were paying attention. Letters to the editor are not necessary; it won't happen again!

And on that note I think it's probably time to say goodbye 'til next week! In the meantime, be good to your neighbor!
phil