Things Change or Maybe Not, Post-War Jugs, A Couple From Norm, and You Have to Start Somewhere

Christmas Passed, Christmas Past

Here we are again, Ya'll, and another Christmas lies behind us. It's a magical season if you happen to enjoy the holiday, which I do, although I know that a tremendous number of people on our planet neither enjoy nor even celebrate it, a point of view I respect (there are a lot of holidays I don't participate in either, and even more of them that I know nothing about), but if you do happen to be a scale modeling sort of person of a certain age, and if you participate in The Christmas Thing as well, then you know that those two entities---Christmas and modeling---are irrefutably and indelibly entwined with one another. It's Christmas, which means it's time to get a model from someone as a gift!

With that gift prospect as a working premise, it must be said that I hardly ever get modeling-related things for Christmas these days. Part of it's due to aging, I suppose, since I'm much closer now to my inevitable and highly untimely demise than to the year of my birth and am therefore in theory, if not in fact, beyond caring about silly things like toys, of which plastic models are a largely perceived component thereof' It must also be said that some of it's because Christmas around here is largely celebrated on a reduced scale when compared to that of decades past, a direct response to our culture's unfortunate habit of turning a holiday of love and giving to one of unadulterated avarice,  spending, and greed. That's a digression, however; yet another Friddellian rabbit hole to be explored at a later date. For our purposes today, and to borrow and twist a bit of Shakespearean hyperbole, I have come to remember and cherish the Christmas I grew up with, not to bury it, so let's get back on track, darn it.

Dedicated readers of this project have endured and suffered through numerous descriptions of how I fell in love with the hobby of scale modeling so there's certainly no need to beat that horse again. Instead, let's acknowledge it as germane to the discussion because it ensured that I spent a great deal of my life getting something related to the hobby for Christmas every year for many, many years. Mostly those things were kits, usually of airplanes but also of ships and the occasional tank, or animal, or building or whatever---you get the picture, right? Anyway, between birthdays and Christmases I must have received every Revell gift set produced during the long and illustrious reign of the first iteration of that Southern California pioneer of our hobby, and lots of singles from other manufacturers too; Monogram's Willy Ley-inspired space vehicles come immediately to mind,  along with various Revell ship kits and Aurora Zeros and P-38s. The crowning jewels for me were the Monogram Phantom Mustang, the Chevrolet V-8 engine that later ended up in that same company's Big T kit, and the star of my particular show, Monogram's Air Power set. Nowadays most of those Christmas gifts from my childhood are collector's items to one extent or another and some, such as that Air Power set, command serious prices when you can find a decent example for sale. That childhood magic has in consequence become a warm and comfortable memory of a different time and place for many, myself included, and a thriving niche business for the collecting crowd. 

Yep, times change, and our hobby has changed with it. That Monogram Air Power kit cost less than $5.00 at full retail when I received mine on that wonderful December morning back in 1959, while the price of acquiring one is now pushing a grand, presuming you can even find one to spend that kind of money on. Newer (and far better!) kits are certainly out there but they're expensive too, and what was once a fun sort of a thing, a magical project often completed in a day or two, is now an undertaking that in theory will result in an accurate One to Whatever Your Scale Is replica of something or other but will take a lot of the fun out of things for a kid. Then there's the whole thing of It's a Decent Kit vs I Don't Want That One deal to consider. Just think of Eduard's contemporary Zero-Sen vs the early-60s Monogram A6M Zero, for example, and you'll get the point. The days of a plastic model as an easily affordable and equally easily chosen gift are largely in the past for a great many people. The cost alone makes you understand why today's kids don't ask for models for Christmas very much anymore (presuming you can tear them away from their video games to be interested in one in the first place).

Even so, I have to admit that it's often necessary for me to resist the urge to shake the present that's under the tree with my name on it to see if it rattles, partially because so doing often draws those "He's always been like that" sidelong glances from other "adults" in the room but mostly because nothing ever does rattle when I shake the box these days, and nothing has rattled there for quite a while. Phooey, right?

Times change, though, for better or for worse, and people do too. I've been an orphan since 2002, but not on Christmas Eve or Christmas morning. On that night, and on that morning, everybody is present and accounted for in my world and I can almost always hear that faint rattle when I gently shake the ribbon-tied box before I open it, no matter whether there's plastic in there or not, 'cause I can hear it; it's all part of the deal. It's a Christmas smell, too, as much of one as freshly-baked cookies or a real Christmas tree in the house; that of newly molded polystyrene inside a sturdy box filled with parts and crumpled packing paper, and all of it capped with artwork to make a kid's imagination soar. It must surely be magic!

I usually try to end these things with a message, and today I'd like to offer this one for your consideration: Simple biology dictates that we all have to age. We do not, however, have to grow up, not today, not tomorrow, not ever. It's all in how you see it and choose to live it.

And that's enough of that, 'cause I'm busy right now! HEY YOU GUYS! LOOK WHAT I GOT FOR CHRISTMAS THIS YEAR!

The Boys From Maryland

Maryland's 104th TFS was a pacesetter in its early days, its claim to fame as the first National Guard aviation unit to have its own airplanes, in 1921, and the first to attend a summer encampment back in 1922 ensuring its place as a plank holder of sorts. It evolved from the 104th Squadron to the 104th Observation squadron on 25 January, 1923 and kept that identity until the beginning of the Second World War and its assignment to active duty on 03 February, 1941. During its time as a direct AAF asset during the war it served under its own designation as a component of 59th Observation Group before being redesignated, albeit briefly, as the 517th Bombardment Squadron before becoming the 12th Anti-Submarine Squadron/15th Anti-Submarine Wing. The unit's initial lineage was disrupted on 24 September 1943 when it was disbanded and its personnel transferred to other units. Our interest in the unit, at least for today, lies in its post-War reestablishment as the 104th FS at Harbor Field, Maryland. The unit flew P-47Ds (later being redesignated as F-47Ds as a result of the creation of the United States Air Force in 1947 for some five years prior to acquiring their second post-War type, the F-51H Mustang. Thanks to the kindness of Mark Nankivil and The Greater St Louis Air and Space Museum we have a look at several of the 104th's Thunderbolts. Before we get started, however, please note that all of the airplanes we're looking at today post-date the 18 September 1947 creation date of the US Air Force, so none are carrying the national insignia in use from 1945 until that date.

F-47D-40-RA 44-90297 undergoes maintenance in one of the 104th's hangars alongside other Thunderbolts and one of the unit's Douglas Invaders and a T-6. The aircraft directly behind 297 still carries a partially scrubbed-off but fairly legible buzz number, illustrating the immediate post-War PE- designation worn by the aircraft prior to its designation shift. It also carries a two-digit number on its cowling. Scale modelers take note of the equipment on the hanger floor and the general clutter evident just about everywhere.  M Burke via Mark Nankivil and the Greater St Louis Air and Space Museum

Here's a fine study of F-47D-40-RA, 45-49115, at the gun butts on the home drome at Harbor Field having her armament bore-sighted. The stenciling under the cockpit reads "ENLIST IN THE AIR NATIONAL GUARD/104TH FIGHTER SQUADRON", an obvious effort to recruit new blood for the unit in the immediate post-War world. This airplane was damaged in 1951, shortly prior to the unit giving up its Thunderbolts for the F-51H. The unit wasn't one of the gaudy ones and rarely employed the swathes of colorful stripes and checkerboards we so often find on American military aircraft of the late 40s and 1950s; the 104th's F-47Ds were a fine example of that plain treatment.  M Burke via Mark Nankivil and the Greater St Louis Air and Space Museum

 By the time this photograph was taken the 104th had acquired their MD.N.G markings under the "enlist in the ANG" fuselage logo and had acquired a squadron emblem on the cowling as well. The F-47D's signature olive drab anti-glare panels are in fine view in this image.  M Burke via Mark Nankivil and the Greater St Louis Air and Space Museum

 Here's a period patch illustrating the colors of that nose emblem. Consider it a bonus, if you will.

This fine maintenance photo provides us with superb details of the propeller and part of the engine of an as yet unidentified 104th FS F-47D-40-NA. That maintenance stand has a distinctly home-made look about it, and the ground crew are making a definite, if highly unofficial, fashion statement. Things were different back then!   M Burke via Mark Nankivil and the Greater St Louis Air and Space Museum

This lineup of F-47Ds from the 104th was taken on April Fools Day of 1948, and is the only image in this essay I can put a definite date on. The letters NG (for National Guard, but you knew that, right?) have appeared on the vertical tails but the squadron badge and ANG recruiting logo are nowhere to be seen. 44-89851 is an F-47D-30-RE as is the aircraft to its immediate right in the photo, 44-32966. The aircraft on the far left of the image carries the number 15 on its cowling and may possibly be the mystery "Jug" in our first shot.  M Burke via Mark Nankivil and the Greater St Louis Air and Space Museum

Our final shot for the day is one that's been reproduced before and illustrates the 104th's markings during its final days with the F-47. Our first image, the one taken inside the hangar, showed natural metal F-47s but everything else in this essay has been painted in overall silver, to include this four-ship. The anti-glare treatment on the airplanes has changed from olive drab to matte black, and the squadron emblem is proudly displayed on all of the cowlings. All of the aircraft carry nose numbers (which don't correspond to the aircraft's serial numbers) and the NG logo on both the fuselage and the vertical stab, while side numbers 20 and 31 appear to have the undersides of their fuselages painted in black; note the straight presentation between the darker ventral color and the overall silver of the fuselages of those two aircraft. Note how the darker color goes with a hard and straight demarcation all the way back to the trailing edge of the rudder. If any of you know for sure what's going on here, as in are there better photographs out there, please drop me a line at replicainscaleatyahoodotcom .  45-49276 and 45-49300 both ended up in Brasil after globe-trotting post-War careers, but that's all I can tell you about the fate of the birds in this image.  M Burke via Mark Nankivil and the Greater St Louis Air and Space Museum

Thanks to Norm!

Regular readers are probably well aware of Norman Camou by now, but for those of you who don't know he's an old-timer as far as this project is concerned, and has been helping out with it for several years now by finding unique and interesting aviation-related topics on YouTube as well as other web sites. With that as an introduction, he's at it again, first with a visual tome on painting aircraft:

https://youtu.be/ypO2Obz7KnQ?si=8uTXoT0KXFD9MfOi

and again with this look at what once was in the South Pacific back in The Bad Old Days. (Yes, I know the second one isn't a YouTube offering. Just roll with it, ok?

https://southpacificwwiimuseum.com/santo-bases/

Thanks as always to Norm for finding these treasures and sharing them with us!

Learnin' to Fly

The Navy did it with early T-34s and the Air Force followed with lightly militarized Cessna 175s, a Cessna 172 derivative designated T-141 Mescalero. It wasn't a normal thing to find one in the wild so was delighted when I caught this one taxiing at the late, great Bergstrom AFB on 02 August 1980.

T-41A 55-5228/N5228F taxis past at Bergstrom during a typically brassy South Texas afternoon, possibly providing a treat for the pilot candidate being evaluated that day. The type operated out of Hondo Municipal Airport in Texas (the former Hondo AFB) among other locations. There's no way of telling where her nugget pilot ended up after he moved on from the Mescalero to The Real Deal, but I'd like to think he or she went on to do good things with the Air Force. (Readers please note that the serial number given would more likely seem to belong on a T-33. Please drop me a line if any of you can provide clarification of this!)   Phillip Friddell

 

Under the Radar

 World Class Diamondbacks, a Pictorial History of Strike Fighter Squadron 102 (VFA-102), US Navy Squadron Histories - No. 306HB, Romano, Angelo, Ginter Books, 2020, 288 pp, illustrated, Hardbound

As things happen this is a tough review to write, not because of any difficulty with the subject---the book is superb in every way---but because I'm personally acquainted with both the author and the publisher. The work stands very firmly on its own merit and is, quite frankly, a must-have if your interests run towards its subject matter, but it's always tough reviewing a product done by friends.

With that said, the 288 pages of this particular edition are pretty much the ne plus ultra of aviation unit histories. The book begins with the establishment of VF-102 on 01 May 1952, after which we're off and running. Establishments, disestablishments, Air Task Group and Air Wing assignments until the book's cutoff point with its 2020 Indio-Pacific cruise aboard the Ronald Reagan; they're all there, and every change, cruise, or deployment is heavily documented both by meticulously researched text and an appropriate selection of photography and graphic illustrations to back everything up, while the photography, mostly garnered from the author's personal collection, is both unique and graphically informative. The list of contributing photographers reads like a Who's Who of American naval aviation photography, and is a class act in every regard.

The book is available in both soft and hardbound format and is well laid out, professionally produced, easy to follow, and could be the poster child for the proper way to write and publish a unit history. As previously mentioned, I know both the author and the publisher, as well as many of the contributors to this project, but there's no personal bias in that regard. The book stands firmly on its own merits and is well worth a place in any library of American naval aviation. Recommended. 

The Relief Tube

By all rights I should have heard from someone by now offering a correction or addition to the past couple of issues, but to this point (which is to say right now this minute, while I'm typing this) nobody has contacted me with anything other than best wishes for getting myself back in the saddle again. I'd like to think that means I'm doing a great job of getting everything right the first time around, but the honest truth is that the project is pretty much starting over again from the beginning, in a manner of speaking, so it's highly likely that very few people are reading it yet. (See, Phillip? I TOLD you this would happen if you didn't keep up a regular schedule!) Things will change as we go along.

Anyway, if you should happen to come up with something that needs correcting I'm here, ready and willing to do it. That address, as always, is  replicainscaleatyahoodotcom  . Spammers need not apply!

Happy Snaps

Well, not this time. It's not that I don't have air to air imagery that I could share, but it's all from the same two or three individuals and I'm hoping to expand that pool a bit, which is my opportunity to ask our former or active-duty military readers if you've got any photography you'd like to share. This isn't a for-profit, or even non-profit site, so remuneration (that means "payment") isn't in the game, but full credit will be given and any images used will be suitably watermarked to keep The Picture Pirates from absconding with them and using them for their own nefarious purposes! The addy for that (one of my grandkids says "addy" means address, which may mean I'm finally moving into the 21st Century, although probably not) is the same for everything else around here:  replicainscaleatyahoodotcom . 

And that's it for this issue. Be good to your neighbor and we'll meet again soon!

phil