A Couple of Early Phantoms, The Way It Was, Who Knows What They're Doing, Just Lookin' For Trucks, And Some Germans in Texas

In the Beginning

We're all used to the F-4, and I'll bet that more than a few of us miss the airplane; what used to be an everyday sight in the skies around any American air base is a rare thing these days, and in our opinion it's a lesser world for it.

Most folks are used to seeing the Air Force variants of the Phantom (my son started out called it the "Bent Winged Bug Sucker" because an F-4 maintenance officer that I used to hang out with called it that---not a bad name, come to think of it...) all decked out in SEA camo, or ADC Grey, or maybe even in those goofy darker shades of grey when we get towards the end of the road, but in the early days, back when the type wasn't that far away from being an F-110A, the standard paint was Gull Grey over White. It was a Navy Thing back then, and it made for some neat looking, if somewhat unexpected in this day and age, paint jobs. Mark Nankivil's been at it again and has supplied a couple of early RF-4C (not RF-110A, although it wasn't far from it) images. Enjoy.

RF-4C (not RF-110A) 62-12201 made her 100th flight on 5 November 1964. Within a couple of years the RF-4C would be hip-deep in the conflict in SEA, but in '64 the type was still brand-spanking-new to the Air Force. The grey and white RF-4s are a relative rarity and really pretty, we think. The scheme was effective, too, but not down in the weeds.  Greater St Louis Air and Space Museum via Mark Nankivil

A proud flight test team stands in front of 12201. Note that the "Ph" part of the F-4's heritage has already started; that placard refers to the "Phabulous Photo Phantom"---love it!  Greater St Louis Air and Space Museum via Mark Nankivil

Learning to Fly

If you're a regular around here you've probably discovered we've got a soft spot for classic trainers. Here are a couple of images from the archives to reinforce that point:

"OK, you guys; let's go get in the airplanes and go someplace!"  They don't do it this way any more, but back in the old days a mass man-up like this wasn't all that uncommon. What we're looking at is a group of pre-War aviation cadets preparing to man up on a ramp full of BT-1s; bet that was a real sporty takeoff if they actually launched in a group. Things were looser back then...  Friddell Collection

Remember that part where we said things were looser back then? Here's a photo that could be the Poster Child for that sort of thing, taken at Randolph Field back in the '30s; that's the Taj in the background. Try this today and you'd have the Air Force, OSHA, the Green folks, and Lord knows who else sitting on your posterior asking for blood. There was a time when all you needed was an understanding CO who knew the value of good publicity and enough intestinal fortitude to go out and Do the Dumb But Fun Thing. Then again, they used to crash a lot back then too...  Friddell Collection

OK You Guys; Exactly What Is It You're Doing?

Every once in a while we come across one of those shots that, to wax a little bit Biblical about it, passeth all understanding. What follows is one of those shots.

Lessee now; We got your airplane, we got your bag-pipers, and we got your crowd of assorted civilians. Mark Morgan sent this to me many years ago and he may have actually explained what was going on here, but I can't find much in the way of notes so it's a total mystery to me. The A-6E is a TRAM bird from VA-196, BuNo 159179, and the photo was taken 28 February 1997 at NAS Whidbey, but once you get past that I'm Officially Stumped. It could easily be a memorial service of some sort, since there seems to be a color guard just aft of the tail, but it's hard to say. What about it, Mark?  M. Morgan

You Gotta Love Those Black A-26s

You've heard it before, probably a whole lot more than you ever wanted to. The creator and editor of this never-humble blog spent most of his professional career in aviation, a circumstance that allowed him to meet a whole lot of people who took pictures of airplanes. One of those folks was an aeronautical engineer named Mike Hernandez, who spent part of the Korean War as a gunner on B-26s with the 3rd Bomb Wing. He was kind enough to share some photography with us, so we're going to share it with you.

Let's start right off the bat with an anomaly. This unidentified B-26C from the 8th BS/3rd BW is wearing the hard nose off an A-26B. It was a relatively easy thing to replace that nose in the field, but at the time this shot was taken the 8th was equipped with glass-nosed Charlie models. Go figure! And, while you're off figuring, check out those highly-polished natural metal prop blades. Regs? We don't need no stinkin' regs!  Hernandez via Friddell

They almost look placid, don't they? The Invader was a beautiful airplane, and quite the performer too. 44-34687 and 44-34180 are both from the 8th BS and are getting ready to take on a little gas while preparing for the evening's upcoming festivities. We don't know how you feel about it, but we think that Jet finish ("gloss black" if you don't speak 50's Air Force) on the B-26 was about as sexy a paint job as you'll find on any airplane.  Hernandez via Friddell

Here's another ramp shot of a 3rd BW B-26C, 44-35634, but the real star of this particular show is 51-5300, the HU-16A, sitting behind it. The sharp-eyed observer will note that none of the Invaders in this piece are wearing nose art, which makes us think that the airplanes are very new in-country. Note that most of the turrets have been removed; they would have been useless against the MiG-15, and most missions were flown after dark anyway. This shot really shows off the slim lines of the B-26.  Hernandez via Friddell

Here's a good view of the markings presentation on the vertical tail of the 8th's B-26s. That yellow trim is really something on a black airplane, isn't it?  Hernandez via Friddell

Jet paint notwithstanding, not all of the 8th's missions were nocturnal. Mike Hernandez photographed 44-34167 on its way to mischief in a twilight mission; this one was flown while the sun was still out. Note that the dorsal turret is still present and is trained forward. Mike described those missions as "sporty". We bet they were!  Hernandez via Friddell

So, what does an Invader formation look like from the cockpit? This photo gives us a pretty good idea. Those guys are really tucked in, but it won't last long---that tight formation is a really good way to get popped by The Bad Guys. Hernandez via Friddell

OK, modelers; here's your official How to Weather An Invader Nacelle shot. This bird is new enough to still be carrying a dorsal turret and the airplane is relatively clean, but that nacelle is absolutely filthy. It doesn't take long for a round engine to trash everything around it...  Hernandez via Friddell

Not All Texas Germans Live in Fredericksburg

Or at least they didn't in 1990. Bergstrom AFB has been closed for a number of years now, but it was still a going concern (12th AF HQ and home of the 67th TRW) back in the late 80s and early 90s, when they hosted a bi-annual international photo recon meet called RAM. The Federal Luftwaffe was in frequent attendance at those contests, which is where we took these images.

There are people out there who think modern military airplanes are relatively fragile. Those folks have obviously never spent much time around the F-4, which was built like the proverbial brick house. 69-7481 is a Federal Luftwaffe RF-4E and is undergoing last-minute maintenance prior to being manned and launched; all of AG-51's Phantoms were painted in a camo scheme very similar to the classic pre- and early-war RLM 70 and 71 scheme. Some paint jobs just don't look all that good on the F-4, but she wears this one well.  Phillip Friddell

Here's 69-7505, another RF-4E from AG-51. That, my friends, is one beautiful Phantom!  Phillip Friddell

The whole premise of the RAM events was to simulate wartime conditions, right down to ersatz Bad Guys intercepting the recon birds while they were zipping around photographing Texas, and maintenance was taken very seriously by all the participants as a result. The 1990 event ran during the 3rd week of August, a moderately warm time in South Texas, and the German ground echelon dressed accordingly. No such luck for the aircrew, though; nomex was the order of the day.  Phillip Friddell

Everybody at RAM 90 was extremely professional, and it was a closely-contested event in every way. The Luftwaffe maintenance guys were dressed somewhat casually, but they were nuts-on professional in every other respect. AG-51 ran a tight ship that week, ya'll!  Phillip Friddell

A literal parting shot, as it were. 69-7505 is prepped and ready to launch. Do you guys miss the F-4? We sure do!  Phillip Friddell

Happy Snaps

It's back to ATC and Doug Barbier for our Happy Snaps again this week:

Lots of folks look down there noses at trainers. This T-38 formation provides a really good reason why you shouldn't do that...   Doug Barbier

And this is about as pretty as it gets.  We'll let Doug tell you about it:  (Here are a) couple of T-38 shots from Willy back in about 1977-78..... ended up completely destroying that poor Konica camera body - 500 hrs of riding around in cockpits and trying to take pictures at up to 5 G's just vibrated it into pieces.... and no, the shutter hung up at about 3 1/2G's, but I tried it. .... do you know how much your back hurts when you've got the camera supported up on the glare shield & you're trying to lean forward & look through the eyepiece with a parachute on your back while your buddy who's flying loads 5 G's on the jet to chase lead? Formation shots were 3 jets full of instructors and one poor solo student who needed a 4-ship ride to graduate. Weakest student in the class, everyone else had finished up. But he survived.... 90 degrees of bank in wing work & "photo formation" for the pitch out. Doug

Neat stuff, Doug---thanks as always! And we definitely appreciate the sacrifice of that Konica; the photos are well worth it!

The Relief Tube

Let's get right down to business this week. First off is a comment from Doug Barbier regarding the F-84F shots we ran a week or so ago:  If nobody has identified it for you yet, 51-1654 belonged to the 509th TFS at Langley. They flew them from 53-56 before going to the Hun - and then getting xfrd to Clark and going to the F-102. Doug

While we're on the topic of F-84Fs, reader Ralph Nardone had this to say about the Monogram kit of same:
Hello, Phil. I've been reading R&S online for a while now, and had the good fortune to read a few of the print editions a while back when a friend shared them with me. Today's post about Monogram's kits are spot on--there were none better, and while the majority of those kits are getting old, they're still largely either the best or only game in town. Bang for the buck? You betcha. In fact, I just posted my build of the Thunderstreak. Check it out: http://www.ironmodeler.com Keep up the great work! Ralph Nardone

We couldn't agree more, Ralph. Those old Monogram kits have their own quirks to be sure, but at the end of the day almost all of them will allow the creation of a beautiful model. Thanks for writing in.

And that's about it for today's Thrilling Edition. Remember to drop us a line at replicainscale@yahoo.com if you have any comments or criticisms, or if you've got some photography or information you'd like to contribute---we're always looking for material and your input is welcomed. Meanwhile, be good to your neighbor and we'll meet again soon.
phil
         

A Brand New Year, Corsairs, a Zapped Bug Sucker, an Uncommon Boeing, Thuds, Stoofs, and Some Nose Art

Our First Edition for a Brand New Year

This is going to be what we might call a Brief Blog, but I wanted to do a little something to kick ff our brand new year with. I haven't rambled senselessly for a while, so let's start off with Some Thoughts On the Hobby:

Thought the First:  As scale modelers we've never had it so good. In spite of the worst economic times many of us have ever known the new kits keep coming, albeit at a reduced pace when compared to a couple of years ago. There's an amazing selection of aftermarket decals to choose from, and an equally amazing (if sometimes unnecessary) selection of aftermarket parts. To put the icing on the cake, we're also blessed with proliferation of reference works that we could only dream of back in those Halcyon Days of Long Ago.  It's truly a Golden Age for our hobby, doomsayers notwithstanding.

Thought the Second:  I think we should mostly build for fun. It's a hobby. When it's all said and done I try to do my best to get things right,  but at the end of the day it's still a hobby, and I don't go nuts over stuff I miss or mistakes I make, at least not most of the time, and when I do get bothered by such Intrusions into My World I either fix them and move on or, more likely than not, decide I can live with whatever the problem might be and, you guessed it; move on. My personal standards are still relatively high but nowadays I build for me, not for anybody else. In my world that's the way to do it.

Thought the Third:  Because I build for fun it rarely takes more than three or four weeks for me to finish something, and a kit such as the Tamiya Bf 109E can generally go from box to display shelf in three or four days if I can stay with the project with minimal interruptions. That takes us back to Thought the Second---it's a hobby and it ought to be fun.

Thought the Fourth and Final:  Because it's a hobby and because we're building for fun, we ought not make a given project harder than it needs to be. There's another side to that coin too, of course, because we won't get better as modelers if we don't constantly challenge ourselves, but a challenge is different from a ritual beating, and it's relatively easy to turn the hobby into just that. Challenge is Good. Beatings are Bad.

And now, back to our regularly scheduled ("Scheduled"? Did he say "scheduled"?) program.

A Few Things I Like

In the truest spirit of producing a brief New Year's edition of this missive, here are a couple of photos of airplanes that I like. Don't look for a theme because there isn't one; we're just going to look at some pictures that I think are neat.

Fighting Seventeen was the first Navy squadron to take the legendary F4U Corsair aboard a carrier, where they quickly discovered that it was a handful around the boat. That long nose, coupled with a short tailwheel strut and mushy main mounts (on the F4U-1), made for quite an adventure when trying to recover aboard ship. As a result, VF-17 ended up flying their first combat tour from shore bases, although the Navy was ultimately able to cure most of the carrier suitability problems by lengthening that tailwheel strut and stiffening up the oleos on the mains. This photo is from those early evaluations; better days lay ahead.  Tailhook Association via Doug Siegfried

Somewhere in the South Pacific...   This F4U-1A could be the poster child for what some folks might call an Evocative Shot. 901 is from an unknown (at least to me) Marine outfit, and I have no idea where the photo was taken, but it's a fine study of a beautiful airplane. Modelers note that not all SWPAC Corsairs were beat to snot; every one of them was relatively new when they got there. This one probably got grungy pretty quickly, but it's relatively pristine here.  Tailhook Association via Doug Siegfried

The AU-1 was the final American version of the "Hog". The type saw combat in Korea and survived far enough into the 50s to wear the then-new grey over white paint scheme in service. 129411 would be(and has been, come to think of it) a neat subject for a model. Check out that Glossy Sea Blue gas bag down there; it's a nice touch. The rudder of this bird is almost fully deflected, making it look as though the last four of the BuNo painted on the verticals have been applied incorrectly. The elevators are deflected too, making me suspect that some plane captain had a really bad day shortly after this was taken. Tailhook Association via Doug Siegfried

Zapped!

For those of you who may not have spent a significant portion of their adult lives photographing military airplanes, a zap is the application of an emblem or similar device to an airplane that ought not be wearing same. Sometimes such things are painted onto the airframe, although that particular method of application is generally highly frowned upon; mostly zaps are stickers or aviation decals (real "decalcomania", not the scale stickies we modelers use), easily applied and, most importantly, relatively easily removed. Here's an example:

The 178th FIS/119th FIG of the North Dakota ANG, known to one and all as The Happy Hooligans, operated the F-4D for several years. 64-0973, an F-4D-26-MC from the "Hooligans",  is an example of a bird that's been zapped by the Candian Armed Forces. This sort of thing used to happen fairly frequently during international (or even joint services) training operations. It probably still does. Don Jay Collection

It was once considered a Good Idea to make airliners, or at least civil transports, out of bombers. Boeing went down that road with both the B-17 and the B-29 (not to mention the B707 to KC-135 thing, although that one went the other direction, from airliner to tanker). The transport you see here is the Boeing 307, which was based on the B-17. It wasn't a bad airplane, but tricycle landing gear and a need for better capacity kept it out of the big time. It looks pretty cool in spite of all that, and was a good airplane that just happened to be built at the wrong time. If we had a 1/48th scale kit I probably wouldn't build it, but it's still a neat airplane. Nankivil Collection

A Pair of Pretty Thuds

Last time around we saw an example of an F-105 that survived both North Vietnamese AAA and the smelter to end up in the back lot of a truck repair facility. Here's something a little closer to the beginning:

In the Beginning...  54-0099 is the second of two JF-105A-1-RE Thunderchiefs built, shown here proving the feasibility of buddy pack refueling with 54-0102, one of three F-105B-1-REs constructed. The "Thud" could tank off either probe and drogue or a boom, although both methods resulted in a cockpit full of JP-4 fumes. 102 ultimately ended up on public display, a rare survivor of her type.  USAF via Don Jay

A Taste of What's in Store

You may remember, but then maybe not, that we ran a couple of Grumman "Stoof" shots a while back. That elicited a comment from Doug Siegfried (of Tailhook Association fame) to the effect that he'd been an S2F driver for the greater part of his Navy career and would sure like to see us run some more pictures of his favorite airplane. As much as I love that bird (and I truly do, an addiction that dates back to my childhood) I don't have much in the way of photography in my own personal collection. Mention of that sad fact led to action on Doug's part, which will result in several installments of S-2s and C-1s over the next few months. Here's a taste:

It seems as though every single airplane that the United States operated during the ten years between 1959 and 1969 was equipped to fire the AGM-12 Bullpup. That list of aircraft includes the "Stoof", as demonstrated here by an S-2E from VS-21. Shooting a command-guided missile from a slow airplane was a recipe for Certain Disaster in an operational environment, but to the best of our knowledge the type never made an actual war shot with the weapon.  It was probably a Good Thing.  Tailhook Association via Doug Siegfried

Some Nose Art From Desert Storm

If you've been following us for a while you'll recall that we periodically run nose art photos taken by Rick Morgan immediately following his combat tour with VAQ-141 during Operation Desert Storm. You've seen most of it, but for some reason we never got around to running the A-6 photos that constitute the final installment of the series. It's time to correct the ommission, I think.

You may recall that the nose art found on certain of the aircaft assigned to the Theodore Roosevelt immediately post-War was the result of an ad-hoc competition within the air wing. "The Big Stick" was VA-65's entry in the competition. Aside from the nose art this is a useful shot for modelers; check out the deployed curtain and canopy bow detail that's shown in this photo.  Rick Morgan

And here's "Heartless", VA-36's entry in the competition. Note the mission markers beneath the wing root and the intake cover. Yes, Virginia, that's a real, honest-to-goodness cover purpose-made for the A-6 family; it's far more practical than the "hard" type of cover around the boat.  Rick Morgan

Our First Relief Tube of the New Year

When last we met Don Jay sent us a comment regarding The End of Kodachrome. Here's a follow-up to that comment. It's the end of an era.

This makes me sad, ya'll.  via Don Jay

I ran some early FJ-3 photos a while back, and immediately thereafter ran a comment from Tommy Thomason regarding the hard-wing FJs that we didn't look at in that particular piece. He mentioned he'd sent a photograph of same, which you didn't get to see because I couldn't figure out how to open it. I've since worked past that particular Act of Random Stupidity on my part and can now show you the photo that Tommy wanted you to see last time.

BuNo 136153 is an FJ-3M from VF-51 and shows the hard (slatless) wing to advantage, and if you look at the front of the wing root you can see what Tommy was referring to when he said the aircraft was missing the little fairing that ran up against the gun bay door. And, speaking of guns, this bird has obviously just returned from the range; note that it's slick, with no underwing tanks, and there's a considerable amount of blast residue and gun lubricant all over the nose by the cannon ports. Thomason Collection

When we ran those most recent OP-2E photos I made comment about the racks hanging off the wing stations, mistakenly referring to them as TERs. I should've known better! Here's a correction from Rick Morgan:

(The rack in question) is a Practice Multiple Bomb Rack, usually held Mk76 or Mk106 Blue Bombs, frequently used by A-4s and A-6s Stateside. Jim Rotramel tells me the PMBR is an A/A37B-3.  Rick

Thanks, Morgo! Rick also sent along a photo of a PMBR from the era with sensors attached, thus defining the reason VO-67 was using that particular piece of equipment at the time. Those of you who can still remember things (and I'm obviously not part of that group) may recall the caption to an A-4 photo we ran way back when this blog first got started where we described a practice bomb dispenser attached to said "Scooter" as a "Banger Board". Those Neptunes were carrying "Banger Boards", I think.

And that's it for our Very First Edition of 2011. Stay tuned; we've got some really neat stuff coming to you during the coming year. Meanwhile, be good to your neighbor. We'll meet again soon.
phil

Happy Snap Friday, A Book Review (No Foolin'), and Some Serious But Non-Profound Thoughts

Must Be a Friday Thing

Here we are, Friday afternoon, and we're all dressed up with no place to go. How shall we pass the day? Howzabout looking at a couple of photos, mostly random but, I suspect, also of interest. Sounds good to me---let's do it!

Most of you know Jim Sullivan as Mr. Corsair, a title he's more than earned over the years by virtue of a number of publications he's authored or contributed to on the immortal Hog. Maybe some of you don't know that he's an exceptionally good photographer as well---Jim's always had a passion for military aviation and it shows in everything he does. Our first photo was taken by him at NAS Patuxent River on 12 November 1973, and shows A-7A BuNo 152647 in her full high-conspicuity NATC markings. Of particular note is the shade of primer inside the opened fuselage access panel and her generally weathered condition. This airplane is being used!  Jim Sullivan

An absolutely gorgeous study of A-6E 159314 as she appeared on 22 April 1977 while serving with VMA(AW)-121. Judging from the pilot's rank and the aircraft's side number, I'm guessing this one was nominally assigned to the squadron commander. What a classy set of markings. This one's for you, BallPeen!  Jim Sullivan

Here's one from the other side of the fence. The airplane is a B-57E (AF 55-4274) from the 363rd TRW at Shaw on final approach in October of 1972. I still think this is an airplane that looks best in black, but these markings aren't too bad either...   Jim Sullivan

A Book Review; Holy Cow

Yep, I know I said I wasn't going to review stuff here, but every once in a while something really exceptional catches my eye and makes it worth doing. This is one of those times.

Aero Detail 32 Kawasaki J.I.A. Fighter Ki100, Giuseppe Picarella, 2010.

Remember that line in "Rocky" where one of the actors utters that memorable and oft-quoted line: "I coulda been a contendah."? That very statement could certainly apply to the Ki-100, one of those late-war compromise aircraft that ended up being far greater than the sum of its parts. Never the fastest fighter over Japan but certainly one of the most difficult to contest in air-to-air combat, the Ki-100 more than held its own against what could only be considered to be impossible odds during the last days of the war. It was quite an airplane.

Although a fair amount has been written about the type, particularly in the past few years, there's never  been a good one-stop reference on the airplane until now, and this book goes a long way towards filling the void in available Ki-100 information. Comprised of 70 pages, the book goes into the technical structure and detail of the aircraft, making extensive use of photographs taken prior to and during the restoration of c/n 16336 presently held at RAF Hendon. Those photographs are accompanied by a series of absolutely superb technical drawings by the author and will allow the modeler to put any level of detail he might desire into a replica of the aircraft. (The author is, by the way, the senior technical artist for Flight International, and is also Japanese aviation consultant to the RAF Museum at Hendon, both of which go a considerable way towards explaining the exceptional quality of this volume.)

Colors and markings are briefly addressed through a series of captioned side-views, and tantalizing if unfortunately brief mention is made of the alternate charcoal gray scheme used on some Ki-100s. One aircraft identified as being in the gray scheme is side number 22 of the 59th Hiko Sentai/3rd Chutai, which is illustrated in a photograph that shows a Samurai's helmet on the landing gear doors, but this detail is omitted from the color drawing of the aircraft. Even though the technical data is augmented by 6 pages of photographs of operational aircraft, this relative paucity of operational photographs will disappoint some readers. Keep in mind, however, that the book makes no pretense of being a work on colors, camouflage or markings; the title "Aero Detail" pretty much says it all, I think.

The only down-side to this book is the price, which is around $40 here in south Texas. That's a little bit steep for 70 pages and in our present economy that price may well keep the book from being purchased by some who would otherwise be inclined to buy it, but color printing costs money and most of the work, to include a great many of the technical drawings, is in color. In my world it was well worth the price.

Mr. Picarella has created a tour de force on the Ki-100 that could easily become the standard reference for the aircraft. It's difficult to imagine anything better on the structures side of things. We can only hope that someday we'll see a volume this good on camouflage and markings for the airplane!

I'm a cynic at heart and rarely give a whole-hearted endorsement to anything. This book probably the best thing we're going to have on the structure of the Ki-100 and I seriously doubt anyone will improve on it anytime soon. If you're into Japanese military aviation you'll probably want it. It's that good.

A Nice Fringe Benefit

This new iteration of Replica has been going for a couple of months now, and the feedback from our growing body of readers has been simply great. I've also been hearing from quite a few of the folks who were so vital to our success back in The Old Days and with whom I'd lost touch, and that's been pretty cool too. What I didn't expect to happen was something  that occured last night.

On the face of things it was simple enough; an e-mail (to replicainscale@yahoo.com , just in case you're inclined to write) with a name that was familiar. Turns out the message was from one of my best friends during my days at Misawa; he'd stumbled onto the blog, recognized my name, and then read through the 2-1/2 months of postings until he found reference to the fact that I'd been in Japan at the same time he'd been there. In my world that's what's known as a Special Thing.

That Special Thing works on more than one level, although I'm certain that Jackie never knew it back when we were hanging out; I know I didn't. You see, I've been attempting to build plastic models since I was 6 or so, and was just beginning to look seriously at the pictures in airplane books and magazines when we arrived at Misawa. I had no idea what any of the colors in those pictures were, or what most of the markings meant, but I tried to duplicate them as best I could. It was usually a pretty feeble effort on my part, but I tried.

Jackie built plastic model airplanes too, and between us we made quite a dent in the base hobby shop's stock of 1/72nd scale Revell kits. Shortly before Jackie's dad PCSd back to the ZI I went to an off-base hobby shop and bought some Lord-only-knows-what-scale-it-might-have-been Japanese-made kit of a generic Bf110. Somewhere along the line I also found reference to something described as "splinter pattern camouflage". That sounded pretty neat to me, that "splinter pattern" thing, although I didn't have a clue what it was, William Green notwithstanding. (You can say something like "pay attention" if you want to; I wasn't!) What I did next could have been easily anticipated, I think---I took several Testor colors (the ones in the little square bottles) and proceeded to make up my very own version of a "splinter scheme". You can imagine the results if you want to, but I'm not going to describe them to you; it's just too embarrassing to remember even at this remove.

Anyway, I bought the kit. I built it. I sort-of painted it. Then I showed it to Jackie and another friend, a relatively new arrival at the base named Mac and a guy who also liked airplanes. Mac took one look at my splintered Zerstorer and asked "why'd you paint it like that?" It seems that Mac had paid attention to those pictures where I hadn't, and actually had some idea of what a Luftwaffe "splinter scheme" might look like. I was mortified. I was embarrassed. And I started paying more attention to what I saw in pictures.

Fast-forward to October of 1965, when we left Misawa for Texas. I found a hobby shop that catered to the guys who were serious about building those little plastic airplanes and met Frank Emmett, who belonged to something called IPMS and who knew about things like splinter schemes. My course was set.

Anyway, let's get to a point before this ramble gets too far out of hand. I'd always loved models and modeling, and I got a wake-up call in Japan one day in 1964. Then, in 1965, I met a guy who had The Secret Decoder Ring, and who introduced me to that boon to the scale modeler, Serious References. It was an epiphany. Those three guys helped me to get a whole lot better at what I was doing and it happened pretty quickly too. Why do I mention it? That's easy; I think you should do the same thing for somebody you know. Don't be a jerk about it and don't be overbearing or unduly authoritative, because that sort of silliness only hurts our hobby in the long run. Be helpful. Be kind. Who knows; maybe you can help somebody the way my friends helped me. You could do a lot worse.

And that's what I know for a Friday. Be good to your neighbor and we'll see you next week.
phil