A Nifty Mitchell and a Handful of 'Saders

A Thought; Just a Thought

I was thinking the other day, which is something I haven't done in a while, and I've reached a conclusion that may be of interest to you regarding the big wonderful world of The Latest and Greatest New Kit, to wit: It's the latest and greatest right now, but it won't always be in that category so let's play nice with the older stuff.

Huh, you might well say to yourself. That makes no sense because I wanted a new state of the art kit of the Fill in the Blank Here and now I've finally got it, and my wonderful new kit has actually managed to successfully escape and evade the best efforts of that nefarious collection of self-appointed experts colloquially known as The Red Line Police so I'm going to jump right in and build it just as soon as the aftermarket guys get on the stick and produce a whole bunch of stuff to fix problems that may or may not actually exist and may not even require fixing even when they do. Exist, that is. 

OK then, it's the same old story you so often hear on these pages and on and on and blah blah blah, right? Right, but today let's sing a different verse to the song. Let's try this lyric set for a minute, and let's ignore things like scale or any of that other model review stuff---do you or anyone else really care what color the plastic is, for example---and jump right into what matters.

Way back when, about a gazillion years ago, a company called Varney released a kit of the Stearman PT-17 in a sort-of plastic as opposed to the then-current balsa and basswood that the non-flying scale models of its era (1946) were made from. It was a highly innovative kit and substantially better as a replica than the wooden models that preceded it had been, but it didn't sell all that well so the molds got themselves sold to another company called O-Lin, and then to on to become Lindberg. It was a pretty good kit for what it was and you can still find one for sale in any of its iterations should you want to do that, but it's been decades, a great many of them, since it was the best kit of the PT-17. It most assuredly held that title at one time but times and technology change and companies such as Revell and ICM have released kits of that same subject that have long since passed it by.

You can hold that thought as the recurring lyric to our song because times do indeed change, whether we want them to or not, and that whiz-bang wonderful new superkit that everyone is either raving about or busily covering up with a plethora of red lines will soon become yesterday's papers, a relic that nobody builds any more because something new, even more whiz-bang and wonderful, just came out and is so much better than any and every single thing that came before it. Except that it isn't that at all.

Here's your takeaway then; your lesson for today: Every single kit out there, even the old and crummy ones, were new once and were often the best thing available to the polystyrene modeling hobby. Don't believe me? Then ask that grizzled old-timer, the one that won his class in the national IPMS contest way back in the 60s, which kit he used to build his award-winner from and how he managed to do it. It's true that contemporary kits are generally, but not necessarily always, better than those that came before, but many outstanding models have been built from kits that most of our current generation of scale modelers wouldn't take a second look at simply because of their age. To go back to our musical metaphor, it's the singer and not the song, folks. Learn how to actually become a modeler rather than an assembler of parts, and make each and every kit you build a growth experience for yourself. Use aftermarket when you actually have to and not because The Kool Kids all use it. Challenge yourself!

Never forget that your brand spanking new styrene and photoetch and resin and 3d-printed wunderkit will be somebody else's Varney PT-17 some day. Forget about red lines and learn to take other people's opinions for what they are and nothing more. Learn how to do your own research. Become a scale modeler to the best extent you can, and be amazed at how much more fun you have with the hobby. 

Whiners, moaners and groaners need not apply!

A Filthy Slide But My Oh My!

Sometimes you just have to take what you can get, even when you know there's something better out there. Take this image, for example:

This shot could have been, and at one time probably was, an image worthy of a frame and a place of prominence on someone's wall, and in all likelihood there's a far better version of it out there that I'm not aware of, but for now it will have to do. It came to me via Doug Barbier, an old and valued friend who's been actively engaged in rescuing the remains of Marty Isham's files for posterity. The subject matter for today is a B-25J (44-30476) operated by the long-defunct Military Air Transport Service (MATS) in 1957, and that's pretty much all I know about it; no unit, no location; nothing. Still, as a fan of The Silver Air Force I'm delighted to have it and grateful to Doug for sharing it with me. 

That said, it's still a filthy negative that time has been far less than kind with. I've color balanced it and done a few basic things to aid in its presentation but spot-repairing every single anomaly is something I simply don't have the time for anymore (see my last thrilling installment of this project for a less than satisfactory explanation of that little situation) so what you see is what you get. Speaking for myself, I'm extremely happy to have the image and, thanks to Doug's kindness, to be able to share it with you.   Isham Collection via Barbier

It Wasn't Really a Gunfighter, You Know

But the Chance Vought Corporation's F8U nee F-8 Crusader family of carrier based jet fighters was a revelation in its day. It was everything that conventional wisdom said it couldn't be as a shipborne fighter; fast, maneuverable, well armed with 20mm guns as well as missiles and, most importantly, designed from the outset to operate from the deck of an aircraft carrier. It was a cutting edge design with a lengthy service life, one that included honorable service in what many have deemed a less than honorable conflict. It was the Real Deal, one that survived Robert McNamara's mass change of American military aircraft designations during 1962 and with a major war thrown in to boot,  and more than worthy of our consideration today, so let's take a look at a few F-8Js from the late Jim Sullivan's collection.

January of 1969 was a good month to be on the ramp at Miramar, as demonstrated by this F-8J (150882) from VF-194, photographed there on the 28th of that month. She didn't last much past the date this image was taken and was written off in an accident in 1971, but she was a beauty when she was in her prime. The J-model Crusaders were reworked F-8Es and closely resembled that variant in many ways. Modelers take note: 407 is sitting nose-high due to lack of ammunition and fuel, in an attitude that is not the norm for an F-8 on the ground.   Clay Jansson via Sullivan Collection

150888 was sharing the ramp with 150882 on that 28th of January, 1969, and was manned up and ready for flight when Clay Jansson took this photo. She was assigned to Fighting Fifty-One at the time and was a gorgeous example of the type. She survived service with the Navy to be sent to MASDC in 1975.   Clay Jansson via Sullivan Collection

150302 was another F-8J from VF-94 and showing a variation of the squadron's markings as photographed at Miramar on 05 October, 1974. Her career was more varied than most; besides her time with VF-194 (among other fighter squadrons) she also served with the PMTC during 1976 and with VFP-63 before her last trip to MASDC in 1980, and there were earlier assignments to the Fleet as well. You could say the old girl got around!   Steve Miller via Sullivan Collection

Here's another Clay Jansson shot, taken once again at Miramar but this time of an F-8J (149210) during her time with VF-211 in 1975. She had a lengthy and varied career with the Navy prior to her ultimate retirement in 1976, although with all that behind her she wasn't done yet; she ended up with the French Navy in 1990 as a source of spares for their navy's Crusader force. Not a bad life span for the old girl, eh?   Clay Jansson via Sullivan Collection

A 'Sader in her element, 149210 from VF-94 traps aboard the Oriskany during that squadron's deployment on the carrier during the mid-70s. The F-8 earned a couple of nicknames while she was in the fleet. One, "The Last of the Gunfighters", was true in that she was the deemed to be the last naval fighter to be built with guns prior to the Navy's discovery that it was a bad idea to leave them off; the  Navy's F-4 Phantom family were all built and operated sans gun but the next fleet fighter in line, the Grumman F-14, had a gun reinstated as have all subsequent American naval fighters to this point, so the nickname wasn't entirely appropriate. Her other nickname, however, most assuredly was: "The Ensign Eliminator" was earned because of her handling around the boat and deservedly so. From the F-8A and to include every Crusader variant that followed, the type was a handful during carrier operations. This is a textbook approach and landing, but they didn't all go that way!   Navy via Sullivan Collection

150846 from VF-13 sits placidly on the ramp early in her career. Built as an F8U-2NE and re-designated F-8J, she had a relatively brief career, all of which was spent with Fighting 13, prior to ditching off Puerto Rico on 11 March 1966.   Nobody ever said military aviation was safe!   Navy via Sullivan Collection

Let's end today with a bolter! 150904, from VF-191, is on the throttle to go around in this dramatic shot taken aboard the Bon Homme Richard by Bob Lawson in 1974, possibly during her Vietnam cruise that year. It's a dramatic shot and provides us with a fitting way to end this essay.   Bob Lawson via Sullivan Collection

Those of our readers with a good memory will know that this isn't the first time we've visited the F-8 family, and we can guarantee it won't be the last. Meanwhile, here's hoping you've enjoyed this jaunt into the past!

The Relief Tube

Nope, not this time! If you recall it was only yesterday that I last published and in that highly abbreviated issue told everyone, among other things, that our old Replica in Scale email address was temporarily tango uniform, which means that you probably wouldn't be able to get through right now unless you already had some other way to do that. That was a run-on sentence, by the way. 

Happy Snaps

How about I look for one for next time? It works for me!

Under the Radar 

And under the radar is where the book reviews that normally live under that heading will have to stay for a while, because everything I've read of late, squeezed into those brief moments where I've had the time to do it, have been about topics other than aviation. I know that's wrong but that's what I've been doing

And there you have it, a record pair of blogs issued just a couple of days apart. Let's see, now; I tell everyone that things are getting back on a schedule of sorts just a few short months ago and don't do it, and now I say there's going to be a long dry spell between publications and then I pop another issue out almost immediately afterwards. I guess it makes sense, sortof.

Anyway, be good to your neighbor and with any luck at all we'll meet again soon!

phil

A Change of Pace, 'Saders,

Just BUILD the Darned Thing!

There was a time many years ago, several decades ago in fact, when there was no aftermarket at all available for plastic modeling except for decals and paint, and those were often difficult to find. I think, with no particular reason to believe I'm 100% right, that the first primitive photoetch began to show up sometime during the late 70s or early 80s, with primordial attempts at resin parts coming on the scene during the mid-to-late 80s. The timing honestly doesn't matter, because the point to be taken is that those innovations were game changers, taking those who wanted to employ them to new levels of detail and, occasionally, accuracy. An entire cottage industry of what became known as "aftermarket" was birthed and grew. New materials gradually came on board and new uses for the old ones were discovered. It was a magic time. It was also a bit of a trap, because it helped to create a world in which aftermarket wasn't gravy on the finished model, it was a de rigueur enhancement that had to be there if the modeler was to be taken at all seriously.

That trap pushed and shoved its way into necessity and created some moderately sick and twisted situations along the way. People began using aftermarket for the sake of using it, regardless of accuracy and whether or not it actually improved the finished product in any way, and they began using it in places where it could never be seen once it had been installed on a model. It became a polystyrene Moloch, and it eventually got us to the place we're in right now, where it actually ruled our polystyrene world. There was once a time when we bought kits, decals and paint, and styrene shapes and sheet, and learned how to scratch-build and modify things in order to produce more accurate, or maybe just more visually pleasing, models. Nowadays we can easily spend our money on a kit and then drop as much or more of our treasure on aftermarket and enhancements that may, or may not, actually improve anything on the kit. 

Some modern kits can be really poor in terms of accuracy even with the advent of computer aided design and 3d printing, and some can be absolutely amazing on every level, the point being that not every kit requires aftermarket or maybe it does but only on a minimal level. Not all kits are bad, not even the older ones, and not all kits require help in order to get a decent model. The recent offerings by Kotare, those whiz-kids down in New Zealand, could be the poster child for that sort of thing because the prove on a daily basis that such things can be done.

Suppose we take a deep breath and look at things in a different light than the one conventional wisdom tells us to employ? Suppose we carefully evaluate the kits we propose to build and determine whether or not they actually require help? Suppose we look on the whole thing at a somewhat primal level and determine whether we're actually spending all that aftermarket money for the sake of actually improving the model or are just doing it to keep up with The Cool Kids? 

We're actually reaching a point, finally, where some manufactures are putting what can only be described as aftermarket into their kits as a normal thing. Resin and 3d-printed parts are showing up more and more frequently, and canopy masks have been in upscale mainstream kits for quite some time. Aftermarket definitely has a place in our hobby, particularly when it helps out kits that are older but still viable and just need that little kick to get them up and on a par with whatever the current state of the art is. It probably doesn't have a place when using it involves accurately placing a scale chemical toilet in the back of a fuselage in a place where Superman's x-ray vision couldn't see it. 

Am I saying that you should forego aftermarket in your models? Nope; most assuredly not. If the kit needs it and it's available you might seriously consider using it if your goal is a nuts-on accurate take-it-to-the-contest-and-win-the-grand-prize sort of model, or even if you just want it to look better than what's provided in the kit will allow you to do. The thing is, you don't HAVE to do any of that. You could just hone your skills producing the occasional model with what comes in the box. Or not.

So, what do I personally do? That may not be a fair question because of my time in the saddle and the ability I've acquired over many years to correct things in a kit without spending a small fortune while in the process of doing it. When I was younger our hobby was darned near a quest for the holy grail and The Aftermarket Trap was a real thing, a place where I hang out and thrive. Nowadays I use it if I have to, but not because I HAVE to, if that makes any sense to you. I truly don't care what my friends think about the subject because, quite frankly, we're all in the same boat and pretty much see things the same way. I model because I love the hobby and because it's fun. What I don't do is model because I want to show someone how I managed to triple the cost of a kit doing things that didn't need doing. 

We have a neat hobby right here, Ya'll, and we've never been in a better place in terms of the things available to us that improve our enjoyment of it. Sometimes those things are good, but sometimes they're merely an ego-satisfaction money trap with no clear-cut positive outcome. As for myself, I'm building a 1/48h Hasegawa F-8J right now. I'll correct the few things that are significantly wrong with the kit, and I'll replace the seat. I'll do my best with it and I can promise you I'll have fun with it. Fun. Remember that word? FUN!

As usual, that's my story and I'm sticking with it.

The Relief Tube

Last issue I mentioned with a great deal of self-pity that nobody was sending corrections or comments to The Relief Tube so there was nothing to publish there. Well, I was wrong, because a reader known to me only as SPS had sent in a comment and a photograph linked to a shot I'd run of a Korean War Sikorsky HRS-1 that showed a pair of black-bellied USAF C-47s in the background. Here's the image in question, along with that message:

 What I find very interesting about the photo of the HRS-1 in Korea are the two C-47s with their bellies painted black. I've seen a couple of photos of them painted like that, but never two in the same picture. Were they dedicated to some kind of 'classified' night mission? I've read that some were used as flare launchers for the A-26 Invaders.

I should've known the answer to the question right off the bat because I'd already run it past Don Jay, a long-time friend of mine and my go-to information source for Most Things Air Force, after I'd published it, but I had managed to misplace Don's answer so I contacted him again, question in hand. Here's his response: 

During the Korean War, Flight "B" (part of the Special Air Missions Detachment of the 21st Troop Carrier Squadron, Fifth Air Force) was the primary clandestine unit responsible for dropping intelligence agents into North Korea during the conflict's first two years.

Flying primarily out of K-16 (Seoul City Airport), Flight "B" crews used C-47s to drop intelligence agents and saboteurs deep into North Korean territory. I ran across that B-26s were also used on particularly dangerous missions!! Just how much more dangerous could this be?? The H-19/HRS-1 was used for transport between Kimpo and Seoul City Airport.

Flight "B" provided the air assets for the 6004th AISS (Air Intelligence Service Sq), which was the main unit recruiting and training the Korean espionage agents. All agents were Korean. Too often, Flight Bs mission is confused with the CIA (think CAT) mission that dropped Chinese and Americans (all known as partisans) into greater China aka Operation Aviary (I think).

Cheers, dj

Many thanks, Don! Keep those corrections and additions coming!

Happy Snaps

Not this time but, to steal a famous line from that classic movie Casablanca; Soon. Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but soon!

A Special Note From Our Staff (That would be me!):

This is the part where you get to ask, and with considerable justification, just where the heck happened to us THIS time. Really! What happened? Where did he go? 

You still read this blog, or at least look into it from time to time to see if there's anything new there TO read, so in my world you're owed an explanation. The fact is, most of what's happened has pretty much been a huge dose of that good old Defecation Happens thing that hit us pretty much all at once, except that "all at once" has been spread over a number of months. It's been ongoing and mostly in the nature of petty nuisances and computer related glitches, but it's been there nonetheless, and has had to be dealt with. 

So, is all of that stuff behind us now, and is the project back on track again? I'd be lying if I said it was,  but we're gaining on it and there's far too much effort put into these electronic pages to let things end now. Unfortunately, however, it also means that production around here will be sporadic at best for the foreseeable future, but you're used to that, right? 

One more thing while we're on this topic: That replicainscaleatyahoodotcom address I normally ask you to use with corrections, questions, or just as a general point of contact for the project, is tango uniform both for now and for the foreseeable future, which means using it is pretty pointless since I haven't set up any sort of alternate way to contact us yet. Maybe someday, but not right now. 

SO...

The project isn't dead, not by a long shot, and will still publish sporadically, but holding your breath until our next thrilling installment is going to be an exercise in futility. Keep the faith, though, because we really and truly are still around. 

Until next time, then; be good to your neighbor. It's the right thing to do!

phil

Paint, Those DSES Guys, and A Few From Nanks

 

Let's Put Some Color On the Thing

Well, let's try to do that anyway! Sometimes it seems as though there's a new hobby paint out there every fifteen minutes or so, and it also seems as though there's an unpleasant side effect to that phenomena, ergo; the paint either doesn't behave like I'm used to it doing, or the specific color mixes offered by whatever new-to-me paint manufacturer show little if any resemblance to the real thing as I perceive it to be. Those are vexing things to me, maybe because of my substantial seniority on life or maybe because I've pretty much always been a dance-with-the-one-that-brung-you kind of guy. Whatever the cause, the bottom line is a certain irrational resistance to change as far as scale paint is concerned. 

Let's get one thing clear right off the bat: I have experienced a great many different paint brands and formulations over the years, beginning at an extremely young age with those little square bottles of Testors enamels, back when the price on the lid said ten cents. After that came Pactra, followed by AHM (a true lacquer that was far beyond my technical ability at the time), followed in turn but not necessarily in order by Official, Frontier Headquarters, Scale Master (I think that's what it was, anyway), Imrie-Risley, Floquil, Humbrol (the original one, not the goo that's currently sold as paint), the late and in my world greatly lamented Model Master, Mr Color, AKAN, AK of various flavors, and a few more to boot that I can't remember. All of those were either enamel or lacquer-based. I also had a brief flirtation with the water-based modeling paints beginning with Floquil's original Poly-S back when it was first introduced in the late 60s or early 70s.I have to admit that I wasn't that impressed with the water-based stuff and still am not right up to the present day. Your mileage may vary on that one but since it's entirely irrelevant to this discussion, we'll agree to shine it right on by, because it isn't the point of this ramble anyway. 

We won't stress too much over accurate colors either, because it's easy enough to mix paint once you understand color and how it works. It would be nice, of course, if the current multitude of paint manufacturers, or paint repackagers, whichever applies, would do a better job of getting things right in the first place but that too is a topic for a different day. My current beef is far more fundamental; The brands of paint I prefer to use keep going Tango Uniform on me! Floquil, the real one that was Dio-Sol based, was the first to go, but that was ok because Testors' Model Master came quick on its heels only to be discontinued by a new ownership a couple of decades later. All of those admittedly minor speedbumps to my own personal road led to a search for replacements that were both viable and available, roads that took me to a substantial personal preference for Mr Color, Tamiya Lacquer, and AKAN. Life was good, except that it wasn't, mostly because of that Great Bugaboo called "limited availability".

Of those preferred paints of mine, Mr Color has never been easy to find, primarily because so few brick and mortars will carry the stuff and it's often a mail-order-when-you-can-find-it sort of thing. I've heard it has to do with ongoing EPA or similar regulation but whatever the reason it just ain't fair because the stuff is far and away the best modeling paint I've ever used. Period. End of story. Tamiya's lacquer line is newer, at least in this country, but it's good stuff too, although its color variety is somewhat limited at the moment. AKAN is an entirely different kettle of fish since it's of Russian manufacture and only available through one American source right now, added to which is a limitation of available colors. Those are my Big Three, for whatever that's worth. I'm not recommending them, mind you, but those are the ones I personally like.

If you talk to my wife, she'll tell you that I've got enough paint on hand to last far past the day I finally shuffle off this mortal coil. She doesn't use that particular phrasing or those exact words, of course, but the bottom line in whatever wording anyone might choose to employ is that I've got a lot of paint already on hand. I just want to have a continuing supply of the stuff I prefer to use and I'm getting really tired of having to track it down when I need a resupply of some particular color (even though yes; I'm perfectly capable of mixing colors, remember? I just don't want to do that very often nowadays).

I usually end these things with some sort of a point but today there probably isn't one to share. I just want what I want, and I thought I'd express a degree of lament regarding the topic.

Does anyone have some cheese to go with that whine...

Pretending to Be a Bad Guy

Once upon a time there was a breed of Air Force unit known as the Defense Systems Evaluation Squadron, or DSES for short. Their mission was both simple and essential to the defense of the Continental United States; to simulate an enemy strike, either as a manned asset or a cruise missile of some sort, and to attempt to penetrate American radar defenses in order to reveal weak points and improve the overall system. As it happened, the Martin B-57 proved to be a viable platform with which to perform such nefarious endeavors, which is to say it was a good airplane for the mission. Thanks to the late Marty Isham and the kindness of Doug Barbier we have a few B-57s to share today, so let's get started!

Let's lead off with a shot of 55-4238, a B-57E of the 17th DSES taken on 8 July 1975 at an unknown location. There's some slight scuffing on the airplane's radome but it's otherwise immaculate in appearance, a normal situation since the evaluation mission was assigned primarily to the ANG by this time, which led to some extremely well-maintained aircraft being employed for the mission.  Isham Collection via Doug Barbier

Here's a profile shot of 4238 to compliment the 3/4 view shown immediately above. She had previous service with both the 4677th and 4758th DSES prior to being assigned to the 17th. She finished up her career with them and then went to Puerto Rico where she was donated to an education facility where it's possible she still resides, although I don't know that with any degree of certainty.   Isham Collection via Doug Barbier

The 117th DSES of the Kansas ANG was operating EB-57B 52-1526 when she put in an appearance at one of ADC's William Tell events back in 1976. She was a bit of a traveler, originally built as a B-57B and serving with the 3510th CCTW, then to the 345th TBG prior to conversion to EB-57B configuration and assignment to the 4713th DSES before finally arriving in Kansas for employment by the 117th. Subsequent service saw her going to the 134th DSES in Vermont before returning to Kansas for public display. You could say she was a girl who got around!   Isham Collection via Doug Barbier

53-3965 was assigned to the 4758th DSES when photographed on public display, unfortunately at an unknown place and date. She was originally an RB-57D-2 and served with the 4028th SRS/4080th SRW prior to assignment to the 4577th DSES and ultimately to the 4758th, with a stop at MASDC and bailment back to Martin along the way. That nose really makes her stand out among the crowd of evaluation birds, doesn't it?   Isham Collection via Doug Barbier

Here's a great study of Kansas' 17th DSES, EB-57E 55-4280, taken by Ken Buchanan while attending the 1976 iteration of William Tell. Normally well-maintained, she absolutely sparkles in this image after a round of pre-event spiffing up. She previously served with the 4677th and 4758th ECESs prior to her arrival in Kansas and was retired to MASDC in 1979.   Isham Collection via Doug Barbier

Let's end today's essay with another shot or two of a Kansas bird, EB-57E 55-4295 from the 17th DSES. Nicknamed The Antique, she spent some time with the 4677th DCES prior to her arrival with the 17th. She went to MASDC in 1979 and was ultimately scrapped. This photo was taken when she was in her prime, back on 08 July 1975.  Isham Collection via Doug Barbier

Here's a detail shot of her nose, showing to fine advantage some of the lumps and bumps commiserate with her line of work. Her by then highly appropriate nickname is barely visible on her port nose gear door.   Isham Collection via Doug Barbier

Let's end our essay with a closeup of her name as presented on the port nose gear door. In addition to The Antique, she also carried the following on that door in deference to her age and service: Member of the Antique Aircraft Club of the United States Air Force. Dare we say it was a simpler time?   Isham Collection via Doug Barbier

The DSES story encompasses quite a bit more than this handful of images, of course, and there's a possibility, however remote, that I might actually remember to run some photos of some of them at a later date, although a few have previously appeared on these pages should you want to scroll all the way to the very bottom of this page and enter either B-57 or DSES in the search function found down there. 

Many thanks to Doug Barbier for making these shots available to us!

Here Since the Beginning

Well, almost from the beginning anyway. This project had only a couple of issues under its belt when some guy named Mark Nankivil contacted me and asked if I'd like some A-7 photos. I said sure, having no idea what I was letting myself in for until the absolute flood of Corsair II images began to arrive. Since that day Mark has been a constant around here, a superb photographer, collector extraordinaire, and most importantly, friend. You've seen a great many of his images on these electronic pages over the years and it's probably time to look at several more. Don't bother looking for a common thread because there isn't one; let's just sit back and enjoy some neat old photos.

Let's start with a true old-timer, a SOC-2 BuNo 4203 of Scout Observation Service Unit Three (SOSU-3) flown by then Lt (JG) Fred Dickey out of NAS Alameda. I don't know the date and it wasn't on the information supplied with this image, but the late 1944-1946 time frame is probably a fairly safe bet given her Glossy Sea Blue paint job. If you know more, please drop me a line.   Fred Dickey via Greater St Louis Air and Space Museum, Mark Nankivil Collection

Next up we have a couple of Tee-Birds:

Ben Knowles took this shot of AT-33A 53-5141 while she was at Hill in June of 1973, when the type could still be found in fairly great abundance in the service, particularly within ANG and AFRES units. She had previous service with the 6604th ABW as a straight T-33A prior to redesignation to AT-33A and assignment to the 4330th CCTS/4554th CCTW, followed by a final stint with the 508th FG at Hill AFB. She was surplussed out shortly after this image was taken.   Ben Knowles via Greater St Louis Air and Space Museum, Mark Nankivil Collection

This is one of those when was it kind of conundrums. We know the What; a QT-33A BuNo 155919 of the NMC, and we know the Where, at Pt Mugu, but we don't know the When. She was built for the Air Force as a straight t-33A then went to the Navy as a drone and was struck off charge on 08 May, 1970. Note that she's manned in this image, which places the date at some time prior to that. Aside from the paintwork, the photo is valuable to us because it provides a look at the electronic fitment in what was formerly the rear cockpit of the airplane. This bird probably died in her element, in the air, in so many ways a fine tribute to a beautiful old stager.   Greater St Louis Air and Space Museum, Mark Nankivil Collection

Finally, here's one for the markings enthusiasts among what remains of this project's readership! RF-4C, 65- 905, was photographed by Fred Roos on 06 May 1988 at Hill AFB. That scheme is a knockout, with just enough of the right sort of color application to make her really pop. She's a beauty, and a fine way to end this photo essay.   Fred Roos via Greater St Louis Air and Space Museum, Mark Nankivil Collection

Under the Radar

This is going to be another issue without a book review for your edification and entertainment, mostly because I haven't read anything lately. There are several titles in line, though, so stay tuned!

The Relief Tube

It's a circle of sorts, don't you know. I publish something but nobody comments or corrects anything because when I do that it's infrequent and most of the responses, well; all of them actually, are of the "glad you're still alive" or "enjoyed the blog" variety and not much else. Don't get me wrong; it's my own doing for sure and I honestly do enjoy hearing from you, but there must surely be a mistake in at least one of the recent postings of this blog that requires correction. The law of averages says there has to be!

That said, if you'd like to get in touch with the project and don't fall into the following categories of humanity:

A picture pirate.

A salesman.

A recently deposed monarch looking to regain their throne and looking for money. 

A scammer.

A generally despicable person of some sort.

Then feel free to contact me. The hopefully suitably mangled email address to throw off all those categories of people I just listed above is    replicainscaleatyahoodotcom   .  You'll have to use the at sign and a period in there, but you already knew that. You did know that, right? Right?

Happy Snaps

As defined by myself for the purposes of this project a happy snap is an air-to-air photograph taken by one of our readers, and boy oh boy do I have one for you today!

Many years ago Mark Nankivil (yes, that very Mark Nankivil who contributed all those great photos I published today) sent me a photograph of his son Jack, a young man in elementary school at the time and who was busily engaged in photographing an airplane with one of his dad's DSLR rigs. That assortment of equipage he was employing was very nearly bigger than young Jack was at the time, but a course was obviously set nonetheless. I have no idea what Jack was shooting on that fateful day, but I've got a pretty fair idea of what he's doing now!

There are expressions that come to mind upon viewing this photograph. In my world they range from JUMP BACK or HAVE MERCY to several expressions that include colorful language, because that image is just darned near perfect! Subject matter (a two-ship of Beech Staggerwings; you can't beat that one!), lighting, composition; it's all there. Wow!

I have to admit that I lost, which in our electronic world means "probably deleted", all of the information Mark provided me for this shot, but I think Jack took it from yet another Staggerwing at a Beechcraft gathering earlier this year. I'm old and getting older by the minute, and I do goofy stuff like that, but that photo is well worth sharing with or without the information. 

Wow...

And that's it for today. Maybe I'll come along with another issue soon or, given my track record, maybe I won't, but in the meantime be good to your neighbor. It's the right thing to do!

phil
.

A Cunundrum of Sorts, Friends Forever, It Seems Like Yesterday, Near the Beginning, One of a Kind, and Some Old Sikorskys

 It's Something to Think About

Remember Way Back When, a moment in time best defined by your own definition of such things, when building a store-bought scale model of just about anything was a relatively simple task? You know; back in those more primitive times when there was no internet to "educate" us and no cottage industry to speak of unless you were a model railroader? It was a simple world in which we all were dealing with basic and, in many cases horrible, kits, aftermarket decals, albeit few and far between, that wouldn't adhere to much of anything for very long, and enamel based paint of wildly varying quality. Back in those days a truly high-end modeler might have an airbrush, although that was far from a given, and advanced research materials often lay between the covers of a book that said "Harleyford" on the spine. A few of us shopped in the railroad part of the local brick and mortar hobby shop to buy sheet styrene and shaped rods, but for the most part the kit was the kit, and enhancement was something that lived entirely in the hands and imagination of the more adventurous modeler. 

Those days are long gone now, and our scale lives are ruled by aftermarket out the wazoo. We've got the often taken-for-granted photoetch of several varieties, and resin parts, machined metal parts, and the relatively new 3d-printed parts, which for the moment anyway seem to be the wunderkind of our modeling world. We aren't limited to available kits anymore either, since access to computers and computer programs ensures that anyone who cares to learn basic CAD skills (that particular acronym stands for Computer Aided Design, in case you didn't know) enables those of us with the talent and basic intellect to literally design and produce their own kits or aftermarket right at home. Traditional waterslide and dry transfer decals are slowly but surely being made obsolete by paint masks which once again, presuming you have the equipment and the basic ability, can be designed and produced by anyone. We're at a crossroads of a sort, because we're less and less constrained by what's available as kits and aftermarket. We can literally produce and build whatever we want to, in any scale we desire, and to any level of detail. The Future of our hobby is, quite literally, now. 

Whether or not that particular Future is a good thing for any of us remains to be seen, because the day could easily come when our hobby morphs into one of electronic research, computer downloads, CAD work, and a knowledge of 3d printing rather than coordinated motor skills. That can be a bit intimidating and maybe even scary if you don't possess said skills or a desire to work with the technology, but they're all a direction our hobby seems to have become fully immersed in. It's unsettling in a way, but every succeeding week simplifies that technology a little bit more, and the prices for the hardware required in our brave new do-it-all-yourself world are becoming more and more affordable. Those of us with a certain seniority on Life can easily remember a time when His-Air-Dec decals and Testors paint in those little square bottles was as good as it ever got, and the aforementioned Harleyford books were equally as good research-wise. Hold that as a working premise.

Our point for the day is that the hobby we're all so comfortable with has evolved towards its present state over a span of decades. The guys and girls we all admire for their mastery of the hobby as it currently exists all had to learn their skills the same way everyone else did, with the caveat that some of them were possessed of more innate talent than most of us and were more willing to go exploring the less than obvious techniques and materials that consequently made them the stars of our show. Think about it for a moment, because at the end of the day only one thing has changed and that's the advance of technology to the point where the more skilled and ambitious among us, or maybe just those more adventurous than the norm, are finally able to use a new technology to produce the kits they want to build, in the markings they want to represent, and in whatever scale they desire. The technology is empowering to say the least. 

Consider this; there are those who have taken relatively poor 1950s-vintage kits such as the Hawk F2H Banshee and used them to produce museum quality models. There are also those who have taken any of the new Kotare kit-sets of your choice (as people Over Yonder like to call what we here in the States identify as just plain old kits), and produced first-class trash can filler with them. At the end of the day it still takes skill and patience, mixed in with a bit of acquired experience, to get a good result. Do you disagree with me? OK, then; when was the last time YOU built a detailed scale model airplane out of spruce, balsa wood, and wire off of a mediocre set of "plans" to produce a great replica of something, and then painted it with dope or highly thinned household enamel?

Here's the takeaway from today's usual mindless rambling on my part: You don't have to embrace the new technology, nor do you have to even sample it, but it's not going away. At the end of the day what you do, and how you do it, is your choice. If what you're doing pleases you and gives you the results you want then it's a good way to do things, but you shouldn't be afraid to step a bit out of your comfort zone either. I think we'll call that "Growth". 

As usual, that's my story, etc etc...

Two More Gone

Nobody lives forever, but that doesn't make it one bit better when you lose someone you care about, and today we need to say a belated farewell to not one but two good friends who have recently departed from our lives.

I first met Mark Aldrich several years ago, back when he took over the stewardship of The Tailhook Association's photo archives from Doug Siegfried. It took all of five minutes for me to figure out that he was most assuredly one of the good guys; self-effacing, kind, and generous to a fault. I'm fairly certain that the word "no" was not included in his vocabulary and he was one of those guys who was always there; a go-to guy of the highest order. He proved time and time again, to others as well as myself, that no request for photography, either from "The Hook's" institutional files or his own personal ones, was beyond his ability to help.

Mark got sick a few years back, and spent the remainder of his time on the planet fighting a disease he couldn't beat. We never knew it though, not until just a year or two before he left us. He continued helping out with photography and insight until the last when many, perhaps most of us, would have turned inward. Inward wasn't Mark's way, though, and he was in the game until the end.

Bob Mills was a different sort of collector entirely. He was in the Air Force when I met him back in 1968, and he was originally slated to be on the staff of our budding print incarnation of Replica in Scale, although we lost his services immediately after we published our first issue. He was the first person I personally knew possessed of a photo collection numbering in the tens of thousands of images, and he provided an insight to collecting such things subsequently reinforced by Norm Taylor, Dave Menard, Marty Isham, Jim Sullivan, and so many others. 

The last time I saw Bob was on a photo shoot at Randolph back in the mid-80s. I had done my "real" photography the day before the event so as to miss all the kids, ice chests, and crowds that typified air shows in those days but had come back on show day because I still had some K25 available and wanted to shoot it. I was moseying along the show ramp when I ran into Bob, who was at Randolph on TDY and helping out the 12th FTW PA officer during their event. After we shook hands and spent a minute or two catching up he asked if I wanted an escort for the day. I said yes, and we were able to spend a great morning and early afternoon roaming the display area and, thanks to Bob's uniform, wings, and gold oak leaves, going into some of the places I would normally have had to have made prior arrangements to have accessed. I still treasure the memory of that day.

Life is finite, and it ends far too soon. Some people leave a bigger footprint that others when they finally cash in, and Mark and Bob were of that ilk. Their personalities couldn't have been more different but in many ways they were cut from the same cloth. They were of a special breed. They will be missed.

Doug. Bob. Jim. Marty. Dave. Norm. Ron. Maddog, and so many more. It's painful and I think it always will be, in my world anyway, but my life was enriched by their friendship and there's always that to fall back on. It's part of the plan, I think. 

Blue skies, Doug and Bob. We'll all meet again...

Vaya con Dios, Doug and Bob!

 

Defending the Continent

It seems like only yesterday, presuming you're of a particular age, but in point of fact it's been several decades since the United States was defended by purpose designed manned interceptors. This family portrait, originally from the collection of Marty Isham and shared with us by Doug Barbier, shows us what the late and highly lamented Air Defense Command once used to protect the continent. The inclusion of Nike Ajax and, to a lesser extent Hawk anti-aircraft missiles, as well as the 1958 serial number on the Voodoo, suggests a post-1958 time period, although I'd be lying if I said I knew the year.

 

There are family portraits and then there are family portraits, but boy oh boy do we like this one! The presence of buzz numbers shows how long it sometimes takes for things to change; the directive to remove them dates from the 1965 time frame, while the F-101B's  1958 serial number says that the shot had to have been taken post '58. However you want to slice it this is a fine photo and we're grateful indeed to Doug for sharing it with us.  Isham Collection via Doug Barbier

While It Was Still Small

The Vietnam War wasn't always the center of the five o'clock news in the United States. There was a time, in fact, when we barely heard about it at all and rarely knew anyone who had been over there. This photo, taken back in the relatively early days of our involvement, shows us a C-123B, probably of the 12th SOW and most likely taken in 1964, although 1962 has also been offered up as a possible year, sitting on what passes for a ramp at a yet to be developed Vietnamese air base.

Vietnam was still the home of The Silver Air Force back in those early days, as indicated by the finish on the fixed-wing aircraft in this photo. The Army would soon learn that painting its ARMY logo on the sides of its helos was a classic bad idea, but that realization was yet to come. It was still an advisory war when this image was taken.   John Kerr Collection

I wish the quality of this shot was better---it should have been since it was taken on a medium-format camera, but it beats nothing and I'll take it. Hopefully it's of interest to the readership as well!

An American Original

Everybody knows who Chappie James was, but just in case you don't...

Daniel "Chappie" James went into the Army Air Force and was winged at Tuskegee Army Air Field on 28 July 1943. He missed combat in the Second World War but was fully engaged in Korea, flying F-51Ds with the 12th FBS/18th FBW as well as F-80s later on. He later flew as Robin Old's deputy wing commander with the 8th TFW during the fracas in SEA, where he and Olds earned the proud monikers "Black Man and Robin" and several subsequent assignments as an ADC squadron commander led to his ultimate rank as a four-star leading the Air Defense Command. This image is fairly well-known but I'm running it today as an homage of sorts because Marty Isham served under General James during that worthy's tenure running ADC. Marty thought highly of Chappie James, and I do too, so running this image is the right thing to do!

If ever there was a photograph that said Fighter Pilot, then this one is it. The image was taken during Chappie's first combat tour, back in the bad old days in Korea, and the dedication, as well as the exhaustion, shows. There were giants in those days...   Image via Isham Collection and Doug Barbier

Many thanks to Doug for sharing this one with us!

How About Some Helos?

It's one of those days, I suppose. I was looking for a couple of shots of something else and stumbled on these slides, all dupes but I think the subject matter is well worth the slight degradation in image quality. The aircraft depicted might prove of use to those owning the old Revell kit of this immortal helo or the far newer but significantly fussy AMP kit, both of which are in 1/48th scale. There's also an H-19 offering in 1/72nd scale from Italeri or the long-in-the-tooth and not especially good Airfix kit from a great many years ago, should your tastes run towards that itty bitty scale! Be advised that I know virtually nothing about the aircraft in these photos except for what was on the slide mounts, which wasn't very much!

Maddog John Kerr was an absolute wizard at finding veterans who had taken photographs of airplanes while they were in the service, but he was forced by the technology available while he was collecting to have duplicate images made rather than by scanning the originals, which had the unfortunate side effect of greatly reducing the clarity of any slide so copied. This H-19B (52-7483) is a prime example of that, but it's a classic shot and well worth looking at. Bob Cutts took the original photograph on 14 July 1952; unfortunately she later crashed to destruction, on 15 July 1955, while still in Korea and serving with the 2157th ARS. I have no idea who operated her during the conflict, but it's a neat shot anyway.   Bob Cutts via John Kerr Collection

This H-19 is rather obviously an Army bird and was photographed by Vince Reynolds, although I have no idea whatsoever when that occurred (a recurring theme while describing these photos), or what the unit was. It's yet another photo from John Kerr's collection.   Vince Reynolds via John Kerr Collection

Finally, we have a fine Bob Cutts image of an HRS-1 in Korea. She was assigned to HMR-161 when Bob took the shot on 14 July, 1952, but after Korea she was transferred to the Navy's HS-4 and ditched off the coast of California on 01 September 1953 when her engine failed.  Bob Cutts via John Kerr Collection

Thanks very much to Maddog for preserving these images, and so many more. 

The Relief Tube

Not this time, since the only folks who have written to the project since I last published have been long-standing friends who mostly wanted to let me know they were happy I'd finally gotten off my lazy rear end and done something. That made me feel good in an obscure sort of way, but would do nothing to help clarify or correct anything I'd previously written which pretty much negated the use of any of them in this project. Of course, if there's something you'd like to contribute I'd be delighted to hear from you! That email address, suitably scrambled to annoy the picture pirates and all those folks who want me to gift them money or support their long-awaited return to their rightful place on the throne can contact me at   replicainscaleatyahoodotcom  . Drummers, grifters, and scoundrels need not apply!!!

And that's pretty much it for today unless I think of something later and decide to add it. Be good to your neighbor and there's an off chance we'll meet again soon!

phil

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 usually 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-41 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