Another Way to Do It, Or Maybe a Trip in an Alternate WayBack Machine
Let's take a trip, you and me, down Memory Lane, but this time around let's not discuss all those cool kits, how hard it was to find markings and accessories, how aftermarket didn't even exist back then, and all that other stuff us old guys like to talk about. Instead, let's talk about some of the models we built in those days, and how they're still viable today as the basis for a brand new project. (This is the part where you get to say "Huh?", so go ahead and do that. I'll wait a minute for you to get it done.)
OK, now that
that's out of the way, allow me to explain, using myself as the example. My first attempts at "serious" plastic modeling took place while I was living in Japan during the early 1960s. The models weren't very good, nor were they particularly memorable even to me, and I was the guy who was making them. The second phase of "serious" took place around 1968 or so, when MicroScale began producing and selling aftermarket decals. There had been other decal companies prior to that, of course; HisAirDec, Stoppel, ABT, and Authenticals all come to mind, jus to name a few, but the offerings of the Krasel brothers were fairly accurate, much thinner, and looked a whole lot better on a model than did the offerings of those other guys. Those MicroScale decals and, in my own world at least, those of Max ABT and Authenticals, stimulated the creation of a veritable rash of psuedo-authentic 1/72nd scale model airplanes, most of which were built to a pretty terrible standard of completion.
Some of those models were favorites, though, and several became prized members of my collection. Most of them are gone now, either taken to bits to provide parts for other projects (Reduced to Produce, as San Antonio modeler Bob Angel is fond of saying) or accidentally destroyed by my children as they discovered those neat little toys sitting innocently on the shelves of my studio, but the memories are there, and so is a fondness for certain of them.
It was in one of those periods of Fond Memories a few years back that the epiphany struck me: Why not reproduce a few of those old-time favorites, but with modern kits, aftermarket, paints, and decals? It seemed like a good idea at the time, so off I went in search of inspiration, which I found in the hulk of an old Frog
Hurricane Mk IIc that I'd built in 1968 or 69 as Karel Kuttelwascher's BE581 JX-E, based on information found in the frontispiece of the old Profile Publication on that airplane. I bought a Hasegawa Mk IIc kit in 1/48th scale (my scale of choice these days), discovered that Sky Decals had a
Hurricane sheet containing those very markings, and went to work. I even took some red decal stock and cut out patches for battle damage repair and put them on the model where P. Endsleigh Castle's 5-view Profile artwork had shown them to live---common sense makes me doubt they were really on the airplane but they were most assuredly on both that artwork and on my original model, and that was justification enough, by Golly! The model came out pretty well, and you've seen it in these pages. The die was cast, more or less.
A few months later the bug bit again, this time regarding the Fw190D-9 flown by Theo Nibel of 10/JG54 during Operation
Bodenplatte. In that instance the original model had been a poorly-done rendition of the airplane using the not-especially-accurate Lindberg D-9 as a canvas, but Tamiya had a pretty nice 1/48th "Dora" in their lineup and the game was on, although in that instance I didn't start with a fresh, unsullied kit, but rather with an older completed one on the shelf that was in need of a facelift. That one, and some of the stages of said facelift, are within these pages as well.
You can, if you're interested, see photographs of both of those models by scrolling down to the very bottom of this page and using the search feature to find them, but those models aren't really the point of this ramble. No; it's all about personal nostalgia, and nothing else. Those two models I cited meant a lot to me way back there in the 60s, which makes the clones of them I built some 35 years later somewhat special as well. As a further bonus, working on them add substantially to my enjoyment of the hobby.
Is this something you ought to try too? I dunno. It worked for me, but that's how I'm wired---I enjoy old stuff and, to an extent, replicating it. You might not care for that sort of thing at all, but you have to admit it's an interesting facet of the hobby. Now; where did I put that old Monogram Wright
Cyclone kit...
The Quiet Rebirth
Several years back an amazing polystyrene model airplane producer in the Czech Republic released a series of kits of Kurt Tank's immortal Fw190. It was a substantial family who's kits ran from the A-5 through the A-9 varieties of the design and ultimately included a 190F-8 and D-9 as well. Taken strictly as plastic kits they featured amazing, if somewhat fiddley, detail, but were a tough date for a great many modelers and, at the end of the day, weren't nearly as accurate as they were originally touted to have been. Eduard sold a ton of them in spite of that, though, and a lot of people built them, including myself. They were petite, delicate, and looked great when competently built but, as we mentioned a moment ago, were also somewhat inaccurate when judged as scale models.
Then came their Me109G-6, another beautifully detailed model that was, somewhat unfortunately, heavily hyped by them as the end-all and be-all of Messerschmitt kits. Those kits were really nice and actually lived up to their stellar press announcements, right up to the part where everyone suddenly discovered that the models were out of scale. There we were, set up and knocked down again. Good grief!
There's a happy ending to this story, though, because, in a move almost entirely unprecedented in our hobby, Eduard went back and completely retooled that unfortunate
Gustav kit, re-releasing it to considerably less fanfare than they'd done the first time around. That reworked model is now the winner it was originally billed to be, a kit with correct dimensions and only a tiny handful of small corrections to be made, presuming you feel like they're serious enough to even need correcting. Bravo!
Then, just to prove Eduard were truly as good as their reputation says they are, they tooled and are in the process of releasing a brand new family of Fw190s, starting with the A-2, -3, and -4 variants, and boy are they ever something! The accuracy is there, as is detailing well above their already high standards. They've even taken the time to address detail issues on such tiny components as gun barrels, boarding steps,
et al, and they've done it with a minimum of back-slapping on their part. Bravo again!
I recently bought one of their A-4 ProfiPack offerings, more on a whim than for any other reason, and was so impressed with the kit that I jumped in a built it almost as soon as I got it home. While I'm not going to bore you with a lengthy review or how-I-built-it article, there are a couple of things I wanted to share:
See what I mean about this not being a review? In this very first photograph the model has already been built and is sitting in Corrosion Control being painted. The kit is an easy thing to build, unlike its immediate predecessor, and you can pretty much figure that any part that doesn't fit where it's supposed to is being installed incorrectly! That's not why I'm showing you this model though; that paint job is easily the ugliest one I've ever put on a model airplane and I wanted to share it with you. Fortunately, things will get better...
See what I mean? The model is going to wear a scheme included with this boxing of the kit, a I/JG 54 aircraft flown by Walter Nowotny that's wearing one of that unit's patented oddball winter camouflage paint jobs. The model is beginning to look like something you might want to put on your shelf.
Things start getting a whole lot better, appearance-wise, once that winter camo is in place and the decals are applied. That pitot tube is from a Master barrel set for the Hasegawa Fw190A-3 and is the only bit of non-Eduard on the model; everything else came with the ProfiPack release of the A-4. Once again I'd like for you to notice the high-tech stand I use sometimes while waiting for the decals on the upper wings to cure. Several companies offer sophisticated and often expensive stands to allow you to do this very thing and I have to admit they look really spiffy in photographs, but this approach works just as well and doesn't cost very much either. Sometimes fancy isn't necessarily better...
Here's a tip for those of you interested in such things: Early and mid-War
Luftwaffe fighters were often seen with whitewall tailwheels, a process done with dielectric paint. Those whitewalls can be difficult to replicate on a model but fear not, that's just how it looks. In practice it's an easy thing to do if you've got a set of FW190-specific Eduard masks, because the masking materials they provide so you can paint your tailwheel in a tidy and workmanlike manner can also work as a mask for that whitewall. Let's examine the photo immediately above to see how this looks. Pretty easy, huh?
OK; take a look at the photograph immediately above this caption, and take note that I mis-spelled the word "there". It's harder to fix that than it looks so the caption stays; look on it as honesty in an age when that attribute is at a premium! On a more serious note, this view is one of three that shows how the model came out. It was easy to build, fun to paint, and an enjoyable experience in every respect!
Here's another view. The demarcation of the colors on that paint job can be argued; I chose to do a soft-edge representation rather than a hard mask. Either way I think the airplane came out looking pretty good, in spite of those goofy colors. (Author and long-time friend Rick Morgan calls it "Fugly", which is not a nice adjective, but it's an accurate one.) It's beginning to grow on me and is different if nothing else. You pays your money...
Here's one last shot for your perusal. There's not much to say about it, except that I really like the kit a lot and am finally impressed with the way it came out, although your mileage may vary considerably on that one!
So what's the reason for running two
Ost-Front Luftwaffe models in back-to-back issues? The obvious one is because the kit is relatively new to the market and worthy of an article, but there's a far deeper reason. Eduard, whom I believe we'll now have to dub The Little Company That Could, issued a nice-but-not-really Fw190 family a few years back, and then followed it with their disastrous Me109G kit; the models you could produce from both kits were viable and attractive when built, but were also inaccurate to a great degree.
Most manufacturers would have shrugged their shoulders, said something like "Oh well", and moved on, but Eduard didn't see it that way. They completely re-tooled that 109G, and did it without making a huge deal out of it. Their early Focke Wulfs are seemingly great right out of the gat, and as a result we've now got what may be the best family of Fw190s kits ever produced by anyone in any scale, while the trees provided with these early releases indicate that they're going to address
all of the short-nosed
Wurgers to this new, and significantly higher, standard of accuracy and detail. That's a Very Good Thing for us all even if your personal tastes don't run towards airplanes with black crosses on the wings, because it seems to signify a giant leap forward by the guys at Eduard. We can only hope that anything they do (including their announced
Tempest V) will be done to this same extremely high standard. I think they'll do it, and I'm enthusiastically awaiting their future releases.
Way to go, Eduard! Your picture's on the piano!
Cry Havoc!
Or maybe not, but we've got a couple of 417th BG A-20Gs to share with you today:
Getting ready to rumble. In this shot we see a section of 417th BG A-20Gs preparing to launch against Japanese positions from an unspecified base. The image is apparently a frame from a movie but illustrates the daily operations of the 5th's attack groups as few photographs can. The strafers, both A-20s and B-25s, arguably flew the most dangerous missions in the SouthWest Pacific and did it day after day. You could scarcely call them unsung heroes, because everybody knew about them at the time and we're certainly aware of them now. You
could call them gutsy... Rocker Collection
Here's a placid-appearing air-to-air of a formation of 417th G-models
en route to mischief. Everything appears serene enough, but there's a better than average chance that at least one or two of the aircraft in this strike package won't return from the target area. Things were tough in the 5th right up til the end of the war. Rocker Collection
Those Other Guys
We Americans tend to be an ethnocentric bunch. The Pacific War was
our war, and we did all the fighting, right? There were other folks there, but they were just helping us out, right? WRONG!!!
It's easy for some Americans to forget we weren't alone in the struggle against the Japanese, and a lot of people don't know much of anything about Australian
Beaufighter operations in New Guinea during The Bad Old Days either. They were most assuredly there, however, and were holding the line while the 5th was getting organized down in Australia. The Bristol
Beaufighter Mk Ic was an early-comer to the party, with 30 Sqdn RAAF operation in the Lae/Huon Gulf area during early 1942 and 31 Sqdn RAAF doing the honors in a series of ongoing strikes during the same time frame against enemy installations on Timor. The "Beau" was a strike fighter in the most basic sense, at least in the early days, and went out against the Japanese armed only with guns and cannon, but they were extremely effective and punched well above their weight. The Mk Ic in this photo was assigned to 30 Sqdn and is shown photographed at Ward's Strip during early '42. Whether or not the Japanese ever called them "Whispering Death" is debatable, but there's no doubt the aircraft and its crews were respected. Rocker Collection
A Price to Be Paid
Some people have a glamorous view of war. Most of those folks have never been involved in one, and it's sometimes valuable to remember just how awful things can be:
The place is Adak, in the Aleutian Islands, and the time is 1942. That's a 54th FS P-38 burning in the background, a victim of an equipment failure, or the weather, or pilot error, or any one of a dozen other reasons men lost their lives in airplanes during the war. We've said over and over again on this site that it wasn't always the enemy that got you, and this photo proves the point as few can. Don't believe us? Take a closer look, then: That B-24 hulk, and the remains of those two P-39s, tell a story. There were never any easy days during that war no matter what nation they flew for; not for anybody. Let's raise a glass... Rocker Collection
Thanks once again for the dedication of Bobby Rocker, and all those like him, for finding and preserving photographs such as these so we can view them and learn from them!
Air to Mud Eagle
A product of the Air Force's Enhanced Tactical Fighter program, originally conceived to produce a replacement for the General Dynamics F-111 family of aircraft, the F-15E
Strike Eagle entered service with the 405th TTW during 1985 as a long-range interdiction aircraft. Since that time, the type has provided interdiction and strike capability in every conflict in which the United States has been involved, and is still an extremely viable aircraft today. Don Jay has provided us with some fascinating images of F-15Es from the 334th TFS of the 4th TFW (the sole wing operating the
Strike Eagle) and we think you'll enjoy the images. Here's what Don has to say about them:
Here (are some photos of)
the 4 Fighter Wing at Seymour Jonson-aka “Shady-J”. The group provides worldwide command and control for two operational F-15E squadrons and is responsible for conducting the Air Force's only F-15E training operation, qualifying crews to serve in worldwide combat-ready positions.
As I mentioned previously (in a separate e-mail)
, the 4th Wing was quite receptive to photographers like me and during the 90's, I was able to document the Strike Eagles many times. Attached are a few from two trips in the late '90s-these document some of the 334 FSq birds.
87-0193 is an F-15E-44-MC, posing for Don with her nose cone removed. That translucent green primer can be found inside a great deal of the
Strike Eagle's structure, so close attention to this detail is required of those modeling the type. The myriad of covers and "Remove Before Flight" tags are of interest as well, and are normally found on these aircraft when sitting on the ramp. Don Jay
Here's a similar view of 87-0206, but this time with the nose cap in place. The E-model F-15 is generally painted in overall 36118 grey, and apparent variances in that color are caused by paint touch-up or, as in the case of -0206, deflected control surfaces. This aircraft is being readied for flight and provides the modeler with interesting diorama possibilities. Don Jay
89-0499, an F-15E-48-MC, is a little farther along in the pre-flight evolution; her crew is aboard and a huffer has been brought up preparatory to starting engines. All the covers and warning tags have been removed from the airframe and things are about to get loud! Don Jay
In contrast to the photo of 0499 immediately above, 89-0500, another Block 48 F-15E, is in the process of being buttoned up. Of particular note are the covers over the ejection seats. All of these aircraft were photographed in a clean condition, but the type is capable of carrying an impressive variety of ordnance and is still extremely viable in the strike and interdiction role some 33 years after its service introduction. Don Jay
Let's finish up today's
Strike Eagle photo essay with this impressive shot of 87-0200, another F-15E-44-MC, loaded up with inert ordnance and on its way to the range. That huge load of bombs is impressive, to say the least, but is now largely unnecessary thanks to the progress made in the field of "smart" air-to-ground weapons. Don Jay
Don took these photographs back in October of 1999, when the aircraft was still young and relatively new to the Air Force. Since then, the type has been very heavily engaged in the myriad of conflicts in which the United States has become involved over the past two decades and the airframes are beginning to show their years, although the
Strike Eagle force is still most assuredly mission capable. It, and all the other members of the F-15 family, are and always have been highly impressive. Many thanks to Don Jay for sharing these gorgeous photographs with us.
Just When You Thought It Was Safe to Come Out
OK, ya'll; brew up a pot of coffee and get yourself about a month's supply of popcorn. Bobby Rocker, best know to all of us for the remarkable still images he shares with our readership, has come up with a link to an absolutely staggering number of films regarding military aviation. It's hard to describe what's here in the few words allowed by this blog so follow the link below and enjoy!
http://imageevent.com/okbueno/mopic?z=2&l=0&c=10&n=1&m=-1&w=4&x=0&p=92
Thanks, Bobby!
Long Ago and Far Away
Way back when the USAF had thousands of aircraft in their inventory, there was a trainer. It was a simple aircraft, and a logical off-shoot of the Lockheed F-80
Shooting Star family. There was a time when the Air Training Command was heavily populated with the type, and it saw service as a unit hack, and in a handful of specialized roles, long after the requirement for it had been superceded by more modern aircraft.
Reader and contributor Doug Barbier once flew the mighty T-Bird, operating the T-33A in one of the world's toughest aviation environments with the 57th FIS out of Keflavic, Iceland. There are no photographs of 57th FIS T-Birds in this photo essay, nor did Doug contribute any of the photography you're about to see. He
did, however, manage to engage in mock air-to-air combat with certain of the 57th's F-4s, with an outcome somewhat different than most of us might expect. This piece is being published specifically for Doug; petty bribery, if you will, in order to get him to share a couple of those stories with us.
The T-33's history with the USAF goes back to the Korean War, when the type was part and parcel of the F-80 units operating in theater, but we aren't going back quite that far today. Instead, we're going to begin in 1975, on the National Guard Bureau's ramp at Andrews. Three of the four aircraft you see before you are in the then-common Aircraft Grey, also known at the time as ADC Grey, but the bird closest to the camera is in glorious, and highly-polished, natural metal. Those of you with long memories (or the ability to use the "search" function at the bottom of this page) may remember we ran a shot of an ANGB B-26B
Invader back in the early days of this project in a simiar finish. The Bureau was once known for pristine aircraft; this shot, and that B-26 we just mentioned, were prime examples of that!
Marty Isham
We have no idea who originally provided us with this photo; it came to us in a trade (probably from John Kerr, but it was a long time ago and we don't remember!). The quality of the shot isn't the best, but my oh my, look at those 5th FIS markings on 57-0616. She was built as a T-33A-5-LO and was simply gorgeous when this photograph was taken; black and yellow markings over natural metal with the squadron's "Spittin' Kittens" moniker on her tip tanks! It never got much prettier than this! The airplane is a survivor too, presently on static display at Minot. (If you're the one who took this photo, or know who did, please contact us so we can provide proper attribution for it!) Friddell Collection
We've run photographs of the 111th FIS' T-33s before, but that doesn't keep us from doing it again. We were on the 147th FIG's ramp at Ellington ANGB in March of 1980 when we caught 52-9223, a T-33A-1-LO, on a typically rain-soaked ramp. This example of the type managed to achieve something very few aircraft ever do---it was delivered as a new aircraft to the 111th in 1953 and remained with the unit until retirement in May of 1987! It's now on display at Ellington, a unique reminder of days gone by. Phillip Friddell
1980 was a good year for us in terms of T-33s appearing at the ramps we were photographing. 58-0555, a T-33A-5-LO from the ADWC, was transient at Laughlin ABF during March of that year. She was absolutely pristine, and you could have eaten off that paintwork---the units that still operated the T-33 during the 80s tended to take extra good care of their aircraft, as Triple Nickle shows us. She ended up on public display in Oklahoma City; it's doubtful she looks this good nowadays but at least she didn't end up being melted down into pots and pans! Phillip Friddell
See what we mean about 1980 being a good year for photographing T-Birds? That same month and year we were on the transient ramp at Bergstrom photographing this beauty. At first glance T-33A-1-LO, 53-5121, is just another T-Bird, albeit one assigned to the 134th DSES, but as we're about to see there's a little more to her than first meets the eye. Phillip Friddell
Every picture tells a story, and we'd definitely like to know the details about this one! Take a close look at the photo, just past the uppermost leg of the "E" in the U.S. Air Force logo on the nose. Do you see something that interests you? We sure did! That kill marking, plus the "1st Place Unit" device under the S. on the nose, renders this bird interesting in the extreme. Unfortunately, we have no idea what the story might be regarding those markings, nor do we know who achieved the aeria victory memorialized on the flanks of that airplane. If
you know, please drop us an e-mail at replicainscaleatyahoodotcom (using the appropriate symbology rather than all letters, of course) and tell us what's going on here! Phillip Friddell
Let's make one more stop in 1980, this time in March, when we caught 58-0707, another T-33A-5-LO, on the ground at Randolph during an air show. She was with the 46th ADW when we shot her that day, and she was fairly unique in that her airframe was in natural metal, even though her gas bags were in the more commonly seen Aircraft Grey. Did we ever mention we
like The Silver Air Force? Phillip Friddell
March of 1981 started off with a bang, T-33-wise, when we photographed the 111th's 56-1670, yet another T-33A-5-LO, on the ground at Laughlin. She was a beautifully-maintained bird, as were all of the aircraft assigned to Ellington's resident Guard unit, and she was a survivor of sorts as well, being transferred to the Navy as a TV-2 (BuNo 143020) not long after this photo was taken. Phillip Friddell
May of 1981 found 56-1740, another T-33A-5-LO, on the ramp at Bergstrom where Lee Bracken to this magnificent portrait of her shortly after her arrival there; note the "bone dome" perched on the windscreen frame. The photo came to us
sans a unit identification, so we're at somewhat of a loss as to what squadron she was assigned to, although we strongly suspect she was included in a batch of T-Birds that ultimately went to the Navy as TV-2s in the 174x BuNo range. If you know the answer, that address is replicainscaleatyahoodotcome, ok? Lee Bracken
We shot 57-0708, yet another -5-LO, at Randolph in May of 81. She was assigned to the 49th FIS, and was absolutely pristine in her shiny Aircraft Grey paint job and squadron markings. Of special interest is the ALQ-72 pod hanging under her port wing, a sight infrequently seen on the T-Bird. That's a travel pod hanging off the centerline just aft of the mains, in case you were wondering. There's a new kit of the "late" T-33A out there, you know---hmmm... Phillip Friddell
The late, and sorely missed, Ron Kowalczyk, spent quite a bit of his time on Selfridge's transient ramp back in the 80s, which is where he shot this T-33A-5-LO (56-1697 identified as being from the 49th FIS, although those aren't their markings) in December of 1981. That white on grey paint job is just spiffy beyond words, isn't it? If you look carefully you can see a travel pod hanging off her lower fuselage just behind the main gear, and we'd be willing to bet it's wearing a squadron emblem at the very least, although that sort of detail isn't visible in this view. Her history was somewhat odd in that she went to MASDC at an earlier date and was then pulled out to serve with the 49th. Her ultimate fate is unknown, but we doubt it was good... Ron Kowalczyk
The T-33 was apparently a common visitor to Selfridge during August of 1982. Ron shot the 49th's 58-0632 there in August of that year. She ultimately ended up at a museum but was very much on the active roster during '82! Ron Kowalczyk
The New Jersey's 119th FIS/177th FIG was there too, as demonstrated by the appearance of 57-0715. There must have been some sort of event going on there---maybe an ANG conference?---since there's a line of other T-33s behind this one. If any of you know... Ron Kowalczyk
The boys from Niagara Falls were thereas well, as 53-5393, a T-33A-1-LO of the 136th FIS/107th FIG, testifies. This bird is a standout in every respect; just look at those markings! Modelers might want to note that the 1950s were an era of dedicated ground support equipment for the Air Force's aircraft, and that boarding ladder is unique to the T-33 and its and kissing cousin the F-94. It's also worth noting that all of the aircraft in the
Shooting Star family were generally parked with their speed brakes deployed. For what it's worth... Ron Kowalczyk
Here's a T-Bird photographed during 1982 that
wasn't taken by Ron Kowalczyk! The aircraft is from the 84th FITS and has been stripped back to natural metal after service in a different unit. Mark Morgan took this portrait in November of 1982; you may remember from her time with the 134th DSES as illustrated just a few photos up. She was painted in overall Aircraft Grey then, and someone must have gone to a great deal of trouble to strip that paint. We think it was worth it! Mark Morgan
The 84th FITS got around quite a bit in 1982, as demonstrated by 58-0533, a T-33-5-LO from that unit. They must have had a thing for natural metal T-33s but we aren't going to complain! She eventually left ADTAC to pursue a career with the Mexican Air Force, after which she was put on display in that country. Mark Morgan
The Air National Guard had a conference at Kelly AFB during April of 1984, and we were able to get on the transient ramp and photograph most of the attendee aircraft, two of which were T-33s. This is 53-5266, a T-33A-1-LO from the 121st FIS/FIG. She's a Plain Jane as ANG T-Birds go, with very little in the way of markings to make her stand out from the pack. Maybe that's because the 121st was from DC; who knows? She's still pretty, though! She went into storage just a couple of short years later, in 1987. Phillip Friddell
This is what it looks like when you under-expose K25 by a stop or two, but the photo is worth looking at because it's fairly late in the game, T-33-wise, and she's in natural metal. She's 53-5262, a -1-LO from the 194th FIS, and she's another attendee at that KAFB Air Guard conference. She's not wearing a whole lot of color but that blue fin tip, coupled with the matching radar cover, make her well worth a second look. Her days were numbered too; she went into storage in 1988. Phillip Friddell
Several of the airplanes you've seen in this essay were survivors of a sort, but this TV-2, derelect at Kelly AFB in June of 1984, wasn't one of them. She's sad looking and was, in all likelihood, destroyed shortly after this photo was taken (although it's possible she was being restored for display at the time since she's obviously spent some previous time in storage in Arizona), but her proud lines are still evident. The Lockheed T-33 was, and remains, a one-of-a-kind aircraft. Lest we forget... John Kerr
For those modelers who follow this blog, there's a relatively new "late" T-33A kit out there in 1/48th scale, and with any luck this photo essay will inspire a few of you to build one. On a far more personal note we're hoping all those T-Birds will also inspire Doug to tell us what it's like to hassle with an F-4 in an airplane designed in the 1940s---we have reason to believe the result might not be what most of us would expect!
The Relief Tube
Not this time, gang! It's not that we haven't been receiving mail, because we have, but rather because a lot of that correspondence has been from people asking for assistance with their research projects. We're delighted to do that sort of thing when we can and even more delighted when we don't mess things up, but we do listen to our readers and like to hear about it on those occasions when we make a mistake. We're always on the lookout for new photographic material as well, and in either instance you can reach us by e-mail at replicainscaleatyahoodotcom. Just be sure to remove a couple of letters and insert the appropriate . and @ symbols and you're there.
That's it for today. Be good to your neighbor 'til the next time we meet.
phil
