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