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