Hi Guys,
I have asked Kyle Lord to build me two kits. Both are 1:72. One is a F-106A Delta Dart and the other is a T-33 Shooting Star. Originally, I gave him the Hasegawa 1:72 F-106 kit and the Hasegawa 1:72 T-33 kit. He started both kits straight away. However, he found the Hasegawa F-106 kit lacking in detail, so he stopped work on it and ordered a Trumpeter 1:72 F-106 kit. I must say, that after seeing photos of the sprues, the Trumpeter kit definitely has more detail, especially in the area of the cockpit.
Both, the F-106 and the T-33 models will be finished in the markings of the 101st FIS of the 102nd FIW of the Massachusetts Air National Guard. The F-106 will wear the markings of “Alpha-Kilo one-one”, my good friend, (now retired LT. COL.) Art Bugbee often flew “one-one” (although “Alpha-Kilo one-four” was his personal mount while the 101st flew the Dart and had his name on it. But, there is no sheet out with markings for “one-four”, but there is a sheet with the markings for “one-one” and that’s the one I bought and mailed to Kyle this past week.
I was going to ask Mark of STARFIGHTER DECALS if he’d take the sheet he created in 1:48 for me of the markings of “one-four” (complete with Maj. A. J. Bugbee on it) and resize it to 1:72. A couple of years ago, I had Stan Pienkowski rebuild the old Revell/Monogram 1:48 F-106A that I built myself in 1984, and mark it up as Art’s “one-four” and gave it to Art. He loves it. He even has the windscreen from the real “one-four” sitting in his barn in New Hampshire. One day, in 1981 (when I was 21 and a first semester Junior at CCSU), Art got me some simulator time in the F-106 simulator they had on base. I thought that was so cool. Why? Because I’ve got Cerebral Palsy, and am confined in a motorized wheelchair. That meant/means I can’t/couldn’t serve in the military and fly fighters, or any plane for that matter. I shot down a TU-95 and a MiG-25. He also had me sit in on a mission briefing once too.
I sent Mark an email about it, but he did not and still hasn’t replied. That’s OK, inasmuch I found the sheet I’ve just mailed off to Kyle.
The T-33, well, that old bird holds a special meaning to me as well. There’s a photo of me from 1981 (that I can’t bloody well find – but I know still exists), the same day that I got my two “kills”, behind my parents’ 1979 Plymouth Voyager (the full-sized van, not the mini-van), wearing Art’s flight helmet, holding his flight jacket that he had just given me (and I still have and wear), the jacket had/has over 1,000 flight hours (all in the 106). In the photo, behind me, is the T-33 being prepped for a cross-country hop. Art has told me that he, and another 101st pilot, were trying to figure out a way to get me into the back-seat of the T-33, because the back-seat of the B-model of the 106 was too high off the ground to safely get me into.
Sadly, those plans never came to fruition – that would’ve been so cool! I can picture it; he and I flying from Cape Cod, back to Connecticut – to do a fly-over of my college girlfriend’s house in Ansonia. Oh, well. What’s that old saying? “The best-laid plans of mice and men …”
A few weeks ago, Kyle emailed me to tell me that he was going to build me a pro-bono kit. That is the Tamiya 1:72 F-4U-1D. I accepted his kind offer and said that I’d like it as the ‘883’ which Pappy Boyington (a childhood hero) is said to have flown. But, I haven’t been able to find 1:72 decals for it … I can find ‘em in 1:32 easy enough though ………………..
Here are some photos of the progress on all three kits by Kyle:
The new F-106: