Thanks Ken. I remember one interesting story he told. He had a friend that was a Jug pilot and this friend offered to take my dad up for a ride. He explained that he would not wear his parachute and would fly the plane while sitting on my dads lap to make room in the single seater aircraft. Dad declined and said it was just a few days later, that while on a flight, the Jug developed mechanical problems and the pilot was unable to bail out in time before it crashed.

A person always can look back and wish they had preserved some of these stories. So many of the veterans of the Big War are gone now.

Jim

Thank you very much, Ken. I am honored to join such a great Group Build!

As for scale...It's not listed but if I had to guess, it would be 1/48? Here it is, on my bench now:

I was wondering to myself, why I put this kit aside? I remember now, it's the 1/4" thick sprues, on both body pieces.....4 each. I can see lots of putty being used.

I actually got the other side done, without too much damage. Honestly, I will have some fun doing this build. I may have to research, by watching the 1st movie again. For the 1000th time

jimbot58

Thanks Ken. I remember one interesting story he told. He had a friend that was a Jug pilot and this friend offered to take my dad up for a ride. He explained that he would not wear his parachute and would fly the plane while sitting on my dads lap to make room in the single seater aircraft. Dad declined and said it was just a few days later, that while on a flight, the Jug developed mechanical problems and the pilot was unable to bail out in time before it crashed.

A person always can look back and wish they had preserved some of these stories. So many of the veterans of the Big War are gone now.

Jim

This is so true Jim!  That is quite a story.  I wonder how many times that was done?

I am sure you feel as I do that I wish I had spent the time to carefully document all of the stories my Dad told me.  Now they are gone forever.

We hear some told on the History Channel and in movies, but you know that thousands more are out there that may never be heard.

Ken

Taps88

Thank you very much, Ken. I am honored to join such a great Group Build!

As for scale...It's not listed but if I had to guess, it would be 1/48? Here it is, on my bench now:

That is fine Eric.  I am not that familiar with science fiction kits.  I have not built any since I was a kid.  I had seen some with scales on them so I just took it for granted that they all did.  I believe Cliff has built some recently, at least he did acquire the new Star Trek Enterprise kit recently.

I built the old original AMT Star Trek Enterprise kit long ago which is now long gone.  It was the version with the lights.  Funny, I know that kit would be worth a lot of money now!

Ken

Taps88

I was wondering to myself, why I put this kit aside? I remember now, it's the 1/4" thick sprues, on both body pieces.....4 each. I can see lots of putty being used.

I actually got the other side done, without too much damage. Honestly, I will have some fun doing this build. I may have to research, by watching the 1st movie again. For the 1000th time

I don't know how many times I have watched the entire series.  I was really close to buying the Blu-ray set when the first 3-D movie came out.  Since I have a 3-D entertainment center I will now wait until the 3-D version comes out on Blu-ray.

Ken

Jim: Thanks for sharing with us, that's some interesting stuff!

I wish I knew more about my uncle's service but he never seemed to ever want to talk about it, and it's one of those things I never knew how to bring up. When I was a kid him and my aunt used to take us to church and my sister and I would spend the Sunday evening with them. Once I had the old Monogram P-38 in 1/48th and it impressed me to no end when he told me about seeing them flying over back then. And they took us out to the battleship North Carolina once and I was fascinated with his stories of how it was to live on such a floating city. I wish I could remember more of his stories now.

I know he served as a cook and an AA gunner on a landing craft, I'm not sure which vessel though other than she fought in the Pacific - which of course narrows it down to what - a couple hundred ships? He did have some photos and memorabilia, I'm going to have to find out what happened to it.

My dad served as an orderly, he jokes about spending his time toting bed pans, hey someone has to do it right!  

Eric: Now that's a cool vintage kit! I'm afraid I was always more of a Trek geek than a Wars geek and the only SW ships I built was the Tie Interceptor from RotJ, which I think turned out ok, and the Star Destroyer, which I really messed up and ended up in the spare parts box. You might want to check around to some of the online sites like Starship Modeler and CultTVman, I've seen people take those old kits and turn out some really sharp work with them!

Ken: I you should find anymore photos of cars you and your dad painted I'd love to see them!

Son Of Medicine Man

Hi Everyone,

Today, being Memorial Day, I would like to take a moment to remember those who are no longer here with us that have served our country so that we may enjoy the freedoms that we have today.

I would especially like to remember Berny, who this group build is dedicated to, and my Dad, who both served time in Vietnam.

If anyone else would like to mention someone that they knew and the service that they served, it would be most welcome!

Ken

Thanks for your remembrance of the holiday, Ken, and I salute you and your father and Cliff and Jimbot and all of you as well as your relatives and friends who served and are serving. I would also like to mention my dad who served in the Navy with the CBs (Seabees) in the Pacific. I know he was at Guadalcanal in the Solomon Islands and probably many others on the road to Japan. Like many of you, I always planned to sit down with him and ask him about his service, but time and distance always seem to intervene and it just never happened. I'll always regret that.

Russ

Striker8241

 

Thanks for your remembrance of the holiday, Ken, and I salute you and your father and Cliff and Jimbot and all of you as well as your relatives and friends who served and are serving. I would also like to mention my dad who served in the Navy with the CBs (Seabees) in the Pacific. I know he was at Guadalcanal in the Solomon Islands and probably many others on the road to Japan. Like many of you, I always planned to sit down with him and ask him about his service, but time and distance always seem to intervene and it just never happened. I'll always regret that.

Russ

Wow Russ, Guadalcanal!  That was a hell hole!  In fact the whole Pacific theater was horrific nightmare against the Japanese.  At least with the Germans they would give up (most of the time) when it was obvious it was over.  But with the Japanese, they fought until the death with very little exception.  Very tough to fight an enemy like that.

Ken

Gamera

Jim: Thanks for sharing with us, that's some interesting stuff!

I wish I knew more about my uncle's service but he never seemed to ever want to talk about it, and it's one of those things I never knew how to bring up. When I was a kid him and my aunt used to take us to church and my sister and I would spend the Sunday evening with them. Once I had the old Monogram P-38 in 1/48th and it impressed me to no end when he told me about seeing them flying over back then. And they took us out to the battleship North Carolina once and I was fascinated with his stories of how it was to live on such a floating city. I wish I could remember more of his stories now.

I know he served as a cook and an AA gunner on a landing craft, I'm not sure which vessel though other than she fought in the Pacific - which of course narrows it down to what - a couple hundred ships? He did have some photos and memorabilia, I'm going to have to find out what happened to it.

My dad served as an orderly, he jokes about spending his time toting bed pans, hey someone has to do it right!  

Eric: Now that's a cool vintage kit! I'm afraid I was always more of a Trek geek than a Wars geek and the only SW ships I built was the Tie Interceptor from RotJ, which I think turned out ok, and the Star Destroyer, which I really messed up and ended up in the spare parts box. You might want to check around to some of the online sites like Starship Modeler and CultTVman, I've seen people take those old kits and turn out some really sharp work with them!

Ken: I you should find anymore photos of cars you and your dad painted I'd love to see them!

What can I say Cliff, the same is true for your uncle about the Pacific theater.  That had to be a tough job, an AA gunner on a landing craft.  I bet he saw some intense fighting!

Ken

Blood and guts.

Strategy and logistical superiority.

But blood and guts.

That's how the Pacific was won.

-Dom

Son Of Medicine Man

Wow Russ, Guadalcanal!  That was a hell hole!  In fact the whole Pacific theater was horrific nightmare against the Japanese.  At least with the Germans they would give up (most of the time) when it was obvious it was over.  But with the Japanese, they fought until the death with very little exception.  Very tough to fight an enemy like that.

Ken

Yes it was. Dad wasn't at Guadalcanal when the major fighting was going on. He came in later with reinforcements to start building a larger Henderson field. But everybody there had to constantly deal with raids by die-hard Japanese that were left on the island after their main forces pulled out. He wouldn't say much about it though.

Russ

Guys, I did find out some more about my uncle's ship- LST-663, from an online site I found:

During World War II, LST-663 was assigned to the Asiatic-Pacific theater and participated in the following operations:

 Capture and occupation of southern Palau Islands—September and October 1944

Leyte landings—October and November 1944

Assault and occupation of Okinawa Gunto—April through June 1945

Couldn't find a photo of her, but did of her sister LST-662:

Apparently she was also one of the landing craft waiting off the coast of the Philippines when Taffy-3 convinced the Japanese fleet led by IJN Yamato to back off in the Battle of Samar. If they'd broken though I'd probably never known my uncle...

Pretty sobering thought.... 

Gamera

Guys, I did find out some more about my uncle's ship- LST-663, from an online site I found:

During World War II, LST-663 was assigned to the Asiatic-Pacific theater and participated in the following operations:

 Capture and occupation of southern Palau Islands—September and October 1944

Leyte landings—October and November 1944

Assault and occupation of Okinawa Gunto—April through June 1945

Couldn't find a photo of her, but did of her sister LST-662:

Apparently she was also one of the landing craft waiting off the coast of the Philippines when Taffy-3 convinced the Japanese fleet led by IJN Yamato to back off in the Battle of Samar. If they'd broken though I'd probably never known my uncle...

Pretty sobering thought.... 

Great photo.......

Sometimes those Japanese commanders couldn't find the guts, like guys like Sprague......

-Dom

I'm not sure it was a matter of guts, just a weird miscalculation by the Japanese admiral. Apparently he has trying to carefully husband his forces and thought from the intensity of the attack the US Navy and land based aircraft were a lot more powerful than what was there.

In the early hours of October 25 1944 the ships of task group Taffy 3 had no idea that they were in harm's way. The ships of Taffy 3 consisted of a force of six escort carriers,four destroyers,and three destroyer escorts. This small force along with it's sister groups,Taffy 1 and Taffy 3 was in place to protect the beaches of General Douglas MacArthur's Philippine landing force at Leyte Gulf.

The Japanese forces coming out of the dawn's mist included 11 destroyers, 2 light cruisers, 6 heavy cruisers, 4 battleships,including the super battleship Yamato. The Yamato was the largest battleship ever built. The combined tonnage of all the ships of Taffy 3,were less the the tonnage of the Yamato alone.

Hell of a story in any case.

Gamera

I'm not sure it was a matter of guts, just a weird miscalculation by the Japanese admiral. Apparently he has trying to carefully husband his forces and thought from the intensity of the attack the US Navy and land based aircraft were a lot more powerful than what was there.

In the early hours of October 25 1944 the ships of task group Taffy 3 had no idea that they were in harm's way. The ships of Taffy 3 consisted of a force of six escort carriers,four destroyers,and three destroyer escorts. This small force along with it's sister groups,Taffy 1 and Taffy 3 was in place to protect the beaches of General Douglas MacArthur's Philippine landing force at Leyte Gulf.

The Japanese forces coming out of the dawn's mist included 11 destroyers, 2 light cruisers, 6 heavy cruisers, 4 battleships,including the super battleship Yamato. The Yamato was the largest battleship ever built. The combined tonnage of all the ships of Taffy 3,were less the the tonnage of the Yamato alone.

Hell of a story in any case.

It was a great heroic battle Cliff!  And then you said they went on to participate in the Okinawa campaign, which was full of Kamikaze attacks.  Your uncle saw some very intense battles!

Ken

Gamera

Guys, I did find out some more about my uncle's ship- LST-663, from an online site I found:

During World War II, LST-663 was assigned to the Asiatic-Pacific theater and participated in the following operations:

 Capture and occupation of southern Palau Islands—September and October 1944

Leyte landings—October and November 1944

Assault and occupation of Okinawa Gunto—April through June 1945

Couldn't find a photo of her, but did of her sister LST-662:

Apparently she was also one of the landing craft waiting off the coast of the Philippines when Taffy-3 convinced the Japanese fleet led by IJN Yamato to back off in the Battle of Samar. If they'd broken though I'd probably never known my uncle...

Pretty sobering thought.... 

Cool story, Cliff!  Those were scary times for our troops and the future was by no means a sure thing.

Russ

Gamera

I'm not sure it was a matter of guts, just a weird miscalculation by the Japanese admiral. Apparently he has trying to carefully husband his forces and thought from the intensity of the attack the US Navy and land based aircraft were a lot more powerful than what was there.

In the early hours of October 25 1944 the ships of task group Taffy 3 had no idea that they were in harm's way. The ships of Taffy 3 consisted of a force of six escort carriers,four destroyers,and three destroyer escorts. This small force along with it's sister groups,Taffy 1 and Taffy 3 was in place to protect the beaches of General Douglas MacArthur's Philippine landing force at Leyte Gulf.

The Japanese forces coming out of the dawn's mist included 11 destroyers, 2 light cruisers, 6 heavy cruisers, 4 battleships,including the super battleship Yamato. The Yamato was the largest battleship ever built. The combined tonnage of all the ships of Taffy 3,were less the the tonnage of the Yamato alone.

Hell of a story in any case.

Losing one's nerve like Kurita did when sitting on the world's most powerful battle group maybe isn't a lack of guts, but it is a lack of courage. He was probably spooked after seeing what U.S. Navy Airmen did to the Musashi. The younger Japanese commanders would never have done that. Yeah, one heck of a story about courage.

Dom

An F-15 out of Kadena went down in the Pacific, pilot ejected.

Dom

Hi all, here is an updated progress report:

I have removed the flash (or I should say chiseled) off the upper and lower hull, assembled the landing gear and the twin solar panels. I have also begun assembly, on the cockpit.

I was planning on using the Darth Vader figure, that came with the kit, but it's scale is too large. It looks like he would be jammed in there. I will paint the figure anyway.

Taps88

Hi all, here is an updated progress report:

I have removed the flash (or I should say chiseled) off the upper and lower hull, assembled the landing gear and the twin solar panels. I have also begun assembly, on the cockpit.

I was planning on using the Darth Vader figure, that came with the kit, but it's scale is too large. It looks like he would be jammed in there. I will paint the figure anyway.

Hi Eric,

Looks like you have cleaned it up pretty nice!  So were you serious about needing to watch the movie for reference or did the kit come with any kind of painting instructions?

Ken

Hello all. It's been stressful with all the time at work and the computer conversion, my 3 day weekend cut short, and the what goes with Memorial Day and all that. Now this week I feel like I'm the new guy at work as I am having to relearn my job all over again. I went from the person who probably had the most knowledge with the operating systems to the rookie. They brought in this person from another branch to train me and after about 5 hours of that, I seriously felt like my brain was literally going to melt down.

Not a whole lot of time at the bench, but it does feel good to relax there and get a few things done.

I added a few of the PE parts to the front gear bay and painted with that dreaded gloss white paint. The PE parts are the front wall and the detail seen on the right side of the bay.

There are a couple of other parts to add later as they are part of the doors.

I also finished painting the framework on the canopy and also re-masked it. No picture as there wasn't a whole lot to see for now. I should of taken a quick one before re adding the Parafilm, but oh well... There are also a couple of kit parts and PE parts to add later here as well.

Don't know if this will show up or not. I added a tiny drop of clear green to the center of the HUD framework to simulate a lens there. Hard to see against all the black.

I didn't want to pull it up from the masking tape until I'm absolutely ready to use it.

jimbot58

Hello all. It's been stressful with all the time at work and the computer conversion, my 3 day weekend cut short, and the what goes with Memorial Day and all that. Now this week I feel like I'm the new guy at work as I am having to relearn my job all over again. I went from the person who probably had the most knowledge with the operating systems to the rookie. They brought in this person from another branch to train me and after about 5 hours of that, I seriously felt like my brain was literally going to melt down.

Not a whole lot of time at the bench, but it does feel good to relax there and get a few things done.

I added a few of the PE parts to the front gear bay and painted with that dreaded gloss white paint. The PE parts are the front wall and the detail seen on the right side of the bay.

There are a couple of other parts to add later as they are part of the doors.

I also finished painting the framework on the canopy and also re-masked it. No picture as there wasn't a whole lot to see for now. I should of taken a quick one before re adding the Parafilm, but oh well... There are also a couple of kit parts and PE parts to add later here as well.

Don't know if this will show up or not. I added a tiny drop of clear green to the center of the HUD framework to simulate a lens there. Hard to see against all the black.

I didn't want to pull it up from the masking tape until I'm absolutely ready to use it.

Hi Jim,

Very sorry to hear about the stress you are going through at work.  I hope it gets better for you soon.

I was a little surprised to see that you had already applied wash to your white paint.  Since I had to apply so many coats and it has been raining here, I want to wait a few extra days to make sure the enamel is completely hardened before I apply the wash on mine.  But it obviously turned out great on yours so it shows you know what you are doing!

I can see the green in that picture of the HUD.  Great steady hands Jim!     

Ken

Ken,

No, I was joking   Although, if I watch any of those movies one more time, my wife will go nuts!!

I know how I want to paint it. People have painted them 2 different ways. You see them painted either light grey or more of a blue-grey. The difference was actually in the making off the films. The grey painted ones, used in the first 2 movies, were done that way because George Lucas was using a "Green Screen" behind the props, for the battle scenes. Later on they change and needed to use a darker color.

Mine will be the light grey version.

Dom: Sorry, guess I misunderstood you. Yeah, earlier in the war a Japanese admiral would have pushed though with the plan and not been quite so indecisive. As I said I'm not complaining since my uncle, a bunch of other sailors, and marines would have been dead or captured had they not turned back...

Good to see the F-15 pilot is recovering, hope they don't take the price of his fighter out of his paycheck!

Eric: That is cool! I didn't know about this being the reason the models were painted different in the last movie, I figured it was just different lighting they were using- interesting. I guess you'd have to go with the light grey though since the 'Vader special' TIE only popped up in 'Star Wars'.

Jim: Hope things calm down soon, only thing is seems when you change something you end up with all sorts of teething problems till the bugs get worked out. Please hang in there. The white landing gear bays look flawless and the green lens in the HUD looks great- funny I've never thought to add one.  

Cliff;

No sorries necessary bud, it's a darn great thing your uncle and those brave men survived.

Dom

AIrbrushed the initial coat, on the cockpit area. Will do a secondary lighter coat, when this is dry.

Son Of Medicine Man

jimbot58

Hello all. It's been stressful with all the time at work and the computer conversion, my 3 day weekend cut short, and the what goes with Memorial Day and all that. Now this week I feel like I'm the new guy at work as I am having to relearn my job all over again. I went from the person who probably had the most knowledge with the operating systems to the rookie. They brought in this person from another branch to train me and after about 5 hours of that, I seriously felt like my brain was literally going to melt down.

Not a whole lot of time at the bench, but it does feel good to relax there and get a few things done.

I added a few of the PE parts to the front gear bay and painted with that dreaded gloss white paint. The PE parts are the front wall and the detail seen on the right side of the bay.

There are a couple of other parts to add later as they are part of the doors.

I also finished painting the framework on the canopy and also re-masked it. No picture as there wasn't a whole lot to see for now. I should of taken a quick one before re adding the Parafilm, but oh well... There are also a couple of kit parts and PE parts to add later here as well.

Don't know if this will show up or not. I added a tiny drop of clear green to the center of the HUD framework to simulate a lens there. Hard to see against all the black.

I didn't want to pull it up from the masking tape until I'm absolutely ready to use it.

Hi Jim,

Very sorry to hear about the stress you are going through at work.  I hope it gets better for you soon.

I was a little surprised to see that you had already applied wash to your white paint.  Since I had to apply so many coats and it has been raining here, I want to wait a few extra days to make sure the enamel is completely hardened before I apply the wash on mine.  But it obviously turned out great on yours so it shows you know what you are doing!

I can see the green in that picture of the HUD.  Great steady hands Jim!     

Ken

Looking good so far Jim!

Eric nice to see something out of the ordinary here. That model reminds me of playing "Rogue Squadron" on the gamecube. Vader's TIE was available after reaching some goal I've long forgotten but boy was it cool!

And to Jim I must say I can see the HUD just fine and it looks great with the green. Also as misery loves company....I hate painting anything white; the wheel wells look fantastic!

Here is the completed cockpit. As you saw, in my previous post, there's really nothing too it. Just 4 sides and they don't completely enclose. You won't notice it, once it's all closed up (hopefully)

I painted it all grey and am trying to mimic, the red lights. In all photos I've seen, there is no other colored lights inside the Tie Fighters.