Son Of Medicine Man

Hi Everyone,

Kitty Hawk has finally released its 1/48 F-101A/C kit!!!       I just ordered two!

I can't wait to build these!

Ken 

Looks cool, Ken! I see the car sitting outside the garage when you get all these 1/48 scale kits built...

Russ

jimbot58

Son Of Medicine Man

Hi Everyone,

I just got done watching "Memorial Day" again.  If you have not seen it yet, do yourself a favor and watch it.  It has become a tradition for me to watch each year on Memorial Day weekend.  Great movie, good acting and directing.

Ken

Sounds like an interesting movie. Can't find any Redbox locations, maybe it's at Walmart.

Jusr added something to my "bucket list". I was searching for pictures of Voodoos and ran across this one from airliners.net:

Talk about a lot of time spent on preserving and displaying an aircraft! This is at Hill Airforce base in Ogden, Utah. Looking over their website, there would be a lot there to see! I punched it into my Garmin GPS and I see it is a trip of 519 miles and 7 hours 40 minutes from here. I want to do a real vacation as I haven't had one on probably 10 years or more, and this seems one that would be worth doing!

Only problem is: What else do you do in Ogden, Utah? Visit Mormon temples?

Jim

Cool picture, Jim!  The answer to your vacation question is....head southwest and spend the balance of your vacation in Vegas

jimbot58

Got my paints Friday, but didn't do anything until late Saturday. Slept half the day, then did the domestic thing the rest of the day. With all the rain lately, the lawn looked like a jungle. We are supposed to have one more day of rains, then it's finally supposed to dry put some. All week it's been rain, hail, thunderstorms, funnel clouds, unconfirmed tornadoes, flooding- we have had enough! With the devastating floods we had last year, everybody is just plain nervous!

The paint and also a few more pitot tubes for future Phantom projects.

I sprayed one gear bay to test it-looks very pea-green.

I have also been poking around with Academy's A-10. I am toying with the idea of adding this Master Model set:

Looks cool, but has to be tiny to the point of insanity!

Nice work there Jim.

I am planning on getting that gun for my Hasegawa A-10. I do like there barrels and this looks like it will be an interesting little build on its own.

Thanks Ken for pointing out the intakes there- I had no idea!

Another vote here Jim for taking in the museum and then hitting Vegas!!!

I seem to have missed that 1/72nd PE muzzle brake for the A-10, if I tried to assemble that I'd have to take a vacation to recuperate...

Memorial day. My thoughts go out to all those who have served and their families. Those who gave the ultimate sacrifice in service to their country. Also to those who use this day to remember other loved ones who have passed.

My Dad served in the big war from '42-'45 where he was primarily a truck driver and also helped to operate an AA unit. His tour included North Africa, Sicily, Sardinia, Italy, France and then into Germany.

I can think of one story where he had befriended the pilot of a P-47 Thunderbolt. The pilot offered my dad a ride in his Jug. When he asked how they could both fit in the cockpit, the pilot explained that he would forgo his parachute and sit on Dad's lap while he flew the plane. My Dad declined.

It was only a few days later that the pilot was up on a routine mission, and the plane developed mechanical problems. The pilot was unable to bail out before it crashed.....

Jim

That's one heck of a story Jim, glad your dad was able to make it back. God bless all those who didn't.

Gamera

That's one heck of a story Jim, glad your dad was able to make it back. God bless all those who didn't.

I'm glad he did too, otherwise I would be somebody else!

Ken, the movie you talked about was on tonight! Unfortunately, I didn't know until the last 15 minutes of it. I only saw it from the part where he got a letter from his grandfather and then was at the grave with the souvenir in his hand. Guess I have to wait until next year...

Today I did the Memorial Day visit-the-cemetery thing. It's left me a more than a little somber. It's also tough as it was the same week 2 years ago when Mom ended up in the hospital  for the last time.

I did work a bit on the Voodoo, but I will have to catch you all up later on that. I'm off to hit the bed now.

Jim

jimbot58

Gamera

That's one heck of a story Jim, glad your dad was able to make it back. God bless all those who didn't.

I'm glad he did too, otherwise I would be somebody else!

You do have a point there! 

jimbot58

I'm glad he did too, otherwise I would be somebody else!

~

But then... you wouldn't know you were somebody else   Isn't Fate strange?

Striker8241

jimbot58

I'm glad he did too, otherwise I would be somebody else!

~

But then... you wouldn't know you were somebody else   Isn't Fate strange?

Fate could have been very strange! My Dad,  was the descendant of Ethnic Germans who immigrated to the US in the early part of the 20th century, spoke fluent German in his younger days. (Considered to be Russian immigrants by the U.S. see: Volga Germans.)

After the surrender of Germany, and part of the occupying forces there, my Dad became involved with a pretty (so I was told) Fraulein, and he desired to remain with her and settle down. Unfortunately, the Army up and moved his unit abruptly, and eventually ended up back home and discharged. It would have been nearly impossible to travel back around the world in those days, and with family here, settled in Denver.

If fate were different, I could have been a German citizen!

Or my Grandfather could have remained behind, and endured Russian oppression only to find him and his family driven out of the German Republic at the start of WWII, and ended up dying in a Russian labor camp like so many thousands did.

Fate could have taken so many different turns!

Jim

P.S. I know very little of my Mother's heritage, other than that they were also German immigrants settled in the Chicago area. Some of my uncles were even rumored to have connections to organized crime there. 

jimbot58

Striker8241

jimbot58

I'm glad he did too, otherwise I would be somebody else!

~

But then... you wouldn't know you were somebody else   Isn't Fate strange?

Fate could have been very strange! My Dad,  was the descendant of Ethnic Germans who immigrated to the US in the early part of the 20th century, spoke fluent German in his younger days. (Considered to be Russian immigrants by the U.S. see: Volga Germans.)

After the surrender of Germany, and part of the occupying forces there, my Dad became involved with a pretty (so I was told) Fraulein, and he desired to remain with her and settle down. Unfortunately, the Army up and moved his unit abruptly, and eventually ended up back home and discharged. It would have been nearly impossible to travel back around the world in those days, and with family here, settled in Denver.

If fate were different, I could have been a German citizen!

Or my Grandfather could have remained behind, and endured Russian oppression only to find him and his family driven out of the German Republic at the start of WWII, and ended up dying in a Russian labor camp like so many thousands did.

Fate could have taken so many different turns!

Jim

Very interesting chain of events there Jim!  My great grandmother on my Dad's side was 100% German.

Ken

Wow, interesting stuff guys! Not much of interest in my family - just plain old Scotch-Irish. Guess if I wasn't here I'd be getting smashed in a pub somewhere in Dublin or Aberdeen.... 

Btw: The Apache now has doors!!! Please excuse my high-tech solution for holding them in place as they dry..

Gamera

Wow, interesting stuff guys! Not much of interest in my family - just plain old Scotch-Irish. Guess if I wasn't here I'd be getting smashed in a pub somewhere in Dublin or Aberdeen.... 

Btw: The Apache now has doors!!! Please excuse my high-tech solution for holding them in place as they dry..

Looks nice!

Honestly, my family is pretty mundane. They were poor farmers in eastern Europe who immigrated to the U.S. to become......poor farmers in Nebraska

Whatever your family history, it just shows how relatively young the U.S. is as a country.  Most everybody only needs to go back a few generations to trace their roots to somewhere else!

Jim

Gamera

Wow, interesting stuff guys! Not much of interest in my family - just plain old Scotch-Irish. Guess if I wasn't here I'd be getting smashed in a pub somewhere in Dublin or Aberdeen.... 

Btw: The Apache now has doors!!! Please excuse my high-tech solution for holding them in place as they dry..

That's coming along really well, Cliff. Very nice job!

Russ

Gamera

Wow, interesting stuff guys! Not much of interest in my family - just plain old Scotch-Irish. Guess if I wasn't here I'd be getting smashed in a pub somewhere in Dublin or Aberdeen.... 

Btw: The Apache now has doors!!! Please excuse my high-tech solution for holding them in place as they dry..

Son Of Medicine Man

Hey Jim, I know how much you like the Aardvark. I happened to be scanning the USAF National Museum website and saw this: http://www.nationalmuseum.af.mil/news/story.asp?id=123412565 I am looking forward to seeing it when I visit the museum at the end of June. I will be taking LOTS of pictures! Ken

That sounds cool, Ken! I look forward to seeing the photos!

I do have the fortune of having an 'Vark here on display at the Wings Over The Rockies Museum. It's the fighter-bomber version, the FB-111A. When I was last there, you could crawl under the plane and look into the open bomb bay. It's crew had written some interesting final words inside they bay as the plane was at the  end of it's career. I'll have to search through my extra memory cards and see if I can find the photos.

I believe the Hill Airforce museum has an F-111E on display as well. If I actually ever make it there. I can't seem to get Mom's house and estate settled, and until I can that going, my life continues to be on hold.

Maybe I should go visit the WOTR museum over the weekend. After all, they do have that F-101B on display that I never paid attention to before now..... I'm sure Ken, you would love to see some photos of that.

Jim

I was reading up on 102's and 106's and ran across this interesting story:

"

* In one of the more bizarre stories about the F-106 .... on 2 February 1970, four F-106As flew out of Malmstrom AFB, Montana, to "mix it up" among themselves as an air combat training exercise. One Dart had to abort when its drag chute opened before takeoff. During the resulting sequence of dogfights, one of the F-106As, piloted by First Lieutenant Gary Foust, went into a flat spin at altitude. It wasn't easy to get the Dart out of a flat spin; Foust stayed with the machine, trying everything he could, but finally decided he was getting too low and ejected.

However, the ejection knocked the F-106 out of the spin and it took off towards the horizon. Major Jim Lowe, who had been following Foust in one of the other two Darts and giving him suggestions, had to shout out: "Gary, you better get back in it!"

Of course, even though Montana contains a great deal of uninhabited land, it was worrisome to think about where the aircraft might come down. However, Foust had set the machine to takeoff trim in one of his attempts to get it out of the spin, and takeoff trim was similar to landing trim. It descended gradually and performed a very neat belly landing in a snow-covered field near the town of Big Sandy, missing a rockpile before it slid to a halt. A local law enforcement officer called Malmstrom and asked how to turn off its turbojet engine; he was told to just let it run out of fuel, which it did less than two hours later.

The F-106 had an ugly gash in its belly but otherwise was structurally intact. The aircraft was disassembled, trucked to a railroad flatcar, and sent to California to be repaired and reassembled. It went back into operation and in fact was one of the last Darts in ADC service."

I have never researched my family history, I will do that one day. As far as the forces go's, my granddad on my mums side was a Cavalryman in WW1, but he died when I was about 4, so never had a chance to ask him anything about it. But other granddad was an ARP warden in WW2 and his brother was a Bofor gunner who says he hardly ever saw a German and spent the whole war up in the Shetlands, guarding Scapa Flow I guess. My step dad was in Korea and was captured by the Chinese.

I seem to have been the only one to have made a career in the forces.

Gamera

Wow, interesting stuff guys! Not much of interest in my family - just plain old Scotch-Irish. Guess if I wasn't here I'd be getting smashed in a pub somewhere in Dublin or Aberdeen.... 

Btw: The Apache now has doors!!! Please excuse my high-tech solution for holding them in place as they dry..

gamera, great work on the Apache, looking good.

That's a great story Jim. I took a couple pics of a "diversion"  It gave me a chance to try out a different camo scheme. It's a Revell/Monogram that I got at my LHS for $4.99. No PE or fancy stuff just an easy relaxing build. Both my Dinah and Stuka for the other GB that I'm in are done and need only better pics than I have thus far. Not sure what's next; either an La-5 or a Sherman, Probably take a week or so off in the meantime. BTW Ken, I've included a view of the race from our seats in the first turn. Was a great day and nice to see an American guy win for a change!

Hey thanks guys- I think the only thing left on the Apache is the transparent part on the nose sensor. Which should take me about a minute to cement on and I've goofed around and still haven't done...

Jim: Great story there, those things practically fly themselves right?

Bish: Interesting stuff, thanks for sharing. Your step dad was a POW of the Chinese in Korea? Now that couldn't have been very pleasant...

Mike: Wow, those are great photos! Very nice work on the Bf-109.

mikeymize

That's a great story Jim. I took a couple pics of a "diversion"  It gave me a chance to try out a different camo scheme. It's a Revell/Monogram that I got at my LHS for $4.99. No PE or fancy stuff just an easy relaxing build. Both my Dinah and Stuka for the other GB that I'm in are done and need only better pics than I have thus far. Not sure what's next; either an La-5 or a Sherman, Probably take a week or so off in the meantime. BTW Ken, I've included a view of the race from our seats in the first turn. Was a great day and nice to see an American guy win for a change!

Nice pictures, Mike! That 109 looks boss!

Good work on the kit, Mikey! Looks pretty damn good for a "diversion".

I did make it out today to visit the museum. It's not the largest or the best, but has some good pieces on display. One of which is the very plane I went to see!

Hello Voodoo!

One thing I didn't know before was that the Phoenix missiles were extended into the airstream to fire. I thought they were just dropped.

Inside the intake of the 101 I found all these chips. No doubt dirt and sand sucked in by the engine deflected off the wall as it curved inward to the fan. Probably wasn't real healthy for the engine either!

Alright guys, don't pay attention to other things in the photo! This is strictly a picture of an Starfighter actually parked under the wing of a B-1A bomber! Don't look to the left!

Here is another view of those Phoenix missiles extended.

Nearby was a display of a..... Wait just a moment! How did this photo get in my camera?

Ah, what can I say? Even in my 50's, sometimes the adolescent brain surfaces at times.

Sometimes there are more than planes at the museum......

Kidding aside, here I found that the landing gear of the 101 was painted white. Obviously done by museum staff as some of the aluminum color could still be seen on some of the upper areas, unseen by most visitors unless they are crawling around under the plane like me!

Last photo for the moment.

There is a wall which holds a collection of hundreds of badges and patches someone donated years ago. Managed to find this displayed there: This is for you Ken!

I did end up talking to a volunteer for quite a while, and it ended up that he was asking me questions about the Voodoo! I didn't have all the answers naturally. He saw me under the plane taking pictures and figured I must have been a nut or something, until I showed him photos of my 101 on my camera. He told me there was a modelers club that comes in early in the morning sometimes and spends hours photographing planes. He didn't know they use that information for their own kit builds!

He suggested that I could become a volunteer as they need plenty of help dusting planes, and other maintenance. These volunteers naturally have to climb in cockpits and dust there as well..... Might be interesting, but I don't know..... He said they have one person who is donating his time to repaint the markings on the tail of the F101-all by hand!

I have some other photos to share later (sorry, no more of the girl!), which has some real cool art work found on the FB-111A displayed there.

Also, very cool about the race! All I have around here now are the small 1/4 mile ovals, where you watch them go round and round and round. There are other things to see at the races though.... Dang! There goes that adolescent brain again!

Jim

Hey guys.

Tonight I'm trying to add the spot light found on the left side of the aircraft. I cut out the plastic "nub" that was there, and painted the recess black. Now I'm trying to see what I can do for a lens.

Mine:

On one side, you see the clear shield that goes over the light- I painted the frame edges, which is a huge (or tiny?) PIA! Nest to it, there are drops of mixed epoxy in different sizes. I put them on wax paper, so I'll have to check back and see if it works. Don't know if they will stick to the wax paper or not.

Another issue with the kit, is that it lacks landing lights. There are a couple of notches on the front gear that looks like something attaches there, but there is nothing in the instructions and no parts left on the sprues that could be them.

If my epoxy lights work, I will try them, otherwise it's on to plan "B". Only I don't have a plan "B"!

I see SB carries something called MV-Products, but with dozens of sizes. No clue what I could use...

Jim

Jim, those are excellent shots of the 101 that I'm sure Ken will find very cool ; I was mildly interested but found the "distraction", aka girl, to be fascinating as well! As far as that goes, if I were to take pics of all the women at the Indy race I'd run out of film or memory; it's unreal how many there were! Not sure what to do about your landing light dilemma. I'm sure someone here will chime in with a solution.

mikeymize

That's a great story Jim. I took a couple pics of a "diversion"  It gave me a chance to try out a different camo scheme. It's a Revell/Monogram that I got at my LHS for $4.99. No PE or fancy stuff just an easy relaxing build. Both my Dinah and Stuka for the other GB that I'm in are done and need only better pics than I have thus far. Not sure what's next; either an La-5 or a Sherman, Probably take a week or so off in the meantime. BTW Ken, I've included a view of the race from our seats in the first turn. Was a great day and nice to see an American guy win for a change!

Hi Mike,

Very nice seats there at the 500!  They look like the same seats a friend and I had for the Brickyard 400 for quite a few years.  We kept asking for an upgrade each year when we sent our money (always one year in advance!).  We finally got seats in the penthouse above where you sat!  They were great seats.  Even the professional photographers would come up and stand next to us to take pictures.  We finally gave them up when we lost interest in NASCAR.

Great looking pictures of your 109!  It really came out looking very nice!

Ken

jimbot58

Good work on the kit, Mikey! Looks pretty damn good for a "diversion".

I did make it out today to visit the museum. It's not the largest or the best, but has some good pieces on display. One of which is the very plane I went to see!

Hello Voodoo!

One thing I didn't know before was that the Phoenix missiles were extended into the airstream to fire. I thought they were just dropped.

Inside the intake of the 101 I found all these chips. No doubt dirt and sand sucked in by the engine deflected off the wall as it curved inward to the fan. Probably wasn't real healthy for the engine either!

Alright guys, don't pay attention to other things in the photo! This is strictly a picture of an Starfighter actually parked under the wing of a B-1A bomber! Don't look to the left!

Here is another view of those Phoenix missiles extended.

Nearby was a display of a..... Wait just a moment! How did this photo get in my camera?

Ah, what can I say? Even in my 50's, sometimes the adolescent brain surfaces at times.

Sometimes there are more than planes at the museum......

Kidding aside, here I found that the landing gear of the 101 was painted white. Obviously done by museum staff as some of the aluminum color could still be seen on some of the upper areas, unseen by most visitors unless they are crawling around under the plane like me!

Last photo for the moment.

There is a wall which holds a collection of hundreds of badges and patches someone donated years ago. Managed to find this displayed there: This is for you Ken!

I did end up talking to a volunteer for quite a while, and it ended up that he was asking me questions about the Voodoo! I didn't have all the answers naturally. He saw me under the plane taking pictures and figured I must have been a nut or something, until I showed him photos of my 101 on my camera. He told me there was a modelers club that comes in early in the morning sometimes and spends hours photographing planes. He didn't know they use that information for their own kit builds!

He suggested that I could become a volunteer as they need plenty of help dusting planes, and other maintenance. These volunteers naturally have to climb in cockpits and dust there as well..... Might be interesting, but I don't know..... He said they have one person who is donating his time to repaint the markings on the tail of the F101-all by hand!

I have some other photos to share later (sorry, no more of the girl!), which has some real cool art work found on the FB-111A displayed there.

Also, very cool about the race! All I have around here now are the small 1/4 mile ovals, where you watch them go round and round and round. There are other things to see at the races though.... Dang! There goes that adolescent brain again!

Jim

Hi Jim,

Great pictures Jim, thank you for sharing!  That is a great museum that lets you get close and personal with the displays!  That is the only bummer about the USAF National Museum, everything is roped off and you are not allowed behind the ropes.  The only exception is the Research and Presidential Hanger.  There you can get up close and personal, which is really cool since that is where some very interesting aircraft are kept.

Ken

Jim: Wow, those are great photos... including the 'distraction'!

jelliott,, great news on the airbrush. Not sure if you mentioned it before but what color scheme will you be doing on the Phantom?

Mikeymize - At this point in time, my intentions are to re-create one of the F-4G's from the 190th FS at Gowen Field in Boise, ID.  I live in the Boise area and fortunately have access to the base and can get some good photos of the aircraft that they have on static display there.  Also, my uncle was an engine mechanic on them when they still flew them; now he works on the A-10 and have thought about recreating one of their A-10's as well.

As to those who asked about the airbrush:  I went cheap, basically since this is my very first airbrush purchase and I wanted to practice with one before dropping a lot of money on one.  I bought a Master Airbrush with compressor off of Amazon.  Its nothing fancy, but I think it will do a decent job for what I'm looking to do; however, only time will tell.