Inter war aviation (1 Viewer)

[ivanmoe]

Seeing as how there appears to be a modicum of interest in this topic, I thought that I'd recommend some books that might prove useful to modelers. They were published by a now-defunct outfit, The Aviation Workshop. One of the authors is "Caunter Pattern" guru, Mike Starmer. This would suggest that the texts are well-researched. I'll post images of the books below:

I really like these books because of the color plates in them. Given the relatively arcane subject matter, we don't see a lot published along these lines. On the whole, I consider them more useful than similar books from Squadron Shop. While the publisher is no longer with us, a committed Google search would almost certainly lead interested parties to a willing seller.

-Moe

 

[lancer]

Seeing as how there appears to be a modicum of interest in this topic, I thought that I'd recommend some books that might prove useful to modelers. They were published by a now-defunct outfit, The Aviation Workshop. One of the authors is "Caunter Pattern" guru, Mike Starmer. This would suggest that the texts are well-researched. I'll post images of the books below:

I really like these books because of the color plates in them. Given the relatively arcane subject matter, we don't see a lot published along these lines. On the whole, I consider them more useful than similar books from Squadron Shop. While the publisher is no longer with us, a committed Google search would almost certainly lead interested parties to a willing seller.

-Moe

Great publications. I do own the one on the US Navy, Wings of the Fleet, and find it very interesting, useful, and well done. Now I will have to track the others down as well as I didn't know about them. Thanks for the heads up on them, Moe. There is a much older set of softcover books that cover US Naval fighters. It is a 2-volume set called "Carrier Fighters" written by J.V. Mizrahi and published by Sentry Books in 1969. For this discussion, Vol. 1 is the book of interest, covering the inter-war period up to the F3F. It is about 66 pages long with lots of photos, some color ills, and commentary. Well worth having. Vol.2 is WW2 fighters. Might take some searching but shouldn't be too expensive. -- Al

 

[lancer]

I just did a quick search for the 6 titles mentioned in the 2 previous posts. The Mizrahi "Carrier Fighters" is readily available and affordable on Abebooks. The 4 books by Starmer and Freeman, "The Wings ..." books are problematic. The "Wings of the Fleet" is the only one that is easy to find and affordable. The other 3 are all apparently OOP and scarce. The only copies of any of those 3 I could locate through Abebooks all were in the UK and totaled only 4 listings, 3 of which were quite pricey. Amazon showed them as unavailable except for "Wings of Silver" @ $117.00! and "Wings of the Fleet" at more reasonable prices. The search will take patience and time, I fear. -- Al

 

[ivanmoe]

Hi Al,

I ran into the same problem trying to purchase them in the USA. For some reason, the only one that was widely circulated, over here, was Wings of the Fleet. That included the USAAC version, Wings of Stars. I ended up buying the other three from the UK. It's been a couple of years now, but I think that I purchased them from here:

http://www.aviation-bookshop.com/asp/TAWPBooks.asp

And Amazon UK appears to advertize the one that's not on that website, Wings and Waves:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Wings-Waves-Fleet-Target-Special/dp/1904643205

-Moe

 

[ivanmoe]

Leave it to yours truly to resurrect an old thread, but I thought that I'd build on Jack's contribution with some product generated while my grand-daughter was staying with us over "spring break." The weather was cool and damp, so we were forced inside for much of her stay. In the course of her visit, I dug out a Monogram kit and we built it up. Truth be told, I purchased it as a means of proofing paint against Wayne Tevlin's decals for a larger kit. I thought it wise to try and match colors before I started slathering lacquer all over a much larger and more expensive host. The kit is awfully small, but Curran came through for gramps! See the results below:

Finally, I thought that I'd post one more pic of the Boeing fighter with another 1/72 model for comparison purposes. Again, this little model is awfully small.

Congratulations Curran, and hope that this works for "show and tell" at your school!

-Grampa Moe:salute::

 

[ivanmoe]

It's been a while since anyone's posted to the thread, so I thought that upload some WIP images of a larger, 1/32 scale F4B-4.

The kit is one of the newer releases of Hasegawa's forty-year old mold. I've never used monofilament on a biplane-kit before, but, if Jenkins can do it, so can I (or at least I think that I can). More than anything else, I realized that I needed to think the process through. Because I intended to run the fishing line in long lengths and employ a lot of loops, much of the material would have to be in place before the fuselage and wing halves were cemented.

Step 1:

View attachment 179534

Step 2:

View attachment 179535

Step 3:

View attachment 179536

With the wings and struts glued in place, I used a hair-dryer to shrink the monofilament to a nice, tight fit. Use of the fishing-line isn't going to win me any prizes, but it's definitely the easiest material that I've ever worked with for this kind of application.

Finally, I want to post one more pic, a fairly lame attempt to illuminate the model's cockpit:

View attachment 179537

LOL, I spent SEVERAL hours working on that darned cockpit. However, the docs call for it to be painted "medium or mist gray." Dutifully, I complied. Well, the color soaks up light like a sponge. The result is that all the detail that I cooked into the cavity is pretty much invisible. This is so typical of the madness that can be scale-modeling that I simply had to point out my folly to you gentlemen. Bah, humbug!:redface2:

Hey, but this modeling stuff is really just an afterthought. The REAL reason that I'm posting today is to share a Youtube video with our readers. It was made by the crew of the Saratoga during a cruise off of Hawaii in the ninteen-thirties, thirty-two-minutes of pure ecstasy:

All but left me misty-eyed,

-Moe

 

[lancer]

It's been a while since anyone's posted to the thread, so I thought that upload some WIP images of a larger, 1/32 scale F4B-4.

The kit is one of the newer releases of Hasegawa's forty-year old mold. I've never used monofilament on a biplane-kit before, but, if Jenkins can do it, so can I (or at least I think that I can). More than anything else, I realized that I needed to think the process through. Because I intended to run the fishing line in long lengths and employ a lot of loops, much of the material would have to be in place before the fuselage and wing halves were cemented.

Step 1:

View attachment 179534

Step 2:

View attachment 179535

Step 3:

View attachment 179536

With the wings and struts glued in place, I used a hair-dryer to shrink the monofilament to a nice, tight fit. Use of the fishing-line isn't going to win me any prizes, but it's definitely the easiest material that I've ever worked with for this kind of application.

Finally, I want to post one more pic, a fairly lame attempt to illuminate the model's cockpit:

View attachment 179537

LOL, I spent SEVERAL hours working on that darned cockpit. However, the docs call for it to be painted "medium or mist gray." Dutifully, I complied. Well, the color soaks up light like a sponge. The result is that all the detail that I cooked into the cavity is pretty much invisible. This is so typical of the madness that can be scale-modeling that I simply had to point out my folly to you gentlemen. Bah, humbug!:redface2:

Hey, but this modeling stuff is really just an afterthought. The REAL reason that I'm posting today is to share a Youtube video with our readers. It was made by the crew of the Saratoga during a cruise off of Hawaii in the ninteen-thirties, thirty-two-minutes of pure ecstasy:

All but left me misty-eyed,

-Moe

Nice job on the F4b, Moe. I really enjoyed the clip of the old Sara...
Wooden decks with flight ops...
Yellow wings with white tails...
8" gun turrets...
a little football on deck...
Had no idea the Goodyear blimp was around back then and the USS Akron was a real treat...
Liked the battlewagons...black shoes...brown shoes...
Enjoyed seeing the USS Langley bucking rough weather...
The aerial shots of Sara and Lady Lex were lovely...
The whole filmclip made me very nostalgic for a time I never saw...sniff, sniff...
Those biplanes got their tails up in a hurry and were airborne really fast...
Loved it, thanks for posting, it made my day.
Al

 

[ivanmoe]

Almost got this wrapped up:

View attachment 180076View attachment 180077

I was going to complete this as the VF-6 commander's aircraft, but I noticed Black 10 taking off first in the beginning of the video. This would have been the XO's aircraft.

I'm marking the kit up before attaching the landing gear, because I don't trust Hasegawa plastic. It's very soft, and I'm afraid the dainty little axles won't be able to take the strain of me constantly picking the model up and setting it back down.

Ought to be done with this in a day or so.

-Moe

 

[Jack]

Cannot beat a nice yellow wings!

 

[lancer]

Interesting that I was just watching a doc on the Bikini A-bomb tests and the Saratoga was prominent in many of the shots. A particularly sad end to a gallant ship. Very nice job on the F4b and I love the subtle coloring difference between the silver dope and the gray paint. Can't wait to see this bird finished. -- Al

 

[ivanmoe]

Can't wait to see this bird finished. -- Al

Hi Al,

Ask and you shall receive!

View attachment 180178
View attachment 180179
View attachment 180180
View attachment 180181
View attachment 180182

On the Saratoga...

It's a shame that Sara and Enterprise couldn't have been turned into museums. We've ended up with four Essex-class exhibits, and no example of two great classes of ships. Gloom, despair and agonoy on me!

-Moe

 

[lancer]

Beautiful job, Moe. You have done great service to an elegant warbird. A gorgeous model.
It is certainly a tragedy that Enterprise wasn't saved and turned into a museum. Hard to believe how shortsighted that decision was, as the only survivor of the Yorktown class and the most decorated ship in naval history, it deserved to be preservred. I'd cut 'them' more slack on the Sara, but not much. There were just the 2 ships in her class, and she was on the older side, and she did make an excellent A-bomb target, but Sara was such a great piece of history, surely a better fate could have been found and as she started life as a cruiser, the design idiosyncrasies alone would have made her worth saving. Chances missed, history lost. Too bad. -- Al

 

[ivanmoe]

Beautiful job, Moe. You have done great service to an elegant warbird. A gorgeous model.

Thanks Al. Don't know what I want to build next, although I think that I'll look for a model with good parts fit. It'll go together quicker.

It is certainly a tragedy that Enterprise wasn't saved and turned into a museum. Hard to believe how shortsighted that decision was, as the only survivor of the Yorktown class and the most decorated ship in naval history, it deserved to be preservred. I'd cut 'them' more slack on the Sara, but not much. There were just the 2 ships in her class, and she was on the older side, and she did make an excellent A-bomb target, but Sara was such a great piece of history, surely a better fate could have been found and as she started life as a cruiser, the design idiosyncrasies alone would have made her worth saving. Chances missed, history lost. Too bad. -- Al

You know, Admiral Halsey tried to raise enough money privately to save the Enterprise. He came up short, though, and the government sold it for scrap. I agree completely about the loss; it's a terrible shame.

-Moe

 

[ivanmoe]

Got some more videos for the naval aviation community:

First the Sara with a bone in her teeth:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iOfZhPN5QQc

And second, another treasure that I hadn't seen before:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TQpHRVmaN_M

I have no idea where these vids are coming from. I've never seen any of this footage before. Like the rest of you, I'd long since grown used to the "stock footage" and pics that we see in books and videos. All that I can say is, "good deal."

-Moe

 

[lancer]

Got some more videos for the naval aviation community:

First the Sara with a bone in her teeth:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iOfZhPN5QQc

And second, another treasure that I hadn't seen before:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TQpHRVmaN_M

I have no idea where these vids are coming from. I've never seen any of this footage before. Like the rest of you, I'd long since grown used to the "stock footage" and pics that we see in books and videos. All that I can say is, "good deal."

-Moe

Great clips, Moe. Love to see the various personalities, some of whose names I have actually read about before. Can't beat watching the launch and recovery of those lovely biplanes. Thanks for posting these. -- Al