Clunkmeister

21st FG on, I believe, Iwo Jima? I saw a clip years ago of this ship starting up, and it’s stuck with me for decades. I’d sure like to take a stab at doing this kite, if anyone may know more. The cartoon image seems to be Mr. Death looking over his shoulder. Mr Death is a cartoon character from an old comic book….

Yeah, funny how that works, and it’s worked for Hasegawa for decades. Pull a kit off the market, reintroduce it with new box art and decal sheet, and call it new. the P-47 plastic has been brought back out multiple times, yet is still in short supply. Same with the P-40E.

I saw that on FB the other day. Any truth to this rumor?

Looking to find the tail number for my solo. It’s washed out some. My PPL Flight Test was in a Traumahawk C-GAKT, and my multi and multi IFR were in Twin Comanche CF-UBA. 160 howling hp per side. Perfectly cleaned up, it had about a 200 fpm climb on one engine, IF you were light and smooth on the controls, but that second engine was pretty much only guaranteed to get you to the scene of the crash, nothing more. But with both mills producing, it was a GREAT traveling machine with gobs of power. An extra 40 hp per side and it would have made takeoffs less of a white knuckle affair. You cleaned it up quick, and kept it low and fast till you could climb with a comfortable excess above Vse. John, I played with a 150 for a bit when I was working on my Commercial ticket. It was a nice little time builder. Honest and true.

And remembered an interesting tidbit. My primary flight instructor was Guy Gibson, who signed me off to solo a Citabria in 10 hours. No, not THE Guy Gibson, but still, it was Guy Gibson. 😄

Mechanically they were top notch with all ADs complied with and even the Hamilton STCs to pull off the horrible Curtiss Electric 4 blade paddles. That mod alone made all the difference. no more pulling circuit breakers to get the engines to hold sync. Set ‘em and forget ‘em. Or until you changed power settings. The guys who owned the company weren’t stupid. Shiny paint made no difference, and faded out quickly. Plus nobody admired the freighters bringing in their diesel and food. The people haulers got the exterior love, though.

I have a Valom kit on the way, and will use a set of Leading Edge decals that were given to me. The birds I flew were boring. One was natural tarnished aluminum, and the other was painted with a brush and roller.

Great build, John. Odd to see one in green, though. Brings back memories, and trust me, if it’s below freezing, DON’T step off the walkways. That wing IS slippery and you WILL slide all the way down to the trailing edge and shoot off the edge at about 400 mph. I did a beautiful plop on to my ass and still feel it to this very day.

Martin! Time to jump back on this.

Peter, it would take a group of skilled craftsmen less than a year to knock out a replica of the N.28. It’s gonna take them most of that time to fix the original, so when they have the fabric all torn off, now’s the time….

What’s truly amazing is how young men actually went to war in these things. Man only learned to fly less than 15 years before, and suddenly, they’re a major weapon of war. Nothing but wood, wire, and linen cloth… You cheated death every time you flew one of these. Cantankerous engines, poor fuel, brand new technology, and then, you do it all from a closely set pair of spoked motorcycle wheels, and spokes don’t like side loads, so they often collapsed. Which left you with the backsides of two nice, hard steel machine guns to stop your face from hitting the oh so inviting soft leather coaming. Camel Face, anyone? Even today, I give much respect to people who fly these. And yes, on occasion, even today, accidents happen

Apparently the engine quit on landing and the landing gear folded due to a hard touchdown. Pilot is unhurt, but the only original, (not a replica) Nieuport 28 in the world, and it got banged up. It still ran its original LeRhone engine. As all of us know, old biplane wrecks can look a lot Öse than they really are due to everything being knocked askew. i expect it’ll be repaired, but maybe let’s build a replica and fly it instead?

Miss America and Thunderbird! Together again. Two legends of the postwar boom in air racing. How about a 109 class for next year? Tiny, crazy fast, huge engine, and then the pilots are dog tired after 10 laps of high G turns 100ft off the ground and everyone then has to try to land, and not only walk away, but also avoid a visit to the metal shop because the airplane is needed for the next heat……

Awesome pics. Thanks Smitty. I love the Texas flag on the Fouga, but it looks kinda “odd” like that, no? And ya gotta LOVE Thunderbird! What a blast from the past. It appears that the races ended with a fatal collision between two T-6s after the T-6 Gold Race. Both pilots were killed. It’s quite odd as the race was over and the aircraft simply pull up off the course. Apparently one took the tail off another. Once upon a time, T-6 races were almost a blood sport, with multiple identical aircraft conducting a flying horserace type start, and there was lots of traded paint, parts, and more, but it was cleaned up over the decades and there hasn’t been an incident for decades. But, as I’ve said many times in the past: Man is naturally competitive. You put two guys together, and they’ll quite naturally race each other. On foot, bicycles, motorcycles, go-carts, boats, cars, rockets, and yes, airplanes. and when people race, it’s competitive, and they know full well that they could die. Smithy said that the races should be in the Las Vegas area next year. Much, much more room, no hills, no houses being built up. As always happens, people build houses right next to airports and sports venues, and then complain about the noise and danger.

Seek and you shall find

There is NOBODY who can research like Martin. I look for weeks, and he finds more in 5 minutes than I find in a month. I’m in awe, and not just for bomber stuff. German, Soviet, even Japanese, Martin’s filled my coffers full of reference pics.

Das Bierfass!

Crikey! Jeroen, be sure to save the files. A few of us might even pay to have a set as well….

That V12 thing is a GREAT idea. I think that’s one we could so. Tanks, fast boats, cars, aircraft. Let’s set a time and start date. Personally, I’d like to give it a few weeks until the contest season is done, but either or.

Stick them here, y’all. I was thinking of something along the lines of what Harv likes. Correct me if I’m wrong, but wasn’t he a big night fighter guy? He built a P-38 night fighter, and F4U-2, and a stillborn Horton 2 seat conversion. Along with his 1/16 Renault FT. Night Stalkers might be cool, but just a thought. I’d love to hear y’all’s. Phantom Mike, you’ve been casting around, let’s hear it. Plus, Harv was a very proud US Veteran.

A couple standouts at the show are both in 1/48. That Ju-52 is absolutely stunning! And the opened up F-14D is an AMK kit. Truly mind blowing is too light a phrase. It sits beside a Tamiya F-14, and although I’ve always thought the AMK kit blows Tamiya out of the water, these pictures show it all for everyone to see.

I decided to attend the show here today, and attendance is certainly down this year, probably because the National show was only 3 weeks ago.

Hey folks! I talked to Bev last night, and Harv is out of ICU and is being moved to a VA Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee. There is a world class unit there that specializes in spinal cord injuries and rehabilitation. This is as good as it gets, and they work miracles there. Harv so far cannot use his hands and has nothing below his waist. But the crew in a Memphis have dealt with extremely traumatic battlefield injuries, so hopefully being that his cord isn’t cut or in any way severed, we good things may happen. Don’t get me wrong, he’s got a LONG, rough recovery ahead of him, but he’s where he needs to be right now.

Fit is pretty amazing, and in many instances, is split along prototypical panel lines.

He’s using his arms, breathing on his own, and eating fried chicken. He MAY be getting some feeling back in his legs. This is Harv’s non verbal way is calling someone a dickhead