Clunkmeister

I had heard the ZM 190 was to be the A-5 and later style? And not the (really) short nose A-4? I truly hope not, because we really need the early version.

I like to tell people the Marines wouldn’t have me because both my mommy and daddy were married. 💩💩💩

If you are planning to come to the US IPMS Nationals this summer in Texas, a d find yourself passing through the Dallas area, you really owe it to yourselves to stop and visit this place. Audie Murphy, Soldier, actor, cowboy, Texan, was a small runt of a kid from the Greenville area, (rejected by the USMC because he was too small) who won every single possible medal available to be won in the US Army. Including the Medal of Honor. The museum in his honor isn’t a huge place as museums go, but it’s a very special place which honors all American Servicemen. It also contains the Texas cotton museum, of which Greenville was a huge hub.

Well we’re almost there. Wingtip lights, lower flaps, a. Purple touch ups, and a bit more powder should do it and I’ll call her done.

The US submarine fleet…. Never mind warships, but how many “Marus” did our pig boats send to the bottom? Hundreds, possibly thousands. Japanese cargo ships were target #1 for the pig boats, and no they didn’t completely strangle Japan, but they sure cut the supply of oil to the Home Islands to a trickle. Yamamoto was brilliant, prophetic, and 100% correct. Too American in his thinking and his ways for the military leadership at the time, he was a marked man and actually had to go to sea to avoid assassination! Crazy!

Yep. Almost 8:1 difference. Plus, the US had it’s entire continental land mass as well as Canada to rely on for oil and natural resources, where Japan had literally nothing past the immediate islands and parts of China, much of which was undeveloped and quite remote

One thing about 3D printed parts though. You need to be VERY careful how you decide to cut them because they definitely have a grain, and can literally peel, or even shatter if you don’t use a VERY sharp tool and an extremely delicate hand.

Well, my pathetic ham handed attempts were an abject failure. James is on the case!

Thanks Rob. I’m not sure, but my eyes may be telling me that those pushrods are waaay overscale, so they may need to go in favor of some fine wire. That alone may help access for painting.

Gaz, I agree. The USN had built up to a point where it was pretty much unstoppable. Even today, driving by some of the old inactive ship yards you can see literally hundreds of old ships tied together, either awaiting they day they’ll be needed again, or the scrapper’s torch. Yamamoto was right in his respect for and deep seated unwillingness to go to war with the US. He knew that it was only a matter of time before the US would grow into an unstoppable force. It happened even quicker than he dreamed. He’s one man I wish would have survived the war. His thoughts would have been interesting to hear. But Tojo was way too powerful and Yamamoto’s thoughts fell on deaf ears

A few more details added

Lukgraph are extremely high end resin kits, and are actually an offshoot of the old Silver Wings brand. As Silver Wings went more into WW2, a couple hardcore rag wing guys broke off to stay true to the original vision, and Lukgraph was born. Much of the kit is the typical super high quality resin with taped together fuselage halves, wire reinforced wings, struts, and landing gear. But here’s where it get’s interesting: no more 200 gazillion little resin parts to assemble an inline 6 cylinder German aircraft engine, instead, Lukgraph now gives you a stunning one piece, fully 3D printed exquisitely detailed engine, with an equally exquisite separate exhaust system. These are simply gorgeous! Just cut free, clean, prime, paint, and add plug wires.

As my SB2C-4 Helldiver build is drawing to a close, I will enter our GB with a genuine seaplane, a WW1 German patrol plane. I picked this kit up from my fellow intrepid Administrator Fran, who swapped me a GWH Flying Tigers Hawk. So building it is a foregone conclusion. I’m itching for some wood and wire, so this should be a nice break from short run IM. Short run resin… whoop whoop! My build will be one of these two schemes. CDL and wood. Rigging is simple enough, as usual, I’ll use mono line and 1/48 turnbuckles, with EZ Line for control lines. It’ll be a moment or two till I start, as I need to wrap up my Helldiver. The engine and many of the smaller parts are 3D printed, the main components are wire reinforced resin. My heart tells me it needs to be a Polish aircraft, but my head says black crosses, and as no Polish markings are included in this kit, black crosses it is.

Abso - F’ing - lutely!

Chris, I’m gonna need to build the Kittykawk CF-101 Voodoo just show you actually how GOOD you have it. That kit is an absolute bear to build. And you gain little except recessed panel lines.

Oh what we’ve learned since….

Well, Hollywood writes the scripts, and he only times Canada gets a mention is when an American joins the RCAF to go fly in Europe before they joined the war.

Those pics of VB-83 on the Essex should be at the start of the Okinawa campaign? VB-83 was also heavily involved in the sinking of the Yamato. Their Helldivers played serious roles in the final months of the war and were usually right in the thick of things.

Yes I certainly did. Not as much as in that picture, and I had added some today, but will add a bit more. You can see a bit of it in the last pic I posted above of the model itself. I need to make it a bit more noticeable, I think. That’s a great picture of White 207, a much photographed Helldiver. Looking at that Wave-Off, and they look crazy treacherous back then with the straight deck carriers they had then. Probably a fairly decent chance of torque rolling or stalling and falling into the drink.

They sounded decent. The room hAdd so-so acoustics, but I’m a perfectionist. William Lee Golden was a bit flat at times, and Richard Sterban was struggling but Richard was in serious pain as he had pulled a ligament in his right arm earlier the day before. It was in a full cast and he was loaded with pain killers, fresh out of Baylor McKinney.

Wheeeeee… a tiny bit of progress

Exactly. And all my life it stuck with me. Myself and three buddies formed a 4 part group in high school where we sang some decent enough tight harmonies that got us into the various Baptist Churches and garnered us much love and respect from the blue haired old ladies. All our buddies were listening to Led Zeppelin and CCR and we were trying to catch the Florida Boys and the Cathedral Quartet n🤣. And the the Army came a-callin… and life stepped in. But, even today, three of us afflicted formed a trio and can’t get away from looking for those tight, heart lifting harmonies. These guys are a real window to my past and proof that you can make amazing music, hit it big, and not lose yourself in the stupidity of drugs and addiction.

Hey Oliver, I had emailed you through your Adriatic Models to find out about 3D printed H34 conversions. Are you the guy who was or is offering these? If so, I’d like to arrange to purchase a couple sets.

I will say this: When one of these guys passes, it’s gonna hurt. Joy and I both really like these guys. As Godly men and performers.