CANicoll

Check this out. Navy Pilot to receive the Navy Cross from a dogfight 70 years ago - and he was flying a Panther! More than 70 years ago, Navy Capt. Royce Williams flew in one of the greatest dogfights of all time, taking on seven Soviet jets alone in an engagement that remained classified for decades. This Friday, Williams will receive the Navy Cross — the service’s second-highest award for valor — for his heroic actions. “The heroism and valor he demonstrated for 35 harrowing minutes 70 years ago in the skies over the North Pacific and the coast of North Korea saved the lives of his fellow pilots, shipmates, and crew.” said Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Cal.), who has previously advocated to have Williams receive the Medal of Honor for his action, in a statement on Jan. 13. “His story is one for the ages, but is now being fully told.” On Nov. 18, 1952, Williams – flying his second mission of the day – took off from the USS Oriskany in a Grumman F95-5 Panther as part of a combat air patrol mission over the Sea of Japan, near the border with North Korea, China, and the Soviet Union. “We started to rendezvous with each other as we climbed out of the clouds,” Williams told Task & Purpose last year, “And that’s when we heard from the combat information center that there were inbound bogeys from the north.” Thousands of feet above Williams were the contrails of seven MiG-15s, one of the most advanced fighter jets in the sky at the time and one that outclassed Williams’ Panther in speed, maneuverability, climb rate, and the weapons range. After the other three Panthers in Williams’ formation flew away – reporting mechanical malfunctions with their planes or otherwise disengaging with the enemy after – he was left flying alone against Soviet jets. “In the moment, I was a fighter pilot doing my job,” Williams told Task & Purpose. “I was only shooting what I had.” Climbing towards the Soviet jets, Williams fired at the last aircraft in the formation. He quickly found himself on the tail of a second jet and opened fire, bringing it down. With five Soviet jets remaining, Williams was now on the defensive, avoiding the diving attacks of the enemy jets and looking for chances where he could engage, all while keeping an eye on his fuel and ammunition levels. In more than 30 minutes of aerial combat, Williams shot down at least four MiGs, even though his own aircraft would eventually land with 263 holes in it. Nursing his plane back to the Navy task force, Williams considered bailing out, but told Task & Purpose, “I knew in that weather I wouldn’t have survived in the time it took to find me.” When he was debriefed, he was quickly made aware of the real implications of what he had just done. With the Cold War in full swing, he had shot down actual Soviet jets — and, unbeknownst to him during the flight, he had been directed towards them based on a classified intelligence collection program from the National Security Agency. The commander of Naval Forces Far East told him to never discuss the engagement with anyone, ever, and Williams was credited with a single confirmed kill while the rest were distributed among the other pilots who had avoided the engagement. While Williams proceeded along with his career — another 23 years that included 110 missions flown over Vietnam — the incident became a bit of Navy legend. With the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, records began to emerge confirming Williams’ accomplishment. Since then, an effort has been made to recognize Williams’ feat and award him the Medal of Honor. The Navy Cross is awarded for “extraordinary heroism or distinguished service in the line of his profession, such heroism or service not being sufficient to justify the award of a medal of honor or a distinguished service medal.” Williams will receive the Navy Cross in an award ceremony on Jan. 20 in San Diego, California.

Beautiful! Thanks for sharing - and you have a LOT of space left to go! What paints/colors did you uses for the SEA Camo on your F4's? Funny, I also did Passion Wagon and Air-a-Cutie.

Thanks, Kevin! Does feel good to get this beast moving, but now comes the hard part. Gary, I do, but you are right - I could turn a bedroom into the diorama! Carl, Yep, exactly right. The next step, after making sure the fuselage is together, is to cut off that tail. After eyeballing it last night I'm a little worried about fit so will break out the calipers this evening to make sure I know where to cut. There is a small voice inside my head that says "just keep going!". Must fight the voices!!

What a beauty!! Ernie, very well done and beautifully detailed. Can't wait for the final pictures. Yep, she's a keeper!! Chris

Thanks Gary! Ok, definitely going for option 2. Got the fuselage together and it mostly lines up pretty well. Once the clear parts are masked then they will get added and the final fuselage paint can be added. BUT, still have the waist guns to add and all of the figures (lots of painting there and tough to live up to @GazzaS fine work!). Not to mention, first comes adding the resin tail replacement. More to come on that later... A view into the cockpit And with the wing sitting on the pylon. Where to put this beast after it is done??? The diorama Peter suggested is a great idea, but still would be HUGE! Should have done a 1/72 set up to try it all out! Still a LOT of work to do.

This reminded me of how much I hate masking canopies using tape, but it was not nearly as bad as it could have been. The masks for the canopy fit very well and are of the proper shape. It was just the windscreen that was so far off. Whew!! One of the difficulties in masking is the Voodoo canopies have a yellow ring around the glass (which honestly I have no idea what it is, @Martinnfb?) which gets masked as a step in the overall painting. Fortunately the main canopy masks will still work just fine. The windscreen may not be too hard to hand paint. This picture shows I adhere to the philosophy of 'why use one piece of tape when 10 will do?" This energized me enough to clean up the cockpit painting and install the cockpit. Tried to use my 'Sprue Glue' on some gaps but my mixture is a bit too thin. No worries, lots more sprue to use! Progress!!

Beautiful! Nicely done. How about a photo of the collection?

Peter, that is for sure! I shied away from some kits that required extensive masking. It seemed like the masking took longer than the build! Chris

The washes are looking good! Very effective.

Carl, an awesome build and the detail is phenomenal. Very cool! Really looking forward to the lighting. Thanks for pointing out all of the interesting details - at Udvar Haze there is a model of the spaceship in Close Encounters of the Third Kind (if I remember correctly) and it has all sorts of similar things - a VW beetle, etc. Fun stuff! Chris

I actually had that kit and was so excited to have a 'modern' kit for the Voodoo. Then, I read the reviews and talked to people who built (tried to build) the kit. I gave it away. Ugh. What a shame...

Wow Martin, I forgot about this video. I wonder how long those five men lived after being exposed to the fallout. Ugh.

Thanks Hubert! Rob, amazingly, I was thinking of almost the same thing, but in reverse - highlighting with a gloss black. Your results look amazing, thanks for sharing. For some reason, I have not yet tried the hairspray technique yet. I have the AK Flexible airbrush stencils which is really tempting to try with a gray maybe? Worst case, I respray with black, or start with a gloss black and spray flat. I do have the MIG light wash so might give that a try too. So many options to try!

Go for it, Rob!

Rog, That just sucks, but once all is said and done, well, you'll still be pissed at the builder, but you will have a really nice home!!

Well, Making slow progress on the Voodoo, but ran into an unexpected problem masking the canopy. Well, didn't get to the canopy actually - the windscreen. I purchased the Eduard Ex108 masks since they are for the Monogram/Revell 1/48 F-101 Voodoo. The problem is, they don't fit. The two pieces on the right are supposed to overlap, and the piece on the left should cover the entire point and then come far enough back to overlap the right two pieces. Eduard is never THIS far off so something has to be going on. Looking on their website, there are two sets for the 1/48 Monogram F-101 Voodoo. The set I have, Ex108 is shown for the Monogram/Revell kit. Looking at the Eduard Website there is another set of masks: XF179, which is for the Monogram kit. Sigh. The XF179 masks are definitely different than the EX108 masks. Not sure how the canopy will turn out. But will tackle the masking with tape tomorrow, I hope! BUT, I did make progress on the Catalina! Which is another HUGE masking challenge...

Thanks Peter! Hopefully this update will be up to snuff! The instructions are very vague as to parts placement - kind of a 'it goes over there' kind of thing. But it rewards dry fitting! here is the IP in place. The 'wheels' are on a bar that actually moves forwards and backwards, which is very helpful when it comes time to put the pilots in their places. Also did a bit of panel-line wash on the interior bulkheads. Who knew there were seats on the bulkheads when the gunners were not manning their guns?? Also painted the shells brass and then highlight with a black wash. Should have done that a long time ago. However, the big task (no pun intended) was assembling the 26"/66 cm wing! It became immediately apparent that any wing work required clearing off the workbench. Amazingly, the fit of the FIVE wing panels is really good - tight and aligned, for the most part. Very large sprue attachment points. There is a pretty big gap at the wing tip to the float - on both ends of the wings. Tempting to get the razor saw out and cut off the floats, trim the offending pieces and reattach the floats. Working on the seams with my trusty IPMS UK seam scrapers (and the usual sanding sticks). Bottom view of the wing showing the two sections which join in the center, splitting where the fuselage pylon is. The top float's support is not painted yet (triangular shape). The starboard section of the wing is maybe 1mm off center for the pitot tube hole. Should be workable. Here is the top view showing the three pieces that make up the top of the wing. The center section contains the two engine bulges and extends to where the trailing edge angles towards the tip. The fit was terrific. For reference, the cutting mat is 16"/40.6cm wide! And with the 16" long fuselage Now the question is, chop the tail off now, before putting the fuselage together, or put the fuselage together and then chop off the tail? I'm thinking to put the fuselage together THEN chop the tail. Thoughts?

How did they sound after all?

Wow, just the clean-up is a huge job onto itself, and then all of that PE. WHew!! VERY much looking forward to watching this as it builds up. Your work already is turning this kit around. Chris

Beautiful and those green stripes are striking. Nice plumbing on the drop tanks. I have one last Revell P-51D in the stash and probably more AM than kit parts for it. Maybe after the GB I'll put that one out and get started.

Current Ride: And it does go in the snow! One Day:

Yummy!!!

Thanks Carl for the Mr Color suggestion. I'm trying to minimize the number of paints I'm using (primers, thinners, etc) and at the moment have Vallejo Model Air and Vallejo Metal, Tamiya, MRP, Alclad, Model Master Acryl and Model Master Metalizer. A couple of Mr Color and Mr Surfacer. Vallejo drives me a bit batty as some of their colors are so far off. But I love their black primer and their Metal colors. MRP is wonderful, but I have to use my respirator when I spray and clean up - but the results are terrific. I'm sorry Model Master is basically gone. The newer acrylics like MIG are supposed to be terrific, but I'm trying NOT to add another line to my wall. I guess it is all a tradeoff. Hey Mike! I've never tried to mask over PE before so that is a new one for me. I have not had lifting problems with Vallejo over a primer on plastic. Without primer? Oh yeah. I do have Mr Surfacer 1500 but have barely used it. Got it to fill in the rivets on the top of a Mustang's wings (and had to go with 500 to accomplish that!).

When your mechanic wants to take your sports car out for a 'test drive'...

Scott, I'll try not to say another word about the size of my Catalina. You have some serious styrene there!!! Can't wait to see what you have planned for the display.