Plane Crazy

        A near-brush with Covid and the resulting upsetting of my schedule left me with precious little time for hobby stuff over the last couple of weeks. The odd hours that I had I spent finishing up a few aircraft models for various wargaming applications. First I finished up the airliners for the Cold War in Africa  games that R.U.P. has been running, then I built and painted a couple of Korean War U.S. Navy models for a friend of mine. These all were a refreshing change from slogging through dozens of soldiers (an effort that I will soon return to) as they are all one-off projects and a subject matter that I haven't dealt with in years (.......er, decades).

       First we return to some anonymous African airport circa 1965;

 

an old WW2 workhorse

 soldiering on in the service of the mythical Tatesavy United Airline

 

dirt runways and rough conditions don't worry this old warhorse

 

but, it is 1965 and the new airport in the capital can take jets...

 

.....connected to all the world, bring on the trade and tourism! 

 

      Next we visit the early years of the 1950's and the beginnings of Communist adventuring on the strife-torn peninsula of the Koreas..... 

 

1/72 scale F9F-2 Panther from Hasegawa 

this little kit was so easy to assemble that I forgot to take pictures

 

the fit was perfect 

with only a tiny amount of sanding needed to make the seams disappear

 

 

the decals were ultra-thin

 

the Navy apparently had no intention of camouflaging these birds

 

four cannon, and six rockets.....just to be sure

 

on the other hand..... 

the nicest thing I can say about this model is that it didn't bite me

 

 

at least the pilot looked almost human

 

the model was marred by excessive draft angles and rampant flash

 

the parts fit was terrible with very prominent seams 

 

detail was heavy with massive rivets and raised panel lines,

note the massive gaps at the wing-joints

 

sanding can only go so far.....

 

 

.....sometimes you have to go for the putty

 

look carefully at the wing-root you can see daylight through the gaps!

 

the landing gear were clearly never intended to be assembled in the flight position

 

 

after hours of remedial reconstruction it got a coat of paint

 

this will be used as a wargaming piece

 so I modeled it with the air brakes fully open as they would be in a dive-bombing attack

 

for all the problems it turned out to be a presentable looking model

 

the bold markings certainly make for a striking-looking airplane

 

a glance at the underside shows why the GI's loved this "Flying Dumptruck"

       I'm not sure if the Holiday Spirit is enough to keep me building for other people. I might just "go Grinch" and work on something for myself.