lawman56

Now that was pretty cool. I never gave much thought to the fact that a carrier can also be a floating garage. Much respect to the line handlers and seamanship of the captains of both vessels.

This type of historical work is precisely why I'm currently using my VA Voc-Rehab benefits to get my Bachelors Degree in History, (and also why my builds and interaction on this forum has decreased dramatically!). Living in the Hudson River Valley, north of Albany I have plenty of history to enjoy, from the French & Indian War up through the US Civil War. With any luck, I'll be able to secure employment at the Saratoga Battleground, or any number of forts and/or historical societies in the area. Although I am a bit jealous of your subject as WWI is fascinating to me. My dream vacation is to spend weeks roaming the trench lines and battlefield in general. Give me a shovel, trowel and a team of archaeologists to dig for, and I have found Utopia! On a side note, my girlfriend gifted me with a new coffee mug last year that says; "History Buff. I'd find you more interesting if you were dead" Joe

I have actually built a section of an Essex Class deck, and recall finding the info online. The problem is that I can't remember exactly where, but I do know it was public record and it included the dimensions as well as the colors (FS #s) for the paint. I'll try to find the sites, but one to start with is Haze Gray & Underway - Naval History and Photography, or NHHC I do know my info was to WWII specs from the builder's original contract, that I converted to 1/32 scale for a Hellcat dio. If worse comes to worse I'll measure mine and give you the info.

If memory serves, the S.M. 79 was/is to be in 1/32nd, correct? I hope so, the closing down of PCM a few years ago put a serious dent in my desire to build Italian aircraft of the era. Sadly they are far under produced, in my opinion. My fine motor skills no longer allow me to scratch-build one or even attempt a vacuform kit, so without some sort of manufacturer, I'm at a loss. Now that Italeri has released the Folgore, maybe they'll either produce other RA aircraft, or convince others to. One can only hope...

Spent my entire 9 year career at Bragg! From 85-94. Although the term "at" is used loosely, as most of my time was spent deployed! 16th MP Bde (ABN), 503rd MP Bn (ABN), 108th MP Co (ASSLT)

In many cases this was true. Japan was an ally of sorts to the US prior to WWII. Many times the Japanese (military and civilian) were invited here to learn manufacturing or military techniques. It's precisely why Yamamoto make the now famous "sleeping giant" statement. They learned a lot, and we shared more than we should have (hindsight, right?). Many historians point out how similar, yet improved upon, Japanese technology was to ours.

Is that the new 1:1 scale "cut-away" from Tamiya?

Somewhat. Most often scale models were used by fighter pilots of all nations to understand where defensive weapons were, how to attack and to help in developing a multi-pronged attack. Primarily the things a silhouette can't quite do. It allows the pilots to physically see and understand what their target would look like at all angles of approach. Especially when engaging aircraft mounting extensive defensive weapons, (B-17, B-24, B-29, etc). Hope that helps some! Joe

I have to say, your subtle use of colors in the wheel bay is beautiful work! It took me a good 15 minutes to soak it all in! I love how you incorporated brass looking fittings into the line connections. I will DEFINITELY be following your work here! Stunning job so far, keep it up! Joe

Apparently we here in the US have that handled. By the time any of the cargo ships get to port, the legalities should be complete

I fully agree. He did a fantastic job! When I was 9 I'd be lucky if I didn't paint myself!

I'm inclined to agree that if stencils were re-applied, they were of importance. Not exactly about aircraft here, but as an example when I first went in the Army in the mid 80s, we still had the M151 jeep and once every year we repaint them. In my unit, this was done with chalk, grease (to cover the lights & reflectors, cans of paint and brushes. Once everything had cured, we were given cans of flat black spray paint and a box of brass stencils of various sizes along with a drawing of what went where and it's size. Omitted were things such as "Fill Only 3/4 Full" under the fuel cap, "Lift Here" by the lift hooks, etc. Basically we just re applied the bumper numbers, stars and the "24 volts" stencil on the battery box. As a side note, any vehicle that ended up in the Corps shop, came back repainted and marked as the factory had originally. They looked very odd to us!

To those of us here in the US, (at least from the discussions I've read on multiple model forums), Revell paint has been nearly impossible to obtain. Well I just picked up 5 containers at my LHS two days ago and have to say I'm quite impressed. In an effort to experiment, I picked up 3 acrylics and 3 enamels. This isn't really a review per se, but rather your average model builder of both armor and aircraft who does both brush and airbrush work of most any subject. I was an exclusive user of Model Master from the time I first discovered them in the early 1980s, until they were bought up and started producing a thin muck of horrible quality. I still have jars of "pre-buyout" that works as well as it always has, and tossed every jar of the nasty new elixir away. Meanwhile I've been toying with other brands to see what I like. Tamiya is a front-runner, but certain colors, (especially Germany's 4 billion shades of green and grey ), require a bit of mixing work to get right. I'm a historian by trade, so "close enough" sends my OCD through the roof! Enter Revell....My LHS recently acquired a plethora of Revell supplies. My assumption being that they are becoming a dealer considering the number of Revell racks they've put in. I decided to give them a go, so picked up various German shades (which have the RAL # on them) for an Afrika Corps diorama I'm working on. There's a few reviews out there on the paints, so I won't go in to that, but instead focus on my person opinion. The most obvious being that the acrylics are in a square, tall pot. I actually like them. They seem to be as stable, if not more so, than the short fat Tamiya jars, but with a unique lid that can be used as a small palette and can be locked into the front of the block. They appear to be a bit on the thick side, similar to the old Polly S line, but (supposedly) can be thinned with water. Haven't tried that yet, as I stuck strictly to brush painting for now. They dried rapidly and left no brush marks. They really are self leveling, as I deliberately left a few thicker lines to see and the whole surface is uniform. One thing I will suggest. On the lid are 2 locating pins to keep the lid locked in place during shipping. Snip them off to make closing them up simpler and more airtight. The enamels come in a tin almost identical to Humbrol, however the lip of the lid is quite thin and bent a bit too easily as I tried to pry them open. I know with my Humbrol tins, they tend to be more rigid and can be pried from one, sometimes two, locations. These Revell tins need to be pried evenly all around or they become a wee bit "wavy" (oops!) Mine seemed to be a bit too thin, as they have required 3 coats so far, and probably need a 4th. FYI-I used a tan enamel over a sand yellow acrylic, so there's no reason it should not have covered better. That being said, they do appear to be almost airbrush ready. I'll find out eventually. In a nutshell; for me, the Revell acrylics may just become my new primary paint while (depending on future tests), the enamels will be my base coats. This is one of those rare instances where find something new that is actually better than the old! Hope my babbling has helped in some way. Joe

Two of my all time favorites are from the 1950s westerns where the "posse" passes the same rock, tree, etc...over and over again, as well as during gunfights when apparently one must "throw" the rounds from the barrel at each other

And right you are to be proud! I loved that you shared this! One of the few places I have yet to visit in PA, (besides Steamtown), is Gettysburg. But it is in the plans for the near future. Whenever I go on my explorations, I always eat at a local "mom & pop" so to speak. I now know exactly where I plan to eat when I go!

Ironically, they never seem to blame the pollution that causes the smog. Just everything else...

Mostly I miss my sanity the most...

Other than the obvious paint & marking differences, is there any particular structural differences between the Finnish and Italian versions? I've contemplated picking up another one, but the Reggia one is hard to find while the Finnish one seems to be easier to locate. I'd love to tackle one of those hypnotic pain schemes.

Thanks for all the kind words! I'll see if I can post a few of my other aircraft builds once I see what pictures I managed to salvage from Photobucket. I'm currently working on an F6 Hellcat carrier deck diorama for a friend. I'll try posting them on the WIP board. Thanks all for looking! Joe

Ok, well I had said I was going to post some of these another time but to be honest, I found it easier to do than I had thought and if I wait too long, I'll forget. These days I figure if I leave the house wearing matching shoes AND pants, I'm ahead of the curve! This is the Tamiya 1/35 M4 Mortar Carrier. I built this for a WWII veteran who was assigned as driver to one of these beasties. The figures are a combination of pieces and parts to create the poses I wanted. I have a few small fishing tackle boxes with compartments to keep my arms, legs, torsos, etc...separated. I call it my "Frankenstein" box It's titled "Vive La France!" and depicts the crew moving forward sometime after D-Day.

As I've (hopefully) figured out this evil machine and the required spells and potions to make it work, I thought I'd post two of my builds from about 5 years ago. The main motivation was when I started roaming the forums today and saw Denzil's G50 build, as well as Panzerwomble's about Pips and his mounts. Many moons ago, I had a pretty decent business building primarily armor dioramas for various US Army units at Ft. Bragg depicting aspects of the unit history for the commanders to place in the HQ conference rooms. In between builds, I'd do a few 1/32 aircraft mini-dios to keep my skills honed and develop new techniques. A majority of them were given away to friends these 2 included, but I took pictures, and here's the few I was able to salvage from Photobucket before they annoyed me to the point I deleted it. At some point, I'll post a few of my other aircraft here and possibly some armor in the Non-LSP thread. Anyway, without further doo-doo,

I built this kit about5 years ago and absolutely loved it! I'm a fan of the less popular, ugly and supposed underdog aircraft, so for me this was a must have. I will admit, being new with my Grex airbrush at the time, I settled for a more simplistic paint scheme. Now that PCM has closed up, I hope someone else picks up the Italian aircraft as they are sadly under represented and quite unique.

I predict it will be Godzilla snowboarding down Mt. Fuji

Just found this thread and will be following. As well as reading it thoroughly when time allows. I've been considering building one for a friend as his uncle, Lt. Robert C. Klippel was assigned to the 457th FS out of Iwo Jima and the pilot of P-51 44-72593, which is still listed as MIA from the escort mission of 1 June 1945.