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F9F-5 Panther VMF-311 Ted Williams UPDATE 4/21 Major Progress!


LSP_Paul

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About Ted Williams in the USMC, 

 

On May 1st, 1952, at the age of 34, he was recalled to active duty for service in the Korean War. He hadn't flown for some eight years but turned away all offers to sit out the war in comfort as a member of a service baseball team. Nevertheless Williams was resentful of being called up, which he admitted years later, particularly of the Navy's policy to call up Inactive Reservists rather than members of the Active Reserve.

After eight weeks of refresher flight training and qualification in the F9F Panther jet at Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point, North Carolina, he was assigned to VMF-311, Marine Aircraft Group 33 (MAG-33), based at K-3 airfield in Pohang, Korea.

On February 16th, 1953, Williams was part of a 35-plane strike package against a tank and infantry training school just south of Pyongyang, North Korea. During the mission a piece of flak knocked out his hydraulics and electrical systems, causing Williams to have to "limp" his plane back to K-13, an Air Force base close to the front lines. For his actions of this day he was awarded the Air Medal.

Williams stayed on K-13 for several days while his plane was repaired. Because he was so popular, GI's from all around the base came to see him and his plane. After it was repaired, Williams flew his plane back to his Marine station.

Williams eventually flew 39 combat missions before being pulled from flight status in June 1953 after a hospitalization for pneumonia resulted in discovery of an inner ear infection that disqualified him from flight status. During the war he also served in the same unit as John Glenn and in the last half of his missions, he was serving as Glenn's wingman. While these absences, which took almost five years out of the heart of a great career, significantly limited his career totals, he never publicly complained about the time devoted to military service. Biographer Leigh Montville argues that Williams was not happy about being pressed into service in Korea, but he did what he felt was his patriotic duty.

 

 

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So this will be the start of the group build, and I will be building the Fisher F9F Panther as Captain Ted Williams jet . Ernie will be building his Panther as well, so it's our second buddy build, and we WILL finish these..we got 6 mos for gosh sakes !

 Wish me luck. :)

 Paul 

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Interesting story to the build.

 

I look forward to this Very much.

 

 

Good luck Paul....

 

:thumbsup:

Thanks Maru, I have always wanted to build this model, and I got lucky enough to get one in a trade from LSP_Ray, so now it will happen!  I added a little bio film as well to my intro, its from an HBO special they did.

 

Paul 

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Nice bit of history about his service.

 

This kit is on my want list, so I'll be taking notes.

 

Mike

And visa Versa!  I want the HpH Kit badly lol  Welcome aboard Mike Lets have some fun! 

 

Paul

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Guest Peterpools

Paul

way to go and looking forward to the GB as well. Can't wait to follow you and Ernie's BB in the GB

Peter

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To LSP Paul,

 

     finish-('finiSH)  VERB:     bring (a task or activity) to an end; complete

                                             " they were straining to finish the job"

                                             synonyms; complete   end  conclude  stop  cease  terminate

 

                            NOUN:    an end or final part or stage of something

                                           " a Panther model  was a perfect finish to a group build"

                                            synonyms;  end  ending  completion  conclusion close  closing

 

   Just thought I'd help out so you didn't have to look it up    :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

 

    Luv Ya

 

     Your Friend

 

       Jack

Edited by marauderdriver
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All kidding aside Sir,

 

    Here is the pilot you need, has the same helmet as Williams and Brubaker  PJ Productions US Navy (50"s)IMG_3237.jpgIMG_3236.jpgIMG_3242.jpgIMG_3243.jpg

 Got mine on e-bay  reasonably priced.    The MD pilot is  USAF  entirely different helmet 

 Mine is for my Cutlass

 Will be WATCH'IN  YOU  and your BUDDY

Jack

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Such a nice pile of resin, I am officially jealous:). I am looking forward to this project Paul, such a elegant plane will stand  aside from the crowd, especially in your interpretation.

Cheers

M.

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OK Just so you guys don't think I'm not working on my Jet in between driving all over the state of Oregon for work, here are some pics.

 

The ejection seat is a work in progress still, but the base colors and some first weathering steps are on.

 

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You can see the outlined area for the cutouts where the blow in doors are, I am going to drill these out and replace them with aluminum parts I've made and just barely lower the doors to represent some movement

 

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Here are the little things I've been working on. The 5in HVAR have been modified with the provided RAM warheads, these proved lethal for the Russian supplied armor the North Koreans were so fond of trying to use.

 

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As Ernie mentioned on his post, I will be making up some masters to sharpen the details on the top side of the side consoles, and I went ahead and painted the tub up to have a before and after pic to see if my efforts were worth it.

 

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I have attached the horizontal stabilizers and faired the tip tanks and them in with Milliput fine grain.

 

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 Thanks for looking in, more updates soon I hope !

 

Paul  

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Guest Peterpools

Paul

Wonderful progress on the Panther - looking mighty good and your progress is amazing.

Keep 'em coming

Peter

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Paul

Wonderful progress on the Panther - looking mighty good and your progress is amazing.

Keep 'em coming

Peter

Peter, I don't think it's amazing.. it's really been slow actually but I appreciate you looking in. :) Lots more little things to take care of like brake rigging, wheel well details etc.  It should be a lot of fun soon.

 All the best.

 Paul

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