Al Letcher's Mojave Meteor and Vampire in 1/48 Scale

The memory of those Saturdays spent at Mojave airport in the 70s are very special to me, and I'm happy to have finally built proper models of the two airplanes I loved to watch fly back then: Al Letcher's Armstrong Whitworth Meteor NF.11 and Dehavilland Vampire F3. Classic Airframe's 1/48 scale Meteor and Hobbycraft's Vampire in the same scale were perfect for this project. As I mentioned earlier on this blog, at the time I used to see these planes fly out at Mojave, there were no model kits of the night fighter version of the Meteor, or the early Vampire.

Classic Airframe's Meteor NF is a short-run injection kit from the Czech Republic which came out around ten years ago. It's moulded in a dark gray, brittle styrene plastic. The canopy is a horrible one-piece translucent thing, and mine had cracks in it from the factory. The pieces fit together poorly, and needed much filling and sanding, especially around the wing roots and engine pods. This didn't bother me though because I knew the whole thing was going to be sanded smooth and painted overall gloss white.
Al's Meteor was delivered to him straight from the U.K. bearing faded Royal Navy markings from it's last days in service as an aerial target tow plane. Al had the towing gear removed in England before the ferry flight across the pond. Not long after it arrived at Mojave, he had it completely covered with gloss polyurethane white to keep the aircraft cool while parked in the hot desert sun. Even though he wasn't concerned about historical accuracy with the paint job, he did have the correct size and style RAF roundels applied. He did not apply any squadron lettering or numbers. The only additional markings other than the roundels were very small registration numbers under the horizontal stabilizer, and "experimental" below the canopy opening. For my model, I chose not to duplicate the registration numbers or the "experimental" but I did apply the correct size and style roundels. I had to do some small modifications such as remove the guns from the wing leading edges, and scratch build a small antenna of some kind just aft of the front wheel well, and another antenna or vane underneath the left engine pod. I have no idea what these were on Al's Meteor; I wasn't able to find any reference to these on the internet either in pictures or schematics. They could have been something associated with the target towing role.
As for the Vampire, Al bought his F3 from a guy named Pete Regina in Van Nuys Ca. Pete had purchased the Vampire from another owner either in the late 60s or early 70s, and had it in restoration for a few years. Pete had a zero-time surplus Goblin engine installed, and painted the airplane to look like an RAF Vampire, even though this particular F3 flew operationally with the Canadian Air Force. When Al bought it from Pete, it apparently didn't need any work on the outside, so it stayed in its ersatz RAF scheme during it's tenure at Mojave. I chose to replicate this on my model, using Testors Model Master RAF Medium Green and Sea Gray. The underside is gloss silver with no roundels or squadron lettering, as per the actual airplane back then. I have no idea if Pete Regina's RAF squadron markings and lettering were correct, or if it was something he made up just to look like an RAF Vampire. At any rate, I applied "YG" and "VN68" using spare USAF lettering decals, with some correct Vampire roundels.
I love having these two models together on my office bookshelf. They were two very special airplanes in those days. At the time
the Vampire was the oldest jet airplane flying in the U.S. It flew pretty much continuously under different owners until just a few years ago when it crash landed and was totaled in Wisconsin. The Meteor was retired to static display sometime in the early 1980s and I think is still somewhere around Mojave or Edwards AFB.

DC-8-61 Dress-Up

After several months on the shelf, I found I really didn't like my Revell DC-8-61
built last year without Flying Tiger colors, so I found a replacement Revell/Lodella sheet on EBay. I took a big risk being as old as they are, but thankfully they were in perfect condition and slid nicely off the backing sheet onto the model. I used MicroSet and found the acid in that stuff slightly etched the polished aluminum metalizer around the decals. It's not exactly what I wanted, but oh well - lesson learned. You can't really see it from a distance. Next time I apply decals to highly polished metalizer, no products, just water! Nevertheless, she looks stunning in her Flying Tiger Line trim and reinforces the memories I have of these slender giants flying overhead in Lancaster.

Another Williams Bros. Northrop Gamma!

I built another Williams Bros. Gamma into the Ellsworth Phase One version. Not much to say about the whole building experience other than it was fun to modify some of the pieces for this version. Painting was a little simpler in that Ellsworth's Gamma was not as shiny as the Texaco version, so not as much time was spent buffing the Testors aluminum metalizer. Decals went on perfectly, and the whole thing took less than ten hours.

Monogram 1/48 Northrop P-61A Black Widow

I really like the Monogram 1/48 scale airplane kits which came out in 1974. Monogram was growing with the kids who bought their simpler models in the 60s, and knew they wanted more detail and a more challenging building experience. That's why I really like the TBD-1 Devastator because it's a kit you can really sink your teeth into and enjoy without a lot of frustration. The same goes for the P-61 Black Widow which came out around the same time as the Devastator. Both models were preceded by the excellent 1/48 Dornier Do-335 Arrow, but I have never built that model. Maybe some day though.
Originally, the Monogram P-61 was given to me as a gift by my Godmother in 1977. It was one of the few gifted airplane models given to me which I really liked and was excited about. I know that sounds ungrateful, but as I've admitted earlier in this blog, I was very picky when it came to model airplanes. But I really enjoyed my first building experience with this model. Because it's molded in black, I didn't paint my original, and it looked fine that way. I did however paint all the interior detail in accordance with the directions, and the P-61 (B version) sat proudly on my bedroom shelf for a long time.
I bought the one pictured here several years ago and when it finally came time to open it up and get started on it, I was thrilled. I debated on what version to make it - olive drab - black - A or B - top turret or no turret - and finally decided on a black A with no top turret, factory fresh. I had seen a color picture of a turret-less A sitting on the Northrop ramp right out of the paint shop, all glossy and nice, and knew that is what I had to do. Even though the top gun turret is a prime feature of the Black Widow, the fact that it was temporarily deleted from both A and B versions due to buffeting is historically interesting. Along with that the airplane is a little sleeker looking to me with the flat top.
Construction was straight forward in accordance with the instructions - for that "sleek" look I glued all gun and engine access panels closed, as well as canopy hatches. I didn't like that Monogram molded the right engine cowl flaps open, while the left are closed - you have no options there and it doesn't look right unless you are making a diorama. So I cut between each cowl flap and pushed them inward to the closed position as best I could. I made sure I gave the model two weeks to dry after spraying it gloss black overall to prevent finger prints and smudges. The original decals were brittle, so I only used the small emergency and maintenance stencils. I used a Microscale P-61 decal sheet for the red tail boom numbers and the red wing top walkway lines. It was so much easier using the one-piece aftermarket decal for those red lines on the wing than doing Monogram's original procedure of cutting them to size and fit yourself from a large strip of red decal. That and the open cowl flap cowling are the only beefs I have with this model. Otherwise it's a beautiful, classic kit from Monogram you can still buy today online and at hobby shops.

Blue Neptune! Building Hasegawa's Lockheed P-2V-7 for the First Time

I've always liked the Lockheed P-2 Neptune, but never bought Hasegawa's 1/72 model of it throughout it's long life of various issues and reissues. Earlier this year though I picked a sealed one up at a model show in Renton Washington for only ten bucks. It was the original Minicraft U.S. offering from about 1973 in the Dark Blue USN scheme. I figured this would be the easiest version to make since it was one color, and glossy too which would mean no clear coat. Boy was I wrong! This model was by no means easy to build and paint. It required a lot of strategic planning to figure out the best sequence of building vs. painting. I ended up assembling most of it before shooting it with a coat of Testors Dark Sea Blue from a spray can. The engines in their cowlings waited to go on until final assembly because there's all this bare metal area between them and the nacelle roots on the wings - that being the cowl flaps and exhaust plates. I didn't care to go hog wild with the interior detail, since most can't be seen through the clear plastic any ways. I didn't go crazy on exterior detail either since the kit didn't come with all the tiny white maintenance and caution stencils. But I did outline some of the windows and the searchlight dome with gold and silver strips of Bare Metal Foil. I knew this bird was going to be tail-heavy, so I stuffed the lower radome bulge full with clay and fishing weights. It didn't make a bit of difference! The thing is so tail heavy, it needs a pound of weight forward of the engines which there is hardly any room for. But after all was said and done, I'm happy with it, and will enjoy it on my office book shelf for years to come (I hope.)

Monogram TBD-1 Devastator Round Three!

I wasn't really happy with the Devastator I built a couple years ago, which is featured earlier on this blog. The Tamiya yellow on the wings and tail was just not right, and the decals were a disaster. So I sold it on EBay, bought another one, along with a sheet of Microscale decals to make any of the TBDs in pre-war finish. I thought it would be nice to do this third one up in a non-squadron commander's scheme, you know, just a regular bird with minimal markings. The cover of the April 1975 Scale Modeler magazine featuring the kit shortly after it came out was my inspiration. It shows three Devastators flying in formation. I chose to do 5-T-3 shown closest in the front. This meant I only had to worry about two colors. Well, three actually: flat aluminum, chrome yellow, and bright red. The Microscale decal sheet did not come with the wing chevrons, so any color than red would have had to be painted on, and with those ribs on the tops of the wings - forget it! I wasn't about to struggle with trying to get airtight masking over the ribs and touching up afterwards. So I chose the red tail scheme so I could use the wing chevrons that come with the kit. For the chrome yellow wings, I used regular Testors Yellow from a rattle can, which is very close to chrome yellow. It's full-bodied, with a slight orange tint. I even wrapped the yellow over the wing's leading edge like it's supposed to be. It was extra work, but looks great especially with the wings folded. I left the torpedo off, because I like the sleek body shape of the TBD. But I wanted to include the MK13 torpedo somewhere near the plane, so I ordered a resin USN torpedo loading cart from a company in New Zealand. I'm very happy with this model, and I'm keeping this baby for a while to enjoy.

Roscoe Turner's 247D Earns 3rd Place at IPMS Evergreen Show!

I think the judges at these IPMS shows like the Williams Bros. kits as much as I do. My Gamma won last year, and this year my Boeing 247D racer won - and I did a very simple, straight from the box job on it! Maybe next year I'll enter my C-46 Commando.