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Republic P-47D-20-RA "Big Squaw" While flying with the 19th Fighter Squadron, 318th Fighter Group, on Saipan, my father flew this razorbacked P-47D named "Big Squaw," which he flew on ground attack missions againt Japanese troops on the neighboring islands in the Marianas. Squaw was last seen belly-landed on the beach at Saipan after taking damage from enemy flak. The Hasegawa 1/48 kit. I have endeavoured to duplicate the weathering seen on photos of the actual airplane, which shows a faded Olive Drab with many painted-over patches. For my references, and photos of the real Squaw, see my pages on Dad's Planes. |
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Republic P-47N "Icky and Me" At the end of the war Dad flew with the 333rd Fighter Squadron, 318th Fighter Group, on Ie Shima, and was assigned this P-47N which he named "Icky and Me" (she was in a mud puddle when he first saw her). Dad flew Icky from Ie Shima to Japan and Korea on VLR (Very Long Range) attack missions, as well as ground support for the Army on nearby Okinawa. Carrying two 1,000 pound bombs, ten 5" rockets and eight .50 caliber machine guns, he did a lot of damage with Icky. The Academy 1/48 kit. This is my first attempt at overall Bare Metal Foil. I made the decals myself. The markings are based upon Dad's memories and my research into the squadron, as no actual photos exist of Icky. I started this model to cheer Dad up when he went into the hospital with esophageal cancer, but he passed away with unexpected swiftness and I didn't finish it in time for him to see it. I completed it anyway, at Mom's suggestion, and put it in Dad's casket with him. I fitted Icky out for the mission: no weapons, and all three long range drop tanks for the final flight. |
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1939 Piper J3 Cub In the late 1950s my father had a little business taking aerial photographs in the area for clients like constructions sites. He owned this little blue Cub at the time, to this day his favorite plane, despite having flown much more exciting planes during World War Two. The joystick in the front cockpit was a souvenir from an FW-190 that Dad shot down over France. The 1/48 scale HobbyCraft kit with extensive interior detailing. Again, references and photos of the real Cub can be found on my Dad's Planes pages. |
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Mitsubishi Type 94 "Claude" One of the principal Japanese fighters of the late 1930s, showing its vintage with an open cockpit, fixed undercarriage, and ring-style engine cowling. This is the very expensive Fine Molds 1/48 scale kit, with white metal engine. |
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Seversky P-35 The first in the line of brilliant fighters by Alexander DeSeversy in the 1930s which ultimately led to the P-47 (see below). The 1/48 HobbyCraft kit. It was especially fun to rig the "clothesline" style radio antennae! |
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Dewoitine D520 The D520 was the probably the only French-built fighter capable of taking on a Messerschmitt 109 without getting shot down immediately. It didn't get much chance to prove it, though. Hasegawa's very nice, very clean, very easy kit built right outta the box. |
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Republic P-47M Thunderbolt 56th Fighter Group, England, 1945. The P-47 was America's biggest, heaviest, most heavily armed fighter of World War Two. This black-over silver "Jug" is one of the 56th's experimental paint jobs, detouring from the Army's usual gray/olive drab or bare metal fighters. Monogram's good old 1/48 P-47D with "M" dorsal fin and resin prop added. Decals by the Ministry of Small Aircraft Production. |
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Ilyushin Il-2 Sturmovik The Soviet Union's primary anti-tank and ground-attack aircraft of the Great Patriotic War (which we called World War Two). Common winter-time practice in both the Russian and German air forces on the Russian front was to paint over the summer camo with a coat of snow-white water-based paint. By the end of the winter the white was washing off and planes looked like crap. The 1/48 scale Accurate Miniatures kit. I first painted the summer camo, them covered it with a spotty coat of flat white. Weathering was then done with both chalk pastel and dry-brushed paint. I think I may have overdone it... |
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Supermarine Spitfire MkI Your basic Battle of Britain Spit. The new Tamiya 1/48 Spitfire kit built straight from the box with kit decals. This is a gorgeous model that requires no extra work at all to make it presentable. |
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Supermarine Spitfire MkV float fighter A few Spitfires were experimentally fitted with floats for the Malta campaign. Amazingly, the huge floats did very little to alter the airplane's performance, but the project was dropped. On the other hand this one was a lot of work. It's the Hasegawa MkV kit with Gartex resin parts, including a whole new tail, nose, and prop. Not to mention the big ugly floats. I built the wheel chocks and saw horses out of wood, to match a photo of the actual plane. |
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MacDonnell Douglas F-15A Eagle Yes, I build jets too. This was built for a contest at my local club. The theme was Tom Clancy novels, so I built "Fast Eagle 104" from the book Red Storm Rising, an F-15A in which Air Force pilot Amy Nakamura scored three kills against Russian bombers, then later knocked out two Russian spy sattelites with the ASAT missile. This model represents the plane just before her second ASAT flight. The Hasegawa 1/48 "Hi-Tech" F-15 kit with etched metal cockpit detail and tailpipes and ASAT missile. Decals from Super-Scale matched the unit "104" was assigned to in the book, and I made the serial number myself. Kill markings on the nose and Amy's name were also home made. |
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Testors F-19 Stealth Fighter This model dates to before the public acknowledgement of the actual stealth fighter, when Testors gave us their version and sold huge amounts of them. I understand sales plummeted after the actual plane's photo was released. I rounded off the tail surfaces of the kit and added large rounded canards, used the bubble canopy and painted it in a basic F-16-style camo. All this based on published articles that seemd to indicate stealth was best served by round surfaces. Little did I know. This picture made it into the Fine Scale Modeler reader's gallery once upon a time. |
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Gates Learjet 35 If I had a Learjet, I'd Learjet in the morning... I'd Learjet in the evening... And I'd paint it just like this! It's the Hasegawa 1/48 kit and a lot of Boyd metallic car paints. |
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LOSERS! A little collection of fighters that DIDN'T make it in the last few years. 1/72 scale kits from various makers. |
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