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VonL

IPMS/USA Member
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Posts posted by VonL

  1. Another nice one, Gil! Well done paint-in-lieu-of-decals.

    My brother flew these with VP-19 (the Big Red). Kit decals for that colorful scheme are shot, so I may try one of their rare, lo-vis versions. He flew them with those markings for DESERT SHIELD 1990. The plane in the foreground appears to have the (then) new 3-tone gray camo. The one in back appears to have the older gray & white paint scheme, with a grayed-out tail-emblem. I've never found any other pix of these birds...have you?

     

    P-3C  VP-19 California_c1990_b.jpg

  2. IMHO, Nick nailed it with "Better to err on the side of discretion and the ordinary rules of good taste." 

    An example comes to mind from WWII Army Cartoonist Bill Mauldin's autobiography, when he was asked why he didn't draw dead bodies in his otherwise authentic battlefield (humor) vignettes. His response was that if he did his job well, it was implicit that death was likely nearby (it is a battlefield), while allowing some space for a lighter moment or topic, in that historic context. I've done a couple of these cartoons as dioramas and it works.

     

    Regarding 'discretion'': The ubiquitous 1/35 WWII German soldiers, defecating, visiting hookers, etc, are just not on the same level as, say Michelangelo's Pieta, which is an iconic death scene. If that distinction requires further explanation... 

    One does not simply2.jpg

  3. Thanx for your looks at this, guys. Multiple queries to various rotorheads, photo galleries and aficionados indicate that the H-3 Jolly Greens did not do the aft-ramp gunner thing over Vietnam, although I did find a technical diagram showing provision for it. (Certainly, definitive photo evidence will surface just after the model gets finished.)

    Now, to hunt down some nice M60s for my door gunners...

  4. Thanx for posting this, Gil! Am working an excruciatingly long-term canopy-replacement-quest for a 1/72 Anigrand C-124. It's a very nice resin kit -and expensive. But their canopy was unusable-bad. Your last pic of the tape/masking technique answers a question that I wasn't even smart enough to ask, regarding a vac replacement canopy. Elegant solution, there!

  5. CAUTION - WHINEY COMMENT FOLLOWS:

    Been away from this forum for a bit, so apologies if I missed the answer to this question: Is it true that Revell is planning to fill the enamel-market void left by the departure of Modelmaster? Got some RUMINT on this at our brick-n-mortar LHS.

    Good news: I just saw some enamels listed with a Revell label on Kitlinx, which might be it. Bad news: Do they really have to sell it in (re-labeled?) Humbrol-style tinlets? Am trying to imagine a more cumbersome paint container. Maybe they should try the little blob-tube that Heller used for glue? Or fill up a ping-pong ball with paint? A thin, plastic craft-bag? Paint-ball ammo?  

  6. Howz'about a larger scale vacuform airplane kit, from cradle-to-uhhh...display stand. Maybe do one of those new-ish Tigger/ID Models kits, of a subject otherwise unique:

    How to strengthen & straighten structure & joints, making & using jigs, evaluating & using scale drawings to correct shape issues, considerations for adding detail, lights, etc. These are all skills transferable to very basic kits and to scratchbuilding.

    Display could also be flying: Consider a wall-mount diorama/display with structural support running through the wings, tail, or whatever.

    Personal request: Not another WWII German subject. I am not 'offended' by that stuff, just tired-to-death of seeing it everywhere, all the time.

    Cheers!

  7. JOLLY GREEN research, cont'd:

    Correction - Am researching the USAF HH-3E Jolly Green CSAR bird as used in Vietnam, not the later Coast Guard HH-3F Pelican.

    None of the inflight pix that I've seen show the rear ramp down, nor an aft gunner's position. Did the HH-3's just not do this, and maybe it started with the bigger HH-53's? Possibly a weight & balance issue?

  8. Am also researching a 1/72 HH-3F and would like to do it with the aft ramp open and a gunner's position there. That means I've gotta at least suggest some interior detail. Do either of you guys know any decent pix of that area, especially the gunner's position and the internal fuselage structure adjacent to it? Ditto on the Revell vs. Whirly': Gonna dance with the girl I brang.

    NMUSAF has a great photo spread of their restored HH-3 Jolly Green, including cockpit-360 views, but it doesn't appear to have an aft ramp-gunner set-up.

    Suggestions appreciated.

  9. Joey: Look, I know you're hurtin' now, but in time you'll realize what you've achieved.
    Jimmy Rabbitte: I've achieved nothing!
    Joey: You're missin' the point. The success of the band was irrelevant - you raised their expectations of life, you lifted their horizons. Sure we could have been famous and made albums and stuff, but that would have been predictable. This way, it's poetry.

    - - epilogue from The Commitments (1991)

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