191St get it first phantoms

 F-4C flightline photos taken by a MDC photographer on the Michigan Air National Guard, 191st Fighter Interceptor Group Selfridge air base. Dated 25 August 1979. Note: This negs/photos were never filed and cannot be found anywhere else. Thanks Ron Downey for providing these rare photos.

Also if you knew the crew chief of many of these Phantoms let me know.  We are fading into the sunset.  These men need to be remembered.

   Added two photos by Art Doran of freshly arrived F-4C for the 191st Fig  9/9/2020

Photo Credit art Doran.

Crew Chief John Bullis/ later Jake Williams

Crew John Bullis/ Later Jake Williams.

Crew chief currently unknown

Crew Chief Mike Galea

Chief Crew Mike Galea

Crew Chief unknown at this time

Crew Chief Jim Hanna/ Edgar Gunn

Crew chief John Bullis/ later Jake Williams

Crew Chief Paul Chamberlain

Photo credit Art Doran.

1/72 Decal for C47 amd Sri Lanka air force

Jamie is a reader of my blog. In his email he sent a photo of the decal sheet  "Hi Rats!   I found he is planning a limited run of this sheet.  He can be reached   redfern73 at hotmail dot com.

Okay folks if you are interested in the C-47 "Rats" color scheme Jamie will be doing a limited run shortly.  His specialize in mostly doing Small nations airlines.

The Sri Lanka Air Force decal sheet is 1/72

Memorial Day 2020

Memorial day is a time to reflect the loss for fellow veterans. Some died fighting for our country in foreign field, oceans and in the sky. Others survived, only to past from the wounds, nightmares and medical conditions. Agent Orange, cleaning chemical and radiation. Chick Fii A set out a table other falling brothers and sisters. I wish more companies would do this. A picture is more powerful than my words.

Jan 23 1973 Scale Article on Skyraiders "Kit bashed and Scratch building Skyraider Variants."

Another article by Boh (Dave Boksanski).   The Fujimi 1/72 Skyraider was the base kit for the conversion.  Also Monograms 1/72 A-1E.   During early 70's the monogram kit was state of the art model kit.  BOH had such talent he would look at a kit.  Next day he would have the model convert into another type.  Just wonder what he could do to today with all the latest modelling tools.
Thanks again to Charlie for providing the photos of the articles.

Another Blast from the Past. "Catapult Mounts for Models"

 Another article from Scale Modeler magazine.   I remember buying my first copy on the way home from High School.  It was my freshman year at Osborn High in Detroit.   There was with small family run Pharmacy  on the corner of Joann St & Seven mile.  The druggist was a modeler and carried the magazine. 

  Back to the article.  Boh (Dave Boksanski) and Mike Dario where the premiere model builder on the west coast at this time.  These guy where best friends who loved model.  The article below can be opened in a new tab and enlarged for reading.   Boh at that time would just make it. Having some back ground in model trains this was a simple quick work. Today I can hear people piss and moan about all that work.  Not really, more than likely whipped the catapult in a few hours.  Today with 3d modelling and printing there is no comparison.  But if BOH was still alive he would have one.   Thanks again to Charlie Dunton for digging through his archive of Scale Modeler.   Charlie promised more to come after the holiday. Enjoy this Blast from the past.

Reader feed back on Colorful C-47

I received this email about the Colorful C-47.  It is great to see that I have fo;;owers of this blog.   These are the emails that inspire me to keep posting,   Jamie when you finish the model I would like to post a picture of in on the blog.. Thanks

j	May 20, 2020, 7:23 PM (12 hours ago)
to me

Morning Gary, greetings from Australia! 

My name is Jamie McIntyre, ex-Royal Australian Navy (just a touch over 23 years) now living in Tweed Heads South, NSW. 

I found your Blog a few months back during a Google search, and am now a regular but until now silent lurker! 

Just wanted to let you know that your post on May 9 led to me creating the below for my Italeri 1/72 kit. 

I've been making my own decals since 2006, going from inkjet to laser and back to inkjet, currently using Dr Decal & Mr Hyde Waterslide Inkjet Decal Paper through a Canon Pixma MG2965 printer, and over-coating with Microscale Liquid Decal Film. This is the start of my 108th A4 sheet for personal use, not counting ones I sell (EBay, forums) or do for friends! 

I make the artwork on Powerpoint so have to take a few "artistic liberties" here and there (ie the font, close but no cigar, and note how the circled 3 and 5 over the star n bar impinge on the numeral below, I can't replicate this), and while I assume the artwork was applied to one side only have done it for both just in case. 

Hope you like it, Jamie

Another amazing TU-114 model by Dave Boksanski

Thanks to Charlie Dunton for this 1972 article by Dave.   Today I hear people complain about models kits. This is wrong, the shape is off.  But Boh would just find some plastic tubing or another part from a different aircraft.  Next thing you know it was fix.   Here is a prime example of old school modeling.

Dave Boksanski at Walt's hobby shop.  Little did we know he pass way last 6 month on valentines day 1982