inside this issue: the cupola view - a message from the

January 2007

Inside this issue:

• The Cupola View - A Message from the President • MMCL Core Values and Leadership Position • Book Review: AVG “Flying Tigers” from Kagero Pub. • Eastern Bloc Maneuvers • Re-Up Time Again

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Next Meeting: Thursday, January 18th @ The Church of Exalted Plastic, 7:00 pm

Theme and Activities: New Officer Introduction, Digital Photography in Modeling Roundtable

Official Club Web Site: www.mmcl.org

Club Motto: So many kits… So little time!

This informational feature brought to you by RADIO FREE PEWEE VALLEY

WJRD

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To contact MMCL: President: Michael “Mr. Gunze” Baskette Email: [email protected] Vice President: Stuart Cox Email: [email protected]. Secretary: Rich Gueting Email: [email protected] Member at Large: Noel Walker Email: [email protected] Treasurer: Mike “Danger Boy” Nofsinger 5011 Wabash Pl. Louisville, KY 40214 Email: [email protected] Editor in Chief: Michael “Mr. Gunze” Baskette 922 Mason Headley Road Lexington, KY 40504 Email: [email protected] “Tactical Notes” is the Newsletter of the Military

Modelers Club of Louisville, Inc. We here by

assume absolutely no liability, guilt, blame or

otherwise. If you don’t like it… tough crap!

The Cupola View… Mike Baskette

Greetings Fellow Members, After 14+ years of involvement with this organization I finally find myself at the helm via an uncontested election. What is interesting is that I do not consider myself a “born leader” or even a leader by training for that matter. My reasons for taking this office are that I simply grew tired of the current state of the club, the infighting, the emphasis on form over substance in club governance, etc. and felt compelled to step up fearing no one else would. So here we are. Alas, we are not without a plan… Last summer several of us began a discussion on what issues the club faced and what would be required to address them, and ultimately bring back the wave of vitality our club was experiencing 3-5 years ago. Based on those discussions, a set of core values was drafted and this document appears in this issue of Tactical Note. Most should agree with what is found therein, but I hope we can all learn to abide by them regardless of how we feel about them personally. With this opening installment of Cupola View, I will make this general statement about the club and what may be required to advance out of the present state. MMCL is not a movie house, a Broadway theater, nor a sports arena. It is not a place where the masses come to be entertained by the few. Going forward, the present leadership of this organization looks to draw on the many skills and talents of our current membership to assist in providing meaningful programming for the months ahead. For example, we will start off the year with a round table discussion on the application of digital photography in modeling. The facilitators of this discussion will be David Knights, and I. We will be bringing our equipment to the meeting and discussing how we use it. If anyone else in our ranks has something to show or add we would invite you to participate. After all, this is more of a discussion than a clinic. At the first of the year, the MMCL web page was deleted from off our ISP’s host server, leaving the club without a web presence… Now back up to last summer… Not being certain of how the transfer of offices was going to transpire over the course of this year’s nomination and election process, I took it upon myself many months ago to secure another webmaster in the event MMCL was suddenly left without one. Well my hunch played out, and I am pleased to announce that MMCL member (and ambassador to Germany) Pete Gay has eagerly stepped up to fill that role. Leveraging Pete’s expertise in this field, we were quickly able to salvage and repost much of the original site (sans photos) within 72 hours of it being taken down. We have now moved past this minor crisis and have begun replacing the original site with what will become a new and improved version of Tactical Notes Online. Given the power of the internet, this is a capacity that Pete can easily fill for the club… even though he resides in Germany!

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MMCL 2007-08 Leadership Team believes in and promotes the following tenets and values for MMCL:

Core Values: 1) Fun/Passion for Modeling: (Keeping the main thing the main thing!) 2) Positive Environment: Club Meetings, Workshop and Show/Contests. 3) Education: All members should have the opportunity to learn, grow & teach something about modeling. (Opportunity to get something out of the club, AND give something back to others in return) 4) Camaraderie: Increase inspiration and creativity by being with other people who are passionate about modeling in a positive environment. 5) Appreciation and Recognition for ALL skill levels and competencies of MMCL members and other IPMS club member participants. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Leadership Priorities: Current Priority: Leveraging a positive hobby environment and laying the groundwork for the future is a primary priority for 2007. Future Vision: Why would anyone want to model anywhere else?

Future opportunities for consideration in 2007/2008: (After ensuring first that “core” club values are addressed)

a) Maximizing involvement and growth of the wider MMCL membership.

b) Club "Evangelism" (Attracting new members & retaining existing members).

c) Community Service - Club Outreach / Giving "outside" the club on a local, regional, national, and global level.

d) Increased Show / Contest sponsorship and participation By MMCL members.

e) Collaborative hobby or educational events with other clubs or groups in our region.

f) Expanded involvement in National IPMS, AMPS events and organization

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Book Review: AVG “Flying Tigers” 1942-1943 By Andre R. Zbiegniewski 79 Pgs ISBN 83-89088-28-2 Reviewed by: David M. Knights

One of my areas of interest is the American Volunteer Group (AVG) more commonly known as the Flying Tigers. In fact, I was planning on starting to

build a Hawk 81-A (P-40B/C), either the Pavla or AML kit. (With the announcement that Trumpeter is scaling down their great 32nd scale P-40B/C, I’ve put my building plans on hold.) In any event, I have a lot of reference on the AVG. The title above is one of my more recent AVG related reference purchases. The book is 79 pages, with text in both English and Polish. It has quite a few photographs. In addition it has 7 color illustrations of different P-40s used by the Flying Tigers and their successor organization, the 23rd Fighter Group. Finally, like many books published by Kagero, this one contains photo etch cockpit details in both 72nd and 48th scale by Part. The text is a basic overview of the history of the AVG and its successor, the 23rd FG. It is by no means a detailed history of the AVG. Further, the English text is marred by numerous translation errors and typos. This makes reading the text more work than enjoyment. The photographs are interesting and well printed, but are not anything that hasn’t been published before. The color illustrations are well done, but these same aircraft have almost all been illustrated before, as well if not better, such as in “Tigers over China” by Thomas A. Tullis. The aircraft illustrated in this book differ in minor markings details from the illustrations in the Tullis book. Given the markings changes the AVG aircraft went thru, these minor differences may be explained by the same aircraft being illustrated as it appeared at two different times, however I frankly think the Tullis illustrations better match known photo of the aircraft they depict. “AVG Flying Tigers 1941-1943” is not a bad book. However, given that there are much better books available covering the same subject, the inclusion of the small photo etch fret can’t make up for the poor text and photos and illustrations that simply duplicate what has appeared elsewhere. Save your money and by the Tullis book instead.

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A few months back the Lexington (and Frankfort) based MMCL members converged on host Randy Fuller’s residence for a hobby related Bull Session. While not much modeling took place at this inaugural event, hopefully future events will prove more fruitful. Regardless, a lot of tall tales were told and a good time had by all who attended. Such evenings are something the Louisville membership should consider in addition to the regular meetings and shop hours. Here are a few images:

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It’s that time to renew your MMCL dues. Please do so by completing a 2006 club renewal form and turning it into Mike “Danger” Nofsinger.

Remember, dues are still only $10.00 for adults By being a member, you get a lot of value for your dues.

Monthly Meetings IPMS Conventions

Monthly Newsletter Quarterly Model Contests

Club Workshop Quarterly “Friday Night Fights”

Annual Club Auction Monthly Kit Raffles

Club Cookout & Holiday Party How 2 Seminars

February 2007

Inside this issue:

• The Cupola View - A Message from the President • Old Friends Part Ways… FSM & Twitchy • It is Still Re-Up Time Again!

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Next Meeting: Friday, February 23rd @ The Church of Exalted Plastic, 7:00 pm

Theme and Activities: FRIDAY NITE FIGHTS !!

Official Club Web Site: www.mmcl.org

Club Motto: So many kits… So little time!

This informational feature brought to you by RADIO FREE PEWEE VALLEY

WJRD

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To contact MMCL: President: Michael “Mr. Gunze” Baskette Email: [email protected] Vice President: Stuart Cox Email: [email protected]. Secretary: Rich Gueting Email: [email protected] Member at Large: Noel Walker Email: [email protected] Treasurer: Mike “Danger Boy” Nofsinger 5011 Wabash Pl. Louisville, KY 40214 Email: [email protected] Editor in Chief: Michael “Mr. Gunze” Baskette 922 Mason Headley Road Lexington, KY 40504 Email: [email protected] “Tactical Notes” is the Newsletter of the Military

Modelers Club of Louisville, Inc. We here by

assume absolutely no liability, guilt, blame or

otherwise. If you don’t like it… tough crap!

The Cupola View… Mike Baskette

Greetings Fellow Members, Well, our first meeting of the year was well attended and seemed to be enjoyed by most, as folks seemed to stick around until quite late. I had hoped that the photography round table could have included Randy Fuller’s input, but life just got in the way for Randy. We will be having Randy’s club photo shoot at the March meeting in conjunction with the first quarter contest so bring out your best. This month’s (Feb) meeting is the first quarter Friday Night Fights. I’m sure this event will be well attended as in the past. I have elected to defer my “extreme show and tell” presentation on my 1/35th scale SIG ausf Pz III until the April meeting. I have had little time to properly prepare and figure attention spans would be short on Fight Night. Similarly, I would rather spread things out a bit to insure we have a program or activity for each meeting this year. This month also marks the second month of our typical three month renewal period. I say three months in the context that after March, those having not renewed will be dropped from the roles and the membership list will be cleaned up a bit. So if you have not done so yet, please do so soon. This issue of Tactical Notes should be considered a transitional issue. Because of that, it is markedly light on content. Starting early March, we will be ushering in some changes in both format and delivery of Tactical Notes. Members should expect a significantly new look to the newsletter and also for each monthly issue to begin arriving much earlier in the respective month. Members should also expect the call for articles to be escalated to some minor arm twisting. Please, let’s keep the articles coming! The show circuit has many of us traveling to Columbus, OH the weekend of the 17th. Because of that, I will remind you that the February meeting has been moved to the 23rd of the month so that Friday Night Fights can be well attended and not in conflict for those wishing to go to Columbus. I plan on attending and hope to see many of you there.

One Free Pass One Free Pass

Who says there are no Free Passes? Good for the 1St Quarter MMCL Friday Night Fights

One Free Pass One Free Pass

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Why I am leaving FineScale Modeler… An Editorial by David Knights (Or maybe FineScale has left me)…

I have every issue of FineScale Modeler since the premier issue in the Fall of 1982. I still remember one of the articles in that first issue. It was an article on a vignette where the modeler had heavily modified one of the figures to represent a scene of an Arab street vendor selling a fez to a British Victorian-era soldier. At the time, there was no other modeling magazine out there that was worth anything, other than possibly the British Scale Aircraft Modeling. At the time, FineScale was published 4 times a year. Seeing each new issue was a joy. I pored over each article, no matter whether or not they were on my particular modeling area. The number of modeling techniques I picked up from these articles is countless. Over time, FineScale has had its ups and downs. It now publishes 12 times a year. I’ve stuck with the magazine through its ups and downs. I was a loyal purchaser thru the “Star Trek” years, when it seems every other issue had a major article on either a Star Trek or Star Wars kit. Now, I have nothing against this genre of modeling, even though it is not what I do. However, the number of articles on those subjects during that period was just ridiculous. I stayed during the more recent period, where thru “edgy” graphic design, the actual content of the magazine shrank by a great amount, with large sections of empty space. Every time I was finally ready to swear off purchasing future issues, a really good issue would come out and the magazine would seem to turn around, and go back to its roots with great modeling articles, interesting conversions, and some great modeling tips. However, each time, my hopes would be dashed, and the magazine would slide back down to the point where once again I’d consider not getting any more issues. As I’ve noted previously, I read a lot of modeling magazines. One of my modeling woes is that it takes me so long to get thru most of the issues of these magazines. However, there is so little content of interest to me in recent FineScales that it doesn’t take me more that 15 or 20 minutes to go thru any recent issue. Even though FineScale is the least expensive of the modeling magazines that I regularly purchase, I think the time has come for me to stop buying the magazine and devote those funds to other modeling purposes. In fairness, part of this situation is probably not FineScale’s fault. The magazine has to appeal to a wide range of modelers with widely varying modeling skill levels. They cannot be all things to all modelers. Part of the problem may be that I’ve progressed to the point where FineScale can’t publish articles that appeal to my interests and modeling skill level and still publish articles with more mass appeal. That isn’t their fault, or my fault. In any event, I’ve concluded that it is time for me to stop reading FineScale. It has been a part of my modeling life for many years. I know that in some respects I’ll miss it.

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It’s that time to renew your MMCL dues. Please do so by completing a 2006 club renewal form and turning it into Mike “Danger” Nofsinger.

Remember, dues are still only $10.00 for adults By being a member, you get a lot of value for your dues.

Monthly Meetings IPMS Conventions

Monthly Newsletter Quarterly Model Contests

Club Workshop Quarterly “Friday Night Fights”

Annual Club Auction Monthly Kit Raffles

Club Cookout & Holiday Party How 2 Seminars

Book Review:

Ship of Ghosts:

The Saga of

the USS HoustonTac

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March 2007

WWWWWWWWWWWWWWW.MMCL.ORG.MMCL.ORG.MMCL.ORG.MMCL.ORG.MMCL.ORG

THE NEWSLETTER OF THE MILITARY MODELERS CLUB OF LOUISVILLE

IN THIS ISSUE:

Next Meeting:Next Meeting:Next Meeting:Next Meeting:Next Meeting:ThursdaThursdaThursdaThursdaThursday, March 15th, 2007y, March 15th, 2007y, March 15th, 2007y, March 15th, 2007y, March 15th, 20077:00 P7:00 P7:00 P7:00 P7:00 P.M..M..M..M..M.FFFFFeaeaeaeaeatured Ttured Ttured Ttured Ttured Topic: More Photo fun!opic: More Photo fun!opic: More Photo fun!opic: More Photo fun!opic: More Photo fun!

From The Cupola:

Our President Speaks

Kit Review:

1/144th scale Trumpeter

Shenyang F-8II Finback

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To contact MMCL:

President:Michael “Mr. Gunze” BasketteEmail: [email protected]

Vice President:Stuart CoxEmail: [email protected].

Secretary:Rich GuetingEmail:[email protected]

Member at Large:Noel WalkerEmail: [email protected]

Treasurer:Mike “Danger Boy” Nofsinger5011 Wabash Pl.Louisville, KY 40214Email: [email protected]

Webmangler:Pete “I’m not” GayEmail: [email protected]

Editorial Assistant and whipping boy:Casper “The Friendly Ghost”

“Tactical Notes” is the Newsletter of the MilitaryModelers Club of Louisville, Inc. We here byassume absolutely no liability, guilt, blame orotherwise. If you don’t like what you read here, then writesomething and send it to us. We are so desperate, we’llpublish almost anything. Protected by copyright under

the laws of Sudan, East Timor and Nepal.

What you missed at the last meetingFebruary was MMCL’s first Friday Nightbuilding session of 2007. The meeting washeld on Friday, February 23rd, 2007. Over20 modelers attended and built everythingfrom armor and aircraft to flying modelrockets. There was much model fellowshipshared.

A VERY short business meeting was held,during which it was decided to exploreholding an invitational contest in May of2008. The usual meeting raffle was held,which raised over $90 for the club coffers.Skippy presented a check to the club forover $30 from the aluminum can collectionefforts. He urges all members to keepsaving aluminum cans and bringing themto the workshop on meeting nights orsaturday mornings. As is usual with theFirday night build sessions, the meeting,sharing and building went on late into thenight.

TTTTTrumpeter 1/144 Scrumpeter 1/144 Scrumpeter 1/144 Scrumpeter 1/144 Scrumpeter 1/144 ScalealealealealeShenyShenyShenyShenyShenyang F8-II/J8-II “Fang F8-II/J8-II “Fang F8-II/J8-II “Fang F8-II/J8-II “Fang F8-II/J8-II “Finback”inback”inback”inback”inback”Reviewed by Jim Pearsall

Originally published in the newsletter ofIPMS/Phoenix

The Aircraft: I’ve been fascinated by theexotic and unusual in aircraft, and this onefits both categories. When I saw this littlebox on a table at a swap meet, I had to haveone. The Finback apparently is adevelopment by the Chinese on their J-8,which uses the MiG-21 as its’ starting point.The wing and tail of the J-8II still have MiG-21 family resemblance, but the intakes havebeen moved back from the nose to thefuselage sides, and there are 2 engines. Thefuselage is bigger. Both to hold 2 engines,and to carry more fuel. This gives moreroom for avionics in the nose, and probablyovercomes the MiG-21’s short rangeproblems. Finding out anything about acurrent PLAAF aircraft is like gettinginformation on Warsaw Pact equipment inthe 1960s.There’s some information outthere, but it’s pretty slim. Mostly a fewphotos and some speculation aboutperformance. But the lack of informationjust adds to the mystery and makes it moreinteresting to me.The Kit: 3 sprues, in light grey, a clearcanopies, plus decals for one PLAAFaircraft, 40 parts plus the canopy. Thanks toInspector7, all the parts were there. The kithas recessed panel lines, but they are a littleon the heavy side. Think Matchbox, only

the lines are ½as wide and deep. There is anice little seat in the cockpit, but no stick,panel or consoles. But then, putting them inmight be revealing some State Secret. I didadd strips of Tamiya tape for seat belts. Theaircraft is armed with four “Atoll/Sidewinder” type missiles and two multiplerocket pods, plus a centerline tank. Thereare locating pins and holes for the pylons inthe wing and fuselage. There’s also a twin23mm gun pod on the underside of thefuselage. I wouldn’t recommend firing theguns before the nose gear has fullyretracted.Construction: This is a verystraightforward kit. No options. Buteverything fit together tightly. In factsometimes a little too tightly. The wingsand fuselage top are one part. The fuselagebottom is a tight fit into the wings, and inorder to get the fuselage front and rear tohold together while the glue set, I had toclamp it. It also took a little putty to get theupper and lower halves to line up. The onlyother issues with the kit itself were 1) Theejection seat is about ½ mm too wide for thecanopy to fit over it. Scrape a little off theedges of the seat, its fine. And 2) the “huge”sink mark in the exhaust. Since its 1/144, ittook a dab of putty about half the size of aBB to fill it. Sand it, paint it, it’s fine. Ifyou’re building the kit “gear down”, youalso have to cut the ventral fin, as it foldsfor ground clearance. Probably when thegear comes down, it folds up. The fold lineis indicated on the finishing drawing.Finishing: The painting and decalinstructions are a little sparse. There is nocolor callout for the overall aircraft color. Iguessed that the color the kit was moldedin was correct. Since I’d already applied redand green putty, there was going to have tobe some color painted on. TestorsModelMaster® Flat Gull Grey, 36440 isalmost a dead match for the plastic, sothat’s what I used. The other color numbersin the instruction apparently are for

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Humbrol colors. I used Testors enamels,silver for the fuselage rear, 34079 for theantennas and nose cone, Black for the tires,and Burnt Metal for the exhaust. Puttingthe decals on was not a huge chore. I didleave the underwing stores and landinggear off until I finished the decals, and I’mglad I did. I think I also found a mistake onthe instructions for the decals. “InvertedStar Phenomenon” strikes the PLAAF!! Thewing markings in all 4 positions are shownwith 2 points of the star pointing forward,and one aft. All the photos I can find ofPLAAF aircraft show the single pointforward, just like the US and Russian stars.Overall: I have a friend who always looksfor the simple and uncomplicated paintscheme for his kits. Three color camouflageis way too complex! Two colors? Not forhim. This is his kind of paint job. One coloroverall, with some details added. Andthat’s the kind of kit this is. No problemsbuilding, all the parts are there, nicelymolded, except for the exhaust, and it allfits with only a little work

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Ship of Ghosts: The Story of the USSHouston, FDR’s Legendary Lost Cruiser, andthe Epic Saga of her Survivors by James D.HornfischerReview by Rick Jackson

Originally published in the newletter of theOklahoma Historical Modelers Society

This book focuses on the USS Houston,one of America’s earliest and leastknown casualties of WWII. It starts bytelling some of the peacetime exploitsand how the relationship withRoosevelt mentioned in the title isforged. It then covers the ill-fated ABDAforce trapped on the wrong side of theJapanese expansion of late 1941 andearly 1942. Little has been writtenabout those days, probably because thelosses were distasteful to recall andbecause few survived to retell the tale.Though seriously overmatched, thecombined American, British, Dutchand Australian (hence ABDA) shipstried to slow down the Japaneseoffensive toward Java but werehampered by a lack of supplies,coordination and information. Aftermost of the force was wiped out in theBattle of the Java Sea, Houston andHMAS Perth tried to retire to Australiavia the Sunda Strait between Java andSumatra. Trying to sneak through a 15mile wide strait was dangerous enough.Running into the entire Japaneseinvasion force was disastrous. It was aknife fight in a phone booth. TheJapanese sunk both Allied ships andmore of their own than the Allies didduring the entire campaign. This onlytakes you through the first 100 pagesof the book. The rest tells the tale of thesurvivors who spent the rest of the waras prisoners until those that remainedwere liberated at the end. The crew,along with the members of the Texas’

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131st Artillery Battalion who alsosurrendered in Java, was transportedfrom Java to Singapore in threedifferent groups and their storiesbecame semi-independent. One groupcontaining most of the officers ends upin Japan working in the shipyards.They virtually disappear from the story,getting only two, brief mentions. Theother two go to Burma and work on theinfamous jungle rail line. When theyfinished work at one camp, they wouldmove further down the line. Nowadaysit is difficult to get one’s mind aroundthe utter brutality of the situation thesemen had to go through. Hollywoodhasn’t come close to telling the storiesthese men tell here. That any survivedis incredible. The prisoners’ associationwith the railroad didn’t end with itscompletion. Even before it was finished,it drew the attention of the Tenth AirForce operating out of India. Once inoperation, the Tenth made a concertedeffort to knock it out, which meantrepairs had to be made on almost adaily basis. Housed illegally close to theline, the POW’s were torn betweensatisfaction with the attempts todestroy the line and cursing the lousyaim of the bombers. While the mainevents are played out on the ocean, thePOW’s find their lives entwined withthe activities of OSS operatives workingon building a fifth column among theThai natives. Similar activity occurredon the British side. Both operationsshifted focus when it became apparenthow many prisoners were being held inthe country. In some respects, some ofthe greatest danger was faced by theprisoners during the final days of thewar. With help close at hand, there wasalso a real risk of the Japaneseeliminating them en masse. Leaving thejungle behind was physically possible,but difficult psychologically. Even when

they were on their way home, some ofthem continued to hide caches of foodaround them and they feared beingsearched. The last few chapters coverthe lives of the main subjects up to thepublication date (2006) of the book.Every possible outcome—difficulty inadjusting, great successes and failures,family problems—were faced by thesemen. Throughout the book, it is a littledifficult to keep track of everything. Asthe author tells the story inchronological order and covers variousevents, he skips from one person’srecollections to another and oftenjumps groups. Without a constantreminder of where he/they are located,it is hard to keep the total picture clear.Also, the author occasionally divergesinto a discussion on other topics that,while relevant to the story, frequentlydisrupts the flow. It is also interestinghow the real-life exploits of these mencross paths with famous literaryevents. While imprisoned in Singapore,they cross paths with British POWJames Clavell. It isn’t difficult to makea case that the main character in hislater novel King Rat is based on aHouston Marine. Even though theyworked on a completely differentportion of the line, you can’t mentionthe Burma Railroad without evokingthoughts of The Bridge on the RiverKwai in spite of that story being aboutas far from the truth as a work ofscience fiction. At the end of his book,the author says as much about both.

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Show Report: IPMS/Columbus modelcontest a.k.a BlizzardconReport by D.M. Knightswww.davidmknights.com

This year, Blizzardcon lived up to itsname. When Dr. Terry Hill, RichGuetig and I left Louisville at 5:45 a.m.in the morning, a light snow wasfalling. By the time we were inNorthern KY, it was a steady snow. Bythe time we got to Columbus, it was amini blizzard. Columbus got 6 inchesof snow. Thanks to Terry’s fine drivingwe arrived at the show by 9:30 a.m.,having taken only about 40 minutesmore that our normal trip time.

The show was held in the Shriners hallwhere it has been for the last couple ofyears. The hall is nice and has goodaccess from the interstate. However,the lighting is awful, especially in themodel area. The good news is that thesnow did not seem to hurt attendanceat all. According to the guys inColumbus, the show had 509 modelsentered and the attendance was upover last year. The vendor’s area wasfull and those in attendance were doinga brisk business. For some reason Imanaged not to spend much money inthe vendor’s area. Nothing reallystruck my fancy. However, both Richand Terry managed to locate items topurchase.

Given the poor lighting conditions, Idon’t know how the judges did theirjob. It was a tough job too. There weresome great entries. Accompanying thisreport is a photo of a 72nd scale Me-410 that was really nice, though thelight in the contest area was so lowthat I didn’t realize how good it wasuntil I looked at the photo. The bestmilitary vehicle was a German

ambulance conversion. There weremany models of this quality that wereentered.

I really enjoyed the show. Dr. Hill andRich Guetig both won awards for theirmodels. I’ll probably go again nextyear, but I sure hope they dosomething about the lighting, or find adifferent venue.

Can Man Report (Recycle

Update)By Scott “Skippy” King 2005 $257.19 2006 $151.23 Not sure as I didn’tkeep track very well, nor did I post toNewsletter, nor did I work very hard atcollecting last year. I do have stubs forthis much anyway 2007 $31.68 for January - 48 lb @$0.66/lb Thanks David Knights andBrian Bunger especially I propose we put forth a good effortthis year. The current price ofAluminum is $0.66 to $0.72 per lb, andif there are 33 cans per pound eachcan is about 2 cents’ worth. It is easyto see that with some effort we canraise some money to help offset clubexpenses.Anyway that’s ”My Two Cents’ Worth”Skippy

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From the Cupola by Mike Baskette

Despite my attendance being reduced to a cameo appearance at the Februarymeeting, I was quite pleased to see the first quarter Friday Night Fights so wellattended. I hope all that attended had an enjoyable experience. February is a busymonth for me that usually ends with the Ohio Valley Military Society’s Show ofShow, hence my late showing to the February meeting. This militaria show hassteadily grown over the last 14 years to become what is arguably the best militariashow worldwide. If you have an interest in military history, it is worth spending aday or half day just wandering the show aisles as several MMCL membershappened to do.

I want to thank Stu Cox for filling in for me with the business portion of themeeting. It sounds like we will explore hosting an invitational in late spring of nextyear. I will be most curious what thoughts along those lines have taken hold andwe will discuss the broader aspects of hosting such an event at this monthsmeeting. Other business that will need to be wrapped up this month is renewals.Historically, the March meeting marks the end of our annual renewal process.Once the membership roster is reconciled at the end of this month, thosemembers having not renewed will be dropped from the roles. If you have notrenewed, now is the time!

More interesting however, is what we have in store for the March meeting. Thismonth we will be having the first quarter contest. In addition to this regular event,we will also have the final installment of our Digital Photography clinic with RandyFuller bringing his professional grade photo equipment. We will have a club photoshoot with the contest models and any others that members care to bring. So let’sbring some!

First quarter is coming to a close and it looks like MMCL is off to a strong start.Hopefully we can gain some momentum this spring and keep the programscoming. If anyone is interested in presenting some form of program, clinic, etc.Please let the officers know and we will get you on the schedule. Finally, thenewsletter is always in need of articles. We welcome any and all submissions.I will see you at the meeting!

Book Review:

Dutch Profile:

Lockheed L-12/212Tac

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April 2007



IN THIS ISSUE:

Next Meeting:Next Meeting:Next Meeting:Next Meeting:Next Meeting:ThursdaThursdaThursdaThursdaThursday, March 19th, 2007y, March 19th, 2007y, March 19th, 2007y, March 19th, 2007y, March 19th, 20077:00 P7:00 P7:00 P7:00 P7:00 P.M..M..M..M..M.FFFFFeaeaeaeaeatured Ttured Ttured Ttured Ttured Topic: Mike’s SiG-33opic: Mike’s SiG-33opic: Mike’s SiG-33opic: Mike’s SiG-33opic: Mike’s SiG-33

From The Cupola:

Words of Wisdom from

Mikey “Nine-fingers” Baskette

Kit build: Bob Hoover’s P-51 “Ole Yeller”

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To contact MMCL:

President:Mikey “Nine Fingers” BasketteEmail: [email protected]

Vice President:Stuart “Fish boy” CoxEmail: [email protected].

Secretary:Rich “Biology Bob” GuetingEmail:[email protected]

Member at Large:Noel “CIA” WalkerEmail: [email protected]


Webmangler:Pete “Mr. AMPS” GayEmail: [email protected]




What you missed at the last meetingDespite March madness being in full swing andthe meeting falling early in the month,approximately 20 members of MMCL attended themeeting on Monday March 15th, 2007. After somediscussion of the possibility of MMCL holding aninvitational contest in 2008, the monthly clubraffle was held. After the raffle, the main event ofthe evening was Randy Fuller and his part 2 ofthe discussion of digital model photography, thefirst part of which was presented at the Januarymeeting by Mike Baskette and David Knights.

Randy is a professional photographer and he wasable to provide many interesting hints and tips forproducing top quality model photographs. Randyalso brought his photo setup to the meeting andphotographed several models that members hadbrought in. The crowd was highly interested inwhat Randy had to say and the meeting finallybroke up around 9:00 p.m. The next meeting isThursday March 19th, 2007 at 7:00 p.m.

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Lockheed L-12 / 212Historie, Camouflage EnKentekensDutch Profile Nr 1by Gerard Casius

Review by Scott King MMCL

21 pages, 17 color profiles, 48photographs

The ML-KNIL (Royal Netherlands EastIndies Army Air Corps) was the largestsingle user of the 130 Lockheed L-12 /212 aircraft built, having ordered some36 examples. This title, notsurprisingly, deals exclusively withthese Dutch machines.

There were two versions built for theDutch, the L-12 which was unarmed,and the L-212 which was equippedwith a nose gun, dorsal turret, andcould carry a small external bomb load.There were sixteen L-212’s and two L-12’s delivered to the East Indies, thebalance of the orders, eighteen L-12’s,were diverted initially to Australia,India, and to the Royal NetherlandsMilitary Flying School (RNMFS) inJackson, Miss. One of theL-212’s delivered to the East Indiesescaped the Japanese occupation ofJava, flying out on March 9, 1942 fromPameungpeuk, Java to Colombo,Ceylon via Medan and Lho NgaSumatra, crewed by Dutch, Canadian,Australian and New Zealand pilots.This story is covered in some detail inthe Profile.* One of the DutchLockheeds survives in the Dutch AirForce Museum in Soesterberg.**

As is typical with many foreignpublications, the main text is in the

language of the country of origin (inthis case Dutch) but this is not as big adrawback as it might seem, for a nicetwo-sided sheet is included withEnglish translations for all the photocaptions. A short history is alsotranslated.

The color profiles are a great featureand spotlight various examples frompre-war to post-war, but are also theone thing I have an issue with. Theturreted aircraft are in my opinionincorrectly drawn as regards thelocation of the turret. The drawingsshow the turret location too farforward, with the rearmost part of theturret tangent to the first main panelaft of the fuselage door. Thephotographs show the turret to becentered on the same panel line.Builders of the Special Hobby L-212 kit#72094, which requires the builder toremove a 12mm circle for the turret,should take note. The kit’sinstructions show the correct location,but the lines inscribed inside thefuselage for the turret hole arewrong.

This publication includes a Camouflageand Markings section (also translatedinto English), a Technical Specificationsection, and a description of the kits(Dekno and Special Hobby) and decals(Dutch Decals) available for the L-12and L-212.

All in all a very nice publication aboutan aircraft I never expected to see,receive such treatment. I highlyrecommend it to anyone interested inML-KNIL aircraft. Available fromMeteor Productions.

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Modeling Bob Hoover’s“Ole Yeller” P-51DMustangby Dennis Sparks MMCL

The history…

The initial USAAF service record forthis P-51D, s/n 44-74739, isapparently unknown. It wastransferred to the Royal Canadian AirForce in 1951, where it served as#9297 until being sold in 1959. Afterpassing through several civilianowners, it was purchased by CavalierAircraft, where it was refurbished andconverted into a two-seater and wassold to Bob Hoover in 1971. Paintedan overall bright yellow, Hoover used itin over 1000 air show performances.For twenty years he also used it as theofficial starter and pace aircraft for theNational Air Races at Reno, Nevada.

From 1971 until 1986, it wasemblazoned with the name of Hoover’semployer, Rockwell International,painted in large black letters along thesides of the fuselage. In 1987, Hooverwent to work for Evergreen, and theirlogo replaced Rockwell on the fuselage,while retaining the same yellow paintscheme.

In 1997, Hoover sold “Ole Yeller” toJohn Bagley. The Evergreen logo wasremoved, but in tribute to Hoover,

Bagley retained the yellow paintscheme and Hoover’s name on thewings and vertical tail. And afterserving for so many years as thestarter, “Ole Yeller” finally got thechance to compete in the Reno races.Wearing race #47, Bagley has competedwith the aircraft every year since 1999.

The model…

I was strolling along the rows ofvendor’s tables at the 2005 Cincinnatishow when traffic congestion forced meto a stop in front of Keith Davidson’stable. Keith produces Red Pegasusdecals, a line which specializes in airracing subjects.

Now I admit that on several occasionsI’d toyed with the idea building a modelor two of some of the Unlimited class ofrace planes. But the potential need forheavy modifications to the airframe,plus the difficulty of reproducing themarkings gave me some pause. But asI thumbed through his selection ofdecals, some of the subjects looked do-able. I eventually purchased two of hissheets, for the Evergreen incarnation of“Ole Yeller” and for “Bardahl Miss”.Both were relatively stock P-51Ds withbright, but uncomplicated paintschemes. I then set about securing acouple of kits to go with my purchase,and was able to find Hasegawa P-51Dsfrom two different vendors for $10each.

When I started on the model about ayear later, I turned my attention first tothe cockpit. Cavalier had removed thefuel tank immediately behind the pilotand added a second seat. A fewminutes work with a hobby knife wasall that was needed to remove the radiodecking above the tank, and a new

*See also “Bloody Shambles”Volume Two, Pgs 339-342

** A similar Lockheed L-12 that wasdelivered originally to BritishAirways now resides in theKentucky Aviation Museum inLexington, KY

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floor was fabricated for the newlyextended portion of the cockpit,coincidentally using a piece ofEvergreen sheet plastic. A scrappedMonogram P-51D donated its seat, andthe armored headrests were removedfrom both. Keith’s instructions left alot to be desired in the way of cockpitdetailing, and I wasn’t sufficientlymotivated to actually search foradditional information on my own.Keith did mention that the basic colorwas a light gray, plus some brownleather padding. He noted that most ofthe instrument panel had beenchanged, but provided no

enlightenment as to the appearance ofthe modified panel. I settled for simplyremoving the gun sight, leaving the restof the panel and the cockpit’s side wallsunaltered.

After assembling the wings, I carved offthe machine guns and sanded theleading edge smooth, and then filled inthe shell ejection chutes on theunderside of the wing. This last bitproved to be more challenging than Iwould have anticipated. I filled therectangular slots with suitably sized

pieces of Evergreen plastic, thensanded, filled and primed, followed bywhat seemed to be another half dozeniterations before evidence of the slotsbegan to disappear. While paintingother models, I’d grab the Mustang andshoot a little of whatever color was inthe air brush at the time. Almost all ofthis was sanded off as I tried toeliminate all traces of the holes.

Other than the occasional use as aprimer, I haven’t used spray cans onmodels in many years. But whileworking part time at the HobbyTownhere in Lexington, I’ve heard a number

of favorable comments from customersabout Tamiya’s line of lacquer spraypaints. So I bought a can of their TS-34Camel Yellow to use on this model tosee for myself how well it worked.Unlike most lacquers, it can be applieddirectly on bare polystyrene. Becauseof this, and since the kit was molded ina pale gray, I elected to omit anyprimer, which was a decision that I wassoon to regret.

I stuffed the cockpit with tissue andgave the model a couple of light coats.Coverage seemed good, nice and gloss

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and with little “orange peel”. But therewas one huge “fisheye” on the bottomof one wing.

Perhaps a few hundred words ofexplanation are in order for modelerswho don’t often try to reproduce glossypainted surfaces. “Orange peel” is usedto describe the pebbly surface thatresults when the droplets of gloss paintbegin to dry on the freshly paintedsurface before they have time to mergetogether. For an example of this, lookat your refrigerator, washer or dryer.The surface is glossy but irregular, like… an orange peel.

When painting with an airbrush, youcan reduce the orange peel effect byadding more thinner, but with spraycans this of course isn’t an option. Inmy admittedly limited experience,Testors spray paints frequentlyproduced orange peel, so I was pleasedto see that the Tamiya cans didn’t seemto have this “feature”. Orange peel canbe removed or at least greatly reducedafter the fact by judicious wet sandingwith a very fine sandpaper (I use DetailMasters 3600 grit), followed by a littlebuffing with Tamiya’s Fine polishingcompound.

Fisheyes are an unrelated problem,usually attributed to a small amount ofoil inadvertently left on the surfaceprior to painting. The oil repels the wetpaint, creating a round spot that’smostly devoid of paint. The WORSTthing you can do is try to spray anothercoat over it. The cure is to let it dry,wet sand the ridge of the fisheye down,scrub it clean with soap and water, andrepaint.

Since I’d had so much trouble witheliminating the shell ejection chutes on

the bottom of the wing, I’d done a lot ofsanding and rinsing cycles and so Ithought it safe to skip a final scrubbingbefore starting to apply to yellow. Mypenance for omitting this step was toperform several repeated cycles ofsand-wash-dry-paint, followed by thereappearance of the fisheye in the sameplace. Shortly before attempting to seehow far I could fling the model, I finallymanaged to cover the offendingblemish. But I used almost an entirecan to paint one smallish model!

With an acceptable paint finishachieved, I turned to decaling themodel, which was another tribulation.I’ve used aftermarket decals for manyyears, and thought that I wasaccustomed to dealing with theirfragility, but this sheet raised the wordto a whole new level. They adheredwell, but tore apart very easily with theslightest attempt at repositioning them.I ended up completely trashing one ofthe EVERGREEN decals that weresupposed to be on the bottom side ofeach wing, so in my world, Ole Yelleronly had it painted on one wing.

One final note – the Hasegawa kitprovided both the Hamilton Standardcuffed prop and the less often seenAeroproducts uncuffed prop. But atleast some late or post-war Mustangshad a third type of prop, made byHamilton Standard, but without thecuffs. The real Ole Yeller has this lasttype, and the blades have both a widerchord and a squared off tip, makingthem visibly rather different from theAeroproducts unit. I tell myself thatthe installation of the kit’sAeroproducts prop is only a temporaryexpedient until I run across areplacement…

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From the Cupola by Mike “Thumbkin” Baskette

Greetings,

Spring is here to stay finally and with everything greening up, model time is againat a premium. I will start this month by saying be careful out there in the yard. Ispent the better part of Saturday, March 24th in the ER of the hospital down thestreet having the nearly severed, top 1/4" of my left thumb sewn back down. I gota bit careless with a bow saw while dead wooding some shrubs. So now I am allbandaged up with several stitches, with a portion of them sewn right through mythumbnail. It hurts and I can’t do much in the workshop due to the bandage andthumb splint.

Due to a low number of models being brought to the March meeting, those inattendance choose to defer the first quarter open contest until the April meeting.So, you have a few weeks to finish up any latent projects and bring them in for thecontest. In addition to the normal contest, Randy Fuller has been kind enough toonce again bring his photography equipment so that contest models and anyothers brought to the meeting can be photographed. We all enjoyed Randy’spresentation at the March meeting. His model photography clinic from a moreprofessional point of view was very educational.

The principle matter of business facing MMCL at the moment is the hosting of acontest in the spring of 2008. The decision to host a show is pretty much made,but presently the officer body is exploring whether that event should be astandard invitational or if we wish to go ahead and take the unclaimed regionalevent that is still open to us. Either way, we should have a decision for the nextmeeting as there are several folks on our “defacto” show committee who are eagerto get started.

Finally, at the April meeting I will be presenting what I will dub and “extremeshow and tell”. This will be a PowerPoint slide presentation of my Dragon SiG33project. Given my injury, I may not get to complete the model, but it is far enoughalong and many photos have been taken to date. I should have ample material toput something together. Hopefully, this will be catalyst for others to attempt theirown project presentations for future club meetings.

On the right,a photo of ourpresident’sinjured digit.

Book Review:

Book Review:

Book Review:

Book Review:

Book Review:

Raid on the sun

Raid on the sun

Raid on the sun

Raid on the sun

Raid on the sun

Tac

tic

al

No

tes

May 2007



IN THIS ISSUE:

Next Meeting:Next Meeting:Next Meeting:Next Meeting:Next Meeting:ThursdaThursdaThursdaThursdaThursday, May, May, May, May, May 17th, 2007y 17th, 2007y 17th, 2007y 17th, 2007y 17th, 20077:00 P7:00 P7:00 P7:00 P7:00 P.M..M..M..M..M.FFFFFeaeaeaeaeatured Ttured Ttured Ttured Ttured Topic:Rusopic:Rusopic:Rusopic:Rusopic:Russian Infsian Infsian Infsian Infsian Infantryantryantryantryantryuniforms and equipmentuniforms and equipmentuniforms and equipmentuniforms and equipmentuniforms and equipment

FFFFFrom The Cupola:

rom The Cupola:

rom The Cupola:

rom The Cupola:

rom The Cupola:

Mike Basket

Mike Basket

Mike Basket

Mike Basket

Mike Baskette Speaks!!!

te Speaks!!!

te Speaks!!!

te Speaks!!!

te Speaks!!!

Kit build:

Kit build:

Kit build:

Kit build:

Kit build: Dennis Sp

Dennis Sp

Dennis Sp

Dennis Sp

Dennis Spark’s F

ark’s F

ark’s F

ark’s F

ark’s Fokker dXXI

okker dXXI

okker dXXI

okker dXXI

okker dXXI

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To contact MMCL:

President:Mikey “Thumbkin” BasketteEmail: [email protected]


Secretary:Rich “Bonebreaker” GuetingEmail:[email protected]

Member at Large:Noel “KFB” WalkerEmail: [email protected]


Webmangler:Pete “The German” GayEmail: [email protected]




What you missed at the last meeting

WOW. If you missed the April meeting, youmissed a lot. The meeting was held on April19th, 2007 at 7 p.m. About 25 members were inattendance, including many faces that have notbeen seen in some time. Member Tim Pivonkatraveled all the way in from Kansas to attendour monthly meeting. A short business meetingwas held. Most of the discussion was aboutMMCL plans to hold contests in 2008 and 2009.The contest committee is investigating venuesand prices. It was also decided to hold theannual club auction in June. Scott “The CanMan” King presented the club with checks forthe recent aluminum recycling effort. He urgeseveryone to continue to bring aluminum cans tothe workshop.

After the business meeting, the “quarterly”contest was held. Rich Guetig won first placewith his 48th scale Schwimmvagen. Themonthly raffle was held with many great models.After the raffle, Mike Baskette presented themain event for the evening, his “Extreme Showand Tell” on the construction of his 1/35th scaleSiG 33. The presentation was done via a PowerPoint slide show. The many “underconstruction” photos were very informative, andthe presentation drew much discussion from theaudience.

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Building a Finnish AirForce FokkerD.XXI

By Dennis Sparks,MMCL, IPMS/USA

HistoricalBackground

The D.XXI wasoriginally designed in 1935 to meet aRoyal Netherlands East Indies Army AirService requirement for a relativelyinexpensive fighter plane that would beeasier to maintain under moreprimitive operating conditions. The

NEI order was later cancelled, but 36aircraft that had been ordered for usein Europe were delivered in time to beused against the invading GermanLuftwaffe in May 1940. Althoughslower and more lightly armed than theBf 109, they performed surprisinglywell in individual dogfights due to theirsuperior maneuverability. But facedwith an overwhelming numerical

superiority, all of the Dutch D.XXIswere quickly destroyed.

The Finnish Air Force had purchasedseven examples of the D.XXI in 1938and had also secured the right to buildthe aircraft under license. FourteenSeries II aircraft and a further 21Series III D.XXIs were built in Finlandin time for the 105 day Winter Waragainst the Soviets. Fifty more werecompleted in time for the laterContinuation War.

Facing a less well-equipped enemyduring the Winter War, Finnish D.XXIsfared much better than their Dutchcounterparts. Skis replaced the wheels

on the fixed landinggear during much ofthe war, makingoperations possiblefrom snow-coveredairfields. The Finnsclaimed 129victories with theD.XXI over theSoviets against onlyeight losses, a 16:1victory ratio. Butby the time of theContinuation War,the Soviets hadbegun operatingmore advancedaircraft. The D.XXI

did not fare as well against them andso were replaced or relegated to secondline duties as soon as possible.

The D.XXI was the last fighter designby the Fokker company to seeproduction. One prototype was builtfor the later twin-boom, twin-enginepush-pull D.XXIII, but theContinuation War was the last timethat anyone could legitimately use the

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old joke about “a couple of Fokkersshooting at me”.

By the beginning of the Winter War, allof the Finnish D.XXIs had been paintedin a simple scheme of dark green overlight gray. But in the course of myreading I learned that the first sevenimported aircraft had been delivered ina semi-gloss dark coffee brown uppercolor over a painted silverundersurface, and that’s how I chose topaint this model. I opted for serialnumber FR-80, which was the fifthD.XXI to be delivered.

As the D.XXI was a new type of aircraftfor the Finnish Air Force, shortly afterit was delivered FR-80 was selected fora series of recognition photographstaken by an air force photographer.The model depicts the aircraft as itappeared in those photographs, whichwere taken in August 1938.

FR-80 was later assigned to Llv 24(Fighter Sqn. 24) and Finland’s first

ace, Lt. Jorma Sarvanto used it toscore two of his total of 13 victoriesduring the Winter War. The aircraftwas shot down over Helsinki on 19February 1940 by a Soviet I-16. Itspilot, a Danish volunteer namedErhard Frijs, was killed.

The Model

This model is the second D.XXI thatI’ve built using the 1/48th scale ClassicAirframes kit, with the first onecompleted several years ago as one ofthe Dutch AF aircraft. When I boughtthe second kit, I also bought the resinskis and engine cowling needed toreproduce a D.XXI used during theWinter War. But when I got ready tobuild this kit, I couldn’t FIND them! Ieven found the box that they wereoriginally packaged in and theinstruction sheet, but I still have noidea what I’ve done with the partsthemselves.

The design of the canopy was altered abit on the Finnish-built aircraft, andthis different canopywas not included inthe aftermarketparts. Given myaversion toattempting tovacuform a newcanopy, my availablelist of subjects tomodel was thusconstrained to thefirst seven aircraftthat were built inthe Netherlands andwere purchased byFinland.

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The kit comes with an extensivephotoetch fret that contains thatportion of the tubular steel fuselageinternal framework that was visible inthe cockpit. Suppressing mymisgivings, I built the cockpit per kitinstructions, only to discover that itwouldn’t then fit into the fuselage. Itwas a clear case of déjà vu all overagain, as it was at THIS point that Iremembered that I’d had the sameproblem with the first D.XXI kit.

For a few brief moments, the kitresided in the garbage can. But uponfurther reflection, I recovered it andproceeded to bend, curse, carve, curse,sand, curse, etc. until I was able toforce the assembled cockpit into placein the fuselage, albeit in a rathermangled condition. Perhaps if I’d laterelected to build the model with anopened canopy the result of all of thiseffort could have actually been seen onthe completed model. Should any ofyou face a similar decision, I heartilyrecommending chucking the bulk ofthe photoetched parts and building asuitable replacement cockpit fromplastic sheet and rod stock.

The small blisters that are evenlyspaced around the cowling wereprovided in the kit as oversized resinlumps, but with no spares to replacethe ones that I would inevitably losewhile trying to attach them. Aftercomparing their size and shape withthe ones seen in the photos, I electedinstead to carve them from Evergreenplastic strips, which allowed me theluxury of dropping one or two of them.

The wingtip lights on these firstFinnish D.XXIs were differently placedand shaped than as depicted on the kit,so I sanded them off and fashioned new

ones, again using bits of Evergreenstrip. I also modified the top of thevertical stabilizer, adding the light thatwas situated in an odd cutout betweenthe fin and the rudder. FinnishD.XXIs also had a huge landing lightmounted under one wing, and I madethis using scrap parts, using TestorsClear Parts Cement for the lens. Idiscarded the kit’s exhaust pipe andcarburetor intakes, fashioning newones from my now dwindling supply ofEvergreen.

I used Floquil’s Old Silver for the silverpainted undersurface. After consultingcolor photos of a restored Dutch D.XXI,I selected Humbrol #177 for the brownupper color (or dare I say “colour”?).These were followed by a coat of Futureapplied with a soft brush.

Aeromaster sheet #48-203 provided theappropriate national insignia and thesomewhat oversized aircraft serialnumber. The canopy was attached andthe joint filled in as needed withTestors Clear Parts cement. A secondcoat of Future was brushed on to blendin the necessary paint touchupsaround the canopy. Completing themodel, a final coat of Future that hadbeen dulled slightly by the addition ofTamiya’s Flat Base was then appliedwith an airbrush. As I was trying todepict a newly built aircraft, I kept theweathering to a minimum, using only abit of the usual chalk and washes onthe hinge lines of the control surfaces.

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Book ReviewRaid on the Sunby Rodger W. ClairePublished 2005288 pagesISBN: 978-0-7679-1425-3 (0-7679-1425-2)

Review byD.M. KnightsMMCL, IPMS/USA,IPMS/Canada,AMPS, SAFCH

In “Raid on theSun”, authorRodger W. Clairedescribes the 1981

raid by the Israeli Air Force on the IraqiOsarik nuclear reactor complex. Giventhe recent tensions over the Iraniannuclear program, this story has acertain relevance to current events. Theproblem the author faces is how tomake a story about an air strike inwhich the raiding forces suffered nolosses and indeed, had none of theiraircraft even hit by anti-aircraft fire,interesting.

Mr. Claire does an admirable job ofkeeping the story exciting, even if thereader already knows the outcome.The author describes the beginning ofthe Iraqi nuclear program, and thesubsequent Israeli efforts to derail theprogram. The raid on the facility by theIranian Air Force during the Iran-Iraqwar is mentioned as are the Israeliefforts to keep equipment out of thehands of the Iraqi nuclear scientist by

sabotage at the source of thematerials in France.

Finally, the heart of the book isthe story of the planning andexecution of the raid by the F-16s of the IAF with fighterescort provided by F-15s. Thesecrecy of the raid was almostcompromised at the start, whenthe raiding aircraft overflew the

Jordanian royal yacht on which theKing of Jordan spending the weekend.As most people know, the raid wasspectacularly successful, with theIsraelis destroying the Iraqi facilitywithout the loss of any aircraft.

There are a few errors in the text. Atone point the author refers to Iraq’s“Tupelov fighters” (The Iraqis had onlyTupolev bombers, not fighters. All theIraqi fighters from Russia were eitherMiGs or Sukohis.) . In another place,he speaks of a Kifr’s engines (A Kfir hasonly a single engine.) However, thesesmall errors really do not distract fromthe author’s overall presentation of thisinteresting story. I recommend thebook. It is a good read.

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Doug Lee’slatest diorama

Two of MMCL’sfinest members,webmaster PeteGay and JohnCharvat.

The AMPSvendors area

MY TWO CENTS’ WORTHBy Scott “Skippy” KingMMCL, IPMS/USA, IMPS/Netherlands

Aluminum for the year so far:

Jan 50 lb aluminum cans @ $0.72/lb = $36.00 1 lb other alu. @ $0.52/lb = $ .52 ——— $36.52 Mar 10 lb aluminum cans @ $0.71/lb = $ 7.10 1 lb other alu @ $0.55/lb = $ .55 ——— $ 7.65 Apr 51 lb aluminum cans @ $0.71/lb = $ 36.21 Total YTD $80.38 The other aluminum is pet food cans and such that are anodized and or enameledon the interior, River Metals wants them separate from the pop and beer cans. Also they will take things like discarded aluminum cooking ware, aluminum patiofurniture, aluminum storm doors/windows etc It takes about 33 cans to make a pound of aluminum so each can is worth a littlemore than 2 cents. The price has more than doubled over the last 3 years - thefirst load I took from the old bunker was $0.33/lb. With a little effort we canmake some money for the club.

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More AMPS photos

KNOXVILLE SHOWREPORT

By Dr. Terry Hill, MMCL, IPMS/USA,AMPS

On March16th, RichardGeutig and I set offon the greatadventure to attendthe SmokeyMountain ModelConvention hostedat the Civic

Coliseum in Knoxville, TN. We leftaround 3:00pm on Friday traveling ona crisp sunny day. With a fairly quietdrive while pointing out some localhighlights along the way (the HUSTLERSHOP in Lexington etc); we arrived inKnoxville around 7:00. We werebooked in the downtown Marriot whichwas directly across the street from theColiseum. We registered and droppedour stuff in our room and went lookingfor dinner. There was a restaurant inthe Hotel and we both enjoyed a nicesteak dinner. Afterwards, we retired tothe Legends sports bar in the hotel towatch the NCAA basketball games. The next morning dawned cold, butbright and we were ready to party. Wedrove over to the coliseum where weunloaded our entries paid theregistration fees, set up the entries,and hit the vendors. The vendors left alot to be desired. It was a small showwith around 15 vendors with not agreat deal of things to choose from. Wespent around an hour gleaning whatwas there, then decided to strike outfor adventure. Prior to our trip down to Knoxville,I had gotten a listing of hobby shops inKnoxville. Pickings were slim at best,

but we were determined to see if wecould find something. After stopping ata gas station and buying a Knoxvillestreet map, we set off on our quest. Our first target was a shop called M&NHobbies. We followed the map thattook us out into the rural area to theNortheast of Knoxville. As we wentfurther and further out into thecountry, I began to get a real badfeeling about this boss. Finally aftercareful search, we located the shopwhich was a garage behind someone’shouse. We had to decide if we wantedto risk getting out of the car. I swore Iheard banjo music playing even withthe car windows rolled up. We passedon that opportunity and decided to goto Hobbytown USA. This was all theway across Knoxville to the southwestof where we were. This did not deteryour hardy modelers, ever eager to findnew goodies. After about a 25 minutedrive, we found ourselves in theparking lot in front of an emptystorefront that HAD been HobbytownUSA. This was not looking good. Wedecided to head back to the hotel, graba bite to eat at Legends and catch alittle of the NCAA while waiting for thejudging to take place. Well don’t youknow it, Legends doesn’t open until2:00 and it is 11:00. Once morefunkled by the fickle finger of fate. Wedecided to head back the way we hadjust come from the area of Hobbytownbecause we saw many restaurants. Wedrove back the interstate, got off theexit and was looking for a TexasRoadhouse when lo and behold, therewas a Hooter’s. The tradition lives on,and we had lunch at Hooter’s whilewatching basketball.Part 2 After lunch we headed back to theshow and awaited the results of thejudging. There were a total of 235

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entries (I had counted each and everyone of them) spread over all categories. The results of the judging gave me 1stand 2 Honorable mentions in theDiorama Category. The Honorablementions were awarded instead of 3rdplace awards. Rich received severalsecond place awards and severalHonorable mentions. Dan the manfrom Brian’s shop received a 1st placein the biplane category. All in all not abad representation for our club. Ithink those guys will remember us. Asstated, the show was rather small incomparison to others we have been to,but the trip was fun, the hotel wasgood, the food was acceptable, and Imight consider doing it again nextyear.

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First dirigible flights inKentucky

By Dennis Sparks MMCL, IPMS/USA

By the turn of the century, as heavierthan air gliders were still struggling tomake their first tentative flights, thescience of ballooning was rather moreadvanced. With the advent of the firstlightweight steam and gasoline engines,controlled lighter-than-air flightbecame practical. In 1898, AlbertoSantos-Dumont built his first of aneventual fourteen dirigibles. In 1901,he successfully navigated one aroundthe Eiffel Tower in Paris.

In August of 1906, Horace B. Wild fromChicago made the first such flights inKentucky, making severaldemonstration flights with his 75 footlong dirigible airship Eagle, which waspowered by a 6 hp. gasoline engine.Flying from the newly constructed

Fountaine Ferry amusement park onSouth West Parkway in Louisville, onone flight he followed Jefferson Streetdowntown, intending to land at Fourthand Market Streets. After running outof gasoline just short of his destination,the airship alit unharmed atop abuilding on Market Street. Using ropesto secure Eagle’s gondola between achimney and a firewall, he clambereddown and set off to buy more gasoline.He then flew back to the amusementpark without further incident.

On 30 August, he set an Americanendurance record of five hours andtwenty minutes, steering up and downthe Ohio River, landing in New Albany,Indiana when his fuel was exhausted.Two years later at the Kentucky StateFair, Wild made daily demonstrationflights with his new dirigible, City ofLouisville.

Info above from a 1906 Courier-Journal article via Charles Arrington

From the Cupola by Mike “Thumbkin” Baskette

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Well, if you missed the April meeting you missed a good one.Hopefully we can continue the momentum as attendanceseems to be picking up again. April played host to numerousactivities which are outlined in the meeting summary in thismonths newsletter so I will not elaborate on them. One detailI would like to mention would be how nice it was to see allthe old faces that happened to show up last month. Someoneeven commented that it was MMCL ghost night. Regardless, itwas sure nice to see all you folks again.

There were two pieces of business that will carry over from the April meeting. Theprinciple one being the 2008 and 2009 show proposals. I encourage all who wishto participate to get involved with Terry Hill and David Knights, our volunteershow committee. The MMCL show building process is a well oiled machine that Iplan on letting run it’s course. I do not plan on burning a bunch of meeting timein the coming months hashing out the details in open forum. If you have ideas,concerns, or just wish to help out, address these issues with our show planners.Of course any major issues that require full discussion will be addressed asneeded.

The second item of business will be the pending vote this month on the liquidationof club workshop assets. In the context that it is highly unlikely that MMCL willever again enjoy the workshop arrangement we had in the basement of Terry Hill’sformer office location, a proposal has been made to liquidate the club workshopassets. The premise is that these assets have largely gone unused for the lastcouple of years since our move to the KYANA facility. Liquidating the unusedequipment could be used to prop up the club treasury a bit and some mightpossibly be reinvested into items that would be more useful in our current shopsituation. At the May meeting, the club will be asked to cast a vote to determine ifthis process will go forward. How we actually go about it will likely be a separateorder of business.

Finally, we will be having another program at the May meeting. Yours truly will bebringing a small portion of my militaria collection for display and lecture, sort ofRed Threads Live. The topic that will be covered is the Red Army infantrymancirca 1941. I plan on giving those interested some insight as to what the typicalRed Army rank and file was wearing and carrying in the opening stages of the waron the Eastern Front.Hopefully, this will be the beginning of several suchpresentations in which other cross sections of Soviet military dress will beconsidered.

See you at the meeting!

Model Show Review:

Model Show Review:

Model Show Review:

Model Show Review:

Model Show Review:

The Region 5 Convention





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IN THIS ISSUE:

Next Meeting:Next Meeting:Next Meeting:Next Meeting:Next Meeting:ThursdaThursdaThursdaThursdaThursday, June 21st,y, June 21st,y, June 21st,y, June 21st,y, June 21st,200720072007200720077:00 P7:00 P7:00 P7:00 P7:00 P.M..M..M..M..M.FFFFFeaeaeaeaeatured Ttured Ttured Ttured Ttured Topic: Theopic: Theopic: Theopic: Theopic: TheAnnuAnnuAnnuAnnuAnnualalalalalAAAAAuction!!!!!! Beuction!!!!!! Beuction!!!!!! Beuction!!!!!! Beuction!!!!!! BeThere!!!!!!!There!!!!!!!There!!!!!!!There!!!!!!!There!!!!!!!


rom The Cupola:

rom The Cupola:

rom The Cupola:

rom The Cupola:

The Bird Dog

The Bird Dog

The Bird Dog

The Bird Dog

The Bird DogModel Photography Basic

Model Photography Basic



Model Photography Basicsssss

1

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What you missed at the last meeting

May continued the string of excellent meetings in2007. Even with the beautiful spring weather,attendance at the meeting was excellent. After anadmirably short business meeting and veryproductive raffle, the main event of the eveningbegan. A number of in progress models werebrought by various members. The many memberspresent enjoyed viewing the models displayed.Our intrepid president, Mike Baskette presented atalk on uniforms and equipment of the Russianarmy infantryman 1939-1941. Mike illustrated histalk with many items from his own personalmilitaria collection. For those who do not know,Mike has a excellent collection of WWII militaria,with a particular focus on Russian equipment.

The next few meetings should be the highlight ofthe MMCL year. The June meeting will featurethe annual club auction. Please remember tobring kits to donate, as well as plenty of cashto buy donated items. Someone else’s trashcan be your treasure.

The July meeting will feature a dioramagroundwork roundtable with several members ofMMCL sharing their secrets. Don’t miss thesemeetings.

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Through the Lens:A Guide to ModelPhotography(Part I)Randy FullerMMCL – Eastern Bloc

If you’re reading this article, chancesare you’re hooked on building scalemodels. One aspect of being a modeleris showing off your projects, andphotographing them is one of theeasiest ways to share your latestproject to just about everyone. Being amodeler and a professionalphotographer I get to combine two ofmy favorite activities. In this series ofarticles, I will discuss in detail ways toimprove your photographic skills andhopefully enhance your pictures.

Part I will be an overview of digitalphotography and will summarize what Idemonstrated at the March 2007 Clubmeeting. In subsequent articles I willdiscuss certain aspects in more detail,and I encourage you to send in yourquestions, problems, or comments sothat I can discuss them in thesearticles.

With the proliferation of digitalcameras, it seems everyone is snappingpictures and posting them on the webor printing them at home. Thesearticles will focus on digitalphotographic techniques for a studiosetting (in future articles, I will talkabout photographing shows), althoughthey can be applied to filmphotography. But keep in mind, someof the “point-and-shoot” cameras maynot offer the control a Digital SingleLens Reflex (DSLR) camera will offer.

MegaPixels:

All digital cameras are rated bymegapixels. This refers to theresolution capacity of the photo-sensorin the camera. A pixel is the smallestunit in a digital photo, and a megapixelis one million pixels. A sensor that hasa size of 2000 x 3000 pixels is rated at6.0 megapixels or 6.0 MP. But that’sonly part of the story. There aredifferent sensor types (CCD or CMOS).And these make a difference in picturequality as well. CCD (Charge-CoupledDevice) are generally associated witholder digital cameras and videocams.They are prone to “noise” in thepicture, which is term used to describea situation when a single pixel does notrecord the correct color or exposure,resulting in specks of odd colors in aphoto. CMOS (Complimentary MetalOxide Semiconductor) is a relativelynew technology that is less expensive,consumes less power, and is up to500x faster than CCD. Moreimportantly, a CMOS sensor issignificantly larger than a CCD of thesame resolution. It’s less “noisy” thanCCDs, too.

Depending upon the ultimate fate ofyour photos will be a factor of the typeof camera to get, or how to best use theone you have. If you want to postpictures on a website or share throughemail, a MP rating of less the 5 is justfine. If you want high end photos toprint or have published in a magazine,you should consider 8MP or higher.Also, consider your storage capacity.An 8 MP shot will be between 4 to 8megabytes (MB) depending upon theformat you shoot in.

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Four Basic Elements:

No, not earth, fire, water, and air, butComposition, Color, Depth of Field, andExposure. These are my four goldenrules of model photography.Composition is the overall design of theimage you are taking. Color is literallythe color of the model in relation to thelight you are shooting in. Depth of Fieldis the amount of the image that is infocus. Exposure is a combination ofaperture and shutter speed for givenlight conditions. Depth of Field is a partof the aperture setting and is thereforedependent on the exposure settings.

Composition:

This is the layout of the shot. Wherethe model is in relation to the edges ofthe frame. What the background lookslike. Where the shadows fall. The angleof elevation of the shot. [Example 1shows a typical studio shot.] Considerwhat you want to show off on yourpiece. And look at different anglesthrough the camera to see what themodel looks like from a high angle vs. alow angle. Drama can be achievedsimply by moving around the scene.

When shooting a scale model, thebackground should be neutral, toprevent any distraction. I use acontinuous grey tone roll of paper. It’sa light grey that is a good general colorfor most models. I like it better thancloth backgrounds because there arefewer tendencies of getting a polarizingeffect that shows up as radiating lines.It’s distracting. Paper rolls can bepurchased at any good photo store andcast about $25, and come in a numberof colors. Avoid white and blackbackgrounds, as they can beoverwhelming to the subject. If you

plan on shooting a number of models,it’s a good investment.

Color:

While this may seem to be a simpleissue, it is rather complicated. Not alllight sources are created equal.[Example 2 shows a proper colorbalance, 3 is set for fluorescent light, 4is set for incandescent light.] Forexample, fluorescent light can producea bluish tint, while standardincandescent light can be yellowish.Most digital cameras automaticallyadjust the color balance through thecameras metering system. This may besuitable most of the time, but in somecases it’s not quite right. To get aroundthe color issue, strobe lights or flashesare the next best thing to sunlight. Butthey will be an expensive correction.Unless you plan on taking a lot of highquality photos, it’s not an economicalsolution. Most professionalphotographers will set the whitebalance for the specific conditions theyare working on. This is done by using atechnique called the 18% grey card.This is an average of reflected light thatis a standard in photography. By usinga grey card or a special filter, you canadjust the camera precisely to aspecific light source. Grey cards orcolor correction filters range from about$50 - $100.

Look for Part 2Next Month!!!!!!

4

IPMS Las VegasBy D. M. Knights, MMCL, SAFCH, IPMS/USA,IPMS/Canada, AMPSI recently visited “Sin City” for workand while I was there I got to drop bythe monthly meeting of the Las Vegaschapter of IPMS.

I travel some for work. I’ve made it ahabit when I am in a town for businessto check the IPMS/USA website to seeif there is a chapter near where I amtraveling and if their monthly meetingis during the time I am visiting. As ithappened, the IPMS Las Vegas chapterhad their meeting while I was in town.A quick email to their chapter presidentconfirmed the details and I was all set.

I attended the meeting on Tuesday,May 8th, 2007. The meeting started at7:00p.m. (Every chapter I have visitedalways starts its meetings at 7:00p.m.This must be the prime modeling hour.)The only problem with the time for mewas that there is a 3 hour timedifference between Louisville and LasVegas. Thus their meeting started at10:00 p.m. for my jet lagged body; but,in true modeling fashion, I toughedthru it. Their chapter holds its meetingat a local library in a spacious and welllit meeting room. About 20 modelerswere in attendance. Several modelersbrought their latest work, both inprogress pieces and finished models.Several photos of their meeting areincluded elsewhere in this issue ofTactical Notes.

The chapter stared with a shortbusiness meeting, which covered theusual subjects; whether to hold acontest, chapter finances, the recentillness of a member. With business outof the way, several members gave shortreviews of new kits they had recently

acquired. This was sort of like a liveversion of the in-box review that yousee now on websites. The mainpresentation was a discussion of thesources of information for research ona subject that one might be modeling.This covered books, magazines,internet sites, etc.

I was not the only guest in attendanceat the meeting. A person who hadrecently relocated from Gulfport,Mississippi and who runs a used kitbusiness called “Rare Plane Detective”came to the meeting to introducehimself and to let the local modelersknow he was in the area and he waslooking for some part time help to helphim organize his new warehouse spaceand to catalogue recent kitacquisitions. (I will give a separatereport on my visit to this operation.)

At the end of the meeting, I was askedfor a few comments on the meeting. Itold my hosts that model meetingsseemed to be the same anywhere in theUnited States. I did tell them that Iwas disappointed that they didn’t endtheir meetings with a bourbon tastinglike we did in Louisville. So, if youhappen to meet someone from theIPMS Las Vegas chapter and they askyou about our tradition of ending eachmeeting with a bourbon tasting, pleasejust play along.

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My Two Cents WorthBy Scott F. King

Aluminum for the year so far:Jan 50 lb aluminum cans @ $0.72/lb = $36.001 lb other alu. @ $0.52/lb = $ .52————$36.52Mar 10 lb aluminum cans @ $0.71/lb = $ 7.101 lb other alu @ $0.55/lb = $ .55—————$ 7.65Apr 51 lb aluminum cans @ $0.71/lb =$ 36.21May 18 lb aluminum cans@ $0.73/lb = $ 13.1410 lb sheet alu @ $0.58/lb = $ 5.80——————$ 18.94June 28 lb aluminum cans@ $0.76/lb= $ 21.28Total YTD $ 120.60

The other aluminum is pet food cans and such that are anodized and or enameledon the interior, River Metals wants them separate from the pop and beer cans.Also they will take things like discarded aluminum cooking ware, aluminum patiofurniture, aluminum storm doors/windows etc. All of these items are classified assheet aluminum.It takes about 33 cans to make a pound of aluminum so each can is worth a littlemore than 2 cents. The price has more than doubled over the last 3 years - thefirst load I took from the old bunker was $0.33/lb. With a little effort we can makesome money for the club.

Quick TipBy Scott F. King

Ever have to throw away a tube of Stucco Putty because the cap split and theputty dried out? I have never used more than a small portion of a tube withoutthis happening. The caps themselves are unlike those found on toothpaste, handcream, etc, but I finally stumbled across something that will work. The cap fromthe tube of Part 3 Conditioner in L’Oreal Excellence 3 Part Haircolor fits perfectly. And only your stylist will know for sure.

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Show Report:The Region 5 RegionalConventionOttawa, ILBy D.M. Knights, MMCL, SAFCH, IPMS/USA,IPMS/Canada, AMPS

Region 5 of IPMS/USA (IL, WI,IA, MN,MO) held its 2007 Regional conventionon June 7th and 8th, 2008 in Ottawa,IL. Ottawa is a small town approxi-mately 40 miles west of Chicago. Thecontest was hosted by IPMS/SPASAM,a Chicago chapter of IPMS/USA. Giventhat the show was being hosted by aChicago chapter, I wondered why theshow was being held out in Ottawa. Ilater found out that the guys at IPMS/SPASAM actually recieved a grant fromthe town to host the show in Ottawa.That is a pretty clever way to finance ashow, and I think more chapters willlook at this source of additional financ-ing in the future.

The show was held in the local Knightsof Columbus hall. The facility hadenough room for the show, though thebuilding was divided into two rooms.One room contained the entries andsome vendors, while the other roomhad just vendors in it. The buildingwas well lit inside and this made view-ing the models pretty easy. Having thevendors in two seperate rooms seemedto hurt the sales of the vendors whowere not in the room with the models.Additionally, the vendors who hadmostly armor related items did notseemed to do nearly as much businessas those vendors selling mostly aircraftrelated items. The only other com-plaint regarding the venue was that theparking lot was somewhat small, mean-ing that some attendees had to parkaway from the site.

Dr. Terry Hill and I left Louisville at4:25 a.m. on Saturday morning. Wearrived in Ottawa a mere 5hours later.Since Ottawa is one hour behind Louis-ville, we arrived as the show opened.Both Terry and I had downloaded theregistration forms from the showwebsite that the hosts hadposted.Therefore registration wentfairly quickly and easily. The registra-tion fee for entry was $25 and thiscovered an unlimited number of mod-els. Dr. Hill brought approximately 13models to enter and I brought 5. Theshow was operated under a no sweepsrule, so that if you entered more thannoe model in a category, you could notrecieve more than one award.

In addition to vendors, the show hadthe usual raffle. While not up to theMMCL shows raffle standards, it was apretty good raffle. A $20 investmentnetted me a number of models, some ofwhich will be making an appearance atthis month’s auction. There were 430models entered by approximately 100entrants. The aircraft categories werevery competitive with the vast majorityof models enterred in these categories.Ships were pretty well rerpresented,particularly submarines. Armor was aweak category and not nearly as manymodels were entered in the armor cat-egories as you would usually see in aRegion 4 show.

The judging finished early and thus theawards were handed out well before the6p.m. time that had been advertised onthe show flyer. The awards were verynice plaques. Dr. Hill took home sev-eral of these, including a 1st place inarmor dioramas. See the photos on thenext page for some sights from theshow.

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The fabulousImola brothers

The aircraftcategories

A nice 48th scalemirage III

A Kubel in 35thscale


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Greetings fellow members,

If you missed any of the previous month’s meetings, Iencourage you to make an effort to attend. Club vitality seemsto be on the rise to the enjoyment of all in participation. Lastmonth’s meeting was no exception as the clinic on Red Armyinfantry uniform and equipment seemed to be well received. Ilook forward to expanding on that topic at future meetings. In

store for the June meeting is the annual MMCL Club Auction. The yearly fundraiser is always a high point of the modeling year so bring your donations andbring your cash. You can help the club and pick up some nice things for yourselfas well.

Looking forward to July, we will have plenty going on then as well. The Julymeeting will play host to the second quarter open contest as well as a roundtablediscussion on diorama ground work. The quarterly contest is a bit late, but this isthe first opportunity to squeeze it in since the first quarter contest was shifted to alater month earlier this year.

To recap on last month’s meeting, it was voted by those in attendance thatthe shop committee beauthorized to proceed with theliquidation of some of theworkshop assets. At some pointin the near future, the shopcommittee will suggest whichassets are to be liquidated. Atthat time, the membership willagain vote on the mostappropriate method. Given thepresent workshop arrangementwith KYANA, it was agreed thatunutilized club shop equipment was an unnecessary financial burden on the club.Equipment deemed surplus or unused will be sold. The funds will be returned tothe general club treasury and at some point, a portion might be reinvested inequipment that is useful to the workshop. Additional outstanding club businessthat was discussed is the ongoing preparation to host an Invitational contest in2008 and bid for the 2009 regional. Our show committee is working in earnest tosecure our dates, venue etc. We will be updated by the committee as required.

Finally, the O-1 Birddog show here belongs to my wife’s uncle. Robin’suncle lives in a community near Griffin, Georgia called the Brooks CreekAerodrome, a small neighborhood build along a private grass airstrip. Everyhouse has its own hanger. In these hangers is a varied array of vintage andmodern small aircraft. We visited (and flew) with him a few days over MemorialDay weekend. Visiting there is quite a surreal experience with all the vintageaircraft coming and going all the day. It was a lot of fun flying in the O-1. Givenits former role in the military, it’s a tiny plane with lots of glass. It’s hard toimagine a better vantage point for viewing the countryside below.

Kit Build: P-40 in 48th sc




Kit Build: P-40 in 48th scalealealealeale

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IN THIS ISSUE:

Next Meeting:Next Meeting:Next Meeting:Next Meeting:Next Meeting:ThursdaThursdaThursdaThursdaThursday, July, July, July, July, July 19th, 2007y 19th, 2007y 19th, 2007y 19th, 2007y 19th, 20077:00 P7:00 P7:00 P7:00 P7:00 P.M..M..M..M..M.FFFFFeaeaeaeaeatured Ttured Ttured Ttured Ttured Topic: The ground-opic: The ground-opic: The ground-opic: The ground-opic: The ground-

work roundtwork roundtwork roundtwork roundtwork roundtableableableableable


rom The Cupola:

rom The Cupola:

rom The Cupola:

rom The Cupola:

The PThe PThe PThe PThe President speaks!

resident speaks!

resident speaks!

resident speaks!

resident speaks!






P P P P Pararararart 2t 2t 2t 2t 2

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“Tactical Notes” is the Newsletter of the MilitaryModelers Club of Louisville, Inc. We put this really tinyprint here to see if anyone reads this. We doubt that theydo. This hurts our feelings. But, we’ll get over itsomeohow. Oh what we suffer through, just so youmodelers can have your fun with your little toys! Please,please, please we are begging you to write something forthe newsletter. If you don’t, then we will have to keep

filling up space with stuff like this.

WhaWhaWhaWhaWhat you mist you mist you mist you mist you missed ased ased ased ased at the last meetingt the last meetingt the last meetingt the last meetingt the last meeting

Well, June was the auction month, andwhat an auction it was. The club raised a healthy$940.00 to put in our club treasury. (or for MikeN. to use to pay for his vacation!) Many membersbrought kits for auction, with special kudos goingto Terry Hill and Brian Bunger of ScaleReproductions for their especially generousdonations. The bidding was hot and heavy.However, there were many bargains to be had.Mike Nofsinger handled the money and made surethat all the bidders paid for their winnings.

The auction was not the only activity at theJune meeting. The “Spank your Willys” TamiyaJeep smackdown was held. There were fourentries by Dr. T. Hill, R. Guetig, S. Cox and R.Fuller. The competition was fierce, with a fourway tie in effect until the very last vote. Mr.Guetig was the winner, and collected the cashprise put up by the entrants. A photo of thewinning entry appears on the cover of thismonth’s newsletter.

The club his hosting an invitational conteston May 31st, 2008. Be sure to mark yourcalendars to attend. We haven’t done one of theseshindigs in a few years, so we should have a lot ofpent up enthusiasm out there. Start buildingnow!

Dr. Terry Hill’s Jeep entry.Photo by R. Fuller

2

Throughthe Lens:A Guide toModelPhotography(Part II)

Randy FullerIPMS/USA, MMCL – Eastern Bloc

Depth of Field:

Depth of field is a measure of how much thefocus field will register sharply in a photograph.This is not an issue with long range shots, butwhen you get closer to a small subject, itbecomes very important. In model photographymost people set their camera to “Macro” andmove in for the kill. The problem is, the smallerthe area to be photographed, the less light youhave. The camera then sets the aperture to awide setting to allow as much light as possiblein to the sensor. A large aperture equals ashallow depth of field. To explain this, theaperture setting, or f-stop, is a ratio of theamount of lens area that is exposed to the sensor(or film). 1.0 is 100% transmittance of availablelight. Each subsequent stop is 1.4x the previousstop (e.g., 1.0, 1.4, 2.0, 2.8, 4, etc…).Remember this, it will come up again. A verysmall aperture, like f22 will allow very littlelight, but it will be very focused, resulting is asharpness throughout the focal plane. So toovercome a shallow depth of field, do not movein closer, step back a few feet and use the zoomlens. A focal length of 85mm to 100mm with anf16 will give you a sharper close-up shot then ifyou are 6 inches away in macro mode.

Exposure:

This is really a tricky part in photography. It is acombination of how much light is available, thesensitivity of the sensor (know as ISO or ASA

speed on film, like ISO 400, which can be set onsome digital cameras), the shutter speed (thelength of time the shutter is open, measured infractions of a second), and aperture (See? I toldyou this would come up again.). The brighter thelight, the faster the shutter and smaller theaperture, low light results in slow shutter speedand large apertures. Keep in mind any shutterspeed less than 1/60 second can result in blurryimages from camera movement and/or subjectmovement. A handheld light meter is a superiormetering device than the one in any camera. Forprecise measurements, it’s a must. Otherwise,do a technique known as bracketing, where youtake a series of shots at varying apertures and/orshutter speeds. Many mid- to high-end camerascan be programmed to automatically do this.

Summary Points:

If you set up a small studio in your basement, orgarage, or living room (providing you havepermission) try to have a table as high as youcan get. It will be easier for you to try differentangles when composing your shots. The higherthe mega pixel rating, the more detailed thephoto will be. Use a tripod if you want toreproduce a shot with a different model oranother view of your subject. If you plan to useambient light — don’t. Get some flood lampsand use daylight balanced bulbs, or photo bulbs.Use at least two separate sources to help lightthe entire scene and eliminate harsh shadows.Use a longer lens setting and step back 6 – 8feet. Zoom in to compose the shot. Take acouple of bracketing shots to test the exposuresettings. If your camera has a manual mode, useit. Set the specific aperture and shutter speedand shoot away. If your camera offers an optionof digital image format, choose the RAWoption. It will require some extra processing inyour computer, but believe me; you’ll have moreimage to work with. If your camera does offerRAW format, chances are you have program toread the format and edit it. Photo editingsoftware, like Adobe® Photoshop® will alsoallow you to edit RAW formats. An upcoming

No Photoon File

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article will be devoted to using Photoshop® toedit your images.

I really want your questions, too, so please writeme with anything I wasn’t clear on or anyquestions you might have. It will be helpful forme if I know exactly what you all want to know.So send in those emails to [email protected] [email protected] and I’ll try tosolve your photo problems. I hope this articlehelped you in understanding the principle ofphotography and gave some insight into takingbetter model picture Next month I’ll discusslighting techniques in the studio and how to takebetter shots at a show.

Oh no!!! Not anothermodel magazine.David M. KnightsIPMS/USA, IPMS/Canada, AMPS, MMCL,SAFCH

As I have noted previously, I read anumber of model magazines everymonth.

This much reading takes up asignificant amount of time. Generally,this isn’t time that I’d be able to spendmodeling. I read these magazines whilewaiting for court, or at lunch at work. Irecently decided to give up purchasingFineScale Modeler, because after 25years of getting every issue, there justwasn’t enough of interest in each issueto keep me purchasing the magazine.

By contrast, I am really enjoying therelatively new Air Modeler magazine. Ibelieve issue 11 is out in Europe, butthe last issue I’ve gotten is issue 10.One of the ways I judge the worth ofany modeling publication is whether ornot I learn something from it. In fact

one of the many reasons I’veabandoned FSM is that I don’t learnanything new from reading it.However, from the latest issue of AirModeler I picked up one new techniqueand learned about a new tool that I hadnever seen before.

I’ve already thought that the modelingmagazine field was pretty crowded.Thus I was surprised to see a newentry into the field. The first issue ofthe new modeling magazine, Model X,is available for free as a download atwww.modelx.com. I like the idea ofmaking the first issue available for freeas a download. From what I’ve read, itlooks pretty good. I’ll be interested tosee if they can keep the quality up andif there is room in the field fr anotherquality modeling magazine. Only timewill tell.

4

Building a 1/48th scaleCurtiss Hawk 81-A3Dennis SparksMMCL – Eastern Bloc

Sooner or later, every aeroplanemodeler feels the need to craft a modelof one of the aircraft flown by the FirstAmerican Volunteer Group in China,better known to most as the FlyingTigers. Though they were not the firstunit to apply the distinctive sharkmouth to their aircraft, American presscoverage of the AVG’s exploits surelymade them the best known.

A treatise on the dozens of differentnames and numerical designations thatwere used on the Hawk 81 by bothCurtiss and by the many air forces thatflew the aircraft would run to manypages, and would be fraught withmultiple twists and turns. Still, atleast some attempt should be made toexplain a few of the nuances that arerelevant to these 100 original AVGaircraft.

The basic Curtiss designation for theaircraft was Hawk 81, which wasusually abbreviated to H81. When thedesign was selected for testing andeventual purchase by the US Army AirCorps, it was given the US militarydesignation P-40. The French placedthe first export order for the type, andCurtiss used the designation H81-A1 todifferentiate them from the P-40s beingbuilt for the USAAC. But when Francewas forced to surrender before thecompleted aircraft could be delivered,they were instead sold to Britain, whodubbed them Tomahawk Is.

Quickly realizing that these earlyHawks weren’t up to snuff for aerial

combat in Europe, the RAF used themonly as trainers. But many morefighter aircraft were urgently needed,so the British Purchasing Commissionordered 930 of the H81-A2, animproved version that they called theTomahawk II. Several additionalimprovements were introduced duringthis production run, including theability to carry a bomb or fuel tank onthe fuselage centerline. This led to afurther subdivision by the British intothe Tomahawk IIA and IIB, with theclosest equivalent USAAF designationsbeing the P-40B and P-40C.

The AVG aircraft were randomlydiverted from the Tomahawk IIproduction line in three lots in duringJanuary-March 1941, but all werecompleted without the centerline hardpoints. Thus, the nearest siblings tothe AVG aircraft were the RAF’sTomahawk IIB and the USAAC (laterUSAAF)’s P-40B. Curtiss used thedesignation H81-A3 for the AVG’saircraft in acknowledgement of theminor differences (chiefly the numberand caliber of guns, plus several engineand radio variations) between thesethree very similar types.

In 1/48th scale, there have been threemainstream plastic model kitsproduced of the early versions of the P-40. Rather than debating the relativemerits and faults of these kits, thisarticle concentrates only on theHobbycraft kit. Academy has used thissame mold, and this incarnation iscurrently available for about $20.

When the Hobbycraft kit was originallyreleased, there was a loud chorus ofcomplaints about its inaccuracies.After reading several reviews and someof the remedies that could be applied to

5

appeared on later model P-40s.Directly aft of the cowl flaps the fairingis too narrow, with a deep furrowrunning along each side. All of thislooks very much like a P-40E, but it isincorrect for a P-40B/C.

After looking at photos of the realaircraft, I decided to attempt to repairthese two faults. Before attaching thewings, I used a razor saw to cut a slotabout an inch along the grooves alongeach side the fairing, and then bent thefront of the fairing down by about 1/8th

of an inch. Isuperglued twopieces of scrapsprue on theinside surface ofthe wing,reinforcing andpartially fillingthe vee-shapedslot that I’d justcreated. I thenfilled the rest ofthe slot withsuperglue and

filler and sanded to shape. This plasticsurgery also filled in the grooves,producing the wider fairing of theearlier versions.

When the wing was later attached tothe fuselage, the profile was greatlyimproved. The wing’s leading edge wasperhaps still too high, but this is canonly be discerned (if at all) when themodel is viewed from the wingtip. Afterall of this I read another review wherethe modeler simply cut the fairing fromthe older Monogram kit and used it toreplace the one on the Hobbycraft P-40.It sounded simple enough, but I wasn’table to clearly see if this solutionsufficiently altered the fuselage profileto camouflage the wing incidence issue.

it, I decided to build one and see formyself if these complaints werejustified.

Let’s start with the kit’s largest error.Most reviewers have asserted thatHobbycraft botched the wing-to-fuselage joint, claiming that the angleof incidence was too high. At least onemodeler cut off the large wing filletsthat are molded into the fuselage,spliced in a wedge of plastic on eachside of the fuselage, and thenreattached the fillets and the wing at ashallowerangle. Thissounded likeway toomuch workfor my taste,so I decidedto try asimpler fix.

The P-40had aprominentaerodynamicfairing on the bottom of the fuselageunder the wings. This covered theplumbing from the wing’s fuel tanksand smoothed the fuselage contour aftof the nose-mounted radiators. Whileit was covered with thin sheet metal,the structure was strong enough toserve as a skid for a gear-up landing,thus protecting the fuel tanks. Afterfinishing the model I discovered thatthe rear of the fairing was open to allowany fumes to vent.

Like the other manufacturers,Hobbycraft molded this fairing into theone-piece lower wing surface, so thetoo-high wing incidence also affects theplacement of this fairing. Hobbycraftalso incorrectly molded the fairing as it

6

Turning my attention to the cockpit, Iimmediately decided to discard the kit’sseat and floor. The seat’s side wallswere much too thick, and both the seatand the floor were flat plates that weredevoid of detail. I substituted the seatand floor from the True Details cockpitset, but decided to use the kit’sinstrument panel and side walls. (Theunused parts from the cockpit set weresaved for later use on a Monogram P-40B, but that’s another story.)

When assembling the upper and lowerwing halves, the kit’s instructionsnoted with exquisite understatementthat “some slight sanding may berequired” on the prominent landinggear knees on the wing leading edge.In retrospect, I should have simplycarved them off completely andfashioned new ones, as by the time I’dfinished sanding them smooth theirshape was very wrong. Instead of asmooth hemispherical bulge, the kneeswere now distinctly flattened.

Per the British request, Curtiss paintedthe aircraft using rubber mats todelineate the upper camouflagepattern. This produced both a harderedged color separation line and adistinct pattern with only minimalvariation. I replicated this by using aphotocopier to produce 1/48th scalecopies of the three views included withthe decals. I then cut out the patternsand used them as masks.

The decals were from an AeromasterSP48-07 deluxe decal set that camewith a limited run short book on theAVG. The book notes that the Britishroundels had already been applied tothe aircraft before they were selectedfor the AVG, and that these insignia

were then overpainted using only theDark Earth color. I incorporated thisinto the paper masks that I used, butprobably should have made separatepaper circle masks and done this as asecond step. Model Master #2054 DarkEarth (ANA 617) and #2027 DarkGreen (FS #34096) were used for theupper colors, and a Model Master mixwas used for the light grayundersurfaces. The Aeromaster bookindicates that this was a lighter shadeof gray than the Neutral Gray that wasthe standard USAAF color at the time.

I chose to model an aircraft flown byRobert Neale, the ranking AVG ace, asit had a rather odd history. P-8194’soriginal wings were destroyed byimmersion in salt water while beingoffloaded in Rangoon. It was completedby attaching the wings of P-8157. Thissecond aircraft was later mated to a setof wings that had been salvaged fromanother damaged aircraft.

Other than the modifications to thefuselage fairing, assembly of the rest ofthe model was relatively trouble-free,but there were several small detailsthat needed some attention. Thesimplest of these was the British-stylepitot tube. Hobbycraft’s representationof it was far too massive, so Isubstituted one that was left over frombuilding a Hasegawa P-40E/Kittyhawkkit.

After drilling out, painting andinstalling the exhaust stacks, theyappeared to me to be much too large.Removing them from the model, Idetached the six individual stacks foreach side from the mounting plateswhere they had been molded. I scrapedeach one to reduce the diameter, and

7

glued them back on the model one at atime at a shallower angle.After gluing it on, I also decided thatthe tail wheel bracket was too short,causing the tail to sit too low. Butwhen I brought the model to RandyFuller to be photographed, I had notyet corrected this. Perhaps I’ll getlucky and accidentally break it off whiledisplaying it at some future contest.

I also noticed that either the propellerblades are slightly too long, or thewing-mounted machine guns are toofar inboard, as bullets from theinnermost guns would ding the prop.I’m pretty sure that the P-40 had theseguns mounted outside the propeller arcto avoid requiring a synchronizer. Butsince the model was essentiallycomplete when I noticed this, I electedto ignore this feature.

The worst of the remaining problemsare all related to the clear canopyparts. On early versions of the aircraft,the windscreen was molded in onesmoothly curved piece, with noframework in the middle of it. Aseparate 1.5 inch thick piece ofarmored glass was installed inside thecockpit directly behind the windscreen.The internal support brackets for thearmored glass were visible through the

windscreen, but were not a part of it.In common with several othermanufacturers, Hobbycraft representedthis by molding framework on thewindscreen itself, ignoring the separatepiece of armored glass completely.

The clear panels behind the cockpitalso have a few errors. The single barof framework that’s molded on them isincorrect, as it’s oriented so that it isperpendicular to the edges of the panel,when it should instead have beenperpendicular to the fuselage.

Also, while the main fuel tanks were inthe wings, there were two smaller tankslocated behind the pilot, and on theearly P-40s the filler caps for these twotanks were situated under the left clearpanel. Bizarre as it may sound now,the only way to access these two capswas via a pair of holes that were cutinto the clear panel and left open. Onlater versions, they were replaced by asingle cap that was relocated so that itwas below the clear panel. Hobbycraftmolded a soft hint of the two caps, butneglected to mold the two holes in theclear panel.

After mulling it over, I decided that Iwould not try to correct any of theseissues for fear of not being able torestore the clear parts to their previousluster. The two aft panels also did notfit well, leaving a small gap that I wasreluctant to fill for the same reason.

Still, I’m pleased with the finishedmodel. It’s not as good as it could havebeen, due both to moldingerrors and my reluctanceto keep tampering with it.But it does look the part,which is good enough forme.

8

More models from the Region 5 show



Jan 50 lb aluminum cans @ $0.72/lb = $36.00 1 lb other alu. @ $0.52/lb = $ .52 ———— $36.52

Mar 10 lb aluminum cans @ $0.71/lb = $ 7.10 1 lb other alu @ $0.55/lb = $ .55 —————- $ 7.65

Apr 51 lb aluminum cans @ $0.71/lb = $ 36.21

May 18 lb aluminum cans@ $0.73/lb = $ 13.14 10 lb sheet alu @ $0.58/lb = $ 5.80 ———— $ 18.94

June 28 lb aluminum cans@ $0.76/lb= $ 21.28

June 26 lb aluminum cans@ $0.71/lb= $ 18.46 (Second load) 1 lb other alu @ $0.47/lb= $ .47 —— $ 18.93

Total YTD $ 139.53

The other aluminum is pet food cans and such that are anodized and or enameledon the interior, River Metals wants them separate from the pop and beer cans.Also they will take things like discarded aluminum cooking ware, aluminum patiofurniture, aluminum storm doors/windows etc. All of these items are classified assheet aluminum.

It takes about 33 cans to make a pound of aluminum so each can is worth a littlemore than 2 cents. The price has more than doubled over the last 3 years - thefirst load I took from the old bunker was $0.33/lb. With a little effort we canmake some money for the club.

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Fellow Members,

First off, I want to thank those who stepped up to help withthe June meeting in my absence. From the after action reporton the auction, it sounds like it went pretty darn well. As aresult, nearly $1000.00 was added to the general clubtreasury. Thanks to everyone who made donations and

purchases, this event is always a major club fund raiser and I’m glad to see it besuch a success.

Maybe the July heat has pushed some of you back indoors for some modeling. Ifthe heat has slowed down your outdoor lawn work, this month’s meeting shouldinspire you to do some scale model landscaping indoors. The July meeting willfeature a roundtable discussion on scale scenery and groundwork techniques.This roundtable format is a general participation event, so if you can contributesomething, please bring your example or materials and take your turn.

Also in July is the latent 2nd quarter open contest. Due to some prior shuffling,we end up in July for this event. Hopefully we will have continued highenthusiasm as in the most recent contest and smack-down. So bring out yourlatest.

Finally, I would like to extend the normal calls for continued support on twofronts. The first is newsletter contributions. Software has allowed Tactical Notes totake another quantum leap forward and this can only be sustained throughregular contributions. Thanks to all those who have been contributing recentlyand I encourage potential authors to have a go at it.

The second front is the continued support of the club aluminum recyclingprogram. Skippy has done and outstanding job so far this year, but seeks tocontinually raise the bar. What started life as a limited fund raising effort whenour original workshop first opened on Fairfax Avenue has (thanks to Skippy)become a significant boost to the club treasury. Keep the empty cans coming.

I’ll see you at the meeting!


10

The FThe FThe FThe FThe Fokker Dr.I smackdown

okker Dr.I smackdown




Tac

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AUGUST 2007



IN THIS ISSUE:

Next Meeting:Next Meeting:Next Meeting:Next Meeting:Next Meeting:

FFFFFridaridaridaridariday, Ay, Ay, Ay, Ay, August 17th,ugust 17th,ugust 17th,ugust 17th,ugust 17th,2007 7:00 P2007 7:00 P2007 7:00 P2007 7:00 P2007 7:00 P.M..M..M..M..M.FFFFFridaridaridaridariday Nite Fy Nite Fy Nite Fy Nite Fy Nite Fight!!!!!!!!!!!!ight!!!!!!!!!!!!ight!!!!!!!!!!!!ight!!!!!!!!!!!!ight!!!!!!!!!!!!


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Book Review:

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1

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“Tactical Notes” is the Newsletter of the MilitaryModelers Club of Louisville, Inc. OK, it is obvious thatno one is reading this stuff. Therefore we can writewhatever we want here! Well good. There is a certainfreedom in the fact that no one reads this stuff. We canuse the space to give our opinion on the state of theworld, or we can simply wax elequent on the beauty andharmorny of the wrold in which we live. If y’all don’twrite an article the whole newsletter is going to read like

this!!!


The MMCL July meeting saw our first modelingroundtable of the year. After a very, very briefbusiness meeting and the monthly raffle, theroundtable discussion was held. The subject wasgroundwork, and Dr. Terry Hill, Rich Guetig,Corky Mohedano, David Stokes and PresidentMike Baskette lead the discussion. Eachcontributing member brought different tips andtalents to the discussion. Each person haddifferent techniques and much was learned by the24 or so members who attended.

In addition to the roundtable, July was the timefor the quarterly contest. There were 9 entries,which is the largest number entered in quite sometime. Mark Cable took first prize with a TrumpeterRA-5C Vigilante.

Rich Guetig explains some of hisgroundwork techniques at theJulygroundwork roundtable.

Photo by D. Knights

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Book ReviewTyagatshi (Soviet Full-Tracked ArtilleryTractors of WW2)Author: Jochen VollertReview by Mike Baskette, IPMS/USA, AMPS, MMCL

Virtually never is it that the firstwork on a given topic is ever the

final word on that topic. However, the latest majorwork from Tankograd Publishing will certainlychallenge that paradigm. Released by Tankograd lastwinter was “Tyagatshi”. No, this is not a Japanese videogame, but the Russian word to generally describe aclass of tractor/prime mover type vehicles used inagriculture and military service. This book representsthe first serious effort to tackle the rather esotericsubject of Soviet artillery tractors and there useprimarily in “The Great Patriotic War”. Drawing onhundreds of wartime German soldier snapshots, authorJochin Vollert has created a very complete andcomprehensive study of these vehicles that were socommon to the battlefields, but as of yet not so commonly coveredin print.

The book is a hardbound photo referencecomprised of some 350 pages, with several linedrawings and color plates provided to completethe coverage of all the major and minor types oftractors. It is laid out in a format covering eachtractor type individually with both Soviet use andthe use of captured equipment by the Wehrmachtbeing emphasized. All in all, this is a verycomplete volume that sheds much light on to alittle covered aspect of the Soviet military. Tankograd has really hit a home run with thisTyagatshi and it is unlikely that any future workwill ever be undertaken on this topic by others. Itwould be hard to top regardless. I highlyrecommend this book to those interested in Sovietarmor or the war on the Eastern Front in general. Even if the base topic holds low interest for you,the book is filled with photos that show every typeof Soviet artillery piece imaginable as well asGerman soldiers in more casual circumstances.

3

Fokker Dr.I Smack DownBy Corky Mohedano, IPMS/USA, MMCL

Several months ago when club members were issuing thechallenge to build a Jeep, Randy Fuller turned to me andcommented that there ought to be some type of aircraft activitytoo. He then proposed a subject no self respecting WWI aircraftenthusiast could refuse, the Fokker Dr.I. With a little more

discussion we decided that there would be no limits. Any scale, any amount ofaftermarket parts, and any scratch work the builder cares to do. We agreed thatthe September meeting would be our target date to bring builds to the club

The Dr.I is probably the single most recognized aircraft of WWI. Everybody shouldhave at least one kit in their collection. Most of you are probably aware thatEduard is working on one now for release sometime next year. I’m sure it will be aphenomenal kit. However there are a number of excellent kits available right now.The purpose of this article is round-up the various kits, aftermarket details,decals, and references I am aware of and hopefully encourage others toparticipate.

1/8 scale

Hasegawa manufactures this very large “Museum Series” model. It consists ofwood, plastic and metal parts to build an uncovered airframe. They look stunningwhen built. One is on display at the aviation museum in Lexington. I have seenthem on sale for $500, but believe the regular price is closer to $650 - $700.

1/28 scale

Both Revell and Hobbycraft produce a kit in this scale. Detail is light but bothcan be built into impressive models. Both Copper State models and Tom’s ModelWorks produce detail sets for WWI German aircraft in this scale such as seats,harnesses, gun jackets, prop bosses, instruments, etc…. Copper state modelsalso caries a few decal sets and a line of scale real wood laminated props that lookvery cool on these big kits. Copper State actually sellsCorrect Dr.I props in all the scales.

1/32 scale

All things considered, this scale is the hottest thing goingfor Dr.I’s right now. A few years ago Roden came out witha nice Dr.I in 32nd scale. I understand there are a fewfiddly fit issues, but the kit builds into an impressivemodel. Hobbycraft has also issued a 32nd scale kit. Itcomes with impressive decal sheet. Once again Copper

4

State and Tom’s models works can provide a number of general detail parts.Another PE company named Fotocut is good for several fiddly bits too. BothEduard and Part produce PE sets specifically for the Roden kit. Cutting edgeproduces a set of decals in this scale that will allow you to build every Dr.IRichthofen was known to have flown. Last time I checked, Scale Reproductionshad these in stock. And no, not all of his Fokkers were solid red. EagleCal makesat least 2 decal sets in this scale too. If you are interested in building an all redtriplane in 1/32, you might consider Andrea Miniatures. They released a resinDr.I kit with MVR markings, pilot figure and PE details. MSRP is reportedly $238dollars.

**Note – the Roden kit has been released in the F.1 version. This is the Fokkerdesignation for the first three machines. One was kept by Fokker, one was flownby Richthofen, and the third was flown by Voss, with his famous eyes andmustache markings on the cowl. There are some noticeable differences betweenthese pre-production machines and what became the standard aircraft. Watchyour references.

1/48 scale

DML/Dragon produced an excellent kit in this scale. Unfortunately, it has beenout of production for years now. It can still be found without too much trouble.EBay seems to have a steady stream of them but the prices tend to go high. Oneof the boxings contains markings for the aircraft Richthofen was shot down in anda resin bust of MVR himself. The only notable knock against the kit is anexaggerated drooping fabric effect on the bottom of the wings. Some builderschoose to sand it down to reduce or eliminate the effect. The kit comes with somePE parts including belts, Spandau jackets, cabane struts and the undercarriagelegs. I’ve heard some grumbling about the struts, but once built, they look fine tome. Being thicker metal than typical PE, they’re plenty strong as well. There area few mistakes in the instructions regarding the cockpit. Shoot me an email if youwant more detail. All in all this is a good kit and builds into a fine display piece.

Aftermarket decals are available from Eagle Strike. Out of production decals I amaware of have been produced by Aero Master, Blue Rider, and Superscale. I havenot located any PE sets made specifically for this kit. I suppose because the kititself covers the essentials. However general WWI German PE from Copper State,Toms Models Works, Fotocut, Part, and Eduard can be used if desired. CMKmakes a resin cowl and engine for the DML kit that adds a little more detail.

Collectors will be aware of Aurora and K&B kits of the Dr.I, but I suspect theirgreatest value is as un-built collector’s items. Smer sells an inexpensive Dr.I kitthat is actually 1/44th scale. While it will build into an unmistakablerepresentation of a Dr.I, I don’t believe it is the kit most club members would belooking for. My model manufacturing history is weak, but the Smer kit may haveits roots in the Aurora kit.

5

1/72 Scale

There are lots and lots of options in this scale. Kits have been, or are beingmanufactured by Airfix, Revell, Roden, and an all resin kit by Hawkeye Design.The Eduard comes as the F.I and Dr.I in the standard and profi-pack boxings.The profi-pack kits include PE. Recently Eduard has been bagging the standardkit with only MVR markings and selling it for 3.95. The movie Flyboys alsoinspired a recent release with the fictional markings used in the motion picture.The Roden kits were released in the two versions as well. Aftermarket PE for thesekits is sold by Part of Poland. Just as in the other scales, Copper State, Tom’smodel Works, and Fotocut produce various WWI bits and pieces that are right athome on the DR.I. Aftermarket decals I’ve seen have been produced by Superscale and blue Rider. Revell made an entirely new tooling of the Dr.I a few yearsago. I understand it is very good, but I have not come across it yet. I amassuming the market didn’t really need it with the excellent Roden and Eduardkits already out. I can’t really recommend building the Airfix or old Revell kitconsidering the ready availability of the better Roden and Eduard kits.

References

Here’s a collection of references you may want to look into. It is not an attempt tolist every possible source.

· Fine Scale modeler had a cover photo and build article on the 1/48 DML kitin the February 2007 issue.

· Squadron Signal publications publishes the Fokker Dr.I In Action as part ofthe popular series. Inexpensive introduction to the development anddeployment

· Shiffer publishes the Fokker Dr.I and D VII in World War I. This is a verygeneral look at these two Fokker aircraft.

· Osprey publishes Aircraft of the Aces #40 Fokker Dr.I Aces of World war I.This is primarily about the pilots, but this is the single best collection ofcolor profiles of the aircraft

· Albatros publications of England produce a Data File and Data File Specialon the Dr.I. Both contain great information, photos, and a few colorprofiles. They also make an effort to cover various construction details withphotos and drawings specifically with the modeler in mind.

· Crowood Aviation Series publishes Fokker Aircraft of World War I. This isa general history of Fokker during WWI with a section devoted to the Dr.I.Black and white photos but no color profiles.

· Classic Publications of England has released what is probably the ultimatebook I am aware of on the Dr.I, Fokker Dr.I Triplane a World War onelegend. This large hardback book has it all, development, deployment,detail studies, pilot comments, and great artwork.

· http://www.wwi-models.org/ great web site for modelers of WWI aircraft.

6

· http://www.modelingmadness.com/kitindex/kitindexf2.htm This is the F2page from the wonderful Modeling Madness site. Scroll down and you willfind 9 reviews covering 1/72, 1/48, and 1/32 scale kits

· http://www.internetmodeler.com/ Internet Modeler has had some greatreviews on the various kits over the years. Their back issues are availableonline, however they do not yet have a subject search. If you are notfamiliar with this online magazine, check it out. I look forward to it everymonth.

Book ReviewThe Eagle Squadrons, Yanks in the RAF1940-1942By Vern HauglandISBN 0-87165-028-2Review by D.M. Knights, IPMS/USA, IPMS/Canada, AMPS,SAFCH, MMCL

Whenever AMPS holds its national contest at Havre De Grace,MD I always visit a local used bookshop named Courtyard Bookshop. It is justdown the street from a bar called Coakley’s where I always eat lunch during thecontest. One reason I make it a point to visit this particular bookshop is that ithas a good collection of used military related books.

This past April, I picked up “The Eagle Squadrons, Yanks in the RAF 1940-1942”by Vern Haugland. The Eagle Squadrons were made up of Americans who had leftthe U.S. and enlisted in the RAF, almost all having traveling thru Canada. Thebook was originally published in 1979 by Ziff-Davis. Computer geeks willrecognize Ziff-Davis as the big computer book and magazine publisher. Havingrecently finished “The Few” by Alex Kershaw just last December, I was interestedin the subject. As it turns out, this book is the perfect compliment to “The Few”.

The first couple of chapters are in fact a repeat of much of the information foundin “The Few”, although on a much less detailed level. The rest of the book coversthe formation of the Eagle Squadrons at the tail end of the Battle of Britain thrutheir absorption into the USAAF in late 1942. There were 3 Eagle Squadronsformed, the 71st, 121st and 133rd. These units became the 334th, 335th and 336th

fighter squadrons in the USAAF.

The bulk of this book covers the operations of the 3 squadrons from late 1940 tomid-1942. The combat operations of each squadron are described in detail, withlistings at the end of the book detailing the combat victories of each unit. At firstthere was much controversy over the formation of these units inside the RAF. Ingeneral, the Americans were considered undisciplined and there were some in theRAF command structure who believed that putting the Americans together in oneunit would make the resulting unit unusable. However, those in the British

7

political leadership saw great propaganda valuein having a unit of Americans fighting forBritain, since they realized that America wouldneed to enter the war on the side of the Allies inorder to have any hope of defeating theGermans. The units were initially lead byBritish RAF officers, but ultimately lead byAmericans who had risen in the RAF ranks.

The book is 206 enjoyable pages with a numberof black and white photos. It is a good historyof the units covered and should serve asinspiration for any modeler. Now, where did Iput that Spitfire kit?

A figure by David Stokes thathe brought to the recentgroundwork roundtable.

Photo by D. Knights

MMCL founder Dr.Terry Hilldemonstrates some of hisdiorama groundwork tech-niques as RIch Geutig andthe rest of the memberslook on.Photo by D. Knights

8

Dennis Sparks excellent build of the Hasegawa Shinden in 72nd scale.

Stewart Gordon’s magnificent build of the 1/350 resin kit of the Battle-ship Kirishima.

Photos by D. Knights


9

The first thing that I wish to do in this month’smessage is to thank all those members who chose toparticipate in last month’s roundtable discussion onmodeling groundwork. We had several memberschoosing to particpate which meant we had anexcellent program. I hope that the level ofparticipation will encourage others to do the same

when the next opportunity rolls around to use that format. Theroundtable allows more folks to participate at a much less formallevel compared to that if one was being the sole presenter for a clinic.I welcome any suggestions for programs of this type and I hope thatmany more of you will step up and “take the mic” in the future.

This month the meeting will play host to “Friday Nite Fights”,our late night build-a-thon. That being the case, we will shift themeeting to Friday, August 17th. I’m going to keep this one shortand sweet, so lets see more articles for Tactical Notes, lets have someprogram suggestions, and by all means keep the aluminum canscoming in.

Editor’s Note:You will note some changes in this month’s issue of Tactical Notes.The style of the publication is still evolving. If you have any sugges-tions as to how to make this newsletter more readable or better inappearance, please feel free to make your suggestions to MikeBaskette, either at a meeting or via email.

The editorial staff appreciates the work of all who have contributedaarticles and photos to the newsletter. Please keep those contribu-tions coming.

Tac

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September 2007



IN THIS ISSUE:

Next Meeting:Next Meeting:Next Meeting:Next Meeting:Next Meeting:ThursdaThursdaThursdaThursdaThursday, September 20th,y, September 20th,y, September 20th,y, September 20th,y, September 20th,2007, 7:00 P2007, 7:00 P2007, 7:00 P2007, 7:00 P2007, 7:00 P.M..M..M..M..M.FFFFFeaeaeaeaeatured Ttured Ttured Ttured Ttured Topic: opic: opic: opic: opic: TTTTTo Scrapeo Scrapeo Scrapeo Scrapeo Scrapeor NOT to Scrape - Seamsor NOT to Scrape - Seamsor NOT to Scrape - Seamsor NOT to Scrape - Seamsor NOT to Scrape - SeamsLogicLogicLogicLogicLogical Tal Tal Tal Tal To Meo Meo Meo Meo Me


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resident speaks!

resident speaks!

resident speaks!

resident speaks!






P P P P Pararararart 3t 3t 3t 3t 3

Super Col

Super Col

Super Col

Super Col

Super Colososososossal IPMS/USA

sal IPMS/USA

sal IPMS/USA

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Na Na Na Na Nationals Repor

tionals Repor

tionals Repor

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tionals Report!!!!!!!!!

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P P P P Parararararty aty aty aty aty at terry’s place!

t terry’s place!

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1

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“Tactical Notes” is the Newsletter of the MilitaryModelers Club of Louisville, Inc. We put this really tinyprint here to see if anyone reads this. We doubt that theydo. This hurts our feelings. But, we’ll get over itsomeohow. Oh what we suffer through, just so youmodelers can have your fun with your little toys! Please,please, please we are begging you to write something forthe newsletter. If you don’t, then we will have to keep

filling up space with stuff like this.


The August meeting was the second Fri-day Night Fight of 2007. Over 20 mem-bers showed up to build and share build-ing techniques with their fellow modelers.The highlight of the night was the returnof long time member Alex Restrepo. Alex, ahigh mufti in the UPS global conspiracy,was transferred from Louisville to the hellknown as Rockford, IL several years ago.Apparently he had offended one of hissuperior and was thus exiled. Well, hehas been forgiven, and has returned fromRockford. He has moved back to Louis-ville, and thus should be a fixture atMMCL meetings in the future. Welcomeback Alex!

Much building went on at the meeting. Somuch building was going on in fact that nomember managed to take pictures of theproceedings. Well, either that or all pho-tos were confiscated by the authorities toprotect the guilty, or the ugly!

Since no photoswere taken atthe meeting,below is one ofthe many pho-tos of the IPMSNationals thatyou will find inthis issue.

2

Through theLens:A Guide toModelPhotography(Part III)

Randy FullerIPMS/USA, MMCL – Eastern Bloc

Hopefully, you read last two months’photo clinic articles and werecompletely baffled. It was a lot to cover,but this month I will focus on oneparticular aspect: lighting. Since we areall experts on light color and properlycapturing colors with our cameras, wewon’t worry about further explanationhere. I do expect you are using daylightbalanced or photo-flood bulbs, orpreferably strobe units for your studioshots. And if you’re shooting on therun, you should have a programmableflash unit for your camera.

Let’s talk about flashes for a moment.All digital cameras today have smallbuilt-in flash, or strobe. These producea very bright flash of pure white light.Most strobes are composed of xenonflash tubes which produce a very brightlight that is nearly identical to sunlight.This is what produces clean colors andhigh definitions. However, most on-camera flashes have one setting (highpower) and are pointed directlyforward. The problem with thisarrangement is that you will overexposea close-up shot, especially when you’reshooting a miniature, and you’re lockedinto one particular setting (both speedand aperture are set automatically).

An external flash slips into the “shoe”on top of the camera. Better units costbetween $200 – $500, and give you theability to set amount of lightdischarged, swivel the light head, andwork in manual mode on the camera tospecifically set shutter speed andaperture. This gives you more freedomto compose and expose the shot. Still,only use a flash when you have noother choice to light the subject. So thisapplies to shows and shots you takeoutside the studio.

Basic lighting requires at least one lightsource. This can be used to good effectwhen you need a dramatic lighting, forinstance, but it is generally unsuitablefor overall illumination. A single lightwill produce hard shadows, which isundesirable for most miniature shots.Two light sources are better for acouple of reasons: they evenly light thesubject (thus reducing the shadows),and provides more light for a smalleraperture (Remember? That gives you adeeper depth of field.). You can go forbroke with more lights, which can be agood thing, but it raises the costs forequipment, and if you’re using floodlamps, it will get pretty hot under allthose lights.

Straight on lights will always give youshadows, especially if they are in areflector. That’s a silver bowl behindthe light that helps focus all of the lightforward. You want all the lightproduced to hit the subject, that’s justbeing efficient, but it creates theshadow problem. Mostly, harshshadows can be distracting to anotherwise great photograph. In somecases, you want some shadows tocreate interest in the shot. The trick isto control the light, thus you cancontrol the shadow. Keeping the light

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bright enough to still shoot easily whilediffusing the light rays is the challenge.

There are a few ways to do this. One iscalled a screen or diffuser. It’stranslucent sheet of cloth or plasticthat goes in front of the light. Thisbreaks up the light rays and scattersthem that reduces the harshness. Asoftbox is an example of this. Anothermethod is to use an umbrella. The lightshines away from the subject into areflective umbrella back onto thesubject. This also scatters the light,diffusing it, thus reducing the hardshadows. Another method is ahoneycomb filter. This is a metal screenthe goes in front of the light and iscomposed of small hexagonal openings,like a honeycomb. Itreduces the total amountof light reaching whileslightly scattering it. It ismainly used for speciallighting effects. Finally,you can bounce the lightoff of another surface, likethe ceiling, or a reflector.The advantage to thismethod is you can get amore natural lightingeffect, plus you can use acolored reflector to addsome tonal color. A goldreflector will give a warmsunset color, for example.

I like to use whitereflector umbrellasbecause they are easy to set up andgive me lots of light to work with. I havesoftboxes that give a very good softlight, but they are large and can be alittle difficult to set up. I have evenmixed various techniques in oneexposure. Sometimes you need to

The original photo tothe left above, andthe retouched photobelow it.

experiment with different techniques tofind the best lighting solution.

I had one question come in this month.It dealt with lighting and color shift ofthe image. Here are the before and afterpictures courtesy of David Knights. Hetook the original image on his camera.And you can see the overall image hasa yellow tint. While I can’t say for surewhat went wrong, I can make aneducated guess that the white balancewas not set properly for the light sourceused. Typically late day sunlight andcertain incandescent lights can give ayellowish tone. The after picture is thesame shot after I cleaned it up inPhotoshop. This included colorcorrection and sharpening. We’ll get

into this next month.

I really want yourquestions, too, so pleasewrite me with anything Iwasn’t clear on or anyquestions you might have. Itwill be helpful for me if Iknow exactly what you allwant to know. So send inthose emails [email protected] [email protected] I’ll try to solve yourphoto problems. I hope thisarticle helped you inunderstanding the principleof photography and gavesome insight into takingbetter model picture.

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The IPMS/USA2007 NationalConvention,Anaheim, CAA Photo Report

David M. Knights, IPMS/USA, IPMS/Canada,AMPS, MMCL, SAFCH

IPMS/USA held its annual conventionon August 22nd thru the 25th in Ana-heim, CA. The convention hotel wastwo blocks from the gates ofDisneyland, which facilitated convinc-ing the wife and child to turn the tripinto the family vacation for the year.

This was my 14th National conventionand my 7th in a row. Given that atten-dance at an IPMS/USA National issuch a visual event, I’ll try to keep thetext brief and tell the story mostly thrusome of the many photos I took.

Here is the convention hotel.

It was your typical reasonably high endhotel. Given the fact that the conven-tion was being held in Southern Cali-fornia, the $120 a night price tag wasactually pretty reasonable, expeciallyconsidering its proximity to

Disneyland. The parking at the hotelwas $20 a day, which hurt a lot ofpocketbooks, but frankly there is noway to escape this in the larger citiesthese days.

If you are on the Internet a fair amountyou might have read on some forumslike Hyperscale.com, Arcair.com andeven the ipmsusa.org forums, com-plaints about the convention. Therewere some things to complain about.The organizers apparenlty had a prob-lem which made their preregistrationsunavailable to them. There were notobvious signs throughout the facilitypoint out registration, vendor room, therooms where presentations andspeaker were giveing talks, etc. Addi-tionally, the system for generatingname tags for the attendees brokedown and most attendees did not getname tags until days after the conten-tion started. Frankly, you wouldn’tthink name tags were a big deal, butwithout them the local group couldn’tcontrol admittance to the model andvendor rooms to make sure that onlythose who registered and paid wereadmitted. I am sure that the conven-tion lost out on income that could havebeen generated by walk-ins. Also, inthis day and age we all communicatewith many modelers, including manywe have never met in person. Withoutnametags, attendees did not have anopportunity to put names to faces andfind people you only knew over the net.

Despite these problems, a conventionwas held, models were displayed. Ven-dors sold plenty of models and accesso-ries. And a good time was had bymany, including me.

The convention had over 2100 modelsentered, making it the thrid largest in

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IPMS/USA history. Approximately 750people registered at the convention,making it one of the most well attendedshow IPMS/USA has ever held. Now,on to the photos.

One of the reasons people come to theshow is for the vendors. This is a photoof a small part of the vendor’s room.

In addition to the vendors, you will seemany of the “names” you’ve heard onthe Internet. Here is Brett Green ofHyperscale, who traveled all the wayfrom Australia to attend.

Of course, the most import part of anyNational are the models. My main area

of interest is 72nd scale aircraft, so Itook a lot of photos of the entries inthose categories. Here is a really beau-tiful Canadian Lancaster, apparentlyfrom the recent Hasegawa kit.

Staying with the bare metal theme,here is a 72nd scale B-25, again arecent Hasegawa relese. My photo doesnot do this model justice. It was verynice.

Of course, there were not just 72ndscale aircraft. Here is a very nice 48thscale Mirage IIICJ. The paint job onthis one was especially nice.

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Here is one for all our UPS employeesin the club. It is a 144th scale 727 inFedEx markings. There were a lot ofgood airliners at the show. I wish I hadspent more time looking at them.

Here is a 48th scale EA-6B. It wasadmired by many of those attending.

Don’t ask me why, but I thought thiswas neat. It is a 32nd scale bus. I’venever seen a kit of it before, but I sus-pect it is Japanese.

Former MMCLer John Charvat was atthe show, pimping for AMPS. The hostchapter provided the AMPS guys atable in the model room to advertiseAMPS and upcoming AMPS shows.

One of the many reasons to attend aNational is that many of the manufac-turers attend, sometime announcingtheir upcoming releases. Here is

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Hasegawa’s announcement of an up-coming 350th scale Battleship Nagato.

Also, their upcoming 72nd scale B-24which was a surprise to me.

OK, I know that not everone in MMCLis interested in aircraft, so here are afew of the other models entered. One

that caught my eye immediately wasthis collection of Soviet light tanks. Itwas an impressive collection.

Also nice was this little Italian assaultgun. There seemed to be a fair amountof desert themed armor. I wonder ifthat has anything to do with the cur-rent combat in Iraq and Afganistan?

A blown up PzIII or Pz IV. I can neverkeep them straight. Again, note thedesert setting.

Again keeping with the desert theme,here is what I believe is an Iraqi T-55from the Tamiya kit that was release afew years ago. The thing I noticed most

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about the armor entries was the uni-form quality. I have no idea how thejudges did their jobs in these catego-ries. Having attended numerous AMPSnationals, I’d say the quality was ashigh as at any AMPS national I’ve beento.

Here is a conversation where theQueen’s English was being spoken.IPMS member Paul Bradley (right)speaking with Neil Robinson, the editorof SAMI and Model Aircraft Monthly.

Finally, as noted before, the contestwas held less than two blocks fromDisneyland. My wife spent a lot of thedays with my daughter as Disney sothat I could enjoy the show. I joined

them in the evenings to experience alittle bit of the “Happiest place onEarth”. Below are a couple of photos.



Jan 50 lb aluminum cans @ $0.72/lb = $36.001 lb other alu. @ $0.52/lb = $ .52

——— $36.52

Mar 10 lb aluminum cans @ $0.71/lb = $ 7.101 lb other alu @ $0.55/lb = $ .55

——— $ 7.65

Apr 51 lb aluminum cans @ $0.71/lb =$ 36.21

May 18 lb aluminum cans@ $0.73/lb = $ 13.1410 lb sheet alu @ $0.58/lb = $ 5.80

——— $ 18.94

June 28 lb aluminum cans@ $0.76/lb= $ 21.28

June 26 lb aluminum cans@ $0.71/lb= $ 18.46 (Second load) 1 lb other alu @ $0.47/lb= $ .47

——— $ 18.93

Aug 30 lb aluminum cans@ $0.66/lb= $ 19.80

Total YTD $ 159.83

The other aluminum is pet food cans and such that are anodized and or enameledon the interior, River Metals wants them separate from the pop and beer cans.Also they will take things like discarded aluminum cooking ware, aluminum patiofurniture, aluminum storm doors/windows etc. All of these items are classified assheet aluminum.It takes about 33 cans to make a pound of aluminum so each can is worth a littlemore than 2 cents. The price has more than doubled over the last 3 years - thefirst load I took from the old bunker was $0.33/lb. With a little effort we can makesome money for the club.

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Greetings fellow modelers,

I would first like to say that on behalf of the Military Modeler’sClub of Louisville, we extend our deepest sympathies tomember Rob Schneider, his family and friend for the recentpassing of Rob’s wife Patricia. Please keep Rob and his familyin your thoughts and prayers as they come to terms with their

loss. A club donation in Pat’s honor has been made to the Hospice of theBluegrass.

September signals the coming of cooler autumn weather, football, less outsidework and more indoor work (i.e. modeling). This month we had originally toyedwith the idea of making the club cookout at Terry’s place the September meeting.However, this event had to be pushed out until the end of the month. It wasdecided that we should go ahead and host a standard monthly meeting as well.More value for your dollar I suppose. So, plan on being at the KYANA facility onSeptember 20th for a regular monthly meeting. This month’s meeting will host aslide show on some of his recent observations at the Ft. Knox museum. Inaddition, we would like folks to bring out their works in progress for a little bit of adifferent twist on Show N’ Tell. Let’s see some of your current projects.

Back to the club cookout, Terry has graciously invited the MMCL generalmembership to his residence on Saturday, September 29th. It is requested that

you please bring a side dish tohelp round out the menu. Amap to Terry’s residence withthe appropriate arrival time etc.is included in this installment ofTactical Notes. Please plan toattend as these events arehistorically a great time.Well, that is about it so I’ll seeyou at the meeting.


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REMEMBER,IN ADDITION TO THEMEETING ON THURS-DAY, WE WILL HAVETHE COOKOUT AT

TERRY’S ON SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 29TH, 2007, 12NOON 307 Hidden oak way.

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OCTOBER 2007



IN THIS ISSUE:

Next Meeting:Next Meeting:Next Meeting:Next Meeting:Next Meeting:ThursdaThursdaThursdaThursdaThursday, October 18th,y, October 18th,y, October 18th,y, October 18th,y, October 18th,2007, 7:00 P2007, 7:00 P2007, 7:00 P2007, 7:00 P2007, 7:00 P.M..M..M..M..M.FFFFFeaeaeaeaeatured Ttured Ttured Ttured Ttured Topic: opic: opic: opic: opic: Super ShowSuper ShowSuper ShowSuper ShowSuper Showand Tand Tand Tand Tand Tell. Bring your inell. Bring your inell. Bring your inell. Bring your inell. Bring your inprogress projects.progress projects.progress projects.progress projects.progress projects.


rom The Cupola:

rom The Cupola:

rom The Cupola:

rom The Cupola:


resident speaks!

resident speaks!

resident speaks!

resident speaks!

Model Review: Revell Regul




Model Review: Revell Regulus iius iius iius iius ii

Huntsville Show Repor




Huntsville Show Reporttttt

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To contact MMCL:

President:Mike “Howlin’ Mad” BasketteEmail: [email protected]

Vice President:Stuart “Mr. Seam” CoxEmail: [email protected].

Secretary:Rich “The Vice Principal of Pain”GuetingEmail:[email protected]

Member at Large:Noel “Agent 007” WalkerEmail: [email protected]

Treasurer:Mike “Money Man” Nofsinger5011 Wabash Pl.Louisville, KY 40214Email: [email protected]

Webmangler:Pete “Sprockets” GayEmail: [email protected]


“Tactical Notes” is the Newsletter of the MilitaryModelers Club of Louisville, Inc. We’ve made some changesthis month, including the use of a bigger typeface, 14 pointinstead of 12 point. This should make the newsletter easierto read. Of course, no one will notice. Heck, we know noone appreciates all the hard work we are doing. Heck, oneday, this newsletter won’t appear in your email boxes, then,


September saw two MMCL meetings. Theregular meeting was held on the thirdThursday of September. Approximately 24members were in attendance. Thehighlights of the meeting were the “Pimpmy Kubel” contest and the DR.1smackdown. Rich Guetig won the Kubelcontest and Dennis Sparks won the DR. 1smackdown. At the short businessmeeting, it was decided to hold the nextquarterly contest in November. Also, aPanther smackdown is on tap forDecember, along with the traditionalChristmas meeting/party.

The main feature of the meeting was StuCox’s slideshow on seams on full scaleAFVs and how that might translate inmodeling.Stu’s presentation was well puttogether and well received. The powerpointmeeting presentations continue to bepopular. More of those are on tap for futuremeetings.

On the last Saturday of the month, theannual club cookout was held. It wasoriginally scheduled for Dr. Hills house,but unforseen weather complication forceda change of location to the club meetinglocation. There was a good turnout ofmembers and their families. There was alot of food on hand with all the membersbringing dishes to compliment the food anddrink supplied by the club.

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Revell’s Regulus IIBy Dennis Sparks, MMCL,

IPMS/USA

THE HISTORYChance Vought’s

Regulus was one of theforerunners of the modern cruisemissile. Its airframe was a simplecylindrical fuselage with onlysmall swept wings and a singlevertical tail surface. Powered byan Allison J-33 jet engine of 4600lbs. thrust and with a pair ofstrap-on RATO units thatprovided 33,000 lbs. thrust eachfor 2.2 seconds, the Regulus wasdesigned to be launched from aramp mounted on the deck ofeither a surfaced submarine or alarger warship. Armed with the40-50 kiloton W5 or the 1-2megaton W27 nuclear warheadand with a range of about 500miles, the subsonic Regulus wasultimately deployed on five USNavy submarines, four cruisersand five aircraft carriers, servingfrom 1955 until 1964. One ofthe few surviving Regulusmissiles can be seen on board thesubmarine USS Growler,which is now on displayalongside the aircraftcarrier USS Intrepidmuseum in New York.

With the rapid advancesbeing made inaerodynamics at thetime, development of the

more advanced version wasalready well underway by thetime the Regulus had reachedoperational status. Powered bythe much larger GE J-79 engine,the Regulus II was designed to flyat speeds greater than Mach 2, ataltitudes of up to 70,000 feet, andto have a longer range.

The Regulus was designed to becontrolled by a combinedguidance and tracking pulsedradar, allowing it to be controlledin flight at a range of up to 125miles by a “mother ship”. Amajor concern was the possibilitythat these control signals couldbe jammed, so the Regulus II wasdesigned from the outset to alsohave an independent onboardinertial guidance system. As aneconomy measure, flight testversions of both the Regulus andRegulus II were built withretractable landing gear, allowingthem to be remotely flown,recovered and reused.

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With flight testing well underway,the Regulus II program wassuddenly cancelled in 1958.Unknown to most of the peopleworking on the project, the Navybrass had funded the project asinsurance against the possiblefailure of the Polaris ICBM, whichcould be launched from asubmarine while it was stillsubmerged. After cancellation,most of the forty or so survivingRegulus II airframes wereexpended as target drones.

The last one built, GM-2048, flewten drone missions including thelast Regulus II flight in December1965. On that final flight, whileat a sustained Mach 2 at 58,000feet, five AIM-47A Falcon air-intercept missiles were launchedat it by a B-58 Hustler. Allmissed, and GM-2048 made anuneventful landing. As of 2001,this aircraft was undergoingrestoration as a museum display.

THE MODELThe original subsonic Regulushad received tons of publicity,showing up in many newsreelsand magazines. It even made anappearance at PresidentEisenhower’s inauguration. Inspite of this, Strombecker’ssimple kit was the only mass-produced model of the Regulus tobe produced. It consisted of awooden fuselage with four pieces

of bright yellow polystyrene torepresent the wings, vertical tailand nose. Strombecker alsoproduced a similar kit of theMatador, which USAF’scompetitor for the Regulus. Dadhad bought one example of eachkit, with my younger brotherbuilding the Regulus while I builtthe Matador. I was about six orseven years old at the time and itwas one of the first models that Ibuilt. I have vague recollectionsof us playing with these twomodels in a sandbox in the backyard, so they’re long gone.

But while the Regulus was toremain deployed with the Navyfor eleven years, it was the muchsexier looking Regulus II thatcaught the eye of the kitmanufacturers. Aurora, Comet,Monogram and Revell all releasedplastic model kits in varying fit-the-box scales, and Cox evenproduced a gas-powered controlline flying model.

In 1958, at about the same timethat my brother and I werehappily destroying theStrombecker kits, Revell releaseda 1/65th scale plastic model kit ofthe Regulus II. Representing oneof the landing gear-equippedflight test airframes, I built thiskit eleven years later. While Ican’t now remember exactly howor when I came into possession of

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the kit, I can recall withreasonable certainty WHEN Ibuilt it.

After painting models with abrush or the occasional spray canfor about ten years, I got my firstairbrush in late 1968 when I was17 years old. It was a singleaction, external mix Binks WrenB, which looks and works verymuch like the Badger 350 orPaascheH. Itwas theacquisitionof thisairbrushthathelpsme todatewhen Ibuiltthemodel.

I had received the airbrush in atrade with my slightly oldercousin, giving up a 1/72nd scaleMonogram B-52D kit (withauthentic jet engine sound!). I’dfound the B-52s on sale at adepartment store in Louisvilleearlier that same the day forFOUR dollars each, and hadbought three of them. Even by1968 monetary standards, thiswas still a great price, as I believethat they had been going for

upwards of 10-12 bucks. Are yousurprised to learn that I still havethe Binks, and that the remainingtwo B-52 kits are still in my “todo” pile? Even at that tender age,I was able to purchase kits fasterthan I could build them.

At any rate, I now had theairbrush that I that had longedfor, but my only source ofcompressed air for it was the

spare tire ofmy recentlyacquiredfirst car.When Iwanted topaintsomething,I’d haul thespare out ofthe trunk,attach theadapter and

paint away… for a few minutes.This was followed by the vigoroususe of a hand powered bicyclepump to re-inflate the tire. Whilethis was all well and good fordeveloping the biceps, it was adecidedly inferior way to paint.

It didn’t take me very long tomodify my procedure. Onweekends, I’d pack the model,paints and the airbrush into thecar and drive two miles to theTenneco plant where my fatherworked. While I still didn’t have

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access to a regulated air supply, Icould sit at a desk in their garageand paint away. When thepressure in my spare tire droppedtoo low, I could use the garage’sair compressor to refill it. So nowI could paint with less effort,albeit still with frequentinterruptions.

And so it was likely that I paintedthis model on a Saturdayafternoon in the spring of 1969.My younger brother was buildingcar models at the time, and heopted to let me use my new toy topaint some of the bodies for him.I had probably painted a few ofthese and maybe an aeroplanemodel or three first, but it’s likelythat the Regulus II was amongthe first ten or so models that Iairbrushed.

Isn’t it weird the kind of thingsyou remember? I can also recallthat while painting some of thesmaller unattached parts Idropped one of the landing gearcover doors. I was sitting in adesk chair, and rolled back torecover the part from the floor. Iboth heard and felt a distinct“crunch” as the chair’s wheelrolled over the errant plastic,destroying it utterly. Only mildlychagrined, I reasoned that themodel would look better with bothdoors missing than with only one,

and so promptly threw the mateaway. Hey, I didn’t know it wasgoing to be a “classic” kit!

And while the Federal Standardsystem of paint colors dates from1962, I don’t think it had foundits way into plastic modelingmuch by 1969, and even if it had,paints formulated in theappropriate colors were notgenerally available in small-townKentucky. Hence the glossybright blue and white colorscheme, approximating the boxart, using the small bottles ofTestors paints (10 cents each!)purchased from the local dimestore.

By the time I built it, the RegulusII kit was already over ten yearsold, but the decals were stillperfect. The concept of clearcoating was unknown to me atthe time, and so it’s perhapsfortunate that I had only glossypaints available to me. Even now,almost forty years later, thedecals still look good, with littlevisible silvering or yellowing.

As usual, thanks very much toRandy Fuller for taking thephotos for me.

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Toadman’s 90-mm gun TankM47 Patton PhotoDetail CDCD #18

Review by Rob Gronovious, MMCL, AMPS

Chris “Toadman” Hughes is wellknown for his AFV detail photoCDs. His latest CD covers asubject that served with USForces for just a blink of an eye,the M47 Patton tank. The tankdid soldier on in the armies ofseveral foreign nations fordecades though. It was neverintended to stay in US service forany length of time. It was to bethe tank that filled the gap untilthe M48 Patton was ready forfielding.

This is the first of Toadman’sphoto CDs that I have had theprivilege to review. At first glance,the CD is professionally done andincludes approximately 300 colorphotographs. When placed into aPC computer, the CD usesInternet Explorer to navigate.There is an errata sheet with Macinstructions, but not having thatsystem, I can only assume it iscompatible.

The CD starts with a table ofcontents that separates thereference into seven subsections:

· Introduction andAcknowledgements

· 90-mm Gun Tank M47profiles and table of content

· 90-mm Gun Tank M47turret exterior table ofcontents

· 90-mm Gun Tank M47 hullexterior table of contents

· 90-mm Gun Tank M47suspension table of contents

· 90-mm Gun Tank M47turret interior table ofcontents

· 90-mm Gun Tank M47driver’s compartment tableof contents

Not covered is the enginecompartment, but since thereference is geared towards modelbuilders, this is not a problem.Unless you want to scratch buildan engine.

The breakdown of the subsectionsis done in a logical manner,taking the reader on a walkaround of the tank beforeclimbing inside the turret andfinishing with a trip through thedriver’s compartment.

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The CD gives the ability to eitherbrowse through the contents of asubsection page by page or tojump straight to a particularphotograph such as “TheGunner’s Seat.” The descriptivephotograph names are essentialwhen looking for a particularshot.

The photos are clear and showplenty of detail. There are a fewthat are out of focus, but aremore than adequate to detail amodel. Several outdoor museumdisplay tanks are featured as wellas one tank a restored interior.

The only error I noticed in thecaptions is on photo number 144,The Right Side Taillight Assembly.The caption states, “On the M47,the top lens of the right taillight isnot used while the bottom lens isa blackout marker.”

The top lens of the right taillightis the blackout drive brake lightand illuminates when the brakesare applied with the blackoutmarkers on.

I was able to use InternetExplorer’s print function to makea hard copy of a photo. Thisfeature would be useful to amodeler who does not have acomputer near the workbenchand needs the photo close athand while detailing the model.

The CD describes itself as amodeler’s reference and not ahistory of the vehicle. Because ofthis there is only a brief synopsison the tank itself. Much like theactual tank’s service, plasticmodels of the M47 are few and farbetween. In 1/35 scale, the ItaleriM47 Patton tank is the only one.The kit made its debut in the late80s and has been in and out ofproduction ever since. The kitrepresents the pinnacle of Italeritank models and remainsarguably one of their best tankkits to date. It has been releasedby Testors and currently is Revellof Germany kit number 03062.

There is also a 1/32 scale ex-Renwal kit now owned by Revell.This kit was typical of the earlydays of modeling and includesmany over scaled workablefeatures. Not a serious model inthis day and age.

With written references of theM47 Patton tank few and farbetween, this CD is invaluable tofans of the missing link of Pattontanks. At $7.99 with $2.25shipping, this CD is a reasonablypriced addition to any modeler’sreference library. This is a highlyrecommended item. My thanks toToadman for providing the reviewsample.

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The Huntsvilleshow is wellworth the tripdown. Inaddition to theabovementionedmembers,Stewart Gordon

and Alex Restrepo were inattendance. This gave us a totalof 6 members and that is a goodturnout. The next big show is theCincy show this coming weekend.I encourage all who can to attendbecause it is a great show withina reasonable drive time.

Huntsville ModelContest Report:

Report by Dr. T. Hill,

MMCL, AMPS, IPMS/USA

Well the time arrived for theannual pilgrimage to Huntsvillefor their annual contest. A heartyband of 4 club members ( David“the Counsler” Knights, Rich“Biology Bob” and Scott “Skippy”King and I) met at Brian’s at Odark thirty. The morning came asa very pleasent one with very mildtemperaturesand a clear sky.We loaded intoDavid’s (God helpus) van andheaded South.The ride wasfortunatelyrather uneventfulfor David’sdriving and aftera 4 and a halfhour ride wearrived ready to kick butt.The group registered for thecontest, entered their items, andthen settled down to some seriousshopping. The vendors were acollection of the usual vendorsseen at this event. There wasCRM, Formations, Tiger Models,Tiger Werks, Paul Cotcher, andseveral other vendors. There wasnot a great deal of outstandingitems there, but a great deal ofstuff to slobber over. Shopping

The contest was a very goodcollection of entries. There werevery good dioramas, armor,figures, aircraft, ships and autos.A total of approximately 300entries were involved. The clubmembers did quite well in theirentries. Several first place, secondplace, and third place awardswere received. The big winner wasas usual Rich “Biology Bob”Geutig. He needed a U-Haul tocarry all the awards home.

Everyone of theclub memberswho enteredwon something.

was brisk.


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Fellow Modelers,

If you missed last month’s meeting, well too bad foryou as you missed a good one. The Kubelwagon andFokker DR.1 smackdown contests and Stu Cox’s

presentation made for a great meeting. I realize you can’t doeverything, as even I missed the club cookout at the end of last month.Sounds like that too was a success. We thank Terry Hill for pulling ittogether.

This month we will revisit what I had tried to encourage last month.Last month’s meeting was jam packed with activities so I don’t think itgot much attention. That would be an expanded Show and Tell withworks in progress being the theme. So this month, let’s see what youhave on your workbench today! Please come willing to discuss whatyou are working on, how it is proceeding, any special deviations from“out of the box” you may be making, and where you hope to go withyour project. We may not be finishing much, be we are almost allworking on something.

Remember that coming up in November is the final open contest of theyear. Historically these have been quarterly, but the other activitiesthis year have limited us to just three. Regardless, the last one waswell represented and I am sure this one will be as well.

Finally, as always, we are looking for more articles for Tactical Notes.Further, please keep the club can drive in mind when disposing ofempty beverage cans. Scott King has turned this into a respectablemoney maker for our treasury and every little bit helps.

Happy Modeling,Mike

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november 2007



IN THIS ISSUE:

Next Meeting:Next Meeting:Next Meeting:Next Meeting:Next Meeting:ThursdaThursdaThursdaThursdaThursday, November 15th,y, November 15th,y, November 15th,y, November 15th,y, November 15th,2007, 7:00 P2007, 7:00 P2007, 7:00 P2007, 7:00 P2007, 7:00 P.M..M..M..M..M.FFFFFeaeaeaeaeatured Ttured Ttured Ttured Ttured Topic: opic: opic: opic: opic: VVVVViririririrtututututualalalalalModeling, Howw to getModeling, Howw to getModeling, Howw to getModeling, Howw to getModeling, Howw to get

fewer kits builfewer kits builfewer kits builfewer kits builfewer kits built each year.t each year.t each year.t each year.t each year.


rom The Cupola:

rom The Cupola:

rom The Cupola:

rom The Cupola:


resident speaks!

resident speaks!

resident speaks!

resident speaks!

Photo Clas

Photo Clas

Photo Clas

Photo Clas

Photo Class: Ps: Ps: Ps: Ps: Pararararart IV

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FFFFFound: A L

ound: A L

ound: A L

ound: A L

ound: A Lost B-17

ost B-17

ost B-17

ost B-17

ost B-17

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To contact MMCL:










The October meeting is history and theunannounced feature of the Octobermeeting was the weather. Approximately30 minutes before the meeting started, astorm with 80 mph winds roared thrubringing tornado warnings with it.Naturally, this had a dampening effect onthe attendance.

However, the 16 or so members inattendance at the KYANA meetinglocation/Tornado shelter were treated toa great raffle and many fine examples ofmodeling. Returning member AlbertoMoreno brought two fine 1/48thJapanese aircraft. Another new member,Josh Bowling, was also in attendance.Dennis Sparks and many of the Lexingtongang braved the weather. Dennis broughtan impressive collection of 1/48th scaleP-40s. Randy Fuller brought some of hisphotography equipment and shot photosof several models. In President Baskette’sabsence, the meeting was ably run byVice-President Cox who reminded themembers present about the upcomingNovember “quarterly” contest. He alsourged the members to write articles forthe newsletter and to continue to collectaluminum and bring it to the shop sinceSkippy has made an impressivecontribution to the club treasury thrurecycling.

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Through the Lens: Choosing aCamera(Part IV)

Randy FullerMMCL – EasternBloc

I know, I know!The last few

articles were very technical, andcovered equipment that theaverage modeler or amateurphotographer doesn’t have. Sorryabout that. This article will bedifferent and is dedicated to TomR. and Stu C. for the topic. Sowhat kind of digital camerashould you buy to photographyou models?

First let’s get the types of camerasdefined. There are basically threetypes of digital cameras on themarket today: compact, DSLR,and hybrids. Compact camerasare the small square camerasthat fit in your pocket, with asmall built in lens and automaticexposure settings. They typicallyrange in price from $100 to $300with resolutions between 5 and10 MP. DSLRs, or digital singlelens reflex cameras, are the highend of the spectrum, offeringinterchangeable lenses andcomplete control over exposure.They range in price from $800 to$8000, with resolutions of 8 to 20

MP. Finally there are the hybrids– a cross between the simple touse compacts and the betteroptics and advanced features inDSLRs. They are larger than thecompacts and will have a largerbuilt in zoom lens. Prices willstart around $500 withresolutions of 6 to 10 MP.However, with advancementsmade in digital photography,expect prices to keep droppingand resolutions to keep rising.

All of these cameras captureimages the same way: light comesthrough the lens, is metered bythe aperture, and strikes thephotocell. The difference in abilityto correctly capture an imagedepends on the lens itself and thequality of the photocell. A rule ofthumb is the higher the price, thehigher the quality. Better lenseswill give you better images, as willbetter sensors. Higher resolutionswill not necessarily give you abetter final image with an inferiorlens!

Therefore less expensive camerashave a lesser quality lens. Theyare not ground to the sameprecision as higher end cameralenses, thus the initial imagequality is poor – before evenreaching the sensor. The highestresolution can’t compensate for apoorly focused (blurred) oraberrant (color separation) image.

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This will be apparent in close upmodel photography. Never rely onthe camera’s screen to determinethe quality of the image, you’llneed to look at it on your PC orget it printed.

On to the sensor. Megapixels (MP)is the way to determine resolutionon a digital camera. The more MP,the more details will be captured.For example, a 10 MP camera willproduce a full sized photo ofabout 10 inches by 16 inches! Sohigh MP resolutions will producelarge, clear prints. If you’re notinterested in making large prints,lower resolution cameras willwork just fine for you. You don’tneed high res to view imagesonline. Actually, lower resolutionsare preferred for PC and onlineviewing. The format that thecamera will save its images in alsoplays a role. RAW or DNG formatsare referred to as digitalnegatives. The plus is there is alot of information stored there,which means you have moreimage to work with. The downsideis obviously larger files sizes, andnot all image programs can readthese formats. The most commonimage format is JPEG, or JPG.These are readily viewable on allplatforms and easy to work with;however, this format is a compactformat, so extra information isdiscarded and this format isprone to degrading every time it is

saved as more image informationis lost.

Briefly, a standard highresolution RAW image from a 10MP digital camera will give you animage of 240 DPI with a size of2600 x 3900 pixels, and using 10Mb of space. Now if you edit thatdown to 96 DPI, 380 x 575 pixels,and convert to a JPEG, you’ll onlyuse up 550 Kb! Plus it will lookfine on your screen. My nextarticle will deal with how to re-size your digital photos, but keepin mind you can easily go downin size and resolution, but youcan’t take a low res image and goup.

So if cost is a big factor, look intoa compact camera. If you canafford a little more, then a hybridor DSLR is a great choice. Get themost megapixels you afford. Youcan always reduce the resolutionlater. Look for a camera that hasgood optics, too. I wouldrecommend buying a cameramade by a camera manufacturer(Canon, Olympus, Nikon) ratherthan one by an electronicscompany (HP, Casio). You’ll getbetter optics that way. Also lookfor a lot of control options:shutter speed, aperture, whitebalance, and RAW or JPEGoutput should all be able to beset by user. Avoid cameras withonly a few automatic settings.

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All will have a built in flash, but ifyou can get a camera with a hotshoe (that’s a little connection ontop of the camera for an externalflash) get that one. You’ll havemore flexibility with lighting. Amacro setting is OK to have, butremember you’ll lose depth offield. You can take an ultra closeup shot with the low res camera,or back up a bit with a highresolution camera and get moredetail with a deeper depth of field.So look atminimum focusdistances whenchoosing acamera. Youshould also havean override to theautomatic focusthat most camerashave. When you’reup close the autofocus can getconfused andjump around, oreven lock thecamera fromtaking a picture. Ifthere’s a manualfocus option, use it.

Before you buy, try differentmodels, and take the same shot.Get a few cheap memory cards totake with you when you gocamera shopping and take a fewshots, then look at these images

at home. Zoom in, try printing animage, and see how you like it.Then get the camera that fits youbest. Also go to a camera shopnot an electronics superstore.You’ll get pros that know camerasand can answer your questions.Plus you’ll find more models tochoose from and try out. Andthey’ll let you use your memorycards to try out the cameras.Once you find the model youwant, then shop around for adeal.

Photographing scalemodels is notmacrophotography,so extreme macrosettings aren’tnecessary. You wantto get a lot of detailin your photos,which meanswatching the depthof field. 6 to 8 MPwill do just fineabout 18 inches ormore from themodel. Large lenseswill let in more light,which will give you

better details. Up close is notnecessarily the best way tocapture details. And don’t forgetto use the white balanceadjustment for accurate colors.

Summary

Camera Considerations:

DSLR or Hybrid Camera6 – 8 MegaPixels28 – 100mm focal lengthManual Exposure OptionManual Focus OverrideRAW format optionExternal Flash ShoeMacro ModeCustom White Balance

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The B-17 at Calvi

Dennis Sparks-MMCL Eastern Bloc

On Valentine’s Dayof 1944, a lone B-17struggled toward the

air field at Calvi, a town on thenorthwestern coast of Sicily. As apart of the 97th BombardmentGroup (BG), it had left its base atAmendola earlier that day on amission to bomb the railroadyards at Verona, Italy. With threeof its crew killed and two enginesknocked out during attacks byGerman fighters, pilot FrankChaplick was trying to reach thenearest Allied-held air field. Byone account, as he neared thefield a third engine failed andChaplick ran out of options.

Following a successful ditching atsea, the seven surviving crewmembers were rescued andreturned to duty. The aircraftsank in about 90 feet of wateronly about two hundred yardsoffshore, and is still there to thisday. Its location is of courseknown to local residents, andover the last few years it hasbecome a popular site for scubadivers.

I first learned of this aircraft inJuly 2001, when I responded toan emailed request that had beenposted a few days earlier in theforum on the 95th BG web page.The author of the post was StevenCarmichael-Timson, who was adiver with Sea-Tech ExplorationsLtd. He had recently visited thewreck and was seeking additionalinformation. Fortunately, healready knew the aircraft’s serialnumber, the pilot’s name and thedate that it was lost. I did a bit ofsearching and was able to learnmore of the aircraft’s history andthe circumstances of its loss.

Boeing’s aircraft constructionnumber 6158 was a part of thevery first production block of B-17Gs to be built. Assigned theUSAAF serial number 42-31044,upon completion it was sent tothe modification center atCheyenne, Wyoming on 10September 1943. After a few very

I still want your questions, too, soplease write me with anything Iwasn’t clear on or any questionsyou might have. It will be helpfulfor me if I know exactly what youall want to know. So send inthose emails [email protected] [email protected] andI’ll try to solve your photoproblems. I hope this articlehelped you in understanding theprinciple of photography and gavesome insight into taking bettermodel pictures.

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quick modifications, the aircraftwas flown to England and wasassigned to the 100th BG atThorpe Abbots on 24 September.But its stay in England was verybrief as it was transferred to theMediterranean theater only a fewdays later. It arrived in Italy andwas assigned to the 340th

Bombardment Squadron (BS) ofthe 97th BG on 05 October 1943.

The 97th BG was the firstoperational B-17 unit in the USEighth Air Force in England, andon 17 August 1942, had flown theEighth’s first B-17 combatmission. But with the decision toopen a second front, the groupwas transferred to the 12th AF inNorth Africa in November 1942,and then later was assigned tothe 15th AF in Italy. The 97thmade several moves within Italyin the late 1943-early 1944 timeperiod, mostly in an attempt toget out of the ever-present mud.They had moved from Depienne

to San Giovanni inDecember, before moving onto Amendola in mid-January. The air field atAmendola, known to theLuftwaffe as Foggia #7, wasalso home to the 2nd BG (B-17) and the RAF’s No. 205Group (Halifax and B-24),making it one of the busierair fields in Italy.

Like many WWII Americanaircraft, 231044 soon acquired anickname and nose art. Twodifferent, but possibly relatednames have been noted. Onewritten account gives the name as“Her Done It”. But a crewphotograph, taken in front of theright side of the nose, shows theaircraft adorned with a well-known Vargas Girl and the name“Her Did”. Perhaps the entirename was a combination of thetwo phrases, with the first phraseeither out of the frame of thephotograph, or possibly it waspainted only on the left side of thenose.

On the day it was lost, 231044was being flown by Lt. FrankChaplick and most of his regularcrew. Flying in his assignedposition on the side of theformation, Chaplick was forced toswing wide to avoid a collisionwhile the formation was making aturn on approach to the target.

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Slightly separated from the rest ofthe aircraft, they wereimmediately attacked by enemyfighters. Two engines wereimmediately knocked out andthey began to drop even furtherfrom the formation. Now astraggler, the enemy fightersconcentrated their attack.

One of the first attacks mortallywounded Tail Gunner Tony Duca.Realizing that the tail gunsweren’t firing, another fighterclosed from astern to point blankrange before firing, killing RadioOperator Robert Householder andWaist Gunner George Murphy.One fighter was shot down by awounded Frank Bradley, the TopTurret Gunner. A second onewas shot down by Grilliot in theball turret, while in the noseNavigator Thomas Cowell andBombardier Armand Sedgleycombined to shoot down a thirdbefore American P-47 fightersarrived on the scene.

With help at hand, Grilliot andBradley began jettisoning asmuch equipment as they could tolighten the load, while thenavigator plotted a course toCalvi. Householder and Murphy’sbodies were placed in the radioroom, but because of thecramped space at the tail,Sedgeley was unable to recoverDuca.

With the remainder of the crewgathered in the radio room,Chaplick and copilot WardSkaggs executed a flawlessditching, striking the water firstwith the tail section and thenletting the rest of the aircraftsettle into the water. As it sank,the entire tail section broke free.The surviving crew were forced toabandon the three bodies, butmanaged to inflate at least one ofthe two rafts and were quicklyrescued.

An important source ofinformation about the loss wasthe doctoral thesis of WalterEdmund Hicks, who had servedas the historian for the 97th BGduring the war. After the war,Hicks became a teacher and laterreceived his doctorate in Englishfrom the University of Kentuckyin 1961. For his thesis, he wrotea comprehensive history of thegroup’s actions during WWII, acopy of which is kept at theUniversity’s W.T. Young library.I’d chanced upon a mention ofthe thesis several years earlierand had read a portion of it then.

Another source of informationwas Roger A. Freeman’s “The B-17 Flying Fortress Story”, whichcontains data gleaned from theservice record cards of every B-17flown by the USAAF. Freeman

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was a teenager growing up inEngland during the war years andlived near several US air bases.He was to become one of the mostprominent authors on the historyof USAAF’s Eighth Air Force andon the combat history of the B-17.

I also consulted Paul Andrewsand William Adam’s “HeavyBombers of the Mighty Eighth”, avery useful compilation of theservicerecords ofevery B-17and B-24known tohave beenassignedto the 8th

AF. Thisis the firstof fourbooksarisingfrom the Eighth Air ForceMemorial Foundation’s “ProjectBits and Pieces”. If you havemore than a passing interest inthe 8th AF, you should make everyeffort to secure a copy of thisbook.

I did a search for several of thecrew members onwww.whitepages.com and gotonly a single hit for Orville Grilliotin the entire US. I called andlearned that he was indeed the

ball turret gunner that day. Hetold me that the crew’s regularball turret gunner was sick thatday, and so was Grilliot replacedhim. It was Grilliot’s first andonly mission with any of themembers of Chaplick’s crew. Hewas returned to duty and hadcompleted his tour.

He also told me that he was stillin contact with the bombardierand provided his telephone

number.After aninterestingtalk withGrilliot, IcalledArmandSedgely,who wasable toprovidemoreinformation.

In fact, he had written an accountof the loss for the Bugle, amagazine published by theDisabled American Veteransorganization. He had alsoreturned to Corsica for thecommemoration of the 50th

anniversary of its liberation fromthe Axis. He indicated that atthat time, a bronze plaque hadbeen prepared and was to beplaced on a pedestal near theaircraft. Carmichael-Timsonmade no mention of the plaque,

so it was presumably either neverplaced or was later removed.

Hicks’ account in his dissertationindicated that Duca’s body hadbeen recovered from the tail andplaced in the radio room prior toditching, but Sedgeley reportedthat this was incorrect. He hadtried to pull Duca from his turretso that he could render first aid,but could not remove him due tothe constricted space. None of the

remains were recovered from thewreck.

Sedgeley also did not recall losingthe third engine as reported byHicks. He said that the landingstrip was very short and with theamount of damage the aircrafthad sustained, the pilots believedthat they would not have beenable to make a second attempt atlanding, and so opted instead toditch. He further added that bothhe and the two pilots were soon

rotated home and all ended up atTyndall AFB in Florida, wherethey trained new B-17 crews.

His recollection was that theiroriginal co-pilot had beenwounded early in their tour andthat Ward Skaggs hadpermanently replaced him, addingthat he thought that Skaggs wasfrom Kentucky. Sedgeley hadbeen in contact with the 97th BGmemorial association for manyyears, but had never regainedcontact with any of the other crewmembers other than Chaplick andGrilliot.

I forwarded all that I had learnedto Steve Carmichael-Timson, whoreturned the favor by sending mesome of these images. Much ofmy account was later posted onSea Tech’s web pages, which canbe seen at www.divetheworld.com.A biography of Tony Duca can beseen at http://dsf.chesco.org/heroes/duca/duca.htm, whichwas the source of the crew photo.

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First let me apologize for having to miss last month’smeeting, but another commitment kept me away.While a successful meeting was had, it sounds likethe rough weather in the Louisville area that evening

kept many folks at bay or forced others to leave early. Hopefully thismonth will go a bit smoother. Slated for this month’s meeting is ourthird “quarterly” contest of the year. This will be an open affair, sobring out your latest as there are no set criteria regarding subjectmodeled.

In addition to the contest and the usual reoccurring activities, DavidKnights and I will be presenting an overview of online resourcesavailable to the modeler. There is a lot of great material in cyberspacefor the modeler and we will be touching on some of the modelingrelated sites and others that are good for general reference. If you havesome favorites, please jot them down and bring them to the meeting.We will be live on-line so we can check out some of those as well.

Looking a bit into the future, we are in the middle of planning ourChristmas dinner outing. As of now, this will fall on the normal, thirdThursday slot in December which will be the 20th. Presently we arelooking at the same arrangement we had last year. That is securingspace at an area eatery and everyone pays their own way.

Finally, It has come to my attention that some folks have noticed theweb site is a bit behind on updates. This issue is being addressed, butI want to offer some level of explanation. Pete Gay, our club webmasterhas been in the throws of starting a new job position with a requiredrelocation. Once Pete gets his personal situation squared away again,things should start returning to normal. I am pleased that our web siteis getting enough traffic for folks to notice the present hic-up. I ask foryour patients in this matter

Tac

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No

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december 2007



IN THIS ISSUE:

Next Meeting:Next Meeting:Next Meeting:Next Meeting:Next Meeting:ThursdaThursdaThursdaThursdaThursday, decembery, decembery, decembery, decembery, december20th, 2007, 7:00 P20th, 2007, 7:00 P20th, 2007, 7:00 P20th, 2007, 7:00 P20th, 2007, 7:00 P.M..M..M..M..M.LLLLLogan’s steak houseogan’s steak houseogan’s steak houseogan’s steak houseogan’s steak houseShelbShelbShelbShelbShelbyville rd.yville rd.yville rd.yville rd.yville rd.


rom The Cupola:

rom The Cupola:

rom The Cupola:

rom The Cupola:

The PThe PThe PThe PThe President’s holida

resident’s holida

resident’s holida

resident’s holida

resident’s holiday mesy mesy mesy mesy message

sagesagesagesage

Cincinna

Cincinna

Cincinna

Cincinna

Cincinnati Show repor

ti Show repor

ti Show repor

ti Show repor

ti Show reporttttt

A VA VA VA VA Visit to the MAPS Museum

isit to the MAPS Museum




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To contact MMCL:










If you missed the November meeting, toobad we had a great time! The businessmeeting involved some discussion of theupcoming show, and advanced planningfor the next few meetings. This wasfollowed by the customary treasurer’sreport and then the real fun began. After abrisk sale of raffle tickets, voting began onthe year’s final open contest. This even waswell represented with about 10 entries.Taking first prize was Stew Gordon withhis 1/32nd scale F4 Phantom in Iranianmarkings. Tom “Balki” Romanowski tooksecond with his BA10M armored car, andCorky Mohendano rounded out thewinners with his third place Fokker Dr.1.After the conclusion of the raffle andcontest, Stu Coxed treated up to a PC slideshow of entries from the recent invitaionalin Cincinnati.

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Book Review

Nothing Like It In TheWorld by Stephen E.Ambrose

Review by D.M.Knights

Recently, themodelwife gaveme this book formy birthday. I’veread numerousother books by

this author, mostly his books onWWII subjects. I’ve generallyenjoyed his previous books. I willadmit that I really didn’t havemuch interest in the subject ofthe book, the building of the firsttranscontinental railroad.However, Stephen Ambrose is agifted storyteller and he tells thisstory in such a way that I foundmyself anxious to finish the book,even though I knew from highschool history class that theCentral Pacific and the UnionPacific ended up meeting atPromontory Point, Utah in 1869.

The book contains quite anumber of photos by severalphotographers of the times, mostof whom are much more famousfor their Civil War photos. In fact,one of the threads in the book isthe number of prominent Civil

War figures who wereinstrumental in the building ofthe transcontinental railroad,especially the Union Pacific.

I recommend this book. I liked itso much I am lending it to myfather, the modelfather, so thathe can read it. I think he willenjoy it.

Book Review

Stealing the Generalby Russell S. Bonds

Review by D.M.Knights

Everyone of mygenerationremembers theincident in theCivil War whereUnion troopssnuck behind

Confederate lines and stole antrain engine. Most of ourmemories come from the Disneymovie of the 60s, “The GreatLocomotive Chase”. Like mostmovies, that one had a kernel oftruth and Hollywood built afictional story around that kernel.

This book tells the real story ofwhat became known as the GreatLocomotive Chase. The story hasa strong Kentucky connection.

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The man whocame up withthe idea for theraid, and wholed it was acivilian spy bythe name ofJames J.Andrews.Andrews spent

the years prior to the war inFlemingsburg, KY. (In fact there isa historical marker next to thecourthouse in Flemingsburgdenoting that fact.) Andrewsspent the first year of the warcrossing back and forth acrossthe lines trading in contrabandgoods. Many speculated thatAndrews made many of hiscontacts that later made the raidpossible during this time.

It is unclear where Andrews cameup with the idea for the raid. Atthe time the Union had occupiedcentral Tennessee and Andrewsbelieved that he could steal atrain near Atlanta, run it north toChattanooga, TN burning railroadbridges and tearing up trackalong the way. His belief was thatthis would cut Chattanooga offand allow it to be captured by theUnion forces in centralTennessee.

Some of the participants in theraid were the first Americansoldiers who received the Medal ofHonor. The medal was not

created in response to theheroism of this raid as issometimes said. The medal hadbeen authorized and the firstones cast months before the raid.However, some of the members ofthe raiding party were the first toreceive the award. Ironically,Andrews was not among therecipients, since the award wasonly for soldiers and Andrewswas a civilian.

The author tells this story andthe aftermath in a dramatic style.The story is a compelling one andwell told in this book. I highlyrecommend this book.

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A Lockheed Vega 5B, c/n 117, it was built inlate 1929. It was originally purchased in 1930by the Standard Oil Development Company,where it was used to test aviation fuels andlubricants, and for advertising by the StanavoSpecification Board. Nicknamed the “StanavoEagle”, it was flown by Stanavo pilots MajorEdwin A. Aldrin, Robert Ellis and Will W. White.(Aldrin was the father of astronaut “Buzz”Aldrin, the second person to walk on the moon.)The aircraft features a red eagle on white paint

scheme. It was sold to Joseph Costa in 1935, who repainted it solidwhite and named it “Crystal City”. He planned a South Americanflight with a possible further flight to Portugal, but the aircraft waswrecked (with Costas unhurt) in Brazil on 15 January 1937. Infotaken from “Revolution in the Sky”.Photo and Caption via Dennis Sparks.

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Show Report

Cincinnati Model Show

Report by Dr. T. Hill

Well, it was that time of the yearagain for the Cincy show. At 7:30in the AM, a merry band of menmet at Brian’s shop ready to goforth and once again conquerthe Cincinnati Model Show.Included in this group were thefollowing: Your’s truly

Stu (Music Man) cox

Rich (Biology Bob) Guetig

David (The Mule) Knights

Andy (School boy and residentromeo) Cox

Eugene (Koko) Monasterio

Skippy (Tin Man) King

Tom (the Tzar) Romanoski

Upon arrival at the show we findan additional group of clubmembers which included theEaster Front boys, as well as ourresident down home boys Mac(pod man) Mc Intire, and Sock.Tom Hale, Lyle, Stew Gorden,and anyone else I might haveforgotten gave our club a greatpresence at the show.

The show was the usual Cincyshow and the usual place( avocational school) on the northside of town. The venue is

reasonably well lighted, and hasample room for all the variousparts of the show. The show isclose to eating places. Hooters wasthe hit of the Louisville group onceagain, giving us a chance to viewfootball, eat, and kill time whilejudging was going on.

David Knights communicateswith a fellow modeler at theCincinnati Show. Photo via R.Fuller

Our club members entered a ton ofthings in the show scattered over amultitude of categories. We hadentries in aircraft, armor, figures,dioramas, junior, sci-fi, ships, andseveral more. We pretty wellcovered the whole spectrum ofcategories. As a club we did VERYWELL with the entries. There wereseveral 1st place awards, secondplace, and third place awards.

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Gene, and Rich wonbest of in Figure, andArmor respectfully.This is a majoraccomplishment for theclub. It shows that ourclub has developed intoa dominant force inRegion 4. We have putour mark on theRegion, and hopefully,we will continue.

This show is a greatRegion 4 show and isreasonably close by. Itis one that all themembers of the clubshould attempt to go toeach year. The vendorsare good, the venue isdecent, and judging isacceptable. I wouldhighly recommend thisshow to all of the clubmembers.

Gene’s “Best Figure” atthe Cincinnati Show.Photo via R. Fuller

A Visit to theMAPS Museum

By Dennis Sparks

In early August, I had thepleasure of visiting the MAPSmuseum near Akron, Ohio.Formally known as the MilitaryAircraft Preservation SocietyMuseum, it’s located on the westside of the Akron-Canton Airport

in Green, Ohio, a few miles southof Akron. As the second largestaircraft collection on display inOhio, it features a number ofpreserved and/or fully restoredaircraft, plus several that areundergoing extensive restoration,

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as well as a fascinating “boneyard” of aircraft that are patientlyawaiting a hefty amount of tenderloving care.

After entering through themuseum’s gift shop, the guidedtour begins in earnest in theirrestoration building, where a B-26 Marauder is carefully beingreturned to its originalappearance. The MAPS Marauderwas only the 99th one built, and itcrashed in British Columbia on15 January 1942, less than sixweeks after the United Statesentered WWII. Also under activerestoration is an F-100D SuperSabre, which is on permanentloan from the “other” largeaircraft museum in Ohio, theNational Museum of the US AirForce.

The tour proceeds to the muchlarger main hangar where thebulk of the preserved aircraft areon display. The oldest aircraft ondisplay is the original Martinglider, built by Canton, Ohionative William H. Martin in 1908.First flown by Martin’s wifeAlmina in January of 1909, iteventually made more than 100flights, being towed into the air byeither a horse or an automobile.

There are two aircraft on displaythat are siblings to ones that areon display here in Lexington at

the Aviation Museum of Kentucky(AMK). There’s an F-4S PhantomII that was retired from VMFA-235 and arrived at MAPS inNovember 2003. They also havean F-14B Tomcat, BuNo 162694,which was flown to MAPS inOctober 2005 from VF-32, whichis where the AMK’s Tomcat lastserved.

Other interesting ex-militaryaircraft include a Polish-builtMiG-17, a flyable Grumman S2FTracker, an early AH-1G Cobraand a Grumman F11F Tiger. Andas with many other aviationmuseums, a number of privatelyowned aircraft are also present.When I visited, these included aCessna O-2, a Taylorcraft L-2Grasshopper, and a Waco UPF-7with a very striking, but ersatz USNavy paint scheme. As with theAMK, several of their aircraft thatnormally reside indoors are onoccasion moved out to make roomfor private parties and weddings,

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or for museum sponsored fund-raising events.

But it was the bone yard thatdrew much of my interest. Sittingoutside on an assortment of 55gallon drums, shipping skids andpurpose-built wooden frames lie alarge assortment of what wereonce aeroplanes - an F-86DSabre, F-101B Voodoo, F-102ADelta Dagger and an F-105BThunderchief. I later learned thatall of these are the property of theUSAF museum and had been onloan to the Florida Military

Aviation Museum at the airport inClearwater, Florida.

Depending on which internetaccounts you read, the Floridamuseum was relocated and/orwas closed about five years ago,with the aircraft subsequentlybeing removed from the airportproper and stored outdoors in aweed-covered field. Some sort ofagreement was eventuallyreached, and over the last year ormore, the aircraft were moved tothe MAPS museum for eventualrestoration and display.

From Lexington, it’s a 5+ hourdrive (320 miles) to the MAPSmuseum, so Wednesdays are bestfor a one-day visit, as themuseum is open 9AM-9PM thatday. It’s closed on Sundays, andit’s open 9AM-4PM the rest of theweek. Adult admission is $7,with a $1 discount for seniors orgroups of 15 or more. Studentadmission is $4.


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Once again, the holiday rush is upon us. SometimesI am at a loss for where the time goes. This month wewill be offering a bit of a break for the shoppingweary. MMCL’s regular December meeting will beheld at Logan’s Roadhouse on Shelbyville road. We

have reserved the banquet room for our annual MMCL Christmasdinner. The meeting starts at the regular 7:00 pm hour and will go aslong as you care to stay. It will not be only food and drink however.For those who are interested, the Panther (tank) smack-down will beunderway as well.

Moving into the New Year, we are already getting events on thecalendar. In January, David Knights and I will be presenting a featureon internet resources for modelers. We will be sharing some of ourfavorite sites with you. This clinic is very conducive to our round tableformat so I encourage everyone who has input to participate. If thereare any internet based resources you find useful, enjoyable, etc. Pleasesend Dave of myself a link and we can get it into the presentation.When we get to your part, you can take the floor then. If you cannotget a link to us, just jot it down and bring it with you.

February’s meeting will be a full one and will be held on FRIDAY,Feb.22nd. Yes, it will be Friday Nite Fight time once again! In additionto the evening build time, the Q1 open contest will be held as well.That’s not all folks! Given that this event is generally well attended,with many folks stopping in, coming and going etc as the eveningprogresses, I thought it would be a good opportunity to attemptanother Swap and Bull session as well. In addition to your buildingtools and materials, bring out all those unwanted items from yourprivate stash. We will have a full evening of building, buying,swapping etc.!

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