Warbird Information Exchange

Ah, gotcha now. You aimed to misbehave!

(My fault. Haven't reviewed my box set in four or five years now--I am SERIOUSLY overdue for a refresher in the 'verse.)

Don't forget "Cheating Death" by Marrett and Bill Bagley's book, "luck" is in the title, don't have it handy.

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"Take care of the little things and the big things will take care of themselves."

How are the photos in those books, and in Firefly? Worthwhile for my study?

I love flying stories, especially "There I Was" tales with plenty of hot lead flying about, but frankly, having read My Secret War and Huck's book, I think it's gonna be hard to top those two. I've spent way over $100 in Skyraider books in the last few months and can't really budget for any "words only" books at this time, though I might make the effort to see if I can get them through the library.

(Another book I liked a lot is The Ravens, though there are no Skyraiders in it. Lots of O-1s and T-28s, though.)

FYI: Air Commando! 1950-1975: Twenty-five years at the Tip of the Spear is available as a free download.

http://www.afsoc.af.mil/shared/media/do ... 12-026.pdf

Darn, and here I thought I had something really special. Is there any hint of who published it, or when? There's no clue in my copy of the book.

In case nobody knew this, Major Bernard Fisher one of the most famous Skyraider pilots of the Vietnam war and Medal of Honor recipient past away on Aug 16th.

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Better is the enemy of Good.

when i was up there a couple of weeks ago, i spoke to a docent, about that. we were right next to major fisher's mount, and i said you know he just passed away dontcha? he seemed a little blank on that, hard to read. merely a decent docent. i asked him about a painting i saw in the 70's depicting the event. he didn't know about that. someday i think volunteering there is a thing i could do. i know more than some of these guys, but i don't look good in a monogrammed blazer. anyways there's a whole line of oil paintings of action in vietnam, in the hallway of the older part of the building, where the bob hope stuff is. but the painting in question is not among them. anybody know where that is, was, went? or did i imagine it?? i went home and promptly painted my own version of it, as a teen. it's pretty terrible. but i was inspired. elvis also died on an august 16th. sorry, stay focused. all those oils of 'nam are well done and exciting.

I've seen such a painting as you describe, in at least one book, maybe two. The odd thing is that in the painting, Fisher's Skyraider is camoed whereas the airplane he flew that day wasn't. But the Skyraider that was shot down was camoed. Camo was just coming in at that time and apparently they were operating a mix on that day. (I have a photo of both camo and gray A-1Es parked together in roughly the same timeframe, too.)

Here are the ones I am familiar with:





by artist Stan Stokes

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"Take care of the little things and the big things will take care of themselves."

The second painting is the one I've seen. Hadn't seen the other two before. Thanks for sharing these!

yes thanks! i don't know which one was the one i saw as a youth, maybe #1 or #3. but they all are pretty cool and each one still evokes the same excitement. maybe i'll post my painting too haha. no i won't put you all thru that. i have to say that the exciting art from model airplane kits really did the trick with me. i bought so many kits back in the 70's i am still trying to build them all. this kind of feels like that, dramatic paintings used for box art. i think monogram should have made a Fisher MOH skyraider, would have sold like hot cakes. still wonder why the painting is no longer with the others on display up in dayton. maybe it was donated to the man himself.

Artwork & exhibits are rotated, loaned, stored, moved for preservation, you name it. I suspect it's not gone forever. I would hope that his passing would place some emphasis on the A-1E; the painting ought to be on a easel out by the plane.

Ken

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"Take care of the little things and the big things will take care of themselves."

They almost did. The original issue of their A-1E only needs the correct SN and cowl number to be Fisher's.

I still find it kind of amazing that they kitted that airplane (A-1E) in 1966 or '67. And did a pretty good job with it, too, down to the USAF-specific Collins VHF antenna.

It's also surprising that here in 2014, no one has done us a better 1/72 AD-5/A-1E kit, though one has been rumored for a while now. (Special Hobby, maybe, I think?) Or, for that matter, a good one in 1/48. (The Matchbox, recently reissued by Revell, was a bit lame even by 1983 standards, although a decent shelf model can be made from it with a little work.)

i've built a few 1/72 skyraiders, and a 1/48. the old monogram kit went together really well. good moldings. i even made a twin-skyraider out of it because i buy that kit whenver i see it. so i used my imagination. artistic license. the temptation to "twin" everything is lurking in me, just below the surface. ok, any more model talk and i'll go somewhere else. i know what it's all about here and it isn't kits! but i love the skyraider. not alone i see, as this thread is alive and kicking. before i go, does anybody have any recent photos of the formerly "green" one in the NMUSAF resto shop that they have hidden now? someone here said it was pretty far along. i want to see it! disappointed it was not there for me, as it was one of the big reasons i went. rats. p.s. i made my first skyraider kit in the late 60's, the kit with the optional battle damaged parts. really wild. it may have been a HAWK kit, not sure. ok, bye.

That was the old IMC kit and is universally regarded as the single worst Skyraider model kit of all time. IMC ripped off the Monogram kit completely, and then made some changes to make it into a single-seater, but the fuselages of the Fat Faces and the single seaters are COMPLETELY different from the firewall back and so all they did was make a model that looked nothing like any Skyraider ever built. I have one of the evil backbirths in my collection. I will never build it, even on a lark, even on a dare, that's how wretched it is.

I seem to recall that Monogram even sued IMC for copyright infringement over that kit and won, but I don't have any details on that.