Warbird Information Exchange

I saw this diorama at the IPMS Nats a couple of years ago (the pics aren't mine, though) It was in the "humor" category, but it must be historically accurate, because is was accompanied by the following rumpled, coffee-stained memo:


May 8, 1944

Orders No.228487DD556

From: Lt. General H.S. Vandenberg, CO, 9th Air Force

To: Col. R.L. Delashaw, CO, 405th Fighter Group

Subject: Prepare Show Airplane


Hello Bob. We’ve got another contest coming up shortly. As you know, your group has yet to come home with a trophy. Well, as of right now, that ends. Your orders, as distasteful as they are, are to prepare an A/C to represent your FG for a win. What the judges (and inexplicably the public as well) seem to notice and approve of these days is the strange “heavily weathered” look. Therefore, you will choose an airplane and do to it:

1. Heavily spray paint all panel lines with F110013 Grimy Black or USAAF approved equivalent. Additionally, carefully highlight each and every panel line with same paint.

2. Heavily spray paint black streaks leading back from all guns.

3. Heavily apply dabs of silver paint at regular intervals along leading edges of wings using MM1781 Aluminum or USAAF approved equivalent.

4. Repaint various panels as “replacements” in a way that can’t possibly be overlooked using MM2051 Faded Olive Drab or USAAF approved equivalent.

5. Deflate the tires for that bulged/weighted look.

If in the process of preparing the subject airplane there are any questions or judgment calls to make, err on the side of overstatement.

Bring home a trophy, Bob. That’s an order.



Lt. Gen. Hoyt S. Vandenberg














Cheers!

Steve

Hahaha! That is a riot!

NICE!!!

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Never drive faster than your Guardian Angel can fly!!

http://www.390th.org/
www.LSFM.org

Trae

That is fantastic!

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Love it! I'm really not a fan of all the grotesque weathering on model aircraft these days... or ridiculously large recessed rivets for that matter, but that's another story...

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Matt

What a great modeling social comment. I'm so sick and tired of seeing overly weathered aircraft in contests. I'm sure someone somewhere took a wash rag to an aircraft at some point.

Personally, I've never understood it, especially on aircraft that are suppsoed to be NMF. I've only entered a single contest with an aircraft (a F-15E painted for the 390FS) and got docked points because I didn't highlight any of the panel lines. In fact, I had gone through the model and made sure to flatten as many of them as I could that weren't visible in pictures of the real aircraft so that the photo sources and the model matched. I was presenting the aircraft as it was when delivered to the unit with fresh paint, so there was little weathering evident.

After that, I decided that contests weren't for me. It was too much work to do a good job only to have it be criticised for apparently looking too real.

I've been on judging teams with "experts" that demand heavy weathering and 1" wide panel lines. You just feel like tearing out your hair (if applicable) and walking away. Another pet peeve of mine is having to spend three times the price of an already well detailed kit on resin and photoetch stuff. Some judges turn up their nose at truly scratchbuilt details but are entranced by off-the-shelf aftermarket pieces. I love to scratchbuild and modify kit parts to enhance a model, but that doesn't cut it anymore.

Heck, I helped a guy detail up the "warload" for a Hasegawa F-15E using the Hasegawa Weapon packs using loadout info and several photos I had and he got docked for having an "unrealistic weapons load". It's amazing that some of these judges can have all the evidence in the world put in their face that what you have on it is true-to-life, and they'll still not believe that it's real.

The loadout?

http://www.f-15estrikeeagle.com/weapons ... ods_08.htm

The funniest part was that one of the judges sat there and said that it couldn't be accurate because it didn't have the LANTIRN Targeting pod installed and the F-15E "always had both pods installed" (this was in 1997 or 1998 too).

Asymmetrical loads are cool! A few judges can't be swayed by facts, no matter if you have diagrams, photos, or firsthand information.

I was asked to be on a judging team at a contest once upon a time and we had one extremely hard-to-please judge. He also happened to be the "team leader" of our little group. We were on our way to judge an armor class when I spied a decal starting to lift just the least little bit on an otherwise great model. I dabbed a little spit on a finger and sneakily got the decal to lay down. As events unfolded, that model won the class and was in the hunt for Best of Show. If our head judge had seen that little indescretion, the model would have been fit only for the dustbin. After we were all done for the day and the hardware was handed out, I told the head judge guy what I had done. He was absolutely furious with my insolence and berated me quite harshly. I mentioned to him that the builder would never have put the model on the table in that condition (the display hall temperature was VERY high and may have caused the decal problem) and that I used my discretion to correct the tiny flaw on a model that team leader called "nearly perfect" just minutes later. Go figure.

I love it! It is so true! How much can you make it look like a rusty old bucket or money can you spend on aftermarket crap!

Belive me, car guys are just as bad or weirder!!

You really ARE a trouble maker, aren't you Scott! BTW, my Dad says hi.

Hi back, Chad! Ellen and I were just talking about your pop the other day.

Here is a little project I built back in the mid nineties during my Na$car phase. The brake rotors, hood and trunk pins and holdopen rods were photoetched. Everything else was from my parts boxes or scratchbuilt, including the working roof flaps and internal trunk lid structure. I know it's not a warbird, but just demonstrates that you don't need tons of photoetched and aftermarket pieces to build a passable model.

Lake Speed driven, Bud Moore owned, run at Darlington:

There's a British guy (Len Thompson) on another forum who specializes in taking old Airfix kits and adding totally scratchbuilt interiors. Right now he's working on a Sunderland, and last year he did a Halifax. Spectacular stuff, unfortunately 90% of it is invisible once the fuselage is sealed up.

Unfortunately, in competition circles modeling is becoming a "haves" vs "have nots," with judges leaning towards those who can afford tons of resin and PE. Personally, when I judge I always go for fit and finish first..as far as I'm concerned, the more stuff you add, the more mistakes you're likely to make. I'll take a well-built out-of-the-box model over a poorly built one with lots of aftermarket stuff everytime.

I'm headed to the IPMS National Convention next week. I'm sure there will be tons of well-executed but horrifically over-weathered models on the tables. I went to a Nats a few years back, and there was one builder who had entered about a dozen different 1/48 WWII models. Every panel was a slightly different shade, and every single panel line was outlined and shaded, to the point that the models looked several shades too dark. He did an OD B-29 that looked almost black (but had bright silver paint chips.) While they were very beautifully done, they didn't look anything like a real aircraft.

SN