Warbird Information Exchange

No, people keep trespassing on the property! Then there are people that say all of it is junk, and well that just isn't true! The B-36 cockpit would look good just as is, for a cockpit display. Don't need all of a plane to tell a story-That's what Im doing.

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I've weighed in on this subject before: Ever since Mr. Soplata passed, the vultures have just been circling waiting for that "crack in the door" to pick apart the collection. I don't know the players involved, but if it was my family, my gut reaction to these uninvited guests would be to "circle the wagons" even tighter. If the family could have their space, I'm sure that they would appreciate the breathing room and will eventually bring forth a plan for the collection. For all we know, the family may be considering forming their own museum.

What would be good would be if the entire collection could be placed undercover on site as a tribute to Walter..

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Cheers,
Peter

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Calling Courier--

The 1:72 diorama you mention is probably mine...I had some photos of it on the old Webshots site but that's gone now and I'm not sure where the physical photos are now. I do still have the diorama, in my basement, a bit bedraggled but basically intact...rather like many of Walt's actual planes were! It wasn't, by the way, a depiction of the whole collection--I'd need to take up a whole room--but rather a slice of the front part of the acreage as it looked at about the time of my first visit there in summer 1982. Represented are the two intact Corsairs, the intact F-82, the Skyraider, the P-80, the Cutlass, one of the Mitchells and one of the Valiants. For the Valiant and the F2G I had to resort to some trickery...the F2G is a slightly modified Matchbox F4U-4 kit with Walt's sheet metal roof tucked in tighter atop the fuselage than it really was to hide the fact that the -4 is not a lowback bubbletop, and the Valiant is a mishmash of parts from a Testors T-6G and an old P-40 with wings off a small-scale Russian-made Yak-40 airliner kit! Whole thing was a lot of fun to put together.

S.

Met Walter years ago at air heritage bvi some members were allowed a visit up there and a VCR tape this was before anything was moved might still be at the call and see maybe they make copy for donation

...Went downstairs with a camera and shot some pix of "Project Walt"...they are now on Photobucket, here's a link.

http://s290.photobucket.com/user/StudeS ... t=3&page=1

Some are fuzzy (little digital camera isn't much use for macro images), but you'll get the idea. Note that the base is W-shaped for "Walt". Over by the F2G, a 1:72 Walter is showing off the old racer proudly for 1:72 versions of me, my dad and my brother...Of note is that of the eight planes depicted only two are still at Newbury--the AD and the Cutlass, plus parts of the Valiant. The P-80 is at NMNA, the B-25 with Yagen, the F-82 with C&P, the FG-1 with Ken McBride, and of course sadly the F2G is no more, having crashed in 2012.

S.

Thats a neat tribute to Walt steve!

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Cheers,
Peter

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That is very cool.

By any chance, does anyone know the Bureau Number of the Avenger that Soplata has? Just curious what that particular plane's history was, since I'm just a little bit partial to Avengers

Just finished a phone call I received from a Soplata family member who is adamant that nothing has been sold/ or moved including the Skyraider! The member asked me to issue the following (again) statement on their behalf : " when/if anything is done with an aircraft or the collection you'll all know at the same time!"

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A&P/I.A., A.A.S./Aviation Maintenance technology
Warbird salvage/recovery
One day I'll get that P-40!

SaxMan--

Not sure of the TBM's BuNo is recorded on the Soplata collection listing on this site (which was put together by Mike Henniger from various sources who had been on the farm including myself)...but that TBM appears to have finished her career with VS-26 at Norfolk, Virginia, if that's any help. Tail code was "SH".

I like Avengers too...looking forward to our local example, CWH's ex-Forest Protection, ex-RCN AS.3, flying again before too long in RCN double grey. Been a long time since there was an Avenger flying from Mt.Hope!

S.

Inspiring, Steve T! Thanks. Love certain details, like P-82 fogged plexi, P-80 sitting down, B-36 turret, skyraider outer wings. Wild Cargo looks kinda real! Great job of lettering the name. I see the eye of an artist here. Diorama only needs more junk, hot rods, washing machines. This for sure belongs in the eventual "Walter Soplata Aviation Archaeology Museum".

thought you might get a kick out of my enforcer, from the monogram F-82 kit.

and some leftover parts went into my "twin-skyraider". must fight temptation to "twin" everything.

just another eccentric ohioan, ok?

If you go to that guys Facebook page he also says he owns two airworthy B-47's....

Someone with a few lose screws..........

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[quote="Courier Sportster"]


Maybe you should have grafted one more on there and created a "Tri-Raider"

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Let me know when you build a twin Cub or the Twin Ercoupe....(but the Lindbergh kits for that would be a bit expensice). Both were real and flew in the late 40s.

The Ercoupe was seriously considered for production.

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