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+++ DISCLAIMER +++
Nothing you see here is real, even though the conversion or the presented background story might be based on historical facts. BEWARE!
Some Background:
The Grumman F8F (G-58, Grumman Aircraft's design designation) Bearcat was a U.S. Navy/Marine Corps single-engine, fighter aircraft. It was introduced late in World War II as a carrier-based fighter. In replacing the obsolescent F4F Wildcat and F6F Hellcat, climb rate was an important design factor for the F8F, which was faster and lighter than the F6F carrier-based fighter. In late 1943, Grumman began development of the F8F Bearcat and deliveries from Grumman began on 21 May 1945.
In 1946, the F8F set a climb record of 6,383 fpm and held this record until it was broken by a jet fighter in 1956. Early F8Fs first flew in August 1944, followed by production aircraft starting in February 1945, the war ended before the F8F saw combat.
The F8F was Grumman’s last piston engine fighter Production ended in 1949, after Grumman had produced 1,265 F8F Bearcats in total. Directly after the war, the F8F was a key fighter for the U.S. Navy/Marine Corps. Since it was one of the best-handling piston fighters ever, its performance made it the top selection in 1946 for the U.S. Navy’s elite Blue Angels demonstration squadron. When the F8F became obsolete (The last ones in U.S. service were retired in 1952), it was replaced with jet fighter aircraft, the F9F Panther and the F2H Banshee.
From 1946 to 1954, the F8F saw its first combat during the French Indochina War, being used by French forces. Surviving Bearcats from that war were given to the Republic of Vietnam Air Force and to Cambodia, and some were mothballed. The Royal Thai Air Force also flew a number of Bearcats that were purchased from the U.S. Navy.
Gabon became another, rather late operator of the F8F. In the early 1960s, following the country's independence from the French Republic, aerial detachments remained inside the country. The first president of Gabon, elected in 1961, was Léon M'ba, with Omar Bongo Ondimba as his vice president. As a starting stock of flying equipment, Gabon took over twenty refurbished, former Armée de L’air F8F Bearcats from French surplus stock and used them both as advanced trainers and for operational military duties, which became more and more the Bearcats’ primary mission. After M'ba's accession to power, the press was suppressed, political demonstrations banned, freedom of expression curtailed, other political parties gradually excluded from power, and the Constitution changed along French lines to vest power in the Presidency, a post that M'ba assumed himself.
However, when M'ba dissolved the National Assembly in January 1964 to institute one-party rule, an army coup sought to oust him from power and restore parliamentary democracy. French paratroopers flew in within 24 hours to restore M'ba to power. At that time the small Gabonese F8F fleet was joined by a couple of former French Douglas AD-4 Skyraiders, which had been originally procured for use in the Algerian War. After the end of this conflict in 1964, the machines were used in Djibouti, Madagascar and Chad, among other places, and eight of them joined the Gabonese forces as part of the Presedential Guards, flown by French mercenaries because the Gabonese troops lacked flight and – moreover – combat experience. After a few days of fighting, the coup ended and the opposition was imprisoned, despite widespread protests and riots. French soldiers still remain in the Camp de Gaulle on the outskirts of Gabon's capital to this day.
After these riots, Gabon’s first official aerial installation was established in 1966: Mouila Training Center in the south-west of the country. When M'Ba died in 1967, Bongo replaced him as president. In March 1968, Bongo declared Gabon a one-party state by dissolving the BDG and establishing a new party—the Parti Democratique Gabonais (PDG). He invited all Gabonese, regardless of previous political affiliation, to participate. Bongo sought to forge a single national movement in support of the government's development policies, using the PDG as a tool to submerge the regional and tribal rivalries that had divided Gabonese politics in the past.
On January 25, 1972, by presidential decree signed by President Omar Bongo, the Gabonese Air Force became an official branch of the armed forces, separate from the army, and funds were allocated to replace the outdated and worn-out AD-4s and F8Fs with more adequate equipment. The implementation of this plan would take some more years, though, starting with the procurement of modern Mirage 5 fighter bombers from France in 1978, which replaced the old types until the end of the decade. In January 1980, at the initiative of President Bongo, the Air Force eventually developed and adopted a combat structure and created the dedicated Mvengue Air Base in the capital.
Today, Gabon has a small, professional military of about 5,000 personnel, divided into army, navy, air force, gendarmerie, and national police. Gabonese forces are oriented to the defense of the country and have not been trained for an offensive role. A well-trained, well-equipped 1,800-member guard provides security for the president.
General characteristics:
Crew: 1
Length: 28 ft 3 in (8.61 m)
Wingspan: 35 ft 10 in (10.92 m)
Height: 13 ft 10 in (4.22 m)
Wing area: 244 sq ft (22.7 m²)
Aspect ratio: 5.02
Airfoil: root: NACA 23018; tip: NACA 23009
Empty weight: 7,650 lb (3,470 kg)
Max takeoff weight: 13,460 lb (6,105 kg)
Powerplant:
1× Pratt & Whitney Pratt & Whitney R-2800-34W Double Wasp 18-cylinder air-cooled radial piston
engine with 2,100 hp (1,600 kW), driving a 4-bladed constant-speed propeller
Performance:
Maximum speed: 455 mph (732 km/h, 395 kn)
Range: 1,105 mi (1,778 km, 960 nmi)
Service ceiling: 40,800 ft (12,400 m)
Rate of climb: 4,465 ft/min (22.68 m/s)
Wing loading: 42 lb/sq ft (210 kg/m²)
Power/mass: 0.22 hp/lb (0.36 kW/kg)
Armament:
4× 20 mm (.79 in) AN/M3 cannon in the outer wings
2,000 lb (907 kg) of ordnance on three prime hardpoints (incl. bombs, rocket pods, napalm tanks
or drop tanks), plus four underwing hardpoints for light loads like 5” (127 mm) HVAR unguided rockets
The kit and its assembly:
A rather quick/simple project that had been lingering in The Stash™ for a couple of years. The idea and inspiration: what if the French air force had left more than just a couple of Skyraiders in Northern African countries after their independence? The F8F was operated by the French Armée de l’air until 1954, even though primarily in Indochina. But some of these could have been transferred to countries like Chad, Central African Republic or Gabon, too, and from this thought this what-if model was born.
There are certainly better F8F kits (e. g. the Art Model kit with resin parts, including a finely detailed landing gear wells interior), but for a "budget build" or a conversion this one is a good starting point – and I had a Monogram F8F (Revell re-boxing) ready in stock. The model was basically built OOB, just with some cosmetic changes. The Monogram F8F in 1:72 holds only small surprises. It's a typical vintage Monogram kit (IIRC, the molds are from 1976) with raised (yet fine) details and vague fit - even though nothing fatal. PSR was basically necessary at any seam, esp. the unique wing/fuselage solution calls for some seam-filling. The cockpit interior is bare, but, except for the (quite nice) seat and the dashboard, nothing can be seen later. In order to pimp the interior, I added a dashboard – the kit comes with a rather symbolic one, consisting of two sections molded into the fuselage halves with an ugly seam. A styrene tube was added behind the engine block to take the propeller’s new metal axis, and a small pitot was added under the left wing, made from wire.
The clear parts (two pieces) are very transparent but came with lots of flash and massive attachment points to the sprue, what left visible marks on the parts. The landing gear is simple but O.K., very robust, but it appears quite stalky to me and the wells are totally bare. The oil cooler intakes in the wing roots are just holes, so I filled them with bits of foamed styrene. The underwing ordnance was changed into triple bazooka unguided missile launchers in the standard pylons' poristions (which had to be sanded away since they are molded into the wings' lower half), procured from an Academy P-51 kit, and on short notice I added four small bombs to the HVAR stations, from a Hobbycraft Skyraider. Not certain what they are supposed to be (maybe M47 incendiary bombs?), because of their small size and the vintage "box tail", but they could be light anti-personnel/shrapnel bombs?
Painting and markings:
I used the real-world Gabonese AD-4s as benchmarks – and even had a complete decal set for one of these machines (from a Hobbycraft kit) at hand. Consequently, I gave the F8F an overall NMF look, created with a base of Revell 99 (Aluminum), some single panels in Humbrol 56 (Aluminum Dope) and later a panel-shading with Humbrol 27001 (Matt Aluminum Metal Cote) and some good rubbing with a soft cotton cloth and a bit of graphite for some more depth in between the tones. Quite complex process, but it creates a nice, uneven and worn metallic look.
Parts of the cowling and the exhaust area became black, created with paint and decal material. The anti-glare panel was also painted in black, just with s slightly different tone (Revell 06, Tar Black).
I adopted a green cheatline as an individual aircraft marking, and the respective decals from the Hobbycraft Skyraider’s sheet were tailored accordingly to match the small F8F’s hull. A matching green tone was mixed for the wing, stabilizer and fin tips, and the propeller’s tip was painted green, too. The propeller blades’ tips received two yellow stripes on overall black – inspired by the design of the real Gabonese AD-4s’ markings.
All interior surfaces except for the cockpit were painted with bright green zinc primer (Revell 361, the cockpit ina darker Humbrol 226), the landing gear became silver-grey (Humbrol 56) – the former French F8Fs had kept the USN all-dark blue livery, and their landing gear would have been blue, too, but as a refurbished aircraft, stripped off of its former livery, would probably have a bare metal landing gear, too?
The kit received a black ink washing before aforementioned surface treatment was applied. After the addition of the decals the whole kit was sealed with a semi-gloss acrylic varnish to promote sine, except for the anti-glare panel, which became matt. Oil stains around the engine were created with Tamiya X-19 (Smoke) and soot stains around the guns and the exhaust ports were dry-painted with black acrylic paint and some graphite.
Well, this is, despite being more or less built OOB, a highly exotic what-if model, and I think that the NMF together with the green cheatlines suit the Bearcat well - adapting the paint scheme from a Douglas Skyraider onto the similar F8F was quite easy (and incidently the same path I had taken with another Monogram F8F in Cambodian markings some months ago).
Here is Quick Curl Barbie with her original hair set. Barbie is wearing "Party Separates #7841" from 1974.
With the winter fog laying thick over Menzies Creek, 14A prepares to set back into the station and run around its train.
As the railway becomes more and more popular with international tourists, it's not uncommon for the first train of the day to be double-headed (hauled by two steam locos) as far as Menzies Creek station. Upon arrival, one loco quickly uncouples and runs around to the end of the train, as one or more bus loads of passengers leave the train before continuing elsewhere on their tour.
Once the locomotive has run to the other end of the train and the forward portion has left for Lakeside, the rear portion returns to Belgrave, where it forms part of the 12:30pm luncheon train to Lakeside.
Tyrion didn't want to walk with me... he was too scared. I quickly looked at his teeth to determine his age, and since he seemed young, I felt comfortable to just pick him up, and walk off the ramp.
I thanked the two Los Angeles Animal Services officers who knew my rescue work and were very happy that he wouldn't end up in their shelter.
A P-51 Mustang called Quick Silver flying at the Kwik Fill Rochester International Airshow in Rochester, New York on Sunday, August 17, 2014.
17 Jan 2011 (Day 17/365)
Thought last minute of going to this location to get today's shot but I was in a rush and only had a couple of minutes there before I had to leave. I wish I'd had more time to play with the focus and depth of field but considering how quick I had to be I'm not too unhappy with this shot :)
...made it to Explore, my first one YAY!! Thank you guys so much for your feedback and favs - means a lot to me!
Head over to my website if you are looking for a photographer in Cambridge!
Shot by August Brill
I've been tagged by my friend Plumbelina!
Welcome to The Quicker Fliz!
With *random fact* ingredient!! ohhhhhh!
Once you have completed the questions, please feel free to copy and paste the text, upload it to your stream with a pic and tag a handful of contacts you think might enjoy! :)
**Six names you go by: (this is not easy!)**
1. Rufo – it’s the name of my cat, and my nick in the web
2. Markus – as my friend Raul call me
3. Mirello – as a Tunisian customer of mine called me once and as August Brill likes to call me now
4. Dado, Silvia my girlfriend, calls me this.
5. Wof; Blu, my dog, before her dinner time.
6. Grrrrrrr; Alberto, my 5 days old child after his lunch.
**Three things you are wearing right now:**
1. a cat poils coated sweatshirt
2. blue tracksuit pants, same color of my Mac’s desktop
3. my green glasses
**Four things you want very badly at this moment:**
1. I’m ok, I don’t really need anything more.
2. -
3. -
4. -
**Three people who will answer this:**
Well, I can’t really answer.
**Two things you did last night:**
1. Preparing some pictures for the print
2. Dancing with Alberto hoping he would sleep at night.
**Last two people you talked to on the phone**
1. My mother
2. My friend Dario also called Pisano
**Two things you are going to do tomorrow:**
1. Stay with my family
2. In the late afternoon, going to the vernissage of Spaziabo
**Three favourite drinks:**
1. Cappuccino
2. Black coffee
3. Espresso
THE RANDOM FACT INGREDIENT:
Moving to the country. Gonna eat a lot of peaches.
Tagging:
Bernard Granger
Paul Marsh
Nurse Kato
Roselità
Lorena
Leeweg10
Ginablu9K
Auroradeepblu
Roslol
Jessie
The Crew take their obligatory photo in front of the Armatree Grain Silos after all passengers have alighted. The LVR 'Best of the West' Heritage Tour was worked by 4716 and ran from Oranga to Armatree via Dubbo.
I've learned to love those little lucky rays of sunshine, the ones that miss every branch and obstacle to shine on some bare bit of earth below. Sure, I could stand in a field someplace, and get all the light I want. But I choose a point of desperation, a rushing moment passing, quickly blinking away. We both know that says something about me. My whole heart comes back to the hard way, the narrow gauge of now and then. I've never had much interest in taking pictures, it's just my excuse for adventure, to feel with no one watching. If you're here now with your heart intact, then that's everything I've wanted for my memories.
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"Stefano" the 1954 Lancia Appia with 1964 NSU Quickly. The NSU is having mechanical problems, but the Lancia is running well after some minor maintenance.
This picture is #84 in the 100 Strangers Project - Round 2
Meet Helen
During the last 3 years of the strangers project I have met people in different random places – on the streets, at the gym, in parks, at malls, at restaurants, airports but for a first time this happened at the church.
I would say Helen's personality and her very elegant dressing with the beautiful red dress sealed the deal. What was even more definitive is that wifey agreed whole heartedly. But as the service drew to a close I was undecided if I should wait and ask or pass it up. Eventually we agreed that I would drop p my wife and kid at Giants in the neighboring shopping complex to finish the grocery shopping and I’d walk back and try make a request. Of course by the time I walked back services had already ended and the crowd had dispersed. But as luck would have it I noticed the young lady, her red dress absolutely standing out, praying by the grotto. I excused myself as she finished her prayers and started walking with her sister. After hearing me out she was open to being a part of the pics. However I had to abandon my idea to walk towards a darker background when I realized she had a big family waiting for her. So we decided to instead shoot a few pics using open shade next to the church as her mom and dad after a quick friendly chat left for a walk and other family members stood around at a distance talking. It's always a little challenging to be in this situation and feeling a little rushed is natural but on the flip side am thankful to get the oppurtunity.
Helen was a pleasure to photograph though I honestly didn't do her justice. Her twinkling happy eyes screamed kindness.. and not surprising that kindness was her favorite quality. Her family hails from Ivory Coast in West Africa - which I believe explains her strong features and beauty. My interaction also revealed another quality I see as simplicity and almost a childlike directness and honesty.
An accountant by profession she enjoys cooking - photography is something she enjoys as well. We agreed to connect again to photograph her in a follow up session since she enjoys that as well.
Thanks a lot Helen for your time. It was wonderful making your acquaintance. I look forward to shoot I with you again. In the meanwhile wishing you all the very best and regards to the family
Find out more about the project and see pictures taken by other photographers at the 100 Strangers Flickr Group page
For my other pictures on this project: 100 Strangers - Round 2.
For pictures from my prior attempt at 100 Strangers: 100 Strangers - Round 1.
A quick tip
Although often light straight on the model can be considered "not so good" it can sometimes really make a model jump out when used with the right expression, styling and backdrop.
Nadine did the styling here and trust me it was a throw away dress ;). Shot against our opulent red FD signature series #clickpropsbackdrops
See a selection of our backgrounds on frankdoorhof.com/shop
#AQCOLOR #alphapro #calibrite #hensel #hensellighting #modelphotography #kfconcept
French Machine Gunner takes quick nap while his unit stops.
Due to a sudden general mobilisation, speed was essential to reach the predetermined defensive positions.
Ausbildung der QRF - Kräfte (Quick Reaction Force). Bergen eines Verwundeten, am 18.04.2008.
©Bundeswehr/Andrea Bienert
Having made my first visit to Thurso with Dave Palmer on an all line rail rover in 1981, it was now time to visit Wick with Mike Evans on the Mad March Young Persons Railcard free ticket to anywhere offer. 26040 was our loco from Wick to Inverness with load 2 picking up the load 5 portion the 11.48 from Thurso seen arriving here with 26045. Other far north services that day were worked by 26035 and 26042. I used to love the 26s as they were neat locos and so synonymous with the Scottish Highlands. Unlike Kyle where there was an opportunity to pop over to Skye, have a few beers and a chip supper there was never any time at the far north terminii due to the quick run rounds. That is unless you were prepared to spend six hours at these Highland outposts which were Fizz Central back then with gaseous tastless beers to wash down your scotch pies, bridie or stovies. Wick isn't much better nowadays with one of the few outlets for real ale being one of the better UK Wetherspoons The Alexander Bain and would you believe this was one of the sixteen Spoons recently slated for closure. Stick with the much better Thurso if you are staying this far north.
Yesterday’s thrift loot
I’ll admit it: I did not wash the things I thrifted on Saturday before I wore them on Sunday. But I did wear layers beneath them, so is that less gross?
My neighbor and I spent two and a half hours at the Salvation Army on Saturday. She has way more shopping stamina than I do. The upside is that, while she’s trying on 30 tops, I continue browsing and finding goodies of my own, like this dress and blazer. In fact, I got the idea to pair them together while in the store. Genius takes time.
Jacket, Cabi (thrifted). Dress, H&M (thrifted). Turtleneck, A New Day. Leggings, B. Allen. Boots, Steve Madden. Bag, A+ designed by Aldo.