Kagrenac: Now with that unfortunate setback out of the way, I'll need to show you why it would be extremely foolish to try to take over our city.

Geomancer: What, the explosive device you planted in my head wasn't enough?

On the road to becoming my true self, I will (and have) come across bumps in the road along the way.

 

Whether it's a temporary setback such as travel distance or in the community, I often overcome and find solutions to the problems that I face, day in, day out.

 

But sometimes, those problems can become a big issue.

 

As the Beast from the Disney classic, Beauty and the Beast, once said:

 

"The day, my life, ended."

 

A while ago, I was in the Beast's shoes, going through and processing a devastating, life alterating event which hit me for six.

 

A five year, drug filled, neighbourhood war in my part of town (and my unit complex) was all but too much for me in all aspects.

 

So, I had to ask for help from a local charity for assistance, which, although I was at my lowest point, had an op shop and this sparkly dress just happened to be half price....

Some background:

The Nakajima A6M2-N (Navy Type 2 Interceptor/Fighter-Bomber) was a single-crew floatplane. The Allied reporting name for the aircraft was 'Rufe'.

 

The A6M2-N floatplane was developed mainly to support amphibious operations and defend remote bases. It was based on the Mitsubishi A6M-2 Model 11 fuselage, with a modified tail and added floats. Despite the large central float and wing pontoons, the A6M2-N was aerodynamically a very clean aircraft: compared with its land-based A6M2 cousin, its performance degraded only by about 20%, and for a contemporary single engine floatplane its performance was outstanding.

 

The aircraft was deployed in 1942, referred to as the "Suisen 2" ("Hydro fighter type 2"), and intended for interceptor, fighter-bomber, and short reconnaissance support for amphibious landings, among other uses. However, when confronted with the first generation of Allied fighters, the A6M2-N was no match in aerial combat and rather employed in supportive roles.

 

Effectively, the A6M2-N was mostly utilized in defensive actions in the Aleutians and Solomon Islands operations. They were used with good efficiency against Allied positions: marking patrol elements, aiding warship guns, engaging convoys, and reconnoitering areas over-the-horizon.

The A6M2-Ns were also effective in harassing American PT boats at night, and they could drop flares to illuminate the PTs which were vulnerable to destroyer gunfire, and depended on cover of darkness. However, when Allied fighter coverage became more numerous and effective, the value of the A6M2-N dwindled and losses began to naturally mount.

 

In the Aleutian Campaign this fighter engaged with RCAF Curtiss P-40, Lockheed P-38 Lightning fighters and Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress bombers, but the A6M2-N inventory suffered a severe setback when, on August 7th, 1942, a seaplane base was destroyed by Allied fighter-bombers, taking with it most of the available A6M2-Ns stationed there.

 

The seaplane also served in defense of fueling depots in Balikpapan and Avon Bases (Dutch East Indies) and reinforced the Shumushu base (North Kuriles) in the same period.

Beyond their use from dispersed and improvised bases, A6M2-N fighters also served aboard seaplane carriers Kamikawa Maru in the Solomons and Kuriles areas and aboard Japanese raiders Hokoku Maru and Aikoku Maru in Indian Ocean raids.

Later in the conflict the Otsu Air Group utilized the A6M2-N as an interceptor alongside Kawanishi N1K1 Kyofu ('Rex') aircraft based in Biwa lake in the Honshū area, defending the Japanese home land against Allied raids.

 

A total of 327 were built, including the original prototype, before being halted in September 1943.

The last A6M2-N in military service was a single example recovered by the French forces in Indochina after the end of World War II. It crashed shortly after being overhauled, though.

  

General characteristics:

Crew: 1 (Pilot)

Length: 10.10 m (33ft 1⅝ in)

Wingspan: 12.00 m (39 ft 4⅜ in)

Height: 4.30 m (14ft 1⅜ in)

Wing area: 22.44 m² (251.4 sq ft)

Empty weight: 1,912 kg (4,235 lb)

Loaded weight: 2,460 kg (5,423 lb)

Max. takeoff weight: 2,880 kg (6,349 lb)

 

Powerplant:

1× Nakajima NK1C Sakae 12 air cooled 14 cylinder radial engine,

delivering 950 hp (709 kW) at 4,200 m (13,800 ft)

 

Performance:

Maximum speed: 436 km/h (235 knots, 270.5 mph) at 5,000 m (16,400 ft)

Cruise speed: 296 km/h (160 knots, 184 mph)

Range: 1,782 km (963 nmi, 1,107 mi)

Service ceiling: 10,000 m (32,800 ft)

Climb rate: 6 min 43 s to 5,000 m (16,400 ft)

 

Armament:

2 × 7.7 mm Type 97 machine guns in forward fuselage

2 ×20 mm Type 99 cannons in outer wings

Underwing hardpoints for 2× 60 kg (132 lb) bombs

  

The kit and its assembly:

This is a real world model, despite the weird looks (see below), and an entry for the Arawasi blog's "Japanese Aircraft Online Model Contest 005 - Japanese Seaplanes & Flying Boats" contest in summer 2017. Even though whifs were allowed to enter, I used the opportunity to build a kit I had originally bought for a few bucks and stashed away in the donor bank: a vintage LS Model Nakajima A6M2-N.

 

The mould dates back to 1963(!), and the kit was re-issued several times, also under the ARII label. You get a tiny box, with only two sprues moulded in a pale baby blue, and the number of parts is minimal. It's truly vintage and pretty toylike at first sight. Consequently, you have to face some real old-school issues, e. g. moulded markings for the roundels on the wings, general mediocre fit of anything and lots of sinkholes and flash. Then there are toylike solutions like the single-piece propeller or separate, moveable ailerons with bulging joints.

 

The cockpit interior is non-existent, too: there's just a blank place for a dashboard (to be cut out from the printed BW instructions!), and a spindly pilot figure which is held in mid air by some pins. Furthermore, the kit was designed to take a small electric motor in the nose (sold separately) to drive the propeller. Wires, as well as respective internal ducts, and an AA battery holder are included.

 

Sounds scary? Well, maybe, if you just build it OOB. But all these flaws should not keep the ambitious modeler away because the LS Model kit is (still) a sound basis to start from, even though and by today's standards, it is certainly not a match-winner for a rivet counter-esque competition.

 

For its age and the typical solutions of its time, it is actually surprisingly good: you get very fine engraved surface details (more delicate than many contemporary moulds!), a pretty thin, three-piece clear (yet blurry) canopy and, as a bonus to the elevons, separate flaps – a unique detail I have never come across before! Proportions are IMHO good, even though the cowling looks a bit fishy and the engravings are rather soft and shallow. Anyway, on the exterior, there’s anything you can ask for to be found, and as another bonus the kit comes with a beaching trolley, which makes display and diorama fitting easier.

 

Thanks to the kit's simplicity, the build in itself was pretty straightforward and simple. Cleaning the parts and checking fit was the biggest issue. Upon gluing the old styrene showed signs of serious reaction to the dissolving effect of modern glue: it took ages for the material to cure and become hard again for further work!? Weird…

 

The many sinkholes and overall displacements were corrected with some NC putty/PSR, the protruding elevon/flap joints sanded away as good as possible, and due to the wobbly nature of the kit’s styrene I added blobs of 2C putty inside of the wing halves as stabilizers.

 

Some mods and improvements were made, though. After cleaning the OOB propeller from tons of flash the piece turned out to be pretty usable, and it was put on a metal axis. A styrene tube adapter was added behind the relatively flat engine dummy, so that the prop can spin freely – for the later beauty pics, because no CG effect beats IMHO the real thing.

 

A cockpit interior was created from scratch and donor parts, using the new Airfix A6M model's cockpit as benchmark. It’s not an exact replica, because not much would later be visible, but I wanted, as a minimum, “something” inside. A better pilot figure was used, too, and strapped to the new seat with thin strips of adhesive masking tape as seatbelts.

 

Under the wings, the hardpoints were simulated with some bits of styrene and wire as shackles, but left empty Under the stabilizer fin I added a lug(?), made from thin wire, too.

 

The elevons were fixed in place, the seams to the wings filled with white glue in order to conceal the gaps as good as possible. The movable flaps remained, though, adding life to the model. The dolly was also taken more or less OOB, since it fits well. I just improved it with some sinkhole fillings and some other details, including cushions on the float stabilizers, made from paper tissue soaked with thinned white glue, and a towing bar.

  

Painting and markings:

The reason why I settled for an A6M2-N is mostly the weird paint scheme which can be applied, while still being a real world model: a lilac livery!

 

As far as I could find out, the A6M2-Ns initially carried an all-over IJN Grey livery, which was later, in late 1942, modified with dark green upper sides for a better concealment on the ground, and the Hinomaru received white edges for better contrast.

Anyway, during the Aleutian campaign and more or less in between these two major standards, several aircraft must have received a special camouflage with lilac upper surfaces, and this model depicts such a machine, based on various profiles but no color picture as reliable reference.

 

The sources I consulted, as well as pictures of finished A6M2-N models, show a wide variety of shades and paint scheme layouts, though. Upper colors range from pale pink through more or less bright shades of purple to a pale, rusty-reddish brown (maybe primer?), while the undersides show a wide range of greys or even light blue. Some depictions of Aleutian A6M2-Ns as profile or model even show a uniform wraparound scheme! Choice is yours, obviously...

 

Because of the corny information basis, I did my personal interpretation of the subject. I based my livery more or less on a profile by Michele Marsan, published in Aerei Modelismo Anno XII (March 1991). The unit information was taken from there, too – the only source that would provide such a reference.

 

My idea behind the livery and the eventual finish was that the machine once was fully painted in IJN Grey. Then, the violet upper color was added in the field (for whatever reason?), resulting in a slightly shaggy look and with the light grey shining through here and there in areas of higher wear, e. g. at the leading edges, cockpit area and some seams.

 

Painting started with an initial coat of aluminum under the floats, around the cockpit and on the leading edges. Then the undersides and some areas of the upper surfaces were painted with IJN grey. The latter is an individual mix of Humbrol 90 (Beige Green/RAF Sky) and a bit of 155 (Olive Drab, FS 34087). On top of that I added a thin primer layer of mauve (mix of ModelMaster’s Napoleonic Violet and Neutral Grey, Humbrol 176) on the still vacant upper surfaces – both as a preparation for the later weathering treatments (see below).

 

The following, basic lilac tone comes from Humbrol’s long-gone "Authentics" enamel line. The tin is probably 30 years old, but the content is still alive (and still has a distinctive, sour stench…)! I cannot identify the tone anymore with certainty, but I guess that it is 'HJ 4: Mauve N 9', one of the line’s Japanese WWII tones which was later not carried over to the standard tones, still available today.

 

Anyway, the color is a dull, rather greyish violet, relatively dark (a bit like RAF Ocean Grey), and it fits well as a camouflage tone on this specific model. Since there’s no better alternative I could think of except for an individual mix or garish, off-the-rack pop art tones, I went with it.

 

After overall basic painting was done and thoroughly cured, weathering started with a careful wet sand paper treatment, removing the salt grain masks and revealing some of the lower IJN Grey and aluminum layers. While this appears messy, I found that the result looks more realistic than artificial weathering applied as paint effects on top of the basic paint.

 

The engine cowling was painted separately, with a mix of black and a little dark blue. The propeller received an aluminum spinner (Humbrol’s Matt Aluminum Metallizer), while the blades received aluminum front sides (Revell acrylics), and red brown (Humbrol 160) back sides. Two thin, red stripes decorate the propeller tips (Decals, left over from an AZ Model Ki-78, IIRC).

 

As a standard procedure, the kit received a light wash with thinned black ink, revealing the engraved panel lines, plus some post-shading in order to emphasize panels and add visual contrast and ‘drama’.

 

Decals and markings were improvised and come from the spares box, since I did not trust the vintage OOB decals - even though they are in so far nice that the sheet contains any major marking as well as a full set of letter so that an individual tail code could be created. Anyway, the model's real world benchmark did not carry any numeric or letter code, just Hinomaru in standard positions and a horizontal, white-and-red stripe on the fin.

 

The roundels actually belong to a JSDAF F-4EJ, some stencils come from a leftover Hobby Boss A6M sheet. The fin decoration was created with generic decal sheet material (TL Modellbau). Similar stuff was also used for the markings on the central float, as well as for the yellow ID markings on the inner wings' leading edges. I am just not certain whether the real aircraft carried them at all? But they were introduced with the new green upper surfaces in late 1942, so that they appear at least plausible. Another argument in this marking‘s favor is that it simply adds even more color to the model!

 

The cockpit interior was painted in a light khaki tone (a mix of Humbrol 159 and 94), while the flaps' interior was painted with Aodake Iro (an individual mix of acrylic aluminum and translucent teal paint). Lacking good reference material, the beaching trolley became IJA Green, with some good weathering with dry-brushed silver on the edges and traces of rust here and there (the latter created with artist acrylics.

 

Close to the (literal) finish line, some soot and oil stains were added with graphite and Tamiya's 'Smoke', and the kit finally received a coat of matt acrylic varnish (Italeri); to the varnish on the engine cover a bit of gloss varnish was added, for a sheen finish.

  

In the end, quite a challenging build. Not a winner, but …different. Concerning the LS Model kit as such, I must say that - despite its age of more than 50 years now - the A6M2-N model is still a worthwhile offer, if you invest some effort. Sure, there are certainly better 1:72 options available (e. g. the Hasegawa kit, its mould was created in 1995 and should be light years ahead concerning detail and fit. Not certain about the Revell/Frog and Jo-Han alternatives, though), but tackling this simple, vintage kit was fun in itself. And, based on what you get out of the little box, the result is not bad at all!

 

Beyond the technical aspects, I am also pleased with the visual result of the build. At first glance, this antiquity looks pretty convincing. And the disputable, strange lilac tone really makes this A6M2-N model …outstanding. Even though I still wonder what might have been the rationale behind this tone? The only thing I could imagine is a dedicated scheme for missions at dusk/dawn, similar to the pink RAF recce Spitfires in early WWII? It would be plausible, though, since the A6M2-Ns were tasked with nocturnal reconnoitre and ground attack missions.

Some background:

The Nakajima A6M2-N (Navy Type 2 Interceptor/Fighter-Bomber) was a single-crew floatplane. The Allied reporting name for the aircraft was 'Rufe'.

 

The A6M2-N floatplane was developed mainly to support amphibious operations and defend remote bases. It was based on the Mitsubishi A6M-2 Model 11 fuselage, with a modified tail and added floats. Despite the large central float and wing pontoons, the A6M2-N was aerodynamically a very clean aircraft: compared with its land-based A6M2 cousin, its performance degraded only by about 20%, and for a contemporary single engine floatplane its performance was outstanding.

 

The aircraft was deployed in 1942, referred to as the "Suisen 2" ("Hydro fighter type 2"), and intended for interceptor, fighter-bomber, and short reconnaissance support for amphibious landings, among other uses. However, when confronted with the first generation of Allied fighters, the A6M2-N was no match in aerial combat and rather employed in supportive roles.

 

Effectively, the A6M2-N was mostly utilized in defensive actions in the Aleutians and Solomon Islands operations. They were used with good efficiency against Allied positions: marking patrol elements, aiding warship guns, engaging convoys, and reconnoitering areas over-the-horizon.

The A6M2-Ns were also effective in harassing American PT boats at night, and they could drop flares to illuminate the PTs which were vulnerable to destroyer gunfire, and depended on cover of darkness. However, when Allied fighter coverage became more numerous and effective, the value of the A6M2-N dwindled and losses began to naturally mount.

 

In the Aleutian Campaign this fighter engaged with RCAF Curtiss P-40, Lockheed P-38 Lightning fighters and Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress bombers, but the A6M2-N inventory suffered a severe setback when, on August 7th, 1942, a seaplane base was destroyed by Allied fighter-bombers, taking with it most of the available A6M2-Ns stationed there.

 

The seaplane also served in defense of fueling depots in Balikpapan and Avon Bases (Dutch East Indies) and reinforced the Shumushu base (North Kuriles) in the same period.

Beyond their use from dispersed and improvised bases, A6M2-N fighters also served aboard seaplane carriers Kamikawa Maru in the Solomons and Kuriles areas and aboard Japanese raiders Hokoku Maru and Aikoku Maru in Indian Ocean raids.

Later in the conflict the Otsu Air Group utilized the A6M2-N as an interceptor alongside Kawanishi N1K1 Kyofu ('Rex') aircraft based in Biwa lake in the Honshū area, defending the Japanese home land against Allied raids.

 

A total of 327 were built, including the original prototype, before being halted in September 1943.

The last A6M2-N in military service was a single example recovered by the French forces in Indochina after the end of World War II. It crashed shortly after being overhauled, though.

  

General characteristics:

Crew: 1 (Pilot)

Length: 10.10 m (33ft 1⅝ in)

Wingspan: 12.00 m (39 ft 4⅜ in)

Height: 4.30 m (14ft 1⅜ in)

Wing area: 22.44 m² (251.4 sq ft)

Empty weight: 1,912 kg (4,235 lb)

Loaded weight: 2,460 kg (5,423 lb)

Max. takeoff weight: 2,880 kg (6,349 lb)

 

Powerplant:

1× Nakajima NK1C Sakae 12 air cooled 14 cylinder radial engine,

delivering 950 hp (709 kW) at 4,200 m (13,800 ft)

 

Performance:

Maximum speed: 436 km/h (235 knots, 270.5 mph) at 5,000 m (16,400 ft)

Cruise speed: 296 km/h (160 knots, 184 mph)

Range: 1,782 km (963 nmi, 1,107 mi)

Service ceiling: 10,000 m (32,800 ft)

Climb rate: 6 min 43 s to 5,000 m (16,400 ft)

 

Armament:

2 × 7.7 mm Type 97 machine guns in forward fuselage

2 ×20 mm Type 99 cannons in outer wings

Underwing hardpoints for 2× 60 kg (132 lb) bombs

  

The kit and its assembly:

This is a real world model, despite the weird looks (see below), and an entry for the Arawasi blog's "Japanese Aircraft Online Model Contest 005 - Japanese Seaplanes & Flying Boats" contest in summer 2017. Even though whifs were allowed to enter, I used the opportunity to build a kit I had originally bought for a few bucks and stashed away in the donor bank: a vintage LS Model Nakajima A6M2-N.

 

The mould dates back to 1963(!), and the kit was re-issued several times, also under the ARII label. You get a tiny box, with only two sprues moulded in a pale baby blue, and the number of parts is minimal. It's truly vintage and pretty toylike at first sight. Consequently, you have to face some real old-school issues, e. g. moulded markings for the roundels on the wings, general mediocre fit of anything and lots of sinkholes and flash. Then there are toylike solutions like the single-piece propeller or separate, moveable ailerons with bulging joints.

 

The cockpit interior is non-existent, too: there's just a blank place for a dashboard (to be cut out from the printed BW instructions!), and a spindly pilot figure which is held in mid air by some pins. Furthermore, the kit was designed to take a small electric motor in the nose (sold separately) to drive the propeller. Wires, as well as respective internal ducts, and an AA battery holder are included.

 

Sounds scary? Well, maybe, if you just build it OOB. But all these flaws should not keep the ambitious modeler away because the LS Model kit is (still) a sound basis to start from, even though and by today's standards, it is certainly not a match-winner for a rivet counter-esque competition.

 

For its age and the typical solutions of its time, it is actually surprisingly good: you get very fine engraved surface details (more delicate than many contemporary moulds!), a pretty thin, three-piece clear (yet blurry) canopy and, as a bonus to the elevons, separate flaps – a unique detail I have never come across before! Proportions are IMHO good, even though the cowling looks a bit fishy and the engravings are rather soft and shallow. Anyway, on the exterior, there’s anything you can ask for to be found, and as another bonus the kit comes with a beaching trolley, which makes display and diorama fitting easier.

 

Thanks to the kit's simplicity, the build in itself was pretty straightforward and simple. Cleaning the parts and checking fit was the biggest issue. Upon gluing the old styrene showed signs of serious reaction to the dissolving effect of modern glue: it took ages for the material to cure and become hard again for further work!? Weird…

 

The many sinkholes and overall displacements were corrected with some NC putty/PSR, the protruding elevon/flap joints sanded away as good as possible, and due to the wobbly nature of the kit’s styrene I added blobs of 2C putty inside of the wing halves as stabilizers.

 

Some mods and improvements were made, though. After cleaning the OOB propeller from tons of flash the piece turned out to be pretty usable, and it was put on a metal axis. A styrene tube adapter was added behind the relatively flat engine dummy, so that the prop can spin freely – for the later beauty pics, because no CG effect beats IMHO the real thing.

 

A cockpit interior was created from scratch and donor parts, using the new Airfix A6M model's cockpit as benchmark. It’s not an exact replica, because not much would later be visible, but I wanted, as a minimum, “something” inside. A better pilot figure was used, too, and strapped to the new seat with thin strips of adhesive masking tape as seatbelts.

 

Under the wings, the hardpoints were simulated with some bits of styrene and wire as shackles, but left empty Under the stabilizer fin I added a lug(?), made from thin wire, too.

 

The elevons were fixed in place, the seams to the wings filled with white glue in order to conceal the gaps as good as possible. The movable flaps remained, though, adding life to the model. The dolly was also taken more or less OOB, since it fits well. I just improved it with some sinkhole fillings and some other details, including cushions on the float stabilizers, made from paper tissue soaked with thinned white glue, and a towing bar.

  

Painting and markings:

The reason why I settled for an A6M2-N is mostly the weird paint scheme which can be applied, while still being a real world model: a lilac livery!

 

As far as I could find out, the A6M2-Ns initially carried an all-over IJN Grey livery, which was later, in late 1942, modified with dark green upper sides for a better concealment on the ground, and the Hinomaru received white edges for better contrast.

Anyway, during the Aleutian campaign and more or less in between these two major standards, several aircraft must have received a special camouflage with lilac upper surfaces, and this model depicts such a machine, based on various profiles but no color picture as reliable reference.

 

The sources I consulted, as well as pictures of finished A6M2-N models, show a wide variety of shades and paint scheme layouts, though. Upper colors range from pale pink through more or less bright shades of purple to a pale, rusty-reddish brown (maybe primer?), while the undersides show a wide range of greys or even light blue. Some depictions of Aleutian A6M2-Ns as profile or model even show a uniform wraparound scheme! Choice is yours, obviously...

 

Because of the corny information basis, I did my personal interpretation of the subject. I based my livery more or less on a profile by Michele Marsan, published in Aerei Modelismo Anno XII (March 1991). The unit information was taken from there, too – the only source that would provide such a reference.

 

My idea behind the livery and the eventual finish was that the machine once was fully painted in IJN Grey. Then, the violet upper color was added in the field (for whatever reason?), resulting in a slightly shaggy look and with the light grey shining through here and there in areas of higher wear, e. g. at the leading edges, cockpit area and some seams.

 

Painting started with an initial coat of aluminum under the floats, around the cockpit and on the leading edges. Then the undersides and some areas of the upper surfaces were painted with IJN grey. The latter is an individual mix of Humbrol 90 (Beige Green/RAF Sky) and a bit of 155 (Olive Drab, FS 34087). On top of that I added a thin primer layer of mauve (mix of ModelMaster’s Napoleonic Violet and Neutral Grey, Humbrol 176) on the still vacant upper surfaces – both as a preparation for the later weathering treatments (see below).

 

The following, basic lilac tone comes from Humbrol’s long-gone "Authentics" enamel line. The tin is probably 30 years old, but the content is still alive (and still has a distinctive, sour stench…)! I cannot identify the tone anymore with certainty, but I guess that it is 'HJ 4: Mauve N 9', one of the line’s Japanese WWII tones which was later not carried over to the standard tones, still available today.

 

Anyway, the color is a dull, rather greyish violet, relatively dark (a bit like RAF Ocean Grey), and it fits well as a camouflage tone on this specific model. Since there’s no better alternative I could think of except for an individual mix or garish, off-the-rack pop art tones, I went with it.

 

After overall basic painting was done and thoroughly cured, weathering started with a careful wet sand paper treatment, removing the salt grain masks and revealing some of the lower IJN Grey and aluminum layers. While this appears messy, I found that the result looks more realistic than artificial weathering applied as paint effects on top of the basic paint.

 

The engine cowling was painted separately, with a mix of black and a little dark blue. The propeller received an aluminum spinner (Humbrol’s Matt Aluminum Metallizer), while the blades received aluminum front sides (Revell acrylics), and red brown (Humbrol 160) back sides. Two thin, red stripes decorate the propeller tips (Decals, left over from an AZ Model Ki-78, IIRC).

 

As a standard procedure, the kit received a light wash with thinned black ink, revealing the engraved panel lines, plus some post-shading in order to emphasize panels and add visual contrast and ‘drama’.

 

Decals and markings were improvised and come from the spares box, since I did not trust the vintage OOB decals - even though they are in so far nice that the sheet contains any major marking as well as a full set of letter so that an individual tail code could be created. Anyway, the model's real world benchmark did not carry any numeric or letter code, just Hinomaru in standard positions and a horizontal, white-and-red stripe on the fin.

 

The roundels actually belong to a JSDAF F-4EJ, some stencils come from a leftover Hobby Boss A6M sheet. The fin decoration was created with generic decal sheet material (TL Modellbau). Similar stuff was also used for the markings on the central float, as well as for the yellow ID markings on the inner wings' leading edges. I am just not certain whether the real aircraft carried them at all? But they were introduced with the new green upper surfaces in late 1942, so that they appear at least plausible. Another argument in this marking‘s favor is that it simply adds even more color to the model!

 

The cockpit interior was painted in a light khaki tone (a mix of Humbrol 159 and 94), while the flaps' interior was painted with Aodake Iro (an individual mix of acrylic aluminum and translucent teal paint). Lacking good reference material, the beaching trolley became IJA Green, with some good weathering with dry-brushed silver on the edges and traces of rust here and there (the latter created with artist acrylics.

 

Close to the (literal) finish line, some soot and oil stains were added with graphite and Tamiya's 'Smoke', and the kit finally received a coat of matt acrylic varnish (Italeri); to the varnish on the engine cover a bit of gloss varnish was added, for a sheen finish.

  

In the end, quite a challenging build. Not a winner, but …different. Concerning the LS Model kit as such, I must say that - despite its age of more than 50 years now - the A6M2-N model is still a worthwhile offer, if you invest some effort. Sure, there are certainly better 1:72 options available (e. g. the Hasegawa kit, its mould was created in 1995 and should be light years ahead concerning detail and fit. Not certain about the Revell/Frog and Jo-Han alternatives, though), but tackling this simple, vintage kit was fun in itself. And, based on what you get out of the little box, the result is not bad at all!

 

Beyond the technical aspects, I am also pleased with the visual result of the build. At first glance, this antiquity looks pretty convincing. And the disputable, strange lilac tone really makes this A6M2-N model …outstanding. Even though I still wonder what might have been the rationale behind this tone? The only thing I could imagine is a dedicated scheme for missions at dusk/dawn, similar to the pink RAF recce Spitfires in early WWII? It would be plausible, though, since the A6M2-Ns were tasked with nocturnal reconnoitre and ground attack missions.

69/365

place where the ends of Oz.

the most magical place, but not everyone can find it.

the worst thing is to go through the series of setbacks to get a miracle.

Top-seeded Sara Errani received another setback in the French Open preparations when she lost to Monica Puig of Puerto Rico 4-6, 6-3, 6-1 in the first round at the Strasbourg International on Monday. Photo : Internet

FRANCE : Top-seeded Sara Errani received another setback in the French Open...

 

thebangladeshtoday.com/2016/05/top-seeded-errani-eliminat...

Frame :*SURLY* krampus

Headset :*CHRIS KING* inset7

Hub:*WHITE INDUSTRIES* XMR disc hub

Tire :*SURLY* extra terrestrial tire

Saddle :*WTB* silverado pro saddle

Seat Post :*THOMSON* elite setback

Handlebar :*SURLY* terminal handlebar

Stem :*PAUL* boxcar stem

Grip:*ESI* racers edge grip

Explored Mar 12, 2009 #290

 

On Black?

 

I've been feeling the setbacks of my D40 since I've started my Strobist training. The biggest frustration is only having 3 AF points. This can make a chosen composition difficult and often times I'll have to change composition (sometimes more than slightly) to get proper focus and then sometimes focus is slightly off... At one point I found myself testing my lenses for front/back focusing issues but thankfully there arent any. I suppose I could get focus, use the AF/AE lock and fix composition but I'm paranoid about accidently moving the camera too forward or backward which would change the focus distance which would make the distance I obtained focus on out of focus.. I'm dying for a D90 for that reason as long as other feature related reasons..

Strobist:

SB-24 1/2 through white umb at 2 o'clock camera right

Sun at 11 o clock camera left

Fire w/ Alienbees CyberSync Trigger

Some background:

The Nakajima A6M2-N (Navy Type 2 Interceptor/Fighter-Bomber) was a single-crew floatplane. The Allied reporting name for the aircraft was 'Rufe'.

 

The A6M2-N floatplane was developed mainly to support amphibious operations and defend remote bases. It was based on the Mitsubishi A6M-2 Model 11 fuselage, with a modified tail and added floats. Despite the large central float and wing pontoons, the A6M2-N was aerodynamically a very clean aircraft: compared with its land-based A6M2 cousin, its performance degraded only by about 20%, and for a contemporary single engine floatplane its performance was outstanding.

 

The aircraft was deployed in 1942, referred to as the "Suisen 2" ("Hydro fighter type 2"), and intended for interceptor, fighter-bomber, and short reconnaissance support for amphibious landings, among other uses. However, when confronted with the first generation of Allied fighters, the A6M2-N was no match in aerial combat and rather employed in supportive roles.

 

Effectively, the A6M2-N was mostly utilized in defensive actions in the Aleutians and Solomon Islands operations. They were used with good efficiency against Allied positions: marking patrol elements, aiding warship guns, engaging convoys, and reconnoitering areas over-the-horizon.

The A6M2-Ns were also effective in harassing American PT boats at night, and they could drop flares to illuminate the PTs which were vulnerable to destroyer gunfire, and depended on cover of darkness. However, when Allied fighter coverage became more numerous and effective, the value of the A6M2-N dwindled and losses began to naturally mount.

 

In the Aleutian Campaign this fighter engaged with RCAF Curtiss P-40, Lockheed P-38 Lightning fighters and Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress bombers, but the A6M2-N inventory suffered a severe setback when, on August 7th, 1942, a seaplane base was destroyed by Allied fighter-bombers, taking with it most of the available A6M2-Ns stationed there.

 

The seaplane also served in defense of fueling depots in Balikpapan and Avon Bases (Dutch East Indies) and reinforced the Shumushu base (North Kuriles) in the same period.

Beyond their use from dispersed and improvised bases, A6M2-N fighters also served aboard seaplane carriers Kamikawa Maru in the Solomons and Kuriles areas and aboard Japanese raiders Hokoku Maru and Aikoku Maru in Indian Ocean raids.

Later in the conflict the Otsu Air Group utilized the A6M2-N as an interceptor alongside Kawanishi N1K1 Kyofu ('Rex') aircraft based in Biwa lake in the Honshū area, defending the Japanese home land against Allied raids.

 

A total of 327 were built, including the original prototype, before being halted in September 1943.

The last A6M2-N in military service was a single example recovered by the French forces in Indochina after the end of World War II. It crashed shortly after being overhauled, though.

  

General characteristics:

Crew: 1 (Pilot)

Length: 10.10 m (33ft 1⅝ in)

Wingspan: 12.00 m (39 ft 4⅜ in)

Height: 4.30 m (14ft 1⅜ in)

Wing area: 22.44 m² (251.4 sq ft)

Empty weight: 1,912 kg (4,235 lb)

Loaded weight: 2,460 kg (5,423 lb)

Max. takeoff weight: 2,880 kg (6,349 lb)

 

Powerplant:

1× Nakajima NK1C Sakae 12 air cooled 14 cylinder radial engine,

delivering 950 hp (709 kW) at 4,200 m (13,800 ft)

 

Performance:

Maximum speed: 436 km/h (235 knots, 270.5 mph) at 5,000 m (16,400 ft)

Cruise speed: 296 km/h (160 knots, 184 mph)

Range: 1,782 km (963 nmi, 1,107 mi)

Service ceiling: 10,000 m (32,800 ft)

Climb rate: 6 min 43 s to 5,000 m (16,400 ft)

 

Armament:

2 × 7.7 mm Type 97 machine guns in forward fuselage

2 ×20 mm Type 99 cannons in outer wings

Underwing hardpoints for 2× 60 kg (132 lb) bombs

  

The kit and its assembly:

This is a real world model, despite the weird looks (see below), and an entry for the Arawasi blog's "Japanese Aircraft Online Model Contest 005 - Japanese Seaplanes & Flying Boats" contest in summer 2017. Even though whifs were allowed to enter, I used the opportunity to build a kit I had originally bought for a few bucks and stashed away in the donor bank: a vintage LS Model Nakajima A6M2-N.

 

The mould dates back to 1963(!), and the kit was re-issued several times, also under the ARII label. You get a tiny box, with only two sprues moulded in a pale baby blue, and the number of parts is minimal. It's truly vintage and pretty toylike at first sight. Consequently, you have to face some real old-school issues, e. g. moulded markings for the roundels on the wings, general mediocre fit of anything and lots of sinkholes and flash. Then there are toylike solutions like the single-piece propeller or separate, moveable ailerons with bulging joints.

 

The cockpit interior is non-existent, too: there's just a blank place for a dashboard (to be cut out from the printed BW instructions!), and a spindly pilot figure which is held in mid air by some pins. Furthermore, the kit was designed to take a small electric motor in the nose (sold separately) to drive the propeller. Wires, as well as respective internal ducts, and an AA battery holder are included.

 

Sounds scary? Well, maybe, if you just build it OOB. But all these flaws should not keep the ambitious modeler away because the LS Model kit is (still) a sound basis to start from, even though and by today's standards, it is certainly not a match-winner for a rivet counter-esque competition.

 

For its age and the typical solutions of its time, it is actually surprisingly good: you get very fine engraved surface details (more delicate than many contemporary moulds!), a pretty thin, three-piece clear (yet blurry) canopy and, as a bonus to the elevons, separate flaps – a unique detail I have never come across before! Proportions are IMHO good, even though the cowling looks a bit fishy and the engravings are rather soft and shallow. Anyway, on the exterior, there’s anything you can ask for to be found, and as another bonus the kit comes with a beaching trolley, which makes display and diorama fitting easier.

 

Thanks to the kit's simplicity, the build in itself was pretty straightforward and simple. Cleaning the parts and checking fit was the biggest issue. Upon gluing the old styrene showed signs of serious reaction to the dissolving effect of modern glue: it took ages for the material to cure and become hard again for further work!? Weird…

 

The many sinkholes and overall displacements were corrected with some NC putty/PSR, the protruding elevon/flap joints sanded away as good as possible, and due to the wobbly nature of the kit’s styrene I added blobs of 2C putty inside of the wing halves as stabilizers.

 

Some mods and improvements were made, though. After cleaning the OOB propeller from tons of flash the piece turned out to be pretty usable, and it was put on a metal axis. A styrene tube adapter was added behind the relatively flat engine dummy, so that the prop can spin freely – for the later beauty pics, because no CG effect beats IMHO the real thing.

 

A cockpit interior was created from scratch and donor parts, using the new Airfix A6M model's cockpit as benchmark. It’s not an exact replica, because not much would later be visible, but I wanted, as a minimum, “something” inside. A better pilot figure was used, too, and strapped to the new seat with thin strips of adhesive masking tape as seatbelts.

 

Under the wings, the hardpoints were simulated with some bits of styrene and wire as shackles, but left empty Under the stabilizer fin I added a lug(?), made from thin wire, too.

 

The elevons were fixed in place, the seams to the wings filled with white glue in order to conceal the gaps as good as possible. The movable flaps remained, though, adding life to the model. The dolly was also taken more or less OOB, since it fits well. I just improved it with some sinkhole fillings and some other details, including cushions on the float stabilizers, made from paper tissue soaked with thinned white glue, and a towing bar.

  

Painting and markings:

The reason why I settled for an A6M2-N is mostly the weird paint scheme which can be applied, while still being a real world model: a lilac livery!

 

As far as I could find out, the A6M2-Ns initially carried an all-over IJN Grey livery, which was later, in late 1942, modified with dark green upper sides for a better concealment on the ground, and the Hinomaru received white edges for better contrast.

Anyway, during the Aleutian campaign and more or less in between these two major standards, several aircraft must have received a special camouflage with lilac upper surfaces, and this model depicts such a machine, based on various profiles but no color picture as reliable reference.

 

The sources I consulted, as well as pictures of finished A6M2-N models, show a wide variety of shades and paint scheme layouts, though. Upper colors range from pale pink through more or less bright shades of purple to a pale, rusty-reddish brown (maybe primer?), while the undersides show a wide range of greys or even light blue. Some depictions of Aleutian A6M2-Ns as profile or model even show a uniform wraparound scheme! Choice is yours, obviously...

 

Because of the corny information basis, I did my personal interpretation of the subject. I based my livery more or less on a profile by Michele Marsan, published in Aerei Modelismo Anno XII (March 1991). The unit information was taken from there, too – the only source that would provide such a reference.

 

My idea behind the livery and the eventual finish was that the machine once was fully painted in IJN Grey. Then, the violet upper color was added in the field (for whatever reason?), resulting in a slightly shaggy look and with the light grey shining through here and there in areas of higher wear, e. g. at the leading edges, cockpit area and some seams.

 

Painting started with an initial coat of aluminum under the floats, around the cockpit and on the leading edges. Then the undersides and some areas of the upper surfaces were painted with IJN grey. The latter is an individual mix of Humbrol 90 (Beige Green/RAF Sky) and a bit of 155 (Olive Drab, FS 34087). On top of that I added a thin primer layer of mauve (mix of ModelMaster’s Napoleonic Violet and Neutral Grey, Humbrol 176) on the still vacant upper surfaces – both as a preparation for the later weathering treatments (see below).

 

The following, basic lilac tone comes from Humbrol’s long-gone "Authentics" enamel line. The tin is probably 30 years old, but the content is still alive (and still has a distinctive, sour stench…)! I cannot identify the tone anymore with certainty, but I guess that it is 'HJ 4: Mauve N 9', one of the line’s Japanese WWII tones which was later not carried over to the standard tones, still available today.

 

Anyway, the color is a dull, rather greyish violet, relatively dark (a bit like RAF Ocean Grey), and it fits well as a camouflage tone on this specific model. Since there’s no better alternative I could think of except for an individual mix or garish, off-the-rack pop art tones, I went with it.

 

After overall basic painting was done and thoroughly cured, weathering started with a careful wet sand paper treatment, removing the salt grain masks and revealing some of the lower IJN Grey and aluminum layers. While this appears messy, I found that the result looks more realistic than artificial weathering applied as paint effects on top of the basic paint.

 

The engine cowling was painted separately, with a mix of black and a little dark blue. The propeller received an aluminum spinner (Humbrol’s Matt Aluminum Metallizer), while the blades received aluminum front sides (Revell acrylics), and red brown (Humbrol 160) back sides. Two thin, red stripes decorate the propeller tips (Decals, left over from an AZ Model Ki-78, IIRC).

 

As a standard procedure, the kit received a light wash with thinned black ink, revealing the engraved panel lines, plus some post-shading in order to emphasize panels and add visual contrast and ‘drama’.

 

Decals and markings were improvised and come from the spares box, since I did not trust the vintage OOB decals - even though they are in so far nice that the sheet contains any major marking as well as a full set of letter so that an individual tail code could be created. Anyway, the model's real world benchmark did not carry any numeric or letter code, just Hinomaru in standard positions and a horizontal, white-and-red stripe on the fin.

 

The roundels actually belong to a JSDAF F-4EJ, some stencils come from a leftover Hobby Boss A6M sheet. The fin decoration was created with generic decal sheet material (TL Modellbau). Similar stuff was also used for the markings on the central float, as well as for the yellow ID markings on the inner wings' leading edges. I am just not certain whether the real aircraft carried them at all? But they were introduced with the new green upper surfaces in late 1942, so that they appear at least plausible. Another argument in this marking‘s favor is that it simply adds even more color to the model!

 

The cockpit interior was painted in a light khaki tone (a mix of Humbrol 159 and 94), while the flaps' interior was painted with Aodake Iro (an individual mix of acrylic aluminum and translucent teal paint). Lacking good reference material, the beaching trolley became IJA Green, with some good weathering with dry-brushed silver on the edges and traces of rust here and there (the latter created with artist acrylics.

 

Close to the (literal) finish line, some soot and oil stains were added with graphite and Tamiya's 'Smoke', and the kit finally received a coat of matt acrylic varnish (Italeri); to the varnish on the engine cover a bit of gloss varnish was added, for a sheen finish.

  

In the end, quite a challenging build. Not a winner, but …different. Concerning the LS Model kit as such, I must say that - despite its age of more than 50 years now - the A6M2-N model is still a worthwhile offer, if you invest some effort. Sure, there are certainly better 1:72 options available (e. g. the Hasegawa kit, its mould was created in 1995 and should be light years ahead concerning detail and fit. Not certain about the Revell/Frog and Jo-Han alternatives, though), but tackling this simple, vintage kit was fun in itself. And, based on what you get out of the little box, the result is not bad at all!

 

Beyond the technical aspects, I am also pleased with the visual result of the build. At first glance, this antiquity looks pretty convincing. And the disputable, strange lilac tone really makes this A6M2-N model …outstanding. Even though I still wonder what might have been the rationale behind this tone? The only thing I could imagine is a dedicated scheme for missions at dusk/dawn, similar to the pink RAF recce Spitfires in early WWII? It would be plausible, though, since the A6M2-Ns were tasked with nocturnal reconnoitre and ground attack missions.

Frame :*SURLY* disc trucker Painted by COOK PAINT WORKS

Headset :*CHRIS KING* nothreadset

Rims:*PACENTI* forza disc rim 650b

Tire:*WTB* horizon road+ tire 650B

Crankset :*BLUE LUG* XMC crank set

Stem :*THOMSON* elite X4

Brake :*TRP* spyre SLC flat mount disc brake

Saddle :*BROOKS* cambium

Seat Post :*THOMSON* elite setback

After numerous weather setbacks, DEATH11 finally appeared the Rose Bowl Halftime game between Indiana and Alabama. "Spirit of Oklahoma" came out from Whiteman AFB in Missouri, but due to the weather did not appear at the Parade flyover. Therefore, it departed from Edward's AFB and circled over the mountains behind Pasadena until its intended appearance. Before that, It made two low passes near VNY as a practice and to observe cloud ceiling and circled near Universal Studios Hollywood (must've been an incredible sight). Finally, at the end of halftime, it came and flew by. Unfortunately it was higher and further away from the vantage point this year.

Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stuttgart

 

Stuttgart (Swabian: Schduagert) is the capital and largest city of the German state of Baden-Württemberg. Stuttgart is located on the Neckar river in a fertile valley known locally as the "Stuttgart Cauldron." It lies an hour from the Swabian Jura and the Black Forest. Its urban area has a population of 609,219, making it the sixth largest city in Germany. 2.7 million people live in the city's administrative region and another 5.3 million people in its metropolitan area, making it the fourth largest metropolitan area in Germany. The city and metropolitan area are consistently ranked among the top 20 European metropolitan areas by GDP; Mercer listed Stuttgart as 21st on its 2015 list of cities by quality of living, innovation agency 2thinknow ranked the city 24th globally out of 442 cities and the Globalization and World Cities Research Network ranked the city as a Beta-status world city in their 2014 survey.

 

Since the 6th millennium BC, the Stuttgart area has been an important agricultural area and has been host to a number of cultures seeking to utilize the rich soil of the Neckar valley. The Roman Empire conquered the area in 83 AD and built a massive castrum near Bad Cannstatt, making it the most important regional centre for several centuries. Stuttgart's roots were truly laid in the 10th century with its founding by Liudolf, Duke of Swabia, as a stud farm for his warhorses. Initially overshadowed by nearby Cannstatt, the town grew steadily and was granted a charter in 1320. The fortunes of Stuttgart turned with those of the House of Württemberg, and they made it the capital of their county, duchy, and kingdom from the 15th century to 1918. Stuttgart prospered despite setbacks in the Thirty Years' War and devastating air raids by the Allies on the city and its automobile production during World War II. However, by 1952, the city had bounced back and it became the major economic, industrial, tourism and publishing centre it is today.

 

Stuttgart is also a transport junction, and possesses the sixth-largest airport in Germany. Several major companies are headquartered in Stuttgart, including Porsche, Bosch, Mercedes-Benz, Daimler AG, and Dinkelacker.

 

Stuttgart is unusual in the scheme of German cities. It is spread across a variety of hills (some of them covered in vineyards), valleys (especially around the Neckar river and the Stuttgart basin) and parks. This often surprises visitors who associate the city with its reputation as the "cradle of the automobile". The city's tourism slogan is "Stuttgart offers more". Under current plans to improve transport links to the international infrastructure (as part of the Stuttgart 21 project), the city unveiled a new logo and slogan in March 2008 describing itself as "Das neue Herz Europas" ("The new Heart of Europe"). For business, it describes itself as "Where business meets the future". In July 2010, Stuttgart unveiled a new city logo, designed to entice more business people to stay in the city and enjoy breaks in the area.

 

Stuttgart is a city with a high number of immigrants. According to Dorling Kindersley's Eyewitness Travel Guide to Germany, "In the city of Stuttgart, every third inhabitant is a foreigner." 40% of Stuttgart's residents, and 64% of the population below the age of five, are of immigrant background.

 

Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cannstatter_Volksfest

 

The Cannstatter Volksfest is an annual three-week Volksfest (beer festival and travelling funfair) in Stuttgart, Germany. It is sometimes also referred to by foreign visitors as the Stuttgart Beer Festival, although it is actually more of an autumnal fair.

 

The festival takes place at the Cannstatter Wasen from late September to early October, spanning a period over three weekends, ending the second Sunday in October. The extensive Wasen area is in the Stuttgart city district of Bad Cannstatt, near the river Neckar. A smaller variant of the Stuttgart festival, the Stuttgart Spring Festival, is also held each year in Wasen.

This is either a Freightliner 108SD or 114SD setback 5 axle flatbed semi truck with a tractor mounted Palfinger crane. (The SD stands for severe duty). I'm guessing this was a private crew doing contract work for PG&E. The roof mounted LED warning lights on this truck are super bright. Photographed and filmed by me in Livermore, CA - this short clip is the 1st video I have uploaded to my Flickr acct. You can see pictures of many other types of cool trucks & other vehicles below this one and in my albums with more to follow soon.

Some background:

The Nakajima A6M2-N (Navy Type 2 Interceptor/Fighter-Bomber) was a single-crew floatplane. The Allied reporting name for the aircraft was 'Rufe'.

 

The A6M2-N floatplane was developed mainly to support amphibious operations and defend remote bases. It was based on the Mitsubishi A6M-2 Model 11 fuselage, with a modified tail and added floats. Despite the large central float and wing pontoons, the A6M2-N was aerodynamically a very clean aircraft: compared with its land-based A6M2 cousin, its performance degraded only by about 20%, and for a contemporary single engine floatplane its performance was outstanding.

 

The aircraft was deployed in 1942, referred to as the "Suisen 2" ("Hydro fighter type 2"), and intended for interceptor, fighter-bomber, and short reconnaissance support for amphibious landings, among other uses. However, when confronted with the first generation of Allied fighters, the A6M2-N was no match in aerial combat and rather employed in supportive roles.

 

Effectively, the A6M2-N was mostly utilized in defensive actions in the Aleutians and Solomon Islands operations. They were used with good efficiency against Allied positions: marking patrol elements, aiding warship guns, engaging convoys, and reconnoitering areas over-the-horizon.

The A6M2-Ns were also effective in harassing American PT boats at night, and they could drop flares to illuminate the PTs which were vulnerable to destroyer gunfire, and depended on cover of darkness. However, when Allied fighter coverage became more numerous and effective, the value of the A6M2-N dwindled and losses began to naturally mount.

 

In the Aleutian Campaign this fighter engaged with RCAF Curtiss P-40, Lockheed P-38 Lightning fighters and Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress bombers, but the A6M2-N inventory suffered a severe setback when, on August 7th, 1942, a seaplane base was destroyed by Allied fighter-bombers, taking with it most of the available A6M2-Ns stationed there.

 

The seaplane also served in defense of fueling depots in Balikpapan and Avon Bases (Dutch East Indies) and reinforced the Shumushu base (North Kuriles) in the same period.

Beyond their use from dispersed and improvised bases, A6M2-N fighters also served aboard seaplane carriers Kamikawa Maru in the Solomons and Kuriles areas and aboard Japanese raiders Hokoku Maru and Aikoku Maru in Indian Ocean raids.

Later in the conflict the Otsu Air Group utilized the A6M2-N as an interceptor alongside Kawanishi N1K1 Kyofu ('Rex') aircraft based in Biwa lake in the Honshū area, defending the Japanese home land against Allied raids.

 

A total of 327 were built, including the original prototype, before being halted in September 1943.

The last A6M2-N in military service was a single example recovered by the French forces in Indochina after the end of World War II. It crashed shortly after being overhauled, though.

  

General characteristics:

Crew: 1 (Pilot)

Length: 10.10 m (33ft 1⅝ in)

Wingspan: 12.00 m (39 ft 4⅜ in)

Height: 4.30 m (14ft 1⅜ in)

Wing area: 22.44 m² (251.4 sq ft)

Empty weight: 1,912 kg (4,235 lb)

Loaded weight: 2,460 kg (5,423 lb)

Max. takeoff weight: 2,880 kg (6,349 lb)

 

Powerplant:

1× Nakajima NK1C Sakae 12 air cooled 14 cylinder radial engine,

delivering 950 hp (709 kW) at 4,200 m (13,800 ft)

 

Performance:

Maximum speed: 436 km/h (235 knots, 270.5 mph) at 5,000 m (16,400 ft)

Cruise speed: 296 km/h (160 knots, 184 mph)

Range: 1,782 km (963 nmi, 1,107 mi)

Service ceiling: 10,000 m (32,800 ft)

Climb rate: 6 min 43 s to 5,000 m (16,400 ft)

 

Armament:

2 × 7.7 mm Type 97 machine guns in forward fuselage

2 ×20 mm Type 99 cannons in outer wings

Underwing hardpoints for 2× 60 kg (132 lb) bombs

  

The kit and its assembly:

This is a real world model, despite the weird looks (see below), and an entry for the Arawasi blog's "Japanese Aircraft Online Model Contest 005 - Japanese Seaplanes & Flying Boats" contest in summer 2017. Even though whifs were allowed to enter, I used the opportunity to build a kit I had originally bought for a few bucks and stashed away in the donor bank: a vintage LS Model Nakajima A6M2-N.

 

The mould dates back to 1963(!), and the kit was re-issued several times, also under the ARII label. You get a tiny box, with only two sprues moulded in a pale baby blue, and the number of parts is minimal. It's truly vintage and pretty toylike at first sight. Consequently, you have to face some real old-school issues, e. g. moulded markings for the roundels on the wings, general mediocre fit of anything and lots of sinkholes and flash. Then there are toylike solutions like the single-piece propeller or separate, moveable ailerons with bulging joints.

 

The cockpit interior is non-existent, too: there's just a blank place for a dashboard (to be cut out from the printed BW instructions!), and a spindly pilot figure which is held in mid air by some pins. Furthermore, the kit was designed to take a small electric motor in the nose (sold separately) to drive the propeller. Wires, as well as respective internal ducts, and an AA battery holder are included.

 

Sounds scary? Well, maybe, if you just build it OOB. But all these flaws should not keep the ambitious modeler away because the LS Model kit is (still) a sound basis to start from, even though and by today's standards, it is certainly not a match-winner for a rivet counter-esque competition.

 

For its age and the typical solutions of its time, it is actually surprisingly good: you get very fine engraved surface details (more delicate than many contemporary moulds!), a pretty thin, three-piece clear (yet blurry) canopy and, as a bonus to the elevons, separate flaps – a unique detail I have never come across before! Proportions are IMHO good, even though the cowling looks a bit fishy and the engravings are rather soft and shallow. Anyway, on the exterior, there’s anything you can ask for to be found, and as another bonus the kit comes with a beaching trolley, which makes display and diorama fitting easier.

 

Thanks to the kit's simplicity, the build in itself was pretty straightforward and simple. Cleaning the parts and checking fit was the biggest issue. Upon gluing the old styrene showed signs of serious reaction to the dissolving effect of modern glue: it took ages for the material to cure and become hard again for further work!? Weird…

 

The many sinkholes and overall displacements were corrected with some NC putty/PSR, the protruding elevon/flap joints sanded away as good as possible, and due to the wobbly nature of the kit’s styrene I added blobs of 2C putty inside of the wing halves as stabilizers.

 

Some mods and improvements were made, though. After cleaning the OOB propeller from tons of flash the piece turned out to be pretty usable, and it was put on a metal axis. A styrene tube adapter was added behind the relatively flat engine dummy, so that the prop can spin freely – for the later beauty pics, because no CG effect beats IMHO the real thing.

 

A cockpit interior was created from scratch and donor parts, using the new Airfix A6M model's cockpit as benchmark. It’s not an exact replica, because not much would later be visible, but I wanted, as a minimum, “something” inside. A better pilot figure was used, too, and strapped to the new seat with thin strips of adhesive masking tape as seatbelts.

 

Under the wings, the hardpoints were simulated with some bits of styrene and wire as shackles, but left empty Under the stabilizer fin I added a lug(?), made from thin wire, too.

 

The elevons were fixed in place, the seams to the wings filled with white glue in order to conceal the gaps as good as possible. The movable flaps remained, though, adding life to the model. The dolly was also taken more or less OOB, since it fits well. I just improved it with some sinkhole fillings and some other details, including cushions on the float stabilizers, made from paper tissue soaked with thinned white glue, and a towing bar.

  

Painting and markings:

The reason why I settled for an A6M2-N is mostly the weird paint scheme which can be applied, while still being a real world model: a lilac livery!

 

As far as I could find out, the A6M2-Ns initially carried an all-over IJN Grey livery, which was later, in late 1942, modified with dark green upper sides for a better concealment on the ground, and the Hinomaru received white edges for better contrast.

Anyway, during the Aleutian campaign and more or less in between these two major standards, several aircraft must have received a special camouflage with lilac upper surfaces, and this model depicts such a machine, based on various profiles but no color picture as reliable reference.

 

The sources I consulted, as well as pictures of finished A6M2-N models, show a wide variety of shades and paint scheme layouts, though. Upper colors range from pale pink through more or less bright shades of purple to a pale, rusty-reddish brown (maybe primer?), while the undersides show a wide range of greys or even light blue. Some depictions of Aleutian A6M2-Ns as profile or model even show a uniform wraparound scheme! Choice is yours, obviously...

 

Because of the corny information basis, I did my personal interpretation of the subject. I based my livery more or less on a profile by Michele Marsan, published in Aerei Modelismo Anno XII (March 1991). The unit information was taken from there, too – the only source that would provide such a reference.

 

My idea behind the livery and the eventual finish was that the machine once was fully painted in IJN Grey. Then, the violet upper color was added in the field (for whatever reason?), resulting in a slightly shaggy look and with the light grey shining through here and there in areas of higher wear, e. g. at the leading edges, cockpit area and some seams.

 

Painting started with an initial coat of aluminum under the floats, around the cockpit and on the leading edges. Then the undersides and some areas of the upper surfaces were painted with IJN grey. The latter is an individual mix of Humbrol 90 (Beige Green/RAF Sky) and a bit of 155 (Olive Drab, FS 34087). On top of that I added a thin primer layer of mauve (mix of ModelMaster’s Napoleonic Violet and Neutral Grey, Humbrol 176) on the still vacant upper surfaces – both as a preparation for the later weathering treatments (see below).

 

The following, basic lilac tone comes from Humbrol’s long-gone "Authentics" enamel line. The tin is probably 30 years old, but the content is still alive (and still has a distinctive, sour stench…)! I cannot identify the tone anymore with certainty, but I guess that it is 'HJ 4: Mauve N 9', one of the line’s Japanese WWII tones which was later not carried over to the standard tones, still available today.

 

Anyway, the color is a dull, rather greyish violet, relatively dark (a bit like RAF Ocean Grey), and it fits well as a camouflage tone on this specific model. Since there’s no better alternative I could think of except for an individual mix or garish, off-the-rack pop art tones, I went with it.

 

After overall basic painting was done and thoroughly cured, weathering started with a careful wet sand paper treatment, removing the salt grain masks and revealing some of the lower IJN Grey and aluminum layers. While this appears messy, I found that the result looks more realistic than artificial weathering applied as paint effects on top of the basic paint.

 

The engine cowling was painted separately, with a mix of black and a little dark blue. The propeller received an aluminum spinner (Humbrol’s Matt Aluminum Metallizer), while the blades received aluminum front sides (Revell acrylics), and red brown (Humbrol 160) back sides. Two thin, red stripes decorate the propeller tips (Decals, left over from an AZ Model Ki-78, IIRC).

 

As a standard procedure, the kit received a light wash with thinned black ink, revealing the engraved panel lines, plus some post-shading in order to emphasize panels and add visual contrast and ‘drama’.

 

Decals and markings were improvised and come from the spares box, since I did not trust the vintage OOB decals - even though they are in so far nice that the sheet contains any major marking as well as a full set of letter so that an individual tail code could be created. Anyway, the model's real world benchmark did not carry any numeric or letter code, just Hinomaru in standard positions and a horizontal, white-and-red stripe on the fin.

 

The roundels actually belong to a JSDAF F-4EJ, some stencils come from a leftover Hobby Boss A6M sheet. The fin decoration was created with generic decal sheet material (TL Modellbau). Similar stuff was also used for the markings on the central float, as well as for the yellow ID markings on the inner wings' leading edges. I am just not certain whether the real aircraft carried them at all? But they were introduced with the new green upper surfaces in late 1942, so that they appear at least plausible. Another argument in this marking‘s favor is that it simply adds even more color to the model!

 

The cockpit interior was painted in a light khaki tone (a mix of Humbrol 159 and 94), while the flaps' interior was painted with Aodake Iro (an individual mix of acrylic aluminum and translucent teal paint). Lacking good reference material, the beaching trolley became IJA Green, with some good weathering with dry-brushed silver on the edges and traces of rust here and there (the latter created with artist acrylics.

 

Close to the (literal) finish line, some soot and oil stains were added with graphite and Tamiya's 'Smoke', and the kit finally received a coat of matt acrylic varnish (Italeri); to the varnish on the engine cover a bit of gloss varnish was added, for a sheen finish.

  

In the end, quite a challenging build. Not a winner, but …different. Concerning the LS Model kit as such, I must say that - despite its age of more than 50 years now - the A6M2-N model is still a worthwhile offer, if you invest some effort. Sure, there are certainly better 1:72 options available (e. g. the Hasegawa kit, its mould was created in 1995 and should be light years ahead concerning detail and fit. Not certain about the Revell/Frog and Jo-Han alternatives, though), but tackling this simple, vintage kit was fun in itself. And, based on what you get out of the little box, the result is not bad at all!

 

Beyond the technical aspects, I am also pleased with the visual result of the build. At first glance, this antiquity looks pretty convincing. And the disputable, strange lilac tone really makes this A6M2-N model …outstanding. Even though I still wonder what might have been the rationale behind this tone? The only thing I could imagine is a dedicated scheme for missions at dusk/dawn, similar to the pink RAF recce Spitfires in early WWII? It would be plausible, though, since the A6M2-Ns were tasked with nocturnal reconnoitre and ground attack missions.

Designed by William Van Alen, the Chrysler Building's steel-clad crown has seven layers of crescent setbacks inset with triangular windows.

Overview

 

Heritage Category: Listed Building

Grade: I

List Entry Number: 1308610

Date first listed: 22-Feb-1967

 

Location

 

Statutory Address: St Michael the Archangel Church,Chagford, Newton Abbot TQ13 8BN

County: Devon

District: West Devon (District Authority)

Parish: Chagford

National Park: DARTMOOR

National Grid Reference: SX 70146 87508

 

Details

 

Parish church. It appears to be a complete C15 rebuild of an earlier church (The Church Wardens Accounts record work on the Lady Chapel in 1482); major renovation of circa 1888 followed by a series of lesser works between 1888 and 1925, e.g. vestry by J.W. Rowell and Son of Newton Abbot in 1891 and tower restored in 1915; roofs repaired circa 1960. Coursed blocks of granite ashlar throughout; granite ashlar detail, one window of limestone ashlar; slate roofs. Plan: church is actually set on a north-east - south-west axis but for convenience it is described as if it had a conventional east-west axis. Nave and chancel under a continuous roof with full length north and south aisles, both with east end chapels. The south aisle has the former Lady Chapel (now a Chapel of Remembrance to the dead of the World Wars) and the 1891 vestry at the east end. At the east end of the north aisle St Katherines Chapel was converted to the organ chamber and the aisle was extended an extra bay. C15 south porch. Large C15 west tower. Perpendicular style throughout and renovation work carried out in the same style. Exterior. Tall west tower of 3 stages with internal stair turret in the south-west corner. It has a chamfered plinth, setback buttresses and an embattled parapet without corner pinnacles. Belfry has double lancets on each side to the belfry and a single lancet on the north side to the ringing loft. On the west side the doorway has a 2-centred arch with double chamfered surround. It contains a good quality oak door carved with blind cusped arcades and carved with a Latin quotation and dated 1914. Directly above 3-light window with a pointed arch and containing simple intersecting tracery and a hoodmould. Possibly this window was reused in the C15 from the earlier church. Above this window 2 small arch-headed niche contains a C20 carved figure of St. Michael and above that a painted clockface put there in 1867. There are tiny slit windows on the south side lighting the newel stair. The nave and aisles are similar in style. Their roofs are gable-ended with C19 shaped kneelers, coping and moulded finials. (The west end of the north aisle has no finial). The roof is continuous over nave and chancel but the division is marked by an old ridge tile surmounted by a crude beast (maybe a pig). The aisles have soffit-chamfered eaves cornices and the south aisle has a chamfered plinth. Both have set back buttresses on their corners and buttresses between the windows, all with weathered offsets. The west ends of the aisles are blind although both contain blocked features. The south aisle is roughcast but inside a tall 2-centred arch shows. The north aisle contains a blocked doorway, a 2-centred arch with a double roll moulded surround and above that is a presumably C19 segmental-headed window embrasure. All the original windows have original Perpendicular tracery with plain hoodmoulds. The south aisle and porch. The porch projects left of centre. It has set back buttresses and an embattled parapet. 2-centred outer arch with moulded surround and broach stops. This contains early C20 timber gates containing a row of open quatrefoils containing rosettes along the top. There is a late C17 or C18 slate sundial with a brass pointer. It has shaped corners and the borders are enriched with scrolled foliage and garlands. The porch occupies one of the 5 bays this side. The others contain 3-light windows, and there is another at the east end. In the angle of the south aisle and chancel is the low 1981 vestry built of neater ashlar than the original church. It has a flat roof and embattled parapet over a soffit- moulded dripcourse. Each side contains a square-headed 2-light window with cinquefoil heads and the south side contains a segmental-headed doorway with ovolo surround. Above the vestry, a window built of limestone, with Decorated tracery and hoodmould with carved labels. The east end of the chancel has a large and impressive 5-light window with Perpendicular tracery. It has moulded reveals with carved capitals and hoodmould. The north aisle is 6 bays. The east end bay is a late C19 addition and contains another limestone 2-light window with Decorated tracery, hoodmould and block labels. Contemporary granite Tudor arch doorway in east end. The rest are original 3-light windows similar to those on the south side. The division between aisle and organ chamber (former chapel) is marked by a projecting rood stair turret. Interior. Porch has a good interior. It has stone-flagged floor and benches along each side. Stone vaulted 2-bay roof; the ribs springing from half-engaged piers and with good carved bosses. The piers are granite and although the rest is painted the detail suggests a softer stone, possibly Beerstone. The south doorway is a granite 2- centred arch with double chamfered surround and pyrmaid stops. It contains an ancient folding plank door with studded coverstrips, its original ferramenta and a massive oak lock housing. The roof was repaired circa 1960 but is essentially original. Nave and chancel have continuous wagon roofs with moulded purlins and ribs, good carved oak bosses and a moulded wallplate enriched with 4-leaf bosses. The break between nave and chancel is now marked by the chancel only being ceiled and the timberwork there is painted. Both aisles have similar smaller wagon roofs and must be contemporary with the nave and chancel roof. Both are now open and the south chapel timbers have traces of ancient colour. The bosses are noteworthy some featuring the spiral symbol of the Gorges family and others the tinners mark of 3 rabbits. Church Fabric. Tall tower arch with a narrow chamfered surround and soffit- Chamfered imposts. Inside tower small 2-centred arch doorway to newel stairs but floor to ringing loft replaced 1915. Either side of the tower arch are the blocked apertures described above. Each aisle has an identical 5-bay arcade with 1 overlapping into the chancel. The arches have double chamfered arch rings. Octagonal granite piers made from single pieces of granite and have soffit-chamfered caps and chamfered bases, now on pedestals since the floor has been lowered. The floor is of stone slabs and includes some grave slabs in the chancel (see below). The walls are of exposed granite ashlar. In the south aisle, close to the chancel screen, there is an arch-headed blocked opening for the rood stair. Furniture and fittings. In the chancel the reredos dates from 1888 along with the rest of the sanctuary decoration. It is a painted and gilded triptych; Christ in majesty is flanked by panels containing the Evangelists and the wings contain saints. The wall behind is lined with good polychrome tiles of 1888. The oak stalls (dating from 1913) are in a Tudor Gothic style with blind arcading across the front and carved angel finials. The sedilia dates from 1894. The chancel screen is a fine piece of work. It was erected in 1925 in memory of the young flying officer Noel Hayter-Hames. It is an expert recreation of a C15 Perpendicular oak chancel screen with blind tracery on the wainscotting, Perpendicular tracery to the windows, Gothic cusped coving and a frieze of delicately undercut bands of foliage. The parclose screens are painted and it may be that they are actually C15; built of oak and simpler versions of the main screen. The pulpit (dated 1928) is also built of oak and in the same Perpendicular style; it has an octagonal drum nodding ogee arch on the sides and undercut foliage on the corners, base and frieze. In the former St. Katherines Chapel the late C19 organ has been restored to its original painted scheme. The former Lady Chapel was lined with panelled wainscotting when converted to a Chapel of Rememberance circa 1925. The contemporary figures on the Riddel posts are the patron saints of England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland. Brass lecturn is dated 1871. The benches are also Gothic in style; the bench ends have tracery patterns framed with wreathed foliage. They probably date from the reseating of 1864 and most have been dedicated to members of the congregation who died in the C20. Granite Perpendicular style octagonal font carved by a local mason, John Aggett, and dedicated to the memory of Katherine Hayter-Hames who died less than a year old in 1856. The oak coved canopy is richly carved in Gothic style. Memorials. The oldest and best in the church is the table tomb in the sanctuary in memory of Sir John Wyddon (d. 1575). It is remarkable for its early Renaissance decoration. The tomb base is 3 bays divided by pilasters which are carved with foliage and with a frieze of wreathed foilage. Each bay carved with foliage and with a frieze of wreathed foliage. Each bay contains a frame of formal foliage. Central bay contains an heraldic achievement and the flanking bays have Renaissance vases with cherubs and grotesques. Marble lid with black letter inscription around the edge. Any effigy is now missing. 2-bay arcade above with round arches enriched by scrolled cusping and supported on baluster columns. The arches and spandrels are richly carved with Renaissance ornament. Moulded frieze above and moulded entablature with carved crestwork is supported by carved scroll consoles. The back of the arcade is also richly carved with heraldic achievements surrounded by a dense pattern of expertly carved ornament featuring mermen, grotesques and foliage. Nearby, on the sanctuary steps is a graveslab in memory of Mary Whiddon who died on her wedding day in 1641. South aisle contains a good mural monument in memory of Sir John Prouz (d.1664). Built most of Beerstone, it contains an inscribed rectangular marble plaque flanked by free-standing marble columns with Corinthian caps and entablature with modillion frieze surmounted by a cartouche containing the Prouz arms flanked by other heraldic cartouches. The soffit-moulded sill is supported by scroll brackets carved as grotesque lions heads and with an apron between enriched with strapwork and containing a carved oak heraldic achievement. Above the monument is suspended a helmet bearing the Prouz crest. All the paintwork is C20. To south of the sanctuary a granite recess with double ogee arch in memory of Constance Hayter-Hames (d.1890) and several C19 mural monuments to other members of the same family but the best monument from this period is a mural plaque in memory of Captain John Evans who died aged 23, in 1861 after an active service life. The plaque is a white marble scroll with a symbol of liberty at the top. It is carved as if the scroll is pinned to the end of a chest tomb on which lies his sword and an open Bible and over this is his regimental arms. The black ground has a pointed arch and a moulded limestone frame. It is signed Bedford Sc. 256 Oxford Street, London. Over the south door a board is painted with the arms of Charles II (much restored). To right a painted Benefaction board dated 1791 over an inscribed Beerstone tablet recording the benefactions of the Reverend John Hayter and John Hooper in 1790. Glass. The window of the north chapel contains fragments of C15 glass; St. Andrew and some heraldic achievements. The rest of the stained glass is C19 and most are memorials to members of the Hayter-Hames family. Summary. This is a good C15 granite church although the interior is largely the result of the several late C19 and early C20 renovations. The best feature is the remarkable Whiddon table tomb. Sources. Devon C19 Church Project. Church Guide. (n.a.)

 

© Historic England 2023

Some background:

The Nakajima A6M2-N (Navy Type 2 Interceptor/Fighter-Bomber) was a single-crew floatplane. The Allied reporting name for the aircraft was 'Rufe'.

 

The A6M2-N floatplane was developed mainly to support amphibious operations and defend remote bases. It was based on the Mitsubishi A6M-2 Model 11 fuselage, with a modified tail and added floats. Despite the large central float and wing pontoons, the A6M2-N was aerodynamically a very clean aircraft: compared with its land-based A6M2 cousin, its performance degraded only by about 20%, and for a contemporary single engine floatplane its performance was outstanding.

 

The aircraft was deployed in 1942, referred to as the "Suisen 2" ("Hydro fighter type 2"), and intended for interceptor, fighter-bomber, and short reconnaissance support for amphibious landings, among other uses. However, when confronted with the first generation of Allied fighters, the A6M2-N was no match in aerial combat and rather employed in supportive roles.

 

Effectively, the A6M2-N was mostly utilized in defensive actions in the Aleutians and Solomon Islands operations. They were used with good efficiency against Allied positions: marking patrol elements, aiding warship guns, engaging convoys, and reconnoitering areas over-the-horizon.

The A6M2-Ns were also effective in harassing American PT boats at night, and they could drop flares to illuminate the PTs which were vulnerable to destroyer gunfire, and depended on cover of darkness. However, when Allied fighter coverage became more numerous and effective, the value of the A6M2-N dwindled and losses began to naturally mount.

 

In the Aleutian Campaign this fighter engaged with RCAF Curtiss P-40, Lockheed P-38 Lightning fighters and Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress bombers, but the A6M2-N inventory suffered a severe setback when, on August 7th, 1942, a seaplane base was destroyed by Allied fighter-bombers, taking with it most of the available A6M2-Ns stationed there.

 

The seaplane also served in defense of fueling depots in Balikpapan and Avon Bases (Dutch East Indies) and reinforced the Shumushu base (North Kuriles) in the same period.

Beyond their use from dispersed and improvised bases, A6M2-N fighters also served aboard seaplane carriers Kamikawa Maru in the Solomons and Kuriles areas and aboard Japanese raiders Hokoku Maru and Aikoku Maru in Indian Ocean raids.

Later in the conflict the Otsu Air Group utilized the A6M2-N as an interceptor alongside Kawanishi N1K1 Kyofu ('Rex') aircraft based in Biwa lake in the Honshū area, defending the Japanese home land against Allied raids.

 

A total of 327 were built, including the original prototype, before being halted in September 1943.

The last A6M2-N in military service was a single example recovered by the French forces in Indochina after the end of World War II. It crashed shortly after being overhauled, though.

  

General characteristics:

Crew: 1 (Pilot)

Length: 10.10 m (33ft 1⅝ in)

Wingspan: 12.00 m (39 ft 4⅜ in)

Height: 4.30 m (14ft 1⅜ in)

Wing area: 22.44 m² (251.4 sq ft)

Empty weight: 1,912 kg (4,235 lb)

Loaded weight: 2,460 kg (5,423 lb)

Max. takeoff weight: 2,880 kg (6,349 lb)

 

Powerplant:

1× Nakajima NK1C Sakae 12 air cooled 14 cylinder radial engine,

delivering 950 hp (709 kW) at 4,200 m (13,800 ft)

 

Performance:

Maximum speed: 436 km/h (235 knots, 270.5 mph) at 5,000 m (16,400 ft)

Cruise speed: 296 km/h (160 knots, 184 mph)

Range: 1,782 km (963 nmi, 1,107 mi)

Service ceiling: 10,000 m (32,800 ft)

Climb rate: 6 min 43 s to 5,000 m (16,400 ft)

 

Armament:

2 × 7.7 mm Type 97 machine guns in forward fuselage

2 ×20 mm Type 99 cannons in outer wings

Underwing hardpoints for 2× 60 kg (132 lb) bombs

  

The kit and its assembly:

This is a real world model, despite the weird looks (see below), and an entry for the Arawasi blog's "Japanese Aircraft Online Model Contest 005 - Japanese Seaplanes & Flying Boats" contest in summer 2017. Even though whifs were allowed to enter, I used the opportunity to build a kit I had originally bought for a few bucks and stashed away in the donor bank: a vintage LS Model Nakajima A6M2-N.

 

The mould dates back to 1963(!), and the kit was re-issued several times, also under the ARII label. You get a tiny box, with only two sprues moulded in a pale baby blue, and the number of parts is minimal. It's truly vintage and pretty toylike at first sight. Consequently, you have to face some real old-school issues, e. g. moulded markings for the roundels on the wings, general mediocre fit of anything and lots of sinkholes and flash. Then there are toylike solutions like the single-piece propeller or separate, moveable ailerons with bulging joints.

 

The cockpit interior is non-existent, too: there's just a blank place for a dashboard (to be cut out from the printed BW instructions!), and a spindly pilot figure which is held in mid air by some pins. Furthermore, the kit was designed to take a small electric motor in the nose (sold separately) to drive the propeller. Wires, as well as respective internal ducts, and an AA battery holder are included.

 

Sounds scary? Well, maybe, if you just build it OOB. But all these flaws should not keep the ambitious modeler away because the LS Model kit is (still) a sound basis to start from, even though and by today's standards, it is certainly not a match-winner for a rivet counter-esque competition.

 

For its age and the typical solutions of its time, it is actually surprisingly good: you get very fine engraved surface details (more delicate than many contemporary moulds!), a pretty thin, three-piece clear (yet blurry) canopy and, as a bonus to the elevons, separate flaps – a unique detail I have never come across before! Proportions are IMHO good, even though the cowling looks a bit fishy and the engravings are rather soft and shallow. Anyway, on the exterior, there’s anything you can ask for to be found, and as another bonus the kit comes with a beaching trolley, which makes display and diorama fitting easier.

 

Thanks to the kit's simplicity, the build in itself was pretty straightforward and simple. Cleaning the parts and checking fit was the biggest issue. Upon gluing the old styrene showed signs of serious reaction to the dissolving effect of modern glue: it took ages for the material to cure and become hard again for further work!? Weird…

 

The many sinkholes and overall displacements were corrected with some NC putty/PSR, the protruding elevon/flap joints sanded away as good as possible, and due to the wobbly nature of the kit’s styrene I added blobs of 2C putty inside of the wing halves as stabilizers.

 

Some mods and improvements were made, though. After cleaning the OOB propeller from tons of flash the piece turned out to be pretty usable, and it was put on a metal axis. A styrene tube adapter was added behind the relatively flat engine dummy, so that the prop can spin freely – for the later beauty pics, because no CG effect beats IMHO the real thing.

 

A cockpit interior was created from scratch and donor parts, using the new Airfix A6M model's cockpit as benchmark. It’s not an exact replica, because not much would later be visible, but I wanted, as a minimum, “something” inside. A better pilot figure was used, too, and strapped to the new seat with thin strips of adhesive masking tape as seatbelts.

 

Under the wings, the hardpoints were simulated with some bits of styrene and wire as shackles, but left empty Under the stabilizer fin I added a lug(?), made from thin wire, too.

 

The elevons were fixed in place, the seams to the wings filled with white glue in order to conceal the gaps as good as possible. The movable flaps remained, though, adding life to the model. The dolly was also taken more or less OOB, since it fits well. I just improved it with some sinkhole fillings and some other details, including cushions on the float stabilizers, made from paper tissue soaked with thinned white glue, and a towing bar.

  

Painting and markings:

The reason why I settled for an A6M2-N is mostly the weird paint scheme which can be applied, while still being a real world model: a lilac livery!

 

As far as I could find out, the A6M2-Ns initially carried an all-over IJN Grey livery, which was later, in late 1942, modified with dark green upper sides for a better concealment on the ground, and the Hinomaru received white edges for better contrast.

Anyway, during the Aleutian campaign and more or less in between these two major standards, several aircraft must have received a special camouflage with lilac upper surfaces, and this model depicts such a machine, based on various profiles but no color picture as reliable reference.

 

The sources I consulted, as well as pictures of finished A6M2-N models, show a wide variety of shades and paint scheme layouts, though. Upper colors range from pale pink through more or less bright shades of purple to a pale, rusty-reddish brown (maybe primer?), while the undersides show a wide range of greys or even light blue. Some depictions of Aleutian A6M2-Ns as profile or model even show a uniform wraparound scheme! Choice is yours, obviously...

 

Because of the corny information basis, I did my personal interpretation of the subject. I based my livery more or less on a profile by Michele Marsan, published in Aerei Modelismo Anno XII (March 1991). The unit information was taken from there, too – the only source that would provide such a reference.

 

My idea behind the livery and the eventual finish was that the machine once was fully painted in IJN Grey. Then, the violet upper color was added in the field (for whatever reason?), resulting in a slightly shaggy look and with the light grey shining through here and there in areas of higher wear, e. g. at the leading edges, cockpit area and some seams.

 

Painting started with an initial coat of aluminum under the floats, around the cockpit and on the leading edges. Then the undersides and some areas of the upper surfaces were painted with IJN grey. The latter is an individual mix of Humbrol 90 (Beige Green/RAF Sky) and a bit of 155 (Olive Drab, FS 34087). On top of that I added a thin primer layer of mauve (mix of ModelMaster’s Napoleonic Violet and Neutral Grey, Humbrol 176) on the still vacant upper surfaces – both as a preparation for the later weathering treatments (see below).

 

The following, basic lilac tone comes from Humbrol’s long-gone "Authentics" enamel line. The tin is probably 30 years old, but the content is still alive (and still has a distinctive, sour stench…)! I cannot identify the tone anymore with certainty, but I guess that it is 'HJ 4: Mauve N 9', one of the line’s Japanese WWII tones which was later not carried over to the standard tones, still available today.

 

Anyway, the color is a dull, rather greyish violet, relatively dark (a bit like RAF Ocean Grey), and it fits well as a camouflage tone on this specific model. Since there’s no better alternative I could think of except for an individual mix or garish, off-the-rack pop art tones, I went with it.

 

After overall basic painting was done and thoroughly cured, weathering started with a careful wet sand paper treatment, removing the salt grain masks and revealing some of the lower IJN Grey and aluminum layers. While this appears messy, I found that the result looks more realistic than artificial weathering applied as paint effects on top of the basic paint.

 

The engine cowling was painted separately, with a mix of black and a little dark blue. The propeller received an aluminum spinner (Humbrol’s Matt Aluminum Metallizer), while the blades received aluminum front sides (Revell acrylics), and red brown (Humbrol 160) back sides. Two thin, red stripes decorate the propeller tips (Decals, left over from an AZ Model Ki-78, IIRC).

 

As a standard procedure, the kit received a light wash with thinned black ink, revealing the engraved panel lines, plus some post-shading in order to emphasize panels and add visual contrast and ‘drama’.

 

Decals and markings were improvised and come from the spares box, since I did not trust the vintage OOB decals - even though they are in so far nice that the sheet contains any major marking as well as a full set of letter so that an individual tail code could be created. Anyway, the model's real world benchmark did not carry any numeric or letter code, just Hinomaru in standard positions and a horizontal, white-and-red stripe on the fin.

 

The roundels actually belong to a JSDAF F-4EJ, some stencils come from a leftover Hobby Boss A6M sheet. The fin decoration was created with generic decal sheet material (TL Modellbau). Similar stuff was also used for the markings on the central float, as well as for the yellow ID markings on the inner wings' leading edges. I am just not certain whether the real aircraft carried them at all? But they were introduced with the new green upper surfaces in late 1942, so that they appear at least plausible. Another argument in this marking‘s favor is that it simply adds even more color to the model!

 

The cockpit interior was painted in a light khaki tone (a mix of Humbrol 159 and 94), while the flaps' interior was painted with Aodake Iro (an individual mix of acrylic aluminum and translucent teal paint). Lacking good reference material, the beaching trolley became IJA Green, with some good weathering with dry-brushed silver on the edges and traces of rust here and there (the latter created with artist acrylics.

 

Close to the (literal) finish line, some soot and oil stains were added with graphite and Tamiya's 'Smoke', and the kit finally received a coat of matt acrylic varnish (Italeri); to the varnish on the engine cover a bit of gloss varnish was added, for a sheen finish.

  

In the end, quite a challenging build. Not a winner, but …different. Concerning the LS Model kit as such, I must say that - despite its age of more than 50 years now - the A6M2-N model is still a worthwhile offer, if you invest some effort. Sure, there are certainly better 1:72 options available (e. g. the Hasegawa kit, its mould was created in 1995 and should be light years ahead concerning detail and fit. Not certain about the Revell/Frog and Jo-Han alternatives, though), but tackling this simple, vintage kit was fun in itself. And, based on what you get out of the little box, the result is not bad at all!

 

Beyond the technical aspects, I am also pleased with the visual result of the build. At first glance, this antiquity looks pretty convincing. And the disputable, strange lilac tone really makes this A6M2-N model …outstanding. Even though I still wonder what might have been the rationale behind this tone? The only thing I could imagine is a dedicated scheme for missions at dusk/dawn, similar to the pink RAF recce Spitfires in early WWII? It would be plausible, though, since the A6M2-Ns were tasked with nocturnal reconnoitre and ground attack missions.

Frame :*SURLY* low side

Headset :*CHRIS KING* inset 7

Rims:*VELOCITY* cliffhanger rim

Tire :*TERAVAIL* honcho tire

Handlebar :*HUNTER* high rise bar

Stem :*PAUL* boxcar stem

Brake Lever :*AVID* V-brake lever

Crank :*WHITE INDUSTRIES* eno single speed crank

Grip :*ODI* soft X longneck grip

Seat post:*THOMSON* elite setback seatpost

The Chrysler Building, at 405 Lexington Avenue, was built from 1928-1930 to the art-deco design of architect William Van Alen. Standing at 1,046-feet high, it was the first structure in the world to surpass the 1,000-foot threshold. Despite being overtaken by the Empire State Building as the tallest building in the world eleven months later, the Chrysler Building is still the tallest brick building in the world. Although built and designed specifically for the Chrysler Corporation, the company did not pay for its construction and never owned it. Walter P. Chrysler self-financed the project so that his children could inherit it.

 

The Chrysler Building is known for its terraced crown, composed of seven arches and clad in an austenitic stainless steel and riveted in a radiating suburst pattern. The tower's distinctive ornamentation is influenced by Chrysler automobiles. The corners of the 61st floors are graced with eagles, replicas of the 1929 Chrysler hood ornaments. On the 31st floors the corner ornamentation are replicas of the 1929 Chrysler radiator caps.

 

The Chrysler Building was designated a landmark by the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission in 1978.

 

In 2007, The Chrysler Building was ranked #9 on the AIA 150 America's Favorite Architecture list.

 

National Historic Register #76001237 (1976)

Frame :*SURLY* straggler

Headset :*WHITE INDUSTRIES* external headset

Tires :*WTB* horizon road+ tire 650B

Crankset :*WHITE INDUSTRIES* MR30 crank set

BB :*WHITE INDUSTRIES* BSA bottom brackets

Stem :*THOMSON* elite

Saddle :*WTB* pure V

Seat Post :*THOMSON* elite setback seatpost

Grip:*ODI* vans waffle lock-on grip

Pedal :*MKS* allways pedal

Some background:

The Nakajima A6M2-N (Navy Type 2 Interceptor/Fighter-Bomber) was a single-crew floatplane. The Allied reporting name for the aircraft was 'Rufe'.

 

The A6M2-N floatplane was developed mainly to support amphibious operations and defend remote bases. It was based on the Mitsubishi A6M-2 Model 11 fuselage, with a modified tail and added floats. Despite the large central float and wing pontoons, the A6M2-N was aerodynamically a very clean aircraft: compared with its land-based A6M2 cousin, its performance degraded only by about 20%, and for a contemporary single engine floatplane its performance was outstanding.

 

The aircraft was deployed in 1942, referred to as the "Suisen 2" ("Hydro fighter type 2"), and intended for interceptor, fighter-bomber, and short reconnaissance support for amphibious landings, among other uses. However, when confronted with the first generation of Allied fighters, the A6M2-N was no match in aerial combat and rather employed in supportive roles.

 

Effectively, the A6M2-N was mostly utilized in defensive actions in the Aleutians and Solomon Islands operations. They were used with good efficiency against Allied positions: marking patrol elements, aiding warship guns, engaging convoys, and reconnoitering areas over-the-horizon.

The A6M2-Ns were also effective in harassing American PT boats at night, and they could drop flares to illuminate the PTs which were vulnerable to destroyer gunfire, and depended on cover of darkness. However, when Allied fighter coverage became more numerous and effective, the value of the A6M2-N dwindled and losses began to naturally mount.

 

In the Aleutian Campaign this fighter engaged with RCAF Curtiss P-40, Lockheed P-38 Lightning fighters and Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress bombers, but the A6M2-N inventory suffered a severe setback when, on August 7th, 1942, a seaplane base was destroyed by Allied fighter-bombers, taking with it most of the available A6M2-Ns stationed there.

 

The seaplane also served in defense of fueling depots in Balikpapan and Avon Bases (Dutch East Indies) and reinforced the Shumushu base (North Kuriles) in the same period.

Beyond their use from dispersed and improvised bases, A6M2-N fighters also served aboard seaplane carriers Kamikawa Maru in the Solomons and Kuriles areas and aboard Japanese raiders Hokoku Maru and Aikoku Maru in Indian Ocean raids.

Later in the conflict the Otsu Air Group utilized the A6M2-N as an interceptor alongside Kawanishi N1K1 Kyofu ('Rex') aircraft based in Biwa lake in the Honshū area, defending the Japanese home land against Allied raids.

 

A total of 327 were built, including the original prototype, before being halted in September 1943.

The last A6M2-N in military service was a single example recovered by the French forces in Indochina after the end of World War II. It crashed shortly after being overhauled, though.

  

General characteristics:

Crew: 1 (Pilot)

Length: 10.10 m (33ft 1⅝ in)

Wingspan: 12.00 m (39 ft 4⅜ in)

Height: 4.30 m (14ft 1⅜ in)

Wing area: 22.44 m² (251.4 sq ft)

Empty weight: 1,912 kg (4,235 lb)

Loaded weight: 2,460 kg (5,423 lb)

Max. takeoff weight: 2,880 kg (6,349 lb)

 

Powerplant:

1× Nakajima NK1C Sakae 12 air cooled 14 cylinder radial engine,

delivering 950 hp (709 kW) at 4,200 m (13,800 ft)

 

Performance:

Maximum speed: 436 km/h (235 knots, 270.5 mph) at 5,000 m (16,400 ft)

Cruise speed: 296 km/h (160 knots, 184 mph)

Range: 1,782 km (963 nmi, 1,107 mi)

Service ceiling: 10,000 m (32,800 ft)

Climb rate: 6 min 43 s to 5,000 m (16,400 ft)

 

Armament:

2 × 7.7 mm Type 97 machine guns in forward fuselage

2 ×20 mm Type 99 cannons in outer wings

Underwing hardpoints for 2× 60 kg (132 lb) bombs

  

The kit and its assembly:

This is a real world model, despite the weird looks (see below), and an entry for the Arawasi blog's "Japanese Aircraft Online Model Contest 005 - Japanese Seaplanes & Flying Boats" contest in summer 2017. Even though whifs were allowed to enter, I used the opportunity to build a kit I had originally bought for a few bucks and stashed away in the donor bank: a vintage LS Model Nakajima A6M2-N.

 

The mould dates back to 1963(!), and the kit was re-issued several times, also under the ARII label. You get a tiny box, with only two sprues moulded in a pale baby blue, and the number of parts is minimal. It's truly vintage and pretty toylike at first sight. Consequently, you have to face some real old-school issues, e. g. moulded markings for the roundels on the wings, general mediocre fit of anything and lots of sinkholes and flash. Then there are toylike solutions like the single-piece propeller or separate, moveable ailerons with bulging joints.

 

The cockpit interior is non-existent, too: there's just a blank place for a dashboard (to be cut out from the printed BW instructions!), and a spindly pilot figure which is held in mid air by some pins. Furthermore, the kit was designed to take a small electric motor in the nose (sold separately) to drive the propeller. Wires, as well as respective internal ducts, and an AA battery holder are included.

 

Sounds scary? Well, maybe, if you just build it OOB. But all these flaws should not keep the ambitious modeler away because the LS Model kit is (still) a sound basis to start from, even though and by today's standards, it is certainly not a match-winner for a rivet counter-esque competition.

 

For its age and the typical solutions of its time, it is actually surprisingly good: you get very fine engraved surface details (more delicate than many contemporary moulds!), a pretty thin, three-piece clear (yet blurry) canopy and, as a bonus to the elevons, separate flaps – a unique detail I have never come across before! Proportions are IMHO good, even though the cowling looks a bit fishy and the engravings are rather soft and shallow. Anyway, on the exterior, there’s anything you can ask for to be found, and as another bonus the kit comes with a beaching trolley, which makes display and diorama fitting easier.

 

Thanks to the kit's simplicity, the build in itself was pretty straightforward and simple. Cleaning the parts and checking fit was the biggest issue. Upon gluing the old styrene showed signs of serious reaction to the dissolving effect of modern glue: it took ages for the material to cure and become hard again for further work!? Weird…

 

The many sinkholes and overall displacements were corrected with some NC putty/PSR, the protruding elevon/flap joints sanded away as good as possible, and due to the wobbly nature of the kit’s styrene I added blobs of 2C putty inside of the wing halves as stabilizers.

 

Some mods and improvements were made, though. After cleaning the OOB propeller from tons of flash the piece turned out to be pretty usable, and it was put on a metal axis. A styrene tube adapter was added behind the relatively flat engine dummy, so that the prop can spin freely – for the later beauty pics, because no CG effect beats IMHO the real thing.

 

A cockpit interior was created from scratch and donor parts, using the new Airfix A6M model's cockpit as benchmark. It’s not an exact replica, because not much would later be visible, but I wanted, as a minimum, “something” inside. A better pilot figure was used, too, and strapped to the new seat with thin strips of adhesive masking tape as seatbelts.

 

Under the wings, the hardpoints were simulated with some bits of styrene and wire as shackles, but left empty Under the stabilizer fin I added a lug(?), made from thin wire, too.

 

The elevons were fixed in place, the seams to the wings filled with white glue in order to conceal the gaps as good as possible. The movable flaps remained, though, adding life to the model. The dolly was also taken more or less OOB, since it fits well. I just improved it with some sinkhole fillings and some other details, including cushions on the float stabilizers, made from paper tissue soaked with thinned white glue, and a towing bar.

  

Painting and markings:

The reason why I settled for an A6M2-N is mostly the weird paint scheme which can be applied, while still being a real world model: a lilac livery!

 

As far as I could find out, the A6M2-Ns initially carried an all-over IJN Grey livery, which was later, in late 1942, modified with dark green upper sides for a better concealment on the ground, and the Hinomaru received white edges for better contrast.

Anyway, during the Aleutian campaign and more or less in between these two major standards, several aircraft must have received a special camouflage with lilac upper surfaces, and this model depicts such a machine, based on various profiles but no color picture as reliable reference.

 

The sources I consulted, as well as pictures of finished A6M2-N models, show a wide variety of shades and paint scheme layouts, though. Upper colors range from pale pink through more or less bright shades of purple to a pale, rusty-reddish brown (maybe primer?), while the undersides show a wide range of greys or even light blue. Some depictions of Aleutian A6M2-Ns as profile or model even show a uniform wraparound scheme! Choice is yours, obviously...

 

Because of the corny information basis, I did my personal interpretation of the subject. I based my livery more or less on a profile by Michele Marsan, published in Aerei Modelismo Anno XII (March 1991). The unit information was taken from there, too – the only source that would provide such a reference.

 

My idea behind the livery and the eventual finish was that the machine once was fully painted in IJN Grey. Then, the violet upper color was added in the field (for whatever reason?), resulting in a slightly shaggy look and with the light grey shining through here and there in areas of higher wear, e. g. at the leading edges, cockpit area and some seams.

 

Painting started with an initial coat of aluminum under the floats, around the cockpit and on the leading edges. Then the undersides and some areas of the upper surfaces were painted with IJN grey. The latter is an individual mix of Humbrol 90 (Beige Green/RAF Sky) and a bit of 155 (Olive Drab, FS 34087). On top of that I added a thin primer layer of mauve (mix of ModelMaster’s Napoleonic Violet and Neutral Grey, Humbrol 176) on the still vacant upper surfaces – both as a preparation for the later weathering treatments (see below).

 

The following, basic lilac tone comes from Humbrol’s long-gone "Authentics" enamel line. The tin is probably 30 years old, but the content is still alive (and still has a distinctive, sour stench…)! I cannot identify the tone anymore with certainty, but I guess that it is 'HJ 4: Mauve N 9', one of the line’s Japanese WWII tones which was later not carried over to the standard tones, still available today.

 

Anyway, the color is a dull, rather greyish violet, relatively dark (a bit like RAF Ocean Grey), and it fits well as a camouflage tone on this specific model. Since there’s no better alternative I could think of except for an individual mix or garish, off-the-rack pop art tones, I went with it.

 

After overall basic painting was done and thoroughly cured, weathering started with a careful wet sand paper treatment, removing the salt grain masks and revealing some of the lower IJN Grey and aluminum layers. While this appears messy, I found that the result looks more realistic than artificial weathering applied as paint effects on top of the basic paint.

 

The engine cowling was painted separately, with a mix of black and a little dark blue. The propeller received an aluminum spinner (Humbrol’s Matt Aluminum Metallizer), while the blades received aluminum front sides (Revell acrylics), and red brown (Humbrol 160) back sides. Two thin, red stripes decorate the propeller tips (Decals, left over from an AZ Model Ki-78, IIRC).

 

As a standard procedure, the kit received a light wash with thinned black ink, revealing the engraved panel lines, plus some post-shading in order to emphasize panels and add visual contrast and ‘drama’.

 

Decals and markings were improvised and come from the spares box, since I did not trust the vintage OOB decals - even though they are in so far nice that the sheet contains any major marking as well as a full set of letter so that an individual tail code could be created. Anyway, the model's real world benchmark did not carry any numeric or letter code, just Hinomaru in standard positions and a horizontal, white-and-red stripe on the fin.

 

The roundels actually belong to a JSDAF F-4EJ, some stencils come from a leftover Hobby Boss A6M sheet. The fin decoration was created with generic decal sheet material (TL Modellbau). Similar stuff was also used for the markings on the central float, as well as for the yellow ID markings on the inner wings' leading edges. I am just not certain whether the real aircraft carried them at all? But they were introduced with the new green upper surfaces in late 1942, so that they appear at least plausible. Another argument in this marking‘s favor is that it simply adds even more color to the model!

 

The cockpit interior was painted in a light khaki tone (a mix of Humbrol 159 and 94), while the flaps' interior was painted with Aodake Iro (an individual mix of acrylic aluminum and translucent teal paint). Lacking good reference material, the beaching trolley became IJA Green, with some good weathering with dry-brushed silver on the edges and traces of rust here and there (the latter created with artist acrylics.

 

Close to the (literal) finish line, some soot and oil stains were added with graphite and Tamiya's 'Smoke', and the kit finally received a coat of matt acrylic varnish (Italeri); to the varnish on the engine cover a bit of gloss varnish was added, for a sheen finish.

  

In the end, quite a challenging build. Not a winner, but …different. Concerning the LS Model kit as such, I must say that - despite its age of more than 50 years now - the A6M2-N model is still a worthwhile offer, if you invest some effort. Sure, there are certainly better 1:72 options available (e. g. the Hasegawa kit, its mould was created in 1995 and should be light years ahead concerning detail and fit. Not certain about the Revell/Frog and Jo-Han alternatives, though), but tackling this simple, vintage kit was fun in itself. And, based on what you get out of the little box, the result is not bad at all!

 

Beyond the technical aspects, I am also pleased with the visual result of the build. At first glance, this antiquity looks pretty convincing. And the disputable, strange lilac tone really makes this A6M2-N model …outstanding. Even though I still wonder what might have been the rationale behind this tone? The only thing I could imagine is a dedicated scheme for missions at dusk/dawn, similar to the pink RAF recce Spitfires in early WWII? It would be plausible, though, since the A6M2-Ns were tasked with nocturnal reconnoitre and ground attack missions.

Famed theatre architects Rapp & Rapp designed the dramatically massed skyscraper in 1926 at a cost of $13.5M as offices for Paramount Pictures, as a home for the Paramount Theater (since demolished) and as an advertisement for the Paramount Corporation. The building, at its completion the tallest structure on Broadway north of the Woolworth Building (33 stories), sits on the site of the previous Putnam Building, erected to commemorate the spot where Revolutionary War hero General Israel Putnam met General George Washington.

 

The motion picture company's trademark mountain encircled by five pointed stars is echoed in the fourteen setbacks creating a "para"mountain massing and its surmounting four faced clock, on which the hours are marked by five pointed stars. The setback below the clock faces is flanked by three-story scrolls, making the whole look like a gigantic desk clock. The clock is crowned by a glass glove that, when illuminated, is visible for miles. The globe and clock were painted black at the outset of World War II to maintain blackout conditions for fear of enemy invasion. The Globe and Clock tower were restored in 1996.

 

With its 3600-seat theater and fabulous Marquee and Arch, the Paramount introduced the likes of Gary Cooper, William Powell, Mae West, Fred Astaire, Bing Crosby and Claudette Colbert, through silent films and talkes to New York. Its stage was graced regularly by Benny Goodman, Jack Benny, Tommy Dorsey, Frank Sinatra, Jerry Lewis and Dean Martin to name a few. In the 1950's, the Theater became home to the Alan Freed Rock and Roll stage show. In 1956, Elvis Presley’s first movie, Love Me Tender, premiered here.

 

In 1964 the Paramount closed its doors. The theater space was converted to offices, the marquee wsa removed and the arch in-filled.

 

The clocks and globe were restored in 1997. In 2000, the World Wrestling Federation began construction of their entertainment complex, renovating the interior for a restaurant, nightclub and retail store at a cost of $38M. In 2001, at a cost $8MM, the original the marquee and arch were restored returning the facade to its original grandeur. In 2004, Hard Rock Cafe purchased the Paramount Hotel for $126.M and rebranded it the Hard Rock Hotel in 2007.

 

The Paramount Building was designated a landmark by the New York Landmarks Preservation Commission in 1982, and its interior was designated separately in 1987.

Don't Let a Setback Stop You from Pushing Ahead

Copyright 2014 BOTHAM | DESIGN

www.bothamdesign.com

All Rights Reserved

Prints available upon request

Some background:

The Nakajima A6M2-N (Navy Type 2 Interceptor/Fighter-Bomber) was a single-crew floatplane. The Allied reporting name for the aircraft was 'Rufe'.

 

The A6M2-N floatplane was developed mainly to support amphibious operations and defend remote bases. It was based on the Mitsubishi A6M-2 Model 11 fuselage, with a modified tail and added floats. Despite the large central float and wing pontoons, the A6M2-N was aerodynamically a very clean aircraft: compared with its land-based A6M2 cousin, its performance degraded only by about 20%, and for a contemporary single engine floatplane its performance was outstanding.

 

The aircraft was deployed in 1942, referred to as the "Suisen 2" ("Hydro fighter type 2"), and intended for interceptor, fighter-bomber, and short reconnaissance support for amphibious landings, among other uses. However, when confronted with the first generation of Allied fighters, the A6M2-N was no match in aerial combat and rather employed in supportive roles.

 

Effectively, the A6M2-N was mostly utilized in defensive actions in the Aleutians and Solomon Islands operations. They were used with good efficiency against Allied positions: marking patrol elements, aiding warship guns, engaging convoys, and reconnoitering areas over-the-horizon.

The A6M2-Ns were also effective in harassing American PT boats at night, and they could drop flares to illuminate the PTs which were vulnerable to destroyer gunfire, and depended on cover of darkness. However, when Allied fighter coverage became more numerous and effective, the value of the A6M2-N dwindled and losses began to naturally mount.

 

In the Aleutian Campaign this fighter engaged with RCAF Curtiss P-40, Lockheed P-38 Lightning fighters and Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress bombers, but the A6M2-N inventory suffered a severe setback when, on August 7th, 1942, a seaplane base was destroyed by Allied fighter-bombers, taking with it most of the available A6M2-Ns stationed there.

 

The seaplane also served in defense of fueling depots in Balikpapan and Avon Bases (Dutch East Indies) and reinforced the Shumushu base (North Kuriles) in the same period.

Beyond their use from dispersed and improvised bases, A6M2-N fighters also served aboard seaplane carriers Kamikawa Maru in the Solomons and Kuriles areas and aboard Japanese raiders Hokoku Maru and Aikoku Maru in Indian Ocean raids.

Later in the conflict the Otsu Air Group utilized the A6M2-N as an interceptor alongside Kawanishi N1K1 Kyofu ('Rex') aircraft based in Biwa lake in the Honshū area, defending the Japanese home land against Allied raids.

 

A total of 327 were built, including the original prototype, before being halted in September 1943.

The last A6M2-N in military service was a single example recovered by the French forces in Indochina after the end of World War II. It crashed shortly after being overhauled, though.

  

General characteristics:

Crew: 1 (Pilot)

Length: 10.10 m (33ft 1⅝ in)

Wingspan: 12.00 m (39 ft 4⅜ in)

Height: 4.30 m (14ft 1⅜ in)

Wing area: 22.44 m² (251.4 sq ft)

Empty weight: 1,912 kg (4,235 lb)

Loaded weight: 2,460 kg (5,423 lb)

Max. takeoff weight: 2,880 kg (6,349 lb)

 

Powerplant:

1× Nakajima NK1C Sakae 12 air cooled 14 cylinder radial engine,

delivering 950 hp (709 kW) at 4,200 m (13,800 ft)

 

Performance:

Maximum speed: 436 km/h (235 knots, 270.5 mph) at 5,000 m (16,400 ft)

Cruise speed: 296 km/h (160 knots, 184 mph)

Range: 1,782 km (963 nmi, 1,107 mi)

Service ceiling: 10,000 m (32,800 ft)

Climb rate: 6 min 43 s to 5,000 m (16,400 ft)

 

Armament:

2 × 7.7 mm Type 97 machine guns in forward fuselage

2 ×20 mm Type 99 cannons in outer wings

Underwing hardpoints for 2× 60 kg (132 lb) bombs

  

The kit and its assembly:

This is a real world model, despite the weird looks (see below), and an entry for the Arawasi blog's "Japanese Aircraft Online Model Contest 005 - Japanese Seaplanes & Flying Boats" contest in summer 2017. Even though whifs were allowed to enter, I used the opportunity to build a kit I had originally bought for a few bucks and stashed away in the donor bank: a vintage LS Model Nakajima A6M2-N.

 

The mould dates back to 1963(!), and the kit was re-issued several times, also under the ARII label. You get a tiny box, with only two sprues moulded in a pale baby blue, and the number of parts is minimal. It's truly vintage and pretty toylike at first sight. Consequently, you have to face some real old-school issues, e. g. moulded markings for the roundels on the wings, general mediocre fit of anything and lots of sinkholes and flash. Then there are toylike solutions like the single-piece propeller or separate, moveable ailerons with bulging joints.

 

The cockpit interior is non-existent, too: there's just a blank place for a dashboard (to be cut out from the printed BW instructions!), and a spindly pilot figure which is held in mid air by some pins. Furthermore, the kit was designed to take a small electric motor in the nose (sold separately) to drive the propeller. Wires, as well as respective internal ducts, and an AA battery holder are included.

 

Sounds scary? Well, maybe, if you just build it OOB. But all these flaws should not keep the ambitious modeler away because the LS Model kit is (still) a sound basis to start from, even though and by today's standards, it is certainly not a match-winner for a rivet counter-esque competition.

 

For its age and the typical solutions of its time, it is actually surprisingly good: you get very fine engraved surface details (more delicate than many contemporary moulds!), a pretty thin, three-piece clear (yet blurry) canopy and, as a bonus to the elevons, separate flaps – a unique detail I have never come across before! Proportions are IMHO good, even though the cowling looks a bit fishy and the engravings are rather soft and shallow. Anyway, on the exterior, there’s anything you can ask for to be found, and as another bonus the kit comes with a beaching trolley, which makes display and diorama fitting easier.

 

Thanks to the kit's simplicity, the build in itself was pretty straightforward and simple. Cleaning the parts and checking fit was the biggest issue. Upon gluing the old styrene showed signs of serious reaction to the dissolving effect of modern glue: it took ages for the material to cure and become hard again for further work!? Weird…

 

The many sinkholes and overall displacements were corrected with some NC putty/PSR, the protruding elevon/flap joints sanded away as good as possible, and due to the wobbly nature of the kit’s styrene I added blobs of 2C putty inside of the wing halves as stabilizers.

 

Some mods and improvements were made, though. After cleaning the OOB propeller from tons of flash the piece turned out to be pretty usable, and it was put on a metal axis. A styrene tube adapter was added behind the relatively flat engine dummy, so that the prop can spin freely – for the later beauty pics, because no CG effect beats IMHO the real thing.

 

A cockpit interior was created from scratch and donor parts, using the new Airfix A6M model's cockpit as benchmark. It’s not an exact replica, because not much would later be visible, but I wanted, as a minimum, “something” inside. A better pilot figure was used, too, and strapped to the new seat with thin strips of adhesive masking tape as seatbelts.

 

Under the wings, the hardpoints were simulated with some bits of styrene and wire as shackles, but left empty Under the stabilizer fin I added a lug(?), made from thin wire, too.

 

The elevons were fixed in place, the seams to the wings filled with white glue in order to conceal the gaps as good as possible. The movable flaps remained, though, adding life to the model. The dolly was also taken more or less OOB, since it fits well. I just improved it with some sinkhole fillings and some other details, including cushions on the float stabilizers, made from paper tissue soaked with thinned white glue, and a towing bar.

  

Painting and markings:

The reason why I settled for an A6M2-N is mostly the weird paint scheme which can be applied, while still being a real world model: a lilac livery!

 

As far as I could find out, the A6M2-Ns initially carried an all-over IJN Grey livery, which was later, in late 1942, modified with dark green upper sides for a better concealment on the ground, and the Hinomaru received white edges for better contrast.

Anyway, during the Aleutian campaign and more or less in between these two major standards, several aircraft must have received a special camouflage with lilac upper surfaces, and this model depicts such a machine, based on various profiles but no color picture as reliable reference.

 

The sources I consulted, as well as pictures of finished A6M2-N models, show a wide variety of shades and paint scheme layouts, though. Upper colors range from pale pink through more or less bright shades of purple to a pale, rusty-reddish brown (maybe primer?), while the undersides show a wide range of greys or even light blue. Some depictions of Aleutian A6M2-Ns as profile or model even show a uniform wraparound scheme! Choice is yours, obviously...

 

Because of the corny information basis, I did my personal interpretation of the subject. I based my livery more or less on a profile by Michele Marsan, published in Aerei Modelismo Anno XII (March 1991). The unit information was taken from there, too – the only source that would provide such a reference.

 

My idea behind the livery and the eventual finish was that the machine once was fully painted in IJN Grey. Then, the violet upper color was added in the field (for whatever reason?), resulting in a slightly shaggy look and with the light grey shining through here and there in areas of higher wear, e. g. at the leading edges, cockpit area and some seams.

 

Painting started with an initial coat of aluminum under the floats, around the cockpit and on the leading edges. Then the undersides and some areas of the upper surfaces were painted with IJN grey. The latter is an individual mix of Humbrol 90 (Beige Green/RAF Sky) and a bit of 155 (Olive Drab, FS 34087). On top of that I added a thin primer layer of mauve (mix of ModelMaster’s Napoleonic Violet and Neutral Grey, Humbrol 176) on the still vacant upper surfaces – both as a preparation for the later weathering treatments (see below).

 

The following, basic lilac tone comes from Humbrol’s long-gone "Authentics" enamel line. The tin is probably 30 years old, but the content is still alive (and still has a distinctive, sour stench…)! I cannot identify the tone anymore with certainty, but I guess that it is 'HJ 4: Mauve N 9', one of the line’s Japanese WWII tones which was later not carried over to the standard tones, still available today.

 

Anyway, the color is a dull, rather greyish violet, relatively dark (a bit like RAF Ocean Grey), and it fits well as a camouflage tone on this specific model. Since there’s no better alternative I could think of except for an individual mix or garish, off-the-rack pop art tones, I went with it.

 

After overall basic painting was done and thoroughly cured, weathering started with a careful wet sand paper treatment, removing the salt grain masks and revealing some of the lower IJN Grey and aluminum layers. While this appears messy, I found that the result looks more realistic than artificial weathering applied as paint effects on top of the basic paint.

 

The engine cowling was painted separately, with a mix of black and a little dark blue. The propeller received an aluminum spinner (Humbrol’s Matt Aluminum Metallizer), while the blades received aluminum front sides (Revell acrylics), and red brown (Humbrol 160) back sides. Two thin, red stripes decorate the propeller tips (Decals, left over from an AZ Model Ki-78, IIRC).

 

As a standard procedure, the kit received a light wash with thinned black ink, revealing the engraved panel lines, plus some post-shading in order to emphasize panels and add visual contrast and ‘drama’.

 

Decals and markings were improvised and come from the spares box, since I did not trust the vintage OOB decals - even though they are in so far nice that the sheet contains any major marking as well as a full set of letter so that an individual tail code could be created. Anyway, the model's real world benchmark did not carry any numeric or letter code, just Hinomaru in standard positions and a horizontal, white-and-red stripe on the fin.

 

The roundels actually belong to a JSDAF F-4EJ, some stencils come from a leftover Hobby Boss A6M sheet. The fin decoration was created with generic decal sheet material (TL Modellbau). Similar stuff was also used for the markings on the central float, as well as for the yellow ID markings on the inner wings' leading edges. I am just not certain whether the real aircraft carried them at all? But they were introduced with the new green upper surfaces in late 1942, so that they appear at least plausible. Another argument in this marking‘s favor is that it simply adds even more color to the model!

 

The cockpit interior was painted in a light khaki tone (a mix of Humbrol 159 and 94), while the flaps' interior was painted with Aodake Iro (an individual mix of acrylic aluminum and translucent teal paint). Lacking good reference material, the beaching trolley became IJA Green, with some good weathering with dry-brushed silver on the edges and traces of rust here and there (the latter created with artist acrylics.

 

Close to the (literal) finish line, some soot and oil stains were added with graphite and Tamiya's 'Smoke', and the kit finally received a coat of matt acrylic varnish (Italeri); to the varnish on the engine cover a bit of gloss varnish was added, for a sheen finish.

  

In the end, quite a challenging build. Not a winner, but …different. Concerning the LS Model kit as such, I must say that - despite its age of more than 50 years now - the A6M2-N model is still a worthwhile offer, if you invest some effort. Sure, there are certainly better 1:72 options available (e. g. the Hasegawa kit, its mould was created in 1995 and should be light years ahead concerning detail and fit. Not certain about the Revell/Frog and Jo-Han alternatives, though), but tackling this simple, vintage kit was fun in itself. And, based on what you get out of the little box, the result is not bad at all!

 

Beyond the technical aspects, I am also pleased with the visual result of the build. At first glance, this antiquity looks pretty convincing. And the disputable, strange lilac tone really makes this A6M2-N model …outstanding. Even though I still wonder what might have been the rationale behind this tone? The only thing I could imagine is a dedicated scheme for missions at dusk/dawn, similar to the pink RAF recce Spitfires in early WWII? It would be plausible, though, since the A6M2-Ns were tasked with nocturnal reconnoitre and ground attack missions.

Frame :*SURLY* low side (M) BLUE LUG CUSTOM

Headset :*CHRIS KING* nothreadset

Wheels :*VELOCITY* dually × *CHRIS KING* iso hub

Tire :*SURLY* dirt wizard

Handlebar :*SURLY* sunrise bar

Stem:*THOMSON* elite x4

Brake Lever :*PAUL* love lever compact

Brake :*PAUL* klamper disc calliper

Crank :*WHITE INDUSTRIES* eno single speed crank

Cog :*SURLY* singlespeed spacer kit & *SURLY* cassette cog

Grip : *ODI* vans waffle lock-on grip

Seat post:*THOMSON* elite setback seatpost

 

Some background:

The Nakajima A6M2-N (Navy Type 2 Interceptor/Fighter-Bomber) was a single-crew floatplane. The Allied reporting name for the aircraft was 'Rufe'.

 

The A6M2-N floatplane was developed mainly to support amphibious operations and defend remote bases. It was based on the Mitsubishi A6M-2 Model 11 fuselage, with a modified tail and added floats. Despite the large central float and wing pontoons, the A6M2-N was aerodynamically a very clean aircraft: compared with its land-based A6M2 cousin, its performance degraded only by about 20%, and for a contemporary single engine floatplane its performance was outstanding.

 

The aircraft was deployed in 1942, referred to as the "Suisen 2" ("Hydro fighter type 2"), and intended for interceptor, fighter-bomber, and short reconnaissance support for amphibious landings, among other uses. However, when confronted with the first generation of Allied fighters, the A6M2-N was no match in aerial combat and rather employed in supportive roles.

 

Effectively, the A6M2-N was mostly utilized in defensive actions in the Aleutians and Solomon Islands operations. They were used with good efficiency against Allied positions: marking patrol elements, aiding warship guns, engaging convoys, and reconnoitering areas over-the-horizon.

The A6M2-Ns were also effective in harassing American PT boats at night, and they could drop flares to illuminate the PTs which were vulnerable to destroyer gunfire, and depended on cover of darkness. However, when Allied fighter coverage became more numerous and effective, the value of the A6M2-N dwindled and losses began to naturally mount.

 

In the Aleutian Campaign this fighter engaged with RCAF Curtiss P-40, Lockheed P-38 Lightning fighters and Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress bombers, but the A6M2-N inventory suffered a severe setback when, on August 7th, 1942, a seaplane base was destroyed by Allied fighter-bombers, taking with it most of the available A6M2-Ns stationed there.

 

The seaplane also served in defense of fueling depots in Balikpapan and Avon Bases (Dutch East Indies) and reinforced the Shumushu base (North Kuriles) in the same period.

Beyond their use from dispersed and improvised bases, A6M2-N fighters also served aboard seaplane carriers Kamikawa Maru in the Solomons and Kuriles areas and aboard Japanese raiders Hokoku Maru and Aikoku Maru in Indian Ocean raids.

Later in the conflict the Otsu Air Group utilized the A6M2-N as an interceptor alongside Kawanishi N1K1 Kyofu ('Rex') aircraft based in Biwa lake in the Honshū area, defending the Japanese home land against Allied raids.

 

A total of 327 were built, including the original prototype, before being halted in September 1943.

The last A6M2-N in military service was a single example recovered by the French forces in Indochina after the end of World War II. It crashed shortly after being overhauled, though.

  

General characteristics:

Crew: 1 (Pilot)

Length: 10.10 m (33ft 1⅝ in)

Wingspan: 12.00 m (39 ft 4⅜ in)

Height: 4.30 m (14ft 1⅜ in)

Wing area: 22.44 m² (251.4 sq ft)

Empty weight: 1,912 kg (4,235 lb)

Loaded weight: 2,460 kg (5,423 lb)

Max. takeoff weight: 2,880 kg (6,349 lb)

 

Powerplant:

1× Nakajima NK1C Sakae 12 air cooled 14 cylinder radial engine,

delivering 950 hp (709 kW) at 4,200 m (13,800 ft)

 

Performance:

Maximum speed: 436 km/h (235 knots, 270.5 mph) at 5,000 m (16,400 ft)

Cruise speed: 296 km/h (160 knots, 184 mph)

Range: 1,782 km (963 nmi, 1,107 mi)

Service ceiling: 10,000 m (32,800 ft)

Climb rate: 6 min 43 s to 5,000 m (16,400 ft)

 

Armament:

2 × 7.7 mm Type 97 machine guns in forward fuselage

2 ×20 mm Type 99 cannons in outer wings

Underwing hardpoints for 2× 60 kg (132 lb) bombs

  

The kit and its assembly:

This is a real world model, despite the weird looks (see below), and an entry for the Arawasi blog's "Japanese Aircraft Online Model Contest 005 - Japanese Seaplanes & Flying Boats" contest in summer 2017. Even though whifs were allowed to enter, I used the opportunity to build a kit I had originally bought for a few bucks and stashed away in the donor bank: a vintage LS Model Nakajima A6M2-N.

 

The mould dates back to 1963(!), and the kit was re-issued several times, also under the ARII label. You get a tiny box, with only two sprues moulded in a pale baby blue, and the number of parts is minimal. It's truly vintage and pretty toylike at first sight. Consequently, you have to face some real old-school issues, e. g. moulded markings for the roundels on the wings, general mediocre fit of anything and lots of sinkholes and flash. Then there are toylike solutions like the single-piece propeller or separate, moveable ailerons with bulging joints.

 

The cockpit interior is non-existent, too: there's just a blank place for a dashboard (to be cut out from the printed BW instructions!), and a spindly pilot figure which is held in mid air by some pins. Furthermore, the kit was designed to take a small electric motor in the nose (sold separately) to drive the propeller. Wires, as well as respective internal ducts, and an AA battery holder are included.

 

Sounds scary? Well, maybe, if you just build it OOB. But all these flaws should not keep the ambitious modeler away because the LS Model kit is (still) a sound basis to start from, even though and by today's standards, it is certainly not a match-winner for a rivet counter-esque competition.

 

For its age and the typical solutions of its time, it is actually surprisingly good: you get very fine engraved surface details (more delicate than many contemporary moulds!), a pretty thin, three-piece clear (yet blurry) canopy and, as a bonus to the elevons, separate flaps – a unique detail I have never come across before! Proportions are IMHO good, even though the cowling looks a bit fishy and the engravings are rather soft and shallow. Anyway, on the exterior, there’s anything you can ask for to be found, and as another bonus the kit comes with a beaching trolley, which makes display and diorama fitting easier.

 

Thanks to the kit's simplicity, the build in itself was pretty straightforward and simple. Cleaning the parts and checking fit was the biggest issue. Upon gluing the old styrene showed signs of serious reaction to the dissolving effect of modern glue: it took ages for the material to cure and become hard again for further work!? Weird…

 

The many sinkholes and overall displacements were corrected with some NC putty/PSR, the protruding elevon/flap joints sanded away as good as possible, and due to the wobbly nature of the kit’s styrene I added blobs of 2C putty inside of the wing halves as stabilizers.

 

Some mods and improvements were made, though. After cleaning the OOB propeller from tons of flash the piece turned out to be pretty usable, and it was put on a metal axis. A styrene tube adapter was added behind the relatively flat engine dummy, so that the prop can spin freely – for the later beauty pics, because no CG effect beats IMHO the real thing.

 

A cockpit interior was created from scratch and donor parts, using the new Airfix A6M model's cockpit as benchmark. It’s not an exact replica, because not much would later be visible, but I wanted, as a minimum, “something” inside. A better pilot figure was used, too, and strapped to the new seat with thin strips of adhesive masking tape as seatbelts.

 

Under the wings, the hardpoints were simulated with some bits of styrene and wire as shackles, but left empty Under the stabilizer fin I added a lug(?), made from thin wire, too.

 

The elevons were fixed in place, the seams to the wings filled with white glue in order to conceal the gaps as good as possible. The movable flaps remained, though, adding life to the model. The dolly was also taken more or less OOB, since it fits well. I just improved it with some sinkhole fillings and some other details, including cushions on the float stabilizers, made from paper tissue soaked with thinned white glue, and a towing bar.

  

Painting and markings:

The reason why I settled for an A6M2-N is mostly the weird paint scheme which can be applied, while still being a real world model: a lilac livery!

 

As far as I could find out, the A6M2-Ns initially carried an all-over IJN Grey livery, which was later, in late 1942, modified with dark green upper sides for a better concealment on the ground, and the Hinomaru received white edges for better contrast.

Anyway, during the Aleutian campaign and more or less in between these two major standards, several aircraft must have received a special camouflage with lilac upper surfaces, and this model depicts such a machine, based on various profiles but no color picture as reliable reference.

 

The sources I consulted, as well as pictures of finished A6M2-N models, show a wide variety of shades and paint scheme layouts, though. Upper colors range from pale pink through more or less bright shades of purple to a pale, rusty-reddish brown (maybe primer?), while the undersides show a wide range of greys or even light blue. Some depictions of Aleutian A6M2-Ns as profile or model even show a uniform wraparound scheme! Choice is yours, obviously...

 

Because of the corny information basis, I did my personal interpretation of the subject. I based my livery more or less on a profile by Michele Marsan, published in Aerei Modelismo Anno XII (March 1991). The unit information was taken from there, too – the only source that would provide such a reference.

 

My idea behind the livery and the eventual finish was that the machine once was fully painted in IJN Grey. Then, the violet upper color was added in the field (for whatever reason?), resulting in a slightly shaggy look and with the light grey shining through here and there in areas of higher wear, e. g. at the leading edges, cockpit area and some seams.

 

Painting started with an initial coat of aluminum under the floats, around the cockpit and on the leading edges. Then the undersides and some areas of the upper surfaces were painted with IJN grey. The latter is an individual mix of Humbrol 90 (Beige Green/RAF Sky) and a bit of 155 (Olive Drab, FS 34087). On top of that I added a thin primer layer of mauve (mix of ModelMaster’s Napoleonic Violet and Neutral Grey, Humbrol 176) on the still vacant upper surfaces – both as a preparation for the later weathering treatments (see below).

 

The following, basic lilac tone comes from Humbrol’s long-gone "Authentics" enamel line. The tin is probably 30 years old, but the content is still alive (and still has a distinctive, sour stench…)! I cannot identify the tone anymore with certainty, but I guess that it is 'HJ 4: Mauve N 9', one of the line’s Japanese WWII tones which was later not carried over to the standard tones, still available today.

 

Anyway, the color is a dull, rather greyish violet, relatively dark (a bit like RAF Ocean Grey), and it fits well as a camouflage tone on this specific model. Since there’s no better alternative I could think of except for an individual mix or garish, off-the-rack pop art tones, I went with it.

 

After overall basic painting was done and thoroughly cured, weathering started with a careful wet sand paper treatment, removing the salt grain masks and revealing some of the lower IJN Grey and aluminum layers. While this appears messy, I found that the result looks more realistic than artificial weathering applied as paint effects on top of the basic paint.

 

The engine cowling was painted separately, with a mix of black and a little dark blue. The propeller received an aluminum spinner (Humbrol’s Matt Aluminum Metallizer), while the blades received aluminum front sides (Revell acrylics), and red brown (Humbrol 160) back sides. Two thin, red stripes decorate the propeller tips (Decals, left over from an AZ Model Ki-78, IIRC).

 

As a standard procedure, the kit received a light wash with thinned black ink, revealing the engraved panel lines, plus some post-shading in order to emphasize panels and add visual contrast and ‘drama’.

 

Decals and markings were improvised and come from the spares box, since I did not trust the vintage OOB decals - even though they are in so far nice that the sheet contains any major marking as well as a full set of letter so that an individual tail code could be created. Anyway, the model's real world benchmark did not carry any numeric or letter code, just Hinomaru in standard positions and a horizontal, white-and-red stripe on the fin.

 

The roundels actually belong to a JSDAF F-4EJ, some stencils come from a leftover Hobby Boss A6M sheet. The fin decoration was created with generic decal sheet material (TL Modellbau). Similar stuff was also used for the markings on the central float, as well as for the yellow ID markings on the inner wings' leading edges. I am just not certain whether the real aircraft carried them at all? But they were introduced with the new green upper surfaces in late 1942, so that they appear at least plausible. Another argument in this marking‘s favor is that it simply adds even more color to the model!

 

The cockpit interior was painted in a light khaki tone (a mix of Humbrol 159 and 94), while the flaps' interior was painted with Aodake Iro (an individual mix of acrylic aluminum and translucent teal paint). Lacking good reference material, the beaching trolley became IJA Green, with some good weathering with dry-brushed silver on the edges and traces of rust here and there (the latter created with artist acrylics.

 

Close to the (literal) finish line, some soot and oil stains were added with graphite and Tamiya's 'Smoke', and the kit finally received a coat of matt acrylic varnish (Italeri); to the varnish on the engine cover a bit of gloss varnish was added, for a sheen finish.

  

In the end, quite a challenging build. Not a winner, but …different. Concerning the LS Model kit as such, I must say that - despite its age of more than 50 years now - the A6M2-N model is still a worthwhile offer, if you invest some effort. Sure, there are certainly better 1:72 options available (e. g. the Hasegawa kit, its mould was created in 1995 and should be light years ahead concerning detail and fit. Not certain about the Revell/Frog and Jo-Han alternatives, though), but tackling this simple, vintage kit was fun in itself. And, based on what you get out of the little box, the result is not bad at all!

 

Beyond the technical aspects, I am also pleased with the visual result of the build. At first glance, this antiquity looks pretty convincing. And the disputable, strange lilac tone really makes this A6M2-N model …outstanding. Even though I still wonder what might have been the rationale behind this tone? The only thing I could imagine is a dedicated scheme for missions at dusk/dawn, similar to the pink RAF recce Spitfires in early WWII? It would be plausible, though, since the A6M2-Ns were tasked with nocturnal reconnoitre and ground attack missions.

A minor setback . . .

Frame: *CRUST BIKES* scapegoat

Wheel : *VELOCITY* blunt 35 rim × *SHUTTER PRECISION* pd-8x boost dynamo hub/*shimano* xt fh-m8010 boost hub

Tire: *wtb* ranger tire (27.5/2.8)

Handle:*nitto* m137ssb (sil/540)

Stem:*salsa* guide stem (60mm/6°/sil)

Grip:*velo orange* cru leather bartape (honey)

Saddle: *GILLES BERTHOUD* soulor leather saddle (cork)

Seat post: *thomson* elite setback seatpost (sil/31.6/440)

Pedal:*MKS* xc-iii pedal

Headset: *CHRIS KING* nothreadset 1 1/8 inch

Brake lever: *shimano* st-r7000 dual control lever

Crank:*shimano* FC-M8120-1 175mm

Rear derailleur:*shimano* grx 1x11s rd (rd-rx812) ltd

Rack:*nitto* rivendell basket rack rbw52f (silver) × *WALD* 139 basket

Light:*BUSCH+MULLER* lumotec dopp t senso plus

Bell:*KNOG* Oi luxe bell

Some background:

The Nakajima A6M2-N (Navy Type 2 Interceptor/Fighter-Bomber) was a single-crew floatplane. The Allied reporting name for the aircraft was 'Rufe'.

 

The A6M2-N floatplane was developed mainly to support amphibious operations and defend remote bases. It was based on the Mitsubishi A6M-2 Model 11 fuselage, with a modified tail and added floats. Despite the large central float and wing pontoons, the A6M2-N was aerodynamically a very clean aircraft: compared with its land-based A6M2 cousin, its performance degraded only by about 20%, and for a contemporary single engine floatplane its performance was outstanding.

 

The aircraft was deployed in 1942, referred to as the "Suisen 2" ("Hydro fighter type 2"), and intended for interceptor, fighter-bomber, and short reconnaissance support for amphibious landings, among other uses. However, when confronted with the first generation of Allied fighters, the A6M2-N was no match in aerial combat and rather employed in supportive roles.

 

Effectively, the A6M2-N was mostly utilized in defensive actions in the Aleutians and Solomon Islands operations. They were used with good efficiency against Allied positions: marking patrol elements, aiding warship guns, engaging convoys, and reconnoitering areas over-the-horizon.

The A6M2-Ns were also effective in harassing American PT boats at night, and they could drop flares to illuminate the PTs which were vulnerable to destroyer gunfire, and depended on cover of darkness. However, when Allied fighter coverage became more numerous and effective, the value of the A6M2-N dwindled and losses began to naturally mount.

 

In the Aleutian Campaign this fighter engaged with RCAF Curtiss P-40, Lockheed P-38 Lightning fighters and Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress bombers, but the A6M2-N inventory suffered a severe setback when, on August 7th, 1942, a seaplane base was destroyed by Allied fighter-bombers, taking with it most of the available A6M2-Ns stationed there.

 

The seaplane also served in defense of fueling depots in Balikpapan and Avon Bases (Dutch East Indies) and reinforced the Shumushu base (North Kuriles) in the same period.

Beyond their use from dispersed and improvised bases, A6M2-N fighters also served aboard seaplane carriers Kamikawa Maru in the Solomons and Kuriles areas and aboard Japanese raiders Hokoku Maru and Aikoku Maru in Indian Ocean raids.

Later in the conflict the Otsu Air Group utilized the A6M2-N as an interceptor alongside Kawanishi N1K1 Kyofu ('Rex') aircraft based in Biwa lake in the Honshū area, defending the Japanese home land against Allied raids.

 

A total of 327 were built, including the original prototype, before being halted in September 1943.

The last A6M2-N in military service was a single example recovered by the French forces in Indochina after the end of World War II. It crashed shortly after being overhauled, though.

  

General characteristics:

Crew: 1 (Pilot)

Length: 10.10 m (33ft 1⅝ in)

Wingspan: 12.00 m (39 ft 4⅜ in)

Height: 4.30 m (14ft 1⅜ in)

Wing area: 22.44 m² (251.4 sq ft)

Empty weight: 1,912 kg (4,235 lb)

Loaded weight: 2,460 kg (5,423 lb)

Max. takeoff weight: 2,880 kg (6,349 lb)

 

Powerplant:

1× Nakajima NK1C Sakae 12 air cooled 14 cylinder radial engine,

delivering 950 hp (709 kW) at 4,200 m (13,800 ft)

 

Performance:

Maximum speed: 436 km/h (235 knots, 270.5 mph) at 5,000 m (16,400 ft)

Cruise speed: 296 km/h (160 knots, 184 mph)

Range: 1,782 km (963 nmi, 1,107 mi)

Service ceiling: 10,000 m (32,800 ft)

Climb rate: 6 min 43 s to 5,000 m (16,400 ft)

 

Armament:

2 × 7.7 mm Type 97 machine guns in forward fuselage

2 ×20 mm Type 99 cannons in outer wings

Underwing hardpoints for 2× 60 kg (132 lb) bombs

  

The kit and its assembly:

This is a real world model, despite the weird looks (see below), and an entry for the Arawasi blog's "Japanese Aircraft Online Model Contest 005 - Japanese Seaplanes & Flying Boats" contest in summer 2017. Even though whifs were allowed to enter, I used the opportunity to build a kit I had originally bought for a few bucks and stashed away in the donor bank: a vintage LS Model Nakajima A6M2-N.

 

The mould dates back to 1963(!), and the kit was re-issued several times, also under the ARII label. You get a tiny box, with only two sprues moulded in a pale baby blue, and the number of parts is minimal. It's truly vintage and pretty toylike at first sight. Consequently, you have to face some real old-school issues, e. g. moulded markings for the roundels on the wings, general mediocre fit of anything and lots of sinkholes and flash. Then there are toylike solutions like the single-piece propeller or separate, moveable ailerons with bulging joints.

 

The cockpit interior is non-existent, too: there's just a blank place for a dashboard (to be cut out from the printed BW instructions!), and a spindly pilot figure which is held in mid air by some pins. Furthermore, the kit was designed to take a small electric motor in the nose (sold separately) to drive the propeller. Wires, as well as respective internal ducts, and an AA battery holder are included.

 

Sounds scary? Well, maybe, if you just build it OOB. But all these flaws should not keep the ambitious modeler away because the LS Model kit is (still) a sound basis to start from, even though and by today's standards, it is certainly not a match-winner for a rivet counter-esque competition.

 

For its age and the typical solutions of its time, it is actually surprisingly good: you get very fine engraved surface details (more delicate than many contemporary moulds!), a pretty thin, three-piece clear (yet blurry) canopy and, as a bonus to the elevons, separate flaps – a unique detail I have never come across before! Proportions are IMHO good, even though the cowling looks a bit fishy and the engravings are rather soft and shallow. Anyway, on the exterior, there’s anything you can ask for to be found, and as another bonus the kit comes with a beaching trolley, which makes display and diorama fitting easier.

 

Thanks to the kit's simplicity, the build in itself was pretty straightforward and simple. Cleaning the parts and checking fit was the biggest issue. Upon gluing the old styrene showed signs of serious reaction to the dissolving effect of modern glue: it took ages for the material to cure and become hard again for further work!? Weird…

 

The many sinkholes and overall displacements were corrected with some NC putty/PSR, the protruding elevon/flap joints sanded away as good as possible, and due to the wobbly nature of the kit’s styrene I added blobs of 2C putty inside of the wing halves as stabilizers.

 

Some mods and improvements were made, though. After cleaning the OOB propeller from tons of flash the piece turned out to be pretty usable, and it was put on a metal axis. A styrene tube adapter was added behind the relatively flat engine dummy, so that the prop can spin freely – for the later beauty pics, because no CG effect beats IMHO the real thing.

 

A cockpit interior was created from scratch and donor parts, using the new Airfix A6M model's cockpit as benchmark. It’s not an exact replica, because not much would later be visible, but I wanted, as a minimum, “something” inside. A better pilot figure was used, too, and strapped to the new seat with thin strips of adhesive masking tape as seatbelts.

 

Under the wings, the hardpoints were simulated with some bits of styrene and wire as shackles, but left empty Under the stabilizer fin I added a lug(?), made from thin wire, too.

 

The elevons were fixed in place, the seams to the wings filled with white glue in order to conceal the gaps as good as possible. The movable flaps remained, though, adding life to the model. The dolly was also taken more or less OOB, since it fits well. I just improved it with some sinkhole fillings and some other details, including cushions on the float stabilizers, made from paper tissue soaked with thinned white glue, and a towing bar.

  

Painting and markings:

The reason why I settled for an A6M2-N is mostly the weird paint scheme which can be applied, while still being a real world model: a lilac livery!

 

As far as I could find out, the A6M2-Ns initially carried an all-over IJN Grey livery, which was later, in late 1942, modified with dark green upper sides for a better concealment on the ground, and the Hinomaru received white edges for better contrast.

Anyway, during the Aleutian campaign and more or less in between these two major standards, several aircraft must have received a special camouflage with lilac upper surfaces, and this model depicts such a machine, based on various profiles but no color picture as reliable reference.

 

The sources I consulted, as well as pictures of finished A6M2-N models, show a wide variety of shades and paint scheme layouts, though. Upper colors range from pale pink through more or less bright shades of purple to a pale, rusty-reddish brown (maybe primer?), while the undersides show a wide range of greys or even light blue. Some depictions of Aleutian A6M2-Ns as profile or model even show a uniform wraparound scheme! Choice is yours, obviously...

 

Because of the corny information basis, I did my personal interpretation of the subject. I based my livery more or less on a profile by Michele Marsan, published in Aerei Modelismo Anno XII (March 1991). The unit information was taken from there, too – the only source that would provide such a reference.

 

My idea behind the livery and the eventual finish was that the machine once was fully painted in IJN Grey. Then, the violet upper color was added in the field (for whatever reason?), resulting in a slightly shaggy look and with the light grey shining through here and there in areas of higher wear, e. g. at the leading edges, cockpit area and some seams.

 

Painting started with an initial coat of aluminum under the floats, around the cockpit and on the leading edges. Then the undersides and some areas of the upper surfaces were painted with IJN grey. The latter is an individual mix of Humbrol 90 (Beige Green/RAF Sky) and a bit of 155 (Olive Drab, FS 34087). On top of that I added a thin primer layer of mauve (mix of ModelMaster’s Napoleonic Violet and Neutral Grey, Humbrol 176) on the still vacant upper surfaces – both as a preparation for the later weathering treatments (see below).

 

The following, basic lilac tone comes from Humbrol’s long-gone "Authentics" enamel line. The tin is probably 30 years old, but the content is still alive (and still has a distinctive, sour stench…)! I cannot identify the tone anymore with certainty, but I guess that it is 'HJ 4: Mauve N 9', one of the line’s Japanese WWII tones which was later not carried over to the standard tones, still available today.

 

Anyway, the color is a dull, rather greyish violet, relatively dark (a bit like RAF Ocean Grey), and it fits well as a camouflage tone on this specific model. Since there’s no better alternative I could think of except for an individual mix or garish, off-the-rack pop art tones, I went with it.

 

After overall basic painting was done and thoroughly cured, weathering started with a careful wet sand paper treatment, removing the salt grain masks and revealing some of the lower IJN Grey and aluminum layers. While this appears messy, I found that the result looks more realistic than artificial weathering applied as paint effects on top of the basic paint.

 

The engine cowling was painted separately, with a mix of black and a little dark blue. The propeller received an aluminum spinner (Humbrol’s Matt Aluminum Metallizer), while the blades received aluminum front sides (Revell acrylics), and red brown (Humbrol 160) back sides. Two thin, red stripes decorate the propeller tips (Decals, left over from an AZ Model Ki-78, IIRC).

 

As a standard procedure, the kit received a light wash with thinned black ink, revealing the engraved panel lines, plus some post-shading in order to emphasize panels and add visual contrast and ‘drama’.

 

Decals and markings were improvised and come from the spares box, since I did not trust the vintage OOB decals - even though they are in so far nice that the sheet contains any major marking as well as a full set of letter so that an individual tail code could be created. Anyway, the model's real world benchmark did not carry any numeric or letter code, just Hinomaru in standard positions and a horizontal, white-and-red stripe on the fin.

 

The roundels actually belong to a JSDAF F-4EJ, some stencils come from a leftover Hobby Boss A6M sheet. The fin decoration was created with generic decal sheet material (TL Modellbau). Similar stuff was also used for the markings on the central float, as well as for the yellow ID markings on the inner wings' leading edges. I am just not certain whether the real aircraft carried them at all? But they were introduced with the new green upper surfaces in late 1942, so that they appear at least plausible. Another argument in this marking‘s favor is that it simply adds even more color to the model!

 

The cockpit interior was painted in a light khaki tone (a mix of Humbrol 159 and 94), while the flaps' interior was painted with Aodake Iro (an individual mix of acrylic aluminum and translucent teal paint). Lacking good reference material, the beaching trolley became IJA Green, with some good weathering with dry-brushed silver on the edges and traces of rust here and there (the latter created with artist acrylics.

 

Close to the (literal) finish line, some soot and oil stains were added with graphite and Tamiya's 'Smoke', and the kit finally received a coat of matt acrylic varnish (Italeri); to the varnish on the engine cover a bit of gloss varnish was added, for a sheen finish.

  

In the end, quite a challenging build. Not a winner, but …different. Concerning the LS Model kit as such, I must say that - despite its age of more than 50 years now - the A6M2-N model is still a worthwhile offer, if you invest some effort. Sure, there are certainly better 1:72 options available (e. g. the Hasegawa kit, its mould was created in 1995 and should be light years ahead concerning detail and fit. Not certain about the Revell/Frog and Jo-Han alternatives, though), but tackling this simple, vintage kit was fun in itself. And, based on what you get out of the little box, the result is not bad at all!

 

Beyond the technical aspects, I am also pleased with the visual result of the build. At first glance, this antiquity looks pretty convincing. And the disputable, strange lilac tone really makes this A6M2-N model …outstanding. Even though I still wonder what might have been the rationale behind this tone? The only thing I could imagine is a dedicated scheme for missions at dusk/dawn, similar to the pink RAF recce Spitfires in early WWII? It would be plausible, though, since the A6M2-Ns were tasked with nocturnal reconnoitre and ground attack missions.

The Quartier Gratte-ciel ("Skyscraper quarter") in Villeurbanne, Lyon is a 1930's model city, conceived in parallel with (and inspired by) the contemporary work of Tony Garnier in Lyon (in continuation of his theoretical work "La Cité Industrielle").

 

Built in 1927-34 around the central Avenue Henri Barbusse, it presents clear references to the american example of zoning-law and setbacks, and at the same time a different approach to the modern collective housing efforts of the epoch.

 

Including a monumental city hall, and a "worker's palace" (today turned into a theatre), the complex still today offers a remarkably strong urbanism, attractive environment and public life.

 

Architects: Môrice Leroux (masterplan, worker's palace), Robert Giroud (city hall).

Biography

Hello! My name is Marilyn R. (Meier) O’Brien. My life’s story is reflected in all of my artwork. By sharing with you a bit about my story I believe I can offer you a better understanding of my work.

 

I grew up in Madison and New Glarus, Wisconsin in the 1960’s with my mom, dad, brothers and sisters. I developed my interest in art at a young age. It started with photography.

 

When I was about 13, I had finally saved enough money to purchase a Brownie camera. People always saw me carrying it around, looking for just the right moment for a special photograph. I still have that old camera, but it’s been tucked away because it is really old and very fragile.

 

I was in love with the world in those days! I loved to express myself through my photography. My father (August Meier) used to wait until I left for school, then he would surprise me by having laminated some of the pictures I had taken. I still carry some of those pictures around with me today. In fact, it makes me smile now, to think how my father enjoyed his daughter’s talent. It formed a very special bond between the two of us.

 

My father died when I was 21. Sadly, he never saw me paint. I am just grateful that he and I were able to share my love for photography when I was younger!

 

My artistic talent began to blossom in high school, where my English teacher, Pat Van Dyke, discovered my artistic abilities, and encouraged me to pursue them.

 

After that, I went to school at the UW-Madison. I was under total discipline there, which I did not like at all. I should also mention that my father was very ill at that time, and I worried about him to distraction. Despite these setbacks, I took some very challenging courses. I think my most challenging, and, in my opinion, my best piece of work was a self-portrait. I received an “A+” for that work! Also, now that I am older, I really can appreciate the guidance of Professor Steven French. He using Leonardo da Vince as an example. He had placed a sheet draped in front of the class to place shadows on it to understand the value of shadows in art. I received an "A" on that. It makes me smile when I think of how intensely I was working on it and didn't notice he was behind me until he gave me a compliment on my work and I "jumped-a-mile". I loved those days also.

 

I also attended many art classes at Madison Area Technical College (MATC) in Madison, Wisconsin.

 

I thoroughly enjoyed the artistic classes I was able to attend. Among them, Mr. Steven French’s Art Class, now Professor French, was one of many favorites. History was another favorite class. (Regretfully, I lost a set of beautiful National Geographic Society Art History books many years ago when my home was flooded. To my great dismay, I have been unable to replace them!)

 

I found many creative outlets to express my artistic talents throughout my life. At one point I wanted to be an interior designer. I decorated my first efficiency apartment and was then asked to decorate other homes. Unfortunately, my schedule was too full at the time, so I was unable to do so. Decorating is a hobby that I still enjoy very much.

 

I have always been a bit of a movie buff. I’ve been known to see a movie 100 times so that I can appreciate every detail. After the first viewing, I love to focus on the rich detail of one artistic element at a time – the setting, the lighting, subtleties of the actors, their accents, and so on. The movie, “Gone with the Wind” was one of many favorites!

 

Dancing was another enjoyable outlet for my creativity, and I danced for “Arthur Murray” for a while. I was chosen to travel with the personal instructor as a dancer, but ultimately I chose to turn it down for my state position. I fondly reminisce on those days of dancing, as I’m physically no longer able to dance since my accidents. I intend to dancing again one day soon.

 

Art wasn’t the focus of my career when I started with the State of Wisconsin in various administrative positions, but it did find its way in. I naturally gravitated towards numerous creative projects, including everything from decorating drab bulletin boards to decorating the Christmas trees for two state buildings and the Capitol Christmas rotunda tree. I was also chosen to decorate the Lobby of the GEF II bulletin for the Department of Administration. One person told me she just stood and looked in awe at the beauty of it.

 

I was also proud when my paintings were chosen for exhibit at the Wisconsin Arts Board for three State Office Buildings. I smile when I think back to one particularly funny incident in which I was contacted by the Capitol Police department. One of the officers phoned me to say how frustrated he was with me, because someone had tried to ‘borrow’ one of my Elvis portraits, and since then, the security staff were forced to guard it 24 hours a day! Fortunately for me, they did their job well. In the end, I got back every single portrait!

 

I had started painting in 1965 because I was unable to get past the grief of my father’s death. His passing was almost unbearable. As a form of therapy, I painted a portrait of him. I had to release grief, although I still grieve even now; but I was able to pour my feelings into his portrait. The astonishment on people’s faces when they saw that portrait gave me the encouragement to keep painting.

 

I also found support in church. One Saturday evening I stopped in at Bethel Lutheran Church in Madison, Wisconsin, and heard Senior Pastor William “Bill” White speak. He is so passionate, in depth, real, warm, welcoming, and witty with such wisdom throughout his sermon that I returned many, many times after that. He unknowingly convinced my heart and soul that I had a reason to make my soul survive; my journey wasn't over. My next, after 13 years unable to paint was painting of "Pastor Bill", and it took me a whole year to complete it.

 

My mom (Selma Johnson Meier) was also tremendously supportive! She was my best friend, and she was also my greatest critic! She was wonderful at pointing out the things she liked in my art, and areas where she felt I should do more work. She also provided wonderful encouragement as she helped me find places to show my paintings.

 

For my mother’s 75th birthday I embroidered on a quilt for her. It was my first attempt at embroidery. It took me three months, but I embroidered every person she had ever worked for and then threw a quilt party for her and invited every person on the quilt. The house over-flowed with people. She was quite surprised and I gave her the album in which I took pictures of that birthday and gave them to her for “Mother’s Day” that year.

 

My mom and dad were so very special to me!

 

I have been through quite a bit of trauma in my life. I’m sure that you will understand the depths of this website and of my work if you’ve been through major trauma in your life as well.

 

Mine started with the terrible loss of my grandfather at my age of 13, my father then my sweet daughter, Robin Lyn. I have grieved for her for such a long time until I found “The Compassionate Friends”. She was 4 months old when she passed away. There will always be a very special place for her in my heart.

 

I also have a step-son, Christopher Thomas, who was taken covertly from me when he was only 8 years old. I was not his mother, and I had no leverage to get him back. I have been searching for him ever since, although to no avail. I came as close as his Great-Aunt, Sophie Roehner in Chicago. For some reason, she couldn’t give me his address. She then passed of cancer just six months later. How I long for the day when I might see Christopher again! I miss him so! He is Robin Lyn’s half-brother.

 

My next incident was a long, drawn out ordeal relating to workplace violence, including sexual harassment, gender discrimination and retaliation. I found hope through a very good human resource coordinator and through Women Ending Abuse Via Empowerment (WEAVE). And then the untimely death of my beloved mom to whom I was her care person. That was before that term existed.

 

Shortly after that, I tore my rotator cuff in 1993 during a bad fall. Much therapy and several operations later, my injury was set back even further in 2001 when my small car was rear-ended and totaled by a 10,000 pound truck. I was left with whiplash and severe injuries to my hand and foot. Fortunately, I found a wonderful Chiropractor, Dr. Ron Inda of Madison, Wisconsin. He never lost faith in my ability to restore feeling back into various parts of my body. If it weren’t for him and my own therapy, I know I wouldn’t be painting today!

 

I can now paint for short periods at a time before tremendous pain consumes me again. I have two numb fingers on my right-hand, and electric shocks jolt up my hand and through my shoulder frequently. My dominant right-hand, fingers, shoulder and neck burn constantly. My right middle finger goes out of joint when I paint, but Dr. Inda readjusts it. I am told by a hand specialist that I have a lesion on my brain and the nerves are trying to connect that is what causes the shocks, at never a given time up my hand. They may or may not connect but with my attitude and spirit...who knows.

 

I also get migraine headaches from trauma or (PTSS) of the office violence I endured every day for 4 years with the State of Wisconsin when I refused to "sleep" with my first-line supervisor when I overdo any activity, but I forge ahead as best as I can. I have been told by my doctors that I will most likely be physically disabled for the rest of my life – but I don’t believe that!

 

Now I get head pain from my recent "closed-brain injury" of 03/06/07. I still forge ahead but I am trying to learn how to pace myself.

 

The medication I am on keeps my working hours to a minimum. With Dr. Inda’s fine chiropractic skills, I am hoping to regain the use of my hand, arm and shoulder, and am hoping to put an end to the migraine headaches although we have to wait now until my "closed-brain injury" heals more.

 

My mom’s death in 1989 was also very traumatic for me. The distress from the loss of my mother, coupled with depression from being forced out of my State position after 29 years of devoted hard work, derailed my painting for 13 years. Before she passed away, my mother had asked me to come live with her for companionship. I cared of her for four years after she broke her hip, and the doctors told me that I increased her lifespan by at least 12-18 months. I wish everyone could know as did Mrs. Victor (Ruth) Buckles, Faith (Wittwer)Reider and, as my mother did, that I did the very best I could for her in every way possible.

 

There is more to my life story, but some is very personal and too sensitive to share at this time.

 

The Lord knows I have survived almost too much for one person to humanely endure in my short life. Even so, I know in my heart that He has provided tremendous blessing even in the midst of my sorrows. That’s why I think I have survived.

 

Several people have provided such encouragement to me that I feel I really should tell you about them.

 

Dr. Ron Inda, my Chiropractor, located in Madison has never given up on me. I know that I would not be painting today if it were not for his care and treatment. He is an excellent holistic-chiropractic doctor and a wonderful source of encouragement!

 

As I mentioned above, Senior Pastor William “Bill” White of Bethel Lutheran Church in Madison provided much encouragement. Reverend Hulse of the Bashford Methodist Church, and Reverend Schumacher formerly of St. John’s Lutheran Church, and Father Michael (Mick) Moon(as he prefers to be called) of the Holy Redeemer Catholic Church, all of Madison, also provided great comfort and support along the way.

 

My brother, John Warren (Warrenie to me; an endearment) Meier, and his wife Rae have also been wonderful advocates of my artwork. I’d also like to mention my brother, Herb Meier, who asked me to do a painting for him, as well.

 

I must also mention my wonderful friend, Terry Pergande, who has been like a brother to me. His parents had passed away when he was very young, and my mom and dad welcomed him into our family with open arms. Terry tells me that I should be a motivational speaker, but I prefer to let my art do that, i.e., speak-for-me. Terry is one of my wonderful critics.

 

I had the total kindness, professionalism, compassion, artistic ability of a young gentlemen who took it upon himself at the beginning of my brochures for advertisement of my work with dedication to his craft, Erich Mann, who works at Office Depot on Madison, Wisconsin.

 

David Ott, my cousin, proprieter of “Ott To Recover”, an antique shop in Monticello, Wisconsin, has displayed prints of my paintings in his store. He is a talented framer, and has done some excellent framing work in the past with Kris Broderick. I would recommend that you visit his antique store if you are ever in town. He is a delightful person!

 

Scott and Jeff from Tony’s Litho Printing, and Keith and Trevor from A&C Supply along with Florence Deese have become faithful critics, as well. I appreciate their eyes for art, and they always have some creative feedback when I bring my paintings to them.

 

My dear friends, Mr. and Mrs. Slava (Larisa) Ivlev and their lovely daughter Olga have become like family to me in the true sense of the word. They are from Russia, and have had to leave the U.S. because of our immigration rules. It seems unfair to me that such kind, good, fair, and industrious people are made to leave while other individuals are allowed to stay. The Ivlevs are now in Canada. Before they left I gave them their pick of a print from my artwork. I wish them well there, and I think about them often! But, now, I have my art work in Canada.

 

My friends, Jack (ie), Susie, Ginny, Ann, Florence, Judy, Kathy, my childhood friend Patricia, and so many others are very diversified and are a breath-of-fresh-air to me. They cheer me on with their love and support, and give me a place to release the pressure of being “too artist”.

 

God Bless those who believe in me, and especially the memory of my mom and dad who were my best friends, and also my sister Alice who passed of breast cancer so very young. I wear a bracelet and have been a spokesperson for breast cancer. Each of these beautiful people were taken so untimely. They were so very special to me!!

 

May my art continue to be an outlet for my happy, positive feelings. I know that I am very blessed, and my greatest hope is that you will find beauty and whimsy in my work that may bring a smile to your face and lift your heart.

 

I hope you enjoy my Gallery. Right now there is a 1/2 price sale on.

 

I must tell you all I have just suffered a major automobile accident 03/06/07 and I have a closed head injury. I will do my very best to keep up with my shop and everyone as much as I can because I do not want to let anyone nor myself down but right now I have to slow down a bit for a few months to heal. Thank you all for understanding. I am grateful. Of course, I will keep you updated and I hope for a speedy recovery.

 

My beloved brother passed away 11/16/07 and we buried him 11/20/07. I am in deep grief but I am going on the best I can with my shop.

 

Thank you for understanding. It is appreciated.

 

Have a beautiful day.

 

Marilyn of Art By Marilyn

 

Buy my art at Imagekind!

Introductory notes here.

 

Porsche being readied during the Killarney Historic Race Day.

 

Nine five six. Of all the numbers that define Porsche’s phenomenal record in motorsport, this one is arguably the most remarkable. It belongs to the car that did it all for Porsche when, after the FIA’s radical re-writing of the World Endurance Championship rules in 1982, there was everything to do. It did it all for Derek Bell, too. ‘What can I say about the car that set me up for life?’ the five-times Le Mans winner told us when we spoke to him shortly after this studio shoot. Quite a lot, as it turned out.

 

Porsche had dominated international sportscar racing through the second half of the ’70s but, at the end of the ’81 season, the 935 and 936 that had been virtually untouchable in the Group 5 and Group 6 classes were rendered obsolete overnight by the new system of Group A, B and C classes. Groups A and B required a limited production run for eligibility but Group C was for prototypes regulated by a set of dimensions and, more controversially, the amount of fuel that could be used per race, effectively capping the engine’s performance potential.

 

Some manufacturers might have regarded this as a setback but Porsche, not untypically, saw it as an opportunity to pull further ahead of the opposition. The 956 was the first all-new Porsche racer in over a decade and, apart from sharing its turbocharged, aluminium flat-six engine, marked a dramatic departure from the 936, parts of which dated back to the late ’60s.

 

It wasn’t just the new aluminium monocoque, with its front and rear subframes, that set the 956 apart, since much of the competition had moved to a monocoque structure as well. What made the difference was Porsche’s attention to detail, especially in aerodynamics. The rear coil-spring/damper units for the all-round double wishbone suspension, for instance, were mounted on top of the gearbox to keep them out of the airflow. Where Porsche levered in a real advantage, though, was with ground effects. The new Group C cars would be allowed to have some ground effect but, to prevent this becoming extreme, the regulations stated that between the front and rear axles the bottom of each car should be completely flat. They didn’t stipulate what should happen behind that. So Porsche fitted the 956 with large venturis (air tunnels) starting just behind the mandatory flat section and angled steeply back through the tail as they passed alongside the slightly upwardly-tilted flat-six engine and five-speed gearbox. In conjunction with the simple but effective Kevlar-reinforced plastic body, the 956 generated over three times more downforce than the 917, making it the first true ground-effects Porsche.

 

The 956 was designed and built by Porsche System at Zuffenhausen under the guidance of Norbert Singer. To improve fuel consumption, its 2649cc flat-six engine ran smaller turbos than in the ’81 936, with the boost set at a relatively modest 1.1 bar, but it still developed 620bhp in race trim. From the outset, the objective was to win Le Mans but it was agreed that 1982 was to be a development year for the car. Derek Bell recalls the first race, the Six Hours at Silverstone: ‘Everyone asks if it was a job coming to terms with ground effect, and I have to say I didn’t really notice it unduly. You gradually went faster and faster. And then you stopped and someone else drove for an hour and so on. I think the fact we were doing a shakedown – just five laps and in – meant we never got round to feeling tired.

 

‘But the car itself was just phenomenal. When we went to that first race in May at Silverstone, Jackie (Ickx) went out and did a 1:15.3 or something, which put us on pole, about a second ahead of the Group 6 Lancias. And then, on race morning, [director of racing] Peter Falk came up to me and said “you are not going to win the race”. And this coming from Porsche – usually so quietly confident. I asked what he meant, and he said “well, we didn’t calculate on the fuel”.

 

‘Jackie had never done a fuel stint before. Nor had I. So he went out and did the first hour and then came in and Falk said to me, ‘Derek, you’ll have to start lapping in 1:21s or you’ll run out of fuel’. So I’m cruising round Silverstone in fifth gear and downshifting for the chicane and Becketts, just to try and salvage a position at all. It was the most desperate way to go racing and I was very outspoken afterwards. It was never really written that Porsche had made “a bit of an error”, only that it used the race to “calibrate fuel consumption”. And, of course, they soon got it right. But, at that point, it was a major cock-up. With hindsight, of course, it was an outstanding FIA regulation. It helped cause one of the very rare spin-offs from motor racing that goes into road cars. It improved fuel consumption by 20 per cent. Instead of 4mpg we got 5.’

 

After that early mistake and defeat by the quick but frequently unreliable Lancias, the 956, Ickx and Bell hardly ever looked back. In the following four years, the 956 notched up four consecutive outright victories at the Le Mans 24 Hours and dominated international sportscar racing. As well as speed and reliability, the 956 also had numbers on its side. A total of ten works cars was supplemented by no fewer than 16 sold to private teams.

 

The IMSA GTP championship in the USA was also a natural battleground for the 956, being all but identical to Group C. Where it differed was in its stricter pedal-box regulations, of which the 956 fell foul. So Porsche took the next evolutionary step, the 962, which went on to dominate IMSA and also won Le Mans twice more, extending Porsche’s unbeaten run to six. (There was another win, too, in 1994, for the Dauer 962.)

 

But what was the 956/62 like to drive in the heat of battle? A brutal workout by reputation. Bell again: ‘I mean, we had no power steering. Whenever it got pushed back into the garage I literally had to slip my seat belts, lean forward and grab the wheel, with my chest against it, just to turn it. The effort was massive. Of course at the time I didn’t know any different because I hadn’t driven anything with power steering. And on a warm day it could reach 150 degrees in the cabin. It was very, very debilitating, to be honest. So consequently, during a 24-hour race, you got exhausted.

 

‘But it was the most fantastic car to attack with. The handling balance was mild understeer developing to a touch of oversteer when the power really came on, because you basically had a solid rear diff. And later, with 800 horsepower, the car could drift a bit.’

 

It could also lap the Nürburgring faster than anything else. The late Stefan Bellof’s time of 6 minutes 11 seconds has never been bettered and still amazes Bell, who knows as well as anyone what a handful the 956 could be at the Ring: ‘We should never have gone there with the 956 but it was the last year and I was excited about going there because I was always quick at the Ring. Anyway, we went out and the car would grip the road and then you’d come to a little bump or a knoll and the whole thing would break away and you’d go up in the air – it felt like about six feet. It would grip, grip, grip then bang, it would break away. It was hideous. And I’ll never forget the bit up from where Niki Lauda had his terrible crash, the long hill after Adenau Bridge. You went all the way up the hill tacking like a yacht. It was quite unbelievable. It gripped and banged and gripped and banged and you’d go “oh my god” and your head was up bashing the roof.

 

‘Stefan was amazing. I must never take away what he did. That was uninhibited youth. He was flying, completely in control of what he was doing, although he was a bit out of control in his mind, charming and lovely kid as he was. I always felt he needed someone to control him. He was a wonderful talent and he needed to be nurtured, he needed to be controlled – and he would have been magnificent.’[http://www.evo.co.uk/features/features/223494/porsche_956.html]

{the only porsche in Trust livery I can find on the interweb is a model of a 962 . . . I know they're very similar . . . how do you tell the one from the other?}

  

+++ DISCLAIMER +++

Nothing you see here is real, even though the conversion or the presented background story might be based historical facts. BEWARE!

  

Some background:

The Israel Aircraft Industries Nesher (Hebrew: נשר, "Vulture" - often mistranslated as "Eagle") is the Israeli version of the Dassault Mirage 5 multi-role fighter aircraft. Most were later sold to the Argentine Air Force as Daggers, and later upgraded as Fingers.

 

Israel had to replace more than 60 aircraft lost during the Six Day War and the War of Attrition which followed. Before the war, Israel began co-development with Dassault to build the Mirage 5 and it was eventually built by Israel and named Raam in Hebrew (thunder).

 

Dassault Aviation had developed the Mirage 5 at the request of the Israelis, who were the main foreign customers of the Mirage III. The Israeli Air Force (IAF) wanted the next version to have less all-weather capability in exchange for improved ordnance carrying capacity and range as the weather in the Middle East is mostly clear.

 

In January 1969, the French government arms embargo on Israel (in response to the 1968 Israeli raid on Lebanon) prevented the first 30 Mirage 5 aircraft (which were already paid for by Israel) plus optional 20 from being delivered and cut off support for the existing Mirage IIICJ fleet.

 

This was a setback for the Israeli Air Force, who needed the new Mirage to compensate for the losses of the Six Day War and was still using the Mirage IIIC. Israel then decided to produce the (Raam A and B project)[1] airframes as it had the necessary plans, although Israel did not officially obtain a manufacturing license.

 

Officially, Israel built the aircraft after obtaining a complete set of drawings. However, some sources claim Israel received 50 Mirage 5s in crates from the French Air Force (AdA), while the AdA took over the 50 aircraft originally intended for Israel.

 

Production began in 1969[5] with the first empty airframes with no weapons, electronics, seat, or engine included, delivered directly from Dassault Aviation. The first Raam A was delivered in May, 1971. In November, 1971 the plane was renamed Nesher.

 

The Neshers' airframe was identical to the Mirage 5, but there was an extensive refitting of Israeli avionics, a Martin-Baker zero-zero ejection seat, and improved provisions for a wider range of AAMs (Air-to-Air Missiles), including the Israeli Shafrir heat-seeking missile.The Nesher had simpler avionics than the Mirage IIIC but was slightly less maneuverable. However, it had longer range and bigger payload. The reduced maneuverability did not prevent the Nesher from performing well in air combat during the Yom Kippur war (see below).

 

The first Nesher prototype flew in September 1969, with production deliveries to the IAF beginning in May 1971 at Hatzor in May of 1971, with veteran test pilot Danny Shapira at the controls. In the months that followed, additional Nesher planes equipped this squadron, making up for the insufficient number of Mirage IIIs and raising the number of serviceable planes in the squadron. When the rate of production picked up at the Nesher assembly line at IAI, two new squadrons could be established, based solely on the Neshers. The first new squadron inaugurated 'Etzion Airbase at 'Bik'at Hayareakh' ('Valley of the Moon') near Eilat, in September of 1972, and the second was founded in March of 1973 at Hatzor.

 

When the Yom Kippur War broke out, in October of 1973, the IAF had 40 Nesher planes in its ranks, serving in the First Combat Squadron and in the two new squadrons.

Although they were originally intended for attack missions, in the course of the war the Neshers were primarily used in air-to-air combat. The IAF command decided to use the Phantoms, Skyhawks and Sa'ars against ground targets, and assigned the Mirages and Neshers the task of fighting enemy aircraft and establishing air superiority over the battle zones.

 

The Neshers proved to be good fighters and overcame their adversaries (MiGs and Sukhois) with relative ease. The first aerial victory of a Nesher took place on January 8, 1973, when 4 Neshers from the "First Fighter" squadron escorted F-4 Phantoms into Syria to attack a terrorist base. In an engagement with Syrian MiG-21s, 6 MiGs were shot down, two by the Neshers.

 

Neshers also took part in the Yom Kippur conflict later that year. One of the first air victoriy of the war was not an aircraft but an AS-5 Kelt air to ground missile launched against Tel-Aviv by an Egyptian Tu-16 Badger on the first day of the war, October 6th, 1973.

When Libyan Mirage 5s entered the fighting all Israeli Mirages and Neshers were marked with large yellow triangles bordered by a thick black frame to prevent a case of mistaken identity. At least two Mirage 5s were shot down by Neshers, as well as an Israeli Phantom shot down by mistake, the navigator and the pilot, a former Nesher squadron commander, parachuting to safety.

 

According to the statistics published after the war, there were 117 dogfights in the course of the Yom Kippur War (65 over Syria and 52 over Egypt). 227 enemy planes were shot down in these confrontations, and only six Israeli planes were shot down (they had been on interception missions, and were either hit by cannon fire or by sirface-to-air missiles). The Nesher squadron from Etzion was one of the leading squadrons, tallying 42 kills without a single plane lost.

 

The Neshers did not just go out on interception missions: they also carried out several attack sorties in the Golan Heights and on the southern front. The action was intense, with every pilot carrying out numerous sorties every day.

 

The war proved just how vital the Nesher's reinforcement of the IAF's order of battle had been, and convinced the defense community of the importance of continuing to develop fighters in the IAI. In 1975 the first Kfirs entered service, and the Nesher was gradually relegated to a less central role. All the Neshers were concentrated in two squadrons, and were transferred - in late 1976 - to Eitam Airbase, whicch had been newly dedicated in the northern Sinai.

 

Nesher production ended in February 1974 after fifty-one fighters (Nesher S) and ten Nesher two-seat trainers (Nesher T), and the type did not serve long with the IAF. In the late 70's there were already enough Kfirs in the IAF for completely replacing the Mirages and Neshers.

 

The Kfir was a significantly more advanced plane than the Nesher, boasting better performance as well as more sophisticated systems, and upgrading the Neshers was not deemed to be a worthwhile investment.

In 1981, the Kfir had supplanted the Nesher in Heyl Ha'avir, and the Neshers were renovated, for sale overseas. Neshers were sold to the Argentine Air Force in two batches, 26 in 1978 and 13 in 1980, under the name Dagger, comprising 35 Dagger A single-seat fighters and four Dagger B two-seat trainers. The Daggers then saw much action against the British in the Falklands War.

  

General characteristics:

Crew: one

Length incl. pitot: 15.65m (51 ft 3 in)

Wingspan: 8.22m (26 ft 11 in)

Height: 4.25m (13 ft 11 in)

Wing area: 34.8m² (373 sq. ft)

Empty weight: 6,600kg (14,535 lb)

Max. takeoff weight: 13,500kg (29,735 lb)

 

Powerplant:

SNECMA Atar 09 engine with 4,280 kg (9,430 lbf)dry thrust

and 6,200 kg (13,660 lbf) with afterburner

 

Performance:

Maximum speed: mach 2.1 (39,370ft)

Range: 1,300km (810 ml), clean and with internal fuel only

1,186km (736 ml) with 4700 litres of auxiliary fuel in drop tanks

plus 2 Air to Air missiles and 2600 lb of bombs

Service ceiling: 17,680 (55,775ft)

Rate of climb: 16,400ft/min (83.5 m/s)

 

Armament:

2× 30 mm (1.18 in) DEFA 552 cannons with 125 rounds per gun under the air intakes

Five pylons for a wide range of up to 4.200kg (9,250 lb) of disposable stores

 

The kit and its assembly:

This short notice build towards the end of the 2016 "Cold War GB" at whatifmodelers.com was inspired by a CG rendition of an IAF F-4 in the unique brown/blue paint scheme, posted by fellow user SPINNERS a couple of days before. Seeing that design variant I wondered how a Kfir in this livery would look like...?

 

I had a C-2 Kfir in the stash, but also stumbled across a Heller Mirage IIIE/R/5BA kit without a real purpose in the stash and remembered the Kfir's predecessor, the Nesher, which was more or less a bluntly copied Mirage 5. Since the type was earlier and more appropriate for the brown/blue livery, I decided to convert the Heller Mirage into a Nesher, since it comes pretty close.

 

The Heller kit is old and rather basic by today's standards. You get fine but raised panel lines, only a rough interior, mediocre fit and a brittle plastic that catches scratches and dents when you only look at it.

 

Anyway, creating a Nesher from the Heller kit is not really complicated. Two major mods have to be made: the fin has to be enlarged or replaced, and the nose needs a special pitot installation.

 

The Nesher carried the bigger Mirage III/5 fin, and the Heller kit only bears the short version. Since I had a donation PM Model Nesher/Dagger kit in store (horrible kit, it rather resembles a mutated Mirage III but neither the israeli nor the Argentinian aircraft!) I just transplanted the fin. This appeared easier than adding a fin fillet, and having just the right donation part at hand made the decision even easier. :D

 

The nose is the Mirage 5's, but the tip was slightly modified and the pitot needed a separate fairing/attachment under the nose tip. The latter was created from a piece of round styrene and blended with the lower front fuselage.

 

After the major body work was done, some antennae/sensors were replaced or added, a Panzer IV’s sprocket wheel as an afterburner interior (just to have something inside the gaping exhaust hole) as well as launch rails under the outer wings for a pair of Shafrir-2s. The sleek drop tanks come OOB from the Heller kit – it only offers a pair of bigger tanks with fins, but no offensive ordnance at all.

In the cockpit I used a Martin Baker ejection seat from an Italeri Kfir, a slightly better option than the OOB part.

  

Painting and markings:

This is the actual whif aspect about this build, which is just the fictional application of a real world IAF scheme that was in use about 10 years before the Yom Kippur War. In real life the Nesher just came too late to carry the murky brown/blue pattern, because it was phased out in 1967, after the Six Days War. But putting it onto a more modern aircraft creates interesting results!

 

The scheme is based upon the original grey/green French pattern, just with the colors replaced with RAL 8000 (Grüngrau) or Field Drab (FS 30215) and RAL 5008 (Graublau), the authentic upper surface tones for this strange camouflage.

 

I’ve already built a (real world) IAF Ouragan in this style, so I had some practice and good references at hand. Model Master 1702 (alternatively: Humbrol 142) is a good option for the brown/tan tone, even though it is a bit too dark for my taste. "Israeli Armor Grey" from ModelMaster is a more approriate tone - it's lighter and actually an equivalent for RAL 8000, which is also used on Israeli tanks!

 

For the greyish-green dark blue I used Humbrol 77 (Navy Blue) which comes IMHO close. The undersides were painted in a pale grey, I used FS 36440 (Light Gull Grey, Humbrol 129 in this case). Some sources claim it to be RAL 7044 (Seidengrau), but the FS tone is practically identical.

 

All Neshers (even in later Argentinian service) had their nose painted black. There was no radar oder radome fitted, it was rather a deception in order to make enemies confuse the simple ground attack Neshers with the more potent (and radar-equipped) Mirage IIIs.

 

The kit received a light black ink wash and some dry-brushing for panel emphasis. The decals come mostly from the PM Model Nesher, including the large, yellow Yom Kippur War ID triangles which create a powerful contrast on the dark underground. Interesting result!

 

Anyway, while the decals might be the best thing about the PM kit, they have thier drawbacks, too. While they are 100% opaque the carrier film is thick, stiff and brittle, and they do not adhere well to the underground, despite decals softener and other tricks. :(

 

As a small detail I put the aircraft's tactical code on a silver background, as if the aircraft had originally been bare metal with the camouflage rather hastily applied. Since I had no IAF squadron markings left I added a yellow/black checkerboard pattern to the fin's rudder - the marking of the 113 Tayaset "Ha'Tsira'a (The Wasps), which actually operated the Nesher in the Yom Kippur conflict, just with a different camouflage.

 

Finally, the kit received some smoke/exhaust marks with graphite and was sealed with a coat of matt acrylic varnish. To make matters worse, the Revell varnish turned white, so I had to repair that damage as good as I could, and the finish now is far from what I had originally hoped for, despite the general troubles with the PM Model kit's decals.

  

A rather subtle whif, and even the aircraft itself is real (or at least a "realistic" model replica). Anyway, the paint scheme application changes things considerably, and the model ended - with the ID trinagles and the other bright markings - more colorful than expected. But the finish ended up rather poor, so that I am a bit disappointed.

Besides, a highly recommended source for this aircraft is Amos Dor's "IAI Nesher (From Mirage to Kfir, pt. 2 of 3)" book from "The IAI Aircraft Series", AD Graphics/Milano, 2000. All the other publications from this series of books are also generally recommended for any IAF builds.

Copyright 2014 BOTHAM | DESIGN

www.bothamdesign.com

All Rights Reserved

Prints available upon request

Frame :*BLACK MOUNTAIN CYCLES* monstercross

Headset :*CHRIS KING* nothreadset 1 1/8 inch

Handle :*RITCHEY* wcs beacon handle

Stem :*THOMSON* elite x4 stem

Tires :*WTB* riddler tire

Crankset :*SHIMANO* grx

Brakes :*PAUL* neo retro canti brake + *PAUL* touring canti brake

Saddle :*WTB* silverado carbon saddle

Seat post :*THOMSON* elite setback seatpost

Check out today's post on thegoldensieve.com

 

The rockiest limb of San Francisco.

If you've ever wanted to visit a heavily populated spot on a weekend and be nearly alone, I recommend Superbowl Sunday. It so happened that me and mine are no fans of the two teams which happened to make it to the big game - so we headed for the San Francisco coast. I had packed my camera to catch some shoreline views of Cliff House and other icons in the ruddy light of a great sunset when I realized I had left my memory card on the desk at home. Of course I didn't realize this until about five minutes after I had been shooting, all the while oblivious to my camera's warnings of "Demo Mode" after each shot. I guess we see what we want to see sometimes, or rather, we fail to see what we don't want to see; needless to say I felt quite foolish.

Despite this setback, I managed to find, tucked into the very bottom of a camera bag in my trunk, an older card that did the trick later in the evening. Now, the moon and Jupiter would have been just as brilliant, the cypress as dramatic a frame and the heavens the same saturated palette of purples, oranges and blues; but these sights would have been mine alone were it not for that small piece of plastic, copper and silicon tucked serendipitously into the nylon of my "hey-I'll-bring-my-camera-for-the-fun-of-it" bag. Instead, that bit of luck means I get to relive a piece of those moments in my photographs and share a piece of that good fortune with you!

 

While the rest of the world watched football, I took the footpath from the Great Highway, through tall, stately conifers to where the great tempest of the Pacific tears it's fringes to foam on the crags and sand of Land's End. I grew up near a city whose fresh water front was preserved through the foresight of a man named Burnham and moved near a city whose coastline is preserved through force of nature. No industry, no factory, no pier will gain purchase where the wind and surf turn granite to sand. So lucky are the people who have this magical spot where the Monterey Cypress frame Luna and Jove on a field of violet as the last rays of our star are refracted through the upper atmosphere. I had to act quickly and use a high ISO in order to catch the moon and Jupiter peeping through the windows made by the cypress branches.

 

Through the knotted trunks, the waning daystar left it's stain of amber upon the horizon and called a host of cargo vessels to slide past the rusty orange guardian of the San Francisco strait and steam toward the bosom of the great sea.

 

Cold, merciless and tumultuous - one might wonder why we hold onto that famous Magellanic appellation when we don't have his eponymous straits as comparison. But, no matter how fierce it may seem from the coast, one cannot help but be pacified upon seeing the crescent and her fellow travelers' scattered reflections on the cresting waves.

Fiat Chrysler Makes $445M Loss On Recall Costs

  

Fiat Chrysler recorded a loss of 299 million euros (about $445M) in the third quarter. The Italian-American car company attributes this to high costs for the recall of defective cars and other one-off setbacks. Apart from one-off items Fiat Chrysler did have money, 303 million euros, almost a ...

www.hilyts.com/2015/10/29/fiat-chrysler-makes-445m-loss-r...

This abridgement of Universal's 12-episode serial Buck Rogers stars Buster Crabbe as Dick Calkins' famed comic-strip space adventurer. Buck and Buddy (Jackie Moran) and are recruited to battle against modernistic gangster Killer Kane (Anthony Warde), by Wilma Deering (Constance Moore) and Dr. Huer (C. Montague Shaw). The duo travels to Saturn to get help in their mission, and after Buck and Buddy quell the internal struggles of the Saturnians, Buck triumphs over Killer Kane and his cosmic thugs.

Planet Outlaws Feature link: youtu.be/UD3xKy42KUY

 

Link to all 12 Serial Episodes:

 

www.youtube.com/watch?v=iTtc-u3zFGk&feature=share&amp...

 

Starring Buster Crabbe, Constance Moore, Jackie Moran, Jack Mulhall, Anthony Warde, C. Montague Shaw, Guy Usher, William Gould, Philson Ahn. Directed by Ford Beebe, Saul A. Goodkind.

Buck Rogers and Buddy Wade are in the middle of a trans-polar dirigible flight when they are caught in a blizzard and crash. Buddy then releases a special gas to keep them in suspended animation until a rescue party can arrive. However, an avalanche covers the craft and the two are in suspended animation for 500 years. When they are found, they awake to find out that the world has been taken over by the outlaw army of Killer Kane. Along with Lieutenant Wilma Deering, Buck and Buddy join in the fight to overthrow Kane and with the help of Prince Tallen of Saturn and his forces, they eventually do and Earth is free of Kane's grip.

 

This is actually a pretty enjoyable serial, but it seems doomed to be forever overshadowed by the much superior Flash Gordon trilogy. Universal brought BUCK ROGERS out in 1939, in between their own chapterplays FLASH GORDON'S TRIP TO MARS and FLASH GORDON CONQUERS THE UNIVERSE; it also starred Buster Crabbe (but with his natural dark hair instead of Flash's golden curls) and although it is filled with space ships and weird gadgets, BUCK ROGERS lacks most of the elements that gave the Flash serials their intense emotional draw.

 

For one thing, there is none of the strong sexual charge that the Flash series had. Instead of nubile Dale Arden and sultry Princess Aura both competing for the hero's attention while the villain openly lusted for the heroine, Buck's epic featured Constance Moore as Col. Wilma Deering. Now, Moore is perfectly fine in her role, but she is after all a soldier in the resistance army and not a fair damsel in distress. She has a nice moment when she wrests a ray gun away from a guard and blasts her way out of her cell, but she and Buck seem to be merely chums on the same side.

 

Also, although BUCK ROGERS has plenty of futuristic gadgets (rayguns and buzzing spaceships which shoot sparks from their backs, teleportation tubes and invisibility rays), there are no grotesque monsters or nonhuman alien races on view. Prisoners have remarkably goofy metal helmets strapped on which turn them into docile zombies, and there are these homely goons called Zuggs moping around, but that's hardly as fascinating as Lion Men and Clay People and horned apes (that Orangapoid critter).

 

What's ironic about all this is that the comic strip BUCK ROGERS by Philip Nolan and Richard Calkins started in 1929, was immensely popular for many years and it success inspired the creation of Flash. Yet the Flash strip benefitted from the genius of Alex Raymond, one of the all-time great cartoon artists, and it produced stunning visual images (from the samples of Buck's strip I've seen, it was imaginative enough but pretty crude and drab). This contrast carried over to the serials.

 

Buck Rogers and his sidekick Buddy Wade (Jackie Moran) are pilots who crash in the Arctic in1938 and survive for 500 years because the 'Nirvano' gas they were carrying put them in a state of suspended animation. They both seem to adapt to waking up in the year 2424 pretty well, where I would think most people would be so traumatized it would take a while to adjust. In this dystopic future, the Earth is ruled by a mega-gangster called Killer Kane (another setback; Anthony Warde would be okay as a crimelord but he just doesn't have the imposing presence to convince me this guy can dominate an entire planet).

 

Luckily, Buck and Buddy have been found by the small resistance movement hopelessly trying to overthrow Kane from their hidden city. Here is Dr Huer (C. Montague Shaw, who I just saw in the UNDERSEA KINGDOM doing the same gig with his wild inventions) and Wilma Deering leading the good fight. For some reason I missed, everyone immediately puts all their trust in Buck and he pretty much takes over. (Maybe he's just one of those charismatic alpha males or something.) Most of the serial involves desperate trips back and forth to Saturn to enlist the aid of the isolationist Saturnians, and this means running the blockade of Kane's ships. The usual fistfights and explosions and captures and escapes normal for this sort of situation ensue. It's a lot of fun if you take it on its own terms, with a strong linear plot and likeable heroes, but it really never kicks into high gear and seems a bit drab.

 

It's interesting that some (but not all) of the Saturnians are played by Asian actors. Prince Tallen, who gets caught up in most of the fun, was portrayed by a very young Philson Ahn, and I thought for years this was the same guy who in 1972 impressed us as the head of the Shaolin Temple in TV's KUNG FU (he taught all the styles, really amazing if you think about it). Turns out that was Phiip Ahn, Philson's brother.

 

Dir: Ford Beebe and Saul A. Goodkind - 12 Chapters

 

BUCK ROGERS (1939): Director Ford Beebe, who also worked on Flash Gordon (1938), came straight from The Phantom Creeps (1939) and then went back to finish Flash Gordon Conquers The Universe (1940). Buck Rogers stars Buster Crabbe or, as his family knew him, Lawrence. Now, Lawrence ‘Larry’ ‘Buster’ Crabbe had previously starred in two Flash Gordon serials, a couple of Tarzan movies and a long string of westerns, so it was only natural for Universal to decide he was perfect as the heroic Buck Rogers, aka that blonde guy who saves the universe but isn’t Flash Gordon. Actually, Buster Crabbe wasn’t the first actor to play Buck Rogers in-the-flesh, so to speak.

That honour goes to an unknown man who played Buck in a Virginia department store, instead of their regular Santa Claus. Santa was off conquering Martians at the time, I think it was an exchange program of sorts. It strikes me that Buck Rogers is not unlike a male fantasy come to life. Just think of it – Buck gets to take a nice five-hundred-year-long sleep-in. With my busy schedule, I’m ecstatic if I can get twenty minutes nap on the weekend. Then, when he wakes up, Buck is the smartest, most dynamic guy around. In reality he’d be treated like something that’s escaped from the zoo. And finally, everyone needs Buck to go on exciting missions, fight the bad guys, test exotic equipment and crash rocket ships – out of the half-dozen flights Buck makes, he only lands successfully once. It’s easy to see the bullet cars used in the movie are the same ones from Flash Gordon’s Trip To Mars (1938), and even the script is rather suspect.

Planet Outlaws

This film is actually a compilation of the Buck Rogers serials that ran originally in 1939. The cliffhanger endings and recap beginnings have been edited out to make it flow better -- with partial success. Some new footage was shot for the introduction and summary. At the opening, there are some newspaper headlines about jets chasing flying discs, and the obligatory checkered V2 launch, etc. to add a modern segue. After that, it's pure 1939.

Sci-fi movie technology had come a long way in the 14 years since Buck's debut. Audiences had grown accustomed to sleek and pointy rockets, flying saucers, strange aliens, etc. The Buck Rogers style world-of-the-future must have looked oddly quaint. (if not laughable) Just why Universal Pictures thought re-releasing Buck Rogers was a good idea is a bit of a mystery. Kids who were 8 or so back in 1939 would be young adults in '53. Perhaps Universal was banking on those young adults would buy tickets for a trip down memory lane.

Plot Synopsis

After a bit of modern ('53) footage about the wonders of modern progress and "flying disks," the old serial begins. Rogers and Buddy crashed in the arctic while on a transpolar flight. They were in suspended animation due to the cold and a vague gas. A patrol finds them in the year 2500 and revives them. In the world of 2500, a despot named Killer Kane is trying to take over the world. The forces of good are holed up in the "hidden city." Buck arranges a decoy maneuver to elude Kane's patrol ships. They fly to the planet Saturn in hopes of finding help. On Saturn, the Council sees Rogers and party as the rebels, and Kane as the rule of law. Rogers et al, escape Saturn, return to earth and seek to disrupt Kane's bamboozling of Prince Tallen, the Saturnian representative. Rogers sneaks into Kane's city, interrupts the treaty signing and convinces Tallen of Kane's evil by revealing Kane's "robot battalion" (slaves wearing mind-control helmets). Rogers and Tallen get to Saturn and the treaty is signed. Rogers escapes Kane's patrols via the Dissolvo Ray which rendered them invisible. Rogers and the war council plan for war. Rogers enlists the Saturnians to help. Meanwhile, Rogers sneaks into Kane's city and de-zombies Minister Krenco to lead an uprising of freed robot-slave-prisoners. Rogers storms Kane's palace and puts one of the robo-slave helmets on Kane. The End

The industrial vision of the future is delightful to watch. The heavily mechanical look of everything is so radically different from the sleek rockets and glowing acrylic audiences were growing accustomed to. The space ships look like they were built at locomotive factories or steamship yards. They spew roman-candle sparks and smoke and buzz as they fly. There are no computers, no radar or electronics. It's a fascinating snapshot of what pre-electronic-age people thought the future would be like.

When originally released in 1939, the Killer Kane character was a thinly disguised allusion to Hitler. In 1953, Kane was intended to represent a communist despot. It wasn't as tidy a fit. The narrator sums it up voicing a hope that scientists will develop the means for men to stand up to today's dictators and make the world safe for democracy. In the early 50s, there's little question of who they meant.

Simple Colors -- One endearing trait of Buck Rogers is the simplicity of the characterizations. The good guys do nothing but good. The bad guys are pure bad. The good guys are crack pilots and sharp shooters and tough as nails. The bad guys do nothing but bad, have trouble hitting a flying barn and are easily knocked out with one punch.

Industrial Baroque -- Somewhat like the baroque era's compulsion to decorate every square inch with swirls and filigree, Industrial Baroque sought to fill every space with heavy-duty hardware. The sets, and especially the rocket interiors are like flying boiler rooms. Valves, pipes, levers, dials, wheels, large flashing light bulbs. To look more "high tech" in the 30s meant cramming in more industrial hardware. Buck Rogers' ships show more affinity for Captain Nemo "steampunk" than the proto-space-age of the 50s.

Family Resemblance -- There is a noticeable similarity in the sets and costumes of Flash Gordon, Buck Rogers. Even serials of the early 50s, like Captain Video and the various Rocketman serials, look more like Flash and Buck than George Pal. The industrial baroque look and costuming are distinctive, making them almost a sub-genre of their own. In that regard, Buck has a timelessness.

Another take on the story and additional background info.

A round-the-world dirigible flight commanded by US Air Force officer Buck Rogers (Buster Crabbe) encounters dangerously stormy weather above the Himalayas; said weather, along with disastrous panic on the part of Rogers’ crewmen, causes the aircraft to crash. The cowardly crewmen ditch the ship and meet quick ends, but Rogers and young Buddy Wade (Jackie Moran), son of the aircraft’s designer, survive the crash. The pair use a cylinder of “Nirvano” gas to place themselves into suspended animation until a rescue party can reach them, but an avalanche buries the ship and all searches prove fruitless; the dirigible and its two dormant inhabitants remain beneath rocks and snow for five hundred years.

Finally, in the year 2440, a spaceship unearths the wreck, and its pilots restore Buck and Buddy to consciousness. The holdovers from the 20th century soon learn that their rescuers are soldiers from the “Hidden City,” a pocket of resistance to the super-criminal who is ruling the 24th-century Earth–one “Killer” Kane (Anthony Warde). Rogers immediately pledges his support to Air Marshal Kragg (William Gould) and Scientist-General Dr. Huer (C. Montague Shaw), the leaders of the Hidden City exiles, and is soon en route to Saturn, hoping to convince that planet’s rulers to aid the Hidden City in freeing the Earth from Kane’s tyranny. To cement the Saturian alliance, Buck must battle Kane’s legions at every step of the way, with able assistance from Buddy and from Dr. Huer’s trusted aide Lieutenant Wilma Deering (Constance Moore).

 

Ever since its original release, Buck Rogers has stood in the shadow of Universal’s Flash Gordon serials; the studio encouraged such association by casting Flash Gordon star Buster Crabbe as a different sci-fi hero, obviously hoping that the chapterplay would capitalize on the goodwill generated by Flash Gordon and Flash Gordon’s Trip to Mars. The serial did succeed in reminding audiences of the Flash outings–but it reminded them of how much they had liked those serials and forced inevitable comparisons that were not in Rogers’ favor. Universal’s plans for a second Buck Rogers serial were quickly scrapped when the first outing failed to please matinee audiences; the intended Buck sequel was then replaced on the studio’s production schedule by–what else?–a third Flash Gordon chapterplay. Even today, Buck is typically dismissed by fans as a pale echo of the great Gordon serials.

It’s easy to see why Buck Rogers came as a disappointment to audiences expecting an outing in the Flash Gordon tradition. Its production design, while futuristic, is less quirky and more uniform than that of the Gordons; there are no monsters and no weird semi-human races besides the rather uninteresting Zuggs; there are also no supporting characters as developed or as interesting as Dr. Zarkov, Ming, King Vultan, the Clay King, Princess Aura, Prince Barin, and other major figures in the Flash Gordon chapterplays. And yet, taken on its own terms, Buck Rogers is far from a failure; it does not approach the Flash Gordon trilogy in quality, but then few serials do.

Buck Rogers’ script, by former Mascot writers Norman Hall and Ray Trampe, is fast-moving and manages to avoid repetition for most of its length. The trip to Saturn, the attempts to convince Saturnian leader Prince Tallen (Philson Ahn) of the justice of the Hidden City’s cause, the subsequent rescue of Tallen from Kane’s city, the second journey to Saturn to cement the alliance, and the attempts of Kane’s henchman Laska (Henry Brandon) to sabotage it–all these incidents keep the narrative flowing very nicely for the serial’s first eight chapters. As in many of Trampe and Hall’s Mascot scripts, however, the writers seem to run out of plot before the serial’s end. While Chapters Nine and Ten remain interesting (with Buck being converted into a hypnotized robot, Buddy’s rescue of the hero, and an infiltration of the Hidden City by one of Kane’s men), the last two chapters have a definite wheel-spinning feel to them, throwing in a redundant third trip to Saturn and an unneeded flashback sequence.

The last-chapter climax is also something of a disappointment, with Kane being overthrown quickly and undramatically instead of being definitively crushed. Here, Trampe and Hall seem to have been leaving room for the sequel that never came and trying to avoid duplicating the dramatic but very final destruction of MIng which closed the first Flash Gordon serial (and which needed to be explained away in the second). The other weak spot of the scripting is Buck and Buddy’s rather calm reaction when they realize that their old world (and everyone in it) is dead–and their extraordinarily quick adjustment to their new one. One wouldn’t have wanted the writers to dwell on our heroes’ plight (which would be absolutely crushing in real life), but I do wish Trampe or Hall could have given Buck and Buddy a few emotional lines about their displacement before getting on to the main action; Hall in his scripts for other serials (Hawk of the Wilderness, Adventures of Red Ryder), showed himself capable of far more dramatic moments.

  

As already mentioned, the serial’s visuals are less varied than those of the Flash Gordon serials, but that’s not to say they aren’t impressive by serial standards. Pains seem to have been taken to avoid duplicating too much of Gordon’s “look;” the spaceship miniatures are completely different than the ships in the Gordon trilogy, while Kane’s stronghold–probably the best miniature in the serial–is not the quasi-Gothic palace of Ming but rather an ominous, futuristic-looking version of New York City, complete with towering skyscrapers. The Hidden City’s great rock gates are also nifty, and the massive Saturnian Forum (a life-size set, not a miniature) is very visually impressive. The barren Red Rock Canyon area works well as the Saturnian landscape, but I think it was a mistake to also use the Canyon as the area between the Hidden City and Kane’s capital; Saturn and Earth shouldn’t look so similar.

 

The only major prop or set reused from the Gordon serials are the “bullet cars” from Flash Gordon’s Trip to Mars; they’re just as fun to watch in action here as in the earlier serial. Other incidental props and sets–Kane’s robot room, his mind-control helmets, the various televiewing devices, the anti-gravity belts, Dr. Huer’s invisibility ray, and the Star-Trek-like molecular transportation chamber–add further colorful touches to the serial., and are respectably represented by Universal’s always above-average array of sets and props. The Zuggs, the “primitive race” ruled by the Saturnians, are somewhat disappointing, however; while suitably grotesque-looking, they’re nowhere near as menacing or memorable–in appearance or demeanor–as their obvious inspiration, the Clay People in Flash Gordon’s Trip to Mars.

The serial’s action scenes are brisk and energetic, suffering not at all from a general lack of fistfights–thanks to the swift-moving direction of Ford Beebe (a Mascot veteran like writers Trampe and Hall) and his co-director Saul Goodkind (usually an editor). The few hand-to-hand tussles–most of them on the rocky hills of Saturn–are executed routinely but skillfully by Dave Sharpe, Tom Steele, Eddie Parker, and other stuntmen; the best of the bunch is the fight between Buck and a Kane man in the control room of the Hidden City, although this is more exciting for the suspenseful situation (Buck trying to close the gates that the henchman has opened to Kane’s oncoming armada) than for any particular flair in the staging.

Most of the action sequences consist of protracted chases and pursuits (both on foot and in rocketships), with occasional quick combats thrown in. Many of these lengthy chases are very exciting–particularly the long incursion into Kane’s city that occupies most of Chapters Three and Four, a great combination of action and suspense. Buddy’s later stealthy visit into Kane’s fortress to rescue Buck from the robot room, and the following escape, is also good, as are Buck’s skillful and repeated elusions of the rebellious Zuggs in Chapter Eight and the bullet car getaway in Chapter Six.

  

The cliffhanger endings are generally well-staged, with proper build-ups, but too many of them involve spaceship crashes that our heroes rather implausibly live through. The impressive collapsing forum at the end of Chapter Eleven and the bullet car crash at the end of Chapter Six provide nice variety amid the spaceship wrecks, but (alas) are also resolved by mere survival. Still, this is preferable to the blatantly cheating resolution of what is otherwise one the best chapter endings–Killer Kane’s pursuit of Buddy in a darkened council chamber and his apparently lethal zapping of the young hero. At least the resolution features a good stunt bit by Dave Sharpe.

The leading performances in Buck Rogers are all excellent (although most other critics would make a single exception; see below). Buster Crabbe, as always, makes a perfect serial hero–both genially cheerful and grimly serious, unassumingly polite and aggressively tough. As in the Flash Gordon trilogy, his down-to-earth attitude also helps to make the wild sci-fi happenings seem perfectly normal.

Jackie Moran (oddly “reduced” to serial acting only a year after playing Huck Finn in David O. Selznick’s big-budget classic Adventures of Tom Sawyer) does a fine job as Buddy Wade, handling his character’s frequent “golly, gee-whiz” lines in a low-key fashion that keeps Buddy from coming off as too naïve; his chipper but calm demeanor complements Crabbe’s well, and he has no problems carrying an entire chapter and part of another on his own.

Constance Moore, despite being saddled with perhaps the most unflattering costume ever worn by a serial leading lady (basically coveralls and a bathing cap), manages to come off as charming. Her Wilma Deering is self-possessed and capable-seeming but never too coldly efficient; she remains warmly likable even when piloting spaceships or explaining technology to Crabbe.

Henry Brandon is very good as Killer Kane’s chief henchman Captain Laska–suave and sly when acting as Kane’s ambassador to Saturn, haughtily arrogant when threatening people, and nervously jittery in the presence of his overbearing leader. Hard-bitten tough guys Wheeler Oakman and Reed Howes, along with the slicker Carleton Young , form Brandon’s backup squad.

As Killer Kane himself, perennial henchman actor Anthony Warde has been almost universally panned by critics as “miscast.” I have to dissent strongly, however; Warde does a fine job in the part and plays Kane with a memorable combination of viciousness and uncontrollable anger. The character is not a diabolical schemer like Ming, but rather a super-gangster who’s blasted and bullied his way to the top–and Warde’s bad-tempered, aggressive, and thuggish screen personality fits the part perfectly. He veers between intimidating ranting and harshly sinister sarcasm–as when he describes himself as a “kindly ruler” just after wrathfully sending a formerly trusted councilor to the robot room–but is quite menacing in both aspects.

Philson Ahn, brother of frequent serial and feature actor Phillip Ahn, does a good job as Prince Tallen of Saturn; he possesses his sibling’s deep and distinctive voice, which serves him well as a planetary dignitary. His manner also has a slightly tougher edge to it than his refined brother’s, which helps to keep the viewer in uncertainty in the earlier chapters as to whether Tallen will turn out to be friend or foe. Guy Usher plays Aldar, the head of Saturn’s ”Council of the Wise,” and does his best to seem suitably imposing and dignified, despite the almost comical way in which the “Wise” continually change their opinions–backing Kane, opposing him, giving into his demands, defying him, etc. Cyril Delevanti is enjoyable as a grumpy subordinate member of the Council.*

C. Montague Shaw has limited screen time, but is very good as Dr. Huer, balancing statesmanlike dignity with shrewdness and a touch of enjoyable scientific eccentricity (the last is particularly noticeable during his demonstration of his invisibility gas in Chapter Five). Energetic Jack Mulhall is typically affable and enthusiastic as Captain Rankin of the Hidden City, while Kenne Duncan has a rare good guy role as Mulhall’s fellow-officer Lieutenant Lacy. Perennial screen “underworld rat” John Harmon also plays against type as a Hidden City soldier, as does Stanley Price as a Hidden City pilot rescued from existence as a human robot. The dignified but stolid William Gould is good enough as Air Marshal Kragg, but I would have preferred a more dynamic actor in the role–Kragg is, after all, the top military leader of Kane’s enemies. Mulhall could have handled it well, as could Wade Boteler–who does an excellent job as the grim and concerned Professor Morgan in the first chapter, intensely instructing Buddy and Buck in the use of the Nirvano gas.

Lane Chandler also appears in the first chapter, as a military officer who demonstrates the Nirvano gas to a reporter played by another old pro, Kenneth Harlan. An unusually subdued Theodore Lorch is one of Kane’s councilors, while Karl Hackett has a good part as another councilor who gets into an argument with Kane that leads to Hackett’s being converted into a human robot (his terrified pleas as he’s dragged out of the council chamber are quite chilling). Al Bridge has some memorably sinister lines (“when this helmet is in place, you’ll never think or speak again”) in his periodic scenes as the slave-master of Kane’s human robots.

Unusually for Universal, several bit roles are filled by stuntmen; Eddie Parker and Tom Steele pop in as various soldiers and officers, but aren’t as noticeable as Dave Sharpe, who’s given multiple speaking roles as a Kane soldier, a Hidden City soldier, a Saturnian officer, and a Saturnian soldier. His ubiquity can get a little distracting at times, particularly since some of his appearances follow right on the previous one’s heels; he also seems to have a bit of trouble with the formal-sounding Saturnian dialogue, coming off as much more stiff and affected than in his co-starring turn in Daredevils of the Red Circle.

The serial’s music score, like most other Universals of the period, is an eclectic but usually effective array of stock music, some of it cues from the Flash Gordon serials but the majority of it culled from Universal’s horror features, including (most notably) Franz Waxman’s score for Bride of Frankenstein, which furnishes some memorable opening-titles music.

All in all, though Buck Rogers has its share of flaws, it also has more than enough virtues (the acting, the fast pace, the interesting sci-fi trappings) to make it a good chapterplay. Despite its similar themes, it shouldn’t be pitted against the Flash Gordon trilogy–a match it’s bound to lose–but rather judged against the field of competition in general. When judged in this fashion, it’s just as entertaining–and often more entertaining–than many serials with less shabby reputations.

 

*One has to wonder, though, why some Saturnians are Orientals like Ahn and others Occidentals like Usher and Delevanti; my own theory is that men from various countries emigrated from Earth to Saturn sometime before the bulk of the serial took place; this would explain the racial assortment and also explain why the Hidden City chooses Saturn in particular as an ally (as usual, I’m probably putting too much thought into this).

 

March 14, 2021

 

The wind was expected, but the huge snow squall was a complete surprise. It snowed extremely hard for half an hour and the newly bloomed crocuses took it in stride.

 

Brewster, Massachusetts

Cape Cod - USA

 

Photo by brucetopher

© Bruce Christopher 2021

All Rights Reserved

 

...always learning - critiques welcome.

Tools: Canon 7D & iPhone 11.

No use without permission.

Please email for usage info.

 

The Postcard

 

A postally unused postcard by Shoesmith & Etheridge of Hastings bearing an early sixties image of Carlisle Parade in Hastings.

 

Hastings

 

Hastings is a large seaside town in East Sussex on the south coast, 24 miles (39 km) east of the county town of Lewes, and 53 mi (85 km) south east of London.

 

The town gives its name to the Battle of Hastings.

 

In the 19th. century, Hastings was a popular seaside resort, as the railway allowed tourists and visitors to reach the town.

 

Today, Hastings is a fishing port with the UK's largest beach-based fishing fleet. The fleet has been based on the same beach, below the cliffs, for at least 400, and possibly up to 600, years. Its longevity is attributed to the prolific fishing ground of Rye Bay nearby.

 

The town had a population of 92,855 in 2018.

 

Hastings in Pre-History

 

Evidence of prehistoric settlements has been found at the town site, including flint arrowheads and Bronze Age artefacts.

 

Iron Age forts have been excavated on both the East and West Hills. The settlement was already based on the port when the Romans arrived in Britain for the first time in 55 BC. They began to exploit the iron (Wealden rocks provide a plentiful supply of the ore), and shipped it out by boat.

 

Iron was worked locally at Beauport Park, to the north of the town. It employed up to a thousand men, and is thought to have been the third-largest mine in the Roman Empire.

 

With the departure of the Romans, the town suffered setbacks. The Beauport site was abandoned, and the town suffered attacks from nature and early adversaries.

 

The Sussex coast has always suffered from occasional violent storms, and with the additional hazard of longshore drift (the eastward movement of shingle along the coast), the coastline has been frequently changing. The original Roman port is probably now under the sea.

 

Medieval Hastings

 

The Battle of Hastings heralded the start of the Norman Conquest. The battle was fought on the 14th. October 1066, although it actually took place 8 miles (13 km) to the north at Senlac Hill, and William had landed on the coast between Hastings and Eastbourne at Pevensey.

 

Muslim scholar Muhammad al-Idrisi, writing circa 1153, described Hastings as:

 

"A town of large extent and many inhabitants,

flourishing and handsome, having markets,

workpeople and rich merchants".

 

Hastings and the Sea

 

By the end of the Saxon period, the port of Hastings had moved eastward to near the present town centre in the Priory Stream valley, whose entrance was protected by the White Rock headland (since demolished).

 

It was to be a short stay: Danish attacks and huge floods in 1011 and 1014 motivated the townspeople to relocate to the New Burgh.

 

In the Middle Ages Hastings became one of the Cinque Ports.

 

Much of the town and half of Hastings Castle was washed away in the South England flood of February 1287.

 

During a naval campaign of 1339, and again in 1377, the town was raided and burnt by the French, and seems then to have gone into a decline. As a port, Hastings' days were finished.

 

Hastings had suffered over the years from the lack of a natural harbour. Attempts were made to build a stone harbour during the reign of Elizabeth I, but the foundations were destroyed by the sea in terrible storms. Accordingly the town's fishing boats are still stored on, and launched from, the beach.

 

Hastings was then just a small fishing settlement, but it was soon discovered that the new taxes on luxury goods could be made profitable by smuggling; the town was ideally located for that purpose.

 

Near the castle ruins, on the West Hill, are St. Clement's Caves, partly natural, but mainly excavated by hand by smugglers from the soft sandstone.

 

Their trade came to an end with the period following the Napoleonic Wars, for the town became one of the most fashionable resorts in Britain, brought about by the so-called health-giving properties of seawater, as well as the local springs and Roman baths.

 

The double decker promenade that runs from Hastings Pier beyond Marine Court, with a break at Warrior Square, was built by the borough engineer Sidney Little.

 

The building of Pelham Crescent necessitated cutting away of the Castle Hill cliffs. Once that move away from the old town had begun, it led to the further expansion along the coast, eventually linking up with the new St. Leonards.

 

Judges Postcards

 

Between 1902 and 1919, Fred Judge FRPS photographed many of the town's events and disasters. These included storms, the first tram, the visit of the Lord Mayor of London, Hastings Marathon Race, and the pier fire of 1917.

 

Many of these images were produced as picture postcards by the firm he founded which is now known as Judges Postcards.

 

Hastings' Bathing Pool

 

In the 1930's, an Olympic-sized bathing pool was erected. Regarded in its day as one of the best open-air swimming and diving complexes in Europe, it later became a holiday camp before closing in 1986. It was demolished, but the area is still known by locals as "The Old Bathing Pool".

 

Hastings' Sunshine

 

Hastings, tied with Eastbourne, recorded the highest duration of sunshine of any month anywhere in the United Kingdom - 384 hours - in 1911.

 

A new record temperature of 34.7 °C (94.5 °F) was recorded for the town on the 19th. July 2022.

 

St. Leonards

 

The original part St. Leonards was bought by James Burton and laid out by his son, the architect Decimus Burton, in the early 19th. century as a new town: a place of elegant houses designed for the well-off.

 

It also included a central public garden, a hotel, an archery, assembly rooms and a church. Today's St. Leonards has extended well beyond that original design, although the original town still exists within it.

 

Priory Meadow Shopping Centre

 

Hastings' main shopping centre is the Priory Meadow Shopping Centre. It was built on the site of the old Central Recreation Ground which had played host to some Sussex CCC first-class fixtures, and famous cricketers such as Dr. W. G. Grace and Sir Don Bradman.

 

The Central Recreation Ground was one of England's oldest, most scenic and most famous cricket grounds. The first match was played there in 1864, and the last in 1989, after which the site was redeveloped into the shopping centre. The centre houses 56 stores, and covers around 420,000 square feet.

 

Marine Court

 

On the seafront at St. Leonards is Marine Court, a 1938 block of flats in the Art Deco style that was originally called 'The Ship' due to its style being based upon the ocean liner RMS Queen Mary.

 

Marine Court can be seen from 20 miles (32 km) away on a clear day from Eastbourne.

 

The Memorial

 

An important former landmark was the Memorial, a clock tower commemorating Albert the Prince Consort which stood for many years at the traffic junction in the town centre, but was demolished following an arson attack in the 1970's.

 

The Hastings Miniature Railway

 

The Hastings Miniature Railway operates along the beach from Rock-a-Nore to Marine Parade, and has provided tourist transport since 1948. The railway was considerably restored and re-opened in 2010.

 

Hastings' Tram Network

 

Hastings had a network of trams from 1905 to 1929. The trams ran as far as Bexhill, and were worked by overhead electric wires.

 

Notable People

 

Many notable figures were born, raised, or lived in Hastings, including computer scientist Alan Turing, poet Fiona Pitt-Kethley, actress Gwen Watford, comedian Jo Brand and Madness singer Suggs.

 

Additionally :

 

-- John Logie Baird lived in Hastings in the 1920's where he carried out experiments that led to the transmission of the first television image.

 

-- Robert Tressell wrote 'The Ragged-Trousered Philanthropists' in Hastings between 1906 and 1910.

 

-- Gareth Barry, who holds the record number of appearances in the Premier League, was born in Hastings.

 

-- The author who worked as Grey Owl was born In Hastings and lived there for several years.

 

-- Harry H. Corbett (Steptoe & Son) lived in Hastings up until his death in 1982.

 

-- Anna Brassey, a collector and feminist pioneer of early photography, was based in Hastings until her death in 1887.

 

Anna Brassey

 

Baroness Anna "Annie" Brassey was born in London on the 7th. October 1839. Annie was an English traveller and writer. Her bestselling book 'A Voyage in the Sunbeam, our Home on the Ocean for Eleven Months' (1878) describes a voyage around the world.

 

Anna Brassey - The Early Years

 

Annie Brassey was born Anna Allnutt. As a child, she faced serious health problems. In his preface to Annie's book 'The Last Voyage', her husband recalled that she suffered from an inherited "weakness of the chest", apparently a form of chronic bronchitis.

 

As a young woman, she also suffered severe burns when she stood too close to a fireplace and her skirt caught fire. It took six months for her to recover from them.

 

Annie's Marriage to Lord Brassey

 

In 1860, she married the English Member of Parliament Thomas Brassey (knighted in 1881, becoming Earl Brassey in 1886), with whom she lived near his Hastings constituency. Thomas was born in 1836 and died in 1918.

 

The couple had five children together before they travelled aboard their luxury yacht Sunbeam. The yacht was said to have been named after their daughter - Lady Constance Alberta - who was nicknamed Sunbeam; she died of scarlet fever, aged four, on the 24th. January 1873.

 

The golden figurehead of the yacht depicting Constance is at the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London.

 

Annie's Travels and Publications

 

'A Voyage in the Sunbeam', describing their journey round the world in 1876–1877 with a complement of 43, including family, friends and crew, ran through many English editions, and was translated into at least five languages.

 

Her accounts of later voyages include 'Sunshine and Storm in the East' (1880); 'In the Trades, the Tropics, and the Roaring Forties' (1885); and 'The Last Voyage' (1889, published posthumously).

 

Annie had published privately earlier works including 'A Flight of the Meteor', detailing two cruises in the Mediterranean on their earlier yacht Meteor, and 'A Voyage in the Eothen', a description of their travels to Canada and the United States in 1872.

 

In July 1881, King Kalākaua of Hawaii, who had been greatly pleased with her description of his kingdom, was entertained at Normanhurst Castle, and invested Lady Brassey with the Royal Order of Kapiolani.

 

Annie was also involved with the publication of Colonel Henry Stuart-Wortley's 'Tahiti, a Series of Photographs' (1882).

 

The Death and Legacy of Lady Brassey

 

Lady Brassey's last voyage on the Sunbeam was to India and Australia, undertaken in November 1886 in order to improve her health. On the way to Mauritius, Annie died of malaria at the age of 47 on the 14th. September 1887, and was buried at sea.

 

At home in England, she had performed charitable work, largely for the St. John Ambulance Association. Her collection of ethnographic and natural history material was shown in a museum at her husband's London house until it was moved to Hastings Museum in 1919. There are also several photograph albums and other ephemera held at Hastings Library.

 

However, the vast majority of her photograph albums are now housed in the Huntington Library, San Marino, California. The collection of 70 albums, each containing 72 to 80 thick board pages, contains pre-eminent examples of historical travel.

 

The albums contain works by Annie and others she collected, including those of commercial photographers. Annie herself was an accomplished photographer. She joined the Royal Photographic Society in 1873 and remained a member until her death. She exhibited some of her work in its exhibitions in 1873 and 1886.

 

Lady Brassey was survived by four of her five children:

 

-- Thomas Brassey, 2nd Earl Brassey

-- Lady Mabelle Brassey

-- Muriel Sackville, Countess De La Warr

-- Marie Freeman-Thomas, Marchioness of Willingdon.

Spring got a little setback when the weather turned and after 24 hours of snowing there was suddenly 10-15 cm of snow covering the green grass and the flowers. That snow is now melting away...

Sorry - I've had a setback - I promise I am trying to wean myself off this place, must try harder.

Anyway - hope you like it and have a great weekend.

 

Technical stuff:

f16 @ 16mm 15 seconds - no ND grads - black card method inspired by the work of Sunrise@dawn.

 

Method that I am using:

Meter for the fg and meter for the sky.

Note the exposure times.

Switch to manual - bulb mode so you are in complete control of the exposure.

Using something dark - card, cloth, even a gloved hand and open the shutter, gently feathering the black card up and down infront of the lens around the horizon line - slowly move the card up and out of the shot for the remainder of the exposure.

 

It involves a bit of trial and error and needs an overall exposure time of at least a few seconds (4+) but it is great feeling when you get it right.

 

Jumeirah Essex House

160 Central Park South

New York, NY 10019

 

The entrance marquee, decorative metalwork and reliefs.

------------

Designed by Frank Grad, the Essex House is one of the National Trust Historic Hotels, a program of the National Trust for Historic Preservation.

 

Frank Grad also designed the Newark Symphony Hall. Some say the hotel's name derives from Mr. Grad’s primary residence in Essex County, New Jersey.

 

Originally called Park Tower and then Seville Towers, the 40-story, Art Deco hotel tower opened along Central Park South in October 1931. The hotel’s first general manager, Albert Auwaerter, threw a grand opening party for 1,000 in the hotel’s Colonnades Ballroom.

 

By 1932 the hotel was known as the Essex House and the six-story Essex sign was erected on top of the hotel. Still today some claim the sign is offensively too large and blight on the city’s skyline.

 

The building is clad in brown brick with large guestroom windows and decorated setbacks. The lobby has massive fluted columns of black marble and it extends through the block as a corridor flanked by the elevator banks. Its main entrance has Art Deco gilded doors.

 

In 1932 the Reconstruction Finance Corporation (RFC) took title to the Essex House and retained ownership for fifteen years. Congress established the RFC in 1932 to provide liquidity and restore confidence in the banking system to offset the Great Depression.

 

George Burns and Gracie Allen lived at the Essex House in 1934; Betty Grable and Milton Berle were residents in the 1940s. British TV host Sir David Frost owned a 1,200 sq ft pied a terre in the Essex House during the 1990s. More recent tenants have included Angelina Jolie (penthouse at the top), Jude Law, and Samuel L. Jackson.

 

In the 1930s the Essex House featured a “strollers brunch” - so called for those completing a Sunday morning walk in Central Park. This leisurely meal, served from around noon to late afternoon, evolved in to the Sunday brunch.

 

In 1946 Samuel H. Golding, founder of Sterling National Bank and Trust Company, purchased the Essex House. At the time of his death in 1970, Samuel H. Golding was 84 years old and lived in the Essex House at 160 Central Park South. Golding’s wife, Rachel Golding, gifted to Yeshiva University $40 million in memory or her late husband Samuel H. Golding. At the time of the gift in 1992, Yeshiva had an endowment of just $293 dollars. Yeshiva is America's oldest and largest university under Jewish auspices.

 

Marriott purchased the hotel in 1969.

 

Marriott’s byline for the hotel: “When you have been spoiled everywhere else by a Marriott, where do you stay in New York? Marriott’s Essex House! “

 

The restaurant outlets during the 1970’s at Marriott’s Essex House included Kings Wharf Restaurant, Windjammer Bar and for Marriott, the futuristically named - Fairfield Inn Coffee Shop.

 

Many remember from 1970’s the TV announcer Don Pardo would proclaim that "guests of Saturday Night Live stay at the Essex House!"

 

Japan Air Lines Development (U.S.A.) Inc., a subsidiary of the Tokyo based national carrier bought the hotel in 1985. Its hotel affiliate Nikko Hotels International took over management and renamed the 715-room hotel - Essex House Hotel Nikko NY.

 

The Essex House was to be a springboard for Nikko’s future growth.In 1991, Japan Airlines spent more than $75 million in renovating the property. The room count was reduced to 580.

 

According to the NY Times the renovation included widening the lobby looking out on Central Park, with added seating and the reclaiming of windows in that area that in earlier renovations had been put to other uses. The entire plumbing, wiring, heating, air-conditioning and elevator systems were to be replaced.

 

Chef Christian Delouvrier opened the 75 seat French restaurant, Les Celebrites (previously Devereux’s on-the-Park) with a $70 average ticket. The hotel’s moderately priced restaurant was Café Botanica. Delouvrier previously served as executive chef at the Parker Meridien's French restaurant, Maurice.

 

Nikko hired Pierre Yves Rochon of Paris to serve as the interior designer. Brennan Beer Gorman was the architect for the restoration, and the contractor was Tishman Construction Company.

 

In March 1999 the 597-room Essex House was sold for $260,000,000 ($435,511 per room) to Strategic Hotel Capital. SHC retained Starwood Hotels to manage the hotel renamed: Essex House, A Westin Hotel, New York City.

 

In September 2000 Starwood created The St. Regis Club at the Essex House - a hotel within a hotel - that comprised the top floors and had 104 rooms, a restaurants and a lounge.

 

In September 2005, the Dubai Investment Group paid $440 million to acquire the hotel portion of the building that consisted of two components the 501-room Westin and the 104-room St. Regis. There were approximately 148 private residential condominiums located throughout the building and individually owned, of which 139 were not included in the sale.

 

To appease the unions Dubai Investment stated it would limit the conversion of guest rooms to condominiums to 15%. The unions believe any reduction in the guest room count would eliminate hotel jobs.

 

Jumeirah Hotels & Resorts took over management in January 2006. The Dubai-based hotel management group also manages The Jumeirah Burj Al Arab, the sail-shaped hotel tower that has become the icon of Dubai and some say is the world's finest hotel. The property was renamed Jumeirah Essex House.

 

In 2006 Dubai Investment Group contracted Atlanta-based Hirsch Bedner Associates to lead the $90 million renovation and reimagining of the hotel. All the guest rooms and suites were refurbished and many were expanded.

 

The 509 guest rooms include 301 Essex House Rooms which are around 300 sq ft and do not have views of Central Park. The remaining 208 rooms are larger including suites and have views of Central Park or the Manhattan skyline.

 

The restaurant, Alain Ducasse at Essex House closed in January 2007.

 

Chef Kerry Heffernan opened 154 South Gate at Jumeirah Essex House in 2008. A Culinary Institute of America graduate, Heffernan previously was opening Executive Chef and eventually partner at Union Square Hospitality Group’s Eleven Madison Park. South Gate is not your regular hotel-restaurant. Tony Chi and Associates designed the restaurant/lounge sleek interior. The opening of South Gate marked the completion of Jumeirah Essex House’s $90 million refurbishment.

Above: Buster Crabbe, Constance Moore, and Jackie Moran.

This abridgement of Universal's 12-episode serial Buck Rogers stars Buster Crabbe as Dick Calkins' famed comic-strip space adventurer. Buck and Buddy (Jackie Moran) and are recruited to battle against modernistic gangster Killer Kane (Anthony Warde), by Wilma Deering (Constance Moore) and Dr. Huer (C. Montague Shaw). The duo travels to Saturn to get help in their mission, and after Buck and Buddy quell the internal struggles of the Saturnians, Buck triumphs over Killer Kane and his cosmic thugs.

Planet Outlaws Feature link: youtu.be/UD3xKy42KUY

 

Link to all 12 Serial Episodes:

 

www.youtube.com/watch?v=iTtc-u3zFGk&feature=share&amp...

 

Starring Buster Crabbe, Constance Moore, Jackie Moran, Jack Mulhall, Anthony Warde, C. Montague Shaw, Guy Usher, William Gould, Philson Ahn. Directed by Ford Beebe, Saul A. Goodkind.

Buck Rogers and Buddy Wade are in the middle of a trans-polar dirigible flight when they are caught in a blizzard and crash. Buddy then releases a special gas to keep them in suspended animation until a rescue party can arrive. However, an avalanche covers the craft and the two are in suspended animation for 500 years. When they are found, they awake to find out that the world has been taken over by the outlaw army of Killer Kane. Along with Lieutenant Wilma Deering, Buck and Buddy join in the fight to overthrow Kane and with the help of Prince Tallen of Saturn and his forces, they eventually do and Earth is free of Kane's grip.

 

This is actually a pretty enjoyable serial, but it seems doomed to be forever overshadowed by the much superior Flash Gordon trilogy. Universal brought BUCK ROGERS out in 1939, in between their own chapterplays FLASH GORDON'S TRIP TO MARS and FLASH GORDON CONQUERS THE UNIVERSE; it also starred Buster Crabbe (but with his natural dark hair instead of Flash's golden curls) and although it is filled with space ships and weird gadgets, BUCK ROGERS lacks most of the elements that gave the Flash serials their intense emotional draw.

 

For one thing, there is none of the strong sexual charge that the Flash series had. Instead of nubile Dale Arden and sultry Princess Aura both competing for the hero's attention while the villain openly lusted for the heroine, Buck's epic featured Constance Moore as Col. Wilma Deering. Now, Moore is perfectly fine in her role, but she is after all a soldier in the resistance army and not a fair damsel in distress. She has a nice moment when she wrests a ray gun away from a guard and blasts her way out of her cell, but she and Buck seem to be merely chums on the same side.

 

Also, although BUCK ROGERS has plenty of futuristic gadgets (rayguns and buzzing spaceships which shoot sparks from their backs, teleportation tubes and invisibility rays), there are no grotesque monsters or nonhuman alien races on view. Prisoners have remarkably goofy metal helmets strapped on which turn them into docile zombies, and there are these homely goons called Zuggs moping around, but that's hardly as fascinating as Lion Men and Clay People and horned apes (that Orangapoid critter).

 

What's ironic about all this is that the comic strip BUCK ROGERS by Philip Nolan and Richard Calkins started in 1929, was immensely popular for many years and it success inspired the creation of Flash. Yet the Flash strip benefitted from the genius of Alex Raymond, one of the all-time great cartoon artists, and it produced stunning visual images (from the samples of Buck's strip I've seen, it was imaginative enough but pretty crude and drab). This contrast carried over to the serials.

 

Buck Rogers and his sidekick Buddy Wade (Jackie Moran) are pilots who crash in the Arctic in1938 and survive for 500 years because the 'Nirvano' gas they were carrying put them in a state of suspended animation. They both seem to adapt to waking up in the year 2424 pretty well, where I would think most people would be so traumatized it would take a while to adjust. In this dystopic future, the Earth is ruled by a mega-gangster called Killer Kane (another setback; Anthony Warde would be okay as a crimelord but he just doesn't have the imposing presence to convince me this guy can dominate an entire planet).

 

Luckily, Buck and Buddy have been found by the small resistance movement hopelessly trying to overthrow Kane from their hidden city. Here is Dr Huer (C. Montague Shaw, who I just saw in the UNDERSEA KINGDOM doing the same gig with his wild inventions) and Wilma Deering leading the good fight. For some reason I missed, everyone immediately puts all their trust in Buck and he pretty much takes over. (Maybe he's just one of those charismatic alpha males or something.) Most of the serial involves desperate trips back and forth to Saturn to enlist the aid of the isolationist Saturnians, and this means running the blockade of Kane's ships. The usual fistfights and explosions and captures and escapes normal for this sort of situation ensue. It's a lot of fun if you take it on its own terms, with a strong linear plot and likeable heroes, but it really never kicks into high gear and seems a bit drab.

 

It's interesting that some (but not all) of the Saturnians are played by Asian actors. Prince Tallen, who gets caught up in most of the fun, was portrayed by a very young Philson Ahn, and I thought for years this was the same guy who in 1972 impressed us as the head of the Shaolin Temple in TV's KUNG FU (he taught all the styles, really amazing if you think about it). Turns out that was Phiip Ahn, Philson's brother.

 

Dir: Ford Beebe and Saul A. Goodkind - 12 Chapters

 

BUCK ROGERS (1939): Director Ford Beebe, who also worked on Flash Gordon (1938), came straight from The Phantom Creeps (1939) and then went back to finish Flash Gordon Conquers The Universe (1940). Buck Rogers stars Buster Crabbe or, as his family knew him, Lawrence. Now, Lawrence ‘Larry’ ‘Buster’ Crabbe had previously starred in two Flash Gordon serials, a couple of Tarzan movies and a long string of westerns, so it was only natural for Universal to decide he was perfect as the heroic Buck Rogers, aka that blonde guy who saves the universe but isn’t Flash Gordon. Actually, Buster Crabbe wasn’t the first actor to play Buck Rogers in-the-flesh, so to speak.

That honour goes to an unknown man who played Buck in a Virginia department store, instead of their regular Santa Claus. Santa was off conquering Martians at the time, I think it was an exchange program of sorts. It strikes me that Buck Rogers is not unlike a male fantasy come to life. Just think of it – Buck gets to take a nice five-hundred-year-long sleep-in. With my busy schedule, I’m ecstatic if I can get twenty minutes nap on the weekend. Then, when he wakes up, Buck is the smartest, most dynamic guy around. In reality he’d be treated like something that’s escaped from the zoo. And finally, everyone needs Buck to go on exciting missions, fight the bad guys, test exotic equipment and crash rocket ships – out of the half-dozen flights Buck makes, he only lands successfully once. It’s easy to see the bullet cars used in the movie are the same ones from Flash Gordon’s Trip To Mars (1938), and even the script is rather suspect.

Planet Outlaws

This film is actually a compilation of the Buck Rogers serials that ran originally in 1939. The cliffhanger endings and recap beginnings have been edited out to make it flow better -- with partial success. Some new footage was shot for the introduction and summary. At the opening, there are some newspaper headlines about jets chasing flying discs, and the obligatory checkered V2 launch, etc. to add a modern segue. After that, it's pure 1939.

Sci-fi movie technology had come a long way in the 14 years since Buck's debut. Audiences had grown accustomed to sleek and pointy rockets, flying saucers, strange aliens, etc. The Buck Rogers style world-of-the-future must have looked oddly quaint. (if not laughable) Just why Universal Pictures thought re-releasing Buck Rogers was a good idea is a bit of a mystery. Kids who were 8 or so back in 1939 would be young adults in '53. Perhaps Universal was banking on those young adults would buy tickets for a trip down memory lane.

Plot Synopsis

After a bit of modern ('53) footage about the wonders of modern progress and "flying disks," the old serial begins. Rogers and Buddy crashed in the arctic while on a transpolar flight. They were in suspended animation due to the cold and a vague gas. A patrol finds them in the year 2500 and revives them. In the world of 2500, a despot named Killer Kane is trying to take over the world. The forces of good are holed up in the "hidden city." Buck arranges a decoy maneuver to elude Kane's patrol ships. They fly to the planet Saturn in hopes of finding help. On Saturn, the Council sees Rogers and party as the rebels, and Kane as the rule of law. Rogers et al, escape Saturn, return to earth and seek to disrupt Kane's bamboozling of Prince Tallen, the Saturnian representative. Rogers sneaks into Kane's city, interrupts the treaty signing and convinces Tallen of Kane's evil by revealing Kane's "robot battalion" (slaves wearing mind-control helmets). Rogers and Tallen get to Saturn and the treaty is signed. Rogers escapes Kane's patrols via the Dissolvo Ray which rendered them invisible. Rogers and the war council plan for war. Rogers enlists the Saturnians to help. Meanwhile, Rogers sneaks into Kane's city and de-zombies Minister Krenco to lead an uprising of freed robot-slave-prisoners. Rogers storms Kane's palace and puts one of the robo-slave helmets on Kane. The End

The industrial vision of the future is delightful to watch. The heavily mechanical look of everything is so radically different from the sleek rockets and glowing acrylic audiences were growing accustomed to. The space ships look like they were built at locomotive factories or steamship yards. They spew roman-candle sparks and smoke and buzz as they fly. There are no computers, no radar or electronics. It's a fascinating snapshot of what pre-electronic-age people thought the future would be like.

When originally released in 1939, the Killer Kane character was a thinly disguised allusion to Hitler. In 1953, Kane was intended to represent a communist despot. It wasn't as tidy a fit. The narrator sums it up voicing a hope that scientists will develop the means for men to stand up to today's dictators and make the world safe for democracy. In the early 50s, there's little question of who they meant.

Simple Colors -- One endearing trait of Buck Rogers is the simplicity of the characterizations. The good guys do nothing but good. The bad guys are pure bad. The good guys are crack pilots and sharp shooters and tough as nails. The bad guys do nothing but bad, have trouble hitting a flying barn and are easily knocked out with one punch.

Industrial Baroque -- Somewhat like the baroque era's compulsion to decorate every square inch with swirls and filigree, Industrial Baroque sought to fill every space with heavy-duty hardware. The sets, and especially the rocket interiors are like flying boiler rooms. Valves, pipes, levers, dials, wheels, large flashing light bulbs. To look more "high tech" in the 30s meant cramming in more industrial hardware. Buck Rogers' ships show more affinity for Captain Nemo "steampunk" than the proto-space-age of the 50s.

Family Resemblance -- There is a noticeable similarity in the sets and costumes of Flash Gordon, Buck Rogers. Even serials of the early 50s, like Captain Video and the various Rocketman serials, look more like Flash and Buck than George Pal. The industrial baroque look and costuming are distinctive, making them almost a sub-genre of their own. In that regard, Buck has a timelessness.

Another take on the story and additional background info.

A round-the-world dirigible flight commanded by US Air Force officer Buck Rogers (Buster Crabbe) encounters dangerously stormy weather above the Himalayas; said weather, along with disastrous panic on the part of Rogers’ crewmen, causes the aircraft to crash. The cowardly crewmen ditch the ship and meet quick ends, but Rogers and young Buddy Wade (Jackie Moran), son of the aircraft’s designer, survive the crash. The pair use a cylinder of “Nirvano” gas to place themselves into suspended animation until a rescue party can reach them, but an avalanche buries the ship and all searches prove fruitless; the dirigible and its two dormant inhabitants remain beneath rocks and snow for five hundred years.

Finally, in the year 2440, a spaceship unearths the wreck, and its pilots restore Buck and Buddy to consciousness. The holdovers from the 20th century soon learn that their rescuers are soldiers from the “Hidden City,” a pocket of resistance to the super-criminal who is ruling the 24th-century Earth–one “Killer” Kane (Anthony Warde). Rogers immediately pledges his support to Air Marshal Kragg (William Gould) and Scientist-General Dr. Huer (C. Montague Shaw), the leaders of the Hidden City exiles, and is soon en route to Saturn, hoping to convince that planet’s rulers to aid the Hidden City in freeing the Earth from Kane’s tyranny. To cement the Saturian alliance, Buck must battle Kane’s legions at every step of the way, with able assistance from Buddy and from Dr. Huer’s trusted aide Lieutenant Wilma Deering (Constance Moore).

 

Ever since its original release, Buck Rogers has stood in the shadow of Universal’s Flash Gordon serials; the studio encouraged such association by casting Flash Gordon star Buster Crabbe as a different sci-fi hero, obviously hoping that the chapterplay would capitalize on the goodwill generated by Flash Gordon and Flash Gordon’s Trip to Mars. The serial did succeed in reminding audiences of the Flash outings–but it reminded them of how much they had liked those serials and forced inevitable comparisons that were not in Rogers’ favor. Universal’s plans for a second Buck Rogers serial were quickly scrapped when the first outing failed to please matinee audiences; the intended Buck sequel was then replaced on the studio’s production schedule by–what else?–a third Flash Gordon chapterplay. Even today, Buck is typically dismissed by fans as a pale echo of the great Gordon serials.

It’s easy to see why Buck Rogers came as a disappointment to audiences expecting an outing in the Flash Gordon tradition. Its production design, while futuristic, is less quirky and more uniform than that of the Gordons; there are no monsters and no weird semi-human races besides the rather uninteresting Zuggs; there are also no supporting characters as developed or as interesting as Dr. Zarkov, Ming, King Vultan, the Clay King, Princess Aura, Prince Barin, and other major figures in the Flash Gordon chapterplays. And yet, taken on its own terms, Buck Rogers is far from a failure; it does not approach the Flash Gordon trilogy in quality, but then few serials do.

Buck Rogers’ script, by former Mascot writers Norman Hall and Ray Trampe, is fast-moving and manages to avoid repetition for most of its length. The trip to Saturn, the attempts to convince Saturnian leader Prince Tallen (Philson Ahn) of the justice of the Hidden City’s cause, the subsequent rescue of Tallen from Kane’s city, the second journey to Saturn to cement the alliance, and the attempts of Kane’s henchman Laska (Henry Brandon) to sabotage it–all these incidents keep the narrative flowing very nicely for the serial’s first eight chapters. As in many of Trampe and Hall’s Mascot scripts, however, the writers seem to run out of plot before the serial’s end. While Chapters Nine and Ten remain interesting (with Buck being converted into a hypnotized robot, Buddy’s rescue of the hero, and an infiltration of the Hidden City by one of Kane’s men), the last two chapters have a definite wheel-spinning feel to them, throwing in a redundant third trip to Saturn and an unneeded flashback sequence.

The last-chapter climax is also something of a disappointment, with Kane being overthrown quickly and undramatically instead of being definitively crushed. Here, Trampe and Hall seem to have been leaving room for the sequel that never came and trying to avoid duplicating the dramatic but very final destruction of MIng which closed the first Flash Gordon serial (and which needed to be explained away in the second). The other weak spot of the scripting is Buck and Buddy’s rather calm reaction when they realize that their old world (and everyone in it) is dead–and their extraordinarily quick adjustment to their new one. One wouldn’t have wanted the writers to dwell on our heroes’ plight (which would be absolutely crushing in real life), but I do wish Trampe or Hall could have given Buck and Buddy a few emotional lines about their displacement before getting on to the main action; Hall in his scripts for other serials (Hawk of the Wilderness, Adventures of Red Ryder), showed himself capable of far more dramatic moments.

  

As already mentioned, the serial’s visuals are less varied than those of the Flash Gordon serials, but that’s not to say they aren’t impressive by serial standards. Pains seem to have been taken to avoid duplicating too much of Gordon’s “look;” the spaceship miniatures are completely different than the ships in the Gordon trilogy, while Kane’s stronghold–probably the best miniature in the serial–is not the quasi-Gothic palace of Ming but rather an ominous, futuristic-looking version of New York City, complete with towering skyscrapers. The Hidden City’s great rock gates are also nifty, and the massive Saturnian Forum (a life-size set, not a miniature) is very visually impressive. The barren Red Rock Canyon area works well as the Saturnian landscape, but I think it was a mistake to also use the Canyon as the area between the Hidden City and Kane’s capital; Saturn and Earth shouldn’t look so similar.

 

The only major prop or set reused from the Gordon serials are the “bullet cars” from Flash Gordon’s Trip to Mars; they’re just as fun to watch in action here as in the earlier serial. Other incidental props and sets–Kane’s robot room, his mind-control helmets, the various televiewing devices, the anti-gravity belts, Dr. Huer’s invisibility ray, and the Star-Trek-like molecular transportation chamber–add further colorful touches to the serial., and are respectably represented by Universal’s always above-average array of sets and props. The Zuggs, the “primitive race” ruled by the Saturnians, are somewhat disappointing, however; while suitably grotesque-looking, they’re nowhere near as menacing or memorable–in appearance or demeanor–as their obvious inspiration, the Clay People in Flash Gordon’s Trip to Mars.

The serial’s action scenes are brisk and energetic, suffering not at all from a general lack of fistfights–thanks to the swift-moving direction of Ford Beebe (a Mascot veteran like writers Trampe and Hall) and his co-director Saul Goodkind (usually an editor). The few hand-to-hand tussles–most of them on the rocky hills of Saturn–are executed routinely but skillfully by Dave Sharpe, Tom Steele, Eddie Parker, and other stuntmen; the best of the bunch is the fight between Buck and a Kane man in the control room of the Hidden City, although this is more exciting for the suspenseful situation (Buck trying to close the gates that the henchman has opened to Kane’s oncoming armada) than for any particular flair in the staging.

Most of the action sequences consist of protracted chases and pursuits (both on foot and in rocketships), with occasional quick combats thrown in. Many of these lengthy chases are very exciting–particularly the long incursion into Kane’s city that occupies most of Chapters Three and Four, a great combination of action and suspense. Buddy’s later stealthy visit into Kane’s fortress to rescue Buck from the robot room, and the following escape, is also good, as are Buck’s skillful and repeated elusions of the rebellious Zuggs in Chapter Eight and the bullet car getaway in Chapter Six.

  

The cliffhanger endings are generally well-staged, with proper build-ups, but too many of them involve spaceship crashes that our heroes rather implausibly live through. The impressive collapsing forum at the end of Chapter Eleven and the bullet car crash at the end of Chapter Six provide nice variety amid the spaceship wrecks, but (alas) are also resolved by mere survival. Still, this is preferable to the blatantly cheating resolution of what is otherwise one the best chapter endings–Killer Kane’s pursuit of Buddy in a darkened council chamber and his apparently lethal zapping of the young hero. At least the resolution features a good stunt bit by Dave Sharpe.

The leading performances in Buck Rogers are all excellent (although most other critics would make a single exception; see below). Buster Crabbe, as always, makes a perfect serial hero–both genially cheerful and grimly serious, unassumingly polite and aggressively tough. As in the Flash Gordon trilogy, his down-to-earth attitude also helps to make the wild sci-fi happenings seem perfectly normal.

Jackie Moran (oddly “reduced” to serial acting only a year after playing Huck Finn in David O. Selznick’s big-budget classic Adventures of Tom Sawyer) does a fine job as Buddy Wade, handling his character’s frequent “golly, gee-whiz” lines in a low-key fashion that keeps Buddy from coming off as too naïve; his chipper but calm demeanor complements Crabbe’s well, and he has no problems carrying an entire chapter and part of another on his own.

Constance Moore, despite being saddled with perhaps the most unflattering costume ever worn by a serial leading lady (basically coveralls and a bathing cap), manages to come off as charming. Her Wilma Deering is self-possessed and capable-seeming but never too coldly efficient; she remains warmly likable even when piloting spaceships or explaining technology to Crabbe.

Henry Brandon is very good as Killer Kane’s chief henchman Captain Laska–suave and sly when acting as Kane’s ambassador to Saturn, haughtily arrogant when threatening people, and nervously jittery in the presence of his overbearing leader. Hard-bitten tough guys Wheeler Oakman and Reed Howes, along with the slicker Carleton Young , form Brandon’s backup squad.

As Killer Kane himself, perennial henchman actor Anthony Warde has been almost universally panned by critics as “miscast.” I have to dissent strongly, however; Warde does a fine job in the part and plays Kane with a memorable combination of viciousness and uncontrollable anger. The character is not a diabolical schemer like Ming, but rather a super-gangster who’s blasted and bullied his way to the top–and Warde’s bad-tempered, aggressive, and thuggish screen personality fits the part perfectly. He veers between intimidating ranting and harshly sinister sarcasm–as when he describes himself as a “kindly ruler” just after wrathfully sending a formerly trusted councilor to the robot room–but is quite menacing in both aspects.

Philson Ahn, brother of frequent serial and feature actor Phillip Ahn, does a good job as Prince Tallen of Saturn; he possesses his sibling’s deep and distinctive voice, which serves him well as a planetary dignitary. His manner also has a slightly tougher edge to it than his refined brother’s, which helps to keep the viewer in uncertainty in the earlier chapters as to whether Tallen will turn out to be friend or foe. Guy Usher plays Aldar, the head of Saturn’s ”Council of the Wise,” and does his best to seem suitably imposing and dignified, despite the almost comical way in which the “Wise” continually change their opinions–backing Kane, opposing him, giving into his demands, defying him, etc. Cyril Delevanti is enjoyable as a grumpy subordinate member of the Council.*

C. Montague Shaw has limited screen time, but is very good as Dr. Huer, balancing statesmanlike dignity with shrewdness and a touch of enjoyable scientific eccentricity (the last is particularly noticeable during his demonstration of his invisibility gas in Chapter Five). Energetic Jack Mulhall is typically affable and enthusiastic as Captain Rankin of the Hidden City, while Kenne Duncan has a rare good guy role as Mulhall’s fellow-officer Lieutenant Lacy. Perennial screen “underworld rat” John Harmon also plays against type as a Hidden City soldier, as does Stanley Price as a Hidden City pilot rescued from existence as a human robot. The dignified but stolid William Gould is good enough as Air Marshal Kragg, but I would have preferred a more dynamic actor in the role–Kragg is, after all, the top military leader of Kane’s enemies. Mulhall could have handled it well, as could Wade Boteler–who does an excellent job as the grim and concerned Professor Morgan in the first chapter, intensely instructing Buddy and Buck in the use of the Nirvano gas.

Lane Chandler also appears in the first chapter, as a military officer who demonstrates the Nirvano gas to a reporter played by another old pro, Kenneth Harlan. An unusually subdued Theodore Lorch is one of Kane’s councilors, while Karl Hackett has a good part as another councilor who gets into an argument with Kane that leads to Hackett’s being converted into a human robot (his terrified pleas as he’s dragged out of the council chamber are quite chilling). Al Bridge has some memorably sinister lines (“when this helmet is in place, you’ll never think or speak again”) in his periodic scenes as the slave-master of Kane’s human robots.

Unusually for Universal, several bit roles are filled by stuntmen; Eddie Parker and Tom Steele pop in as various soldiers and officers, but aren’t as noticeable as Dave Sharpe, who’s given multiple speaking roles as a Kane soldier, a Hidden City soldier, a Saturnian officer, and a Saturnian soldier. His ubiquity can get a little distracting at times, particularly since some of his appearances follow right on the previous one’s heels; he also seems to have a bit of trouble with the formal-sounding Saturnian dialogue, coming off as much more stiff and affected than in his co-starring turn in Daredevils of the Red Circle.

The serial’s music score, like most other Universals of the period, is an eclectic but usually effective array of stock music, some of it cues from the Flash Gordon serials but the majority of it culled from Universal’s horror features, including (most notably) Franz Waxman’s score for Bride of Frankenstein, which furnishes some memorable opening-titles music.

All in all, though Buck Rogers has its share of flaws, it also has more than enough virtues (the acting, the fast pace, the interesting sci-fi trappings) to make it a good chapterplay. Despite its similar themes, it shouldn’t be pitted against the Flash Gordon trilogy–a match it’s bound to lose–but rather judged against the field of competition in general. When judged in this fashion, it’s just as entertaining–and often more entertaining–than many serials with less shabby reputations.

 

*One has to wonder, though, why some Saturnians are Orientals like Ahn and others Occidentals like Usher and Delevanti; my own theory is that men from various countries emigrated from Earth to Saturn sometime before the bulk of the serial took place; this would explain the racial assortment and also explain why the Hidden City chooses Saturn in particular as an ally (as usual, I’m probably putting too much thought into this).

+++ DISCLAIMER +++

Nothing you see here is real, even though the model, the conversion or the presented background story might be based historical facts. BEWARE!

  

Some background:

With Scotland’s independence from Great Britain in late 2017, “Caledonian International Airlines” (or just “Caledonian” or “CI”) quickly emerged as a privately-owned national flag carrier. The airline followed in the footsteps of Caledonian Airways, an independent Scottish charter airline formed in April 1961, which evolved into British Caledonian Airlines (a.k.a. “BCal”). During the 1970s and '80s, British Caledonian became the UK's largest independent, international scheduled airline, with an extensive global route network serving over 40 destinations in around 25 countries on five continents. However, a series of major financial setbacks during the mid-1980s combined with the airline's inability to grow sufficiently to reach a viable size put the airline at serious risk of collapse. BCal began looking for a merger partner to improve its competitive position, and, in December 1987, British Airways (BA) gained control of the airline. In April 1988 BCal was officially dissolved and the brand disappeared.

 

Caledonian International Airlines was a completely new company, though, and received its Air Operator's Certificate on December 31, 2017. Caledonian had, except for the name and the use of the Scottish “Lion Rampant” emblem (the Royal Standard of the King or Queen of Scots), no connections with BCal, and also not to British Airways. In the second quarter of 2018, CI leased two Airbus A319s from Lessors Avolon and Apollo and started deploying to several national destinations from its home base Glasgow, taking over domestic flight slots to Scottish destinations (primarily Glasgow and Edinburgh) from British Airways. In 2019, the airline added a third A319 for connections to Continental Europe as well as a single Airbus A318 and an A330 for transatlantic destinations and charter flights, respectively.

 

CI’s A318-100 (SC-ABG) was primarily scheduled for the direct Glasgow/Edinburgh – New York (3210 ml/5170 km) routes. The Airbus A318 was the smallest airliner in the Airbus A320 family, carrying 107 to 132 passengers with a maximum range of 5,700 km (3,100 nmi). Overall, the A318 was over six meters shorter and around 3 t (6,600 lb) lighter than the A320, and to compensate for the reduced moment arm, it had a larger vertical stabilizer. While initial concepts depicted the aircraft with a Boeing 737-300-style dorsal fin extension, the final design incorporated a fin tip extension, making it 75 centimeters (30 in) taller than the other A320 variants and easily identifiable. Pilots who were trained on the other variants might fly the A318 with no further certification, since it featured a common flight deck and the same type rating as its sister aircraft.

 

The A318 was available with a variety of different maximum take-off weights (MTOW) ranging from a 59-tonnes (58 long tons; 65 short tons), 2,750 kilometres (1,480 nmi) base model to a 68-tonnes (67 long tons; 75 short tons), 6,000 kilometres (3,200 nmi) version. The lower MTOW enabled it to operate regional routes economically while sacrificing range and the higher MTOW allowed it to complement other members of the A320 family on marginal routes. On the other side, the lighter weight of the A318 gave it an operating range 10% greater than the A320, allowing it to serve some routes that the A320 would be unable to, e. g, London – New York, Perth–Auckland and Singapore–Tokyo, for instance. Its main use for airlines, however, were on short, low-density hops between medium-sized cities.

 

The airline also ordered two long-haul wide-body Airbus A330-900neos in November 2019 at the Dubai Air Show. The first plane is scheduled to arrive in January 2022 after a delivery flight from Toulouse and will operate on routes to Asia, e. g. Hong Kong and Tokyo, and to intercontinental destinations in North America and Brazil. A further order for six EMBRAER ERJ-190s was placed at the same time – these will replace the leased A320s on regional and domestic routes, and with these additional aircraft Caledonian International Airlines follows a slow but steady expansion strategy.

  

General characteristics:

Cockpit crew: Two

Length: 31.44 m (103 ft 2 in)

Wingspan:34.10 m (111 ft 11 in)

Wing area: 122.4 m² (1,318 sq ft)

Wing sweepback: 25°

Tail height: 12.56 m (41 ft 2 in)

Cabin width: 3.70 m (12 ft 2 in)

Fuselage width: 3.95 m (13 ft 0 in)

Operating empty weight: 39,500 kg (87,100 lb)

Maximum zero-fuel weight (MZFW): 54,500 kg (120,200 lb)

Maximum landing weight (MLW):57,500 kg (126,800 lb)

Maximum take-off weight (MTOW): 68,000 kg (150,000 lb)

 

Capacity:

Exit Limit:136

1-class max. seating: 132 at 29–30 in (74–76 cm) pitch

1-class, typical: 117 at 32 in (81 cm) pitch

2-class, typical: 107 (8F @ 38 in, 99Y @ 32 in)

Cargo capacity: 21.2 m³ (750 cu ft)

Fuel capacity: 24,210 L (5,330 imp gal; 6,400 US gal)

 

Performance:

Cruising speed: Mach 0.78 (829 km/h; 515 mph)

Maximum speed: Mach 0.82 (871 km/h; 541 mph)

Range (typical payload): 5,740 km (3,100 nmi)

ACJ range:4,200 nmi (7,800 km)

Takeoff (MTOW, SL, ISA): 1,780 m (5,840 ft)

Landing (MLW, SL, ISA): 1,230 m (4,040 ft)

Ceiling: 39,100–41,000 ft (11,900–12,500 m)

 

Engines:

2xCFM56-5B9/P turbofans with 23,300 lbf (100 kN) thrust each

  

The kit and its assembly:

I have been pondering the idea of an independent Scotland for some time and already built some what-if models with this background. But then arose the question: what could a national carrier airline be or look like?

 

This turned out to be a more complex question than initially ever thought of and led to more than a dozen potential design layouts, with the plan to avoid the much-too-obvious blue from the Scottish flag and rather incorporate the Scottish coat-of-arms (with a standing red lion on a yellow shield/background) but also based on limited decal resources. The small Airbus 318 was chosen because it would be a rather small airline, and the type’s extended range vs. it bigger brethren (making flight to America possible) made it a good choice for trans-Atlantic flights.

 

I settled for the Eastern Express A318 kit, which is BTW the only option for this airliner in 1:144. Upon an initial glance the kit looked quite O.K. – very simple and straightforward, and somewhat looking like a clone of the Revell A319/320 model (but it isn't). However, closer inspection confirmed the impression of a rather poor copy quality level. Most surface details (engraved) are there, but they are soft and somewhat blurred, and any fine details like pitots or blade antennae are missing or just hinted at. The material is also dubious, a very waxy and soft styrene. It can be glued together easily, but it is very sensitive to scratches or cuts.

 

However, things turned really ugly when I tried to build it! NOTHING of the major elements fits together, the worst flaws became apparent when I tried to glue the fuselage halves together, which turned out to be wavy along the seams and heavily dented, esp. along the spine. Massive PSR was necessary to fill the worst gaps, and even then, the result is barely acceptable.

 

Another disaster area is the wing/fuselage intersection. Unlike the Revell A320, the Eastern Express kit comes with separate, asymmtretical lower wing halves, which carry a part of the lower fuselage. Raised surface details and air scoops justify this construction, but the poor fit of everything involved in this area left me with a ventral 2mm(!!!) gap and further misalignments that called for even more PSR. Horrible.

 

The final major problem zone was the fin – in consists of a base, which is molded into the fuselage halves, and the extended fin tip as well as the rudder are a separate part. This could work, if the fin’s base halves were not about 1mm too thick when assembled, resulting in a crippled fin that called for more PSR to create even surfaces on both sides (and fill gap’s at the rudder’s base)…

 

Beyond that, there were some sinkholes on the wings and the (otherwise pretty clear) cockpit glazing did not fit at all, being much too narrow and leaving considerable gaps at its base. Since I had decals for the complete cockpit glazing at hand I short-handedly blended the clear part into the hull with some more PSR. No, this kit is NOT recommended – I guess that cutting an A319/320 from another manufacturer and scratching the longer fin leads to better results than the Eastern Express A318 kit!

  

Painting and markings:

I wanted to develop a personal livery for Scotland’s potential flag carrier, and this took a while. The process was inspired and also limited by decal options, and I wanted to avoid the obvious color blue. I rather took inspiration from the Scottish coat of arms, which shows a standing red lion on a deep yellow background. For potential layouts I took the burden to create profile drawings, which soon revealed that yellow and red would make the airliner look like a Spanish charter carrier, so more and more black crept into the design, eventually fully replacing the yellow, together with white as basic color for the fuselage and a little red from the lion as contrast. After more than a dozen layouts the one I chose reminds of the late BEA scheme (with the black fin and trim) or Air Canada. However, I wanted to avoid a contemporary livery with a uniform/featureless fuselage, so I incorporated a black window cheatline that visually stretches the fuselage. The design has a certain retro appeal, even though this was not intended.

 

The fuselage was prepared with grey primer and received a coat with pure white paint from the rattle can. The wings were painted with Humbrol 40 (Gloss Light Gull Grey) and 126 (FS 26270) for the Corroguard areas. Fin and engine nacelles were painted black (Humbrol 21). The small winglets were painted in red (Humbrol 19), as small color highlights. Black ink was used to emphasize the panel lines (esp. of the flaps and rudders) on the wings, the white fuselage remained clean, though, in order to avoid a dirty or worn look.

 

The cheatlines and the windows come from a TwoSix Decals sheet for a retro British Airways A319 with a BEA red square livery, the decals had to be tailored to the A318’s shorter fuselage. The black nose section was retained, because it reminds of the elegant livery of British Caledonian Airlines. The red “Caledonian” letterings and the smaller sublines come from a TwoSix Decals sheet for a Sixties’ Caledonian Airways DC-6B. I had hoped to use the sheet’s large red lions for the Airbus’ fin, but they were only printed on clear carrier film and lacked opacity, so that I had to improvise. I found a suitable alternative in a MicroScale H0 scale sheet for Cape Brenton & Nova Scotia Diesel locomotives.

The stencils are a mix from the (very nice) Eastern Express and the TwoSix Airbus sheet, and I printed the registration code with the Scottish flag as well as the “independence” tag on the nose myself.

 

Finally, the model was sealed with an overall coat of glossy acrylic varnish.

 

Had a slight setback at some stage in life but seems to be going the right way now.

 

Near Double Creek at Mallacoota