Back to 1/32 scale aircraft again this week, taking a look at Roden’s L-19 Bird Dog kit.
My kit is up on my shelf of dome. I broke one of the landing gears. I suppose I can scratch a new gear, but haven’t so far. Very nice kit.
The L-19 is a great old bird and the pilots do not get the recognition they deserve. They went into enemy teritory and were low and slow and “marked” targets for the fast movers. There were many shot down and almost all of them had holes in them from ground fire. A few months ago I saw one at a gathering of “light flyers” for a pancake breakfast to raise money for Boy Scouts. The L-19 had been fully restored and was in fact a Viet Nam servivor. It had all the components for the rockets but the BATF frowns on the possession of such weapons (the rockets). I have the 1/72 kit and the 1/48 scale kit and I’ll be getting this kit. She is a great old bird.
My Dad was slated to fly these in 'Nam when he went over there. Luckily, the base where the O1 training was at was commanded by the guy who commanded my Dad when he was working the flight testing and certification of the B57, so my Dad managed to get transferred from the O-1 job to flying the B-57 night bombers out of Phan Rang. I really think that because of that, he came home.