an aces group build. well lets see what i have going on, i have 1 f-18 hornet group build and a-7 corsair II group build going on right now and i belive thats all i have on the bench right now and another hornet group build going to start on the super hornet here on fsm sometime in april 2006. i do have a f-4 u cosair and a f-6-f hellcat in the stash and plenty of aces markings. i think i can squeeze these two builds in before the turkey sesaon kicks off, so you can count me in.
Great Ga.modelmaker, I’ll add you to the front, which aces were you thinking of?
Hmmm… I heard my name posted and I appear… of course I have a few unknown aces in mind… I’ll get back with you on this one… I gotta add some fringe to this! April is a good start date… the roof should be fixd by then and my new model room built.
I remember a page I saw out here the other day that interested me… I just gotta find out who it was exactly. I know he was not flying a plane you would expect an ace to fly… (P-51, P-47 etc…)
Jay, things have been a tad quiet a work this week so it’s given me the chance to do a little research on my build. I have looked at a heap of Wolf Pack P-47s and finally found one that really grabbed me, it’s a P-47D-25-RE named Miss Fire/Rozzie Geth II flown by Capt. Fred Christensen Jr., 62 Fighter Squadron, 56 Fighter Group.
Here’s a pic
Cheers
I vaguely remember seeing a page or article where the rear gunner in a Vindicator (or maybe it was a Devestator) shot down a couple of Zeros during the Battle of Midway (I think). Doubtful if any (rear gunners) made ‘ace’ status though…
How about one of the lovely Soviet FEMALE aces, such as Lidiya Litvyak (12 victories), Yekaterina Budanova (20 Victories) or Olga Yamischikova (17 victories)? I would think that is pretty fringe. I also remember reading about some gunners on bombers being aces. Good luck finding something!
ok jay here is my 2 selections for th aces gb. they are the f4u-1a corsair kepford and f-6f-3/5 hellcat minsiIII
Jay-I like the new avitar. Would make a good Group Build Badge [;)]
Bob, it was my wife’s idea, she thought my Conan was silly. I like this one too!
I’ve been feeling a little schizophrenic the past two months…I started with Wayne Gretzky holding the Stanley Cup, then Conan, then for a brief period I was myself (in a ww1 flying cap), I like the Snoopy so I’m sticking with him from now on…maybe [swg].
A good GB badge is right, maybe a WW1 a/c build? I have been meaning to do great war machine sometime. May that GB will have to be far into the future (like 2008 at this rate…)[(-D]
BTW I can’t really make out your avatar, it looks like a duck with sunglasses sitting on a pool side recliner, am I close?
hmmmm… I just did a little research and on the official USAF website they have a section devoted to gunner aces vs. pilot aces. Seems there were quite a few B-17 gunners honored as aces there. Problem is I don’t feel like doing a B-17… I know, I know… they were instrumental in bringing the war to early end (a contentious point for me that I won’t get into here…)
I hate to think of doing a mainstream aircraft. [;)]
I’ll just have to research more… like any of the non-US pilots flying for the USAF/USN etc…
I might try to do Francis Gabreski’s P-47D-27 in 1/48 scale, but I’m not to sure about the camo (I’ll try my best).
How do you get avatars on?
Or how about a French ace from the Battle of France with a Hawk 75 such as Meslee?
Eduard do a set of decals for Battle of France aces, including Meslee, 2 Czech aces, and a Pole.
Pretty fringe!
Karl
Close Jay. If you look closely, there are two bullet holes to the upper left, hence the pictures title “Sitting Duck”. Kinda summed up my years of working Material/Production Control in the Auto industry… My next project is to find my old “Howard the Duck” comics in the attic and use Howard as an avatar.
Tom-I was researching the Eagle Strike Productions website and noticed that Aeromaster has decals for a Soviet P-39 Cobra with ‘ace’ status. That’s almost fringe…[;)]
ps-There were decals for Finnish Aces flying Buffalo’s…but that’s the wrong side. Maybe later…
Bob - thanks! I’ll have to take a look around… I know something will pop out at me… although that Cobra is a nice plane… I’ll have to remember that one. In fact it would be the first and only Soviet thing I have built! hmmm I feel an interest growing…
Karl - thanks to you as well! You’re so good at thinking up fringe… I should come to you first with these questions! [;)]
Tom, you’re welcome.
There is a perverse pleasure to be derived from pursuing the obscure…
…also people don’t know when you’ve got it wrong![;)]
Karl
Welcome to the GB Rudy_102! I’ll add you to the front.
To get avatars on, in your profile editing, click it to ‘on’ then browse to the pic you want then click on update. A message will come up saying it may take up to 10 minutes for changes to take effect.
Tom, I like the P-39 idea, Pokryshkin was a P-39 ace but then again, he is a common subject, that is why I suggest a soviet female ace! (see previous post by me)
OK Tom now you’ve got me curious. I would be very interested in hearing your point of view on heavy bombers. As I don’t hold strong opinions one way or the other, I am always keen to hear from someone who has a definite POV on the subject.
As a by the by, I was at a family BBQ today that involved 3 German civilians who lived through the bombing as well as former RAF Spitfire pilot whose principal mission was too as John put it “knock the daylights out of any building that looked even remotely suspicious”. This made for a lively BBQ as you might imagine.
Cheers
I think you have to take claims made by gunners with a pinch of salt, as some of the claims made by 8th AF gunners in a single mission equated to large chunks of the Luftwaffe! That and the fact they were often not backed up by official Luftwaffe records of losses.
Having said that I can remember reading about a B17 tail gunner in the Pacific who notched up a large number of confirmed kills. Apparently it was after they switched to the later models of B17 with the tail gun installation, which the Japanese were unaware of, and therefore continued to approach the aircraft from dead astern an slightly below, believing that they were both unobserved and invulnerable. Msot who tried didn’t live long enough to realise their mistake! Can’t for the life of me remember the guy’s name.
If we allow gunners, are AA sites in as well?[;)]
Karl