Stole this from another forum, and I ain’t ashamed…
For those not familiar with this program: Oscars Reborn
Been waiting for this day for many years… 
Fade to Black…
I have been following that Oscar rebuild or new build program for several years. They took the carcasses of several Oscars from the Pacific Jungles and made about 3 essentially new planes from them. The first was taxiing out for its first flight recently when it lost steering control and ran off the taxiway, damaging the landing gear. Obviously they have that fixed. It is really nice to see those old birds in the air even if it is a new build. There is a group in Seattle that is doing a new build on 5 or 6 Me-262 jets. the first has several flights and the second may also by now. The first one is a two seater and the second is convertible between 1 and 2 seats. They use the modern J-85 jet engines instead of the old Jumos from the original, modern brakes, and so forth.
Darwin, O.F. [alien]
Woo hoo!
It’s awseome to see an Oscar flying again.
Regards,
Wow,very cool!!!
Regards, Dan
Great to see one re-born. Great pic. Thanks for the Post.
Regards, Rick
Uh, Holmes, um, I mean Wolf, er, Steve: So tell us what a modeler really wants to know about a new warbird in the air: did they do a good job with the really important stuff, like colors and markings?
I’m serious, I’m afraid. I’ve seen too many warbirds that were ten years in the restoration/rebuilding and then the paint was just put on as an afterthought. Yes, I believe if you are going to spend fortunes to put aircraft back into the air for historical purposes, it should be genuinely historical. I don’t think that qualifies as 1:1 rivet counting. I just had too many disappointments in the two years I worked at CAF and the ten years I was around them a lot. They put in ten years, hundreds of thousands of dollars, thousands of man hours putting the only flying B-26 Marauder in the world back in the air, and the colors and markings were laughable. They didn’t even try.
TOM
wow thats neat, right in my back yard and never knew they were doing that
Yeah, Tom…
I’ve seen that before - thousands upon thousands of man hours in the rebuild, tens of thousands (if not hundreds of thousands) of dollars spent - and the paintwork is pathetic - although some I’ve seen are pretty darned good, too.
It’s always wonderful to see these priceless wonders take to the air again - all too often a successful rebuild requires a HUGE amount of lateral thinking and re-engineering of parts that didn’t come from that plane…Thanks, Steve, for the link.
I have to agree with the criticism of paint schemes on many warbirds, but then, in the case of the CAF, all I can say is… well, that’s the CAF.
I have immense respect for any individual, group of individuals or full-blown organization which devotes the time and effort to return an old bird to the air and keep it there. Nevertheless, I can’t stand to see an old warbird in a fanciful paint scheme. I can sorta understand a gloss finish; from a maintenance standpoint it’s a plus. But some of the colors and markings… sheesh…
Anyhoo, I don’t own any warbirds and so can only wince when I see another ridiculous paint job. I’m just thankful that more and more folks are restoring aircraft to the highest degree possible of historical accuracy, including colors and markings.
This gives me an idea for a thread… [:-,]
Fade to Black…
They did a pretty good job on that P 38 that was yanked out of the ice in Greenland if I recall correctly. There is hope.