For
some reason that perhaps only mental health counselors can explain, I
seem to like building models in sets -- like all the performance
aircraft flown by the Blue Angels or the Thunderbirds for example. As I have
built these theme groups, I seldom take pride in my glacially
developing modeling skills but am consoled at least by my dedication
to historical accuracy (i.e. "Sure, it looks like crap, but its faithfully researched
crap.")
Strangely
enough, this ethos somehow still applied when I got the bug to
build the aircraft of some of my favorite fictional characters. As
odd is it may sound, the aircraft I wanted to build all had a real
existence too -- if only perhaps in a drawing, on television or the movie screen
-- and a faithful (oh, alright, "anal") modeler would
have to find the resources to guide him in this modeling
process too. Though my usual sources of Squadron, Osprey , Aircraft in
Profile, etc., for some reason do not publish a series on
fictional aircraft, luckily the airplanes that caught my imagination
were all based on real machines. So, where the drawings,
T.V. shows or movies were silent on an issue, the traditional
resources were my guide. However, if the drawing, episode or film showed
the hero's mount as being a certain way -- it controlled regardless of what
the manufacturer originally had made. It was the perfect storm for
a modeler and wannabe pilot/adventurer such as myself-- I could have my head in
the clouds while my feet remained on solid ground.
BLACKHAWK'S SKYROCKET
When he first appeared in August of 1941, this comic book hero was a nameless fighter pilot in the air force of an unidentified nation (probably Poland) that was quickly conquered by Nazi Germany. As the very last member of his squadron to fight on until he was overwhelmed and shot down by the enemy’s hordes -- coincidentally over his own murdered family‘s farm (!) -- the unnamed pilot stumbled out of his plane's wreckage only to return a few months later from his private island (that he somehow acquired) calling himself
"Blackhawk" (for some reason) and leading a squadron of multinational pilots (e.g. from Sweden, France, China, etc. ) to get revenge against the Axis -- kind of a flying Lone Ranger without the mask and with League of Nations representatives instead of
Tonto. The comic’s hero became so popular he even made it to the highest echelon of superheroes -- Blackhawk had his own movie serial (it was terrible though, with the low budget film using far more cars than planes to get around and those planes were mostly nondescript transports!)
In the comics, however, the aircraft he and his men flew into their first decade of adventures was the Grumman XF5F Skyrocket -- though how they got them was never explained (perhaps, like the similarly rakish Flying Tigers‘ P-40‘s of that era, the Blackhawks also were part of a covert U.S. operation!) Ironically, this beautifully ugly but way cool Grumman fighter would combat the Nazis and Empire of Japan only in the comics. Though the real aircraft had first flown in April of 1940, only one prototype was built for reasons having more to do with the Navy's mind set against a big unconventional two engine fighter and less with the aircraft's generally impressive performance.
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The
Kit and its construction: Having
for some reason decided to build in 1/48 scale, Minicraft’s Skyrocket was my
only option. Though the model’s instructions noted the plane “became the
super weapon of ’Black Hawk‘ [sic],” it was no surprise that his decals
were not included as an option. The kit’s cockpit and landing gear compartment
were fairly primitive for this scale, but did allow for exposure of the
fighter’s four impressive 50 caliber guns if the “armament doors” were not
cemented closed. Unfortunately, I needed them closed and to say the doors do not
come together well is to put so much positive spin on it as to make even Karl
Rove dizzy. Beyond this major frustration that caused more glue on my fingers
than on the perpetually non joining nose parts, its assembly was otherwise
straight forward. (“Other than that Mrs. Lincoln, how was the play?”)
No real
modifications to the kit were necessary for my version, other than leaving the
arrester hook on the tree -- though Blackhawk did once land on a German aircraft
carrier (!) lurking in the Gulf of Mexico (!), he apparently did so without the
need of an arrester hook.
Painting
and Markings: The first
problem is the markings -- where does one find decals for Blackhawk’s
Skyrocket and how much would I have to pay? Obviously, nothing -- they can be
found for free at Dan Thompson’s “Blackhawk” website! (http://ourworlds.topcities.com/blackhawk/models/f5fmark.html)!
Mr. Thompson has graciously provided downloads and instructions on getting the
perfectly sized 1/72 or 1/48 scale Blackhawk decals from several of the
different schemes used by the comic’s artists over the years. He also has some
great pictures of other modelers’ Blackhawk projects as well a wealth of
background information on his childhood hero.
The second problem is that we are
dealing with a drawing, not a real object, whose appearance (colors, markings
and even the plane itself) would change at the whim of the particular artist --
sometimes from panel to panel. This was to be expected of course -- in the
“golden age” of comics the artists had to quickly get the story done and
move on to the next feature in that month‘s “Military Comics” and other
publications if they were going to make a living. Accordingly, after doing some
research by reading some very expensive reprints of the early series (i.e.
“The Blackhawk Archives,” Vol. 1), I chose the January 1943 story where
Blackhawk’s best artist Reed Crandal actually drew the Skyrocket as it looked
in real life -- er, if real life had WWII fighters with blue fuselages and
bright red wings! (If Blackhawk’s competitor Superman needed an airplane, this
would have been the color scheme for it!). They must have needed to use bright
colors in the comics for proper contrast, but in three dimensions the plane is
pretty, er …, “cartoonish.”
Conclusion: Despite
the model’s frustrating “armament doors,“ it was a blast making a 1940’s
drawing come to life. Also, the unconventional research source of comic books
was a great guilty pleasure! Heck, it’s a hobby most of us started as kids --
isn’t the point of it to be able to return to our childhood every once in a
while?
References: Blackhawk web site
(http://ourworlds.topcities.com/blackhawk/models/f5fmark.html)
The Blackhawk Archives, Vol. 1,
DC Archive Editions (2001)
James Steranko, The Steranko
History of Comics, Vol. 2 (1972)
CUTTER’S GOOSE
Soldier
of fortune Jake Cutter (Stephen Collins, now of “7th Heaven“),
assisted by his faithful recovering alcoholic mechanic Corky (Jeff Mackay,
previously of “Baa Baa Black Sheep“) and not so loyal one eyed dog Jack,
struggled every week to rescue American spy Sarah White (Caitlin O'Heaney) from
various pre-world war two south pacific perils on ABC’s 1982-83 “Tales of
the Gold Monkey.” As much as I loved the cast in this fun T.V. version of
Indiana Jones -- and any show with Roddy McDowall as a world weary French bar
owner named “Bon Chance Loui” has got to be fun -- my heart always raced
when they took off in Jake’s Grumman Goose painted with the logo “Cutter’s
Goose” on its sides. (What is it about prewar Grumman aircraft that gets the
heart pounding?) Whether it was flying to mysterious unmapped islands in a
fictional prewar Japanese mandate, dodging into clouds to avoid strafing runs by
Zeros, or simply as a backdrop to emoting actors, the Goose for me was the real
star of the show. Though the series lasted only a single season and its attempts
at historical references were almost always embarrassing (for example, Jake was
an ex-Flying Tiger ace -- but the show was set before the war at a time when the
real Flying Tigers had yet to go into action!), “Tales” has deservedly
become a cult classic.
The Goose used in the show has
become somewhat of a cult classic itself. At one time the oldest surviving
Grumman amphibian still flying, this particular seaplane tragically crashed and
burned without loss of human life or limb in a 2005 taxiing accident. Hopefully
it will be fully restored and the progress can be tracked on the internet at http://www.drawdecal.com/goose/cuttersgoose.htm. Even without the show, however,
Grumman’s seaplane already had its fans. Originally built in 1937 at the
request of rich businessmen to get them to their Long Island or Cuban holdings,
it was also flown by the U.S. Army, Navy, Coast Guard and Marines -- not to
mention America’s pre and post war Allies -- for utility, transport, rescue,
photography and even bombing and depth charging. It not only played the part of
an adventurer’s aircraft, the Grumman Goose actually flew in real life
adventures.
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The Kit and its
construction: Czech
Model’s JRF Goose is a limited run kit with both plastic and resin pieces.
Though the detail is wonderful and allows “detailing for God” by a complete
passenger cabin that will never be seen by those without x-ray vision and a
cockpit that is only partially visible to the eyes of mere mortals, my first
experience at working with resin was not enjoyable. Several of the intricate but
brittle resin pieces came pre-broken in the box, and having to carefully saw
pieces off their base and mix epoxy every time I had to glue them was a chore.
Further, few observers will ever notice or care that I used the “bulging”
resin tires rather than the standard styrene plastic tires provided on the
trees.
The lack of location pins on the
plastic pieces also was an unpleasant experience -- I need all my skills just to
make a regular model look half way decent and don’t need unnecessary
challenges to my limited abilities. No matter the care I used, much filling and
filing was necessary to hide that the fuselage halves were a millimeter off. I
have seen builds of this model on the internet that were impressively seamless,
but such craftsmanship with this kind of kit is still beyond me.
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Painting and
Markings: Numerous stills
from the show are available at a wonderful fan site -- goldmonkey.com -- at
which I spent much time selecting relevant photos to cut and past from the more
than a thousand thumbnails into a word document for easy and frequent reference
on my computer. Though other web cites had post show photos and drawings of
“Cutters Goose,” it appeared the scheme and some of the equipment had
changed after the cancellation of the program (e.g. the wheels in the show were
not the standard JRF equipment shown in later photos on other sites).
“Cutter’s
Goose” decals were obtained for a reasonable price from “Draw Decals” and
went on surprisingly well for a ham handed modeler like me. Do not follow the
overhead paint scheme kindly provided with the decals, however -- photos from
the show make clear the black painted portions on both sides of the wing of the
“reel” Cutter’s Goose were not limited to the engine nacelles as shown in
the illustration but extended to wide bands around the nacelles as well.
Conclusion: Again,
the unconventional research technique of relying on numerous clips of a TV. show
was a lot of fun. Though television executives may have killed a golden goose,
I’m thrilled to have a 1/48 scale replica of it in my collection.
References:
SKYCAPTAIN’S P-40
The 2004
movie “SkyCaptain and the World of Tomorrow” was set in a digitally
reproduced late 1930’s alternative world and was a homage to -- and an attempt
to stylishly recreate -- comics and movie serials of that time (the flying
robots are undeniably straight out of a Superman cartoon of the period). Sky
Captain (Jude Law) was a mysterious Blackhawk-like hero -- even down to his own
island full of warplanes and legion of pilots. SkyCaptain flew a specially
modified Curtiss P-40 (presumably a P-40N) that had non standard rappelling
hooks to fly sharp turns around corners in the canyons of buildings in New York
City as well as the hard to believe ability to quickly convert to an attack
submarine.
Ok, the
plot was a bit hokey and the acting wooden -- after all, anything the actors
didn’t touch was digitally created and how do you get the “method“ going
against a blue screen? -- it was fun and stylish hokum. Most importantly though,
its hero had a lot of screen time flying a P-40!
The Kit and its construction:
I chose the ERTL P-40N because --well, let me be honest -- after spending so
much money on the limited run Goose, this was the cheapest 1/48 Warhawk I could
find on ebay. Though I spent much time, with limited success, trying to fill and
sand its seams and attachment joints, it had a reasonably detailed cockpit that
was a lot of fun to research in the traditional serious modeler‘s way.
Unfortunately, I had to somewhat ruin its effect by modifying it to create an
untraditional second seat behind the pilot where SkyCaptian’s love interest
and star reporter “Polly Perkins” (Gwyneth Paltrow) sat in the movie.
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Painting and Markings: Not having
been a runaway smash in the 2004 movie season, there were not a lot of
“SkyCaptian” sites from which to pull out pictures of this fictional
plane’s paint scheme. However, after lobbying wife and family, I did get the
DVD for Christmas. Further, there were some web sites -- such as http://www.movieweb.com/movies/film/03/2303/gal1682/
-- where I could find limited stills of “Cap’s” P-40. Its paint scheme
seemed to be a darker version of the traditional olive drab -- understandable
because much of the film was made in cool sepia tones -- and its shark mouth was
easy to reproduce with the ERTL decals that came with the kit. The problem was
the unusual identification numbers and letters on the fuselage -- made up of
small case letters and dashes -- which had a special significance in the movie
(I won‘t give it away outright, but think upside down mirror writing). I’ve
tried painting markings before and at this scale it would not have been pretty.
Fortunately, a kind Canadian gentleman whom I assisted with the research on his
series of Blue Angel decals -- specifically Jim Botaitis of “Jbot Decals” (http://www.jbot.ca/) -- generously made up a set of decals which worked
perfectly.
Conclusion: Having
made so many P-40’s as a kid -- almost all of them Flying Tiger versions --
I’ve got to admit this was the least exciting of the three to build.
Nevertheless, as previously noted, there’s just something kid-like -- and
therefore liberating -- about making a perfectly frivolous pseudo-historical
model for a change.
Dan
References:
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