RickL454

According to "Valkyrie" by Jenkins & Landis the Air Force had North American working on a finish that was hoped to reduce radar return. Two finishes were developed to be used depending on local temperature of the airframe. Apparently it would have been opaque silver. That would be easier than a NMF finish and a little less boring than all white of the prototypes.

I'm glad the other one won. Can you imagine having to look at that thing for the next 20 or 30 years?

Adley - congrats on a great topic. This is one of the best threads I've ever read. Thank you!! .

Hey Ray Hanginghisheadinshamecoshehasbuiltastarfix I think the Starfix kits were mostly early Airfix molds except for the Badger which has to be Monogram. They aren't that bad. If you want bad you should try a Palmer model car kit from the 60's. Exporting those to the UK would truly be payback for the time those Red Coats shot our guys in Boston - no, on second thought it would be worse. The Palmer cars truly stunk. I'm not advising you to get one from eBay just to see, trust me and save your money. Compared to Palmer, Starfix kits were a pleasure to build and own. By the way, this really is a great thread. Rick

The canopy is closed because this Corsair was most likely last flown by a Marine aviator. Marines are squared away under all circumstances, the Navy not so much.

Last year we flew back to JFK from St. Maarten aboard a JetBlue 737. Besides wearing a pair of Red Sox painted on the tail, the cabin contained seats all in Monster Green, except for a single red one towards the back. Just like the one at Fenway Park, in commemoration of Teddy Ballgame's 502 foot homerun. A great model in commemoration of "the greatest hitter who ever lived." I'd give this model a score of .406 or maybe a 521. Either one is pretty good. Bravo Zulu, John.

Mike - the story is great, the model exquisite and the photography is top notch but your Flickr site is outstanding. Hey everybody, don't miss Mike's Flicker site!!!

The model is well done but I am just really glad they didn't pick that over the F-35.

If you sit at the Sunset Bar at the end of the runway at Princess Julianne Airport, St Maarten you can see and hear something like this landing. So close you can almost reach out and touch it. More importantly you can hear those pistons pounding and pounding.

You can still see the almost intact remains of that launch facility's twelve launching pads. Just type in Presque Isle Me into Google Earth and look at the north boundary of the airport.