1/48 A-4E VA-164 - The original Lady Jessie, CVW 16

[FIGHTS ON]

Good Morning, here's the 1st of my 2 entries for this GB. Whilst I have a couple of ships on the go, none will get even close to completion for this GB, so it's aviation subjects for me.

 

Of all the aviation books I have read in years, Peter Fey's "Bloody Sixteen"  (USS Oriskany and Air Wing 16 during the Vietnam War) has proven to be the most sobering yet truly inspiring that I have read. For the unfamiliar, USS Oriskany and Air Wing 16 completed 3 operational deployments in the 1965-67 timeframe, unfortunately always arriving on station just as the pointless  bombing halts came to an end. The statistics of planes and aircrew lost are eye watering (you'll be familiar with names such as James Stockdale & John McCain as just 2, lucky(?) enough to become POWs). 1967 appears to be the worst year, compounded with an avoidable fire that took even more lives in October. But the book is also a source of some of the most inspirational examples of Leadership that I have ever seen and would serve well to become mandatory reading at Military Staff Colleges...... 

 

So my subject here is Lt Cdr Richard Perry's VA-164 A-4E - the original Lady Jessie. (Thanks to Modelling Minion who very kindly supplied the scheme from that rare as **** Victory Productions A-4 sheet to my request in the Wanted section).  Lt Cdr Perry was killed on 31st August 1967, the Lady Jessie A-4 lasted only another 7 weeks being shot down over Haiphong on 18th Oct 1967 (with another pilot, Lt Cdr Barr being killed)

 

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[modelling minion]

Good to see your Scooter underway, and when you read your intro you understand why this is such an important choice as the heroism shown by these men in very difficult conditions cannot be overstated and I'm really glad that you are putting the decals to good use.

I look forward to watching your progress.

[helios16v]

I'll have to dig out my Eduard "Vietnam Scooters" instruction sheet as I recall it gave a backstory to how that bird got named "Lady Jessie".  It was a cool story that continued even after LCDR Perry was lost.

If for some reason you have issues w/ the airframe specific decals, let me know...as I actually have a couple of them.

Edited February 20, 2020 by helios16v

[helios16v]

From the Eduard "Vietnam Scooters" instructions:

 

"In the annals of US Naval Aviation, the story of "Lady Jessie" is both legendary and tragic.  It all began in the mid-1950s when Reno, NV casino owner Mrs. Jessie Beck befriended part time casino employee Richard Perry.  It was Richard's dream to become a Navy pilot, and in the late 1950s he would earn his pilot's wings, and go on to be assigned to VA-164.  Jessie considered Richard her adopted son, and was very proud of his achievement.  So much so that she would frequently send car packages to the entire squadron at great personal expense.  Thanks to her generosity, the squadron referred to Mrs. Beck as "Lady Jessie."  As an homage to Mrs. Beck, Lt. Perry painted "Lady Jessie" on the nose of his Skyhawk.  Tragically, Perry would lose his life on his second combat cruise with "The Ghostriders" while leading a strike against Haiphong.  Struck by a SAM, Perry would eject from his stricken Skyhawk over the Tonkin Gulf only to die of injuries while awaiting rescue in the water.  Heartbroken at the loss of (then) LCDR Perry, Mrs. Beck would continue to be a life long benefactor of US Military personnel all over the world.  After LCDR Perry's death, the squadron would start the tradition of painting "Lady Jessie" on the intakes of every Squadron Commander's aircraft.  Over the years at least 5 different A-4s would carry the "Lady Jessie" titling until the squadron's disestablishment in December 1975.  In 1987, LCDR Perry's remains which had been recovered by a Vietnamese fisherman were finally returned to the United States.  Ironically, that same year Mrs. Beck would pass away at the age of 83."

 

[rob85]

Great subject! Looking forward to you build.

 

Rob

[FIGHTS ON]

Thank you all.

 

Helios, thank you for that post, I knew I'd read the background somewhere, but struggled to find it last night.

 

I did read in an extract from Dick Schaffert's (F-8 VF-111)  account that he thought that the N Vietnamese fired AAA on Lt Cdr Perry whilst in his parachute.

 

Started on the cockpit today, photo's to follow, but here's the real jet AH 406 - but I guess a replacement "406" from a leter period? Like the weapon load, I think I might go for that on my.

 

Lt.JG Nelson, U.S. Navy / Public domain

[helios16v]

Yeah, the Modex (402) is not based on the BuNo (serial #).  The first # of the Modex (1-9) is assigned to a squadron in the airwing.  This number generally referred to the type of aircraft (fighter, light attack, attack, ASW, Helo, EW, etc) and the number can mean different things depending on the era.  Usually the last two digits are incremental #s (00-??) and will be dependent on how many aircraft are in the squadron.  At times when there were more than 9 squadrons on the carrier and squadrons had fewer than 10 aircraft they would sometimes use the first 2 digits of the Modex to designate the squadron.  On our '95 deployment we actually had 3 squadrons with 600 Modexs.  HS-6 was 60x, VAW-117 was 61x, and our Prowlers were 62x (the x being the incremental #).  The 00 birds were typically assigned to the CAG (Carrier Air Group Commander) regardless if he was checked out on the type or not.  x1 would go to the squadron CO, and x2 would go to the XO.  At times we actually had our 620 both the CAG & skipper bird when our skipper wasn't a pilot.

[FIGHTS ON]

Cockpit done and about to seal up the 2 main halves. I am a lazy modeller, so whilst I admire the detail on the rudder pedals provided by Mr Hasegawa, I'm afraid they got a slap of grey and a panel wash is all that they get.......and whilst the detail on the consols/ main instrument panel was really impressive, the kit decals smothered down is more than satisfactory. I did put in an aftermarket seat (Quickboost - again, already has the seat belts added so no hassle with trying to bend photo etch and ad buckles that frankly, are way to small for my 5 thumbs.

 

Here we go (just some nose weight to add):

 

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with some 1/48 friends nearing completion

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next to eduard's "modern"(?) Navy F/A-18E/F seated pilot.......except he comes with no life jacket and some sort of 1960's helicopter helmet which I have replaced with the Hasegawa JMHCS kit supplied head.........Hopefully I'll remember which seat goes in which jet when the final glueing takes place

 

[FIGHTS ON]

Last day "off" before another 5 day shift

 

Kit is a good fit, just my poor skills letting me down. Anyway, a very small amount of filling and a start with the Gull Grey (Mr Color) and Halfords Appliance White (decanted into airbrush). Cockpit glas fits so well, that I will paint separately and add after gloss & matt varnishes are complete.

 

I need to start thinking about what to hang under the wings, Hasegawa provides excellent drop tanks and pylons, but alas no bombs. decisions, decisions, decisions.....

 

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Now I note that Aires do some amazing resin wheel wells for this aircraft, but looking at what comes already with the kit, the choice to save a few pounds was easy. I think the "only" troublesum area was the join between the underwing and the nose gear well (similar "lip" that the HAsegawa F-4s suffer from)

[modelling minion]

Wow your A-4's really come on quickly, and very nicely too.

The paint work looks very nice, Halford's Appliance White is my go to paint for large white areas too.

Ah weapons, the big drawback of the Hasegawa A-4's (and their other kits). Seeing any A-4 (other than trainers and adversarys) without a fair amount of whizz bangs under the wings just isn't right, one of the big pluses of the otherwise lesser Hobbycraft kit is the very full weapons load you get with them.

[rob85]

That’s coming together very nicely!

 

Rob

[FIGHTS ON]

2 weeks of update (sorry - jumped ahead here slightly).

 

As a recent "read-4-inspection" build of Hasegawa's A-4E (VF-45 Aggressor by Jon Bryon) detailed in his build, this is an excellent kit, but in trying to cater for so many different variants in one box, many of the add ons don't provide such a great fit. So following my previous photos in the posts above, there was an element of filling, sanding and even filling again.....so with nothing as complex as Jon's paint job, not too much of a pain to re-spray. (Mr Color Gull Gray & Halfords Appliance White).

 

Decals from kit and the very generous decals from Modelling Minion - loads of references on the Web, the back cover of "that" book and a great series of pictures of the A-4E hanging in US Navy museum at Pensacola.

 

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I tried to show the "smudge" marks from the all moving tail surface - saw another really good build on Britmodeller recently who'd done this in 1/72 !!!!

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just a wash added so far to those amazing wheel wells - I'll be brave & go in and pick out some of the hoses with black sometime

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[FIGHTS ON]

On 2/21/2020 at 5:48 PM, helios16v said:

Yeah, the Modex (402) is not based on the BuNo (serial #).  The first # of the Modex (1-9) is assigned to a squadron in the airwing.  This number generally referred to the type of aircraft (fighter, light attack, attack, ASW, Helo, EW, etc) and the number can mean different things depending on the era.  Usually the last two digits are incremental #s (00-??) and will be dependent on how many aircraft are in the squadron.  At times when there were more than 9 squadrons on the carrier and squadrons had fewer than 10 aircraft they would sometimes use the first 2 digits of the Modex to designate the squadron.  On our '95 deployment we actually had 3 squadrons with 600 Modexs.  HS-6 was 60x, VAW-117 was 61x, and our Prowlers were 62x (the x being the incremental #).  The 00 birds were typically assigned to the CAG (Carrier Air Group Commander) regardless if he was checked out on the type or not.  x1 would go to the squadron CO, and x2 would go to the XO.  At times we actually had our 620 both the CAG & skipper bird when our skipper wasn't a pilot.

I meant to post a thank you for this post of yours some time back. I guess that was the Abe Lincoln in '95? As a Brit I was lucky enough to have some weeks on the Big E back in 2010 where Everyone was driving around in shiny new Rhinos,(except the Marines in some Legacy Hornets).....oh and the poor VAQ lot still working with their Prowlers!). As a non engineer, I must say how impressed I was with the maintenance crews on those old birds - everytime I passed thru' the hangar it seemed that one or more were in bits being "lovingly"(???) put back together to pick up the next day's flying programme.

 

The RN works a different system for it's MODEX numbers, again all 3 digit numbers with the 1st number being which Air group - so HMS Eagle in the late 1960s and Invincible in the 1990s all started with a 1xx (whether a Harrier or Seaking. Now my Service has sold it's soul to the Devil and allowed the Junior Service onboard , I'm not sure how we'll do it with F-35s...

[Alan P]

Love this! Great build with a solid warrior history, fascinating story about the Bloody Sixteen and one I need to research a lot more...