Let’s get things rolling with the Republic P-47D25 "Thunderbolt”. The "Jug” as it was affectionately known by the men who flew it, was big, fast and tougher than woodpecker lips. It was the United States’ answer to the Third Reich’s venerable Messerschmitt Bf-109 with the added bonus of being an outstanding ground attack aircraft. Until the arrival of the P-51 Mustang, the P-47 performed patrol, escort and attack duties with equal zeal and accolades. The most successful P-47 pilot in history was Lieutenant Colonel Francis Gabreski, 61st Fighter Squadron of the 56th Fighter Group, USAAF (as in Army Air Forces).
Perhaps the most beautifully painted of all combat aircraft, Gabby’s “HV-A” during the summer of 1944 was a masterpiece in color, contrast and camouflage. Erratic “Luftwaffe” style gray/green oversprayed patterns, sharply contrasting black and white ETO invasion stripes and Richthoffenesque flashes of blood red on the nose and rudder set HV-A apart from the other aircraft in the 8th Air Force's stable. One can only imagine the fear it instilled in the young German fighter pilots who chanced coming across it, especially with the 28 German swastika flags (kill markings) that Gabby advertised under his left canopy, denoting that he was open for business. But like life, all things of function and beauty must come to an end. On July 20th, 1944 near Bassenheim, Germany, Gabby pranged his prop during a low (very low) strafing pass on a German airfield. After a few bounces and an engine seizure, Gabby set “HV-A” down for the last time in a wheat field just several hundred feet away from enemy positions. He spent the rest of the war as a guest of the Germans at the infamous Stalag Luft I. He survived and went on to more aerial exploits several years later over Korea flying F-86 Sabre jets. The final disposition of “HV-A” is unknown, but it was presumed destroyed after the below photograph was taken by Luftwaffe forces at Bassenheim.
Perhaps the most beautifully painted of all combat aircraft, Gabby’s “HV-A” during the summer of 1944 was a masterpiece in color, contrast and camouflage. Erratic “Luftwaffe” style gray/green oversprayed patterns, sharply contrasting black and white ETO invasion stripes and Richthoffenesque flashes of blood red on the nose and rudder set HV-A apart from the other aircraft in the 8th Air Force's stable. One can only imagine the fear it instilled in the young German fighter pilots who chanced coming across it, especially with the 28 German swastika flags (kill markings) that Gabby advertised under his left canopy, denoting that he was open for business. But like life, all things of function and beauty must come to an end. On July 20th, 1944 near Bassenheim, Germany, Gabby pranged his prop during a low (very low) strafing pass on a German airfield. After a few bounces and an engine seizure, Gabby set “HV-A” down for the last time in a wheat field just several hundred feet away from enemy positions. He spent the rest of the war as a guest of the Germans at the infamous Stalag Luft I. He survived and went on to more aerial exploits several years later over Korea flying F-86 Sabre jets. The final disposition of “HV-A” is unknown, but it was presumed destroyed after the below photograph was taken by Luftwaffe forces at Bassenheim.
I have a personal memory about Gabby that I will always cherish: In March of 2000, I was an active duty military pilot stationed in Savannah, GA flying reconnaissance aircraft. Gabby and I had made contact through a mutual friend and I wrote him a letter and mentioned that I would love to take a training flight to Long Island, NY (where he lived at the time) and have lunch with him. A few weeks later, I received a letter from Gabby not only inviting me up for lunch, but where to taxi and park my aircraft at the local airport when I arrived! He included his phone number and said to call him from airport operations and that he would personally come and pick me up for lunch. Huh? One of America's all-time leading fighter aces picking me up for lunch? Wow! Needless to say, I was ecstatic.
I called Gabby before my trip, but we postponed due to a cable television appearance he was obligated to do that week (TDC's Wings, if I'm not mistaken). Not a problem... the beautiful thing about training flights is that they are recurring events. We made plans for a later date and said our goodbyes. Sadly, he passed away soon thereafter, before I could make the trip to meet my hero. I saved his letter though, and just last night, re-read it and showed it to my daughter who was profoundly moved. I have included it below for no purpose other than to share my memory of the man who, although I did not get to meet, still holds a special place in my thoughts.
THE MODEL: The 1/48 scale Hasegawa "Special Markings" kit that was built pretty much out of the box except for a resin cockpit, wheels, hypo needle gun barrels and pitot tube. (Interesting tip on the pitot tube: to model the pitot vane, I shaved the semi-rounded corner off a Fender guitar pick, glued it into place on a 19 gauge, clipped hypodermic needle). Presto…a pitot tube that won't bend or snap off because of a stray pinky finger from my sometimes clumsy hand. The cockpit was painted with a home-brewed recipe of U.S. medium green and British foliage green to replicate the color Republic used in finishing the Jug’s office. Once the cockpit was painted, washed and dry-brushed, the kit practically fell together like most Hasegawa products do. After the gear bays and external details were reckoned with, the model was prepped, primed, sanded and airbrushed with a Paasche VL siphon double-action, pushing Polly Scale acrylics at an alcohol-thinned 80/20 ratio at about 22 psi. British Ocean Gray as the top base, Medium Sea Gray on the bottom, and British Dark Green for the camouflage. My technique involves many light coats of camouflage colors, alternating between dark-on-light and light-on dark to give a true over-sprayed appearance. After the gloss coat, it was time to decal the aircraft and turn it into Gabreski’s famous steed. Markings were provided, but the notoriously heavy-filmed Hasegawa decals were enshrined in my spares drawer in favor of TechMod’s “HV-A” livery. Techmod decals are very thin and fragile, but of great quality and registration. Solvent solutions are no-no with these babies; use a setting solution on an extremely glossy surface to emolliate the film into the model’s contours. Note: I masked and painted the wing invasion stripes, but used TechMod’s decal fuselage stripes. Reason? Gabby’s aircraft in mid 1944 had unique white invasion stripes on the fuselage that were outlined in black. The fuselage scheme had no alternating black stripes during this period, as did the wings. TechMod has done an outstanding job in replicating the appearance of this nuance and their decals were a huge time saver. A little weathering to finish things off and a shot of Polly Scale flat sealed the deal. Literally. The canopy and windscreen were dutifully dipped in Future, dried, masked and painted with Model Master aluminum and set with Elmer’s “clear” school glue (this stuff is amazing, and IMHO, the best semi-rigid clear parts cement on the market…and the $2 bottle will last forever). The propeller on “HV-A” was unique in that the prop boss appears to be neither metallic nor black, but seemingly a dark glossy gray (oil?) and the hub was highly polished almost to the point of looking like chrome, which was probably a cosmetic perk given to Gabreski (who by 1944 was the squadron CO) by his ground crew. Nonetheless, I modeled, painted and weathered the prop according this research and my model was complete.
The kit, although aged, is typical of the high quality Hasegawa product and still sets a relatively high standard for this scale and type (although I hear the newer Tamiya shake-n-bake version is without equal). It has been written about so prolifically in magazines and other media that I’ll spare you the details of praises and imperfections to include the infamous “Grand Canyon” gap at the lower wing/fuselage joint. While I'm on the subject of imperfections, I remember working on this build a few years ago and reading somewhat heated discussions on the net concerning Gabreski’s paint job. Bare metal underside or British Medium Sea Gray? (Sea Gray…Gabreski verified it himself years later). Field mixed paints or factory colors? I once read an entire post of two guys basically insulting each other’s mother because of their disagreement on the shade of red used on the 61st FS cowling and tail! Here is my take on these and similar debates (which I call The Clash of the Know-It-Alls): While discussion and disagreement is welcome among hobbyists and amateur historians, and accuracy should be our goal, the most important thing to remember is… it’s a hobby. We are reproducing scaled plastic facsimiles of real aircraft with very few photographic references. We are left with black and white, low quality images and 65-year-old recollections of a vehicle whose total history was measured in days. Just today as I was researching my Mitsubishi A6M3 build, I was astounded at the amount of controversy over the shade of exterior gray of IJN aircraft. Too much information. As a formally trained fine artist, let me say this: color is relative. Period. Tree trunks are not brown; they are pink when facing a setting sun, blue-gray on a rainy morning, and invisible to drunk drivers. As my wife constantly reminds me, we need to get over ourselves. (More color theory to come on future posts). So there you have it, folks... my first blog entry. I hope you enjoyed it. More aircraft, histories and ramblings to come. Thanks for stopping by!
Great Pics! Awesome model!
ReplyDeleteQuiet the endeavour my young cousin. Have often thought of starting a blog of my own, perhaps this will push me closer to that edge.
ReplyDeleteThe BF 109 is great. It looks better than the first one you had built before in Germany. I had almost forgotten about you telling me of being able to meet Gabby Gabresky. I too look forward to your next projects and am hoping that this will get me back into the swing of building.
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