Reqest for help with model kit parts and decals for article
Posted Jun 7, 2009 4:31 PM
Hi!
I'm "Dan" Katz, was IPMS-USA 2018, 1967-74, 1990-91;AAHS #18301, 1990-2000, SAFCH #1512, 1990-2000.
First, a little about me:
I'm an out-of-work substitute teacher up here in southeaat Georgia USA, just "north-of-the-border" with Jacksonville, Florida, and things here in Camden County have gotten pretty rough for substitute teachers, so I'm going back to trading on my lifelong interest with aviation. I was able to ID anything that flew over our house from Miami International Airport's 20th-Street side by age 4. Also, my father, who took an early retirement from Eastern Airlines due to a micro-stroke, swears he found out I learned to read by finding me at home, after a long day sweating over R2000 DC-4 engines for Juan Trippe at Miami's Pan Am base, when I was around the same age, reading his copy of Aviation Week: an article about the comparison and contrast of Axial Flow versus Centrifugal Flow Compressors (Axial Flow=BMW 003/
/Jumo 004, Centrifugal flow=Nene/
/Derwent/VK-1/J-??{Sabre/F-80})- and, checking behind me, he saw there were no photos or illustrations, and my eyes had been moving. Later, after a chance to read the article himself, he quizzed me and apparently got relatively sensible answers...
One article,"Searching for Mary Ann", about the star of the movie "Air Force," will be published in Scale Aircraft Modelling in the near future. For more background, you can look up the appropriate forums -and the April "B-17 News" - at Aero Vintage Books website. My forum name is "Pokryshkin."
I'd also published an article back in November, 1989, in Air International Magazine: "The Tupolevs of Tamiami" about Kermit Weeks' pair of Tu-2Ss down at his restoration facility at Tamiami Airport, south of Miami, Florida, back in the days before Hurricane Andrew forced him up near Orlando, in the safer middle of the state, less vulnerable location.
I'm working on an article about "Swoose" in her 3 various configurations and color schemes:
First, with the 19th Bomb Group apparently in Natural Metal BEFORE "Little Pearl Harbor" at Clark Field on December 8, 1941, as "21/11B" then as the well-photographed "Swoose" in peeling OD camouflage as General Brett's transport in Australia, and, finally, based on a single color photo, as his transport in Caribbean Defense Command, in natural metal, with 1944 stars-and-bars, without the belly "bathtub".
I need at least 2 sets of the "Swoose" kit decals, and am not sure I can pay much for them as our household is so financially tight that I qualify for low-income medical care!
I also need another B-17B kit to illustrate the aircraft that actually saw combat, while marked in Arctic rescue markings!
If anyone can help, please advise.
I was the kid who helped John Peters part-time at the '67 Miami Beach IPMS-USA convention, in between college courses and family obligations.
With hopeful gratitude,
Dan Katz
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