This is cool

This is awesome.  Watch the whole thing, including the pitch at the end to attend bomber school.

77th Hiko Sentai

It is amazing what you can stumble on when wandering the internet.  The early days of WWII in South East Asia is an area of particular interest.  As such the activities of the 77th Hiko Sentai and their Ki-27 Nates are right in my wheelhouse.  Thus, I was pretty happy when I stumbled on this.

Movie review: The Winter War (1989)

Welcome to Terry’s movie vault.  Dr. Terry Hill has the most extensive collection of war films and war documentaries (including many foreign films) I’ve ever seen.  From time to time Terry lends me some of the better films.  This film, The Winter War (Talvisota in Finnish) is a Finnish film about the 1939-1940 winter war between Finland and the Soviet Union.  As you would expect, the film is in Finnish, with English subtitles.

The film revolves around two brothers, who are part of a reserve unit called up in anticipation of the coming war.  There are several subplots revolving around members of the unit.  In structure it is very reminiscent of US war films of the 50s and 60s. As far as the acting goes, it is hard to judge the quality of acting in many foreign films. It is amazing how cultural acting is and how it varies from country to country.

Now, for us modelers, the main area of interest in any war film is the combat sequences.  The ones in this movie are pretty good.  It is amazing how much the Winter War resembled WWI with massed hordes of Russians charging entrenched Finnish positions.  There are several T-26 style tanks that appear in the film and hordes of Soviet troops in full battle dress. (I’d love to hear Mike Baskette’s commentary on this)

The film is 2 hours and 5 minutes in length.  It drags a bit in spots, but overall it is a very good film.  Well worth watching. 3.5 out of 5 stars.

Revell Ju-88A-1

A hole in the 72nd scale modeling world has been an A-1 version of the Ju-88.  This was the most numerous version used in the Battle of Britain.  Now Revell has announced that they are doing one.  Given their excellent A-4 version, I have high hopes.

Airfix Me-262 build

Over on his website, Model Paint Solutions’ John Miller has a beautiful build of the newish Airfix Me-262 in an unusual paint finish.   Having seen this model in person at the Chattanooga IPMS/USA Nationals I can attest to the fact that it looks as good as it does on the website.

Weathering

 

Look at this photo of and SBD on USS Santee CVE-29.  My guess on the date is late 42 or early 43.  Look at the weathering.  Look at the grime around the wing roots and notice even at this distance many panel lines are visible. Color period pictures like this are a real help to the modeler who wants to weather their model.

A amazing story

This is one of those stories that will bring a tear to your eye.  Glad that this heirloom finally made it back to where it belongs.

Veteran’s day

No more fitting a story for this Veteran’s day.  What a great project.

and related, another important WWII USN ship is found.  The improvements in underwater technology clearly will lead to us at least knowing the final resting places of many WWI and WWII sailors.

WW II history

A nice articleabout a son learning about his father’s WWII experience.

I want this

Hi. I am David and I am a decalholic. (crowd:”Hi, David”)

If you haven’t ever used any Starfighter decals, I recommend them.

Here is the latest, and I want it bad.