Sunday, September 12, 2010

"Actually this is good for me."













No I'm not upset or raging. This is a 'good' sign. I'm enjoying things I like again. Yeah I know I'm sort'a a pacifist, in a way kind'a. Still I got this jones for WW2 flying machines. What can I say,..they don't call us baby boomers for nothing.

Wait, yeah, yeah I know war is bad. WW2 was awful. Gimme a break it was in all the papers. I'm just talking model kits, and cool videos.

See back in the day, a good part of a century ago, my aunties would get me model kits of these things, and it stuck.

I Still love building kits, and lately I am again. That is when I can afford it.

You won't believe it, but kits that went for a buck or two in the old days will now go for $20 to $60 dollars today. Plastic is a petroleum by product so surprise the hobby has gone upscale.

Anyway I'm fine, swell. Now if I start posting that 'end of the world' mayhem again,...well.



3 comments:

graymogul said...

The 2nd clip is from the movie, "Memphis Belle," made in 1990, but the 1st clip is unfamiliar.
The B-17 pilot telling his gunners to be frugal with their ammunition is a little hokey. All the aerial gunners on B-17s and B-24s were well-trained. About 25 years after WW2, when I worked as an Assist. News Assignment Editor at a Boston TV station, one of the station's news cinematographers seated himself beside me on a slow news day and proceeded to tell me how he had been an aerial gunner and photographer in our heavy bombers. Hal probably had had a liquid lunch so he was in the mood to give me a tutorial in .50 caliber gunnery, and I enjoyed it. Hal told me, among other things, that he had learned during training that only three ( 3 ) bullets of a gunner's fusilade could actually hit the incoming Me-109 or FW-190, so they were taught to carefully calculate their bursts to create the optimal opportunity for the three slugs hitting the mark.
Our World War II veterans were my boyhood heroes -- all of 'em.

Mike S said...

I love old aviation as well.. I guess 12 O'Clock High was one of the things that did it for me (the TV show and the movie). Ever get yourself out to Wright Patterson AFB for the Air Force Museum? Lots of WWII aviation there.

Also, did you ever get go up to Old Rhinebeck, NY?

Uncle Sydney 2012 said...

Greetings graymogul, and Mike. Amazing, I wish I could have spoken to the bomber vet too. Their oral history fades with each passing day.

Thanks for passing some on.

Hey Mike, yeah some of us from Wbai used to go to Old Rhinebeck for the doings up there. Seriously fine stuff.

I remember there was not a rebuild, but a custom made brand new p-51 there one season. Beautiful machine. Can't imagine what it must have cost.

Thanks guys for being there.

Stay Tuned