THE JET AGE RESERVE MODEL COLLECTION

THE RAINBOW OF THE US NAVY

Having featured Lockheed built USAF and Royal Canadian Air Force jets in 2005, a logcal progression would highlight the contribution of Grumman aircraft to the US Navy and Marine Corps from the Korean War to the 1970s. However, although a straight winged Grumman Panther, two variants of its swept wing successor , the Cougar, an Intruder bomber and Prowler Electronic Counter Measures aircraft have already been acquired ( the last courtesy of Clive Davis at Gloucester Toy Mart ), suitable ground crew and vehicles were less readily available when the time came to prepare.

The Airfix set of USAAF ground crew and pilots used alongside the P-80 Shooting Star in the 2005 Lockheed display would have looked out of place next to the later Grumman machines and although I am still chasing a 1/72 scale Academy set of American military starter trolleys and missile loaders I did manage to acqure the Italeri box of NATO Pilots and Ground Crews.

However, although Italeri model kit 1246 did feature some attractive box artwork including US Navy aircraft handling officers this did not exactly corelate to the - admittedly crisply moulded - 48 figures on the four part sprue. Moreover, although a labelled diagram on the back of the box suggested some Model Master paints to use there was no discussion of the roles of each figure and appropriate uniform schemes. The only paperwork inside the box was a multilingual warning leaflet with a defective part re-order form on the reverse and visits to the two Italeri websites yielded no further information ( Kit 1246 is filed under Aircraft rather than Soldiers by the way )

To fill this gap, here is my own article on painting and portraying US Navy ground and carrier deck crew.

"The Tomcat taxis forward with its nosewheels in the 'box' - a shallow groove in the deck, leading to the catapult slot. The green shirted hook-up man runs forward and kneels beside the nose gear. The tomcat nosewheel nosebar is lowered to engage with the catapult shuttle.

The hook-up man signals for the catapult to be tensioned. The nosewheels are pulled forward, but are simultaneously restrained by the hold-back. The catapult operator signals his readiness by holding up a single finger. When he sees this, the hook-up man whirls his right hand and points forward, directing the yellow shirted aircraft director to play his part.

The aircraft director has been standing in front of the aircraft with his hands above his head, fists clenched to tell the pilot to keep his brakes on. When he sees the hook-up man whirl his hand, he unclenches his fist to signal to the pilot "Brakes off, full power."

The hook-up man hands over to the next man, the catapult officer. The catapult officer, in overall yellow, thrusts two hands in the air, two fingers extended, and waves them in a rapid rotating motion. The hook-up officer then gives the all-clear. The catapult officer points at the shooter, who has both hands in the air, waiting. The pilot salutes to show his readiness and puts his head back against the ejector seat restraint. The catapult officer turns to look forward, and then turns back to face the aircraft and points forward, hitting the deck with his hand - his signal to the shooter to fire the catapult, hurling the aircraft into the sky."