Tommy Tomahawk, and Johnny Cloud

 For the last couple years I have been collecting data on WWII and other American patriotic super heroes.   Several of them are American Indians.

Two of those are United States Army Air Forces pilots.  Tommy Tomahawk and Johnny Cloud.

Johnny Cloud sees a vision of clouds in the shape of an Indian riding a mustang in the sky and that's how is gets his name.

 He naturally grows up to fly P-51 Mustang fighter planes against the Germans in World War Two.


 

Johnny Cloud, Navajo pilot serves mostly with White men and typically wears a regular Army uniform.

However, his cloud vision does appear to him during the war, many times, and he uses his inspiration to defeat his enemies.  I cut this one out of plastic milk jug and hung it up on a bit of wire.  I will use it to give him a bonus in combat against his enemies.

In Tommy Tomahawk, however, he is a Cherokee and most of the men in his squadron are also Cherokee.  He serves primarily in the Pacific and his men wear various combinations of traditional and military dress.

 So I converted a few of the Airfix USAAF figures into men for his squadron, using various bits from Revell and Imex Indians.  Naturally, Tommy Tamahawk flies the P-40, Warhawk, naturally.

Flying Machine

The Martians have landed their cylinder, assembled their war machines and moved towards the town.

The Army having been alerted to the danger have deployed their newest weapon.

A Wright Flyer with a single bomb.

Never used in combat, never even tested....

The brave pilot will make his attack hoping to hit one of the war machines.

WWI US Army Air Corps

Airfix did not make World War One American aircraft ground crews.

So I took a few of the Airfix  WWI Americans and swapped heads with the Airfix World War Two US Army Air Force figures.

So now these guys are US Army Air Corps ground crewmen with infantry weapons to guard the air field.

I will put their original heads on the US Army WWII Ground Crews and then I will have WWI era ground crews.

Gotta keep 'em flying.

Even during the Great War.

Flying

Mount wire mesh on your ceiling and fly airplanes over your wargame table.

This mesh is the kind used to reinforce concrete driveways.

Use a TV antenna to hold the airplane so it can fly at different altitudes.

Lockheed Electra

 A close up of the cockpit of my Lockheed Electra.

The pilot was a famous woman flyer.

Her co-pilot and navigator was her only passenger.

Using computer printed names in font size 6, I put their names on the bottom using superglue.  Then a coat of Tamiya clear coat for greater durability.

Lockheed Electra

My finished Lockheed Electra.

The interior is painted but the exterior has not been.  I tend to group paint my models.

The loop on the roof is so I can hang it from the ceiling and fly over my wargame table.

The model has nice resin cast engines and cute little fenders on the wheels.

Electra and Staggerwing

I have been working on my Lockheed Electra.  This is the navigator and pilot.

Here is the cockpit for my Staggerwing.

Instrument panel for my Staggerwing.

I use the little rubber bands from teeth braces to hold parts together.

These little bands are very helpful and being so small they don't have to be wrapped around and around the parts.

Helicopter

This is the Sikorsky R-4B helicopter.

It was the first helicopter used operationally by the US Army in 1944.

Imagine a fleet of these flying over the beaches of Normandy!

This is the MPM kit in low pressure injection molded plastic.  It is a very difficult kit to build.  It costs about $20 each.  I worked on it about 10 years ago, set it aside and only recently completed it.

The kit did not come with a crew, so I had to round up some seated figures to fit inside the cockpit.

I got four of them and will paint them all up as US Army for WWII.  Once built, it's fairly sturdy, but there are few locating holes and other guides to put it together.  The canopy parts are fragile and take a lot of sanding, they are vacuform parts.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sikorsky_R-4