Author Topic: Seversky & the Battle of San Francisco  (Read 5948 times)

Offline Brian da Basher

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Seversky & the Battle of San Francisco
« on: May 07, 2013, 04:06:14 AM »
After the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7th, 1941, the whole U.S. Pacific coast expected an invasion.



Fortunately, the enemy never really attacked in any strength. A few incidents are note-worthy. The Battle of Los Angeles happened when unknown aircraft were fired on and to this day the cause of the excitement is still not certain. Less known is the Battle of San Francisco which took place around the same time. It all started as a joke.



However, spotters and gunners in the Bay Area were not in the mood for jokes. Reports of an incursion by air lit up switchboards. Fortunately, part of the 34th Pursuit Squadron en route to the Philippines was ready to deal with things. They were equipped with the fastest, most maneuverable fighter in the U.S. Army Air Force, the Seversky P-41 Peanut.





The new plane was a P-35A but with an Allison engine instead of the P&W Twin Wasp radial. This made for a very compact, yet powerful aircraft which looked small next to a P-40, so it was called the Peanut.





A flight of the 34th Pursuit Squadron took off after the first reports were received. They would catch the intruder or die trying.







Anti-aircraft guns ringing the city were shooting at anything that moved and a few things that didn't. The pilots not only had to keep an eye out for the enemy but for friendly fire too.







While the brave pilots came close to intercepting the enemy, he remained elusive.



The pilots returned to Hamilton Field empty handed again and again.







News coverage of the incident had the city expecting enemy troops to land at any moment.



The tension evaporated after a couple of days when no more unidentified aircraft were reported and area Civil Defense workers found the culprit.



The good people of San Francisco were finally able to get a night's sleep and return to their normal routines. A certain gang of tough guys was able to relax too.



That flight from the 34th was kept stateside to defend against any further air attacks and luckily missed the Japanese capture of the Philippine islands.

Brian da Basher
« Last Edit: May 07, 2013, 04:13:22 AM by Brian da Basher »

Offline ed s

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Re: Seversky & the Battle of San Francisco
« Reply #1 on: May 07, 2013, 04:22:19 AM »
You have obviously been watching too many old movies and there is no telling what strange substances you've been over imbibing. Another great one. The Allison engined Seversky is an interesting idea. Could have worked out .

Offline Brian da Basher

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Re: Seversky & the Battle of San Francisco
« Reply #2 on: May 07, 2013, 04:32:06 AM »
This all started when a bunch of guys demanded to see my Messercane idea built. Since I didn't have another Hurricane in the stash, I had to go shopping...again. Well, I decided to finally bite the bullet and get that 1/72 scale Special Hobby P-35A Philippine Defender I was lusting after. I just love U.S. inter-war stuff, and I was glad to see someone finally kitted the Seversky fighter in 1/72 scale. Isn't the box art stunning? Makes you feel like you're in the thick of the action!



Just a moment. I think I got grazed by a Japanese bullet. Yikes!

This is a very nice kit, if a little pricey for my budget. The parts are well-molded and some resin bits and a fret of photo-wretch are included.



I imagine if you build it like you're supposed to, it will go together a treat. Of course, right away, I noticed this would be a good opportunity to use up one of those left-over Airfix P-40 Allison engines.

Kit designers must have nightmares about guys like me. Luckily, I mostly ignore the instructions. Look at all the masochism one needs to engage in to build the cockpit:



Some of these parts are the size of a grain of sand!

Thank goodness I'm old enough to know which pitfalls to avoid and go with tinted canopies now.

The less said about the landing gear, the better. Oh, and this kit isn't designed to be finished "gear up". A little fudging is required here.

Since I'm low on spats, I replaced the kit's gun pods with radar blisters from a 1/144 scale B-36. I hope it's not too noticeable.





This is one time I actually went with the kit decals which are impressive. The rudder stripes went on great and look like the real thing.



One miss is the 17th Pursuit Squadron insignia which looks more like a pigeon pecking around in the dirt than the eagle descending upon its prey that it's supposed to be. I decided to swap that out for a nice 34th Squadron logo from a P-26. Otherwise, everything else was pretty straight-forward. The entire model, wing-walks included, was brush-painted by hand in acrylics.





I had a lot of fun building this model which took me about a week from start to finish.



I hope you enjoyed it and the long-forgotten story of the Battle of San Francisco.



Brian da Basher

« Last Edit: May 07, 2013, 04:45:54 AM by Brian da Basher »

Offline apophenia

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Re: Seversky & the Battle of San Francisco
« Reply #3 on: May 07, 2013, 05:01:39 AM »
Brilliant and hilarious as always BdB!  :)

"I replaced the kit's gun pods with radar blisters"  IIRC, those underwing thingies on the P-35 are actually spent shell casing collectors. Obviously, Seversky decided to make these much more svelte on the Peanut. Maybe when the collectors were full, they just dumped the empty cases overboard? After all, who needs to be 'green' when you're olive drab?
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Offline Brian da Basher

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Re: Seversky & the Battle of San Francisco
« Reply #4 on: May 07, 2013, 05:04:26 AM »
Shell collectors? Learn something new every day! Thanks, apophenia!

The interesting thing is my replacements scale better when compared to the shell collectors on a P-36.

I'm thrilled you guys liked my Peanut.

Brian da Basher

Offline father ennis

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Re: Seversky & the Battle of San Francisco
« Reply #5 on: May 07, 2013, 11:47:37 AM »
Wicked Kool !!!   I think it looks a bit cartoony  to my.taste but it still looks good. Great story,too !!!
I may be old but I'm not dead ... yet anyway ... !!!    And NO I did not know Richard III !!!!!!

Offline GTX_Admin

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Re: Seversky & the Battle of San Francisco
« Reply #6 on: May 07, 2013, 02:57:35 PM »
 :)
All hail the God of Frustration!!!

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Offline Weaver

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Re: Seversky & the Battle of San Francisco
« Reply #7 on: May 07, 2013, 07:24:58 PM »
Nice one, and an all-too credible backstory..... ;D
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Offline tc2324

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Re: Seversky & the Battle of San Francisco
« Reply #8 on: May 07, 2013, 10:35:43 PM »
Another cracker of a story Brian.  :)   My lunch break today flew by.  :D
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Offline Frank3k

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Re: Seversky & the Battle of San Francisco
« Reply #9 on: May 08, 2013, 12:29:06 AM »
Brian, you should move to Beverly Hills and open up a practice, because you're a better plastic surgeon than the ones out here! It took me a few seconds to realize that you'd given the P-35 a nose job. It looks perfectly natural and the red nose paint looks great.
 

Offline jcf

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Re: Seversky & the Battle of San Francisco
« Reply #10 on: May 09, 2013, 02:41:44 AM »
Very cool Brian.

BTW the 17th's bird is the Great White Snowy Owl.
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Offline Tophe

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Re: Seversky & the Battle of San Francisco
« Reply #11 on: May 09, 2013, 08:50:36 PM »
Great P-41! Thanks! :-*

Offline kitnut617

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Re: Seversky & the Battle of San Francisco
« Reply #12 on: May 09, 2013, 09:38:59 PM »
That does look amazingly good Brian, I even went and had a look at my 'The Complete Book of Fighters' because I was sure I had seen a proposal along these lines, but no --- I must have been thinking of something else ---  :(

It would fit into an offering to the RAF as they were more inclined to look at liquid cooled engines at that time.

Offline Dr. YoKai

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Re: Seversky & the Battle of San Francisco
« Reply #13 on: May 10, 2013, 12:42:59 AM »
 Wholly Mackeral! This time, it actually was those meddling kids!!!

 Great build, Brian!

Offline elmayerle

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Re: Seversky & the Battle of San Francisco
« Reply #14 on: May 10, 2013, 01:07:03 AM »
Beautiful and plausible with a highly believable and amusing backstory.  it could've been some of those paper balloon bombs the Japanese did paly with.

It'd be interesting to see what this might grow into along the lines of how the P-47 grew from the P-35 by way of the P-43.

Offline Tophe

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Re: Seversky & the Battle of San Francisco
« Reply #15 on: May 10, 2013, 02:22:56 AM »
In the official books/pages (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seversky_XP-41 ), the P-41 is less sexy than the secret one you reveal, thanks...

Online finsrin

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Re: Seversky & the Battle of San Francisco
« Reply #16 on: May 10, 2013, 05:29:16 PM »
Again your historical insight/research is beyond compare.  Japs were lucky thet didn't meet up with that mean ombre pilot flying a Peanut.
Love your build of the Peanut.  :-*