A Patton Tank on M-46

As I continued east on M-46, I ran across this tank.  I don't remember exactly where it was but it was east of another town that had a P-80 for a gate guardian.

 In 1950, a requirement came to replace the tanks used in World War II.  The tank would be heavier and better armored than the tanks it was replacing.

 the M-48 first entered service in 1951 and was a replacement to the M-47 (which was plagued with problems).  It was built by Chrysler Defense Systems but other companies would end up building them under contract.

 By the time, production ended there would be 12,000 produced and they would serve in many armies across the world.  It would also fight in many of the brush wars that marked the Cold War.

An improved design was called the M-60.

Thunder Over Michigan 2019 - Part I

I'm going to break this into three posts so as not to have too many pictures in one post.  I took quite a few again.  And there were quite a few that I ended up using.

 They didn't have either the Thunderbirds or the Blue Angels this year.  I actually don't mind that so much because they don't get as large of a crowd.  I'm used to the air show starting around noon but this year they broke it into two parts.  They had a morning part and an afternoon part.  I missed the morning part and it looks like it might have been pretty cool.  But that's okay because they had the afternoon chock full of stuff too.
This year's theme was Corsairs and they had a bunch of them.  I think they had 11 on the ground and they ended flying ten of of them.  There aren't too many places where you can see that many Corsairs in one place.

 This is a Corsair wearing the markings of VF-17 or the Jolly Rogers.  That squadron has gone through a few iterations but is still in service today.  Currently they are VFA-103 and fly the F/A-18.

 The Yankee Air Force's C-47.  Recently they repainted her to look like a C-47 from the Burma theater.  I'm still not entirely sold on the idea as I liked the old paint scheme because it was unique.

 I kind of like the fact that it was a little cloudy.  Since they didn't have the Blue Angels, it didn't really matter.

 The C-47 coming in for a landing.

 Unfortunately, it was a little on the warm side, so I was getting a little bit of heat haze.  At any rate, they were taking people for rides in her.

 The P-51 that was about to take off.

 One of the other planes owned by the Yankee Air Force, a Waco.  This is another plane that you can take rides in.

 And of course, the Yankee Lady.

 This is known as the Quicksilver Mustang and is owned by a man named Scott Yoak.  He and his dad Bill Yoak worked on restoring this plane.  Bill Yoak used to work on planes used by various TV shows and movies.  He flew some of the planes on Baa Baa Black Sheep and helped build the Blue Thunder helicopter. 

 He started working on this plane in 1994.  He would later die in 2013.

 Scott Yoak started flying the Mustang at the age of 20 (which isn't much younger than the people that flew them in the war).  Over the years, he has logged over 6000 hours in it.

 Whatever parts they couldn't get, they ended up making.  I will have to say it was a pretty impressive display.

 Another picture a little more cropped.

 One more before the display ended.

 And a wave from the pilot.

 They were having some issues with the F-16, that was supposed to go up.  So they started the ground demonstration.  Here is a group of Germans.

 Some Americans on a White Scout car.  I'm not sure what kind of 50 caliber machine gun they were using though.

 The Germans on their half track.

 Some Americans in a half track with a more normal looking 50 caliber machine gun.

 The White Scout Car pulling away.

 The Americans taking some shots at the Germans.

I think this was a 37mm cannon.

Odds and Ends

I was going to try to get some pictures of my cat tonight, she was sort of cooperating.

 I think she was laughing at me here though.

Here she was looking fairly cute.

 I gave up on her for a bit and decided to do some of my trains.  They were a little more cooperative.

 Some consider the T-34 the best tank in World War II.  It has its origins in a design by American Engineer Walter Christie.  One of its main features was sloped armor.  This helped it deflect shells with less steel.  There were several variants throughout World War II.

 I'm not sure if the M-1 Abrams is considered as one of the best modern tanks, but it has to be up there.  This is a model that I built a few years ago and it was based on a role playing game I used to play called Twilight 2000.  It was set in the aftermath of World War III.  Only in this case, the Soviet Union and United States sort of crawled across the nuclear threshold.   This does have one feature of all the model tanks that I build in that it says, "Kilroy Is Here".

 Another picture of Chessie.  She was being a little more cooperative for this one.

 My BNSF engine.

 My Canadian National Engine.

Admiral Horatio Nelson was a Royal Navy hero from the Napoleonic Wars.  Probably his biggest victory was during the Battle of the Nile.  It was here that he shattered Napoleon's desires in Asia.  He was killed at the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805 (the Royal Navy would go on to win that battle).

The Sherman Tank

A couple of weeks ago, I saw a movie called "Fury".  It stars Brad Pitt and is about a Sherman tank crew towards the end of the war.   It was a pretty good movie but a little graphic.  The language was pretty colorful but then again, if I were a Sherman crew that survived to that part of the war, the last thing I would care about is my language.

 As a result, I've been wanting to take pictures of my diecast Sherman.

 The M4 Sherman was designed by the US Army Ordnance Department as a replacement for the M3 Lee Medium tank.  The main difference between the Sherman and Lee was that the Sherman's main gun was mounted in a fully traversing turret versus the side mounted one on the Lee.  It was also equipped with a gyrostabilizer giving the crew a reasonable chance of accurately firing the gun on the move.  Design work began in 1940.

 The first tank rolled off the Lima Locomotive Works and was given to the Americans for evaluation.  Subsequent tanks were sold to the British.

 The initial Shermans were powered by gasoline engines.  This proved to be a vulnerability early in the war, so some models were switched to diesel engines.

 The Sherman fared pretty well against the earlier German tanks but not so well against the later model Tiger and Panther tanks.  The Shermans had to close distance with the Tigers and Panthers in order to penetrate their armor.

 This fact caused the Sherman leaders to use mass tactics.  A couple Shermans would have to distract the Germans while others came in to flank the enemy.  This was not good for the men who crewed the tank.  Still, it wasn't a bad tank because it was fairly reliable and could easily repaired.

By the end of the war, almost 50,000 Shermans were produced.  They saw service in the US Army and the armies of many of our Allies.

Just a Random Tank

While I was still in Manchester, I stumbled across this tank.

This is an M-60 Patton Tank, which was a direct descendent of the M-48 Patton Tank.  This particular tank was considered as an improvement upon that tank and was introduced in 1960.

 It was built at the Detroit Arsenal Tank Plant by Chrysler Motor Company.  There were a total of 15,000 built and they were used by many of our allies. 

Production would stop in 1987.  The tank held up fairly well against its enemies but was eventually replaced by the M-1 Abrams.

Messing Around With the New Tripod

My mom got me a new tripod for Christmas.  It looks like it is a pretty nice one, so I figured I would try it out tonight since I didn't really post much else this weekend.  So I figured I would try it out with some of my die cast models.

 I do like taking pictures of them but in order to get a decent shot, you need to shot a lower f-stop to get rid of some of the depth of field issues.  If you don't have enough light, you do need a tripod.  The above tank is the M-1 Abrams which was developed by Chrysler in the 70's.  It used a turbine engine and I think it can burn pretty much anything for fuel.  Because of the turbine, there were a number of growing pains but once those were worked out, it became a pretty awesome tank.

 Next up is the British Challenger tank.  It uses the same armor as the Abrams and both tanks would match up pretty well, I think.  I've heard that a slight edge goes to the Challenger though.

 A shot from the front.  One of the things I'm going to like about this tripod is that the head is pretty adjustable and I can get some angles that I couldn't with the last one.  I'm not sure if that will come in handy in the field but it will certainly come in handy with pictures like this.

 The three quarters shot that I'm so fond of for vehicles.

 Next up is the P-61 Black Widow.  It was one of the first purpose built night fighters for the United States.  It was a pretty decent fighter in that role.

 Another three quarters shot.

 Next up is a B-29 Superfortress which was developed by Boeing.  The idea came about in 1939 when the US requested a bomber that could carry on a war in Europe from the United States if necessary.  The first flight occurred in 1942 but there were a number of issues in development.  One of the biggest issues was the tendency for the engines to catch fire but eventually these were worked out and it proved to be a very successful design.

 The plane didn't see much use in Europe but it did see quite a bit of use over the Pacific.  This particular model is of the plane that dropped the bomb over Nagasaki.  During the war, a couple of these were landed in the Soviet Union and Stalin ordered them to be copied them exactly to produce the first Soviet heavy bomber (designated Tu-4).  They went so far as to take paint samples in order to get the greenish interior colors.  The Soviets even had the issue with the engine fires, but they worked them out.

And we end with the B-17 Flying Fortress, famed bomber of the European Theater.  Behind that, you can see Zappa's paw.