Category: Memoirs of James Pate Williams Jr

My USS New Jersey, BB-62 (1982 version), Revell plastic model has two Sikorsky (now Lockheed Martin) MH-60R SEAHAWK miniature model helicopters. Each of the helicopters consists of two fuselage parts, a tail, a tail rotor, and main rotor. Also, you have six very small decals to attach. I did not have much luck with the decals. The real helicopter is an anti-submarine, maritime spotting, and search and rescue vehicle. I have clumsy fingers.

MH-60R SEAHAWK® Helicopters | Lockheed Martin

https://share.icloud.com/photos/048NFJNCGAquCjp7w3ONjCchA

Most of the models are either Aurora, Monogram, and/or Revell and are listed in no particular order. First list consists of aircraft.

• NASA North American X-15 experimental rocket
• North American XB-70 Valkyrie experimental high velocity heavy bomber
• Lockheed YF-12A Blackbird (Blackbird family A-12, SR-71, and YF-12A)
• Lockheed SR-71 the pride of Clarence “Kelly” Johnson USAF-CIA spyplane
• Lockheed U-2 Dragon Lady high-altitude reconnaissance
• Lockheed P-38 Lightening
• Republic P-47D bubble canopy Thunderbolt
• North American P-51D bubble canopy Mustang fast long-range fighter
• Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress heavy bomber
• Douglas A-1 Sky Raider attack close air support
• Grumman F4F Wildcat Marine/Navy fighter
• Grumman F6F Hellcat Marine/Navy fighter
• Vought F4U Corsair Marine/Navy fighter
• Vought OS2U Kingfisher sometimes a battleship spotting aircraft
• Mishibishu Zero agile, very maneuverer fighter without self-sealing fuel tanks
• Grumman TBF Avenger torpedo bomber deceased ex-President George Herbert Walker Bush flew this type of aircraft
• Curtiss SB2C Helldiver dive bomber
• Douglas SBD Dauntless dive bomber
• Junkers Ju-87 Stuka dive bomber
• Messerschmidt Bf 109 many, many of these fighters were built and deployed
• Messerschmitt Bf 110 night fighter fitted with advanced radar
• Messerschmitt Me 163 Komet high-speed very short-ranged rocket plane
• Messerschmitt Me 262 Swallow first ever jet fighter
• Focke-Wulf Fw 190 Shrike high-speed fighter
• Focke-Wulf Fw 200 Condor long-range maritime heavy bomber
• Lockheed F-104 Starfighter supersonic jet fighter
• Republic F-105 Thunderchief high-speed jet fighter
• General Dynamics F-111 Aardvark swing-wind high-speed jet fighter
• Convair B-58 Hustler supersonic medium bomber nuclear bomb delivery system
• Boeing F/A-18E Super Hornet all weather fighter-bomber
• Fairchild Republic A-10 Thunderbolt II close air support and tank killer
• Northrop P-61 Black Widow exceptional night-fighter with advanced radar (radio detection and ranging)

Next comes the ships:

• CSS Alabama Confederate commerce raider whose captain was Raphael Semmes
• HMS Hood heavy battlecruiser that was sunk by the Kriegsmarine battleship Bismarck on May 24, 1941, in the Battle of the Denmark Strait
• USS Arizona BB-39 sunk at Pearl in the early morning of Sunday, December 7, 1941, a day Franklin Delano Roosevelt stated “Yesterday, December 7, 1941—a date which will live in infamy—the United States of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked by naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan”
• Kriegsmarine Bismarck victorious in the Battle of the Denmark Strait then sunk by Royal Navy in the morning of May 27, 1941
• Kriegsmarine Tirpitz Bismarck class heavy battleship sunk by the British while she was hiding out in a Norwegian fjord
• U-boat model
• USS Nautilus nuclear powered submarine
• Other ships that I can’t recall
• USS New Jersey BB-62 Iowa class fast battleship a work in progress today

Tanks:

• Panzerkampfwagen V Panther medium tank 75 mm main gun
• Tiger I heavy tank 88 mm main artillery
• Other US and Japanese tanks and personnel carriers

I have built other miscellaneous models including a number of automobiles. I used to utilize cans of spray paint on some models. The spray painting was usually done on the rock patio of 601 Hill Street, LaGrange, GA, 30241, my former abode from the early 1960s to 2013.

Revell has some strange hieroglyphics in the instruction manual for their USS New Jersey (Platinum Edition) model. Pictures show the modeler clipping part of a plastic frame and heating the clipped part over a candle and drawing the plastic to a new length of 32 mm (1.26 inches) in a few cases. This reminds me of glass blowing where molten glass is drawn to a new length. I am making some progress on painting and assembling parts of my Revell New Jersey model.

It irks me that educated people refer to the United States of America as just America. In geography we learn that the supercontinent of America is comprised of North America, Central America, and South America. Both North and South America are termed as continents. Remember there are seven continents: Africa, Antarctica, Asia, Australia/Oceania, Europe, North America, and South America. In the absence of the Panama Canal, the three Americas could be grouped into one large continent named America.