558 model airplanes on display at the NMUSAF

[Pat Carry]

This looks too kool. www.nationalmuseum.af.mil/news/story.asp?id=123301258

[TAdan]

The collection is really impressive in person. You could spend hours examining the models alone, never mind the rest of the museum.

[Steve Nelson]

That display has captivated me since I was a kid, when I first visited the museum in 1978. I still marvel at the workmanship, considering he was working from drawings and making the models from scratch (I'm still wondering how he made the canopies..I'm assuming they're heat-formed acetate.) Some of the WWII Axis planes aren't very accurate, but that's only because accurate information wasn't available at the time. The display has been moved around over the years, and at different times some of the models have been in storage. It's currently in the hallway between the Modern Flight and Cold War galleries.

I will have to spend more time looking at the models the next time I visit The Air Force Museum.

[lmritger]

Well, I have to give the guy massive props for including such incredible rarities as the Barling Bomber (!!!), an A-18 Shrike, the XB-15, an O-38, a BT-8 (!!!), the XFM-1, and a Y1B-9... the only ones in that list that ever existed as a kit are the XFM-1 and B-9, to my knowledge.

That's really, really impressive stuff.

Lynn

[K5DH]

We have a very similar huge model display at VFM, only ours includes Axis aircraft as well as Allied. Y'all come see us!

[Tiger Tim]

Spectacular work. I like how 'clean' the models are, with no panel lines, oversize boiler plate rivets, weathering or anything else to get in the way it really lets you appreciate the plane itself.

In the third pic there's a shoulder-wing biplane towards the right side. What is it?

-Tim

[Steve Nelson]

This exhibit features Allied and Axis aircraft from the 1920s through the 1940s (there are one or two more cases.) The reason they're so clean is because they're all hand-carved from wood..before plastic models were a "thing" (he didn't even use available wood kits, preferring to build everything from scratch.) I think they're all 1/76 scale..I remember it's not 1/72, but fairly close. Since Mr. Kettering was making the models when the planes were in service, his Axis models involve a fair bit of guesswork, as there were no really accurate drawings available.

SN

[JohnB]

The Kettering collection is great. I've spent more than a few hours admiring it during my visits to the museum. As a model fan and as Steve said above, they remind you of what models were like before the days of injection molded plastic kits. Only a rich guy like Kettering could afford to have quality models like these made by craftsmen.

Years ago, I met a retired Air Force member who over many years, carved a 1/72 scale model of ery aircraft ever used by the USAAC/USAAF/USAF. Nice models, very well done. He'd go around to various bases and display them for a few days.
He was fairly old then, I 've wondered what became of the set when he passed away.

Also, the Pima Air Museum has a similar display...it's always fun to see models of aircraft not available in kits.

[Pat Carry]

This exhibit features Allied and Axis aircraft from the 1920s through the 1940s (there are one or two more cases.) The reason they're so clean is because they're all hand-carved from wood..before plastic models were a "thing" (he didn't even use available wood kits, preferring to build everything from scratch.) I think they're all 1/76 scale..I remember it's not 1/72, but fairly close. Since Mr. Kettering was making the models when the planes were in service, his Axis models involve a fair bit of guesswork, as there were no really accurate drawings available.

SN

Steve, thanks for the photos. What a gr8 looking collection they have.

[Steve Nelson]

Only a rich guy like Kettering could afford to have quality models like these made by craftsmen.

Well, thanks for destroying one of my childhood illusions..all these years I assumed he'd built them all himself.

Seriously, though..your comment prompted me to do a bit of research, and I came across a Popular Mechanics article from 1947, in which Kettering is named "Hobbyist of the Month." According to the article:

Making models the caliber of Kettering's is almost a full-time job. He's been able to build only about 60 himself since starting the collection in 1930. Most of the others have been made for him by a young man named Bill Chaffee at Northville, Michigan.

The entire article can be found here: http://books.google.com/books?id=094DAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA136&source=gbs_toc_r&cad=2#v=onepage&q&f=false

So..he was "only" able to scratchbuild about 60 models over a 17-year span? Good grief! I've probably only finished that many kits since I started building 35 years ago! And I still have some 600 unbuilt kits in the basement (guess I'd better get cracking!)

SN