Trip to Mobile, Pensacola, & Eglin AFB

[GaryChildress]

This one came out a little blury. Oh well. It's a P-40 B painted up like the flying tigers.

[GaryChildress]

PB4Y Privateer.

[GaryChildress]

Lockheed Ventura...are those oohs and aahs I hear in the background?

[GaryChildress]

I wish WitP had room to include these guys, the navy version of the B-25, the PBJ-1 (at least I think I remember it being a 1) I understand they came into play around 1943 or later, too late to see much action as a maritime patrol plane.

[GaryChildress]

An F4F-3 in the background in pre WW2 markings. I asked one of the curators why the navy abondoned the star with the red dot in the center. The reply was that the little red dot was politically incorrect in WW2 since it looked like a Japanese meatball.

[GaryChildress]

Here's every Allied fanboy's favorite! (well at least a good many) EDIT: actually I might note that this plane is probably from either late war or else Korea, having a four blade prop.

[GaryChildress]

I wonder how many people have actually gotten a chance to use one of these babies in PBEM? Isn't the scenario automatically over when Corsairs show up? [:D]

[GaryChildress]

Had Mogami been in the 2nd World War I found where his favorite hangout would be! This is in a mockup of the Cactus Airforce at Guadalcanal.

[GaryChildress]

Here's an F4F-4 I believe. Could be wrong on that.

[GaryChildress]

PBY...just below it on the floor, out of the picture is a full size cut away of a PBY allowing visitors to see what the planes looked like inside.

[GaryChildress]

I believe the guide said that this was a TBM and not a TBF. I'm horrible at aircraft recognition when it comes down to variants of the same model.

[GaryChildress]

OK folks the slide show is almost over! It's off to Eglin AFB and then after that I'll start showing pictures from my childhood up to present....just kidding...I wouldn't do that even to my worst enemies. [:D]

Here it is! The bane of every Japanese player's existence! The 4E B-17!

[GaryChildress]

Another B-25 at the Eglin AFB armaments museum. This one looks like a C or at least something previous to the J model.

[GaryChildress]

Here's a beauty, the P-47. This is inside the armaments museaum. The museum is relatively small and doesn't have that many planes on display. Most of it was weapons. I was more interested in the planes myself. [8D]

[GaryChildress]

Last but not least the P-51 Mustang...cadillac of the skies. That's a really big toy soldier in the cockpit.

[GaryChildress]

Wait a minute how did he get in here????? That's my dog, temporarily possessed by evil Anti-Thread demons that turn your eyes green.

[tanksone]

Hi, great pics thanks for sharing![&o][&o]

[FeurerKrieg]

The place with all the planes, indoors and out is where I was at. If I recall there was some great WWII prints and paintings all over the place as well. Hell that was 20 years ago already... ugh.

[dtravel]

  Thanks for the pics.

[GaryChildress]

ORIGINAL: Feurer Krieg

The place with all the planes, indoors and out is where I was at. If I recall there was some great WWII prints and paintings all over the place as well. Hell that was 20 years ago already... ugh.

There was a gallery on the second floor of the museum with prints from WW2 and beyond. Very well done pieces of artwork. They also had a special exhibit on the Big "E" (you know, the one of mine you sank in our PBEM! [:D]) And scattered around the museum were scale models of aircraft carriers. A little over half of them were WW2 ships. Judging by some of the toy figures on the mock up models, the ships must have been about 1/76 scale, pretty big for model ships.

They also have a great gift shop. Some of the war posters in the shop I recognized from those I've plagerized on the net for my AARs [8|]. There were even a few WWI posters there for sale. It's a big shop and also sells books there. So, I bought the book Warships of the Imperial Japanese Navy, 1869-1945. If you're interested in ships of the Japanese Navy in WWII I would say that that is the book to get, very informative with diagrams and pictures. I had thought about using it for the mod I had been working on, but decided not to restart the project. I think I'll just play CHS instead.

I'd say the Air Museum at Pensacola was the highlight of the whole trip, even better than the BB Alabama, although it's a close race between the two. The Air Forces Armaments Museum wasn't very impressive in my opinion.