"Dogfights" on History Channel

[Blue2th]

I love this show! I know there are a few aviation buffs here at SSG. "Dogfights" on the History channel gives us with the help of some cool CGI a play by play account of some of the greatest dogfights in history. Also shows the technical aspects of the planes involved and their opponents, and the pilots who flew them. Whether it be WWI Biplanes, right up to Korean and Vietnam war jets. I especially like the WWII battles. Friday nights at 9:00PM central time. Tonights episode is: American Pilots of Guadalcanal. It's fun to see these planes in action if you're into that sort of thing.

[Slicker]

I saw a commercial for it but I always forget that I have TiVo. I hope that they rerun 'em because it looked interesting.

[Blue2th]

That was an excellent episode! Showed some background of the battle for Guadalcanal. It was right smack in the middle of the shipping or suppy lanes to Australia. No wonder the fighting was so intense. I believe this is one of the places Steve Irwin visits in "Ghosts of War" as one of the islands his grandfather fought on. Man the Marine F4F Wildcat pilots of the "Cactus Airforce"were tenacious! Outnumbered, in inferior aircraft. It showed with superior tactics how they defeated the Japanese. Where have I seen this kind of flying before? Why it was the assault on the Deathstar in "A New Hope" The Wildcat pilots would flip over when beginning their dives to minimize the G-force (X-Wing peel-off, George must've studied this stuff)) One guy dove after three Val dive bombers that were in the middle of their dives on some allied ships. He shot all three down, before going so low he got an allied flak shell through his wing barely escaping being shot down by friendly fire. Shows the old man his eyes get big in fright as he tells the story. More than once these guys played chicken with the Japs, not flinching till one plane blew up. Again, intense! The CGI graphics are pretty good. I don't know how these wonderful stories of bravery would be told otherwise. In a way I'll bet we can thank Lucas for that.

[vader121]

Yeah, this show is great. However I don't get a chance to watch it much due to it's odd time. However I should be able to catch it this week.

I saw the Gaudalcanal episode before and I always thought the Wildcat was not that great of an aircraft but the show really points out it's +'s.

I used to build models as a kid and had a huge collection of WW2 1/72 scale planes that I built. I know a thing or two about the planes but this show teaches other stuff I didn't know. All in all a great show if you're into WW2 aerial fighting.

[Blue2th]

I too used to build model airplanes, mostly WWII when I was a kid. 1/72 was my prefered scale also. I used to have "Aircraft in Profile" books to get authentic camo schemes. That all ended when my best friend (who also built them) and I outgrew them, hung them up on fishline, and proceded to shoot them with BB guns. Now, missing them, I just buy the already made and in larger previously unavailable scale of 1/32 and 1/18 Ultimate Soldier warplanes. I also did not think the Wildcat was so durable. We probably could have won with it if the Japanese hadn't come up with faster Zero's and other models. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/F4F_Wildcat Tonites show is: Long Odds. Showing stories of Bombers, and how they faired against Fighter attacks. Should be interesting.

[vader121]

Good episode friday. I especially enjoyed the one on the Dauntless taking on 3 Zeros and coming out the victor.

All of my models fell victim to the BB gun, good ole fire, and simply thrown in the trash over the years.
I used to be able to build (incl Paint) fighters usually in 1 day. Bombers would take 2-3 days.

My favorite models to build were by Matchbox and Hasagawa. Parts fit very well together and they gave you the opprotunity to build with landing gear up (especially Matchbox). Decales were also very good.

Worst were Revell & MPC

I never got into Air-brush painting but did spray some planes flat black, flat white, or silver when called for. Otherwise I painted all by hand.

[Blue2th]

That was a great episode! Amazing! The Navy made that guy a fighter pilot after that instead of a Dive Bomber pilot. I too used to hand paint all of my planes by hand and paid especial attention to details. One thing I noticed right away was that the CGI representation of the Dauntless Dive Bomber had incorrect markings. The 1942 Coral Sea campaign U.S. markings did not have "stars and bars" surounded by red (1943-on) but rather just the star in a circle (no bars) surrounded by yellow. (they need to hire people like me for important details like that) Later 1942 the yellow was eliminated to just a star in a circle. Those were the markings later 1942 in the "Battle of Midway" where the Dauntless Dive Bombers alone sank four carriers. I wish they would get to that story, but I want accuracy dammit!

[vader121]

Agreed, for a show on the history channel there are a lot of inaccuracies in terms of the planes on that show.

[Slicker]

Just a heads up. This weeks Dogfights is about the Fairey Swordfish bi-planes and they're attack on the KMS Bismarck.

I've already got my DVR set to record it for me.

[vader121]

They also showed that last tuesday at 10 est. It was very good.