2017
Probably the fewest completions in a long time, but then there were the major completions of "Pacific Thunder" and the upcoming "Tidal Wave," as well as another project not to be spoken of yet, so I had good [...]
According to my mother, the first word I said was "airplane" ("oh-pane") at around 11 months of age when a P-38 flew over the park we were in. I've had a love affair with airplanes and the people who are involved with airplanes ever since, which has become my career as an aviation historian and author.
I built my first model, a Strombecker all-wood P-80 (that dates me!) at age 6, after watching my father build other wood models for me. I quickly graduated to plastic models when I found Mr. Twist's Fix-It Shop on South Gaylord Street in Denver, with its corner shelves full of wondrous kit boxes. I built my first biplane (a Hawk Models Nieuport 17 - still available from Testors) before I was old enough to know that "biplanes are hard." With time out in the 1960s after graduating from high school for the Navy and college and "The Sixties" I returned to the hobby in 1970 and haven't left since.
I became a screenwriter in Hollywood in the 1980s, after first getting published as an aviation author in the 1970s in Air Enthusiast Quarterly. I love the fact that William Green, who wrote the first "serious aviation book" (All The World's Aircraft 1954) that I got my father to buy for me was the first person to publish me. I've flown the back seat of an F-4E Phantom for an article on the Wild Weasels in Air Force Magazine, and had 20 minutes stick time in Jim Nissen's 1918 Curtiss JN-4D Jenny back in 1979 for an article in Plane and Pilot, and been in everything in between over the past 47 years. When I worked in politics in Sacramento during the 1970s, I was a member of a club that flew Stearman N747JR (we called ourselves in as "Boeing 747 Junior") and got around 100 hours in that fun machine.
I'm one of the original members here of iModeler, and consider it the best model club on the planet.
Author of "Fabled Fifteen: The Pacific War Odyssey of Carrier Air Group 15", "Pacific Thunder: the Pacific War from Wake island to Leyte Gulf," "Tidal Wave: From Leyte Gulf to Tokyo Bay," "The Frozen Chosen: The First Marine Division and the Battle of Chosin Reservoir," "Holding The Line: the Naval Air Campaign in Korea," and "MiG Alley: The US Air Force in Korea - 1950-53" which will be released on November 26.
My most recent book, "Clean Sweep: VIII Fighter Command Against the Luftwaffe 1942-45" will be published by Osprey on May 23.
My wife of 27 years finally escaped Parkinson's on February 20 and sailed west to the unknown land beyond the sunset where she once again paints seascapes with her friends, her cats.
You can order all of them here: https://www.amazon.com/s?k=Thomas+McKelvey+Cleaver&i=stripbooks&ref=nb_sb_noss_2
Tamiya P-51B – Don Gentile’s “Shangri-La”
Don Gentile - The Most Controversial Ace
When I sat down 30 years ago to write “the definitive fighter pilot screenplay” and chose as my subject the 4th Fighter Group in the Spring of 1944 during “The Great Ace Race,” with Don [...]
Charles M. McCorkindale’s P-51B
Tamiya P-51B to do the P-51B "Betty Jane" flown by Charles M. McCorkindale, CO of the 31st Fighter Group in Italy, around June 1944 at the end of the Battle of Ploesti. McCorkindale joined the USAAC in 1936 and flew P-26s with [...]
With the overwhelming number of votes in favor of P-51Bs….
OK, so three votes out of five. It's a 60% majority!
"Alice-Jo" of the 332nd FG "Red Tails." An ace of the 325th Fg (whose name escapes me at the moment) told me that they were very upset to find out the 322nd was [...]
Now for a P-51B
Personally, I like the P-51B better, mostly for its look.
This Tamiya P-51B was done with Aeromaster decals and the Falcon Malcolm hood to do Don O'Hara's "Shillelagh" of the 353rd FS, 354th FG. As a wingman and element leader [...]
“Mrs. Virginia” P-51A
Due to a few air-to-air photos, "Mrs. Virginia" a P-51A of the 1st Air Commando Unit is well-known. The big thing with doing a model is to get the built-up exhaust staining. This is the result of leaning the engine to provide [...]
Kitbashed ICM TF-51D Mustang
The TF-51D was created by North American when the venerable Mustang was being given to smaller air forces whose pilots were thought to not be experienced enough to deal with the high-powered F-51D, North American built two prototypes, and [...]
Classic Airframes P-51H Mustang
A review from back in 2005:
The original Allison-powered Mustang was a lightweight fighter with excellent handling capability. Pilots I know who have had the opportunity to fly these early Mustangs and compare them with the later [...]
Another Tamiya P-51D
The 353rd Fighter Group hasn't gotten a lot of love from the decal makers. This is Group Commander Glenn Duncan's "Dove of Peace X." Duncan was shot down over Holland in "Dove of Peace IX", a P-47D, in the fall of 1944 [...]
Tamiya P-51K/Mustang IV
Tamiya P-51D turned into a P-51K using the Aeroproducts prop blades for the Eduard P-39Q (4-blad) prop and Red Roo decals with Falcon "Dallas" canopy. 3 Squadron RAAF in Italy, Spring 1945. Most RAF Mustang IVs came from the [...]
