My B-52 Model

People who know me probably think that U-2 is my favorite aircraft.  The content of my website and other aviation-related activities I have been involved with might suggest so.  But on the subconcious level, I think the B-52 wins.

I started building plastic aircraft models in about 1977.  The activities intensified after I went to middle school.  In the school, there were many students who were serious military fans.  I was surprised that they knew so much about guns, tanks, ships, and aircraft.  And many of them built models.  At that time, modeling was a luxury activity because almost all models were imported from Japan and the US.  Because many students in this private school came from rich family (except me), they could easily afford buying models and paints.  I began to learn more about military aircraft and about plastic models from my peers.  Though my parents did not give me money to buy models, the scholarships I got every semester (I was a good student then) became the major source of my modeling fund.

I think it was my third year in the middle school when I first saw the B-52 model in one of the hobby shops I frequented.  That huge 1/72 model made quite an impression on me.  It was probably an H model from Monogram, completed in the SEA three-tone camouflage with a white underside.  (Many years later I learned that people called the B-52 “BUFF”.  But to me, the B-52 is Big but not Ugly at all.  It is a real beauty.)  I told myself that one day I was going to get a B-52 model like that.

It was not cheap in any way though.  It was priced at more than 1000 NT, which was a fortune at that time.  So I persuaded my parents to buy me the model if I was admitted to the top high school in the coming High School Entrance Exam.

Being a good student, it was a piece of cake for me to get the admission.  But I forgot why eventually I did not ask for the B-52 model from my parents.  I continued to build some models in my high school years.  They were just not the B-52.

The next time I picked up plastic modeling again was when I was a graduate school in the US.  America is indeed a heaven for plastic modelers.  In 1994, I became a member of IPMS and was actively engaged in modeling.  A hobby shop in Madison hosted its first model contest in 1995.  Not only did I participate but I also advertised for them on the Internet.

The entrance fee was three or five dollars, with a chance to enter the drawing.  The top prize was, guess what, an AMT/ERTL B-52H model!  And guess who won the model.  It’s me!  Finally I got my B-52 model.  In the US.  And free.

More than ten years have passed.  This model is still in the unbuilt mode, lying on top of a book shelf in my parents’ home.  Last weekend, I returned there and took this picture.

The KC-135A was bought at a sale at Madison’s Toys R Us.  I remeber it costed less than nine dollars.  Quite a deal, isn’t it?  Of course, it is unbuilt too…