I took a trip to San Antonio (Randolph Air Force Base) to participate in a promotion board. It was a great trip and here are some impressions...
I knew Randolph had a pretty predominate landmark, the Administration Building (which looks more like a water tower), but I had forgotten how it looks at night. Locally, it's referred to as the Taj. I think it's been tweaked for Christmas but it looks great in these colors.
Another shot of the Admin Building and lo and behold, it snowed! Apparently it hadn't snowed for eight years and it made me happy that it happened again while I was there. It was a beautiful snow fall - the big flake kind with little to no wind.
When you visit an Air Force facility, you never know what you'll see in terms of art. The Air Force actually has a pretty large collection, but to no surprise (not to my surprise) the website and database are average at best. Poor reflection on the world's best Air Force. For example, the F-100 pic below is labeled "USAF Air Collection" but if you go to the site and type "F-100s" or "133.56" (its number), you get nothing. That's crappy. Neehoo, these three paintings (above and the two below were great and grabbed me at first sight).
F-102 Taking Off in a Storm, Robert Lavin, USAF Art Collection
Great painting...if you Google it, you'll get maybe two average-at-best results
Delta wing jets (primarily the F-102 and 106) are cool because they look fast. In reality, they are pretty average jets. However, as part of the Century Series, and what they represent, I love them. If you need a donkey bridge (German mnemonic), an F-102's intakes are "too" far forward. That's for the physical description. Two remember the difference in numbers, a Delta Dagger has "2" Gs. A Delta Dart does not. So the jet with far forward intakes is an F-102 Delta Dagger while the other is an F-106 Delta Dart.
Weasels with a Bite, Harley F. Copic, USAF Air Collection (35.75)
I love the Thud (F-105 Thunderchief) and stared at one for about four years at the Academy. Without doubt, I would put this jet in my grouping of "single-engine, single-tail legends". In the world of jets, that series (for me) includes the F-86, F-100, F-104, F-105, and F-16. It's not that long and I can counter any arguments against it. The F-102, F-106 and A-7 are cool, but limited. Face it. Regardless, I thought this painting of these Weasels was great. I was a Weasel in Misawa and I get the mission. Copic doesn't even have a website even though he's made many paintings.
F-100s at Eglin AFB, Robert T McCall, USAF Art Collection (133.56)
No year, no media, no dimensions...Air Force standard?
This painting had me at hello and was about two feet behind me during my visit at Randolph. This is a great shot and I love the F-100 Super Sabre. It is, without doubt, in my Line of Legends. I loved the sky and how the artist captured the attention given to the fly by. However, I'm not sure Eglin gets much weather like this. I linked to Wiki's Eglin page because the USAF is so bad with public websites. Are we trying to promote or are we not? The contrast was also impressive. I think contrast will outweigh imperfections in detail. And I always have to work on contrast. For me, the more the better because I usually don't add enough contrast. Another cool thing about this painting is it reminded me of Soon Distant Thunder which is similar but a different perspective.
the Century Series
- mm -
No comments:
Post a Comment