I suppose this could have been part of the Departures contest, but I didn’t think about that until after the judging. Ah well.

This started life as a 1/144th scale British Airways 737-200. (a small model) I wanted to make it into a T-43 Gator aircraft, which I flew at the time of building. The T-43 is a flying classroom to train Navy and Air Force Navigators (Hence the “gator” name). I used putty to cover over the 737 windows the T-43 doesn’t have. There was no canopy glass in the kit, so I used styrene rod to do the best I could. The real T-43s are a nice non-threatening glossy white. I wanted mine more mean, so I used flat gray. I also added CBU-15s, Mk. 82 bombs on TERs (Tri-ejector rack), and Aim-9 Sidewinders on the wings. The “RA” on the tail is for Randolph Air Force Base in San Antonio, TX. I find the concept of a well-armed 737 kind of humorous. (Oh, and the yellow stuff on the stand is poster-stick-em to hold the model. The stick-em is removable.)

Image: Banking left