Flying Tigers Inspired Scooter

[shawn_c]

Here is my scooter with its new paint-job. It was inspired by the Flying Tigers of the AVG (American Volunteer Group) led by Claire Chennault, who were a bunch of ragtag pilots who volunteered to help China fight off the invading Japanese. They had an excellent record and held off the Japanese marvelously! Their main theater of operations was in Burma (I think), and defending the 'Road to Burma' in Yunnan.

One of my neighbors, this "old soldier" (lao bing) living on the third floor of my apartment complex saw me painting it and he was very impressed. He served in the Republic of China army for eight years, starting in the 1930's. I think the exact year he started service was 1935 - two years before the Japanese attack on North-East China. He said that when he was young, everyone thought it would be fun to join the army. Well, he survived!

[Jim]

ironicially I had a similar idea for my morph...repaint it to a color the planes were and then deck it up to look as close to the historical counterparts (or pictures) as best as i can....havent decided on how i wanna do it yet or if i want to try but im still lookin at pictures for ideas....nice paint job too! love the shark mouth!

[shawn_c]

Yeah, that would be cool. But part of the reason I chose to do an old WWII-era fighter jet was because basically, my scooter is almost that old! Haha... your Morphous, however, has sleek lines and a modern appearance, so I guess you'd have to go with modern aviation technology, eh?

[Jim]

ironically I probabibly could toss a few gauges for planes on my morph...and I looked and the closest Jet from WW-II to present day I could find (wanting to stick as close to the ww-II to vietnam/korean eras) was the F-4 Phantom since that was sleak for its time kinda like the morph....would be interesting if i could do the body mods in mind as well as the paint I would like for it...hehe....

[shawn_c]

Yeah, the F-4 Phantom is a good choice, since it was used as the main air support for the Vietnam war.

Hmm... but y'know, I think that the Morphous would be more suited to look like it came straight out of an anime or manga. Y'know... paint it so that it looks like it's a drawing (with the surfaces having their own color variances, rather than relying on actual shadows)... and do some crazy futuristic mods to it.

That, or you could make it look like a Dekotora, "Decoration Truck" a la: http://www.pinktentacle.com/2006/11/dek ... galleries/

[Jim]

the truck thing seemes a tad over kill.....

the arai bike may be more feaseable....though some frame work would be needed i think? interesting idea...but it may wind up being made in its own unique way perhaps.....who knows....

[squareninja]

Hmm... DecoraTrucks!