Visit to Robins AFB Museum
I’ve often traveled up I-75 on my way to one of the sites I manage for my company. Over the years I’ve passed a sign outside of Perry, Georgia referring to the Robins AFB Museum of Aviation. It’s one of those places I’ve always muttered, “got to visit that one of these days . . .”
Well, today was that day. My family is taking our yearly trek into the mountains and I convinced my wife we needed to visit the museum as our first stop along the way.
I don’t know why I’ve waited so long. This is a fantastic, amazing place. Lots and lots of historic airplanes and memorabilia. It would be easy to spend all day, or even a couple days, going through everything they have on display. There’s four buildings, the first being where you enter, and are immediately faced by an F-15E Eagle. We also had the opportunity to chat with one of the pilots from the USAF Thunderbirds who were there for an air show the following day. Was cool to have him to ourselves for a few minutes. Also in the first building is a Korean war display with an F-84 and a P-51, then an area devoted to the India-Burma-China theater in WWII, with a P-40 and a Texan on display there.
The next building focuses on the Vietnam years, and there’s lots of interesting aviation stuff in there to look at, starting with an F-101 and an F-4 Phantom II. There’s a lot of helicopters, and a number of smaller observation aircraft. There’s also a MiG-15 next to the Phantom, to demonstrate who the opponent was at the time.
Next up is a building they call ‘A Century of Aviation.’ I’m not sure if that’s just an interesting name, or if it’s because there’s a few ‘century series’ fighters on display. There’s an F-102 and an F-106, an F-86 and an F-16 Thunderbird. There’s also an SR-71 and a U-2 spy plane, and a T-37 ‘Tweet’ trainer.
The last building is also where they do maintenance and restorations, where they’re currently working on restoring a B-17, so they had a number of parts on display. They also have a fully restored B-29 Superfortress, the first one I’ve ever seen in the flesh, along with a mock-up of an Atomic Bomb. There’s a B-25 gunship and a few trainers and cargo planes in the rest of the building.
Just outside is a row of aircraft, some are cargo haulers and others are figures or recce aircraft. There’s a C-124C Globemaster that has to be one of the ugliest airplanes I’ve ever seen, alongside a couple modern cargo planes. There’s a B-52, and then a string of fighters.
I took a lot of photos, over 200 in all. There’s a gallery below. I’ll come back at some point an add some captions and clean up some duplicates or just bad photos, but in the meantime here’s everything, right out of the camera. Enjoy.
2016 Nationals – Best in Show
The Judges Best in Show was a diorama, ‘Victory and Contempt.” The Popular Best of Show was a group build, Korean Air Power.
Quick Menu to the 2016 Nationals Galleries
Juniors Aircraft 1 Aircraft 2 Aircraft 3 Aircraft 4 Armor 1 Armor 2 Armor 3 Ships & Subs Automotive Miscellaneous Dioramas & Vignettes 1 Dioramas & Vignettes 2 Space, SciFi & Fantasy Figures 1 Figures 2 Late Additions Category ‘Best of’ Winners Read More2016 Nationals – ‘Best of Category’ Winners
This is the first year that IPMS has done this, and I wish they did it for all of the awards. But here are the overall ‘Best of’ awards for each category.
Best Military Vehicle – IDF M2
Best Aircraft – 1/48 Me262
Best Ship – 1/32 Sub Chaser
Best Auto – “Ghiorsche”
Best Diorama – ‘Victory and Contempt’
Best Sci-Fi – ‘Project Bumper’
Best Miscellaneous – Korean Air Power
Best Junior
Best Figure – 3rd Century German Warrior
2016 Nationals – Late Additions
Here’s a few models that weren’t included in the individual galleries, as they came in after I had already photographed a section. There’s also a few that I just liked a lot and took some additional photos. The Avenger in this gallery was outstanding, and was doubtless in contention for the Best Aircraft award.
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