Grifter123 wrote:

chopperfan wrote: What unit was he with? I have a website of a squadron that that particular plane flew with. I might be able to cross reference the other numbers with existing birds? Let me know.    I believe it was VP-7, although I'm not positive.  I know they were stationed in Greenland and Newfoundland for a time. It was around 1960 or so.

Okee dokee............. if it WAS VP-7 these are the Neptunes that served with them. in the 131 series anyway, that the where-abouts are known. Now, I did come across a couple in that range that are not listed on the VP site. So, I don't know if they were in VP-7 or not.

131410        -    Jacksonville NAS - 2005 - static display

131482        -    Evergreen - 2003 - storage in AZ

131506        -    Neptune Aviation - 2000 - spare in Missoula, MT

The year is the last known information. According to F.A.A. records, Neptune Aviation has 18 Neptunes registered.

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Randie Agape Models

Without them? The men on the ground would have to work a lot harder. You can help. Please keep 'em flying! http://www.airtanker.com/

Grifter,

      I enjoyed hearing about it all! Was very interesting, learned a few things and found more interesting links. I don't think you hijacked the thread, it was all relevant to the topic. More research material at hand for future reference!    I think we all agree that if we can help someone, it's all good!

Cheers, Richie

HawkeyeHobbies wrote:

Someone just donated to me an Academy CH-46 that I am considering making into a Firebird. I need something for my "Fire Boss" to direct!

I like the Thunderbolt, I knew it would look good in firefighting colors.

I hope to start my CH-46 project this weekend...I've christened it "Tinkle Bug". I've got to dig throught the spares to find some clear blisters for the observers windows and fab up something for the pilot and copilot doors so the crew can stick their heads out further. A little master making and vac forming I think will do the trick. This is gonna be fun! I'll be sure to post WIP here as well as in my blog.

"Tinkling On Fires Is Our Specialty"

YES, please tell and show us Hawk!!!! Us builders of 1/72 are on a constant quest of getting nice looking scale canopies and glass work. Can't wait to see the pics! Love the name too!!!

Cheers, Richie

chopperfan wrote:

Aaronw wrote: Bondoman, I don't know, it looks like his most recent post was Feb and I didn't see anything about leaving for awhile.   I'm going through and trying to finish up a bunch of my incomplete builds, some go back several years. Since this build is starting up again I thought I'd post the firefighting related ones as I finish them.   Anyway, I just finished this up, it is a Sikorsky S58 operated by Aircrane Inc in Atlanta, GA. They are primarily an airlifting outfit but do contract for firefighting services. I found some pics of this one from the 70's at airliners.com. I doubt they still have any of these piston engined helicopters in service but they do operate a fleet of the turbine S58T's in a slightly different paint job.           I used the 1/72 Italeri UH-34J kit basically OOB with decals I made on the computer. Hey Aaron! I've been watching the fire out in Corralitos on the NBC 11 on the net and I saw an S-58 on a couple of different occasions. I could see it good enough to tell it was an S-58, but not whether it was a turbo or not. It was red and white, so I am going to try and do a search and try and figure out who might be flying it out there.

I started watching at 6.00 am which is when I get up and it went from 500 to 1000 to 3000 acres over the day. It's now being called the Summit Fire, I think.

Looked at youtube and saw a few vids on the santa cruz fires and they showed some S58Ts with a dark bottom, looked black or dark blue. Was too fuzzy to be sure. One vid that caught my attention was a Huey Cobra in USFS garb! N107Z Very striking scheme on a Cobra I must say. Making notes to self on that one for future referance!

Cheers, Richie

Looking good Scott! Very nice! Was going to ask what scale, scrolled back, and saw that its 1/144! How did you do your tank? Was wondering if your technique might be used in 1/72?

Cheers, Richie

simpilot34 wrote:

Looking good Scott! Very nice! Was going to ask what scale, scrolled back, and saw that its 1/144! How did you do your tank? Was wondering if your technique might be used in 1/72? Cheers, Richie

The kit comes as a representation of a Conair DC-6.  The tank comes molded and the fit was less than good. Took quite a bit of filling and sanding, even for 1/144.  But overall, it is looking good.  I'm am putting on the landing gear tonight and hope to have all the decals dressed out this week. 

Now I want to start on my A-26 but also wouldn't mind doing a TBM like what flew out of Missoula.

Scott

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Aaronw wrote:

simpilot34 wrote: Looked at youtube and saw a few vids on the santa cruz fires and they showed some S58Ts with a dark bottom, looked black or dark blue. Was too fuzzy to be sure. One vid that caught my attention was a Huey Cobra in USFS garb! N107Z Very striking scheme on a Cobra I must say. Making notes to self on that one for future referance! Cheers, Richie   I'm becoming convinced the USFS Cobra is a hoax. All the photos of it are of the (pilots) right side and I've never seen it on a fire despite being on huge fires when not much else is going on in the state (Zaca 2 last year for example). I think someone pocketed several million dollars and it is really just one of those old vertibird play sets and there is a wire arm coming out of the left side.

In this video on youtube they showed a left side shot pretty close inside a hangar on one of the slides. Google the rego and see what you think. It seems to be used to detect hot spots. Has an IR turret under the nose. Dunno, but it looks pretty cool!

Cheers, Richie