Trumpeter Decal Mistakes

58-1226 was a historically significant Hun. First Weasel SAM site kill in December 1965. Caracal decals makes the proper scheme of the three color SEA camo with the black USAF and serial on tail. Tail codes were not introduced until 1967. Not sure if the airframe survived to get the codes after the F-105 took over the Weasel role in 1966. Now I’m curious and will have to look. 

But accoring to Caracal decals, the serial number on the tail under the USAF was 81226.... Aviation artist Keith Ferris does a painting of the attack, but the angle of his painting does not show the tail markings.

Be nice to find a photo. Here's a profile I found:

Here is 58 122_

Looks to be fresh from the paint shop, probably after conversion into a Weasel. It has the RHAW antenna under the nose and the serial number style matches that in the profile...

That's cool! Looks like the same Hun. One of my favorite jets. I have the 1/72 version in the shed, for a Misty build one day.

If you haven't read this, Stik or PJ, it's a good, pretty hairy read.

"Bury Us Upside Down: The Misty Pilots and the Secret Battle for the Ho Chi Minh Trail".

Hello!

Bury us upside down, so the whole world... Ain't that a classic! I will have to check out that book.

But re: decal mistakes - it happens all the time! On my Swedish S-Tank, also by Trumpeter, on the telephone box it said "TELEX" instead of "TELEFON"... But the mistakes are not limited to Trumpeter. On my Hasegawa Whale it said "JET INTEKE" instead of "JET INTAKE". And HAsegawa takes pride in their inscriptions being very small but still readable! Luckily for me I was redrawing the whole sheet anyway, to make different aircraft, so I corrected it. Nobody ever guarantees you that any given model is 100% correct!

Have a nice day

Paweł

GMorrison

 

If you haven't read this, Stik or PJ, it's a good, pretty hairy read.

"Bury Us Upside Down: The Misty Pilots and the Secret Battle for the Ho Chi Minh Trail".

 

Sounds very interesting just like the 609th SOS operating the Counter Invader over the Trail.

stikpusher

Here is 58 122_

 

Looks to be fresh from the paint shop, probably after conversion into a Weasel. It has the RHAW antenna under the nose and the serial number style matches that in the profile...

 

 

Awesome picture stik. Special interest is the inboard pylon in NMF but the others appear to be grey. I read somewhere that the pylons were kept in NMF even in the SEA scheme.

Pawel

I have cought some errors in the Hasegawa decals too. The last one I found was in their 1/72 Tomcat sheets where the ship's name was incorrectly spelled as "Kity Hawk".

Old kit I built, 1/72 Hasegawa Curtiss Seagull.

Name of ship- Pennsuribania.

But it must have been hard to get right.

What I see Trumpeter mess up now are the silly full color views and color call outs.

Best ignored.

GMorrison

Old kit I built, 1/72 Hasegawa Curtiss Seagull.

Name of ship- Pennsuribania.

 

LOL that is a great one!!

Well, I tracked down some 335 gallon resin tanks made by Missing Link Models from Roll Models and got some Caracal decals too so my Misty Hun will eventually come together.

I looked up the fate of 58-1226 on Joe Baughers website. It appears that this particular aircraft survived its Wild Weasel days and served at Phan Rang. It was damged over Laos in summer 1968 and the crew were able to nurse the aircraft back to over friendly territory in South Vietnam where the crew ejected and the aircraft crashed.

Now back yo the decals, here is another from F-100F that has the AF81 prefix to its last three on the tail code. But also notice the zero that precedes the 8... do the kit decals include that 0?

stikpusher

I looked up the fate of 58-1226 on Joe Baughers website. It appears that this particular aircraft survived its Wild Weasel days and served at Phan Rang. It was damged over Laos in summer 1968 and the crew were able to nurse the aircraft back to over friendly territory in South Vietnam where the crew ejected and the aircraft crashed.

Now back yo the decals, here is another from F-100F that has the AF81 prefix to its last three on the tail code. But also notice the zero that precedes the 8... do the kit decals include that 0?

 

 

Thanks for the info. Yes the 0 is included for other tail codes. The VM letters are not in this set.