Well, I'm currently working on the Amodel HUP-1/2 kit, it's being built as a -2 version.  The book I read on the Naval Air War in Korea mentions a dual rotor bird being used as liaison and vertrep from one of the command ships.  I figured that it can't be the HR-1...  This is a real dog of a kit, poor fit (yeah, that's Amodel) is causing the most frustration.  The detail is nice, except that there's a lot of flash to go along with it.  I' going to finish it, finish the C-46 and look at what else I want to do.  I've just ordered an SB-17 and HU-16 In Action book off of eBay.  I've also ordered a Minicraft B-24 to go with my Privateer for parts.  I know that the Academy kit has much more detailed parts for gear, wheels, cockpit, etc.  I figure that I'll use what I can as a kit bash.  Does anyone know if they wer the two/three tone or if the Privateers were overall dark blue with white markings?

On another note, apparently there were a couple of military exercises near my school this last week.  Also, since my classroom is so high up the 'mountain' I actually look DOWN on helos from time to time!  I've been able to see Hughes 500's, some Apache longbows, scads of UH-60's and the Korean mountain rescue chopper (A Kamov Ka27 civilian version) this week.  Also, I've seen lots of empty tank transporters, some K-1A1's, the Korean APC's, and was able to see a Tank Transporter with an  MLRS followed by a HMMT with reloads!  Pretty danged cool!  I also hear jets overhead on a regular basis; those A-10's have a much different sound than I remember from air shows.  I've also had lots of F-15's and some F-16's overhead.  If I go south towards Suwon I get to see the RoKAF's Phantoms and Tiger II's!

Which reminds me, why can't I find any western 'modern' armour in 1/72 scale?!?!  I mean, sure, we have the Trumpeter Ariete, Oliphant, S tanks, and AS-90...  But what about the M-109, the M-110, the MLRS, HAWK, and the Patriot?  Where's my tracked Rapier and Gepard?  Given how much of the Soviet and Russian stuff is out there, why doesn't this stuff exist?  DML has been the best at it, followed by Trupeter, but even they aren't getting to the meat and potatoes.  We finally get a non-resin HMMT and no ones producing the optional back ends?  And what about the HD HMMT's with three rear axles?  That'd be an easy mold change.  Sorry, just venting here.  It's really frustrating, ya know...

Anyway, hope you guys are having fun with your builds!

Very nice work on the Panther, stik ...

My Shooting Star is now finished and I'll post pictures later this day and will call it finished ...

pepper

More work completed on my F9F. Now that the decals are in place I attached some of the fiddly bits (landing gear, outer wing pylons, pitot tube), but I still have a few more to go (speed brakes, gear doors and acuators, bombs) before I can apply a top coat  (not sure yet if I m gonna go semi gloss or satin) and call this one done.

Sounds like pretty interesting reading Andy .

I'll keep an eye out for some of those books you mentioned .

I was browsing on-line one of the LHS and saw they had the 1/72 Tamiya F-51D Mustang Korean War kit .

The box art pic showing the markings on a built model are exactly the same as the Italeri 1/72 offerring .

I mention this because I have noticed that sometimes Tamiya rebox Italeri kits , especially a few helicopter kits and the Korean War F-51D in the Tamiya box may well be the Italeri kit .

The Tamiya P-51D 8th Air Forces Aces kit I'm building for the Mighty 8th GB is a lot more detailed than the Italeri kit , I would just be a little cautious about buying the Tamiya  Korean War F-51D kit !!!

                               John .

Doc: Wow, the Albatross looks terrific! Great job on the NM and all the decals.

Yes, the Army was not too keen with Air Force CAS after Korea and that was one of many reasons they developed the armed attack helicopter gunship. And the JOV-1 which the Air Force threw a major fit over regarding the fact that it could be armed. Even Vietnam and Post Vietnam the Air Force has only begrudgingly taken on the CAS role. The A-10 is a case in point, they keep trying to kill it and replace it with a true "fast mover" but nothing can do its job in the same manner as demonstrated by each war that comes along since that bird entered service. Although the JSF is slated to replace the A-10, I seriously doubt that it will be able to bring such hurt to bear on the bad guys or be as survivable.

I've been stepping back from the work bench and doing other things around the apartment m'se'f for a while.  Been really tired after work so I've been doing a lot of reading and napping.  My current read is a book on the Naval Air War in Korea.  Published in the early eighties, it does show its age, but is an incredible read!  Lots of cool b/w photos, nothing we haven't really seen before, but the stories are really interesting.  A couple mentions of aircraft we haven't seen mentioned here before:  Yak-7, Yak 15 (jet engined!), MiG-9, La-5, -7, and Mig-3 for the communists.  The author mentions a two rotor helo for cargo transport, I'm guessing it was the HUP and not the HR-1.  There's also a mention of the Navy using their version of the C-54 (R5?) on 12 hour airborne command and relay station during the retreat from the Chosin (Chongjin) reservoir.

Also of note is that the night fighters also played a very heavy bit of night and dusk attack!  There's many references to Tigercats and Corsairs using bombs and napalm at night against trucks.  (They disliked using rockets because the blast would temporarily blind the pilot.)

Something which must be brought up, not just an interservice rivalry, but an interservice lack of communication on definitions:  The USAF and USN/USMC had COMPLETELY different definitions of Close Air Support.  To the USAF, CAS was anything beyond artillery range, a short range version of interdiction.  To the Navy and Marines it meant anything close to the boots on the ground (5 feet or 5 kilometers).  This lead to a huge level of disagreement when the USAF was put in charge of  tasking the missions.  Also, it took nearly an hour to get a mission on target through the USAF system and less than 15 minutes through the Navy system.  Different roles were expected from the aircraft and artillery, hence the time consumption and degree of task and aircraft sorting involved.  A wonderful read if you can get it, I picked my copy up for less than a buck when I bought some other books (including the Squadron book on Armour in Korea) online.  When I get home I'll try to remember to scan the cover for you blokes.

Next book might be the one on the naval war in Korea.  I dunno, as soon as I finish the most recent Dean Koontz (WHY?  Oh, WHY do I insist on reading his dreck?) I'll decide.

Some more GMC CCKW 353 kits arrived today for the Korean War GB ...

Unfortunatly the 1/35 Heller GMC 353 kit is missing the instruction sheet ...

The kit appears to be a lot more detailed than the 1/72 version , so I kindly ask if anyone had a copy of the instructions could they scan them for me and post them .

TIA

              John .

Hi Greg ;

The Tamiya P-51D is a little more detailed than the Italeri P-51D , especially in the cockpit ;

Tamiya ...

Italeri's ...

Italeri forgot to add some side wall detail to each fuselage half , which was a little disappointing , although Italeri include some nice under wing rockets for a Korean War bird .

I cut the wing flaps by scoring with a hobby scalpel ;

So a little more progress made today , I'll glue the fuselage halves together next ;

The Tamiya P-51D on the left is for the Mighty 8th GB and the Italeri on the right is for the Korean War GB .

                       John .

Cool stuff as always John.  When you are done with the Italeri F-51, I would appreciate a build report.  I am interested in getting one, since it has a different scheme than the Tamiya (and I am NOT going the Academy route again).  Oh yea, the dots on my RF-51 were paint.  I painted the pieces white, then put dots of Microscale liquid mask, then painted the blue.  The theory was better than the application.  The dots didn't want to come off after being over sprayed.

I was in Hobby Lobby with the wife the other day.  Candles were on sale, so it gave me an excuse to be in there.  Diorama supplies were on sale too, and I found a set of Billy V 72nd scale Korean War figures.  It comes with several water cooled .30's on tripods.  Years ago, I read a great book about a Marine machine gunner in Korea (Once Upon a Lifetime), and he used one.

I meant to clear flat the LVT, but I caught on sleep this morning instead.  Weather is getting better here in Texas, so hopefully the painting weather will hold.

Cheers,

Greg

Awesome finished SA-16B Albatross , Doc  

I've made a little more progress on the GMC Fuel Truck ;

Everything about ready for a few coats of olive drab and I found a pic of a hose reel that hopfully I can scratch build something similar ...

A little interior painting done on the F-51D ;

Italeri molded the flaps up on the wings of their Mustang , I'm tempted to cut them a have them lowered ,

I think it would look a lot better .

                               John .

I've just built her out of the box Stik, even with the kit decals which hunkered down very nicely with a couple of coats of Microset. She does look quite nice on my shelf though. The SB-17 should compliment her nicely in time.

Doc.

My pleasure Doc! She has been added. I have fond memories of building that one as a young boy. One of the few  of many forgotten builds that stands out after all the years. Although I can see now that it is quite dated as a kit. I really like what you did with her Doc!

This GB has really gone beyond my wildest ideas as far as participation and builds go. You guys are fantastic!

Stikpusher, one more for the front page - after much trials and tribulations the Albatross is finally done! Thanks for all the advice and offers of assistance guys. Much appreciated. The stash has had several new additions lately - couple of Armourfast Achilles, a sword F-80, Academy SB-17 and I've seen an Academy C-97 in my local model shop in the reduced bit that Im very tempted to go and buy if its still there tomorrow. When I get round to building them is another matter! But my next build is going to be something much smaller and going into an area I haven't seen much of so far in this GB, I'm going to do the Italeri 72nd scale Bell 47. 

Doc.

John: Really cool wrecker truck (should I say lorry- I don't know what the difference is). She'll look great in a dio with a plane or vehicle.

From Andy to another Andy... real good looking Seafire! 

Andy , nice work on getting the Seafire together and I think it looks quite good ; You get 10 out 10 from me for persevering with an awefull kit and still getting her built ....

Thank's also for the links to those kits on ebay , a couple of weeks ago I saw that ground crew set for the milicast M32 recovery tank and I bought a set , so they should look good with the M32 and H-19 dio .

That Extratech Amphibious Weasel Carrier looked very tempting but like you said $50 + postage did seem a little steep , instead I bought from Tracks-n-Troops the No.7 Wrecker set for the GMC 353 ...

Tracks-n-Troops have a few conversion sets for the CCKW , here's a link of a review I found on the net ....

http://henk.fox3000.com/tnt.htm

There is a GMC 353 Pontoon Transporter which looks really tempting , I might buy that one next time .

Again Great work on completing the Seafire, Andy  

                             John .

The Seafire that I did is by CMR, Czech Master Resin in 1/72 scale.  I'm really disappointed that no one's done a full run PS injection molded version yet.  It'd be nice to see what a newer Airfix or Italeri might look like in this scale.  As it is, Jays in NZ do one, but I wasn't able to find that until I'd already ordered the CMR.

No worries Draken. That's what I am here for. I saw it the other day as I was going thru all the posts looking for any I had missed and was wondering about it. Who makes this kit?

Uh, Stik...  While yer at it...

Her's a coupla shots of the Fr.47 Seafire that Id' finished a bit back.  I've finally gotten around to taking a few pics of it in my new office!

it was an absolute BEAST to assemble, everything was warped and kept breaking.  And my fumble fingers and crappy masking didn't do any bit of help for the situation.

Hope that this is okay. 

I don't think so. The grill and headlights are different on the Ford than on the 1 1/2 ton in the picture. But it's reasonable to presume those Ford 1 1/2 tons were still in service and sent to Korea during the War.

stikpusher

Helo, it appears to be a 1 1/2 ton cargo truck, either the GMC G-506

http://www.olive-drab.com/idphoto/id_photos_chevrolet_g506.php

or the International Harvester M-3L

http://www.olive-drab.com/images/id_ih_m3-l4_full.jpg

 

Not a good photo to go from, but I was thinking it was a Ford.

http://www.aviapress.com/viewonekit.htm?PST-72051

I've got the PST kit of the tractor trailer version.

Helo, it appears to be a 1 1/2 ton cargo truck, either the GMC G-506

http://www.olive-drab.com/idphoto/id_photos_chevrolet_g506.php

or the International Harvester M-3L

http://www.olive-drab.com/images/id_ih_m3-l4_full.jpg

Great work on the Panther Stik

She's going to look awesome when she is up on her wheels .

I started to clean up the pieces on the Hasegawa Refueller and Italeri's F-51D ;

There's something else I noticed regarding trucks that were used in the Korean war , I posted this pic a couple of weeks ago of a HU-16B Albatross with a truck and tow vehicle parked along side ...

I only just realized that the truck only has one rear axle not the dual axle type on the GMC 353 .

So does anyone know what type of truck is in the pic above ?

                                John .

Gregbbear

Stik, thanks for updating the front page.  Not to be a pain, but the F-51 and F-82 were from this GB too.  I can't seem to post from my phone, but I can read the posts.  Even on the small screen, I have to marvel at the front page!  The ground side of things has grown a lot lately.  Pretty cool!

OK, I just went thru all your posts in this GB until I found your first F-51 and the F-82 from January. They are on page 84... Now I know why I did not post their pics... you said there were not done yet. If you can take a pic of each one solo I will get them on the front page ASAP.

DP, the markings on the Panther are pretty striking. I like 'em! Simple but effective. I think it took me all of 20-30 minutes to get all the decals on.

Stik, your F6 is looking real good.  Hope you are not kidding me... those decals are HUGE!  They look great too. 

Greg, do you remember when you finished those kits and posted the completed build shots so I know where to look for the pics? You're not being a pain at all. With all the work and messages in here, and all that life has thrown my way this  year, I know I have missed stuff. That's why I ask if I have missed anything.

This morning I airbrushed on a gloss coat of Future on the F9F, this evening it was the decals...

Good stuff!  I am so very jealous.  I can't seem to find a spare minute to work on anything.

Stik, thanks for updating the front page.  Not to be a pain, but the F-51 and F-82 were from this GB too.  I can't seem to post from my phone, but I can read the posts.  Even on the small screen, I have to marvel at the front page!  The ground side of things has grown a lot lately.  Pretty cool!

Gotta get back to studying.

Cheers,

Greg

I had a feeling the old Boxcar could handle a Deuce I don't think the length of the long wheelbase truck would be the issue, but rather the weight. According to Wiki, the cargo capacity of the 119 was 10,000 lbs and the CCKW weighed in at 10,100. Add crew and any other cargo and you're gonna be grossly overweight. Not a good idea, even on a short hop with less than full fuel load.

I do have a personal memory of coming back from a distant airborrne training Op with our detachment and a Deuce in a C-130. Upon touch down at home station, the tie downs were released by the loadmaster, the ramp  half lowered for air, and the Deuce's engine started as we taxied to the ramp. Once we got there, the tail was swung in the right direction, the Herc stopped, the ramp lowered fully and and off we went with all our gear in a rapid manner. Then the Herky bird left us and went home. Kinda gave me feeling of "Raid on Entebbe" stuff except for being late afternoon rather than middle of the night. Good times.

Helo, I'm looking forward to seeing that fuel truck with what you add on.

Hi Andy ,

Thanks for the tip on adding fuel stains and some hoses , great idea

Perhaps I'll do something similar with Italeri's F-51D which comes with the Sharks mouth decal like in Squadrons book .

There is a web site on the GMC CCKW ; http://www.cckw.org and I saw this pic of a C-119 Flying Boxcar unloading a CCKW Truck ...

I'm not sure because it's a little dificult to tell but I think the CCKW in the photo above might be the shorter wheel base GMC 352 ???

Like this one ...

I suppose the slightly longer 353 would have also fitted inside the C-119 .

                                   John .