Son Of Medicine Man

Hi Everyone,

Thank you for the well wishes for my Mom.  The surgery went fairly well.  The surgeon said he ran into complications from previous surgeries she had.  But he was able to complete the operation successfully.  She is resting now in the hospital.  We will have to wait and see how fast she recovers before knowing when she can come home.  She was awake but still drowsy when I left at 5:00 PM.  It was a long day since we had to be there at 6:00 AM this morning.  The surgery ended up taking 5.5 hours and was supposed to only take 4, so I was getting worried.  I am ready to relax and drink a beer!   

Ken

That's great, Ken! You've done all you can, bud. Go home and relax!

Russ

So, we're looking for a new fighter,

I prefer the Raptor, but don't think that will happen, here's a run down:

Dom

Ken:

Phew! almost 6 hours, I am so glad she's okay.

Yes good man, have a beer, and as I can't join you,

please have one for me as well!

Dom

Hi Everyone,

Thank you for the well wishes for my Mom.  The surgery went fairly well.  The surgeon said he ran into complications from previous surgeries she had.  But he was able to complete the operation successfully.  She is resting now in the hospital.  We will have to wait and see how fast she recovers before knowing when she can come home.  She was awake but still drowsy when I left at 5:00 PM.  It was a long day since we had to be there at 6:00 AM this morning.  The surgery ended up taking 5.5 hours and was supposed to only take 4, so I was getting worried.  I am ready to relax and drink a beer!   

Ken

Ken: Best wishes and prayers for your mom's health and speedy recovery.

Jim: Thanks, I had no idea about the connection between the two aircraft, fascinating stuff.

mikeymize

Ken great work as always. You could've been a neurosurgeon with those skills. Jimbot58 I love the Corsair II; they were still at Nellis AFB when I got there as an E-1. I believe the unit was the 4450th. We were never able to determine what their mission was but we suspected something to do with the stealth program which was really hush-hush then. It was a different world back then...(sigh). Anyway I can't wait to see the finished product. My condolences on the "no step" decals, talk about tedious! I suppose the best way to approach it is a little every day otherwise you're likely to go blind! LOL

Thanks for the compliment mikeymize..

About the A-7 and the F-117 connection, this is quoted from wikipedia:

Use in F-117 development

The 4450th Tactical Group stationed at Nellis AFB, Nevada had the distinction of being the last active USAF unit to operate the A-7 Corsair II. The mission of the 4450th TG was the operational development of the Lockheed F-117 Nighthawk, and the unit needed a surrogate aircraft for pilot training and practice. A-7Ds and A-7Ks were obtained from various active duty and air national guard squadrons and were assigned initially to the "(P)" or "Provisional" unit of the 4450th Tactical Group, redesignated the 4451st Tactical Squadron in January 1983

The A-7s were used as a deception and training aircraft by the group between 1981 and 1989. It was selected because it demanded about the correct amount of pilot workload expected in the F-117A, was single seat, and many of the F-117A pilots had F-4 or F-111 backgrounds. A-7s were used for pilot training before any F-117As had been delivered to bring all pilots to a common flight training base line. Later, the A-7s were used to chase F-117A tests and other weapon tests at the Nellis Range.

A-7D-5-CV AF Serial No. 69-6241 of the 4451st Test Squadron / 4450th Tactical Group at Nellis AFB, Nevada in 1984

A-7 flight operations began in June 1981 concurrent with the very first YF-117A flights. The A-7s wore a unique "LV" tailcode (for Las Vegas) and had a dark purple/black paint motif. The A-7s were based officially at Nellis Air Force Base and were maintained by the 4450th Maintenance Squadron.

In addition to providing an excuse for the 4450th's existence and activities, the A-7s were also used to maintain pilot currency, particularly in the early stages when very few production F-117As were available. The pilots learned to fly chase on F-117A test and training flights, perform practice covert deployments, and practice any other purpose that could not be accomplished using F-117As, given the tight restrictions imposed on all F-117A operations.

Some A-7s operated from the Tonopah Test Range Airport, about 30 miles (48 km) southeast of Tonopah, Nevada where the F-117s were being operationally tested. As a deception operation, care was taken to ensure that F-117As were never left parked outside aircraft hangars during daylight hours. However, A-7s were deliberately and routinely left outside hangars for the benefit of any orbiting Soviet spy satellites. Soviet intelligence agencies examining spy satellite imagery of the base would undoubtedly notice the A-7s parked on the Tonopah flight line, and would not be particularly interested. The intention of this deception was to convince the Soviets that Tonopah operated nothing more exciting than some A-7 Corsairs.

There were approximately 20 A-7D aircraft used in developing the F-117, including several two-seat A-7K trainers. In January 1989, just three months after the USAF admitted the F-117A existed, the A-7s were retired to AMARC and were replaced by AT-38B Talons as training aircraft and the 4451st TS was deactivated."

Also here is a link from a dedicated F-117site:

SLUF

Ken, my thoughts will be with you and your mom

Jim

Good luck Ken. Hope everything goes alright.

Bockscar

Ken:

Our thoughts and prayers for your mom and you tomorrow.

All the best,

Dom

 

What he said, Ken. We'll be praying for her speedy recovery.

Russ

Ken:

Our thoughts and prayers for your mom and you tomorrow.

All the best,

Dom

Greetings Everyone!

I just got home from work.  It was a late night.  We had a network crash right at the end of the day so I had to stick around and get everything working again.  So no work at the bench this evening.

My Mom is having her surgery tomorrow morning at 6:00 AM EST.  I will take my laptop with me, there is supposed to be WIFI available, so I should be able to keep in touch.  The surgery is supposed to last 4 hours, and then she will be in the hospital for 1 to 2 days afterwards to recover enough to be able to come home.  Even then she will need to have assistance at least one more day.

Ken

mikeymize

Ken great work as always. You could've been a neurosurgeon with those skills. Jimbot58 I love the Corsair II; they were still at Nellis AFB when I got there as an E-1. I believe the unit was the 4450th. We were never able to determine what their mission was but we suspected something to do with the stealth program which was really hush-hush then. It was a different world back then...(sigh). Anyway I can't wait to see the finished product. My condolences on the "no step" decals, talk about tedious! I suppose the best way to approach it is a little every day otherwise you're likely to go blind! LOL

Thank you Mike M. for the compliment!

Ken

Bockscar

Jim, great decals...

Ken, Looks like a 1/144 scale ejection unit....

Mikey, most realistic build I've ever seen!!....LOL

Dom

Dom you keep cracking me up!  Thanks for the compliment!   

Ken

Gamera

Ken & Jim: That's terrific looking work guys! You're making me want to pull out a jet!!!

Must finish what I'm working on- I made a pre-New Year's Resolution that when I actually finish five models I'll allow myself to start another one...  

Thank you for the compliment Cliff!  On a side note I just won a 1/48 Monogram B-26 Marauder on eBay which is a distant cousin to your A-20 Havoc.

Ken

Striker8241

Son Of Medicine Man

Hi Everyone,

Well, as I promised, here are the pictures.

In this first one, you can see how the sides of the front panel to the rear cockpit are hanging over the side:

 And here is the other side:

 Here is how it looked after I filed it down flush with the rest of the cockpit:

 And once again the other side:

 Next step was to work on the scope.  It is shown here still attached to the resin mold base.  The scope is on the far right and the hood for it is on the far left:

 Here is a shot of the first test fitting of the scope.  As you can see it is sticking out way too far according to my reference photos.  So I had to file down the backside and keep test fitting it until it looked right.

 Next I epoxied the hood onto the scope:

Tomorrow when the epoxy is set, I will do the final touch up on the paint then it will be ready to epoxy into the cockpit.

Ken

 

Absolutely fantastick work, Ken!   

 

Did you paint the panel yourself or were the photoetch details already prepainted?

 

Looking forward to the next stage!

 

Russ

Thank you for the compliments Russ!

The panel is complex.  It is late now but I will go into more detail about how I did it later.  I gave a small tutorial in the group build that a few of us were in when I did it.  It takes a little work but the results speak for themselves!

Ken

mikeymize

Ken great work as always. You could've been a neurosurgeon with those skills. Jimbot58 I love the Corsair II; they were still at Nellis AFB when I got there as an E-1. I believe the unit was the 4450th. We were never able to determine what their mission was but we suspected something to do with the stealth program which was really hush-hush then. It was a different world back then...(sigh). Anyway I can't wait to see the finished product. My condolences on the "no step" decals, talk about tedious! I suppose the best way to approach it is a little every day otherwise you're likely to go blind! LOL

Mike, when were you at Nellis? What was your specialty?

Russ

Ken great work as always. You could've been a neurosurgeon with those skills. Jimbot58 I love the Corsair II; they were still at Nellis AFB when I got there as an E-1. I believe the unit was the 4450th. We were never able to determine what their mission was but we suspected something to do with the stealth program which was really hush-hush then. It was a different world back then...(sigh). Anyway I can't wait to see the finished product. My condolences on the "no step" decals, talk about tedious! I suppose the best way to approach it is a little every day otherwise you're likely to go blind! LOL

Jim, great decals...

Ken, Looks like a 1/144 scale ejection unit....

Mikey, most realistic build I've ever seen!!....LOL

Dom

Dont wanna be a party pooper, but i really dont want this shut down either.

Good Call Mikey, don't want to attract any problems, I pulled the comments.

Dom

Ken & Jim: That's terrific looking work guys! You're making me want to pull out a jet!!!

Must finish what I'm working on- I made a pre-New Year's Resolution that when I actually finish five models I'll allow myself to start another one...  

Son Of Medicine Man

Hi Everyone,

Well, as I promised, here are the pictures.

In this first one, you can see how the sides of the front panel to the rear cockpit are hanging over the side:

 And here is the other side:

 Here is how it looked after I filed it down flush with the rest of the cockpit:

 And once again the other side:

 Next step was to work on the scope.  It is shown here still attached to the resin mold base.  The scope is on the far right and the hood for it is on the far left:

 Here is a shot of the first test fitting of the scope.  As you can see it is sticking out way too far according to my reference photos.  So I had to file down the backside and keep test fitting it until it looked right.

 Next I epoxied the hood onto the scope:

Tomorrow when the epoxy is set, I will do the final touch up on the paint then it will be ready to epoxy into the cockpit.

Ken

Absolutely fantastick work, Ken!   

jimbot58

Hey all.

I haven't had a chance to read back through all the previous posts, not sure when I will catch up.

Scorpiomickey I know Testors released a 1:72 scale B-2 some time ago, but if it was decent, I don't know. May be hard to find.

Ken Nice work on that cockpit. That was 1:48 scale wasn't it? Even though I have so many 1:72 scale kits, I wouldn't mind trying a larger scale someday.

Just a bit of work on the A-7 the last couple of days. Long days at work leaves little energy or time for what's really important.... hobby time!

More decal work:

Star added below:

And on the wing:

 I ended up destroying one of these-for some stupid reason I was mixed up my bottles and I was trying to use Micro-sol for setting solution. I had to borrow one from the spares file for the underside of the other wing. It wasn't a great match, but who going to see the underside?

Also started on those billions of "NO STEP" decals that go everywhere: (only two done-still about 999,999,997 to go..... Ok, so I exaggerated just a little.....

Plus I decided I needed to add (paint) the marker lights at the edge of the wings before I add more of those pesky decals there:

They actually look a little darker blue than this photo shows. Next I'll do the red ones on the other wing tip and there is a red light on top the fuselage I need to paint

Great work once again there Jim!  Especially getting those decals to lay over the ridges and bumps like that.  Very smooth!     

Man, with the great job you do at 1/72 scale, you would be out of sight at 1/48!  For you it would feel like "The Land of the Giants".

Ken

Hey all.

I haven't had a chance to read back through all the previous posts, not sure when I will catch up.

Scorpiomickey I know Testors released a 1:72 scale B-2 some time ago, but if it was decent, I don't know. May be hard to find.

Ken Nice work on that cockpit. That was 1:48 scale wasn't it? Even though I have so many 1:72 scale kits, I wouldn't mind trying a larger scale someday.

Just a bit of work on the A-7 the last couple of days. Long days at work leaves little energy or time for what's really important.... hobby time!

More decal work:

Star added below:

And on the wing:

 I ended up destroying one of these-for some stupid reason I was mixed up my bottles and I was trying to use Micro-sol for setting solution. I had to borrow one from the spares file for the underside of the other wing. It wasn't a great match, but who going to see the underside?

Also started on those billions of "NO STEP" decals that go everywhere: (only two done-still about 999,999,997 to go..... Ok, so I exaggerated just a little.....

Plus I decided I needed to add (paint) the marker lights at the edge of the wings before I add more of those pesky decals there:

They actually look a little darker blue than this photo shows. Next I'll do the red ones on the other wing tip and there is a red light on top the fuselage I need to paint

Getting close to that political border there guys.

While we let tempers simmer down a bit over the loss of some gorgeous aircraft. Lets look at Northrops last hurrah before the man himself passed on.

Now, does anyone know if theres any descent kits larger than 144th for this monster? 

Yah, well this is the  doorKnob Ken was referring to:

Swine-ington:

Pork-bellies, anyone?

"I did not sweep up that pork belly!!!"

No, No he didn't...."Peoples' a' 'gittin' adipose-like, we don't need any 'fryin'  'r  'flyin' chicken wings in this town!!!, parish, r' State, yes you heard me,,,,,,err,,, no more Flying Wings!"

That dear gents, is why he cancelled the project, it was a campaign against junk-food.

Dom

Hi Everyone,

Well, as I promised, here are the pictures.

In this first one, you can see how the sides of the front panel to the rear cockpit are hanging over the side:

 And here is the other side:

 Here is how it looked after I filed it down flush with the rest of the cockpit:

 And once again the other side:

 Next step was to work on the scope.  It is shown here still attached to the resin mold base.  The scope is on the far right and the hood for it is on the far left:

 Here is a shot of the first test fitting of the scope.  As you can see it is sticking out way too far according to my reference photos.  So I had to file down the backside and keep test fitting it until it looked right.

 Next I epoxied the hood onto the scope:

Tomorrow when the epoxy is set, I will do the final touch up on the paint then it will be ready to epoxy into the cockpit.

Ken

Bockscar

PHEW

Yeah, that post was getting a little loooooooonnnnnnnnngggggggg...........  

Ken

PHEW

Is there a Minute Man, Way down Here?????

LOL

Bockscar

Son Of Medicine Man

Bockscar

Son Of Medicine Man

Sparrowhyperion

The fact that one of the prototypes crashed on it's way back to CA after a demo over DC didn't help either.  From what I have heard, the YB-35 was horribly underpowered and that hurt stability as well.  If they had fly by wire back then, It would have been a different story I think.

Son Of Medicine Man

Gamera

Son Of Medicine Man

I watched a show on the B-2 Bomber and they talked about the YB-35 and YB-49.  Now I want to build both.  Totally cool looking planes:

 

Of course they would have to be done in NMF!

Ken

Beautiful aircraft! I think it showed up in George Pal's 'The War of the Worlds' didn't it?

Watched the old movie 'The Deadly Mantis' this evening. Lots of great footage of F-94s, F9Fs, and F-86s. Too bad they were're too effective against a preditory insect twice the size of a B-52...

Yes, it was in "War of the Worlds", and it dropped a nuclear bomb!  I agree, very beautiful aircraft.  After reading a little history about them, they should have been our main bombers instead of the B-36.  Apparently there was some political corruption involved with their demise.  Very sad.

Ken

Actually, the crash was during a flight test of the stall recovery.  I think what you are thinking of is the incident where 4 of the eight engines had to be shut down due to oil starvation on a return trip from Washington D.C.  But even that incident was suspected of industrial sabotage.

The YB-35 version had engine problems, actually had drive train/propeller problems that the USAF refused to fix (more political corruption!).  But it had the range, and performance.

When it was converted to jet engines making it the YB-49 the range was cut in half.  But it still had the performance.

Here is an excerpt from Wikipedia:

But in a 1979 videotaped news interview, Jack Northrop broke his long silence and said publicly that all Flying Wing contracts had been canceled because Northrop Aircraft Corporation refused to merge with competitor Convair at Stuart Symington's strong suggestion, because, according to Jack Northrop, Convair's merger demands were "grossly unfair to Northrop."^[8] Shortly thereafter, Symington became president of Convair upon leaving his post as Secretary of the Air Force.^[4] Allegations of political influences in the cancellation of the Flying Wing were investigated by the House Armed Services Committee, where Symington publicly denied exerting pressure on Northrop to merge.^[

 

Symington chopped up every single YB-35 and YB-49, and even refused a request to give the Smithsonian one for a donation.  The S.O.B. even had portable smelters brought to Northrop's facility, in plain sight of its employees, to have them smelted down.  I think that makes it way too obvious that it was more than just not technically sound.

Ken

Well, Swine-ington, or a swine relative that resembles this photo:

did the same to our beloved Arrow:

Okay, now I didn't realize it was the same guy!  How did he get away with all of this?  Incredible!  He should have been hanged!

Ken

Yeah, Like I said:

Bockscar

Son Of Medicine Man

Bockscar

Son Of Medicine Man

Sparrowhyperion

The fact that one of the prototypes crashed on it's way back to CA after a demo over DC didn't help either.  From what I have heard, the YB-35 was horribly underpowered and that hurt stability as well.  If they had fly by wire back then, It would have been a different story I think.

Son Of Medicine Man

Gamera

Son Of Medicine Man

I watched a show on the B-2 Bomber and they talked about the YB-35 and YB-49.  Now I want to build both.  Totally cool looking planes:

 

Of course they would have to be done in NMF!

Ken

Beautiful aircraft! I think it showed up in George Pal's 'The War of the Worlds' didn't it?

Watched the old movie 'The Deadly Mantis' this evening. Lots of great footage of F-94s, F9Fs, and F-86s. Too bad they were're too effective against a preditory insect twice the size of a B-52...

Yes, it was in "War of the Worlds", and it dropped a nuclear bomb!  I agree, very beautiful aircraft.  After reading a little history about them, they should have been our main bombers instead of the B-36.  Apparently there was some political corruption involved with their demise.  Very sad.

Ken

Actually, the crash was during a flight test of the stall recovery.  I think what you are thinking of is the incident where 4 of the eight engines had to be shut down due to oil starvation on a return trip from Washington D.C.  But even that incident was suspected of industrial sabotage.

The YB-35 version had engine problems, actually had drive train/propeller problems that the USAF refused to fix (more political corruption!).  But it had the range, and performance.

When it was converted to jet engines making it the YB-49 the range was cut in half.  But it still had the performance.

Here is an excerpt from Wikipedia:

But in a 1979 videotaped news interview, Jack Northrop broke his long silence and said publicly that all Flying Wing contracts had been canceled because Northrop Aircraft Corporation refused to merge with competitor Convair at Stuart Symington's strong suggestion, because, according to Jack Northrop, Convair's merger demands were "grossly unfair to Northrop."^[8] Shortly thereafter, Symington became president of Convair upon leaving his post as Secretary of the Air Force.^[4] Allegations of political influences in the cancellation of the Flying Wing were investigated by the House Armed Services Committee, where Symington publicly denied exerting pressure on Northrop to merge.^[

 

Symington chopped up every single YB-35 and YB-49, and even refused a request to give the Smithsonian one for a donation.  The S.O.B. even had portable smelters brought to Northrop's facility, in plain sight of its employees, to have them smelted down.  I think that makes it way too obvious that it was more than just not technically sound.

Ken

Well, Swine-ington, or a swine relative that resembles this photo:

did the same to our beloved Arrow:

Okay, now I didn't realize it was the same guy!  How did he get away with all of this?  Incredible!  He should have been hanged!

Ken