First Annual USAF Vietnam Group Build

Kiwi

Hey Russ, have you tried on here?

store.spruebrothers.com/SearchResults.asp

Might be able to find something that could fit?

Wow, thanks Tim! I've been working my way through various vendors and haven't seen any with this big of an assortment. Now I've got to work my way through all their selections lol!

Thanks again!

Russ

Kiwi

Sounds perfect! I probably won't even touch the SR for a few months so that will work great.

That F102 ejection seat isn't in your basement is it Ken? It looks suspiciously like a basement! That would be pretty cool... What a great reading chair! :)

Hi Tim,

That would be great reading chair!  It would be really cool to have a seat from several of my favorite aircraft!  I can only dream!

Ken

Hey Russ, have you tried on here?

store.spruebrothers.com/SearchResults.asp

Might be able to find something that could fit?

Hey, Guys,

I need a source of 1/72 wheels about 9-10 mm tire diameter. I've been looking all over the internet but can't seem to find any - only specialty wheel sets for specific aircraft. Do any of you know of someone that makes custom wheels?

Thanks,

Russ

Sounds perfect! I probably won't even touch the SR for a few months so that will work great.

That F102 ejection seat isn't in your basement is it Ken? It looks suspiciously like a basement! That would be pretty cool... What a great reading chair! :)

Kiwi

Ken, is there a Skunkworks Group build? That would be fun. Then I might get around to building my F22 as well, :)

Hi Tim,

I am also sponsoring another group build called the Third Annual Berny Memorial Group Build.  There you can build anything!  It doesn't start for another month but you can sign up now.  If you are in a hurry, the Second Berny Memorial Group Build is going on now and you can carry over to the third if you don't finish by the end of it.

Here is a link to the third:

http://cs.finescale.com/fsm/modeling_subjects/f/29/p/158130/1711714.aspx#1711714 

And here is a link to the second:

http://cs.finescale.com/fsm/modeling_subjects/f/29/t/151972.aspx?sort=ASC&pi240=1 

Ken

Ken, is there a Skunkworks Group build? That would be fun. Then I might get around to building my F22 as well, :)

Kiwi

Hi Ken,

Yes I will - I haven't started on the seats yet. I painted the interior cockpit green too like the wheel bays and bomb bay. I'm not sure this is correct but it just seemed appropriate when I still had green paint left in my airbrush cup and I kind of like the color. The pictures I've seen suggest that it should be grey and black so I will likely change it to be accurate. I just like the way the cockpit details and instruments come up against a green background, and it's good practice for my Mig15 and Lancaster builds that will have that green interior. The bombays are really interesting on this kit. I like the scissor action. Must have been cool to watch them in action.

In other news, my SR-71 has shipped and I have ordered a resin cockpit and some other details for it. I think I'm going to go all in on this one and really try and make a good go of it. I look forward to building them together! :)

Very cool Tim!  That will be fun building the SR-71 together.  We can trade notes as we go!

Ken

Hi Ken,

Yes I will - I haven't started on the seats yet. I painted the interior cockpit green too like the wheel bays and bomb bay. I'm not sure this is correct but it just seemed appropriate when I still had green paint left in my airbrush cup and I kind of like the color. The pictures I've seen suggest that it should be grey and black so I will likely change it to be accurate. I just like the way the cockpit details and instruments come up against a green background, and it's good practice for my Mig15 and Lancaster builds that will have that green interior. The bombays are really interesting on this kit. I like the scissor action. Must have been cool to watch them in action.

In other news, my SR-71 has shipped and I have ordered a resin cockpit and some other details for it. I think I'm going to go all in on this one and really try and make a good go of it. I look forward to building them together! :)

Kiwi

Detailing the cockpit, wheel and gun bays! Pretty interesting kit with a good amount of detail. I'll probably do the gear and intakes tomorrow. Most of the detail you won't be able to see unless you pick it up for a look which is a shame but it's still a cool kit!

Looking pretty good so far Tim!      Are you going to add the grey to the ejection seat?  Here is a shot of what it should look like:

Ken 

Ken

Hi Everyone,

Kitty Hawk is at it again!  They have announced that they are in the beginning stages of producing a 1/32 kit of the OV-10D!  The OV-10D would not qualify for this build but Kitty Hawk has also announced plans on making other versions of the OV-10 Bronco.  The most logical version after the OV-10D in my mind would be the OV-10A which would qualify for this group build.

Ken 

Got several replies while at work today.  Thanks for all the pictures, Ken!!  I've been studying them in detail since I got home and will definitely reference them during the build.  Thanks David and Russ for the encouragement and additional information. That's what makes the group builds so much fun. Lots of folks with so many ideas and information!!! Thanks!!

Striker8241

Great airplane, Guys!

Unsung hero is right! They were right in the thick of it. They flew low, unarmed and with very little protection from small arms fire. The only thing that gave them any advantage was luck. If I remember correctly, the aircraft had a pilot and a communications operator/spotter.

The bird was full of radio gear - note the antenna farm on top. The wire from the left wing to the tail is the HF radio antenna. This was a high-frequency radio used for long distance communications - you can talk to someone on the other side of the world with it if conditions are right.

The big whip antenna in the middle rear and the smaller one to the left rear were for communications on very high frequencies (VHF). The big blade antenna in the middle was also VHF probably for some special comm frequency; the smaller slanted antenna in the right rear could be VHF or UHF. The four smaller blade antennas were ultra high frequency (UHF) radio antennas used for navigation and comms. It looks like there may even be UHF antennas embedded in the tips of the vertical stabilizers.

The "handle bar" above the front windshield looks like some kind of direction finding antenna, possibly for locating targets.

Cheers,

Russ

Thank you for that information Russ!  I always enjoy your personal experience on any subject we are modeling!

Ken

Great airplane, Guys!

Unsung hero is right! They were right in the thick of it. They flew low, unarmed and with very little protection from small arms fire. The only thing that gave them any advantage was luck. If I remember correctly, the aircraft had a pilot and a communications operator/spotter.

The bird was full of radio gear - note the antenna farm on top. The wire from the left wing to the tail is the HF radio antenna. This was a high-frequency radio used for long distance communications - you can talk to someone on the other side of the world with it if conditions are right.

The big whip antenna in the middle rear and the smaller one to the left rear were for communications on very high frequencies (VHF). The big blade antenna in the middle was also VHF probably for some special comm frequency; the smaller slanted antenna in the right rear could be VHF or UHF. The four smaller blade antennas were ultra high frequency (UHF) radio antennas used for navigation and comms. It looks like there may even be UHF antennas embedded in the tips of the vertical stabilizers.

The "handle bar" above the front windshield looks like some kind of direction finding antenna, possibly for locating targets.

Cheers,

Russ

Tal, Nice work so far.

Ken, Thanks for sharing those pictures.

David

Tal Afar Dave

Took many of the Skymaster's parts off the trees to see how the kit fit together with tape. Not too bad.  Next glued the wings and tail booms together and attempted to get them all lined up.

Will try to add a little detail to the sparse cabin; luckily there's lots of pictures on the Internet for ideas and reference shots of the instrument panel, gun sight, and rear radio rack....Put the kit window decals in place along the right fuselage and on the top wing. Will hopefully cut out openings for the clear window parts tomorrow night.  We'll see.....

Very cool Tal Afar Dave.  Yes, I have not seen any aftermarket cockpits or parts for the Testors O-2 kit.  So any improvement will have to be scratch built.

Here are some pictures from my collection:

Ken 

Took many of the Skymaster's parts off the trees to see how the kit fit together with tape. Not too bad.  Next glued the wings and tail booms together and attempted to get them all lined up.

Will try to add a little detail to the sparse cabin; luckily there's lots of pictures on the Internet for ideas and reference shots of the instrument panel, gun sight, and rear radio rack....Put the kit window decals in place along the right fuselage and on the top wing. Will hopefully cut out openings for the clear window parts tomorrow night.  We'll see.....

So.....after I went by Michaels and located some glue, I put together the tail booms and wing in one assembly. Despite being an ancient Hawk kit, the parts went together well with little effort.

One of my New Years resolutions??  Get off my duff and start participating again in the group builds I signed up for.  So, tonight I'll post the kits I initially identified for this build. The mandatory 'pre-build/parts still on the trees" picture is below.

Up until last night, there was no progress. On any of my kits as evidenced here:

That's because in order to actually build a model, you need model cement and not a bottle of lacquer! (Yes, my over 40s eyes deceived me a bit!) After being away from the bench for a long while, I've also forgotten where I put most of my supplies.....again, CRS (can't remember....stuff?) kicking in.

Kiwi

Wow! How do you know all that? That's awesome! I love learning all those little differences between the variants of the same plane. So interesting! Would the two ever have been seen together? Or did one kind of replace the other? I'm going to examine all the pieces today and see how accurate monogram got it!
:-)

Researching the aircraft that I am building or are going to build is my passion!  USAF Vietnam era birds are my favorite subject.  Hence the reason I started this group build.

Yes, both variants were in service at the same time.  The Case X winged planes were never retrofitted to the Case XX wings.  And the TF-102 was the same way.  There were ones with each wing type.

The TF-102 was different than most other trainer conversions.  Instead of adding a trainee seat behind the trainer seat, they added the trainee seat beside the trainer seat.  This made the front fuselage wider, and they had to reroute the intakes to the engine.:

Ken 

Ken

Kiwi

Hi Tim,

I don't know if you realize it or not, but one kit is the Case X wing type and the other is the later Case XX wing type.  Kit number 5518 (the one pictured on the right) is the older Case X wing, and kit number 5827 (the one pictured on the left) is the newer Case XX wing.

The Case X wing is flat all the way to the front edge and wing tip.  The newer Case XX wing droops on the front edge and all the way to the wing tip.  Only F-102 with serial number 56-1317 and higher had the Case XX wing.  Aircraft with serial numbers lower than 56-1317 had the Case X wing.

That is really cool that you scored these two kits!  That is also very cool that you scored the 1/48 SR-71!  We can compare notes on building them!

Ken

GreySnake

Nice score on the decal sheet Ken!

David

Thank you David.  The sheet is now out of print, so whatever is left on the shelves is it!  I picked this one up at Sprue Brothers.

Ken

Nice score on the decal sheet Ken!

David

taxtp

I wonder if there are any photos of Russian F-5s ? That would be interesting.

Cheers

Tony

Hi Tony,

I did find a video showing the Russians testing the F-5.  It is in black and white and the audio is in what I believe is Russian.  Here is a link to the page:

http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=e52_1320882209 

Ken

I wonder if there are any photos of Russian F-5s ? That would be interesting.

Cheers

Tony

Striker8241

Another perfect example of US thinking - if it drives like a Ferrari, how can we turn it into a dump truck?

Way too funny Russ!   

Ken