First Annual USAF Vietnam Group Build

GreySnake

Nice work on the office Ken

Haven't done much on my front this week. Glued the wings together and did a lot of test fitting. Surprised it seems like a well fitting kit, with not much filler needed. This is is going to be nice after my F-14 build. Which was a nightmare.

Thank you GreySnake for the compliment!

Well folks we are closing in on the "official" start of this group build!  Today however marks the 49th anniversary of the "second attack" of the "Tonkin Ghosts" (false radar images) that prompted the passage of the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution in three days.

Ken

Well the F-105 has wings now and painted the gear bays. The instructions called for the bays to be aluminum. However after doing some research Vietnam era F-105 bays should be yellow green. Here's a couple pictures.

Note the sliver paint on the fuselage. I use this kind of as a primer to find any seams. Fuselage fit is pretty good. The wing roots however are a different story and is going to take some careful sanding. Can't wait to paint the SEA paint scheme!

Looking good, GreySnake!

Russ

Looking good GreySnake!  Kudos on doing the research for the color on the wheel bays.  That is actually my favorite part of this hobby!

Ken

Thanks Russ

Ken thanks also. The wheel bay color research was kind of a headache. A lot of people said they should be white. Which would be correct for the late 70's when the F-15 and F-16 were coming online, and some birds were painted white.

Anyway I really hope I get some bench time tomorrow. I at least hope to get the fuselage sanded out and start filling the gaps in the wings.

Hi Everyone!

Tomorrow is the "official" start to this group build!     

I am looking forward to a great time!

Ken

Woo hoo!  Let Operation Rolling Thunder begin!   And in honor of the anniversary of the 'incident' I post this pic of a member of the Gulf of Tonkin Yacht Club.  Trumpy 1/72 Vigi..

That's is nice looking vigilante  Magather. How does the Trumpeter kit build up? I've been kicking around buying one soon.

Nice weathering job too, Marty! Superimpose that over a terrain photo and it would be hard to tell it's not real.

Good job!

Russ

MAgather

Woo hoo!  Let Operation Rolling Thunder begin!   And in honor of the anniversary of the 'incident' I post this pic of a member of the Gulf of Tonkin Yacht Club.  Trumpy 1/72 Vigi..

Great job on the wash there Marty!  You really brought the detail out just right!  Kudos!     

Ken

It is "ON"!  Look out North Vietnam, the United States is about to crank it up!  And we like to use air power!  And the USAF has it!

Of course today is the 49th anniversary of the day the U.S. Congress passed Public Law 88-408.  Which is today known as the Tonkin Gulf Resolution.  The resolution passed 82 to 2 in the Senate and 416 to 0 in the House of Representatives.  President Johnson signed it on August 10th thereby making it lawful for him use any action he deemed necessary during the Vietnam War.

Ken

Hi Everyone,

Well I was hoping to start this group build better than this.  I am under the gun again at my job so no time to spend at the workbench.  It is looking very likely that I will have to cancel my vacation that was supposed to start next week.    Stress is an understatement.

Ken

Bummer .  Sorry to hear about your vacation. Hang in there, bud.

Russ

Ken,

I'm sorry to hear that work is pinning the meter. That is no fun, and I hear you loud and clear. Mine has been like that for quite some time, thankfully not to the point of cancelling vaca, but stressful none the less.  Hang in there and good luck.

Best, Marty

Snake, Ken, Russ:  Thanks for the comments.  I work to keep the weathering subtle. I see some of the stark jobs and it doesn't seem realistic to me.  

For pinwash I use a couple of colors of artist oils, varying the colors. I post shade the centers of the panels with lighter versions of the primary color, and on this one I added a drop of acrylic white to my top coat to fade the decals, a technique I will continue to use.  I also varied the ratio of gloss to flat final coat across the panels to create a weathered gloss on the finish. Finally pastel chalks for streaks and leaks.

Hi Everyone,

Today I treated myself!  There was a B-17G that visited the local airport and so I spent the afternoon there.  I know this is not Vietnam related, but I am sure you wouldn't mind me sharing some of the photos:

 Ken

Wow, that baby is beautifully restored! And clean as a whistle!  I doubt if any B-17 in real service ever looked that good unless it just rolled off the factory floor. .

Thanks for sharing the pictures, Ken!

Russ

that looks like a fun day for you

that B-17 looks to be in much better shape than the B-29 FiFi was in a couple of weeks ago, FiFi is showing a lot of stress in the skin and panel joints that the B-17 doesn't appear to have yet

thanks for sharing your pics

Rex

Ken, thanks for sharing those pictures! Think I've seen the same B-17 flying over a couple of times when it visited here.

Haven't done much work on the 105 apart from sanding and more sanding. Finally got a shelf to put all my supplies on today and spent some time fixing it to my liking.

Doesn't help that I'm trying to finish a P-47 either.

GreySnake

Ken, thanks for sharing those pictures! Think I've seen the same B-17 flying over a couple of times when it visited here.

Haven't done much work on the 105 apart from sanding and more sanding. Finally got a shelf to put all my supplies on today and spent some time fixing it to my liking.

Doesn't help that I'm trying to finish a P-47 either.

Nice arrangement there GreySnake!  I found that having my tools, paints, etc organized is the only way to go!

Ken

Hi Everyone,

I apologize for not posting for a few days.  I finally got to take my vacation and have been busy.  My "vacation" is working on my Saturn.  It needs a new clutch which requires pulling the engine.  First order of business is clearing out the garage to make room for it.  I am almost there, I can see parts of the floor!  Well I am off for another fun afternoon of clearing.  At least I have good weather to do it in!

Ken

Ken that doesn't sound like much fun! I did that on my subaru a few years ago and it took all weekend! I took a bunch of photos of everything correctly assembled before I started and still ended up with a few extra bolts at the end. As soon as I started her up a figured they were from the exhaust manifold connection, haha. Good fun.

Flying to Seattle this afternoon, best man in my best man's wedding. While fun and debaucherous as I'm sure it will be, it means yet another week away from my F-104 and Skyraider projects, :-(

Tim

Kiwi

Ken that doesn't sound like much fun! I did that on my subaru a few years ago and it took all weekend! I took a bunch of photos of everything correctly assembled before I started and still ended up with a few extra bolts at the end. As soon as I started her up a figured they were from the exhaust manifold connection, haha. Good fun.

Flying to Seattle this afternoon, best man in my best man's wedding. While fun and debaucherous as I'm sure it will be, it means yet another week away from my F-104 and Skyraider projects, :-(

Tim

Hi Tim,

I had a similar experience many, many years ago rebuilding a carburetor on a Toyota for a woman I was engaged to.  Best I could figure the bolts went to some part of support for the linkage.  The engine ran and worked fine when I was done.  I even went to the local Toyota dealership and showed it to the head mechanic and he didn't know where they went either.

I made the mistake of telling the then fiancé about the bolts and she became completely upset.  Here I had saved her a bunch of money by fixing her car and she came unglued over it.  She had a few screws loose herself!  Needless to say we ended up breaking up.

I hope you have a good time in Seattle Tim!

Ken

Hi, All,

I still don't have my spray paint booth set up so I've been detailing the main landing gear bays. I thought they were pretty sparse, considering it wouldn't be that difficult to make them more accurate. Anyway, below are a couple of pictures. The first picture shows the original beside the ones I built. I went ahead and built new bays rather than trying to modify the ones in the kit. The second picture shows one of the bays temporarily installed.

I added brake lines and other hardware based on some really limited pictures so the results are not completely accurate, but are more suggestive.

Cheers,

Russ

Ken that gear bay looks awesome

Its officially the start of my weekend at last. My work about killed me over the past five days Looking forward to getting in some bench time over the next couple of days. Going to make it my goal to get the thud painted.

I am doing a bunch of "administrative modeling", I guess.

The decals arrived for the 12th TRS at Tan Son Nhut,,,,but, I just recently switched to Acrylics, so I needed some SEA colors.

So now I am waiting on some Aeromaster Acrylics (Polly Scale formula) to arrive, which should be the end of the week, or the beginning of the next.

The good news is that I will have the paints and decals for both of the GB's I am signed up for.

Rex

Still no modeling but out in Seattle for a wedding and managed to squeeze in a quick run around the Museum of Flight at Boeing field, pretty cool!

Striker8241

Hi, All,

I still don't have my spray paint booth set up so I've been detailing the main landing gear bays. I thought they were pretty sparse, considering it wouldn't be that difficult to make them more accurate. Anyway, below are a couple of pictures. The first picture shows the original beside the ones I built. I went ahead and built new bays rather than trying to modify the ones in the kit. The second picture shows one of the bays temporarily installed.

I added brake lines and other hardware based on some really limited pictures so the results are not completely accurate, but are more suggestive.

Cheers,

Russ

 

Nice work Russ!  That is a huge improvement over the kit wheel bay!  Great job!     

Ken

GreySnake

Ken that gear bay looks awesome

Its officially the start of my weekend at last. My work about killed me over the past five days Looking forward to getting in some bench time over the next couple of days. Going to make it my goal to get the thud painted.

I know exactly how you feel GreySnake!  I am back to work today after taking a few days off from work last week.  I didn't get near as much done as I had hoped toward getting my car done.  I am still working on clearing out my Dad's stuff from my Mom's garage.  I got through a lot of it, just under estimated how much time it was going to take.

Tonight I am working on my wife's computer.  It died over the weekend.  It just never ends!

Ken

Kiwi, thanks for sharing the pictures!

Well, I didn't reach my goal of airbrushing this weekend. Had a lot of sanding to do on the F-105 and odds and ends to add to it. But now I'm thinking its ready to be painted. Hopefully the grey gets painted on tomorrow evening.