50th Anniversary Vietnam War Group Build

Thanks for the tip PJ. Next Soviet Cold War armor project that I tackle, I will have a go at decanting with a straw... That Tamiya rattle can color is perfect for the Soviet armor that I have come across in life. I just have visions of a huge mess during the process...

Wear disposable globes just in case the spray tip wonders off a bit . I have never had a problem decanting this way. I use a  small plastic tub from Jello pudding or  yogurt, then place the straw in it and hold the spray nozzle right in the center of the straw opening. That's why I like using the over sized straws from BK just in case. Press and the paint goes into the straw and into the plastic tub. Works every time.

ahhhhhhh, that sounds pretty simple. Thank you sir!

So, this will be my last update for awhile. Work and vacation will take me away until 2nd week in Dec. Not getting as much progress on this build as I'd like, but, what can you do.

Here it is fully built less weapons, canopies and landing gear:

MERs and TERs mounted. You can also see the mounting holes for the centreline fuel tank:

MER/TER:

And, my last effort for a bit was a grey overall pre-shade:

That's it for now. Gonna have to box this build until December, and, not sure how much I will get done until the new year. Thanks for lookin'!! Take care for now.

Rob that looks cool mate, love the pre-shading.

I have not had any model time for the past week or so, like you said....work gets in the way LOL.

Theuns

Nice bomb truck there ;)

Wow Rob. You have lots of little round olive drab things to bolt on that machine.

Excellent job on that heavy duty mud mover!

Guys, I am a tad confused by this HUD now. It is mounted infront of the glareshield as per instructions, but clearly the line of sight will be obscured by the glareshield.

The shield can not go lower, it sits ontop of the IP, the HUD can not go higher as there is no raised mound for it.... please put me straight here LOL

Since the HUD /IP seems top be so inacurate, I decided to add the "canvas" I have seen in some pix.

If it is not correct so be it LOL I just like the look and the texture it brings to this bare area. I took a small piece of tissue paper, glued it on with white wood glue, wrinkled it and did a shadow wask to darken the creases.

Theuns

Nice fix on that goof Theuns! I just can't understand how these pricey new mold kits keep having errors of this sort. Especially when 20-30 year older Monogram kits of those same subjects did a better job of things like that for far less cost. It's not like research material on any given subject has gotten harder to come up with in the time since then,,,,

I have seen pix of the MER on the centre line point with wingtanks on inboard stations I think I might go for this with the 6 by 82's on the MER

.(I might add 83's to the outboard stations to make it look kickass, although not scale LOL.

Now a question. the MER's in the kit show them on the wing pylons, how would the MER mound to the bottom fuselage ?? I assume it would not stand "off" as much as with a wing pylon?

WOuld the 82's on the MER have the extended fuse on all, none or a combo of them?

<EDIT> nevermind, I found a pic of the thing I need, maybe I can use the CL fueltank mound and work that to the MER.

Theuns

Nice work on the F-4 Rob.

Hello everybody!

Rob Sherman - I like your Phantom a lot! Looking forward to your getting back to work on this one!

Theuns - Pity about that HUD. Those canvas look nice, though. But please put some more research in this one, you can still fix it! Thirty seconds on google got me this nice picture:

As for myself, I've been working on the scooter - slowly, but steadily. First I finished the landing gear. Detailed it a little with some copper wire and a black wash:

I have yet to put the catapult attachment hooks in the gear wells.

I also painted the anti-glare panel in front of the canopy and the blue tip of the vertical stabilizer/rudder:

Now I plan to put on some decals. The stars and bars will be especially tough around the vortex generators on the wing, and the refuelling probe on the right side of the nose. Any tips here?

Hope you liked the photos, thanks for reading and have a nice day

Paweł

Nice legs on the Scooter Pawel. Little things like brake lines add alot IMO.

Theuns- The canvas cover looks nice. As far as your loadout, are you gonna scratch build the MER and Pylon? Or did you get a MER from another kit?

They give two MER's for thewings, so I assume it would be the same for the CL mound.

Theuns

Yes the MER can mount on the CL mount. This is my old Monogram in that configuration.

Yea, that is the same I was thinking. The kit also goves the 2 missles for the outboard pylons.

Theuns

You can use the missiles, single bombs or a jamming pod on the outboard hardpoints.

Cool, I will have 2 MK 82's I can slap on there.

As for the CL MER, I had to cut off the bomb mound tabs from one of the MER and glue them to the other MER as they only have tabs on one side and the bottom.

Atleast now I have it done ready for paint.

I assume it would also be the same color as the fuse bottom?

I have seen pix of the (model) CL MER with what looks like metal straps that come out of the MER's pilon and then wrap around the bottom of the fuse about 1/4 the way.Is this correct?

Last question, if the bombs were hung from either the MER of other pylon, would the arming safety wire that connects the fuse be visable, or is it to small in 1/48?

Thanx

Theuns

Well, I thought I was ready to start putting decals on, but i discovered I forgot to assemble and paint the ECM pod to go on the missile pylon with the sidewinders.  I'm also having a bit of a tough time figuring out which decals to use.  I have a set of Microscale decals for Sugarfoot III of the 559 TFS of the 12 TFW in Cam Rahn Bay in 1969, but I can only find one picture of it on the internet and it's in black and white.  I'm trying to decide between the stencil data that's with the Microscale sheet, or the stencils that came with the kit, which look to be more complete (since there are a lot of them).  I'm also leaning towards the kit decals because the stencil data is much clearer and easier to read.  Does anyone know which set of stencils I should use to be the most accurate?  I would think the stencil data would be the same no matter what, but having spent time in the military I know that common sense doesn't always apply.  The kit decals have the markings for two aircraft of the 58 Training Wing if that helps.  

theuns

The MERS should be a glossy white. The wires need to be very thin at 1/48 so it's up to you if you want to use them.

www.arcair.com/.../00c.shtm

bob

I have found that some if not most of the stenciling is limited with some aftermarket decals. If the kit's are better quality  and more in numbers then IMO go with the kit supplied ones.

Hosts:  Is it acceptable to enter an airframe from the Vietnam period in a configuration/scheme from afterward?  I am working on an A-6E in the colorful CAG of the 80s, but the Intruder was definitely a Vietnam participant.

If this is not the spirit of the build, I have a Skyraider A-1 that is going to be done in SEA scheme.

I see those wires are really thin, would look cool though :-)

Do the arming wires stay on the pylon when the bombs are droped or do they also fall away after releace?

Theuns

BlackRook

Hosts:  Is it acceptable to enter an airframe from the Vietnam period in a configuration/scheme from afterward?  I am working on an A-6E in the colorful CAG of the 80s, but the Intruder was definitely a Vietnam participant.

If this is not the spirit of the build, I have a Skyraider A-1 that is going to be done in SEA scheme.

Theuns, the way I understand it, the wires stay with the aircraft after the drop, and are removed after landing. But there's the option, to disengage them in flight to drop the bombs "safed". This option was used for emergency jettison of ordnance. It was also used in Vietnam for Phosphor bombs (WP, Willie Pete, White Phosphorous) - if you drop them "live", you get a fire bomb. If you drop them "safed", the burster doesn't work, the bomb cracks open on impact and you gat a smoke bomb. A-1's used AN/M-47 WP bombs such way for "Sandy" loads - gave them the flexibility of fire/smoke use.

Hey, when do I get to see some model shots here?

Good luck with your builds and have a nice day

Paweł

Good info on the bomb sakety, thanx :-)

I saw wp 120mm Mortars when I was in the "force" , very impressive, but really nasty stuff when your on the wrong side of it !

I will hopefully get some bench time next week or so, work is getting in the way now.....

Theuns

Got some primer on today,now need to replace the lost panel and rivet detail I sanded off

Theuns - a very nicely looking model! Can't wait to see it in camo.

I did some decalling. Now my model looks like this:

I used decals from Xtradecal X72151 supplemented with some kit's stencils. The Xtradecals are nice, but you have to double-check their research. Like my aircraft, according to Xtradecal, has a grey anti-glare panel on one side and black on the other side - kinda unlikely. Also the national stars on the fuselage front were too small for my taste, so I took bigger ones. Xtradecals are a bit stiff so I used MicroSet and MicroSol on them, and had to further coerce them on with solvaset. Some more complicated surfaces required multiple applications of solvaset. The kit's decals are much softer and need a lot less solvaset, MicroSet + Sol would probably be enough for them.

My research also indicates, that the pilot's name was written on the aircraft on both sides, whereas Xtradecal sheet only supplies one such inscription - so I already made my own design and let one friendly Polish company print me some more of them. I hope to put them on next week.

After I do that, it will be time to clear-coat my model. Let's see how that goes. Thanks a lot for reading, I hope you liked it, and have a nice day

Paweł