PIPboy

The sources I found say that an extra window was added but it was used to move the minigun from the door further inside the aircraft to make getting in and out (and I assume throwing flairs) easier. Consequently it didn't affect the position of the minigun nearest to the wing.

Great picture, thank you!

Thanks, great links!

Yeah, I watched the few videos I could find on youtube. They show a similar variation in angles but they don't really spend time explaining how and why the miniguns were mounted.

I guess that makes sense but the minigun closest to the cockpit still remains a mystery to me. (As far as I can tell) On some pictures it's aimed in angle where it would hit the wing. Was it also aimed slightly to the back of the aircraft?

Thanks, I already checked the wikipedia but it didn't really help: On the Nha Trang Air Base picture the miniguns are aimed straightforward. However, on the last picture in this article https://warfarehistorynetwork.com/daily/military-history/vietnam-war-weapons-the-ac-47-gunship/ they are aimed downwards (similarly to the Italeri kit). Both aircraft seem to have the same setup (two minigun pods in the windows, one in the door) so I'm not sure why the pods are aimed so differently?

Hey all, I'm currently building an Italeri AC-47. I just assembled the body and the wings and to my dismay the minigun closest to the cockpit would hit the wing if it started shooting. I followed the instructions so I'm not sure what's going on. I looked up pictures of real AC-47s on the internet and the barrels of the miniguns seem to be fixed in different positions: on some aircrafts they are almost parallel to the wing, on others they face downwards. Unfortunately I don't have good quality pictures of Vietnam era AC-47s, it's either a bad quality picture of a Vietnam era airplane or a good quality picture of a restored airplane so I can't really make the call myself. Online sources say that the gunpods were attached to locally fabricated mounts. Were these mounts adjustable? If they weren't, what is the right angle and direction for the miniguns and what's the reason for the different angles? I can't really change anything at this point but I'd love to know what's up.

Thank you both! So a scene which shows the F-15 taxiing with the drop tanks missing and let's say 1 or 2 GBUs missing from random hardpoints should be fine?

Hey everyone, I'm currently rebuilding on an old Academy F-15E which I built about 10 years ago. I'm experimenting with new tricks and learning new techniques on it but I still wan't to make it as accurate as possible. My problem is that some parts are missing. I can recreate most of them using plastic sheets but that's hopeless in the case of the drop tanks and I don't want to invest money in a rebuilt kit. F-15Es always had drop tanks on them during Desert Storm according to this website so I thought maybe I'll build a diorama with the aircraft returning after mission. Here are my questions: Did SCUD hunting F-15Es drop their tanks if they engaged the enemy during their mission? In what order are the bombs dropped from the hardpoints? I'm planning to build either loadout 1 or 4 if this makes any difference.

Please tell me you helped him a LOT! I built my first model around the age of 6 and I was happy that I managed to glue it together and not the complete canopy is white because of the glue. Great work!

Hey everyone, I kept digging as well and found this link, I think it's pretty useful: https://airplanes3d.wordpress.com/2015/07/18/differences-between-dauntless-versions-sbd-5-and-sbd-6/ Antoine, Thanks for the suggestion. I considered the Mexican scheme but I usually prefer to build the airplanes of nations in war.

Jure, Thanks, that is a great idea! To be honest I am (was?) thinking about buying the French decals because of the green color scheme Troy linked. However, your suggestion might prove to be the middle ground.

Troy Smith, Thank you again for the tip! I'll definitely check hyperscale. Mike, Amazing thread, thank you! I want to try scratch building at least in the cockpit. I'm not so sure about converting to SBD5 anymore. According to the resources the two of you posted in this thread I would have to change the panel lines of the kit at least around the nose. Now the problem is that the kit has raised panel lines and I'm not sure I could replace them if they get lost.

Thank you, I would give you two likes if I could! Yeah, the kit is pretty crude. However, I want to experiment with scratch building so I think it will be a perfect fit. I knew the articles you linked about the kit and they gave me some confidence too.

Hey all, My brother recently gave me this old Monogram Dauntless kit. The decals became useless over time so I have to buy new ones. I want something more unique than the usual US Navy scheme so I looked up French decals for it. The problem is that the French used SBD5s and I think this kit is an earlier model. I don't really know the Dauntless but judging by the pictures I've seen it's an SBD3(?). Can someone suggest me a good website/book/any other resource which shows all the differences between the Dauntless models? So far I looked at googled pictures but their quality is usually so poor that I can't use them.

Hey everyone, I'm about to start my Panzer IV (H). I would prefer to do something other than the usual German colour schemes so I looked for alternatives and I found a few pictures of Syrian Panzer IVs. Here are my questions: 1. Did the Syrians have Panzer IVs without the skirt on the turret (my kit doesn't include any extra armour)? I found a few pictures of captured tanks without skirts but I can't tell if they never had skirts or the skirts were removed after they were captured. 2. What was the colour of these tanks in active duty? I found pictures of two colour schemes: sand and gray( ?). The latter was a picture of a captured tank. Was it repainted or there were different schemes? 3. According to the articles I read, the Syrians didn't really change many things on their Panzers. The only significant difference you can see from the outside is that they removed either one or both of the machine guns. Is there something else I'm missing?

Thank you everyone, I'll check out every one of the kits which were mentioned! Rob: Amazing job, that Intruder looks great!

upnorth: Haha, yeah, I love the Corsair II so that was the first aircraft I googled and the first results were pictures of the Miniwing kits. They look like toys for children. Thank you, those Platz Skyhawks look amazing! I think I'll start with them. The Vigilante also looks really tempting Dave: Thank you too. To be honest, I would prefer a metal colored version but I guess in this scale I can't be picky. Maybe I can find aftermarket decals for it.

Hey everyone, I'm thinking about building a few 1/144 kits for the first time in my life. I did some random googling and I was pretty disappointed due to the inaccurate shapes of the kits. Some looked more like cartoon drawings of the airplanes than realistic models of it. Which are the most accurate kits in 1/144? I prefer Vietnam era fighters but I'm okay with bombers (as long as it's something like an Intruder, not a B-52) and later eras as well.

I think your diorama is well done, the idea is unique and the subject might be sad but it's not distasteful. My only problem is that it's a bit hard to read, at first I thought that the airplane was caught by the fence and it is now resting on the top of it (but I knew nothing about the accident). Military modelling was also mentioned multiple times so here is my opinion: as long as the violence and/or suffering doesn't go overboard for shock value, I'm fine with showing the bloody side of war. I have a few dioramas which depict injuries (I find medics pointless without them) but never death. Oddly enough, I guess my veteran grandfather would disagree with my decision to avoid corpses. He fought in WW2 and he turned off the TV every time he saw a "Hollywood" war movie. He just couldn't stand the "sterile" portrayal of violence and lack of suffering in them and how they glorified the worst experience of his life. However, he liked films/books which were a bit more realistic and were closer to what he lived through. So I assume he would tell me to avoid military modelling altogether or at least do it "right".

Bzn20: Yeah, it's one of the best books I've ever read! It's not just full of very interesting stories about legendary airplanes and project management but it's also humorous and easy to read (I'm not native English and not an engineer either and even so I had no problems with it).

Hey everyone, I just finished "Skunk Works" by Ben Rich, who led Skunk Works after the retirement of Kelly Johnson. At the end of the book there is a part where he talks about the difficulties the industry faces nowadays and he mentions the responsibility of the Air Force as well. One of his examples is this: "Another frustrating example was the stubborn insistence of the Air Force to have its insignia painted on the wings and fuselage of the SR-71 Blackbird, even though no one would ever see it t eighty-five thousand feet; finding a way to keep the enamel from burning off under the enormous surfce temperatures and maintain its true red, white, and blue took our chief chemist, Mel George, weeks of experimentation and cost the government thousands of unnecessary dollars. After we succeeded, the Air Force decided that the white on the emblem against the all-black fuselage was too easy to spot from the ground, so we repainted it pink." (p. 327) Does anyone have a picture of this red-pink-blue insignia on an SR-71?

I found a similar discussion on a different forum, it might be interesting for those of you who are interested in the topic. There are some great pictures as well, I loved this one, it shows how different the shades of green were:

Hook and nuuumannn: Great pictures and info about the boom, thanks! Everyone else: Thanks for the tips regarding the colour of the Huey! I guess I'll just mix 889 and 887 until I get a shade that I like. JMChladek: Varying the seen of the panels sounds like a great idea, I might give it a shot

Hey everyone, I have two quick questions about Vietnam era UH-1Bs. What colour would you use to paint the helicopter? According to the conversion charts, Italeri suggests 887 (I use Vallejo, that's "brown violet"). However, I find this a bit too light compared to some of the pictures I have found (for example this http://www.globalsecurity.org/jhtml/jframe.html#http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/systems/aircraft/images/uh-1c-p273.jpg||| ). I tried 889 ("US olive drab") which seems to be too dark compared to other pictures. According to a discussion on a different forum, the army used a darker colour before 1965 and lighter after 1965. This might explain the differences but it doesn't help me because the decals are for a helicopter in 1965... Also, if the tail section of a Huey was replaced where was the "cutoff" point between the body and the tail? I'm trying to make the "everything olive" paint scheme a bit more interesting and I read it somewhere that booms were replaced occasionally and their colours was different from the rest of the chopper.