11bravo
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Posts posted by 11bravo
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On 3/11/2023 at 11:35 AM, MDriskill said:
As a matter of general interest, this book published late last year takes Fw 190 color analysis, to - literally - another level.
Late in the war, the Fw 190's major sub-assemblies (central fuselage, wing, engine/cowl, tail section, tailplanes, and large access panels) were usually painted where they were built. This book looks at aircraft assembled by Norddeutschen Dornier Werk (NDW). Each facility of this consortium and its products are described; then each sub-assembly traced to its source(s), and its finish analyzed. Quite a few wartime documents and some previously unpublished photos are included.
Future volumes covering radial-engine Fw 190's from Arado, Fieseler, and AGO are noted on the back cover.
This is a pretty decent (and very reasonably priced) book. It takes "deep dive" to another level. That being said there are a few things that give me pause. The author continually mentions RLM83, which I thought by now was uniformly regarded as a dark blue that was never used on fighter aircraft. He also talks about a late-war "middle grey" version of RLM75 which I've never heard of before. Regardless, given the price and the large number of pictures (most of which I've never seen before) and profiles, it's worth picking this one up.
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And some detail shots:
The AIM-7's tended to get pretty weathered, since unlike the Sidewinders, they typically stayed on the jets for extended time periods.
Nothing is more unrealistic (IMO) than immaculate bombs on a combat jet. These weapons were typically stored in open-air bomb dumps and were in very rough shape.
Added literally hundreds of details to the MER and TER racks.
Nice little resin set to add some detail inside the aux air intakes.
Aftermarket exhausts are mandatory since the kit parts are much too small.
Nice AMS seats, to represent the early MB Mk5 seats found on the initial F-4C's.
Wheel wells need a lot of extra detail added.
If anyone's interested, the full WIP is posted over on Large Scale Planes.
Thanks for looking lads!
John
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Finally wrapped up a year-long build of the Tamiya F-4C/D kit. This is by far the most involved project I've ever done. First task before I could even start was the need to remove multiple raised panels from the kit that weren't present on the real thing. Lots of careful sanding, followed by re-scribing / re-riveting. Once that arduous task was out of the way, I then rebuilt the intake trunks (the kit ones are hopelessly disjointed). After that, just a boatload of scratchbuilt detailing, along with aftermarket seats (AMS), instrument panels (Quinta) exhaust nozzles (GT Resin), Mk 117 bombs (VideoAviation), AIM-7 Sparrows (Brassin), AIM-9's (Brassin), wheels (Brassin) and canopies (Airscale). The decals were from the amazing Fundekals set.
My subject is an early F-4C assigned to the 8th TFW. These jets were originally in the Navy scheme of grey over gloss white with large, high-viz markings. As losses from MiG's started to increase, the AF implemented a crash program to camouflage all of their jets. The jets in theater were painted by contractors, using non-spec paints and patterns. This led to some wonderful examples of fading and touch up work (using whatever paints were available at the base). If you want to learn more about this very interesting subject, I highly recommend you read through the amazing Fundekals instructions: FD32011_Inst.pdf (fundekals.net)
Anyway, here is my subject, tail number 63-7589:
And in real life.
Note again the crazy paintwork. The paint used faded easily and was touched up using random colors. Makes late-war Luftwaffe paint jobs seem pretty uniform!
Here's 589 in plastic:
Thanks for looking, I'll follow up with a few detail shots from various stages of the build.
John
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38 minutes ago, billn53 said:
Here is an interesting example of the hurried nature of the re-paint. Not only can you still make out the original, large insignia, but the smaller replacement was painted upside-down!
Just proves that for those early SEA paint jobs, pretty much anything goes. Almost as non-standard as late war Luftwaffe... Note also the horrible paint work on the port-side external tank.
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Plugging slowly away. I think I'm 99% of the way there. Notable updates are:
Added a bunch of scratch built details to the canopy interiors, installed the hydraulic jacks (with their hydraulic lines added) and glued the canopies in place.
Added details to the interior of the wing folds (Tamiya must have been thinking about offering folding wings as an option since they provided some of the details).
Fixed the outer wings in position (yes, USAF jets did on occasion fold their wings).
A few pictures:
If you look close, you can see a portion of the original large "USAF" marking that was on the lower wing until it was hurriedly overpainted when the SEA camouflage was applied. These early jets were just left in their gloss white undersides, with the large national insignia and USAF overpainted (sometimes quite lightly) with white paint, allowing those markings to occasionally be seen under the top coat.
That's it for now. Thanks for checking in and have a safe and happy New Years!
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I guess I'm in the minority but personally - I wish they had just displayed the jet as is. That's a wonderful, glossy paint scheme they used but the picture at the top of this thread was of a working, combat vet. The "restored" version looks more like a toy.
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On 12/14/2022 at 1:59 AM, zigster said:
Well, I don't know about the agenda against US produced F-35, yet there were some some feedback/reports from RAAF, which painted not a happy picture.
There was a talk, that all that deal was a big mistake. I don't know all the details, high cost of upgrading software in early delivered a/c, and so-on.
z
I'd love to read up on those articles, please post your links to them.
Regards,
John
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On 12/8/2022 at 3:09 PM, GiampieroSilvestri said:
I just watched a program on German Television and German media reported in the last few days that there are big problems with the F-35 the Luftwaffe wants to order.
First a newsagency has a Pentagon report that confirmed that the F-35 still has more than 800 unsolved technical problems of which six are very serious to the extend
that the entire fleet worldwide normally should be grounded.The aircraft Germany wants to buy are likely to get much more expensive than anticipated,around ten milliard Euros.
Furthermore it is unlikely that the aircraft,as it is,will get the authorization to fly in German airspace by the Luftfahrtbundesamt and the infrastructure to operate the aircraft is not
existant and it will take at least until 2026 to install it.
Saluti
Giampiero+Christian
You need to find another news source, however given that you seem to be against any American-built jet or helo, I think you only wish to find "news" that fits your agenda.
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On 11/3/2022 at 6:46 PM, Harrier/ViperFan said:
I was after the full package really, tanks, cockpit updated parts etc. It seems BAM does it all I just hope I can order it all in time.Are you building a "what-if" jet? The only thing that is currently planned for the E/F Block III's is the new IP's.
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Sure did bud, the whole article and the whole thread, such as they were. Building this thing either during or after the war is just a colossal waste of money. If during the war, they have much better things to be putting the money towards. If after the war, if they don't feel like donating the money to help reconstruct what's left of that country, they can write a check to the US as a down payment on the billions in weapons we've provided them.
Either way, it's nothing but a PR stunt.
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Glad to see Ukraine has money to waste on projects like this.
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On 11/9/2022 at 7:33 AM, Jure Miljevic said:
Hello,
there was at least one another operational NM/silver Spitfire IX in Italy:
There is a photo of this aircraft in IWM collection, but I could not find it right now. Will post the link or the photo later. Cheers
Jure
Would love to see this picture or get additional info. The Tamiya 32nd IX is in the queue and I'm looking for an odd-ball scheme. Just find the green/grey standard scheme to be a bit boring (and overdone).
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Just finishing up the cockpit area. I tried to keep all the wiring and fittings as close as possible to the real thing.
Slowly but surely, I'm getting to the end of the build.
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On 10/23/2022 at 5:10 PM, Slater said:
Since F-22's are based at Elmendorf they're probably the most logical choice for this role. They can reach the intercept point faster with a greater offensive/defensive capability than other types.
The F-22 is a "boutique" force, a national asset no different than the B-2. It also is a maintenance pig and the hourly cost to fly it is astronomical. It's a complete waste of the jet's capabilities (and life span) to be flying those missions. Put one of the squadrons of F-15's they are pulling out of Okinawa in Alaska and let those old (but extremely capable) jets handle air defense missions.
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Only thing I can add is that looking at actual in-service USN aircraft, I always noted that the undersurface white, appeared (to my completely uncalibrated eye) to have a oh so ever slightly brown-ish yellow tint to it. If I was building a model of a naval jet in that scheme, I would avoid any kind of "pure" white color.
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What a strange device. Only thing I can think of is that the open part of the pod releases water vapor under pressure and the whole rig is used to evaluate various types of seeker heads under cold / humid / icing conditions. Just a total guess.
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Looking fantastic. So happy that Takom opted to go with the raised rivets, unlike the crappy approach taken by KH on their H-60 series.
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On 9/16/2022 at 11:25 AM, GiampieroSilvestri said:
This Junkers Ju 88 based in northern Italy was most probably painted in RLM83 blue.
Saluti
Giampiero
Out of idle curiosity - how did you come to the conclusion that the base color on the aircraft in the B&W picture above is blue and not something else?
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On 9/8/2022 at 10:54 AM, GeejeeZ said:
Err,... anyone already started building this kit? I did and I must admit that I am already stalling at the assembly of the cockpit parts...
😬
What's the issue?
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I just discovered this site. Amazing content, I'm on part 3 of their Wild Weasel series and Starbaby is awesome. Funny dude with true passion for the subjects he's talking about. If anyone is remotely into mil av podcasts, you need to check this site out.
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On 9/10/2022 at 6:02 AM, exdraken said:
They seem to be rather old models anyway.... seem to be put to good use though!
Does this mean the Rusdian air defence radars get at risk when Ukrainian jets are overhead?! And switch off? Would not the more modern ones be aware of Harm capabilities 20 years+ after Kosovo?
If they shut off while the UKR jets are overhead, that's a successful SEAD mission, regardless of whether a HARM left the rail or not. I'm guessing very few HARMs have actually hit their target but that's nearly beside the point. Now you have a bunch of Russian SAM troops very hesitant to turn on their radars. That's what matters.
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Working on the WSO's cockpit. Add the upper instrument panel (Quinta), removed the anemic Tamiya instrument housings on the back of the panel, scratchbuilt new ones, added a bunch of wiring and connectors, also added Airscale placards on the instrument cases. On the aft bulkhead, I installed the canopy retaining lock and spring, the canopy airline connection, along with yet more wiring. Doing my best to replicate the 'busyness" of those areas on the real jet. Lastly I added some boot scuffings along the intake and fuselage upper surfaces.
That's it for now, thanks for checking in.
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I'm certain that the missiles are being employed in a very restricted mode. Maybe not even being cued to target, possible just being lofted in dumb mode in hopes that the missile will lock onto something before it runs out of energy
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Everything except the 2 foward AIM-7's are loaded up. Honestly, the F-4 is simply a brute. It doesn't even look like it could get off the ground with all that gear hanging off the bottom and yet.....
The external tanks are a bit off-spec as is the QRC-160 ECM pod with the crudely painted green camo and the grubby Sparrow missiles but I've got pictures that back all this up! No liberties were taken.
Getting closer to the finish line!
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Late War AH-1G Cobra Paintwork
in Aircraft Cold War
Posted
I'm building the Special Hobby (ICM) 1/32nd AH-1G Cobra as a late war (71-72) helo. One thing I've noticed is that a large number of these helos had various components painted black. These include the aft engine cowling, the tailboom transmission cover, leading edge of tail fin, area around the canopy, etc. Just wondering if anyone happens to know what the purpose was of this? Doesn't seem like it had anything to do with individual markings. Just curious....