spejic

They definitely flew missions, and there are images of them getting prepped on the flight line during the war, but I don't see any images of them carrying bombs. Doesn't mean they didn't do that, of course. That seems to be what they carried, with one interesting exception. The A-4KU were also the sole delivery system of the ADSID (Air Deployed Seismic Intrusion Detector). These were part of the US Marines arsenal, free-fall devices that planted themselves into the sand and could detect nearby movements of tanks and other vehicles. The Marines didn't have any compatible aircraft in theatre that could drop them, so they asked the Kuwaitis. Here is a site that has good images of them.

Actually, this is what I do to relax my eyes. I am extremely near-sighted.

The Type 1 (or 1-Go) patrol boat was a class of three that provided fast anti-ship response close to shore. They were built in the early 1990's to replace some very obsolete torpedo boats, and were based on the Italian Sparviero-class hydrofoil. They lasted about 15 years in service and were decommissioned between 2008 and 2010. They were replaced by the Hayabusa class of patrol boats, an example of which I have also built. These are the two patrol boats that come with the Tamiya LST 4002 Shimokita kit, although I think Tamiya sold them separately too. Everything outside the basic shape of the hull, superstructure, and the tops of the hydrofoil struts was scratchbuilt. The mast is stretched sprue. Had some problems with the decals shattering, which doesn't bode well for the larger Shimokita. I think I will have to do that one with the more modern marking scheme which has fewer lines overall and subdued numbers (which I have). That powdery shine on the tops is something to do with the flash interacting with the dull coat I think - I don't see it in reality. These things are so fraking delicate. I break them every time I move them. I think you can see the latest repair on the forward hydrofoil. I now see I have to drop a bit of black into those exhausts. With a Lego man for scale. I probably could have posed him holding one. Thanks for looking.

If a BTR-80/82 burned out, the wheels would often burn too, but that's not universal. Depends on where and how the fire started, and how far it spread. I recommend following what happened to a particular example. It's not uncommon to see BTR-80/82's with only some burned tires. Doors are obviously opened to let the occupants of a vehicle out, but in every photo of a burned out BTR-80/82 I've seen, every internal space there was fire will have that door open. Don't know why, but it's almost universal. So if a BTR-80/82 had a fire in the passenger space but not the engine compartment, the passenger doors will all be open and the engine compartment doors will generally not be. If the passenger space was gutted by fire, there are some modifications you will need to make. Most things internally are not combustible, but the seats are. The bench seating back is (I think) a wood panel with cushion, so that will all go and you will only have the metal frame (the end parts and a top part connecting them, probably some wire looking bits as well). The bench seating seat is a bit of cushion on the metal box containing the transmission, so just have the metal box (although it would probably be covered in ashes / other remains of the burned seats). There are two single passenger seats and the driver / co-driver seats - these are metal plates with cushion on top. You can replace those with just a thin plastic card. The driver / co-driver windows will almost certainly be missing. It does not look like the fire in the BTR-80 in your video was that bad - you can still see white in the driver's area interior, the driver's top hatch is pristine, and the outer surface still has the original green paint instead of the frequent orange rust that forms from a serious burn. I don't even see smoke marks from the side doors. We see almost nothing of the interior, but it looks like just blast damage from whatever took the vehicle out, not a fire afterwards.

The squared-off fin is part 14 in the sprue that has the fuselage halves in Hasegawa A-4 boxings. It should also have a little rounded flat bit sticking up (not that pin that comes with the kit part), but that's easy to scratchbuild. The A-4M kit comes with the later nose with the ARBS. All you have to do is paint over the clear bit that goes on the tip and fill in that first panel line that goes around the nose. I'm sure they modernized the instrument panel, but I can't find any images of it. I only see ones for the Draken / BAe A-4N's.

There are semi-local model shows on June 15 and October 12. I'd like to hit the first one, but we'll see.

I haven't given up yet. I've been in 1/700 world for a while, but I've decided to come back to this. Here's what I've done since oh god has it been that long. - I did the seat. I ended up superdetailing the kit seat instead of using a resin one. I just think it fits better with my artistic style that way. The headknocker and all the ejection handles are scratchbuilt as the kit ones are thicc. Belts are the foil/paper wrapper for tea bags and buckles are styrene or wire. Most Skyhawks don't have stripes all the way on the overhead ejection handle and they are frequently a brownish color, but I'm pretty sure the aircraft I'm modelling has a yellow one. - I removed the seam line in the canopy. I sanded with 400, 2000, 16000 in order and then used polishing compound and cotton cloth buffing, followed by a dip in Tamiya Clear Gloss. I usually pose the canopy closed, but with that seat in that cockpit it looks so freaking sweet I'm not sure I want to hide it, even under a only slightly distorting canopy. I have not decided yet. - I have started the painting. I am so used to 1/144 aircraft where you put three drops of paint in the airbrush and then feel bad about having a bunch of paint left over when you are done. I've used two half-filled cups of paint and I've only done the bottom and tail. I'm using the last of my precious, precious Model Master Light Grey. I'm doing one of the very last attack Skyhawks in Marine inventory and those were sometimes all-over FS36440. - I painted the front landing gear wheel with a brush. I've been watching lots of Warhammer painting videos on YouTube and wow thinning paint is magic. I dug out a bit of plastic right above the wheel on both sides, preserving the strength while creating the impression of a separate wheel. Once I give this a wash it's going to look spot on. - I also successfully snapped in half one of my third party resin MERs while trying to bend it straight. Oh, wait, that's a bad thing. I only need one. Unless I break the second in which case I didn't want them anyway. Next up is scratchbuilding a HUD. That has nothing to do with me losing the kit part. Absolutely nothing.

This kit definitely has some areas that can catch out those that aren't careful, but I don't see any evidence of them in your build, so excellent job in construction.

I have the 1/72 UM kit, which also had photo etch skirts but no holders. I ended making new holders and replacing the skirt panels with plastic card to make gluing everything easier. The shapes are so simple that it was easy, and the provided photo etch was so thick I didn't really lose any detail. But in my research I also found multiple images of real life Hetzers missing all their skirt panels, so it definitely happened and you can consider your model accurate as is.

Went together well with very little putty needed. The one troublesome construction part was the fuselage and wing - you need to squeeze the fuselage to fit the wing until the glue dries, but if you do that right you get a join that looks perfect. Top is Model Master Dark Earth and RAF Dark Green, bottom is Tamiya Sky. I built a new control stick for the cockpit and made a custom decal for the instrument panel, but they are both pretty much invisible now and I don't recommend anyone else doing that kind of work. Adding seat belts looks nice. I used the standard box decals. I had a bit of a silvering problem with them, particularly over the panel lines. It was really hard to get the decals down in there. Structurally they took my repeated poking with toothpicks pretty well, however. Might have went a little too dark on the lines on the bottom. I thinned the walls of the radiators a bit. I used the water-soluble Perfect Putty applied thinned and then wiped with a wet coffee filter to tone down the large panel lines.

Like the dust placement and the oil stain.

The S-3 Viking. It would be a little over 50 years if it still flew, but there are zero flying now. You would think a carrier would want to know if there were subs around. And you could stick a wide variety of electronics in that fat belly. But I guess F/A-18s do everything these days.

This is a fascinating story. Thanks for bringing it to our attention.

I own the Hehen German serials decal sheet (although a version for small scales) and they are sharp and totally in register. Recommended.

That's a really nice build. I like how you managed the panel line shading across the different colors.