UberDaveToo

I didn't see Monogram mentioned, does it qualify?

As a USAF crew chief, you never wore your feelings on your sleeve, they were bound to be mercilessly crushed. The best defense for verbal jabs was a good offense. The humor may have been as different as "Laugh-In" to "Benny Hill" but the flightline wasn't the place for the easily offended in my day...

Rodger all that...

Thanks, Martin. I'll put all that info to good use! Dave

Lazy crews aside, my Air Force had the actuator pinned and lockout bars to prevent closing such things from closing inadvertently...

Google has not been my friend in this case...

I never knew about these jets until I accidentally stumbled on the YouTube video a few months ago. These dudes have an F-4J (UK) they're piecing back together...

Who here might know where the "remove before flight" pins would go on the Victor's speed brakes? As a former crew chief (USAF wise) I know that many modelers love to pose speed brakes in the open position. But with a few exceptions, most aircraft speed brakes close shortly after the plane slows to taxi speed. Why would they be open otherwise? They are either broke, or it's lube time. If the crew chief needs to replace a rod end, or pump grease into bearings, one thing is certain. You pin the thing open so it cannot be closed inadvertently, so no one loses a digit, or worse, an arm. Having done such work in the past, I might could hazard an educated guess, and I have a pre-painted Eduard set of PE remove before flight tags, but where to put them? If no one has a clue, maybe I can get away with faking it... FYI, I'm building the old Matchbox Victor K.2 for the Roy Huxley memorial GB on the Airfix, Frog and Matchbox Classic British Kits forum, on Hyperscale... Dave

I haven't finished any projects lately but I've decided to save my life by dropping my weight, due to aging and an auto accident around 50 years ago which limits my ability to exercise, I was pushing 400 pounds. Not only was it tough to carry it around, I'd become diabetic, I didn't look as bad as some since I'm 6'4", but the clincher was when my doc said I could get off insulin whenever I drop under 300 pounds. I only have about 15 pounds to meet that goal and have dropped close to 70 pounds. The good news is, every pound I've dumped makes me feel 100% better, the more lose the more better I feel. It's an endless cycle, but a good one, and the better I feel. That means I feel so good I spend more time at the model desk, and that's super good. I'm in the middle of a Roy Huxley memorial GB on Hyperscale and working on a Matchbox Victor K.2, while at it, I'm grinding away the scab patchs on a 1/72 Monogram F-105F to backdate it to an early production bird in the aluminized grey paint. I'm using the kit in this box, but I bought it with no decals, which is okay, because they weren't all that great in the first place. I figured to do the it up like this 1/48th "Call to Glory" box top, easy peasy, right? A little piece of photo evidence. They have the shark mouth, the Thud in the distance has the stripes applied, but the strike camera and Radar Homing and Warning gear has to go. So I discover Print Scale has some markings in 1/72 scale and a bit of info on the OD stripes. They indicated aircraft meant for "Exercise Goldfish." And there's question one; anyone ever heard of "Exercise Goldfish?" Google came up with a big fat goose egg. The Thud is my second favorite Century Series jet just beat out by the F-106 Delta Dart, the plan is to start with the test aircraft, go to early production planes, Viet Nam (obviously) to end of service life. I found a pic of a D in the very short lived bare metal, but none of the pretty colors. Here's a shot of an F at China Lake testing a brand new Shrike missile. Panel lines are not only nearly indistinguishable, but a close look at the after burner section shows dimpling where the panel in riveted to the structure. Other than the "Exercise Goldfish" OD stripes and shark mouths, it's how I'm building my kit. I want to also backdate to some of the earliest Thuds. This shot gives me need for the XF-105, although it may be tricky to turn out the fuselage w/o area ruling, the pre production B will be relatively easy. I found this photo taken late last century shows an early production B with gobs of high vis red and "phase 5" stenciled on the intake. It'd be nice to know which command the badge on the tail represents. As I was typing that, someone on Hyperscale unearthed the answer: There's the JF-105s, a type that totally confuses Google. The JFs were proposed RF-105Bs where only a few were made. This shot shows one after its service had ended, towed to an area of the ramp with the canopy, seat and radome missing. It does show the flat recon camera panels with plated over camera ports, although the cameras were never installed. I grabbed a screen shot of JF-3, the AIM-9 Sidewinder integration jet with its wild red stripe and checkerboard paint job to guess at what I'd need to do to build that one, but it was just a guess. Fortunately, YouTuber and aviation artist Mike Machat on his "Celebrating Aviation with Mike Machat" channel made a nice painting so I could stop guessing. I got the spin test plane off a video too. And a close up of the spin recovery chute and tail too. If anyone has some other detail shots of these planes, I'll eagerly accept them. I'd almost forgotten Hasegawa had re-released it in those NJ guard colors in 2002 for their grossly misshapen F-105B kit, but it's necessity at least for the B nose when kit-bashing the Revell-O-Gram kit. Of all the Revell kits to be re popped, I vote for the Thunderchief (and the F-101B). It seems a surprise, sometimes, to recall how the old Bs soldiered on into the late seventies! But the big mystery is, when did the scab patch on the after burner, under the revised cooling scoop first appear? I'm a retired wrench bender, going way back to 1978, working on piston, turbo prop, pure jet, low and high bypass fan jets, I worked on moving parts, not sheet metal. But I worked in amongst the sheet metal and structures troops. When studying the patch, it's kinda hard to make out. A close up of this Hill AFB Reserve F-105D, taken close to the end of the aircraft's service life shows the patch to be relatively thin in comparison to model kits, especially in 1/72 scale. They look as if they were applied with half inch armor plate. On this fairly grubby EF, or G model weasel, it sticks out more in the light tan. But try picking it out in that dark green. Even in relatively dirty Hill AFB Reserve birds in the dark and medium greens, they're tough to make out. Problem is. when were the scab patches applied? A scab patch is normally beef up structure where cracking has occurred or to prevent cracking when something has changed. Like here where I used work. You can clearly see the patch under the grey LAIRCM fairing and, if you look closely. you can see part of the one applied at the wing-fuselage shoulder because cracks began to show up there, just under the #3 engine exhaust. Such things require a Time Compliance Technical Order in the Air Force, so it might be found in F-105 technical manuals, if any are available... Dave

Maybe I can throw in with this: