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Steve McArthur

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Everything posted by Steve McArthur

  1. Here's a better image of a different crash showing it resting on it's tires wheels up. Looks like it had a major gun malfunction the way the muzzle cover is coming apart. The pilot in the crash above should have jettisoned stores before doing a belly landing, it looks the plane is sitting a little higher like it's resting on the crushed external stores and not the landing gear. I like that someone thought it necessary to put chocks on the starboard wheel to keep it from rolling away.
  2. The cockpit arrangement varies a little depending on variant., but the generic cargo haulers are pretty similar. Behind the pilot seat you have a circuit breaker panel on the port side, stairs coming up to the flight deck and the galley. On the starboard side you have the navigator's station behind the copilot and on the rear wall a set of bunk beds. Try searching for these features specifically: "C-130 Bunks", "C-130 Navigator Station", "C-130 Galley", "C-130 Stairs" You could also google for a copy of the flight manual which will have some diagrams of the cockpit layout.
  3. The Hill Grey had variations. Are you confused if the bottom color is supposed to be the light or dark grey? The gun muzzle or gear doors can be used as an indicator of the bottom side color if you can't get a photo of the bottom. Or here with the main gear door that looks too light to be the dark grey.
  4. Kitty Hawk went out of business during COVID. Zimi Models bought their assets and have started to return the Kitty Hawk kits to market in just the last couple months. If you are patient the Gripen will probably be back at retailers sometime this year. There is also a MPM boxing of the Italeri Gripen that includes resin and PE add-ons, but I'd just wait for the Kitty Hawk kit to come back.
  5. I built the Airfix F3 version back when it was new. I remember it being very simplistic and mostly raised panel lines with a few recessed one that if I remember were very heavy. It's one that I binned during a move rather than pack up. I think the GR1 came later but I would expect it to still have raised panel lines.
  6. It would be easier to paint if the engine face were two parts: the support struts and the blades.
  7. When the A-4E was re Be patient, at least in the states it took several months from when the A-4E was re-released last year until it hit shelves. I know a few people that couldn't wait and have found A-4Cs on Japanese sites or eBay from Japan, but they will eventually get to the rest of the world.
  8. Squadron in the USA has added preorders for a dozen 1/48th Kitty Hawk kits due in at the end of April.
  9. It goes back to a Flickr album of a hulk waiting for restoration. Flickr Search Results
  10. The only 1/48 6-bladed/twin engine CH-53s kits that have ever existed are the Revell kits. Anything Reskit made for a six-bladed rotor head is for the Revell kit. The only other 1/48 CH/MH-53 are the Academy kits and they represents the 3-engine/7-blade variants.
  11. Something else to fix on the Argentinian planes that I rarely see done is the reinforcement strap over the outboard pylons. The A-4B/Cs were originally built for the US Navy with only one wing pylon per side. Many of them had an outboard pylon retrofitted before being resold. This necessitated removal of one of the vortex generators and there is a reinforcement riveted over the pylon area. Not that it is notched to fit around the oval fuel tank access panels.
  12. https://www.blogger.com/profile/17837863895661437038
  13. 3D Chutes standard USAF and ADF tail don't look right to me. The aft end over the exhaust nozzle should slope down where 3D Chute's parts look parallel to the upper surface under the rudder. Really their A/B tails still look too fat and squarish not as bad as Kinetic's tail, but not really correct either. KASL did a standard A/B tail, but not the ADF.
  14. F-4E Late Model info is on ZMs website https://www.zoukeimura.co.jp/en/products/sws48_15_f4e-late.html
  15. ZM just announced their late model F-4E https://www.zoukeimura.co.jp/en/products/sws48_15_f4e-late.html
  16. If Kinetic does anything but stick a different decal sheet in the box with the same old sprues I'm sure they would let us know because several of us have been very critical of this series. The plastic here should be the same sprues as their initial F-16D kit (48105) but without the MCID/GE parts sprue. The only sprue change I'm aware of since the very first Gold Series release was to add an ADF bird slicer (and a couple other small parts) to the lower fuselage sprue at some point but that should be in all more recent releases. I'm really surprised none of the aftermarket makers have come out with corrections for the vertical tails.
  17. Gotcha, I hadn't had my morning coffee yet.👍
  18. This was supposed to be fixed on the long nose kits, but I haven't verified that. I've got enough Hasegawa F-4Es in the stash to keep me occupied before I start buying others.
  19. I'd start with the Revell kit now. If there isn't a GR1 kit, back dating a GR4 shouldn't be too hard. I don't have one but from reviews it looks like a tricky build. Scalemates is a good place to check for decals and weapons. I'm not too familiar with the Revell Tornado since I've got a pair of the Italeri ones in the stash that are also fine, but need more resin. The Italeri needs some resin corrections that will likely be hard to find now. The base of the vertical fin is the most obvious. I think Neomega still make a cockpit for it. One of mine I found on eBay a decade ago with a full complement of the OOP Paragon sets for a steal. The Hobby Boss kit got slammed for poor shapes when it was released and I've never really considered it a viable option.
  20. My experience is strictly with Dremel tools, from my experience I've found the corded versions spin too fast even at their lowest speed for to be very useful for styrene. They are great for resin, but end up melting plastic very easily. I've had better luck with Dremel cordless tools that seem to have lower minimum speeds. I have not tried a flex shaft but recently saw this one recommended on a facebook modelling group I follow. It's minimum speed is stated at 500rpm vs 5000rpm for my Dremel.
  21. https://www.seaforces.org/usnair/VF/Fighter-Squadron-1.htm
  22. The port side light is included. It was on more variants than just the ADF. The initial boxings do not have the correct IFF bird slicers. Some later boxings have a modified lower fuselage sprue with one of the two required. . No idea which ones and sometimes it's just a later production run of previous releases. There is a part that looks like it's for an ADF bird slicer, but it's really for the Korean KF-16 and the profile of the antennas is different. The other problem is the base of the vertical tail is off. The cross section is too square at the joint for the tail piece making the base of the vertical tail too fat. The cross section is based the C model vertical tail, while the A model is more of a trapezoid cross section If you can work around the tail problem (or just don't care) there is one ADF variant that can be built out of the box. Jordan has several ex-USAF ADF planes that they sent through the MLU program and that replaced the IFF antennas with the later style common to the MLU planes. It also has a full complement of scab plates so you still need to find those. It's kind of neat to see one of these loaded with LGBs and carrying a Sniper pod. Jordan, Pakistan and I think Thailand still operate ADFs, but AFAIK only Jordan has sent them through the MLU.
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