At Sea Posted March 9, 2014 Share Posted March 9, 2014 Planning on starting a new theme for my modelling. I thought US Navy in Vietnam would be a colourful and interesting period. Any tips on best manufacturers in this scale? Do any aftermarket decal manufacturers make 'whole ship' themed sets? Quite fancy doing an embarked CAG for one year, Such as USS Saratoga 1968 or something. Thanks in advance. :-) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
At Sea Posted March 9, 2014 Author Share Posted March 9, 2014 Oh! Some ideas would be helpful. I have so far... Phantom F4D Vigilante Intruder Sea King Skyhawk Corsair Crusader Skyraider Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Parabat Posted March 9, 2014 Share Posted March 9, 2014 1/72 Intruder - Fujimi Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FZ6 Posted March 9, 2014 Share Posted March 9, 2014 For the Crusader the Academy kit is really nice. Xtradecal do an aftermarket decal sheet. The Fujimi Corsair is said to be the best of the bunch For the Skyhawk I would recommend the new Airfix one. I think Hasegawa have the best Phantom in this scale but the Fujimi one isnt bad either. Hope this helps, Mark Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andyf117 Posted March 9, 2014 Share Posted March 9, 2014 (edited) Content withdrawn - I will NOT be threatened by a moderator, simply because I queried the actions of another... Edited June 27, 2020 by andyf117 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Julien Posted March 9, 2014 Share Posted March 9, 2014 You missed the EF-10B Skyknight. The new Sword kit is great. The Skyknight had the distinction to be the only Jet to Serve in Both Korea & Vietnam. Also CH-46, A-3 Skywarrior, TF-9A Cougar. Julien Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Giorgio N Posted March 10, 2014 Share Posted March 10, 2014 Fortunately the USN main types used in Vietnam are all available in the form of modern kits in this scale ! If it can help, my personal selection would be: - A-1: hasegawa without a doubt for the A-1H/J! Any other competitor is ancient and not worth bothering with. Some A-1Es were still used by the Navy and for this version things are not great as the only kit available is the Revell rebox of the old Monogram one. This is not accurate and shows its age. - A-3: a number of variants were used for various missions. Hasegawa has a number of boxes that contain a good modern kit. However the availability of these might not be the easiest - A-4: the Airfix kit is a good and easily available option for an A-4B, however the versions that saw most use in Vietnam were the C, E and F. Fujimi has all, alternatively the C can be built from the Airfix kit with a resin conversion, the E/F was available from Esci and the F from Italeri - RA-5: Trumpeter's is the only modern kit. The old hasegawa is still around - A-6: Italeri has the most accurate kit, the fujimi one however is nicer in terms of finesse and fit. As the Japanese kit is not the easiest to find, the Italeri one is probably an easiest option - A-7: Fujimi the best for all variants. Esci did a series of kits that were not bad, some have been reboxed by Italeri - F-4: hasegawa the very best for all variants. The fujimi kits are still nice but have a very poor cockpit as does the Esci J. The monogram J is nice but not all like the raised panel lines. - F-8: academy all the way ! It's a beautiful kit and can be built as both an E and a J. Earlier variants will need some conversion. The same applies to the recce variants - SH-3: fujimi, the only other option would be the ancient Airfix kit - S-2: hasegawa the only option, although this is not a modern kit - E-1: the above S-2 kit with a conversion - E-2: the hasegawa kit is the best, but buy a box with the original 4 blade prop, not the latest 8 blade ones. Alternatively fujimi has an older kit The above are the types that would have been seen on a carrier. There were other types used ashore, including transports and patrol types. There was also a number of helicopters like the UH-1 and UH-46 As they have been mentioned above, you might be interested in the EF-10 and the TF-9: - EF-10: the recent Sword kit is excellent, the old matchbox is the only other alternative. - TF-9: used for FAC duties, this can only be made using the hasegawa kit and a conversion (Falcon did one) However both types were used from land bases by USMC units so are not strictly USN 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
At Sea Posted March 10, 2014 Author Share Posted March 10, 2014 Awesome, thank you. Plenty to get on with there! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andre B Posted March 10, 2014 Share Posted March 10, 2014 But still there isn't any "Photo Crusaders" out there on the market. Just a few conversion sets. My hopes is that Academy makes one... / Andre Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pigsty Posted March 10, 2014 Share Posted March 10, 2014 For the E-2 you'd really be looking at an E-2A or B, with the shorter nose. The E-2C as depicted by Hasegawa (and Fujimi) was just too late for squadron service over Vietnam. I'm not sure any kit or conversion is available for the short nose, nor how easy a DIY conversion would be; but a number of decal sheets offer suitable markings. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
datguy Posted March 10, 2014 Share Posted March 10, 2014 For the E-2 you'd really be looking at an E-2A or B, with the shorter nose. The E-2C as depicted by Hasegawa (and Fujimi) was just too late for squadron service over Vietnam. I'm not sure any kit or conversion is available for the short nose, nor how easy a DIY conversion would be; but a number of decal sheets offer suitable markings. Fujimi originally released their Hawkeye kit as an E-2A; it was later retooled to have the C-model features. The early one can still be found pretty easily on a large on-line auction site. If it were me, I'd think about using Fujimi E-2A parts as a conversion kit to backdate the Hasegawa E-2C. Oh, and use nose weight. Lots of nose weight. Probably so much nose weight that the metal landing gear set from SAC would be needed. For the most part, ASW assets like the S-2 were not deployed on the big deck carriers during this period. They were concentrated on the old Essex class ships designated as CVS's. Details of air wing make-ups forr specific deployments are available on the web the "Unofficial US Navy Site." For example the Saratoga's page is here: http://navysite.de/cvn/cv60deploy.htm Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andyf117 Posted March 10, 2014 Share Posted March 10, 2014 (edited) Content withdrawn - I will NOT be threatened by a moderator, simply because I queried the actions of another... Edited June 27, 2020 by andyf117 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steven Corvi Posted July 2, 2014 Share Posted July 2, 2014 (edited) BTW- Go for the Airfix kit in 1/72 for the Seasprite. tThe Fujimi kit is inaccurate and very basic. Airfix-MPC kit is rather nice. here si mine with a little bit of sacratchbuilding! Steve Edited July 2, 2014 by Steven Corvi Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
boffin Posted July 2, 2014 Share Posted July 2, 2014 Another aircraft used by the USN was the OV-10A Bronco flown over the Mekong Delta by VAL-4, the Black Ponies. The best kit (IMHO) is the Academy, and decals were (are?) available George Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PLC1966 Posted July 2, 2014 Share Posted July 2, 2014 (edited) Blimey, you've shown a picture of the Seasprite model with all its rivets visible,,,,,,,,,,,,,, Blasphemer.......stone him........... Good kit by the way.......... Edited July 2, 2014 by PLC1966 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dhdove Posted July 3, 2014 Share Posted July 3, 2014 (edited) Go for 1/48 You know it makes sense! TonyS Edited July 3, 2014 by dhdove Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Julien Posted July 3, 2014 Share Posted July 3, 2014 Great build there Steve. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hypnobear Posted July 3, 2014 Share Posted July 3, 2014 (edited) Vietnam Era US Navy aircraft is a great choice for modelling a collection I had a simular idea recently and completed these four along with a couple Vietnam USAF aircraft and a few Mig's from the opposing side. I used the old 1/72nd Airfix F 4B, Matchbox A 7, Italeri A 4E/F and new mould Airfix A 4B for this quartet, but even for mostly simple kits, they sure add a bit of colour to the shelves! Hope this isn't topic-hogging - just wanting to add an example for inspiration purposes Edited July 3, 2014 by Hypnobear Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Duncan B Posted July 4, 2014 Share Posted July 4, 2014 it's a great theme to pick, I spent a few years back in the 1980's building all manner of 1/72 kits in this theme. A lot of the kits were Hasegawa with some Fujimi and the likes. Unfortunately all the built its have long since gone to the "boneyard" but I still have a few unbuilt in the stash which might get built one day. Remember to post in the RFI section to show us how you are getting on. Duncan B Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tempestfan Posted July 4, 2014 Share Posted July 4, 2014 ... I used the old 1/72nd Airfix F 4B, Matchbox A 7, Italeri A 4E/F and new mould Airfix A 4B for this quartet, but even for mostly simple kits, they sure add a bit of colour to the shelves! The Matchbox A-7 is the Air Force D. While probably not quite in the league of the Fujimi kit, the Airfix A-7E is not a bad one and easily and cheaply obtained (in my experience). For the early versions which had a TF-30 instead of an engine, Fujimi is the best choice, Esci being reportedly an underscale copy of the Fujimi, and Revell being an oldie (and oop for a long time now - but also easily obtained). A Phantom version not mentioned yet is the N (updated , of the G mentioned above only 12 or so were converted from Bs to test an automatic carrier landing system or somesuch and converted back after the trials, IIRC. The were noteworthy in that they were camo'ed green, but otherwise they weren't particularly colourful (at least not the one of which I recall seeing a photo). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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