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Gulf War GB Chat


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1 hour ago, Stephen said:

Aside from a couple of sheets from Replicscale and Superscale which were produced when the F-15E entered service and could have the markings used (modified)  for Desert Storm aircraft I don't know of any aftermarket sheets for the Strike Eagle during Desert Storm. The Revell-Monogram 1/48 F-15E included an option for a 335TFS F-15E which scored an air to air kill on a helicopter during a mission but those are the only options I can think of.

 

Hi-decal did a F-15E sheet that has a Seymour Johnson option, but how accurate it is I do not know. It is available at Hannants at the moment:- https://www.hannants.co.uk/product/HD72009?result-token=jLCYz

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Just thinking back to what I was doing thirty years ago. 

 

In the bomb dump at Dhahran, we had finished prepping the weapons required for the planned first three days of the war.  I was on permanent night shift, so we were looking forwards to an easy rest of the shift.  

 

Don't ever let anyone tell you that the desert is hot and dry.  January in Saudi Arabia is cold and very wet indeed.  The bomb dump crew had got cleaned up and we were sat in the crewroom warming up and watching a video:  Turner and Hooch.  

 

After about twenty minutes of the movie, I became aware that there were a lot of aircraft taxying around.  In fact I had never heard any aircraft taxying in the dark at Dhahran before.  Then it started.  Afterburners lit and waves of aircraft took off, making a horrendous racket.  We couldn't watch the movie, it was so loud.  As soon as one wave got off the deck, another would light up. 

 

It was clear what was happening.  We thought we had at least another three days before things kicked off but in hindsight, it was obvious that things would happen on 17 Jan.  It was a couple of days after the new moon and so any more delay would have increasingly led to moonlit skies.

 

A phone call came through from Eng Ops.  We were now at war.  So, it was a case of NBC suits on and back out to the prep sheds to replenish the weapons that had just left with the first waves.  That set the tone for the next few weeks.  We prepped continuously.  No jet ever brought a heavy drop load back.  If they couldn't strike the primary target, they had secondaries and even targets of opportunity.  It was rare for crews to use 27mm though.

 

We were never in any danger of running out of 1000lb bombs.  The problem was the fuzes,  We expended the modern 960 fuzes within a week and had to start using old school 947 fuzes instead.  Eventually we ran out of those and had to use WW2 era 79 pistols!  It was fun prepping those, I can tell you! :yikes:  Thankfully we got a 960 replenishment in time for the changeover to LGBs.

 

I didn't get to see the end of Turner and Hooch that night.   I eventually saw the whole thing, but due to air raid alerts, it was never all in one go.  I saw the start on 17 Jan.  I saw the end a few days later and then saw various middle bits over the next few weeks.  Even today, thirty years later, it feels odd watching that film all in one go.

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48 minutes ago, John Masters said:

It's easy to do.  Pandemic Panic.  Quarantine Keeness.  Lockdown Looniness.

 

I'm there too.  

Sadly I have a leg up on the rest of the planet. Im disabled and have been in lockdown for roughly ten years, so nothing out of the ordinary here. 

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Right, I've pitched in with two builds, though it may be a few weeks before I get them started.

 

Can it really be 30 years since the start of Desert Storm? I remember it like it was yesterday... coalition air strikes began on 17th January 1991, which happened to be my 22nd birthday. "That's it," thought I, "I'm going to war!"  Thankfully they didn't see the need to reintroduce conscription, so it didn't turn out that way...

 

Enjoy your builds everyone, I look forward to seeing them and learning more about the Gulf War.

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21 hours ago, Enzo Matrix said:

Just thinking back to what I was doing thirty years ago. 

I was in my first year of culinary school after already working for 10 years in the business.  By 2002 I was finished.

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21 hours ago, Enzo Matrix said:

Just thinking back to what I was doing thirty years ago. 

 

In the bomb dump at Dhahran, we had finished prepping the weapons required for the planned first three days of the war.  I was on permanent night shift, so we were looking forwards to an easy rest of the shift.  

 

Don't ever let anyone tell you that the desert is hot and dry.  January in Saudi Arabia is cold and very wet indeed.  The bomb dump crew had got cleaned up and we were sat in the crewroom warming up and watching a video:  Turner and Hooch.  

 

After about twenty minutes of the movie, I became aware that there were a lot of aircraft taxying around.  In fact I had never heard any aircraft taxying in the dark at Dhahran before.  Then it started.  Afterburners lit and waves of aircraft took off, making a horrendous racket.  We couldn't watch the movie, it was so loud.  As soon as one wave got off the deck, another would light up. 

 

It was clear what was happening.  We thought we had at least another three days before things kicked off but in hindsight, it was obvious that things would happen on 17 Jan.  It was a couple of days after the new moon and so any more delay would have increasingly led to moonlit skies.

 

A phone call came through from Eng Ops.  We were now at war.  So, it was a case of NBC suits on and back out to the prep sheds to replenish the weapons that had just left with the first waves.  That set the tone for the next few weeks.  We prepped continuously.  No jet ever brought a heavy drop load back.  If they couldn't strike the primary target, they had secondaries and even targets of opportunity.  It was rare for crews to use 27mm though.

 

We were never in any danger of running out of 1000lb bombs.  The problem was the fuzes,  We expended the modern 960 fuzes within a week and had to start using old school 947 fuzes instead.  Eventually we ran out of those and had to use WW2 era 79 pistols!  It was fun prepping those, I can tell you! :yikes:  Thankfully we got a 960 replenishment in time for the changeover to LGBs.

 

I didn't get to see the end of Turner and Hooch that night.   I eventually saw the whole thing, but due to air raid alerts, it was never all in one go.  I saw the start on 17 Jan.  I saw the end a few days later and then saw various middle bits over the next few weeks.  Even today, thirty years later, it feels odd watching that film all in one go.

 

My start to the war was not as exciting as yours. I was working days (we did 12Hr shifts, with one day for 18 so that we could change from days to nights and visa versa), so I safely tucked up in bed at our hotel complex at Al Jubail unawares of anything that might happen. Anyhow at about 03.30 the siren went off, so it was into our goon suits, face welly and make our room as safe as we could then hurry up and wait. The best thing though happened about half an hour later. On one corner of the complex was a minaret which was used to call people to pray and at about 04.00 he started up, was sounded not quite to be his usual self.

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The second night of the war was most interesting.  We were prepping like maniacs.  The Tornado line had enough weapons in the forward store to last them for three days - or so we had been told.  It didn't work like that.  The tempo of ops was such that they used all those weapons within 30 hours!  For the next three weeks they used every weapon as fast as we could prep them.  

 

The problem was that the Iraqis wanted to intervene.  

 

So there we were, happily prepping away when we heard some odd sounds coming from the other side of the airport.  The bomb dump was three miles away from the rest of the airport.  It turns out that it was the air raid siren and our local repeaters had not been wired in yet!!!   We were warned by a panicked phone call from Eng Ops - sort of.  The Flight Sergeant was screaming and shouting and waving his hands in the air from the door to the crewroom.  None of us could hear what he was saying.

 

But we didn't need to.  There was a deafening roar and  a Patriot missile launched from the site 500m away.  Cue absolute panic!!!   Mask in nine!  Blow out!  "Gas! Gas! Gas!"  Put your NBC suit hood up and then make sure your buddy's suit was sealed.  He would be doing the same for you.  There's another Patriot launch!  And another! Get to the air raid shelter!!!  People running around, freaking out! 

 

The shelter was basically a big hole in the ground with concrete slabs and earth placed over the top.  There was a slit trench for an entrance, allowing no more than two people in at a time.  We couldn't get in!   One of our colleagues was a Welshman who played rugby.  Built like a brick outhouse.  With the legendary originality that the RAF applied to nicknames, we called him Taff.  :lol:    He was the first in to the shelter.  He turned straight round and came back out, pushing back everyone else who was fighting to get in.  There was a huge scorpion in the shelter and Taff decided he would rather take his chances with the Scuds which were now exploding...!

 

We eventually evicted the scorpion and got into the shelter.  We stayed there for two hours,  The raid was over in twenty minutes but no one saw fit to tell us! 

 

The Scuds didn't actually explode.  Every one of them tumbled on re-entry and broke into pieces.  The explosions we heard were the Patriots self destructing.  This got to be a regular pattern.  We were told that the Patriots had a hit rate of 40% which sounds bad.  But that's because 60% of the Scuds fired at us broke up in flight.  The Patriots got the rest.

 

After a couple of days we got very blase about the Scud attacks.   It was clear that we were in little danger from them so we sat outside the shelter and watched the display.  You could see them coming in leaving trails in the night sky and we used to make bets about whether they would tumble or be taken by a Patriot.  It was like Guy Fawkes' night, with accompanying "ooooh!"s and "ahhhh!"s in appreciation of the sparkly bits every time a Patriot did its job.  :lol: 

 

One of the Scuds did eventually get through, but that's a story for another day. 

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On 17/01/2021 at 19:25, John Masters said:

 

11-YC can become 11-YG easily...

Good afternoon John

 You might be interested by this decal sheet

https://www.hannants.co.uk/product/BER72074?result-token=ZUDjE

or this one

 

https://www.hannants.co.uk/product/BER72075?result-token=ZUDjE

 

Best Regards

Patrice

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2 hours ago, TEMPESTMK5 said:

You might be interested by this decal sheet

Indeed...I have that one on order Patrice...thank you.

 

However...Hannants is not sending any parcels to the EU currently so my large order is on hold.  Unfortunately, it will most likely be my last order from them.

Because of the new Brexit rules, anything coming into Greece will now be subject to the Greek Customs and therefore I will most likely have to pay double 

for the parcel.  

 

I have had to switch purveyors for photo chemistry, paper and film as well.  Silverprint in the UK is no longer an viable source.  

 

--John

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2 hours ago, John Masters said:

😭 Tell me about it @Enzo Matrix

 

 

I was under the impression that the Free Trade Agreement which dominated the latter part of last year would stop this sort of issue. 

 

Is it more of a documentation issue with regard to customs declarations? 

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19 minutes ago, Enzo Matrix said:

Is it more of a documentation issue with regard to customs declarations? 

I am not sure.  Because Hannants will no longer be charging a VAT, packages arriving in Greece from the UK will be subject to customs handling much like those from Asia or the USA.  That's the terrible idea, anyway.  

 

I am not giving up on Hannants just yet.   I have a big Eduard order as a show of support following the warehouse fire in Prague.  

 

 

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In the mid nineties I worked with a smashing lad, I was a TA member at the time so  one day the conversation got round to his time

in the army and it turned out he had been with 3RRF (I seem to recall platoon sergeant) when two of his companies Warriors were hit by a 

USAF A-10 killing nine,one young lad was from my home town.

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On 1/16/2021 at 9:40 PM, Lex77 said:

 

Thanks for that link, was literary about to post the same question as Peter when I saw your post, looking for a backup entry and an F-15 fit the bill and thanks to your post found I have the right code and serial for a 336FS one from the war in the stash, the hasegawa 2012 1/72 kit has them if you combine the serial from the boxart option with the 336 markings from option 2 edit: oh and the 1/144 Revell SJ Boxing one can be used sans the special markings might build that one regardless of my other entry 

 

Edited by PhantomBigStu
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Hi folk's,I usually have a go at most of the GB's here on BM especially if I don't have to shell out for a kit,I've italeri's ka-6

tanker Intruder marking's for VA-196 in 1991,the squadron certainly served in the war but the kit has the Gull gray/white scheme

hi-viz wondered if this was the scheme worn or did they go low viz? Can't track down any info on the interweb.

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9 hours ago, stevej60 said:

Hi folk's,I usually have a go at most of the GB's here on BM especially if I don't have to shell out for a kit,I've italeri's ka-6

tanker Intruder marking's for VA-196 in 1991,the squadron certainly served in the war but the kit has the Gull gray/white scheme

hi-viz wondered if this was the scheme worn or did they go low viz? Can't track down any info on the interweb.

Yes more than likely, so that it could be spotted easily by receiving aircrew. I have made a KA-6 from this time period and it is Hi-Viz markings.

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11 hours ago, stevej60 said:

Hi folk's,I usually have a go at most of the GB's here on BM especially if I don't have to shell out for a kit,I've italeri's ka-6

tanker Intruder marking's for VA-196 in 1991,the squadron certainly served in the war but the kit has the Gull gray/white scheme

hi-viz wondered if this was the scheme worn or did they go low viz? Can't track down any info on the interweb.

Does this help steve ? 
 

https://www.dstorm.eu/pages/en/usa/a-6.html

 

You will need to scroll down a bit but theres four maybe five photo’s in  color. Looks like the TPS Ghost colors on the KA-6’s and A-6E’s.

 

Dennis

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11 hours ago, Jabba said:

Yes more than likely, so that it could be spotted easily by receiving aircrew. I have made a KA-6 from this time period and it is Hi-Viz markings.

 

10 hours ago, Corsairfoxfouruncle said:

Does this help steve ? 
 

https://www.dstorm.eu/pages/en/usa/a-6.html

 

You will need to scroll down a bit but theres four maybe five photo’s in  color. Looks like the TPS Ghost colors on the KA-6’s and A-6E’s.

 

Dennis

 

5 hours ago, Jakub Cikhart said:

TPS on A-6Es, hi-viz on KA-6Ds and two special sand-brown overpainted A-6E birds.

Thanks folk's I need to dig further as I said this scheme is Gull gray over white more akin to the Vietnam era aircraft the one in the photo

appears to be all gray but with the hi viz markings.

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looking at the intruder tankers of the other squadrons in Dennis's link they are in the same scheme as the kit,if I can prove

VA-196 still had the tanker in the war we may be on,the squadron were on board Independence during desert shield but left

the theatre November 1990 so not their during Desert Storm,

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