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      Hello Everybody... My chosen kit for this build will be the old Airfix Cessna Birddog in 1/72. This was an Original bagged kit if Im guessing correctly and traveled all the way around the globe to get to me. I received this kit as a Gift from @Admiral Puff a member from Australia last August when he visited the USA. Being the kit was originally from the U.K. it traveled quite aways in its existence. I had expressed interest in building one but couldn't find any, he had one spare and was coming to the USA to go to the IPMS Nationals here. Ive only decided to use whatever spares from the bin I need over A/M. 99% of the kit is intact I believe it was only missing a firewall and a wing strut, considering the journey thats pretty good. I will be adding weapons and new decals from the spares as the originals were questionable. 
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This is the plane I am planning on building. 
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I found this photo online about a year ago and knew it was the one I had to build. It has the great big Rocket pods under the wings and thats what I like about it. It also has a distinct lack of markings so I wont be needing a lot of decals. I will need to do more digging to confirm if these were completely unmarked, or only has markings on top of the wings. Anyone know anything about the Ravens let me know. Please feel free to ask questions, post comments, and or add thoughts. 
 

Dennis

 

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43 minutes ago, Corsairfoxfouruncle said:

I received this kit as a Gift from @Admiral Puff a member from Australia last August when he visited the USA. Being the kit was originally from the U.K. it traveled quite aways in its existence. I had expressed interest in building one but couldn't find any, he had one spare and was coming to the USA to go to the IPMS Nationals here.

Maybe this thread should be tagged "Spirit of Britmodeller". 

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Oh my Dennis!

You've hit the jackpot with this one mate! 

31 minutes ago, Corsairfoxfouruncle said:

Anyone know anything about the Ravens let me know.

Yes I do, well a little bit anyway. many years ago I bought a book called "The Ravens" by an author named Christopher Robbins, it had a cool pic of a T-28 on the front so that was enough for me. It has been my favourite and most read book since, it really is a fascinating story that I couldn't begin to do justice here so I will post some links,

http://ravens.org/history/

 

http://www.t28trojanfoundation.com/tango.html

 

https://heritageflightgeardisplays.wordpress.com/2011/03/12/laos-a-secret-pilot-war/

 

There are more but that is just a sample. They were brought to Laos under the Steve Canyon programme which took FAC's from Vietnam who were fed up with just being on the receiving end of lead and made them the slowest fighter pilots in theatre, and some of the best. They were mavericks and got into a lot of trouble but were 100% commited to their job and supporting Vang Pao and his Hmong fighters who were fighting the Pathet Lao and North Vietnamese army (who were never officially there either, but in much larger numbers). They were even known to take some of their exotic pets flying with them such as "the critter" ( a Pangolin) and Ho Chi Bear who was a Sun Bear that seemed to like flying.

 

You have also convinced me that my build will be a T-28, either a Ravens one or one flown by Lee Lue who was a Hmong pilot in the RLAF, and a damn good one at that.

 

http://hmonglessons.com/the-hmong/hmong-leaders/lee-lue-lis-lwm/

 

I shall be following with great interest my friend.

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39 minutes ago, modelling minion said:

You have also convinced me that my build will be a T-28, either a Ravens one or one flown by Lee Lue who was a Hmong pilot in the RLAF, and a damn good one at that.

Glad to have another Raven and a Trojan also. 

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welcome along Dennis, and what a great model/scheme/story!!!

 

From the picture they do look like a lot of cowboys out for mischief! That would have been an interesting sight of the bear in the cockpit as well!.

 

The Airfix model is a nice wee model, I remember my father building it when it first came out. Just watch out for the UC legs as they're really fragile!!!

 

Good luck with the build.

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Great choice den ,I'm  sure we'll see one or two more of these in the gb ,and a classic ,one that would have undoubtedly gained entrance for some in " the kit you built as a kid gb"  as it harks back to the early 70s

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  • 2 weeks later...

Now look what you've done, you have me reading the Ravens book.... This will reduce build time for the GB! Lucky for you I'm a fast reader 😉 

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       Evening everybody.... I was finally able to get a jump on this today. Its pretty basic and parts number isn't to high. I needed to replace the rear seat, firewall, and instrument panel. The kit didn't come with a control column so found a ww1 spare from an old Roden kit. The clear pieces aren't the clearest so wont be putting much more detail in inside except for some belts.   cLihVS0.jpg

I built up the upper wing and sat it on the fuselage along with empennage. Nothing is glued on as far as wings/tailplanes go just mocked up. 

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Though not a birddog or a grasshopper I found this outside at midnight last night while walking the dog. uwNz9uW.jpg

The first Praying Mantis I’ve seen in years around here. Occasionally we get a walking stick as well so I always look but last night it was the Mantis. Please feel free to ask questions, post comments, and or add thoughts. 
 

Dennis

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Very nice progress on the Bird Dog Dennis. One thing to bear in mind is that the BFO rocket pod was only hung there for a photo, they didn'y fly with them fitted, though if they could have they would have!

Great picture of the Praying Mantis, an awesome thing to be able to see in the wild.

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2 hours ago, modelling minion said:

Very nice progress on the Bird Dog Dennis. One thing to bear in mind is that the BFO rocket pod was only hung there for a photo, they didn'y fly with them fitted, though if they could have they would have!

Great picture of the Praying Mantis, an awesome thing to be able to see in the wild.

If not I have plenty other small rockets but maybe I will just use the big pod as the photo shows. They may not have flown with them, but they do look really kool hanging outunder the wing. If I could only find a 1/72 M1919a6 like what is on the cowling. 

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1 minute ago, BlueNosers352nd said:

Well now dang it!  Wish you all would stop giving me future project ideas!  That is cool!  Now how to do it in 1/48!

But that my friend is what we are here for.  To give each other all kinds of bad ideas and "encouragement".  ;)

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12 minutes ago, BlueNosers352nd said:

Well now dang it!  Wish you all would stop giving me future project ideas!

But thats what we're here for, to help spend other peoples money!

13 minutes ago, BlueNosers352nd said:

Now how to do it in 1/48!

Thats the easy bit, just buy a Roden one, you don't even need to buy any extra decals for it.

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26 minutes ago, modelling minion said:

Interesting... Looking through the link the O-1’s listed as having serial #’s starting with 27 all are maintained and operated by Air America. My birddog has what appears to be a 27 on the vertical fin but the rest is obscured by the rocket pod. AdOFXLh.jpg
Well that gives me an Air America connection

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Sorry to hijack the thread, but this build has peaked my interest to build one in 1/48 some day soon.  Kit is no problem, get the Roden.  What rockets do you think they are?  Looks similar to the Eduards P8V20-A Brassin set mostly matches it.

 

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54 minutes ago, BlueNosers352nd said:

Sorry to hijack the thread, but this build has peaked my interest to build one in 1/48 some day soon.  Kit is no problem, get the Roden.  What rockets do you think they are?  Looks similar to the Eduards P8V20-A Brassin set mostly matches it.

 

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Im pretty sure the ones on the plane are LAU-3’s. 
 

https://web.ipmsusa3.org/content/lau-3-us-navy-rocket-container

 

They do come in various scales and kits. I just linked an example of 1/48. 
 

Dennis

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Hi,

 

I will probably be using LAU-3 pods from the Hasegawa 1/72 weapons sets on my F-100F Wild Weasel, though I am not sure what colour to paint them - either aliuminium of OD I suspect.

 

Pete

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1 hour ago, PeterB said:

Hi,

 

I will probably be using LAU-3 pods from the Hasegawa 1/72 weapons sets on my F-100F Wild Weasel, though I am not sure what colour to paint them - either aliuminium of OD I suspect.

 

Pete

By the time the 3 tone SEA color was applied, I would venture OD is a good choice. Check skyraider.org, They have some color pics of the LAU3 that you can use to get the close to the OD tone 

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