CF104

The F-4 didn't have a HUD. It looks similar to a HUD but doesn't function as one. It was called the Optical Sight Unit and did not contain flight data like a HUD does. It was used for weapons deployment. Basically a glorified gunsight. Cheers, John

I think what Illu was trying to say is that the Mig-31 has trailing edge flaps and leading edge flaps. From the what I can see the leading edge devices look to be hinged from the lower surface and droop very little when extended. Since they don't extend out on tracks like slats do this would make them leading edge flaps. Cheers, John

According to "The Modern Eagle Guide" by Jake Melampy, the round exhaust is for the Regenerative Heat Exchanger. Factory installed on all Eagles up to F-15E 96-0200. Later Eagles had a change to the ECS which negated the round exhaust. Many earlier Eagles have been modified to also remove this exhaust which is what happened to 090 in the photos. Best to check photo references for the particular jet being modeled. Cheers, John

Nice build. Just so you know, there are 2 sub forums here to display your built models. The Display Case and Critique Corner. Links below. THE DISPLAY CASE CRITIQUE CORNER Regards, John

And this is what can happen as a result. Alaska F-15 shoots AIM-9 at another F-15 Cheers, John

More likely an alert barn since the jets are armed and look ready to go. If you look at a google earth photo of Eielson, there's a 4 bay Alert barn off the threshold of runway 32. Cheers, John

Hi Marc, No TCS pod on the early blocks. The TCS wasn't on a production jet until FY82 (Block 125). If you're going to model an F-14A around the 1976 time frame you could find up to Block 90 jets. The Tamiya kit builds a late block 75 through block 100 with standard beaver tail, 7 hole gun vent and ALQ-100 chin pod. All blocks up to the early block 75 had the original beaver tail and variations of the IRST/ALQ-100 pod. The following link gives a good breakdown of block numbers with beaver tail, gun vents, chin pods and ECM gear. F-14 Block variant list In th

Those illustrations aren't the greatest modeling reference. Always best to use photographic reference of the subject aircraft you're modeling if you want to be accurate. The illustration of the grey over white F-14A shows the wrong pod and has no BuNo. The only VF-2 Modex NK215 I could find was F-14A BuNo 158996 which was a block 70 jet. The block 70 had either the IRST/ALQ-100 or just the ALQ-100 chin pods. The TCS pod didn't show up until the Block 140 jets. Cheers, John

Quote from the linked article. ”Normally we train F/A-18 against the F-5. This helps us to distinguish blue air from red air. The F-5 has a single tail fin whereas the Hornet has a double one, but still during a fight it is quite difficult to see that. We therefore often equip F-5s with orange fuel tanks and missiles to identify them as part of red air, so we don’t have blue air shooting other blue air jets. Generally, we only fly F/A-18 versus F/A-18 in Beyond Visual Range combats.” Click here ALPINE TIGERS article Cheers, John

Look 4 posts up. Arnaud stated he will be releasing a PAV-1 conversion set and a PAV-2 upgrade set. Cheers, John

That's great. I'll be ordering when available. In the meantime I'll be watching this build closely. Cheers, John

Looking good Arnaud. Any chance you're going to offer the PAV-1 vents for sale? They look great! John

Pretty sure it's been long OOP.

It also has no relevance to the new kit. Bringing it up in this discussion is just muddying an already murky pond. Regards, John

I totally forgot about the Armycast decal sheet. I also forgot I had it in my stash. I ordered the Tauro low vis stencil set and am going to try to track down the Sky Models sheet as it looks like it has some good content. Cheers, John

Hi All, As the title states, I'm looking for options in 1/48 scale for the ITAF F-104S ASA-M low vis markings. I have the Kinetic F-104S kit and am doing a bit of preplanning and research before I start the build. I like the looks of the weathered low vis grey so this is where I'm headed. The kit markings are a bit limited so I've been doing some google searching and have come across a few sheets by Tauro (TM 48-569 and 570), Xtradecal (X48208) and EagleStrike (48-057 OOP and expensive). For those in the know, am I missing anything that's a jewel out there? Any and all

Both Microsoft Edge and Google Chrome have translating tools. They're located in the right side of the address bar. Here's 2 links to help. Translate in Google Translate in Microsoft Edge Cheers, John

Apparently the slats were only extended along with the flaps. You'd have to search for J-29 photos prior to the E model with the flaps extended. So far I can't find any. Cheers, John

Kind of defeats the purpose of scale modeling. I wouldn't understand why someone would want stencils 33% smaller than they're supposed to be. "More in scale" is really the scale they're supposed to be. There's scale effect in colors but markings themselves have a defined 1:1 size so I can't see any benefit or argument for it. Cheers, John

As stated earlier, only the A and B had the C-1. The RNLAF jets had the C-2 seat through their entire service life. The following link will help with determining visually which seat is in the jet you are looking to build. http://www.ejectionsite.com/f104seat.htm Cheers, John

Only the F-104A and B with the C-1 seat were downward ejecting. The C-2 and MB seats were upward. Cheers, John

The 9-12 is the initial Mig-29 production variant and is known as the Fulcrum-A. It has the small original dorsal spine. The 9-13 is the Mig-29S and is known as the Fulcrum-C which has the fatback dorsal spine. Cheers, John

Is this the decal set? Looks like a tan color to me but there isn't anything out there for colour photos with a quick search to confirm. https://www.scalemates.com/kits/dekls-da48049-f-51-mustang-169-fighter-squadron--1305583 I would say this F-51 has the cuffs due to the darker areas at the roots. Compare with this photo. The UTAH and CALIF birds are uncuffed while the NEV is. https://laststandonzombieisland.files.wordpress.com/2016/07/f-51d-mustangs-of-the-utah-california-and-nevada-angs-in-1948-144thfightergroup.jpg Cheers, John

The circled antenna is one of two lower ICMS (Internal Counter Measures System) Band 2 antennas. The angled antenna is an improved UHF/VHF antenna which I believe was part of MSIP II. Cheers, John

As I like to say at work…. You have to be good to be lucky! Cheers, John