seawinder

Okay, here are some pics. First some photos and a diagram of the pulley system: ... and a couple of A-4 photos showing the small conical things attached to the main antenna wire. Not sure exactly what their function was — I'm sure others will know more. In the top photo, you can make out the kink in the main wire caused by the tension from the T wire:

There used to be at least one diagram of the pulley system posted to some forum somewhere, but I'm not finding it anywhere online at this point. In any case, there were two pulleys, one in the small fairing on top of the canopy, the other under the hood at the rear of the canopy. The wire went around the pulley on top, through a slot in the support brace, back to and around the rear pulley, forward to an attachment point on the rear deck, and then down to the radio(s) in the fuselage. The pulley system was not fitted to the later blown hood that appeared during A-8 production, so antennas on those planes would be slack when the canopy was opened. There is definite documentation of some A-8s and F-8 fitted with the flat sided canopy for which the pulley system was either removed or not installed, but basically any A-4 would have had the pulleys and therefore a taut antenna with the canopy open. As to the T wire, there doesn't appear to be any lump or fitting where it joins the main wire, so you'd probably want simply to butt join it with CA. The T wire entered the fuselage slightly to the right of center. There are plenty of diagrams to be found showing its position fore-and-aft. Here's a link to one. Scroll down to the A-4 diagram: https://www.ipmsstockholm.org/magazine/2004/11/stuff_eng_fw190_01.htm p.s. I found several pics I'd saved some years ago. I've got to upload them to my web hosting site before I can post them here. I'll do so ASAP.

I'd say diamond and block were the most common, seen in all theaters, and sometimes mixed-matched on the same plane.

Here's a link to the thread referenced by Charlie D.: http://www.arcforums.com/forums/air/index.php?/topic/268825-148-republic-f-84f-thunderstreak-by-hobbyboss-a-first-look/ The good stuff starts on the second page.

According to one article I found— https://medevacmatters.org/2012/04/05/aerial-camouflage-why-its-not-easy-being-green-with-white-patches-and-red-crosses/ —Project Compass Ghost was initiated during the Vietnam War and was in essence a resurrection of Project Yehudi which dated from 1943 and was a USN attempt to better camouflage ASW planes by using leading edge spotlights to brighten the under surfaces. The incentive for Project Compass Ghost was the large size of the F-4 Phantom, which made it very easily visible (along with its smoke trail). The lights were fairly quickly deemed inefficient, but the blue-tinted grays were retained.

I could do without all the rivets, but I guess I'm just old fashioned.

Coming back to this thread: Nobody offered an opinion on 1/48 ACES seats for the F-15C (or E for that matter -- is there any difference?). Any thoughts, anyone? Thanks, Pip

That's extremely helpful, thanks! The bomb appears to be centered on the two sway braces, which is the first possible option I mentioned in my post. It also confirms that there isn't't any adapter mounted on the pylon, which means the bomb is mostly not flush with the bottom surface of the pylon. Your truly a lifesaver as I was going to go with the other option, which obviously would have been wrong! Thanks again. Pip

I'm doing the plane from VFA-81 Sunliners that shot down a MiG. According to the Bullseye decal sheet, it carried, besides missiles and a tank, four Mk. 84 2000 lb. bombs. I can't find any photo online showing a Hornet carrying that load, so I'm trying to figure out the proper position of the bomb relative to the pylon. Can anybody shed any light on this? It seems as though there are two possible ways: centered on the two sway brace locations (as shown in the Hasegawa instructions), in which case the bomb would protrude about 5/8 inch (48th scale) in front of the pylon forward end; or centered on the entire pylon length, in which case it would protrude just a bit fore and aft. The bomb sits better in the latter configuration, but did the pylon have the necessary attachment points further aft? Thanks, Pip

Thanks again, jester292.

Good enough for me -- I'll go with it, having already painted them overall Light Ghost. Thanks.

I'm working on a Desert Storm Hornet with AIM-9Ms on the wingtip rails. I can't decide, after looking at photos, whether the whole rail was painted 36375 Light Ghost top and bottom, or the top surface got painted 36320 Dark Ghost along with the rest of the wing. I initially figured that the rail was a bolt-on attachment and would be all one color, but now I'm wondering. Can anybody help? Thanks, Pip

FS 36270 is not the WW2 era color, it's a modern color found on F-16s etc. Really too bad Testors chose to name it "Neutral Gray" -- it's a source of constant confusion.

Will you be making it available for sale? If so, I'm down for one. Thanks!

For Neutral Gray I mix black and white, either 50-50 or 40-60 (black to white). MM1711 and 2050 are not the same shade. I like Mr. Color No. 12 Olive Drab 1 for OD 41.