Hoops

Again, I'm not super smart on the laydown for Japanese coast guard SAR capabilities, but most peace time SAR immediate response is going to fall to them. In the time of conflict, the military will spool up and have crews/assets ready to go. That sort of posture is not sustainable for the military units that have other mission sets and requirements, however. The US-2s are pretty cool to watch and bring a unique SAR capability. I find it particularly impressive to watch them take off and land with their amazing slow speed performance. It would be interesting if other countries had that as well, but it's just not going to happen. Japan has decided as an Island and sea going nation that it's a capability that it's worth it for them to invest in, but I think that they are an outlier in that regard. It's all in the command investigation. It is sobering read to be sure, but I'll admit that I didn't read all of the individual pieces of evidence, focusing more on the summaries and findings of fact. The redacted and released document is a whopping 1600 pages, and can be found here: https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/6431155-KCJAGAMN-TOTAL.html This is NOT the privileged safety investigation, but instead the command investigation. Hoops

There is a big difference between maintaining a SAR Capability and a SAR Ready. MCAS Iwakuni divested their organic SAR capability as a cost saving measure years ago, with a handshake agreement with the Japanese that they would perform SAR duties if called upon. The problem was that this was not formalized in the sort of MOA of MOU, and there was no requirement for the JMSDF (the only ones at the base) to maintain any sort of SAR ready to support the US presence in Iwakuni. From a Japanese perspective I would be reluctant to sign up for such a responsibility, the manpower and costs involved to maintain a SAR ready is significant, and would it distract from any other mission sets. The only helicopter assets at Iwakuni are the Japanese minesweepers, and the site of the collision was far enough out that they would have little if any on station time to perform a search once they got there. Komatsushima is closer to the crash, but that would not make a lot of sense to obligate Komatsushima to stand a SAR ready for Iwakuni. I admit that I am not smart enough on the location sites for the Japanese Coast guard air stations to say if there are any closer, but the coast guard or other civil rescue organizations are going to be the ones standing those sorts of short response readies. Outside of the coast guard, other organizations may not be equipped and trained for maritime rescue, however.

The F-15SA is currently the most advanced Eagle in service, and has a number of differences from a baseline Strike Eagle. Of particular note, it is the first F-15 with Fly By Wire controls, that allows the reintroduction of stations 1 and 9 on the outboard wings. This build will incorporate the bright orange paint scheme linked to above. Decals don't yet exist for that aircraft, I've completed the artwork and hope to see them printed soon. The Great Wall Hobby kit starts off as a F-15E, in there is no work necessary to bring it up to that standard, all the conversion work will focus on capturing the differences for the "SA." The best place to start for these changes is the Hasegawa F-15SG kit, which includes spures "Q" "R" and "S." These provide the longer stub pylons, the larger fin tip antennas, the GE engine exhausts, and the MAWS sensors for under the cockpit and the tail booms. I will describe the other changes in more detail as I complete them as part of the build, to this point, basic construction progresses. The only modification so far has been to adapt the Hasegawa tail booms to the GWH kit: 20200105_110149 by J Hooper, on Flickr 20200105_110136 by J Hooper, on Flickr I opened up the engine vents on the top of the nacelle humps as there are simply scribed as ovals on the kit. 20200105_110117 by J Hooper, on Flickr All for now and thanks for looking! Cheers, Hoops

The first that I will cover is the Hasegawa based F-15D. Many are probably familiar with this kit, having been the standard for F-15s in 1/72 scale for the last three decades. There will be some work required to bring the kit up to the standard required to accurately depict "715." The Isradecal book on the Baz has been very useful on this build. Israel was very early ordering F-15s, most being purchased in the late 70s and early 80s. This particular aircraft was purchased much later, however. There may be others, but these are the F-15D serials that I've found that were part of this later buy: IDF Ser. USAF Ser Delivery Year 701 90-0278 1992 706 90-0276 1992 714 90-0279 1992 715 90-0277 1992 733 90-0275 1992 Based on that timeline production of "normal" F-15C/Ds had ceased, and McDonnell Douglas was only producing F-15Es. I've not seen it written down anywhere, but I think that it is for that reason that these F-15Ds incorporate a number of aspects of the F-15E, while not being full Strike Eagles. These include: -Round ESM antennas on both tail stings -F-15E style engine vents on the top of the nacelle humps -No notch in the underside engine petals -Tail hook not stands proud of the underside Construction began with the cockpit, and I modified the rear instrument panel to represent the missionized rear seat of an Improved Baz. I also added a multifunction display to the lower left of the front instrument panel (similar to an MSIP F-15C). Reference was taken from the Isradecal book. 20200105_134504 by J Hooper, on Flickr Modifications for the underside include: -The CFTs were used for the Hasegawa kit, but the attachment points for the external pylons were filled in, as were numerous vents that are not applicable on the baseline F-15 CFTs. -Sparrow pylons for the CFTs were sourced from an old tool Hasegawa F-15E kit. -The Jet Fuel Starter Exhaust was opened up, the mess is no longer present on the late F-15s. -Notches on the underside engine petals were filled in. -Round based antenna behind the nose gear was removed -The two small blade antennas under the nose were removed -The incorrect panel lines around the pitot tubes were filled in on both sides -The panel line meant to show the boot on the tip of the nose was also filled in, not present on this aircraft. -While not strictly visible on this photo, the chaff/flare buckets in front of the main gear were scribed in place. 20200105_105843 by J Hooper, on Flickr Modifications for the top side include: -Addition of the SATCOM antenna behind the cockpit. This was taken from the GWH F-15I kit. -The environmental control system vent on the starboard side behind the cockpit was opened up and detailed -GPS antenna added to the right mid fuselage -Early F-15 style engine vent was filled, and Strike Eagle style vents added -Fairing between the engines was cut off and the blanking piece added -The air exhaust on the top of the intake was also filled with sheet styrene to bring it flush. 20200105_105829 by J Hooper, on Flickr The weapons load will include two AGM-142 Popeye missiles, and the associated datalink pod on the centerline. The missiles were taken from the GWH kit, but there is one error as molded. The sensor window should look downward on the tip of the missile, but as molded, it looks upwards. The wiring conduit should be down the port side of the missile, when oriented correctly and the white hemispherical antenna on the tail should be oriented to the bottom. If those two are aligned, the sensor looks up, so I cut the nose of the missile off, flipped it 180 degrees and reattached it. The datalink pod included in the GWH kit is appropriate for the AGM-130 that is also included, but not for for the Popeye. I sourced it from a Kinetic Israeli Weapons set in the stash. Despite the error decribed above, I still think the GWH AGM-142s are better than Kinetic's so I used those. 20200105_105957 by J Hooper, on Flickr

Good Morning, Attached are the first few photos of my next work in progress, this is a bit of kit bash between these two kits and both are being built parallel. 20200105_134423 by J Hooper, on Flickr The fist subject will be a new F-15SA (Saudi Advanced), still being flown by Boeing for flight test and integration purposes. Inspiration for this build can be seen in the link below: https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/21755/f-15sa-bristles-with-a-dozen-aim-120s-missiles-during-star-wars-canyon-run The second subject will be a Israeli Defense Force F-15D, it will be one of the aircraft seen recently at Waddington, but with a different load out: Flickr Image (not mine!) The Great Wall Hobby kit is a Strike Eagle out of the box, where as the Hasegawa kit is really an F-15D with some extra parts thrown in. The Hasegawa kit is still, good, but it shows it's lineage, and there are still some steps that need to be taken to make it an accurate Strike Eagle. For that reason I will take advantage of the kit's individual qualities, to make the best out of both.

After all the hate heaped on millennials, I think a bit of turnabout is fair play. Additionally, "Baby Boomers" have been referring to themselves as just that for how long? How did referring to a group by their chosen moniker become that offensive?

If I understand correctly "FLIR Cat" was the first integration test aircraft for LANTIRN/F-14, hence the nose art. Cheers, Hoops

Hannants got an shipment of them in about a month ago, but it sold out in a few days. I missed out on them, and I didn't get one the first time around either. Hoops

The aircraft that they had on display at the Tokyo Hobby Show last fall was not a test build, or even a test shot. It was a 3D printed place holder to show that they had a kit on the way, and if you look at the sprue shots in the link posted by schion, you will see that the panel lines on the actual plastic are really nice. They are on par with the recent 1/72 F-15 kits, which are by all accounts amazing. Hoops

The problem with that is that the Norwegian P-3s have light grey/white stencils, unlike most other users. Otherwise the markings are fairly simple, I have a walkaround of "Ulabrand" from 2010 and it's only 6 photos or so of the unique markings.

Due to the size difference of the respective engines, A 1/144 F-15 engine would not come close to matching the size of the B-1 Exhuast. They are about 150% bigger in real life. Cheers, Hoops

I'm building a F-14B from VF-102 during Operation Southern Watch, on the 1998 Cruise. It will be the Hasegawa kit using Wolfpak Decals. Here is a picture of the load out in quesiton: * Link * Would ECAs still be loaded as late as 1998? It is a bit hidden behind the near side tank so I can't tell if it is there or not. Another question, obviously this load is 2x AIM-9 and 2x AIM-7, would 2x AIM-9 and 1x AIM-7 1xAIM-54 on the should pylons be possible to make it more interesting? Thank you very much Hoops

Wow! When I posted that link they showed none in stock. Good luck Andrew!

Update: Looks like Aviation Megastore has 1 in stock.

If you're looking for a line bird, AirDoc has them on the following sheet: https://www.hannants.co.uk/product/ADM72013 Out of stock and out of print for a while. You might be able to scrounge it up somewhere though. As you mentioned, Wolfpak is most likely the easier option at this point. Hoops