ya-gabor
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Everything posted by ya-gabor
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Hi Ben, Thanks for the input and that great T.O.! I would have never imagined few days ago that this can surface. Yes, it could be an idea to start something separately just for the demo birds. The only reason it all is here is because I started to look around based on the FineMolds new kit. Best regards Gabor
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Hi Ben, So reading the T.O. now I know that the two shapes on the bottom of the aircraft on service panels 78 and 80 are started exhaust ducts. Few days back when making this combination of differen screen prints I only identified it as a "strange box". : ) : ) Best regards Gabor
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Hi Ben, Thanks! Great help. All I was able to do in the past few days was to have a look at some available videos on Thunderbirds and Blue Angels. Some great, some more just a propaganda. I find the Blue Angels film really interesting with lots of nice details. It looks like many similar changes were implemented by the manufacturer for both teams to help. Took some print screen images of the details that I wanted. Here is the antenna on the RIO canopy, it was on both the teams aircraft at one time. I think a decal on the inside of the surface could be a solu
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So, here is what I could find on real or claimed Thinderbirds Phantoms from the Joe Baugher’s USAF Aircraft Serial numbers list. 66-0284 Now on pedestal at Burke Lakefront, Cleveland, Ohio painted as Thunderbird #1, although it was not a Thunderbird aircraft. 66-0286 Flew with Thunderbirds. In 2010 was pole-mounted in Veterans Park in Hamilton Township, New Jersey. 66-0289 Was 'Thunderbird 8' and was the narrator's airplane. In 1970 it served as #7 as the Narrators aircraft. In 1971 it served as #3. In 1972 it served a
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Hi Boom175, No. : ( : ( This is based on the sprue layour in Hobby Search, here: https://www.1999.co.jp/eng/image/11015368/70/12 But looking at contemporary videos, they would not be of much help. The dummy Sparrows on Thunderbirds were just a cylinder with completely rounded back ends. Each of them had really big drains on them. I suspect they played the same role as the Blue Angels Sparrows of containing fuel or die. The only difference is that Blue Angels had fins attached to them making look like a real Sparrow and contained die to be injected into du
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Hi Robert, YEAH, as usual. Unfortunately!!!! : ( : ( : ( No point in getting it then. Well lets hope by accident someone is located near one of those real ex-Thunderbird Phantoms and will take few snapshots! For the just released THunderbird Phantom FineMolds kit to get to Europe will take about 6 months, so there is plenty of time. : ) : ) Thanks! Best regards Gabor
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Hi Rob, The museum is still there and Karoly is doing a lot of work on it. They did have a completely renovated MiG-21bis but eventually the four owners (Karoly was not one of them) had some issues and it is now located next to the main international airport in Budapest. Well it is a "Park" for (mainly) Malev Hungarian Airlines aircraft but they found a little space for the MiG-21 bis there, so it is possible to visit. In the museum at Berekfürdő now they have a MiG-21 MF. Dont know how far the restoration went, but it also should look good eventually. With the Bis I ga
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Hi Robert, Thanks! Did not do the math. Sorry! So it is the early years, the Phantoms and the T-38’s then. Is it just Diamond Formation, nice smoke trailing, general photos or are there any close up details of Phantom (as well) of airframe structures. Had a look and in some cases on net the book is selling for 35 to 60 Euro plus postage. So if the information / photos within are just general, nice sunny airshow images then it has very little value in terms of detailing a Thunderbirds Phantom! Thanks anyway! Best r
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Hi Robert, Thanks for the input and response! Will have a look at the book you recommend, but I expect it is mainly about the F-16 (BOOOOORING!!!) and not so much centred on the Phantom. It is understandable with a 25th anniversary book. From what I can see in the available period Thunderbird Phantom documentary videos is that the Vulcan was completely taken out just as the radar. Suitable ballast has replaced it and the Vulcan bay was used as a travel pod. With no radar the instrument panel was changed considerably and of course there was no HUD, so no poin
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I have to stand corrected. Sorry for the previous post! It had false information. As far as I can see there are several ex-Thunderbird aircraft preserved in US, while there are other “ordinary” F-4’s only painted up as such. Also found the instructions for the new Thunderbird kit at Hobby Search. There is one scheme mistake in my opinion and there are several modifications which are features of display aircraft that one will have to do if building a Thunderbird airframe. Would be very interesting to see some “walk around’s” of real ex-Thunderbird Phantoms.
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Hi Rob, It was the same here. The first and the very last opportunity to get on a Soviet base with a camera (officially) in Hungary was when they left the country, very last flight out. Long line of MiG-29 9-13's, Su-24's, Su-17's, MiG-27's . . . at different bases. Best regards Gabor
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Had a little look at Thunderbir Phantoms. As far as I can see this is the only one remaining original Phantom which served with Thunderbirds. It has been in Hamilton Veterans Park New Jersey since 2010. https://www.airhistory.net/photo/348724/66-0286/60286 Are there any known walk arounds of it???? Best regards Gabor
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Here is a bit of excellent news for anyone interested in 72nd scale. Modelsvit already had a long line of excellent kits of the swing wing Su-17 family. They are real gems! Modelsvit did promise few years ago to go all the way to the last operational version, the Su-17/22 M4. At last here it is. Just look at the amount of detail in that cockpit! Remember this is "just" 72nd scale!!! Dear friends and business partners, Many of you have been waiting for a decent, 3D designed, highly detailed 1/72 kit of Su-17/22M4 (S-54/ S-54K, "Fitter-K"). Well, finally we made it! So
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Was there anywhere a good period walkaround of a Thunderbird Phantom? The thing is that the ones today like at Pima are “replicas” (just a regular retired F-4 painted up as a Thundebirs) and not one of the originals. As far as I could tell from available Thunderbird infos, after the short service those airframes had (everything taken out got demo) put back in and they went for regular service. Looking at period videos of the real Thunderbird Phantoms it is visible that there were many changes on them specific for the demo role. And even then there were many differences between aircraft. B
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Every time I have some of my seats at air shows / events I try to give something new to visitors, tell a different story, show things not seen before. Few years ago I took three seats with me which were designed in roughly the same time period with plus or minus couple of years. A Soviet seat, a Martin-Baker seat and a US seat. The designers in each of those countries had similar problems to solve at a given time with a certain level of technology available to fit into fighters with similar level of development. Each of the seats in their own field performed well and given the ans
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In the instruction of the new Thunderbirds kit a nice touch is the authentic representation of Number 4 aircraft tail section. In flight (as visible in the video from which the print screen was taken) No. 4 was flying after and under No.1 aircraft and as a result the tail had a considerable amount of engine exhaust soot deposited, turning the fin almost into black! Interesting challenge for kit builders. : ) : ) : ) Nice work and research from the kit manufacturer! Best regards Gabor
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Here is a little visual explanation with an overhead view of the legguards. Returning to the question of how the „hard lock” works. The photos speak for themselves ( I hope). One ejection seat is illustrated with the left (on right in the photo) leg guard is shown in normal inflight position which the one on the left of the photo shows the locked position. Pilots feet had a completely free movement in the leg room on the floor. He was not tied to anything which was a plus in many ways including both getting into the seat for quick alert aircraft really fast but al
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Yes, there was that post a month ago, but still no time line for it in any form just for all the above items like the S-199, CS-199, MiG-21F-13, MiG-15, MiG-15bis, UTI MiG-15 . . . Based on current work tempo and production workshop availability any new kit would be at least 1.5-2 years at minimum. Till then there is still the Hasegawa kit with lots of extras! Actually when looking at that 205V back 20 years ago it was worth noting that both wings were strange and looked like a replica missing many gun service panels. But it was the very first time that I ha
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Hi Bryan, Time available I will do so or when ever questions arise like this interesting MiG-21F-13 with SK seat in a US Museum. At the moment I am trying to arrange to take a seat or two to the Moson show at the end of the month. But it seems that there is absolutely no interest in it from the organizers. But also contacted last year AMMO who produced a new kit of the MiG-17F and purely by chance I have a MiG-17 ejection seat standing about 2 meters from me right now. But they were not interested. OK. Had some communication with Eduard to take my L-39 Albatro
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Inside the aircraft they were locking the ankles or there abouts. The back part of it inside the cockpit was on same level as the floor. The designers went for a basically fool proof simple mechanical idea. The ankle lock had an L shaped device visible on the photos. It was in open position, that is forward part was parallel to flight direction looking forward. The back end of the L device was perpendicular to this. The “corner” of the L shape was pivoted so it could rotate bringing the forward part to right angle to flight direction and the back part to parallel). In flight the pil
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Hi Bryan Wilburn, Absolutely no problem. I am amazed at your collection of information on US seats!!! What you have there in that German museum is a kind of hybrid. A real museum “thing”. I am sure at one time in its life it was a true KM-1 seat. (KM stands for Кресло Микояна or in English Mikojans Seat) It has been changed in several ways in comparison to a real KM-1 seat. Yes, it has the “hard leg guard” of all the early KM-1 seats. It is something inherited from the SK seats but that is about it what is in common with the predecessor. In all later K
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Who know when and what will transpire from this but in October 2023 an Eduard team visited several Italian museum and amongst other thing 3D scanned parts of a Macchi 205V fighter. In the article nothing is mentioned on what scale or when will happen anything with this info. Just interesting! There is absolutely no point in starting a wish list or speculate what was this visit for. I am sure when the time is ready they will tell us! Have to add that more than 20 years ago had the chance with the permission of the museum director to crawl over and under one 205. It is a simply
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A bit of history on that Czech MiG-21F-13 in that US museum. Construction number is 560301, it is from the third production series, built locally. Actually the original factory number is visible on the ejection seat in the above photos. It served with Czechoslovak AF with "0301" aircraft number till 1988 with 1633 flight hours and 2547 landings. It was sold to Hungary in a very strange and not completely legal way along with two other aircraft. The Czech national markings were washed off overnight to hide where it originated from before shipping it out from Kecskemet AFB. But of c
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Hi Bryan Wilburn, Three small comments. 1. The photos show a MiG-21F-13 or “Type 74” aircraft which has an SK ejection seat. The official name of the seat is “SK”! The KM-1 seat mentioned is a completely different design from a different generation of seats which was only used starting from the third generation MiG-21PFM aircraft. All the first generation MiG-21F-13 and second generation MiG-21PF (Type 76) and the two seat MiG-21U version had the SK ejection seat although each of them were different versions of the SK seat! Have to add that the first s
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Some excellent photos starting from 2008. Well OK the few which survived are fab!!!! Sad that the rest have been deleted thanks to the service provider. I would have been more than interested to have a look at them! Oh well, next time. Best regards Gabor