Diamondback Six
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Posts posted by Diamondback Six
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Good to know, WW. I just thought it was curious how they disappeared almost completely over here around the time Putin headed west; their 1:200 Li-2 is a perfect fit to work with a wargaming miniatures line I consult on and is a potential Three-Fer (itself, DC-3/C-47/C-53 family and Showa L2D Tabby) on aircraft I don't ever see us doing an official release on.
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Is Zvezda even still in business? Right now, at least in the US, *anything* Russian origin might as well have leprosy including the salad dressing.
Not saying it's right or wrong, just noting that with embargoes, sanctions etc. I'd be surprised if there was still much trade between them and the West at all.
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As an aside, @WymanVMvR went through a LOT of triplanes, I wanna say 144/17 was one of his all-reds before he gifted it to Stappenhorst with an instruction to "add some personal marking to say it's yours now not mine" and there were several red-and-greens like 152/17.
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That would be an oddity... I wanna say I saw that style of cross a VERY FEW times in my client's reference materials, but all on Austro-Hungarian aircraft. German were as far as I can remember almost all dead straight but maybe a very FEW inward-curved.
That work was YEARS ago, though, and my memory has gone hazy with age at a frighteningly faster-than-normal rate, so don't go betting anything on me you're not okay with losing here.
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If memory serves, and I deal with a LOT of WWI air for a company I work with... for one particular example, Manfred von Richthofen's 425/17 only was repainted into Balkan Crosses somewhere between a few days and a matter of hours before his last fight.
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Way back once upon a time from the 1960s to even early 1980s (Bandai rolled a really nice line out ca. 1980, too bad it only started to fully develop the IJN) there was an abundance of kits in scales like 1/1200, 1/2000 and even 1/3000 suitable for "tabletop fleets" and diorama/display (like, say, the evolution of a given country's destroyer fleet) building.
Are these scales dead other than 3d prints, overpriced Warlord gaming miniatures, the occasional Japanese gashapon and a handful of deadstock EKA ripoffs of Bandai on I am a spammer, please report this post.?
Players in this sector and last known uses of their tooling per Scalemates... stipulating that I'm mostly concentrating on WWII, with my aspirations of academia and visions of these models as an educational resource illustrating various battles right there in the middle of the classroom. I also have a working relationship as a research consultant with a company that makes WWII wargaming-miniature planes, and with a release themed around the South Pacific in development and how heavy the Solomons were in plane-on-ship engagements I'm trying to come up with some options for our players that are more than just flat cardboard cutouts. All else equal I'd LOVE 1/700 Waterline Series for this, but they're too big, too fragile, too expensive and take too long to build to be practical.
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1/1200
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Eaglewall (1959-1963, UK)/Pyro - early player, appear to have been largely Royal Navy/Atlantic & Mediterranean focused. Some tooling to Pyro; possibly later to Lindberg (now Round2).
- DKM Type 1934 Destroyer (Z1) - extinct?
- Pyro #376 UK Illustrious CV's - Victorious
- Pyro #377 UK Queen Elizabeth BB's - two boxings, Valiant & Warspite; no evidence of Lindberg transfer
- Pyro #378 UK King George V BB's - now part of a Lindberg/Round2 two-pack with a County CA.
- Pyro #381 DKM Hipper CA's
- Pyro #'s 382 and 383 UK County CA's - 1/2 of a Lindberg 2-pack with King George V.
- Pyro #387 IJN Shokaku CV - Lindberg 2-pack with a Yamato tool.
- Pyro #388 US Essex CV - survives in a Lindberg 2-pack with North Carolina. If you're a Fleet Builder, you're gonna be either taking a bath on excess North Carolinas, trying to rework some into South Dakotas or supplementing with Bandai/Aoshima/EKA Essexes to fill out your "Murderer's Row."
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Casadio Mini-Ships (ca. 1971 Italy) - German and British ships canceled unreleased; American, Italian and Japanese BB's and CV's produced and released. Full line appears to have been acquired by Revell and still be extant today.
- #401 to #403 USN Yorktown CV's (Yorktown, Enterprise, Hornet)
- #404 to #407 USN Iowa BB's
- #408 and #409 IJN Yamato/Musashi
- #410 IJN Shinano
- #411 to #414 RMI Littorio BB's - Revell
- #415 and #416 DKM Bismarck BB's (Bismarck/Tirpitz)
- #417 and #418 DKM Scharnhorst/Gneisenau
- #419 to #421 UKRN King George V BB's (KGV, PoW, DoY - Anson/Howe never offered)
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Renwal - Tooling now owned by Atlantis; most of their "USN Task Force" set is post-WWII refits and some have major fit and accuracy issues.
- 6300A - The only value for the WWII-er here is BB North Carolina, the LST and the two transports. While the cruiser IS a wartime Baltimore hull, she's the postwar missile-cruiser refit and the destroyer is a postwar Forrest Sherman - the recently-scrapped USS Barry that figured so prominently in many NCIS episodes. Trying to backdate the angle-deck Essex carrier to wartime configuration? *cringe*
- 6300B - The two Fletcher and Farragut destroyers have value as does the Buckley escort. Cruiser Galveston (a Cleveland) is hamstrung by the same postwar missile conversion as her big sister Canberra in the other box, and the submarine Patrick Henry is WAY too new as a 1960s ship.
- Atlantis combined reissue - For the WWII modeler, you have seven winners, three postwar refits of wartime hulls that will be dicey to backdate and two well-postwar hulls for the stash or Bargaining Chips. Good luck with the latter... the good news is of the seven winners, the Fletchers, Farraguts (and their relatives), the C2 and Victory transports and the LST's are winners in a BIG way because you need a LOT of them if you're doing convoy stuff - or three Fletchers and four Buckleys if Taffy 3 is your jam. The Farragut/Mahan/Sims/Benson/Livermore/Gleaves line were plentiful all over the place too.
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Lindberg - some of their "Table Top Navy" still extant with Round2.
- #849:75 (later #863) USS Arizona - unaccounted for.
- Pyro - some
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Eaglewall (1959-1963, UK)/Pyro - early player, appear to have been largely Royal Navy/Atlantic & Mediterranean focused. Some tooling to Pyro; possibly later to Lindberg (now Round2).
- 1/2000
- 1/3000
I'll add more data as I trawl Scalemates and find it. The good news appears to be there's still some out there, the bad news is it's almost all carriers and capital ships. Not much help trying to find options for the Fubuki-class destroyers that prowled the Solomon Islands waters those dark nights of 1942-43.
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1/1200
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On 9/5/2023 at 1:59 AM, salomon said:
Hello, sorry for the late response. I have just finished the projects of my work and I am going to take back this SR-72 which I have to revise its shape a little and continue to model the details like the wheels, gears, Ramjet engine and cockpit. My idea would be to make the pilot (Tom Cruise) in a flight suit so that we can have an idea of the plane's (same fictional.) huge size in 48 scale.
Don't forget that IRL Tom Cruise is a small dude. Might wanna take that into account, which makes the plane look even bigger--you could see that in how Anthony Edwards and Val Kilmer towered over him in the first movie.
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Tidbit from my college mentor who used to fly F-106s...
I had asked him, around the time of the 2004 elections, to walk me through what it would have meant to fly a Guard F-102 in 1972 had the balloon gone up For Real. He dusted off the old manuals and had the instrument panel diagrams blown up to fullsize on paper, had me sit own in one of the office chairs and place them around me as if I were in a cockpit... and I'm going to try to quote his description of how a Deuce nuke launch was basically a kamikaze as close to verbatim as I can.
"You have three shots because of the pneumatic doors. So first you lob your three IR Falcons at one bomber, hoping you get ONE hit to knock one down. Then you line up a second and hope the two radar Falcons do their job. Then you point the nuke into the middle of the bomber formation, launch, go to Zone 5, snap a hard diving 180 and pray... you're not gonna outrun the blast radius, but if you're lucky you MIGHT make it home with enough time to see your loved ones one last time and say goodbye before you die of radiation poisoning. Assuming, of course, the SAGE ground controllers don't decide to take remote control and ram you into a midair to score another bomber first..."
Twenty years later, I remember how "LTC N." explained that scenario and his description STILL sends a chill through my bones...
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Look up Claringbould's Pacific Profiles Vol. 14. All the B-25 units of South & Southwest Pacific; may not specifically have Boom Boom but will at least give you a solid representation of 500th BS general practices.
Latest research and freshly drawn profiles - Claringbould has a reputation among historians as "MR. South Pacific Air" comparable to Barrett Tillman - if he doesn't have an answer there's a distastefully strong chance the answer no longer exists to be found.
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Condolences, Chris, and prayers for as swift and smooth a recovery as possible--and possibly finding someone worthy to hand projects off to.
I had to give up modeling for many years myself thanks to hand tremors starting in my 20's, but I've started to get back in by sorting out what I *can* still do, finding workarounds for things and keeping things to brief "actively working" periods like a few minutes at a time then longer periods in between of planning, prep or other things that don't require me to "make a DEX roll."
Hang in there, sir - there WILL be some bad days, but there WILL also be good ones as long as you "keep on keepin' on" between them.
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Pic showing some of the WIP... B-36 parts test-coated with primer, B-25J parts fresh out of the rafting and test fitting, F4F still in sprue and top P-61 of the stacked pair unrafted just enough to make the airframe clearly visible.
My first builds in a decade... bear with me, I'm rusty. This was mainly shot to give the Wings guys a sense of just how BIG relative to the rest of their types the B-36 and P-61 really were.
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LONG POST WARNING!
So, after all these years of "putting it behind me," I'm back in the game, with a few different builds for different projects, all sharing the common ground of being ~1/200 for compatibility with Wings of War/Wings of Glory tabletop wargaming miniatures.
The projects:
- Square an old owed favor for a buddy who wants a B-36 for his Wings gaming table... but he also wants it motorized to spin the props. Before I even attempt his, I'm tackling a build myself working out the ins and outs of this kit and trying to figure out how I'm gonna make it work spinning the props. (And for further practice in between, I'm penciling in another for my USAF-retiree college mentor and "surrogate dad.")
- Since my personal "signature plane" in the Wings community is the P-61 Black Widow and I just found a source, two of those.
- (Subordinate to 4 below, based on leftover models as I order batches.) A series of "identification models" showing the prewar color codes used to identify carrier airwings, squadrons and sections. Six TBD's set aside for this, F4F's wait for the next batch and SB2U's will wait for availability.
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Since I do research consulting for the publishers of Wings, I'm trying to build a series of models to show them "this is what your miniatures SHOULD look like. I need to split things between three different time-frames:
- The 'First Team' days in Operation Watchtower and the most pitched defensive fighting.
- Operation Vengeance, the Yamamoto hit.
- Boyington's tenure at VMF-214. (I opposed this because Boyington's Corsairs are LONG after our "Cactus Air Force" theme, but was summarily overruled because "MUH BWAK SHEEP! MUH TEE VEE! MUH POP KULCHUR!" I've told them straight up if they use the TV series as source material for anything other than a noted-as-fiction campaign book I'm terminating the arrangement and walking away.)
- NOTE: I'm trying to focus on "The First Team," I need a better idea of who the players were and what they had where for the other two timepoints.
The kits:
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Atlantis (old Revell) B-36 Peacemaker. This kit is a SPECIAL challenge with how badly what few panel lines it once had are eroded.
- 42-13571 as YB-36 prototype - seems appropriate to make my prototype THE prototype. Backdating it to USAAF markings practice, a little "fast forward" to deal with those annoying "just one more year" Luftwaffe '46 fanboys. Will eventually have a pair of XF-85 Goblin sidekicks.
- For my old prof - tailnumber/squadron undetermined, B-36A, B-36B or jet-engine testbeds 44-92046 or 44-92057.
- Squaring that favor, same pool - there are no conversion radomes available to do the B-36D to -F "chiclet" or B-36H/J "bullet bra" tail radomes.
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Lao's Studio 3d-print P-61A-11, come as a two-pack.
- 42-5527 "Moonhappy," 6th NFS - a rare OD-over-gray top-turret model. (Yes, an A-1, but good luck telling A-1 from A-11 on a bird with a finger-length wingspan .)
- 42-5554 "The Virgin Widow," 6th NFS - one of the first all-black top-turret models into combat I could find. (An A-5, but same note.)
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(And possibly partial 4). Trumpeter 1/200 TBD-1, two 5-packs.
- (6x) One section leader each from VT-2, -3, -4, -5, -6 and -7.
- (2x) Waldron and Gay, Torpedo Eight at Midway.
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Trumpeter B-25B/C/D, two 5-packs.
- 40-2267 "TNT," Doolittle Raiders - in memory of a late Raider neighbor.
- An ex-NEIAF aircraft impressed into the USAAF, if we can find sufficient paint data. Were the NEIAF triangles overpainted before first missions, or just "grab the planes and fly, we'll get 'em newer ones to replace 'em later"?
- The earliest combat PBJ-1C/D I can find.
- RESEARCH HELP NEEDED: 2-4 from Cactus Air Force squadrons.
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Trumpeter F4F Wildcat, two 5-packs.
- Two each from Enterprise, Wasp and Hornet, in "fresh" M485 over M495. (Yes, I know the carrier planes probably would have faded as much as the land-based in South Pacific conditions--this is a symbolic choice to emphasize the difference between Navy and Marine aircraft maintenance and other conditions.)
- Four from the Cactus Air Force pool. It's likely that Ares will do the colorful birds like Bauer's and Galer's red-cowled MF-1, ditto the aces like Foss and Carl, so I want to focus this quartet on the "unsung heroes" who flew alongside them. Would appreciate suggestions on notable side-numbers.
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Trumpeter SBD Dauntless, two 5-packs.
- Navy aircraft, as with F4F. (Ditto re numbers.)
- Marine aircraft, as with F4F. (Ditto.)
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R-Area Air Force "Washing Machine Charlie" floatplanes, all 3d-print two-packs by Lao's Studio. All of these, I would appreciate advice on correct tailcodes and "gray or green" for the tenders and squadrons based at Rekata Bay from August to October 1942.
- A6M2-N Rufe - Nakajima gray?
- E13A1 Jake - AIchi gray?
- F1M2 Pete - Mitsubishi gray?
Unallocated models needing deco ideas:
- 2x TBD - Despite the withdrawal of them from combat after Midway, Navy reports show Torpedo Seven aboard Wasp still having two aboard at the time of their sinking. Utility hacks, maybe? "Location of Naval Aircraft" is also questionable, the report states VT-7 only had eight TBF's assigned to it on a morning when they launched a strike with a full dozen. Suggestions for two notable aircraft from the same squadron?
- Two "greenhouse" B-25J's - if I can get a radar pod and a gun-nose conversion I'm thinking about doing one as a Marine PBJ-1J "heckler."
- 3-4x B-25B/C/D - would appreciate suggestions from South or Southwest Pacific, before the "blister guns." Not doing Doolittle's because Ares already made that one.
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Serve 'em right if after all the crap the Maple Leaf's dumped on it Boeing said "No Toys For You," and then after seeing the nuisance of dealing with Ottawa Saab did the same thing, leaving only the choice of "F-35 or Off The Team Like Turkey." Trudeau crapped his bed, now he can sleep in it...
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8 hours ago, afterburner said:
Awesome picture. Those birds give the Wasp a helluva punch.
Don't you mean "a helluva sting"? :p
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Frankly, re F-15 if it was me I'd just take 'em all apart and swap Mudhen longerons into the whole fleet--the E and derivatives have to absorb much more stress anyway, so using overstrength parts for the C's mission set would allow a better safety-margin for pushing the envelope in combat, especially with the addition of -229 or -232 engines to offset the slight added weight--if a clean E with 229s can move, a lighter and cleaner C with 3K# thrust MORE per engine should be even better.
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Did you guys hear we're not gonna have the Hot Dog Vendor "SME" to kick around much longer? Seems Gawker, FA/Jalopnik's parent company, got hit with bankrupting punitives on the Hulk Hogan lawsuit.
On the one hand, liquidation may teach them a thing or two... on the other hand I'm having nightmares about the Hulkster trying to take over FA and talk mil/tech toys without seeming even more of an idiot.
Oh BTW, on design flaws, how bout the known under-strength (I mean, corner-cut and not even made to contracted design spec) F-15 longerons that McDickless Douchebags was paid megabucks to fix back in the '80s and never did?
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Perhaps an easier approach would be to post the sprue-maps of the existing kit, and see if we can leave any sprues un-changed.
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I know Wings of War gamers who would kill to go up against that beast... Thorsten and I have exchanged correspondence about converting his P into a Q. Beautiful model!
Trivial note: the Q gains a full gas-cell (10m) just ahead of the tail-taper, and a 5m half-cell somewhere in the front, relative to the P. Before the Airship Modeler site died, Zeppelin expert Andreas Horn and I exchanged a few notes and he sent me some of his notes from his own research in the Zeppelin archives.
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I'm gonna ditto almost everything the guys above have said, since my personal wish (Tomcat 21 concept) is Snowball in Hell.
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Stupid question--been away a while and not sure if this is the best place to stick it, so apologies if I've goofed and I'd appreciate a redirect. :)
Two questions...
1. Anything new in F-15 conversion parts, like for the SA or SG with those trapezoid sensor housings next to the rear cockpit?
2. Anyone have any data about those 1/9 and 2 Main/8 Main dual-rails that SA is carrying? My gut would say to just use the off-the-shelf rig used on Hornets if it works, but this being Defense Procurement we know how they love to reinvent the wheel for that extra bit of profit.
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Have I not said before, speaking from professsional experience *as* a Recovering Journo, that "Journalistic Ethics" is an oxymoron, and anyone who still believes the charade of them is half of one?
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That old farce, AGAIN?! :P
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Edit. Just noticed that the vents on the F-35B/C gun pod make for a smilie face.
Is that like that sniper meme about "Smile... Wait For Flash"? :) lol
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DC, both civil and military, is like a toilet bowl: the biggest and fattiest turds float to the top, and it's overdue for a flush.
SR-72
in Sci-Fi Modeling
Posted
The part I find most unbelievable about the Navy Darkstar is its violation of Kelly Johnson's Unwritten Rule.
Per Ben Rich: "Starve before doing business with the d---ed Navy. They never know what they want and by the time they are through they will break either your heart or a more exposed part of your anatomy."