usmcski6502

A VERY happy customer here. Life gets in the way, as it does with all of us. After a very slight delay, I received my kits in perfect condition. I would 1000% do business again and am grateful for yet another great trader! Semper, Ski

100% concur! While I am not unbiased (I know the author well and contributed to the book), I do honestly believe that this is THE reference for the AH-1W and Z. I am currently building both 1/35 scale Cobras and consult this book daily. Mason has taken thousands of photos with the modeler in mind and has left no stone unturned. I am confident in saying that Mason’s work is heretofore unrivaled when it comes to reference material. His stock of books is quickly dwindling (justifiably so), so I would not hesitate to pick up a copy while they are still available. (Disclaimer: I received no compens

Welcome to the hobby, Anorak! I can’t answer your Blackhawk questions, but maybe this will help with the uniform stuff. With my aging eyes, I’ve found camo decals most helpful for helmets, uniforms, etc. https://houseofhobbies.com/products/crossdelta-1-35-us-operational-uniform-decal-mil-35-024 You can readily find the Cross Delta stuff in various online stores or even eBay, in various patterns. For complex curves and shapes, they’ll settle down with setting solution or worst case, acetone or thinner. A little touching up here and there and voila! Lots of k

GW, Ahh, you’re taking me back to my days of working “the roof”. One of my least-favorite loads was CBUs on a CVER on the centerline station of a legacy Hornet. No other way to load them except hand-humping. The first one was a PITA, but then trying to lift the second one off the skid, while reaching under the already loaded one… I swear on more than one occasion I thought my shoulder was gonna pop out of socket. Couple that with kneeling on a hot catapult track and you’re miserable. Didn’t care for being on the tail-end of a hernia-bar Mk 83 load with the bird tail over water eith

Hey Deniz, For a FastFAC mission, you'd probably be looking at dual wing-mounted drop tanks and dual LAU-10s (Marine TA-4Fs from H&MS-11 flew this exact configuration for FastFAC missions in Vietnam, see photo). It would appear in the photo that it's carrying HE warheads on the port wing station (I would assume WP on the starboard side). A-4s had the chaff/flare buckets in the aft fuselage near the arresting hook. Look for the squared-off bump on the aft port side, just astride the tailhook on your OA-4M kit: it's a very crude representation of the actual bucket which will need

Great work, love that Fury! -Ski

Interesting that Growler squadrons have Ordnance Officers (Gunners). When the Corps still had EA-6Bs, they didn’t rate an OrdO, only enlisted Marines, much like KC-130, CH-53, CH-46 and MV-22 units. -Ski

How did you replicate the texture on the armor? Looks spot on! -Ski

Funny, I am currently dusting off a few years of latent modeling skills with a "what if" build of a Super Tucano. I think I'll call it the OA-29D Bronco II. Planning on arming her with LAU-68 F/A APKWS pods and a couple Hellfires... -Ski

Just received my copy. All I can say is…WOW. Mason continues to outdo himself. Talk about a comprehensive volume on the airframe, holy cow! Looking forward to further editions of the CAVU Publications line, well done! -Ski

Fantastic work! -Ski

You bet!

Looking great! -Ski

Concur with Joe’s observation. I was the Ordnance Officer for VMFA(AW)-332 during our 2005-06 OIF deployment to Al Asad, and we flew CVERs exclusively (dual GBU-12s or LAU-10s) on station 2 or 8. I would guess that if the old “straight” VERs were still in use in ‘08, they were likely relegated to CONUS squadrons, and even then, probably to the RAGs. Hope this helps! Ski

Dave’s stuff is top-shelf, for sure! For a one-Marine operation, the sheer volume and quality of his work is second to none. Everything the man does is a true passion project, and I can think of nobody who has done more to further the USMC/USN part of our hobby. One of the “cottage industry’s” best, I have purchased dozens of his products and can recommend him without reservation. Semper, Ski