BillS

Thanks fellas!

Last week I put out a request for some replacement decals for the Tam F-14D. Thanks to all you guys that offered to come to my rescue. As it ends up, George Canare at Tamiya USA expedited a brand new sheet direct to me. I was very impressed with the super quick response. The Tomcat is complete! Now I can start my second new school Spit MK 1 and breath easy.

Bill Schurr 1126 N. Edgefield Ave Dallas, TX 75208 wschurr@att.net thank you a milion times. Is there something I can get for you?

Everything had been going swimmingly until I discovered I put the nose gear door decals with names and numbers on upside down! If anyone out there is not doing the VF-213 Black Lions jet, would you be willing to part with those markings? I’ll reward you somehow.

I have another opinion. USAF and USN harnesses were actually sage green and ultimately would fade a bit to look a little gray. The USAF replaced all belts andcstraps on a regular basis to insure integrity. Many of the resin aftermarket seats have the harness pulled out of the inertia reel and locked the way it is sometime depicted in photos. In actuality, the harness was routinely left retracted and not much was exposed except a little of the webbing and the silver Koch fittings which attached to the occupant’s torso harness. The D ring stayed attached to the left harness. The belts in the bucket comprised the lap belt with simple silver colored buckle almost like a car seatbelt and the survival kit straps with black buckles that again attached to the torso harness. You can easily replicate the webbing with thin tape painted sage green with fittings from sprue, wire or whatever. Other straps would be the pack i ening bands on the side of the chute housing (sage green) and the pack retaining straps attached to the main beam and routed through the arch of the chute. They were cream colored cottone until thecearly 80s when the changed to olive colored nylon. The Brits had a totally different harness system so these comments dont apply to those guys.

You might be in luck. I was a maintenance officer on the ‘16 through the mid 80s then after a stint on F-4s was on them again from 93 to 2003. I was in three F-16 organizations, the 474 TFW, the 704 TFS and 457 FS. The leading edge flaps were totally painted 36118 on top and one of two lighter grays on the bottom (you can look those up.) if memory serves me correctly, some of the stabs might have had a teflon rain erosion strip on the very leading edge that would really be indescernable on a model. The Air Force and Navy tried various leading edge coatings in that period which explains that yellowish stuff on lots of Navy jets and on some USAF equipment notably the T-37. That was an adhesive backed plastic material. I’ll also add that on F-16s leading edge flaps were often touched up and appeared darker or were replaced for maintenance reasons and came from depot already painted their respective grays. I hope this helps you in your modeling dilemma.

For the kit I’d go with Hasegawa at the moment; scribed, fit, shape. For seats True Details will get the job done and are pretty accurate except for some small details. Micro Scale did an ADC gray 57th FIS sheet and I’ve got it. For paint MM 16473 is excellent. It sprays nicely, is glass smooth, can be rubbed out and looks like ADC Gray. PM me if you want to work something out on those decals.

The Hypersonic wheels are a must. That’s a great kit but the wheels/tires are wrong. Hypersonic nails the thin, high pressure profile. Oh, whatever happened to the AT-38 release with Holloman markings?

Interesting topic. In the 70s thru 90s time frame, i never saw any usaf tactical jet with a hard edge camo including cannon’s ‘111s. I was in TAC and AFSC in a flight test unit AT Holloman. We had two ‘’111s of our own and I saw the cannon jets frequently. They were generally kept freshly painted/touched-up like all TAC jets of that period. On recovery wings were left forward with high lift devices extended to facillitate inspection. That was a very common configuration on the ground. In fact, we rarely swept the wings except for hangering in a tight space.

Very cool indeed. Harkens me back to the good old days of Barbara Eden in “I Dream og Jeannie” or was it Genie?

Hey, my T-39 post got some attention! I’ve got the Collectaire in my pile along with the FJ-3 and F-107. Gotta have those NAA air ‘chines! Dutch is kind of right. NAA used many design concepts over and over. Look at the T-28 landing gear and compare it to the T-2 Buckeye configuration. Same on the Sabreliner. The wing with aerodynamically accuated slats and speed brake were for sure borrowed from the Sabre family. Changing subjects, another “t” bird that you would think would get some attention is the T-37. It seems to me it would have loads of appeal seeing how it served different air forces, with loads of schemes; bare metal, dayglo, white etc. Maybe one day

I’m loving all the chatter about a new FJ. My dad was a NAA engineer and did design work on early FJs at LA. I love anything NAA so the Fury thing has me tuned in even though I have a Collectaire kit on my heap. Speaking of NAA, one of their big products was the T-39. Nobody ever mentions a model of that thing which I find suprising since there were so many around in so many markings. It was a really successful design so typical of NAA’s airplanes of that time. Seems like Kinetic, Kitty Hawk or even Trumpeter would go after it since those three often veer in to the realm of lesser known subjects. I can’t wait to hear what the forum thinks.

I’m in agreement. Lots of subjects out there are in need. One of the trickiest to replicate is Blue Angel and Thunderbird F-4 ADF antennas installed in the rear canopy.

Thanks Mstor. They have what I want. Thanks a ton!