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nfiler

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Everything posted by nfiler

  1. Jabow, I had to dig out some old (very) references to figure it all out. The initial title of the T-Bird was of course TP-80C "The armament was reduced to two Browning M3 .50 caliber machine guns with 300 rounds per gun installed in the lower nose bay, with a K-14 gun sight mounted upon the instrument shroud in the front cockpit." Since almost all of the T-33s initially went to Air Training Command, the guns quickly disappeared I suspect. And when they eventually were transferred to all kinds of other duties unless there was a very specific need to reinstall the guns I suspect most never
  2. I arrived at the T Bird world a bit late for the Korean War era, (1956). Saw a lot of them initially, and then pretty regularly for the next few years. Every Base Flight had a few. This is working from memory, so not something to nail to the wall and call fact, but every one I ever saw only had provisions for the two lower .50s. The nose of both the T-33 and F-80 probably came out of the factory identical. Why would you change it? There are a lot of photos showing T-33s with only the lower gun ports open with the other four skinned over. And there are a lot of photos with just the two lower p
  3. Aw Come On!! It isn't that hard to add a couple gun ports. Or just graft on an F-80 nose and eliminate the upper guns.
  4. These are called duplex decals. Generally they have a thin tissue paper like cover sheet with light adhesive holding the decal parts to the tissue. The tissue works as a transfer paper. You locate the image with tissue backing exactly where you want to apply the decal, then apply a light application of water to the tissue backing and wait a moment and then carefully remove the back/transfer tissue. The result is a decal application WITH NO CLEAR FILM SURROUND. Nothing even in the middle of letters with free floating objects in the middle like the letter A. A really great improvement
  5. My 5 July 1967 T.O. 1-1-4S-2 lists all "Arctic Markings" as ANA 633. That would be FS28913 Fluorescent Red Orange. My 15 May 1970 (same T.O. as above) changes the "Arctic Markings" to FS22246 international Orange. I have never personally seen any official reference to Red Arctic markings. I photographed military a/c starting in the mid 1950's and looking at those slides today most that had those markings look Red, but I know from seeing them that they were either of the two listings above. Hope that is of some help. Norm
  6. The reason Boeing shut the 757 line down was because there were not enough new orders coming in to justify keeping it open. It wasn't like they just arbitrarily decided to stop production.
  7. While I would never question the interests of our esteemed World War Twice aviators, somehow painting that on the side of a Thunderbolt probably didn't happen. &^)
  8. Reference is "Combat Squadrons of the Air Force World War II" USAF Historical Division Air University Department of the Air Force, 1969. "405th Fighter" "Emblem. None" Since they were activated in late May, 1943 and inactivated in Nov. 1945 They were not around very long. They may have actually had an "unofficial" emblem, but it either was never approved or perhaps never submitted for approval. Norm
  9. Why do you need to clean them? There is nothing going into that injection mold but liquid plastic. The mold is buried in the machine, held in place firmly to resist the pressure of the injected plastic, and has water circulating inside it to keep it cool during the ongoing cycles of injected plastic, mold opening and extraction of the freshly made parts. it all happens quickly and pretty much automatically. At the rate I build a little soap and water in a bath, let them air dry and then do it again months or years later when i FINALLY actually get it started. Well, the real story is
  10. Wrong scale and sure wrong price for me, but maybe can address the weight issue. I have an A model Tradewind kit with a fiberglass fuselage and it is as thin and about the same weight as it would be if done in plastic. But anything that big in resin and fiberglass is going to be a bit heavy. The amount of weight removed from you wallet will about equal the weight of the kit!! But it sure would not equal the divorce lawyer's fees. Norm
  11. Well, in the great scheme of things, neither is of any significance I guess. And it is not an either/or situation at all. The information in the post would probably be there no matter what appears in the upper left corner of the post. But the forum is labeled as a discussion or forum. In my opinion (and yeah, I know about those) I tend to pay more attention to posts that have a name associated with them. And again "Plastic Smasher", Glue sniffer" etc. are descriptions, not names. It is just common politeness. If we were all in somebody's home sitting around talking about models, I d
  12. Seems to me like if you are not comfortable enough with what you are saying to put your name under the statement then you probably shouldn't say it. Do you use some silly "handle" when you introduce yourself? Do you not reveal your name when asked in person? All the excuses why not to do it is just that-excuses. Stating your first name only compromises what? Norm
  13. Once again, Zinc Chromate is not a paint! It is a chemical process. Zinc powder, various color pigment and clear carrier is mixed to produce a corrosion resistant surface. While almost any color pigment can be used to produce whatever color is desired, in the a/c industry it is normally a light greenish yellow or an apple yellow. At Boeing, where I spent 28 years, the yellow was applied to surfaces that would not be exposed to the outside like wing fuel cells Surfaces that would be seen like flap cavities got a second coat of the green material. The only reason for the different colo
  14. John, What is your point here? The book is what it is. it was published ten years ago and is still the only published reference oh the H-21 that I am aware of. What you say is all true, but there are always the could have, should have, would have stuff that happens after something is done. I found it very helpful in my drawing efforts and modeling as well. I am not saying it is perfect, obviously it is not. But at something like $18 it will allow you to know far more than not buying it.
  15. I have a copy of the book and while I would agree that it could have been better, it does cover the subject in considerable detail and the photos are generally pretty decent. The spelling errors are always a problem with self published stuff like this. Yeah, a good editor sure would have helped, but they also add to the cost and time involved. Helicopter subjects don't sell like Mustangs and 109s so cost probably was a serious consideration for the authors. If your interested in this bird, then you should have this book. Norm
  16. Well, that is a horse on me. Just looked up the William Tell winners and guess what? Chris is right. I left the Air Force in 1960 and while I was there TAC could not play in the ADC competition. We always figured we were better than those ADC guys and maybe the win in '62 proves it. &>) Norm
  17. Chris, I really doubt if this bird won at William Tell. The pilot might have but not in that bird. The 479th TAC fighter Group was a Tactical Air Command organization and thus not eligible to participate in an ADC event. 914 was assigned to the 434th when I was at George. Another thing you might reconsider is the wing pylons did NOT carry AIM 9 Sidewinders. The only thing we carried there was tanks. Later in VN they used those pylons to carry dumb bombs. I would also take exception to the comments regarding fuel and range. With air-to-air refueling range wasn't a big issue. Like every ot
  18. And will add that 906 was originally a 434th (Red) bird. When the 476th was established it became one of their birds and sported the slightly metallic Blue trim. All the markings were removed in Spain during the winter of '59-60 when TAC headquarter mandated removal of all individual markings and added the TAC emblem and lightning bolts.
  19. Don't know anything about the G models, they were after my time at George, But I can tell you that the anti glare panels on all the 479th birds were Green. Norm Filer
  20. Considering no one has ever seen the kit yet, how is one to answer this? The only other kit of the B-45 in 72nd is the terrible Much Twice thingy. Even a lame effort by Valom would be better than that. Norm
  21. I was in the 479th from 1956-1960. The first two years with F-100Cs. We transitioned to the F-104C starting in Oct. '58 and were the only TAC outfit to fly that bird. While the AIM-9 center line pylon was capable of carrying two missiles,it was NOT USED. It was tried only once and not used again. When we deployed to Spain to fly air defense the belly pylons were not even included in the fly away kits. Until Viet Nam, the only thing the center line pylon was used for was nuclear shapes (Mk 28) and the practice bomb dispenser. The 479th did not have a nuclear mission assigned so
  22. Red FS11136 Gunze 327 White FS17875 Gunze 316 Blue FS15044 Gunze 326
  23. Tony, If the bond between the paper and images has been broken, it won't make any difference what you do with them. The only solution is to rebond with something in the way of a clear coat. The advantage of the Microscale Clear Decal coating is it is quick, easy to apply and dries almost instantly. Yes, I think Dave (Leading Edge) was aware of the problem. I also am pretty sure he solved it with later products. But I don't think anybody but him knows which are good and which are not.
  24. Over the years, I have had several problems like this with Dave's decals. The problem is uneven expansion/contraction between the paper and ink.This often results in fracturing of the images on the paper. The solution is really pretty simple. Just overcoat the decals with a couple coats of Microscale liquid decal film. Of course this means you now have to trim around each item, but the decal thickness will be minimal. The Microscale liquid decal film is alcohol based and you can literally slop it on, smooth it out a bit with a broad brush and it will dry flawlessly in about two minutes. G
  25. Probably the 440th FIS. I say probably because those markings were also applied to the 496th and 526th FIS also. The Yellow markings were apparently removed in 1956. They were an USAFE organization in Germany.
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