HCS-5 AO1

As an aside, it was just announced that the Maintainers for the Seawolves are eligible to wear the Navy Enlisted Warfare Specialist wings and it was a group of pilots and aircrew that fought to get that for them, I can give anyone the link for the information if they ask in a PM should they know a Seawolf. That was announced on their Facebook page not too long ago. I was a member of one of their successor squadrons, HAL-5, later HCS-5 in the late 80s and then again in the late 90s so getting vetted into the group was easy. I never post anything there other than the occasional congrats to some

I would like to know how reputable Tracks and Troops Online Store is, especially with shipping to the US. I found some things on that site that I've not seen anywhere else or cheaper than what I would find with the vendors I usually deal with on EBay. I looked at their shipping charges and saw that they reserve 30 Euro but only charge a lower rate corresponding to what it actually costs. Have they overcharged anyone or not delivered when they promised? I'm like a lot of people, retired and on a single paycheck that has to last a month so I have to watch how I spend. My days of overtime and bi-

I recently was given a good deal, well better than Spectrum, for my cable and internet and made the switch to AT&T for everything. Aside from a lifetime discount for my military service I was sent a gift card for $300 dollars. Since the town I live in lost all of it's brick and mortar stores between 07 and 2010 all we have left is a pair of Michael'stores, a Hobby Lobby and one local hobby shop that tries to serve everyone but due to poor selection, especially all manner and scales of military kits, and very poor customer service I and my friends have few reasons to visit the place. In fac

After further digging on the internet I was able to find a total of five pics of Red cranials with the letter "O" on it, three of which were USMC Ordies, the majority of the pics shown and what I wore on my shop's gear was nothing for VP-65, "230" at NAWS China Lake due to the fact that we wore either Navy dungarees or blue coveralls, or unit designator starting or ending with "W". In the internet search the majority turned up the same with "W" appearing in most of the shots. There for, to a certain degree I stand corrected but, it did take a lot of looking around to find these five shots, so

In my personal experience as well as a member of several different type commands, P-3, HH-1K, HH-60H, F/A-18, A-6 as well a a flight deck crew member of two aviation rates, Aviation Boatswains Mate-Fuels (ABF) and Aviation Ordnanceman (AO), I personally have never to my recollection seen a the letter "O" used for Ordnance on a brain bucket. I admit to some minor memory loss from several very minor stokes, but all pic in my 1980 ship's MED Cruise album show otherwise. As NAVAIR is the got to publications for line operations concerning flight deck and flight line personal that is the publication

Sorry, Rightwinger but that's mostly wrong info. the correct info can be found on this page here.... https://info.publicintelligence.net/USNavy-CVN-FlightDeck.pdf See Appendix "H" for a complete listing of markings for shirt, flotation vest (float coat), and helmet (cranial or brain bucket, depending on how viscreal you are 😜 ). This by all means is not the last word on how a helmet is marked. For example, in 1979, before I grew up and became an Aviation Ordnanceman, AO, I was assigned to V4/Fuels Division on the USS Saratoga as a member of a flight deck fuel crew. The regulat

Really sad to hear that this is their way of doing business. It makes as much sense as when Testors bought up FloQuil railroad colors and then killed off that line. I'm like you, I can't understand why a company withholds a line of products that has a ready-made consumer base. While most figures are molded in that soft, worthless toy soldier plastic their figures are all molded in actual styrene plastic that holds detail and paints just as most mainstream kits. For some reason, there has been a dearth of modern 1/72 scale military vehicles lately. A few years ago everyone was producing Hummers

A while back I was able to purchase a set of modern Bundeswehr figures by Preiser but was told that other sets were unable to be obtained such as the unpainted Civilian Passersby, Modern US Troops, Sitting US Troops. Recently I was able to download their latest catalog and noticed that these items were still on the list. I'd like to know if they are in fact available and who sells them. The vendor I was using strung me along with a couple of back orders for so long I finally gave up and killed that PO. Since there are no real hobby shops in my area, all but one remain and that one has a very l

Thinking about the subject of tinting I remember that at some point in the 70s I came across a tip in the old Scale Modeler or Aircraft Modeler, both defunct since the late 80s, suggesting using Testors or Pactra 'Candy' color top coats that were to be applied over silver or gold base coats to achieve that Candy Apple or whatever color you were going for as window tinting. It was fine if one was tinting a 1/24 scale auto windshield but an absolute mess if you were trying to spray a 1/48 or 72 scale Huey overhead panel. Forget brush painting as that had its own set of problems, number one, gett

I just watched a youtube video about the Jollys on a CSAR mission and this is what I was able to determine. In the shots of the cockpit interior, the shade of the outside sky is darker in the overhead windows than in the side windows directly next to the pilot's shoulders. This seems to indicate tinting of some type. The colors of the video are very washed out so I don't know if it was green or blue. Going by memory which isn't what it once was, I remember an article from Boy's Life, the scouting magazine we all had as kids in the sixties, about the non-stop trans-Atlantic flight

Yesterday I had to go to Los Angeles for family business and after that was taken care of my daughter and I decided that we'd have lunch in Little Tokyo. While there we took my grandson to the Anime Jungle's model store to see if we could get him his first kit. Well, we didn't find anything for him but I was struck by the amount of Gundam and Star Wars kits they had for sale, nearly 70-80% of their stock but it got me thinking about the Bandai SW kits. I'd like to know the following, What is the quality of the parts? Are they in scale or are they like most of the snap

Swung by the Van Nuys airport this afternoon, aside from the usual biz and corporate jets you see there I drove past the Condor Legion's flight line. Almost a dozen AT-6 Texans in both USAAF and Riech Luftwaffe paint jobs. Found out too late that the batteries in my camera died.

I'm looking into getting a new printer for the house and I figured if I'm going to get one that I can print decals with. Ideally, I would like to find an inexpensive one to do colors as I plan to do more than a few 'what if' and things related to anime and manga shows and stories that I enjoy. I used to cut my own stencils when I was younger but it was just simple shapes at the time. I'd like to add text to the text and more complex designs to some of the projects I have in mind.

Well, San Diego has the USS Midway and Balboa Park Air and Space as mentioned but the Marines moved their museum from El Toro to MCAS Miramar after MCAS El Toro closed down years ago. Not sure if it's still there or open though. Further north is the California Science Center Air and Space Museum. It doesn't have much in the way of aircraft but it does have the sole surviving F-20 Tigershark, an A-12 Oxcart/Blackbird, as well as the Space Shuttle Endeavor. At one time there was an F-104 Starfighter attached to an exterior wall but I didn't notice it the last time I was there about ten years ago

I bet whoever it was had gone to college with Bluto...