Harv

..and just to be pedantic, the Navy has "Adversary" units; "Aggressors" is an Air Force term. Harv, former VFC-13 'Fighting Saints' adversary guy

Huh. Didn't know Italeri made a 1/32 F-15C kit. Care to provide details?

"Yes and No" is correct. Being a Naval Reserve squadron under (CVWR-30 Reserve Air Wing 30)...the Pac Fleet reserve airwing, VAQ-309 were normally shore-based, but deployed on det with the entire reserve airwing (typically every-other year) aboard a carrier for a qualification period. On the off-years, CAG-30 would typically do a land-based det. I was with them the year following the above photo for a det aboard USS Nimitz in August 1990. The Axemen were flying EA-6Bs, and one of their pilots received the 'top hooker' award for the best boarding grades of the air wing for the line period. Not

I know the TA-4J had a "solo harness" that was used at least in the training command to tightly connect the seat harness/buckles for the empty rear seat on solo hops, in order to avoid any loose harness/belts in the back from coming adrift in flight and causing any issues. (Since the SNA [student naval aviator] in the front seat would be powerless to do anything about it.) One of those lessons learned which was "written in blood" I'm sure. I would assume the Buckeye had a similar arrangement, but I don't know that for an absolute fact. If there was not a specific harness piece, the harness str

...So, there will no longer be a 1/32 option in the offering? Bummer. I get the marketing, but that takes me out of the 'interested & hopeful' pool...

Wow. These look great- Another winner for Caracal!

Status on these...?

This is just about the most anticipated 1/48th sheet I know of...(since I'd really like to do the SG in 1/32!) ~Looking good!

Steel Beach ACS resin from Sprue Bros For $12. plus shipping, this might just do it for you...

Doesn't this kit come with crew figures designed to fit the ejection seats?

Refs say FS36495, which is, as you posted, referred-to as "Light Gray". That should be the correct match for the 'negative' markings used on the darker sides & top surfaces. As mentioned, it probably didn't 'fade' so much as get dirty. Look forward to seeing your build.

Hey, Curt- can you pass that set to me? I'll swap it back to Mike along with my order for those 1/32 early block 30 wheels for my F-16N build...maybe that will light a fire- :) And I have a couple Hase F-4B/N kits in the stash. Might be able to help you out with a radome horn antenna...shoot me an email (see my sig below)

Reading through all five pages of this thread, I found myself pretty much in agreement with the statements (and arguements) by GeeDub. I think his attempting to explain the feeling of 'wasted time' is perfectly valid: It isn't a lack of desire to help a fellow modeller; it is, however, determining what is important to you in terms of how you expend your limited number of hours in a day. Especially modelling time. Perhaps I missed it; but several times GeeDub suggested the poster of a question note up-front if he was posing a question in support of a Whiff build. It was not because he has ani

...Any hints, particulars? Squadron? Timeframe? BuNo? Any/all can make a difference for the proper colors.

...That's my fear, as well...we've waited years for an OOB Early hornet, Academy finally puts it out at a much higher price point than the original releases (especially the going rate on the second-hand market), so folks will opt to pick up an earlier release (or balk at buying the new realease at all);, it will be a slow seller, and then Academy (and others holding back on similar projects [e.g. Tamiaya & F-16A/B models])will point to this as justification as to why these releases are so risky...Grrrr.

Build it and present the finished effort it to your friend. You get the joy of assembly; he gets the resin back with no work involved! :)

Ah, I see it now that I'm looking at the pic with a decent monitor instead of a small, dim, lo-rez laptop screen. Concur the ladder probably dropped down as you suggested - was trying to add 1 + 1 when my eyes were lying to me.. :) Guess that's why they call it 'photo interpretation'. Moving on...

...Sorry if someone mentioned it, and I missed it...but, is the tailhook still safety-pinned with the RBF-tag flapping in the breeze, or do my eyes deceive me? Along with the extended boarding ladder, what happened at the final check before launch?

Alhtough (as mentioned) Hasegawa has released the 1/48 Mono/Rev F-5E & F kits under their label (as they have done with many other Mono/Rev kits for their own domestic market), the featured model is indeed the 1/32 Hasegawa offering. The giveaway (other than the scale to the hand - also already mentioned) is the slot inside the intakes, with which anyone having built the 1/32 Tiger II is familiar.

Also includes Japanese-style helmets for the flight crew, vice the HGU-55 (IIRC) in the F-15C boxing. Concur that $70 is a pretty good price, though-

Kursad- Just saw this post (don't get to ARC much these days)... As a by-choice 1/32 builder, I'd welcome the 'bonus' multi-scale approach, even if for only 1 aircraft with a 'full compliment' of 48 & 72 left over. I concur with your thought that 'standard' stencils are available in tons of AM decals in 48th, so using that room to provide for the other two major scales opens this subject up to a LOT more modellers. Bring 'em on in all 3!

11bee, on 11 April 2012 - 01:25 PM, said: I think that many folks in the West tend to sell them a bit short, especially their state of preparedness. My guess is that they were probably at the top of their game by the mid-80's. You gents are welcome to your opinions. As a member of the intelligence community during a good chunk of the cold war years, I can assure you the DoD took the Warsaw Pact countries VERY seriously. Do you know what it took to divert $ from the DoD budget start ACM training during the Viet Nam war? Trust me, no one who 'was there' and had access thought the Soviets and

Well, as the OP has not come back to clarify what he really wants to do with the kit, and there are numerous threads regarding modifications that need to be made to these big Tamiya Eagles to make them accurate (depending upon which version is desired), there is no point in delving into the particulars here. Wild Bill, if you would care to elaborate on what you intend to do with your 'holy grail' of a kit, then you can see there are knowledgeable folks here willing to point you in the right direction...but there are so many variables, that can't really be done until you narrow down for us wh

Not quite true. The original Tamiya F-15C kit has the pre-MSIP IP; the -J kit has an updated IP with an additional MFD on the left side (mostly weapons/stores management, I think...?) Anyway, all these Tamiya kits are a dozen or more years old now, so there have certainly been system mods that would impact various antennae, instruments, etc. on the real jets that are not reflected in the kit moldings. None have the tracking gear for a helmet mounted sighting system, yet some of the -JASDF F-15s are so equipped. It is always best to find current (or contemporary) pictures of the specific airfra

Unless I missed it, you didn't indicate which version you want to build. Just a heads up that the -J version has the two mass balances on the top of the vertical stabs. The US F-15C has the larger-diameter TEWS unit on the top of the port stab, so if you want to build a US Eagle, you will need to scratch the TEWS (really, not that tough), or trade with someone who has an -E or -C kit, and wants to build a -J or other export version with the same configuration. Of course, if you're building your kit as a -J, you're good-to-go.