Stefan buysse

Great work, David. I'm glad to see that you're still enjoying the hobby and building these fascinating models. I own a couple of your awesome small nose Crusader conversion sets and I plan to work on an F-8D over the next couple of weeks. Cheers, Stefan.

Hi, My F-4EJ and F-4EJ Kai finally arrived last thursday (delayed by Covid's impact on international shipping). The parts look wonderful in the box. I took a major hit from Customs (easily doubling the price). I'm probably an "even Steven"... on that same day I got 3 hours off work for my first vaccination. Cheers, Stefan.

Thanks, Jari. A lot of information in there. And in the other articles too...I think that's the first time I've seen a picture of Mr. Norden of "Norden bombsight" fame. Cheers, Stefan.

Hi, Towel rack on top also means that they were able to drop the sonobuoys for the Igloo White program in the desired correct locations. Black bellies were quite useful for working over the trail at night. I'm not aware of sonobuoy dispensers in 1/48...that would really be something different. Cheers, Stefan.

Hi, Erwin. I can not say that with 100% certainty, but I do believe that the AGM-45 could be carried on stations 1 and 9 of the F-4E. After Desert Storm, I talked about ordnance with an F-4G pilot. He said: "AGM-78?!? Ancient history! Never in DS. Mostly AGM-88, but a couple of AGM-45's were still around. We didn't really want them. Once I was given an F-4G loaded with 4 of them and they said: just go out and don't come back with them". So, that was an F-4G, but I do not see any reason why F-4E outer pylons could not do the same. Cheers, Stefan.

Hi, Erwin. The ones in red look feasable to me. If it were my model, I'd do one with Mk82's and no AGM-45's. Just a personal preference, not that AGM-45's were no longer around. As long ago as Vietnam, fighting SAM sites with AGM-45's was being compared to fighting a rattlesnake with a BBQ fork. 1987 was the last year for the Spangdahlem F-4E's, I gather. I saw one on static display at the Kleine Brogel show in 1987. It was the only time that I saw an active duty USAF F-4E. There was also an RAF EE Lightning in the static display. That too, was the only time I saw on

Hi, Yes, the -J's are available for pre-order. I see that at least hlj.com and 1999.co.jp have them available for pre-order. I don't know what would be the best price including shipping to the USA. HTH, Stefan.

Hi, Some irreversible cuts have been made on the Tomcat. This was done a while ago, but I haven't worked on the model since. I'm posting this more as a test to post images. I had some difficulties and I'm trying with a different browser now. Cheers, Stefan.

Yes, same here. I would also have found 513 interesting. The one picture that I have of that was BuNo 150473 WF-9 landing at Atsugi. It's so unclear that I initially thought the thing on the tail was a cat. Only later, I realised that it was an owl but quite different from VMFA-513's later markings. Cheers, Stefan.

Hi, VMFA-531 in Vietnam! I don't think that's been done before. I gather it was just that one deployment in 1965 and they never returned. Pretty cool that you found references. Cheers, Stefan.

Thanks, Jetmanf14. I figure the straight ones were first as I'd not seen the notched ones before. Cheers, Stefan.

Hi, I don't have the Meng F/A-18E kit yet, but I have been looking at the sprue shots. I see there are alternate parts. The heat blanket/bard stack choice is clear to me, but what about the two types of exhausts? I see the familiar exhausts with the straight petals, but there are alternative petals. I have not seen these in my references yet. What is that about? A new type of engine? Just new exhausts? Are these being retro-fitted or do they start from a certain BuNo? Cheers, Stefan.

Thanks, that's interesting. I see that the links provide the total number of weapons dropped per type for the Jaguar, but sadly not for the Tornado. Cheers, Stefan.

Hi, I'd say "no". I don't think other RAF aircraft beside the Jaguar used CBU-87's. And I don't think that SAM sites were a target that they'd send the Jaguars to. ALARM was available even just before the 17th of January. They flew with the ALARM's on the wing pylons before the war and switched them to the belly pylons for the real combat. Cheers, Stefan.

Thanks, Gerry. Tamiya provides us with a nice Bullwinkle pod, but no BRU-10 indeed. I had been wondering how I was going to attach it to the F-14. My conclusion was that I was going to shave away a bit of the BRU-32 to get the Bullwinkle to fit and not too much of the BRU was going to be visible on the finished model. Didn't the A-6E squadrons use the Bullwinkle during DS? I'm hoping to build a VA-65 one some day. I'm going to build Slugger 212 with the TARPS pod. Sorry for the many edit's, guys, I'm having trouble posting images right now.

Hi, I had always planned to build this one with a TARPS pod. If I ever knew that they were on an escort mission, I had forgotten about it a long time ago. I'd still love to build her with the beautiful Tamiya TARPS and ALQ-167 pods. She was lost on day 5, I believe. Would she have flown any DS missions with the TARPS pod? Or would she have flown with the TARPS pod during the cruise prior to DS?

Hi, Pollie. Thanks for the news. I gathered that it was going to be some time in March, but your post here is the only announcement that I've seen. To my surprise, I didn't see anything about it on the Scramble message board. Our kits may be in the same container on that ship...I got the same message. Cheers, Stefan.

Hi, The front IP and its coaming are on sprue K of the Tamiya A-model. I'm pretty sure that I can use that for my Desert Storm F-14B. At some point in time (unknown to me) some (maybe all?) F-14B's had a "true HUD" installed that is different from the HUD of a D-model. Possibly the only one who makes that kind of HUD is Phase Hangar Resin. I also hope to build the Tomato some day.🙂 Cheers, Stefan.

Hi, Thadeus. I'm going for the one that was shot down. I hope to some day also build the FLIRCAT from this sheet. The RIO's name on that one is LCDR Larry Slade, who was shot down and captured. I'd love to place these 2 Tomcats next to each other for a number of reasons...2 types of VF-103 markings...a kind of display that there is always hope... I've been thinking about it...when I assemble the GRU-7's for this one, I'll be building the only seats that were used in a combat ejection from a US Tomcat. Cheers, Stefan.

Very sad... Stefan.

Thanks, Brian. I'll get the Eduard wheels. I gather that the gentleman behind Phase Hangar Resin took a break for a while, but that he is back. The 48'ers will send me a notice once some of his products are back in stock. I'll add the TCS to that list. Cheers, Stefan.

Hi, Here's a picture of the kit and the decals. I found some other small things that aren't to be used for a 1991 Tomcat: the GPS dome (part M22, just use part B19) and the Sidewinder rails with the BOL launchers (part P9, just use part E20). I gather from Brian Plescia's post in another topic here that parts P3 and P4 are to be used for the main wheels. Cheers, Stefan.

Cool, another beauty from that sheet. I may well build this one too some day, quite possibly in 1/72. Cheers, Stefan.

Hi, Here's my Tamiya F-14A with the Steel Beach set to backdate it to a pre-production F-14 and Caracal decal set CD48-168. I love every subject on the sheet, but I'm going to go with BuNo 157988 with the PMTC markings. On the instructions, she is shown in the NMC markings, but everything needed to build her with the PMTC markings is on the sheet. I'm forever grateful to Kursad (Caracal decals) and Darren (Steel Beach) for making this possible. One thing I did to this one before the decals even existed was to eliminate the hexagonal stiff

Hi, Dave. Nice LAU-7's. Could you please produce some Navy style F-4 inboard pylons for them? When I started (but did not finish yet😔) the 1/48 F-4J's last year, I was disappointed with the Hasegawa Navy style pylons. Really depressing to think that if I built an F-4B using the F-4J and the Royale Resin conversion I'd still be stuck with those pylons. I have an aftermarket set (I think Aerobonus) but it's not really good...a very skinny pylon and no attachment point for the LAU-7's. Navy style inner pylons would also be really useful for someone who wants