Darren Roberts

Did the whole air wing shift, or just VFA-147? It would be a shame for VFA-2 to leave CVW-2. They have been in that air wing since 1980.

I have the decals from the Hobbyboss F-14B you can have.

PM inbound.

I had the fortune of meeting him at a CAF event in Kansas City. We threw him a 100th birthday party. I quickly built and painted a wing from an Accurate Miniatures B-25 and had him sign it. Now I have to build the rest of it.

Interesting. The shape of vent cover has changed from the original. It used to be a V shape. It looks as though they've taken it straight across at the point of the V now.

I must be right there with you then. I'm feeling the same way. They are beautiful kits, but they sure have a ton of parts.

I grew up in Syracuse and my dad was a high school guidance counselor. The Air Force wanted to increase recruiting, so they invited my dad up to Griffiss. I got out of school and went with him. I toured the hangars and saw B-52's and F-106 Delta Darts. I got to go up in the tower and watch take-offs and landings. It was glorious! A few years later, I was part of an Explorer Post for flight. We boarded a KC-135 at Griffiss and refueled B-52's. Thanks for reminding me of those great memories. I might just have to get a Buff and build it as a Griffiss bird.

Poor VFA-136. The must have some of the most boring markings of any Super Hornet squadron.

That's interesting. I found the Kinetic Hornet to be much easier to build than the Hasegawa Hornet. I have a Hasegawa in progress that I'll finish, but that will probably be the last one I build.

Great info! Thanks for sharing it.

So it's airframe specific. That makes a bit harder. I've seen it conclusively on VF-32, -124, 143, and -211 jets. -24, 114, and 142 pictures I saw were inconclusive. It looked like it might be there, but I couldn't be sure.

Nice shots! Look how clean that underside is (relatively speaking). That shows it to good effect. I had a guy on the Tomcat Association site confirm it that area as well.

I actually don't have that many in the Gull Gray/White scheme...because I hate painting white! Most are in the overall Gull Gray or TPS schemes. They're easier to paint. 😊

It's amazing how you can study something for years and still miss a bit of information. There was a discussion on a Facebook group about the painting guide on the Tamiya kit. It calls for "natural metal" to the rear of the speed brakes and down either side of the fuel dump. It shows it for all three schemes. The thought was maybe it was just an Iranian thing. I did some digging, and was surprised to find out it seems there are a number of examples of gull gray over white Tomcats with this metal/gray area. Unless the photo is perfectly aligned, you can't see the area in question. I'm going to infer that it was there on all gull gray over white Tomcats. There's a picture of a VF-124 jet shown from the rear that was delivered in 1978 that has it. Here's the caveat. When the Tomcats went to the overall gull gray scheme, that area seems to have been painted. I couldn't find a single picture showing the metal/gray area. Again, I'm assuming that this area was overpainted in camo colors with the advent of the overall gull gray scheme. Now I have to go back and paint all my gull gray over white Tomcats.

Thanks!