Tailspin Turtle

My most recent look at this: http://tailspintopics.blogspot.com/2012/10/painting-crush-points-red.html Note that they rarely (never) have the red edge on the gear doors even when the slat wells are red.

For what it’s worth, the Bell HSL was the first helicopter with the autopilot capability for dipping sonar: http://tommythomason.com/books/Bell-HSL/

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My F4H-1/F-4A monograph is well regarded but expensive. It was preceded by a couple of posts on one of my blogs that may suffice for most modelers with regard to sorting out the differences among the F-4As, particularly the first 18. See https://tailspintopics.blogspot.com/2011/05/early-phantom-iis-redux.html. There is a link in it to the preceding post.

The fairing after the tailhook was only on a few early F4Hs and was removed from #1 at some point in 1958. The perforated spoilers were also replaced on #1 in 1958 but some F-4As were retired with them still present..

Minor error in the aft cockpit (and probably present in many other kits). The rear bulkhead was actually vertical so the ejection seat rails were set at an angle to the bulkhead, not attached to it along their length. It is a reminder that the AH was a single-seat airplane and the area aft of the pilot was filled with 20 mm ammo and various aircraft system components.

The F-4A inlet ramps were notably different from the F-4B’s.

In the end, Sikorsky chose not to bid. Up until then, the S-76 was too big, the Bell 222 was too small, and the AS-365 was too foreign.

Flush canopy, small radome, IR fairing, early tailhook, “cropped” upper inlet lip, plus some other differences that I can’t remember off hand... (it’s all in my monograph)

Click here and scroll way down to order: https://fineartofdecals.com/goodies/148-treasures-postwar/ If he still has any. For $40...

http://s3.amazonaws.com/fineartofdecalsimages/CED48494.jpg

For what it’s worth: https://tailspintopics.blogspot.com/2015/08/its-not-that-easy-to-get-it-right.html

As afoxbat stated, the horizontal stabilizer was one piece, mounted in a large opening in the vertical fin. The plate he describes initially covered the hole through the full range of stabilizer movement (there’s a similar arrangement on other Heinemann designed aircraft). However, a “sugar scoop” fairing was added above the A4D’s tailpipe very early on to solve a buffet problem. If you look closely, the aft bottom edge of the plate therefore had to be trimmed to clear the top of the sugar scoop. That meant that the opening was no longer completely closed when the stabilizer was positioned leading edge down.

A better link: http://tailspintopics.blogspot.com/2015/09/grumman-6a-vs-6e-intruder.html

http://tailspintopics.blogspot.com/2018/09/special-hobby-fh-1-phantom-and-xfd-1.html