Superheat

Hi twong, Unfortunately, I do not have a photo of that particular airplane so I can't say with 100% certainty that It is incorrect, but I would say so with 99.99% certainty. I was at Miramar in 1970 and I do not recall them having any all white aircraft at the time, just gray and white TA-4F's and they did not have any kind of high vis areas on the nose, wings and tail. Here are some examples, the first is dated 1970: This next one is undated but is probably about 1972 since you can see a white J with just a bit of the blue nose flash visible and by then 126 had sever

Hi Jon, Here are a couple photos of an MF at Planes of Fame in Chino, first the nose wheel well: And what I could get of the main gear well shows it to be the same color, also visible on the edge of the gear door ...but to further confuse the issue, here is an SMT I photographed in Moscow 20 years ago: For what it is worth, I saw a lot of MiG-21's in my time in Europe and the variation in wheel well colors was incredible, though there was general consisteny by user. Looking at some of the other WA photos I have from Russian sites, the RLM 03 shade seems to be the most c

Hi Ty, Referring to the photo of your model, Darren is right, you have it backwards. Here are three shots of the keel hook on a -6 Cougar, which is the same as the -5 Panther. The first is not great, the second two show the location from two aspects. Hope they help. Cheers, Tom

Brian, Here are a couple photos of that area on the AFM's D: I'm sure it is the anti-collision light and those are usually red, and it does appear to me that the front part of the tear drop shaped light fixture is red, but given the abysmal lighting at the AFM it is hard to say for sure. The kit part renders that light fixture as an indentation in the bottom of the part and I would do the front clear red and the back gray. And I would not attempt to duplicate the open area, I am sure that is missing sheet metal. Hope this helps some and doesn't just add to your confusion! Cheers, To

Being a former Nasal Radiator I will confirm what you surmise and others have verified. Before you manned an aircraft you reviewed its recent maintenance history, known as yellow sheets because they were the yellow copies of a multi part form filled out after each flight, so you knew what had gone wrong lately and what to take a closer look at. Even that was largely unnecessary if you got the right aircraft and consequently the right plane captain, because his preflight was exhaustive and he'd tell you if there was anything questionable. We had a couple that were so good I would just ask th

Diego Pick up a Monogram F-5E or check for someone here who has the kit, it has an RF nose in it. How well it will fit the Kinetic kit I do not know, but it was a practically perfect fit on the Hawk kit many years ago when I did it. Here's what's left of it, the years have not been kind: Cheers, Tom

40189 = 54-1089 and is a D, Andrew: http://www.joebaugher.com/usaf_serials/1954.html I agree with Don, I think Joe is incorrect about the noses, I think the D and J are the same. The C and earlier had a shorter pointier nose. Cheers, Tom

Now that is an Abba-Jabba! That "Leveling tool" is the part of the turn and bank indicator. The bit you have thickened is actually a black metal tube with a window in it and a ball in the tube that indicates slip, or skid. If you could use your master for that to vac a dupe of it in cleas plastic for the window, cut the window out of the original, paint the index markings you see on the inside of the window, paint a BB or soft pellet of the right size black and stick in there, you'd have a great representation of it. But you are a very inventive modeler, I am sure you can figure out an easier

Hi Crackerjazz, Great work, hope you're still working on it. One comment: the attitude indicator in the late A-4's was the AJB-3, -3A, known as the "Abba-Jabba", and it was a fantastic instrument since it was an all attitude indicator, giving both attitude and heading information. The indicator portion was actually a ball and revolved 360 degrees in pitch, roll and azimuth. Here are a couple photos of a -3A and a -3. If you look at the "equator" of the ball, you can see the heading in 10 degree increments, repeated at 45 degrees nose up and nose down in 30 degree increments. Note that

Another vote for this scheme: simple, colorful and a "workhorse", not a one-off, I love it. Put this one in the box, Martin, and I promise I will not only buy it, I will build it with an In Progress thread here on ARC. Cheers, Tom

Andrew when I saw the topic of your post I was sure it was going to be this aircraft: I agree with all others, yours is a T-33 Cheers, Tom

Hi, I have the book and it definitely has what you want. It is a relatively small format, but the 15 photos (and 7 drawings) are clear and very good. I got it directly from Kagero a number of years ago. Unfortunately, it shows in the Kagero catalog as "Unavailable". (http://shop.kagero.pl/en/mi-24-d-w.html) If you like, I will scan the relevant pages and email them to you, just PM me an email address. Cheers, Tom

Not really, here is a 73 shot that shows the tail flash at close to the angle you have it. - you'd just have to repaint the airplane silver! The problem with moving it is that the minuteman in the guard logo absolutely should be vertical, so if you move it this is what you will have: So it becomes a question of which will bug you more. I'd leave it, but it is your model and you should absolutely do whatever will make you happiest with it. I moved the turbine warning stripe while I was at it, but here is a tail shot that shows where it should be

No B's on deployed fleet squadron aircraft, just the D and maybe later the L, but I've never seen an L on an A or B, just on E's. The RAG's probably carried B's for live fire exercises, but the D was the standard by the time the A-7 entered service. The low availability of the D was for the first couple years after the missile entered service in 1964 and was gone by the time the A-7 made its first deployment in 1967. We had two A-7 squadrons on Tico in '69, VA-25 and 87, both in B's, and they regularly carried AIM-9D's. Cheers, Tom

OK. point taken, you were considering only Eduard as a source, and their prices for anyone outside the Czech Republic are outrageous. But I think it is more accurate to say that Eduard set "dramatically" higher prices outside the Czech Republic, most likely to support its dealers around the world by actively discouraging direct sales. I guarantee you those prices you quote from Eduard for locations outside the Czech Republic are not what you would pay from dealers in those countries. I lived in the EU for 12 years and bought a lot of stuff from Eduard directly because it was convenient for me

Well, actually, your "fun fact" is very misleading. Within the EU, VAT is part of the retail price, not added on at the time of sale, like sales tax in the US. The VAT rate in the Czech Republic is 21%, so if you are a Czech, or a resident of any other EU member state, the price of the kit is $62.95, and that is the price you would see on the shelf, not $52.00. And the Sprue Brothers price for the kit is $87.99, not $110, a difference of $25.00 above the EU price. It is still a big difference, but not, as you have stated it, more than double. I am not defending Eduard, their business pra

The Cobra Company set was (it is no longer in production) intended for the Monogram kit, and while it provides a reasonable hump-less wing center section, at the nose all it provides is a conical radome to directly replace the kit ogival radome. It also provides separate leading and trailing edge flaps and ailerons and main gear with a properly serviced shock struts and, hence, a better sit for the completed model. The Cutting Edge set, also OOP and fetching outrageous prices on eBay, provided just a wing center section replacement and two replacement nose halves and a few odd bits: The

Well, you are wrong on this. As Scott pointed out, the F-8 had leading edge flaps (not slats, which he saved me the trouble of defining, having done so brilliantly) known as "leading edge droop" in the F-8 community. And all F-8's had trailing edge devices as well, since the ailerons dropped down when the wing was raised, but not all F-8's had "flaps". The flap on the F-8 is the small section between the inboard edge of the aileron and the wing root and the XF8U prototypes as well as early production F8U-1's lacked these. F-8 flaps: XF8U-1, early F8U-1 - no flaps: And early J's di

Norm, Sorry, old friend, but I've got to call foul on this one. Unless there was something wrong with the missile itself, there is no way it could do what your pilot described. Min range for the AIM-9 was 1000 feet and that assumed you were dead astern and the target was straight and level, not maneuvering. This was because the missile was ballistic and did no maneuvering at all for the first 1000 feet after firing. The characteristic corkscrew, or sidewinder, path of the missile resulted from the fact that when it made a correction it was full deflection, which was invariably far too large

Spectacular build! That is some of the best paint wear/weathering I have ever seen on a model. Very realistic, in stark contrast to what is usually done. You should give lessons. Thanks for posting this, and anyone who hasn't backtracked to his Photobucket album on this build and looked at it all has missed out on a LOT! Thanks again for showing us your model. Cheers, Tom

Alex, Your work is always a treat to look at and this is no exception, my only complaint is NOT ENOUGH PHOTOS!!!! But, again, great work. Cheers, Tom

I shot an SMT in Moscow in 1995 which had been there for a while, and I suspect was in its in-service paint and its wheel wells were painted silver, while the struts appear to be in the underside blue, but could be gray. Those photos are here on ARC in the walkaround section. I also have some other photos, not mine, of ex-Soviet SMTs that also are silver in the wells with struts that match the underside color. The only green in any of these is the wheels. HTH, Tom

Hi Pierpaolo, I have a couple shots of the right upper wing engine access and one of the interior without the engine. These are web downloads from when I was less diligent about noting where or from whom I got them, so I put them up with some reluctance and if someone recognizes where they came from I would like to know. Interior sans engine looking aft. At the bottom center of the photo you can just see the two angled beams visible in the hell hole: The right overwing engine access door: And the access itself: And in case you, or someone else is interested, the forward hell hole,

Ciao Spad, Here is what I have on the aft hell hole, but be warned, it is a restored TA-4J and my 45 year old recollection is that the inside was interior green, but a couple very small shots I downloaded of an inservice TA-4J with the tail and engine removed seem to be this same gray Inside of the Hell Hole door: A couple shots of the bay looking more or less straight up: Bottom of engine bay looking forward: Bottom of engine: Left side of bay looking up and forward: Right side of bay: Looking aft: Hope these help. I also have some shots in the forwaed hell hole i

SRP (from Dragon) is $59.99, pre-order price is $53.99 http://www.dragonusaonline.com/item_detail.aspx?ItemCode=LNRL4819