niart17

oh yea? well i get to sit at a computer all day and design some......awww heck, i can't compare. yea yea yea, so you have a dream job, you don't have to rub it in. :) Bill

thanks cobra. you, by the way, are the man. :D

i'm still curious about the apache having a folding rotor kit. is it true? they can fold their blades? i must know. :D i think i'm gonna go without the mast mounted gear. i think it would be better to have a lower profile for hanger operations. although it could maybe lower like a e-2's dome.....hmmmmm? i think whut this chopper needs is dem lazers :D

Very cool. i hope i can do half that well on mine. i'm really liking the canadian markings, something i hadn't thought about. i don't think i'm gonna modify the landing gear that much, maybe just beef it up a bit, but more that that is probably beyond my abilities. one question though, how do they get that front blade to fold that far back? by "they" i mean the little imaginary crew members that work on this model. :D

are you saying the apache can fold it's main rotor as-is or they can be modified to? please explain, (with pics would be great :D) ....I might move the TADS/PNVS turrets to a mast-mounted configuration and fair over the nose (or add a radar as the original design suggested)..... again, me being heli-retarted, what do you mean by mast mounted? like the long-bow? .....What I'd like to see on a "what if" Apache is twin XM-35 systems under the wings and rockets outboard. ... I'm all for this, if i knew what it was. i'll have to look this one up and see if it's within my abilities. thanks a

OH MAN, so now Honda is copying the Blue Angels colors? geeesh.... I don't know, i think the blue and gold on the Iranian planes don't really help the looks very much. it's already an odd shaped airframe, by putting bright colors on it, it just adds to the oddness of it. They might not look too bad in the desert camo though. still, i would like to see some performance video of the planes, not just take-off shots. Bill note: not one reference to a TWEET was made. ooops.

they actually had such a thing in the first world war. i don't know if it was actually used operationally, but i have seen footage of planes "catching the hook" as it were. i suppose a modern version of this would be pretty cool. Bill

i've built this kit and actually used to B.B. cockpit for the Tamiya kit in the revell (not recommended btw, too much work) the kit itself builds very easily. i didn't notice the warpage mentioned. the only complaint i could maybe say was the plastic was a little on the thick side, and there is no entry ladder. (anyone not using the ladder from the Tamiya kit want to trade for something?) good luck.

i think you guys are missing the obvious. the real reason they did this is because they figured out they can't get the F-14 parts they needed since everything is tied up in storage or shredded. BUT, they can get spare Blue Angel parts from the many pole sitter's across the U.S. i think i saw the one at the rest stop before pensacola was missing a tail fin.....must explain the two fins on their planes. :) another thing, the only thing i could tell from the video is that it can in fact take off. that's all they show is it taking off....three times the same shots. i want to see some yanking and

ok, this is one thing i was thinking about doing. looking at the intake gear boxes, i may make intakes that extend a little past the gear boxes with the shafts actually going thru the intake wall, and have the intake lip an angled square, like the superbugs. what say ye? btw, the hasegawa kit looks like it goes together really well based on test fitting. i'll try to post up progress shots if anyone is interested.

to me it looks like some condensation effects. it looks like some pictures of cars i've taken early in the morning when the dew forms and stays on different areas and forms interesting patterns. maybe something to do with heat displacement in different areas? the shot of the wing with the glossy circle around the emblem makes me think that it forms around the markings more so than just painted surfaces. just my opinion. GREAT SHOTS btw.!

i forgot what the question was. :D

Congrats Cobra. You said back to "civilian" life, you joined a guard unit or something? i sure do envy you guys that get to fly for a living, but i'm really glad it's people like ya'll that are out there doing it. :lol: hey, any chance you can strap a panaromic camera to your chest and post some really great cockpit shots? :D btw, i didn't realize you flew the apache when i started talking about navyizing that hasegawa kit. boy do i feel.... :D Bill

Ahhh....so the rear blades aren't counter-rotating like it says in one of the walkarounds here? okay, i'll just leave those alone i guess. i still may mess around with the intake/gear box area. i was thinking maybe the navy had requested different more powerful engines. surely a good aeronautical engineer (like the one here at bubba's plane shop :wacko: ) could work out some way to move those gear boxes back behind the intake area. i just would like to "cool up" that area some. if i can't, oh well. thanks. Bill

and another question (i can almost hear the collective moan). do the tail rotors always line up in that skinny "x" pattern with the engines off or is it just coincidence that all the photos are like that? is it possible to have them inline with each other? that would maybe save some clearance space when the tail is folded and make it easier to strap them down. many more questions to come i'm sure. thanks.

it's me again. just a quick, and quite possibly stupid question. what purpose do those cone shaped objects at the very front of the intakes serve? are they physically part of the turbin or just something dealing with airflow? reason i ask, i was thinking about modifying the shapes of the engine housing and intake area, but don't want to mess with it if that is in fact, the front of the engine itself. thanks again for all ya'lls (that's right, i'm southern) help. Bill

that's how you end up with the cluster version of the scoab. so whatever happened to the ex-wife of all bombs (xwoab)? i heard it would destroy half of everything the enemy ever makes.

not sure which way i'll go.....navy or marines? hmmmm. I don't really care for the looks of the one in squadron.(hope i'm not hurting anyones feelings) just my opinion, but it looks too streamlined. One of the things i like about the apache is it's rough and tough crude look, you start curving this and that and it takes that mean look away. i think i'll definately fold the rotors and tail, move the wheel. maybe add a few bumps here and there for various avionics changes, and possibly make some ordinance changes. Any ideas with what to do on the very end of the tail now that the wheel isn't

helps very much, thank you. i knew the idea couldn't be too crazy, and must have been at least thought of by someone in the navy before. Maybe it'd make more sense to be a marine bird? hmmmmm.... anyway, thanks again.

hey guys, i was lookin thru my stash trying to find a suitable kit to slowly get back to building regularly, and came across an old hasagawa 1/72 scale ah-64a. I've read here and elsewhere that it's not a great kit as far accuracy and such.....sooooo. i was thinking about maybe trying a "what-if" with it just for fun. i got to thinking, what if the Navy had picked up a few of these for themselves. besides being a really cool looking dirty grey apache, it'd be awesome looking ship board. (my sincere apology to any army chopper pilots, i know i'm talking borderline blasphemy here) anyway, besid

i like the russian top gun idea. that would look sweet. i would love to see a fulcrum in u.s. navyish markings. too cool

I always thought it'd be cool for the Marines to have a Harrier demonstration team like the Blue Angels. Imagine 6 planes doing V-stol manuevers. Any ideas as to the paint scheme of such a team? Bill

here ya go. http://www.ipmsstockholm.org/colorcharts/s...orcharts_fs.htm seems like a pretty comprehensive list. Hth Bill

Hey I.Martin, I have that sheet and wasn't planning on using the 135 shark mouth markings, i got them strickly for the nasa plane. if you'd like i could cut them out and send them to you. just drop me your mailing info. HTH Bill

so there's another U.S. military demo team besides the Blue Angels? and they fly jets? hmmmmmm...who knew?