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CD144009 - 1/144 KC-135A/E Stratotanker


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I would have interest in the short tail A version markings from Westover AFB, as is in the Italeri 1/72 kit.  I'm talking about the Dayglo stripes, SAC sash and badges, and "RAMROD"  with lightning bolts.  Yes, the kit has to be modified but if you have room on the sheet, I'd be one of those guys that would. 

 

Rick L.

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Any of the early 135s, dayglo, and the SAC crest and wing crest on the nose.

Perhpas  a template to make a short tail . Also some SAC decals for the 1/144 

EC-135 . The detail and scale book is a great reference .

scott 

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22 minutes ago, Jim Barr said:

Any estimate on when this sheet might be released?

 

Thanks

Jim Barr

 

Sometime early next year - there are just too many unique markings that need to be drawn, and they need to be drawn at a high fidelity since I will eventually scale this up to 1/72.

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On 10/19/2018 at 7:06 AM, Yoxford said:

160th ARG Rickenbacker ANGB

 

 

 

Wow nice shot. I remember being on that base in 1988 and taking pictures of their KC-135s. My memory is foggy now but I also remember that there were some special KC-135 aircraft there too. In fact I subsequently found out they were the tankers used to refuel the SR-71 fleet and called KC-135Q. They were so special that there was an armed guard standing at a barrier and we could not point our cameras in their direction to photograph them. Scary.

 

Kursad that scheme shown in the picture above would be a great subject to consider. I believe Revell issued this in one of their releases but of course that is now long gone. That go fast stripe sure is sharp.

Edited by skyhawk174
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9 hours ago, skyhawk174 said:

That go fast stripe sure is sharp.

 

I was told that “arrow” helped the pilots know which end of fuselage contained the cockpit after a hard night at the O-club.

 

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On 10/20/2018 at 1:38 AM, skyhawk174 said:

I remember being on that base in 1988 and taking pictures of their KC-135s. My memory is foggy now but I also remember that there were some special KC-135 aircraft there too. In fact I subsequently found out they were the tankers used to refuel the SR-71 fleet and called KC-135Q. They were so special that there was an armed guard standing at a barrier and we could not point our cameras in their direction to photograph them. Scary.

 

Kursad that scheme shown in the picture above would be a great subject to consider. I believe Revell issued this in one of their releases but of course that is now long gone. That go fast stripe sure is sharp.

 

I was at the far end of the runway at that time, part of the A-7 unit.  Don't know about the special tankers, they all looked alike to us.  They did sport the same basic marking for ODS only in the Shamu scheme.

 

On 10/20/2018 at 11:29 AM, AD-4N said:

 

I was told that “arrow” helped the pilots know which end of fuselage contained the cockpit after a hard night at the O-club.

 

 That's what crew chiefs are for.  Pilots can't be trusted with something that complicated.

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KC-135Q was a KC-135A with the capability to carry JP-7 fuel for the Blackbird independently from the JP-4 fuel system used by the Stratotanker.  The Q models also had a special comm link in the boom that allowed the two aircraft to talk without breaking radio silence. Some stories say this comm capability was the reason they were named Q models - Q for Quiet. 

 

All Q models were later upgraded to CFM-56 engines (and other mods) and redesignated KC-135T. 

 

Externally all Qs looked like As, and all Ts like Rs. 

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On 10/20/2018 at 1:38 AM, skyhawk174 said:

I remember being on that base in 1988 and taking pictures of their KC-135s. My memory is foggy now but I also remember that there were some special KC-135 aircraft there too. In fact I subsequently found out they were the tankers used to refuel the SR-71 fleet and called KC-135Q. They were so special that there was an armed guard standing at a barrier and we could not point our cameras in their direction to photograph them. Scary.

 

I was flying KC-135s out of Grissom AFB, Indiana at the time.  In addition to our straight tankers, we also had EC-135G/L radio relay aircraft.  We had one EC on alert with the tankers at Grissom, and we had another on alert at Rickenbacker - on a couple of occasions, a sortie I was on dropped into to Rick to swap out alert crews.  If they were away from the normal ramp with a barrier and armed guards around them, I would suspect what you actually saw was the alert EC.

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