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What would a typical 1967 weapons load be for an A-4E?


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I have the Victory Productions A-4E decal sheet which includes VA-46 Clansman. This is the scheme I'm going to use while it was on the pre-fire Forrestal. It's also John Mccain's Squadron.  

 

What would a typical war load be for one of these jets during Vietnam?

 

Chris

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Well.

This is one of the most outstanding clips i ever watched!!!!. I mean, never saw such a detailed sequence on fusing a bomb!!!

Thanks very much, shion!

Going to the question, well, i believe that you have two options at the least: 1) tactical "nape and snake". Generally  speaking, c.a.s. missions below dmz with a mix of napalm and mk 82 snake eyes.

2) strategical -or so to say- mk 82/84 normal and extended fuse, plus snake eye, for sam suppression and "strategical" targets like bridges, pol, marshaling yards etc. in indian territory.

Schematic, but i believe near to historical likeliness.

Then, you could have had all kinds of mixes. But the 2 more likely options should have been 1) and 2).

Hope this helps.

Best ciaos and...happy modeling!

Bobo.

Edited by Bobo1953
Correction
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Remember when choosing 1967 weapons not to put the ablative coating on them, and thus only one stripe. (unless you are deliberately building one of the "stripe variations" on the bombs for your model.)

 

That time period is one of the best for variety in the bomb loads, and gives us a lot of leeway because of that. We have photos showing one aircraft with the 400 gallon tank on the centerline, with Slant Two 500# Snakeyes on TERs inboard, and single 500# on the outer wing parent rack. Right next to it, loaded for the same mission, is a Skyhawk with a full MER on the centerline, 2 300 gallon tanks on the inboards, and single 500 on each outer wing parent rack. (this was VA-93) Those same two aircraft appear later in the cruise with one carrying a 300 gallon center tank plus early CBU loaded Slant Two on the inner wing, and rocket pods on the outer parent racks,,and the other carrying a pair of Shrike missiles on the outerwing, rocket pods on TERs, Slant Two, on the inner wing, and a 300 gallon tank on the centerline.

 

Almost any combination of Racks and Bombs, CBU, Rocket pods, and early Missiles is possible in 1967, as long as you load one or two Drop Tanks on it. (just don't load weapons deployed after 1967 on it, well, unless you want to because you like them)

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Also, and mostly,,,,,,,,weapons with a base design from WWII, but, with suffixes that place them in the post-Korean conflict timeframe. They looked "almost" like WWII bombs, but had slight differences in them. (and were the bombs used in the design phase of the A4D in the first place, until the "Douglas shape" Mk 8x bombs came out.)

 

Another bomb widely used were the two M-8x series of frag bombs,,,,,they looked like WWII bombs, but were different colors, and had metal "panel lines" around them from their welded square steel wire construction.

 

Wanna freak an old Ordie out? Paint a load of Slant Two 500# slick bombs, add one on each outer pylon parent rack,,,,,paint them GRAY 36231 with 3 Green 34108 nose stripes each. (Mk 94s) (a big thanks to Gerry for helping me figure that out a year or two ago)

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10 minutes ago, swimmer25k said:

How about the addition of Bullpups?

 

I've had the nice Brassin set for a few years and I'd like to use it.  

Yep you can do AGM-12's, just make sure you use an AERO 5B Missile Launcher since by that time, all the old AERO 5A were pretty much phased out.

 

You can use a modern LAU-118 HARM Missile launcher for a AERO 5B, just paint it white and put the nose access panel line on the right side about a few millimeters from the nose and fill in the forward panel line on the left side of the nose.

 

The AERO 5A was the launcher that went inside a special pylon for the A-4, made it look like the Bullpup was mounted directly to the pylon since the launcher was inside the pylon.

 

You can also use a AGM-45 Shrike launcher, the AGM-12 Bullpup and AGM-45 Shrike used the same launcher.

Edited by GW8345
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On 7/18/2017 at 2:27 PM, swimmer25k said:

I have the Victory Productions A-4E decal sheet which includes VA-46 Clansman. This is the scheme I'm going to use while it was on the pre-fire Forrestal. It's also John Mccain's Squadron.  

 

What would a typical war load be for one of these jets during Vietnam?

 

Chris

Tried to PM you but your mailbox is full.  

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