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21 hours ago, habu2 said:

 

I think at the time of DS they were calling them OA-10, this started in '87 when then USAF was trying to "re-mold" then A-10 into a new role into a FAC mission to justify not retiring them.

There wasnt many of them though, Im not sure if any of the jets that took part in Desert Storm were OA-10As as they wanted to prove the A-10A could do what they said it could.

 

From what I remember it was a total bullet magnet and took just as much as it dished out and other jets were just as or more successful as it was for less damage taken.

Good for blue on blue though I believe. Which isnt very good.

Edited by ElectroSoldier
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47 minutes ago, ElectroSoldier said:

There wasnt many of them though, Im not sure if any of the jets that took part in Desert Storm were OA-10As as they wanted to prove the A-10A could do what they said it could.

 

From what I remember it was a total bullet magnet and took just as much as it dished out and other jets were just as or more successful as it was for less damage taken.

Good for blue on blue though I believe. Which isnt very good.

I think the 23rd TASS might have had OA-10’s during DS but not 100 percent certain. 

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going back to the earlier thought about doing bombers in 1/72, please do not forget 1/144.  The B-47 in 1/144 would be very appreciated.  Also do not forget to do a B-52 sheet covering SAC 1960's through the early 1970's SIOP schemes.    As always keep up the amazing work and quality  

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2 hours ago, aircal62 said:

going back to the earlier thought about doing bombers in 1/72, please do not forget 1/144.  The B-47 in 1/144 would be very appreciated.  Also do not forget to do a B-52 sheet covering SAC 1960's through the early 1970's SIOP schemes.    As always keep up the amazing work and quality  

+1 on this ^^^

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I fully intend to cover all major US bombers starting from the B29/B-50 timeframe all the way to the B-21 when it is finally revealed. I think I already covered a good portion of the goal, the scaling-down of the B-58 sheet to 1/144 is underway for January release, and the B-47 will follow soon afterwards. If I can pull off the research work I will do the same for B-50 and B-66 later in 2023.

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29 minutes ago, KursadA said:

I fully intend to cover all major US bombers starting from the B29/B-50 timeframe all the way to the B-21 when it is finally revealed. I think I already covered a good portion of the goal, the scaling-down of the B-58 sheet to 1/144 is underway for January release, and the B-47 will follow soon afterwards. If I can pull off the research work I will do the same for B-50 and B-66 later in 2023.

Can I make a request sir and provide a windshield decal for your down sized (1/144) B-58 sheet?  It's always helpful in this scale.  likewise if and when you do a B-50 and B-66 sheet.

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2 hours ago, KursadA said:

I had the "future" Minicraft kit in mind, but with that company's demise I might have to be wait longer. I wonder who will get the Minicraft molds.

Hopefully Academy will get them.   They do share many of the same kit releases.   B-47 and B-58 to name a couple.

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Hobbycraft Canada packaged the original Korean-made 1/144 kits of the B-58, B-47, and a B-36. Academy eventually obtained the molds, but I don't think they were the originators. Minicraft used to be in a partnership with Academy, but that ended back in the 90s, IIRC. But old molds never die. Minicraft sold to new owners back in the oughts (again IIRC), and continued with some of the Academy kits and made their own line, principally 1/144 airliners and related military aircraft. I don't think they ever made it to a B-50, although some of the parts from the Boeing Stratocruiser kit could have been used.

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No, Minicraft announced the B-50D in 1/144 scale, but sadly, never released it.  However, more interestingly, I do have a 1/144 B-66 kit by Air Craft Models so I would love to see some decals for it.  What about the B-57 Canberra in 1/144?  AModel kits are a-plenty and fairly cheap.  I have several, plus the High Planes RB-57A & RB-57D. I also have two 3D printed RB-57F big wing recon birds; USAF Weather & NASA would be nice.   

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4 hours ago, Paul Boyer said:

Hobbycraft Canada packaged the original Korean-made 1/144 kits of the B-58, B-47, and a B-36. Academy eventually obtained the molds, but I don't think they were the originators. Minicraft used to be in a partnership with Academy, but that ended back in the 90s, IIRC. But old molds never die. Minicraft sold to new owners back in the oughts (again IIRC), and continued with some of the Academy kits and made their own line, principally 1/144 airliners and related military aircraft. I don't think they ever made it to a B-50, although some of the parts from the Boeing Stratocruiser kit could have been used.

Paul, I think you are on to something there! Kitbashing a B-29 & C-97 for a B-50 shouldn't be too difficult.  Ooooh, then you could also make a prototype YC-97 with short B-29 tail!  Engines may be a problem, but Blackbird (UK) now has the Cobra Company 1/144 B-377 & KC-97L sets.

Edited by Dutch
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1 hour ago, Dutch said:

Paul, I think you are on to something there! Kitbashing a B-29 & C-97 for a B-50 shouldn't be too difficult.  Ooooh, than you could also make a prototype YC-97 with short B-29 tail!  Engines may be a problem, but what the magic!

I have a RB-50 in progress using the KC-97 wings/engines and tail along with the B-29 fuselage and horizontal tail planes.    It looks like a B-50 but isn't as easy as I had thought it would be.  

It would have been awesome if Academy had scaled down their 1/72 B/RB-50 kits to 1/144.   I would have bought a half dozen at least.

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Chris, great find there at dembrudders.

 

After doing a little research, the Minicraft 1/144 B-29 is the ex-Academy kit, which is the ex-Crown kit.  The Fujimi 1/144 B-29 may be a better option.  The Revell B-29 is an odd scale (1/133).  A quick check of evilBay shows that Minicraft B-29s are going for $18-24 with shipping.  The Fujimi B-29s are going for much more, $60-75. I wonder why? Is the Fujimi B-29 that much of a better kit?  After looking at sprue shots of both kits on SCM, I think that the Fujimi kit may indeed be the better of the two.  But if I am going to do major plastic surgery on both the B-29 & C-97, I want them as cheap as possible in case I really mess up and throw both in the bin.  I may even make a KB-50J three point drogue tanker.  What with the Blackbird 1/144 KC-97L conversion with jet pods.  There are some colorful B/EB/RB/KB/WB-50 airframes out there.  

Edited by Dutch
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Dutch is correct on the Academy/Crown B-29 kit.  The kits Fin is really badly off.  For a B-29 I would graft the fin off a B-17 above the gunner position.  A B-50 would seem easy, but the wing thickness makes it difficult,  One of those things where there is no easy solution, but Drifterdon is correct in that it does at least look like a B-50 mostly.  The Fujumi B-29/F-13 is much better, but it never got a lot of circulation and I think it was issued only for a short time.  It was always expensive but prices today are insane.   

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1 hour ago, Dutch said:

After doing a little research, the Minicraft 1/144 B-29 is the ex-Academy kit, which is the ex-Crown kit.  The Fujimi 1/144 B-29 may be a better option.  The Revell B-29 is an odd scale (1/133).  A quick check of evilBay shiows that Minicraft B-29s are going for $18-24 with shipping.  The Fujimi B-29s are going for much more, $60-75. I wonder why? Is the Fujimi B-29 that much of a better kit?  After looking at sprue shots of both kits on SCM, I think that the Fujimi kit may indeed be the better of the two.  But if I am going to do major plastic surgery on both the B-29 & C-97, I want them as cheap as possible in case I really mess up and throw both in the bin.  I may even make a KB-50J three point drogue tanker.  What with the Blackbird 1/144 KC-97L conversion with jet pods.  There are some colorful B/EB/RB/KB/WB-50 airframes out there.  

I have several of the Fujimi B-29 kits and they actually look like a B-29 with a correct tail outline.  It is a much better kit overall with finely recessed panel lines.  The only down side of this kit are no engines within the cowlings.  Also, the prop hubs are molded square which totally messes up the look.   Brengun makes a set of resin cowling/engines and a replacement set of props that fix the wonky Fujimi parts.   The Fujimi kits also include open bomb bays with bombs and a 1/144 A-bomb with one of their releases.   Bottom line, this is hands down the best B-29 in 1/144.   

Since I had to whack the tail off the donor B-29 kit to make an RB-50, and since I had intended to keep bomb bay doors closed, I chose the cheaper of the two kits.

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The very first editing I did at FineScale Modeler was Bo Bosanski's article on his 1/72 scale B-50 conversion. He took the engine nacelles and fin from a RAREplanes vac KC-97 and grafted them onto an Airfix B-29. That was in December of 1982, coming up on 40 years ago! Man, I'm getting old!

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