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Dang, that is some first rate work.   Really like that cockpit, I'm not a big fan of decals either but those look awesome.   Is that a love seat in the back of the flight deck?

 

Did 497 fly those combat missions in that high viz paint job?  

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On 7/28/2018 at 7:42 PM, 11bee said:

Dang, that is some first rate work.   Really like that cockpit, I'm not a big fan of decals either but those look awesome.   Is that a love seat in the back of the flight deck?

 

Did 497 fly those combat missions in that high viz paint job?  

 

Hey man, thanks. Yeah, that's pretty much a love seat back there, or bench seat. 497 did operate in OIF in its standard paint scheme, I'm not 100% sure where they operated from, I believe Kuwait?? The attached photo shows a hardened shelter/hangar in the background, I don't recall ever seeing those in Bahrain (a typical USN C-130 det site) so I'm guessing Kuwait. Note the Saddam "nose art" and message on the outboard BQM-34.

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pg_L_TG-10031_007.jpg

Edited by 82Whitey51
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So, what was the role of the BQM-34 during OIF ? Where they just for delivering chaff during bombing missions ? I was at Ahmed Al Jabber AB, in Kuwait from late February 2003 until early June 2003 and I never saw these guys flying out of Jabber. Now , that doesn't mean they weren't there, I just never saw them during the daytime shift 0600 - 1800 hrs. We were kinda busy loading our butts off but, kinda hard to miss that paint scheme though.

 

Steve

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10 hours ago, A-10 LOADER said:

So, what was the role of the BQM-34 during OIF ? Where they just for delivering chaff during bombing missions ? I was at Ahmed Al Jabber AB, in Kuwait from late February 2003 until early June 2003 and I never saw these guys flying out of Jabber. Now , that doesn't mean they weren't there, I just never saw them during the daytime shift 0600 - 1800 hrs. We were kinda busy loading our butts off but, kinda hard to miss that paint scheme though.

 

Steve

From Wiki:
At the outset of the 2003 invasion of Iraq, a U.S. Navy-flown DC-130 dropped three modified Firebee target drones borrowed from the U.S. Air Force. Two other drones were ground-launched. The unmanned aircraft flew over Baghdad spooling out clouds of chaff until they ran out of fuel and crashed; they led the flights of Tomahawk cruise missiles which devastated Baghdad.

So, basically they launched them across Iraq chucking out chaff to screw up Iraqi air defense RADAR. Somewhere along the lines of digging up info on these I came across a photo of one of the BQM-34s crashed near a village with people around it. The Iraqis claimed to have shot them down. 🤷‍♂️

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20 hours ago, aircommando130 said:

Cool work so far! In that picture of the drones hanging on the pylons in the background is a MC-130E Combat Talon! Sorry...being an MC guy had to say something! 

MC...Another 130 I'd like to build!

Do you happen to know where that photo was taken? MC-130 det sites in the early part of OIF?

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  • 2 weeks later...

Progressing along still. Finally got the fuselage closed up, wasn't without hassles. Some of the interior structures get in the way a bit and needed sanding. Nothing major but take your time and do a section at a time I also added some plastic tabs along the long stretches of seam to prevent them opening up during sanding.

 

To slow my progress further, I decided to droop the elevators a bit. About every photo I see of a 130 on deck and shut down shows the elevators deflected down. Using thin razor saws I scored and cut them loose (Italeri plastic is pretty soft so it was relatively quick work), sanded the edges, thinned the upper horizontal stab trailing edge and attached a thin strip of "half round" Evergreen plastic along the leading edge of the elevators, and glued them into place. The way the kit is designed, I had to make a "half-moon" cut into the fuselage horizontal stab area to accommodate the elevator. Not difficult at all...I'm tempted to do the same with the rudder now 😮

 

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IMG_6280.jpg

 

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On 7/9/2018 at 9:04 AM, 82Whitey51 said:


image.jpg

 

... and I think with all the color on it it'll look pretty sharp next to all the camo and grays out there among the other OIF/OEF birds.

Indeed it will. Looking at your cockpit work and thinking, dang, too bad it doesn't have a bubble canopy, or at least a B-36 style canopy. 🙂

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On 7/14/2018 at 6:00 PM, Hoops said:

 

Good find!

 

Although I'm looking at the nose as a possible YMC-130H build, which didn't have the microwave band thimble radome underneath. Instead, it had a FLIR, which looks rather like an IRDS from what I can see. I honestly don't know what would be more difficult, the vac form nose and hacking it up to represent the differences, or sculpting it with Evergreen and Milliput?

 

Cheers,

Hoops

 

Did you got a nose yet? I have the Airmodel nose here of this set: https://www.airmodel.de/product_info.php?info=p121_firebee-ii---conversion-kit-neptune-dp-2e.html&XTCsid=qp17n7uoc3kq0h565tfchl9965

 

 

HAJO

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