Chris D

You also had the US Navy A-29s that were combat tested with markings recalling the Black Ponies of VAL-4. Chris

The needle does move, and everything appears to be clean. I disassembled and cleaned everything and I see no evidence of dried paint anywhere. And the airbrush will spray cleaner successfully, just not paint really. Chris

I've been building models for a long time, and I just finally got an airbrush. I have been trying to airbrush using Lifecolor acrylics, and I'm truly out of ideas as to what I might be doing wrong. It is a dual action gravity feed Grex brush. I've thinned the paint using Lifecolor's own thinner to about a 50/50 ratio, and am spraying at about 20psi. I cannot get paint to flow except in spurts. The only thing I've been able to get to spray at all reliably is airbrush cleaner, and even that takes some doing to get started. Even putting a bunch of thinner in the cup and adding the tiniest a

So here's what I've been able to gather about the Hwacheon Dam raid: -the mission included pilots and Skyraiders from both VA-195 and the VC-35 detachment (Det. 3) flying AD-4N's. The only three pilots in the air group who had ever dropped torpedoes before all flew the VC-35 Skyraiders on the mission. -a total of 8 Skyraiders went on the mission and they all carried Mk. 13 torpedoes and no other external armament (5 from VA-195 and 3 from VC-35) -B-506 and B-503 are conclusively two of the torpedo carriers, but neither seems to have a Bu no available out there. -B-50

That will be fantastic! I hope you'll be able to include one of the Dambusters from the raid that earned them the name. The last combat use of the aerial torpedo against Hwacheon Dam. I did some reasearch a while back on which planes were on the raid and I managed to match up at least one of the torpedo carriers with a Bu.no. I'll dig that out this weekend.

There were three T-34's which were part of the CONA celebrations, and it would be really neat to see them included, since the majority of the other CONA schemes are available in decal form. All three were pre-WWII aircraft designs, Corpus Christi's 161841 was marked as a Navy aircraft, and the two from Whiting were 164169 in the colors of a Coast Guard aircraft, 164172 in the colors of a Marine Corps aircraft. Additionally, 164172 was one of the aircraft moved to Corpus Christi when Whiting shut down T-34 ops, and she remained in h

Please include one of the T-34's for Corpus Christi. It is so common to find decals for Pensacola, and the kits just ignore the fact that half of the Navy primary flight training is at NAS Corpus Christi. Also, NAS Corpus was the last operator of the T-34C as Whiting shifted to the Texan first. Markings are basically the same, except for a G tailcode and TAW-4 on the ventral fins. Also, for both TAW-5 and TAW-4, the T-34C's came from a common pool for the wing rather than being assigned to either of the two squadrons at each base. So none of them had any individual squadron markings.

The Bravo deployed in detachments to surface ships, rather than as a full squadron to a carrier. So the high viz squadron bird would deploy as part of the rotation. But also as part of the fact that they deployed as detachments of one or two helos, that meant that they were the only aviation assets on the ship. So they would perform every role required of a helicopter. Things to understand, the Bravo was heavy, and wouldn't want to carry anything it didn't need to on a flight. So even doing an ASW search it wouldn't typically carry a torpedo, since that would just shorten the search t

https://www.defensemedianetwork.com/stories/skyraiders-torpedo-the-hwachon-dam/ I do know that 503 and 506 were two of the 5 from VA-195 which dropped torpedoes during the raid. And I'm pretty sure that 502 (Bu. no. 128986) and 515 (Bu. no. 128947) were also part of the raid. No idea on the 5th Skyraider from VA-195, but the squadron CO was on the raid, so quite possibly the squadron CO. There were also three AD-4N Skyraiders from VC-35 carrying torpedoes on the raid. They were from Det. 3, and their tailcode was NR. The CAG also flew one of the Skyraiders. Chris

Would love to see some decals for 24 TASS from Howard AFB, Panama during the 1980s. For a while, they were the only fixed wing aircraft participating in Operation Just Cause. The only existing decals for these aircraft have a rather prominent error, where the fin flash is mirrored from one side to the other, so that the starboard side gets a backwards map of Panama. Chris

Any chance for the one J2F-2 Duck on Midway Island during the Battle of Midway? Photographs are limited, but it was the blue over gray early war scheme, with the rudder stripes most likely painted over. It is almost certainly Bu no. 1209. And since it was a station aircraft, rather than a squadron aircraft, It would have NAS Midway Island written on the sides. I don't have the Bu no, but the last aircraft out of Bataan was a J2F-4 Duck, assigned to Patrol Wing 10 (it was a wing aircraft, not assigned to either of the squadrons). The only difference between the versions of th

I too would love to see the New Jersey ANG on there. They were the first ANG operator of the F-105 as well as the last operator of the F-105B, and they also had a pretty colorful bird for the Bicentennial. Late life schemes: https://www.airliners.net/photo/USA-Air-Force/Republic-F-105B-Thunderchief/1495127/L https://www.jetphotos.com/photo/388893 And the Bicentennial scheme: Chris

There were some black USAAF Mosquitoes used as part of Operation Carpetbagger special operations. They flew Red Stocking missions, which were evening and night missions over Germany to receive scheduled reports from agents. They were PR.XVI Mosquitoes and they were assigned to the 492d Bomb Group (the Operation Carpetbagger group), and carried the long range wing tanks. Few photos: http://www.ossreborn.com/files/Issue132.pdf (pg 6) https://harringtonmuseum.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Mossie-TA614-R.jpg Chris

The back of the fuselage is also significantly different. They went from the rounded clamshell doors to the flat vertical loading ramp with the Mi-17V-5. The fuselage also had sliding cabin entry doors on both sides of the fuselage (which also meant shorter external fuel tanks). The Annetra kit will build the middle range of the Mi-8/Mi-17 family. The early Mi-8's had different engines, and are most easily identified by the lack of engine inlet filters and the tail rotor on the starboard side of the fuselage, so these too can't be built from the Annetra kit. Chris

Canada had two separate sets of Mi-17's in Afghanistan. The first were six contracted Mi-8T and Mi-8MTV-1 carrying civilian registrations and flown by contracted aircrews. They were Kyrgyzstan registered and came from Russian company Aviakompaniya Aerostan, through Sky Link of Toronto. The Mi-8T would not work on the Annetra model, but the Mi-8MTV-1's would. There flew in entirely civilian markings, and were used for general logistics and other non-combat support functions. After that yearlong contract ran out, the Department of National Defense went out and directly