TomCooper

Beautiful work, especially painting and weathering, Andrew! Any photos of her left side? I'm searching for some since years, without luck. Would love to ready an artwork (I've already drawn Remit-31 and Puffy-11, and would like to continue that series.) BTW, Actually, French government was insisting on Americans removing Q from power, not 'just striking him'. When their Pres Mitterrand heard about 'small' scope of this attack, they refused to grand over-flight permission in disappointment. And yes: sadly, Karma 52 was shot down by the only SA-6 SAM-site in Tripoli area that survived the

Wow!

Beautiful!

Interesting argument, mate. ;-)

No problem: it'a first-hand source. Re. 'visible indicators' of difference: I'm not sure if the F-14AM has finally got the HUD the IRIAF would like to install into her (the last I've got to hear of 'a little bit more' on her, and that was two years ago, the answer was negative). If yes, that would be the only one I know about. (Except if they would be armed: the F-14AM is compatible with R-73s, for example.)

Very nice Ryan. Are you going to add some weathering? Especially the area around the cokpit was really 'dirty' - and you're going to have an excellent result!

Excellent paintwork, Mike.

Sorry, but nope: that's 'just' a standard F-14A, with... well, unusual camo. 3-6049 remains the only F-14AM in service.

Looking good so far - and I'm looking forward for the final result. BTW, sorry for being curious but: was that a semi-finished Syrian Su-22M-4K to be seen on one of photos...?

Just a soft touch of some 'weathering' here and there, and you'll be fine. BTW, the overall shape looks good too.

Ah, found it (on your flickr page). BTW: note that this camo was applied around national markings and the serial number. So, before applying decals with serials on the fin, for example, you might need a 'silver field' as background there.

Ah yes: the 'midnite blue' (the colour used by the USN too).

Looks 'right on the money' to me.

AFAIK, this claim was issued during a mission flown over Western Iraq on 4 January 1981. According to Israeli sources, Iraqi MiG-21 was scrambled to intercept, and then run out of fuel while chasing the F-4E(S). 'Problem': that claim is based on intercepted Iraqi radio emissions. The Iraqi pilot was critically short on fuel, and he declared emergency - but landed safely. (Source: IrAF pilot that flew that mission.) BTW, according to same source, that was second Israeli recce mission over Iraq: the first was flown in September 1980, by a Firebee UAV - that was shot down by SA-6s south-east of

NP. I just recall discussing that issue somewhere else on the internet, about... j... must've been back in the late 1990s. Then again when photos from Chinese museums - like this one - appeared for the first time. Have obtained a small book ('Secret of the Pass') on ops of the 35th Sqn ROCAF - only to find out that all the photos are black & white: my hope was that you might know better. Anyway, perhaps it was really some sort of a very dark blue colour that washed out as the wreckage was exposed to elements...