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VF-213 last Tomcat cruise questions


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Somewhere in the dark recesses of my brain, I seem to recall that Tomcats had their cockpits painted overall black towards the end of their lives. If that's the case, would VF-213 jets have had that? I'll be building 204 off the Fightertown sheet. I want to have some fun with a good, grimy TPS jet. Also, would 204 have had the Rover antenna installed?

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Yes, it would have had the ROVER antenna. All -31 and -213 aircraft had it installed on the 05-06 last cruise.The idea was pitched in October or November of 05, and within six weeks, it was on the jets.

As far as the cockpit goes, I'm not sure about that, but it sure would make painting easier...LOL.

Edited by TomcatFanatic123
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the ROVER antenna was only on for a few months, so you could build it with or without. That's the first I've heard about black cockpits... but it would be cool if it were true!

I remember it had something to do with getting NVG capability. I could be totally off, though.

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204's cockpit was black.

It had ROVER installed (and was flying with the antenna) between December 05 and February 06.

Darren pm me if you need anything regarding this jet... as you may remember, I was out there with 213 at the time.

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I remember it had something to do with getting NVG capability. I could be totally off, though.

The black cockpits were something 213 did to their jets a few years prior to their last Tomcat cruise. Night ops had a lot to do with it, but in the daytime the cockpits got hotter than hades.

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204 was cool for a number of reasons - only 3 toned tps jet in VF-213 and different stencil fonts from the rest. Later in cruise, the canopy was replaced/painted and only the front windscreen had 35237 paint... have lots of pictures I can send to help out.

brian

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204 was cool for a number of reasons - only 3 toned tps jet in VF-213 and different stencil fonts from the rest. Later in cruise, the canopy was replaced/painted and only the front windscreen had 35237 paint... have lots of pictures I can send to help out.

brian

Sweetness! A different colored canopy...even better! 204 caught my eye on the sheet because it was so different. I'll hit you up as needed during the build. Maybe I'll do an In Progress. I've never done one of those before.

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I'm currently building a Hasegawa VF-31 Tomcat 100 After they got back from the last cruise. Did 100 have a black cockpit?

Nope.

164603 (101) may have had them, but 100 wasn't a 213 jet prior to getting to 31, AFAIK...

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I'm currently building a Hasegawa VF-31 Tomcat 100 After they got back from the last cruise. Did 100 have a black cockpit?

As Nick said, the answer would be no. I was over at VF-31 documenting their tomcats 3 days after the combat cruise home coming and I got to crawl up on Tomcatter 100. Standard dk gull grey pit.

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I can't get these links to work from any of 4 different browsers on 3 different OSs. By "not work" I mean while all of the rest of the page is displayed, the actual image never shows up...just a spinner beseeching my patience... Am I the only one so fortunate?

Edited by David N Lombard
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I can't get these links to work from any of 4 different browsers on 3 different OSs. By "not work" I mean while all of the rest of the page is displayed, the actual image never shows up...just a spinner beseeching my patience... Am I the only one so fortunate?

Opening just fine on my end here.

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I can't get these links to work from any of 4 different browsers on 3 different OSs. By "not work" I mean while all of the rest of the page is displayed, the actual image never shows up...just a spinner beseeching my patience... Am I the only one so fortunate?

Does not work for me either. Rest of page opens, actual photo......no.

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I can't get these links to work from any of 4 different browsers on 3 different OSs. By "not work" I mean while all of the rest of the page is displayed, the actual image never shows up...just a spinner beseeching my patience... Am I the only one so fortunate?

Try scrolling down and clicking the "Medium" button. I have the same problem with the above links but medium size works fine.

Edited by Janissary
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Try scrolling down and clicking the "Medium" button. I have the same problem with the above links but medium size works fine.

That did it!

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From looking at those pictures, it appears the only Medium Gray is the front windscreen. Is the topside just really, really faded?

Honestly, I can't tell. From the walk arounds I took (which were on a very cloudy day mind you) the topside looked Dk Ghost. According the chief that walked me around on the line that day, 213's jets (to his knowledge) didn't have a Med Grey topside. It was pretty evident on several jets that the only Med Grey sections on the aircraft was the skunk stripe.

204 could have very well been the exception to the rule (which we all know when it comes to F-14's there are no rules) as pointed out on FT's placement guide. From my pics that I took, the skunk stripe had to have been painted on at some point during the cruise and by the time they came home, it was extended down to the nose.

One of the things that makes their jets interesting is that the appearance of the dk ghost grey on the fwd section of the intakes and the demarcation lines between the colors.

Anyway you cut it, 204 seems to allow for some artistic license to be applied and we all know you'll do a great job on it.

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Here's another shot from the fly in. The skunk stripe is purely eveident here and the topside color appears Med Grey.

EDIT: After looking at my walk arounds and further examining this pic, it appears the skunk stripe only overs the right side of the nose! How bizzare!

204 taxiing

Edited by VFA-103guy
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