Modelpig

Intake covers (and others) in the picture are from the 44th Fighter Squadron out of Kadena AB, Okinawa. Tail code would be "ZZ".

Yes, former legacy hornet driver here. You can PM me if you like...perhaps I could help in your search for information. Patrick

A couple of answers...or attempts at answers. 救助 is japanese when spoken says kyujo. (Rescue) Take a look at the JASDF aircraft and you will see the same. More than likely this bird flew out of Atsugi for a good portion of its career. Not fleet standard. Arming flag (& pin) has not been removed from the aircraft yet. Arming is the last thing you go through before taking the catapult. This aircraft is in "taxi" mode moving forward toward the cat. Good catch on the lowered crew step. Normally caught and corrected by plane captain or QA before launch. Conj

Remember dropping napalm canisters from an F/A-18 back in the 90's. There was no way for the weapons computer to provide you an accurate release solution displayed in the HUD...so the rule of thumb was fly a level lay down an wait for the target to disappear under you nose, then pickle for release. Ah the good ole days.

Prayers for the pastor, check!

Crew ladder down with canopy closed.

Appreciate the positive comments gents!

First post on this subject, finished before the 31 December deadline but its taken several days to get the pics in order. I did take some in-progress shots along the way, perhaps I can post those in the appropriate subject category in the near future. Trumpeter kit with some modifications to get it closer to what a Air National Guard bird looks like, as well as fixing some of the Trumpy issues. -Filled in lots of fuselage rivets with Mr. Surfacer...left the empenage rivets for detail effect under the Alclad "burnt titanium". -Added the UHF blade antenna and anti-collision light on the s

John, To adapt a quote from a movie..." you are the group build!" Patrick

I have used the old Revell nose and used it on the newer Revell kit. The horizontal profile is much closer to reality than the newer kit, just needs to be a little wider when viewing it from the vertical. I added a small wedge of plastic at the 12 and 6 o'clock position to make the nose slightly wider and it looked great.

If its not too late, I'd like to join in as well! Merry Christmas all. Patrick

Another consideration is how early are you intending to go. Those mentioned above plus a Block 5-Block 10 generation has additional changes to the gear door interiors, different antenna configurations, as well as the leading edge flap hinges, small horizontal stabilators...I'm sure I could find some more if I pull out my references. I did change my Tamiya F-16 T-bird kit into an F-16XL back in 2011 and it took a bit to get the Block 5 details right, but an "C" to a "A" is well within the realm of non-major conversion. Patrick

Red Dog, awesome job. Here's my input to help with "accuracy". When the aircraft is at this point in the landing, the pilot is looking only at the Fresnel lens which would be located about 15 degrees off to the left side of the aircraft. If its possible, position the pilots head as if he were looking at something just to the left of the HUD. (hard to to tell from your picture angle but the pilot's head is biased slightly to the left) Keep up the good work. Patrick

OBTW, the "candy stripe" was done to distiguish the aggressors from the friendlies during air-to-air training. Dad was an IP at the Tucson Fighter Weapons School back in the 70's (still flying F-100's) and they would regularly train with the F-15 boys from Luke AFB. I seem to recall the stipes would be red/white or other birds had black/white.