John1

Funny you mention that. My daughter and her husband just went to Vietnam (their second time there) for vacation. He speaks a decent bit of Vietnamese but was surprised to find that the accent up north was so different he couldn't understand anything that was being said.

Just received their book on RAF Tomahawk / Kittyhawks. Very impressed - lots of pics I’ve never seen before, geared toward the modeler, and well done color profiles. Received my book here in the US within a couple of weeks of ordering from the U.K. and best of all, it was very favorably priced. Worth checking out guys. https://wingleader.co.uk/shop/

Very impressive build, I’ve enjoyed following along.

I’m still in shock that Kotare didn’t deliver on this. Would have been a license to print money. Thought about trying to scratchbuild a D into a K but that’s simply overwhelming. Maybe by the time I finish gluing 10,000 microscopic solder balls onto this model, someone else will have stepped up. Let’s all keep our fingers crossed.

I'm calling the interior pretty much done. Mounted the crew chief seats to the brackets on the ceiling, I'll install the legs and support wires once the seats are fully in place. These fittings are pretty fragile, hope these seats stay secured! Also repainted the crew helmets in Helo Drab (my original color was off), repainted the pilot's seatbelts as well. They got repainted in a darker shade; this was pointed out by an Ex-Army Hawk pilot over on FB. Lastly, I added another helmet to the co-pilot's seat. Next up will be the most challenging phase of the build, glueing the interior subassembly together and getting it to fit between the fuselage halves. Some initial dry fitting shows I've got some trimming / sanding to do here. Wish me luck! I've also got a decision to make regarding surface detailing. The kit is covered with recessed "divots", in contrast, the real thing has very pronounced raised rivets. On FB I saw a guy using tiny "solder balls" to fill in every divot. The final effect looked awesome. I'm trying to decide if I'm crazy enough to go this route or just bit the bullet and keep things as they are! My order of 10,000 .030mm solder balls just arrived from Amazon....

Ah.. my bad, I was thinking of the ones mounted higher up. Speaking of towing, seems that many A3's in the field are also fitted with massive clevises (not sure on the terminology). Note also the slitted mud flaps. Don't recall seeing those on earlier M1's (but may be wrong). Keep up the great work!

For the A3, the rear tow points just have a single opening and are also much thicker than the earlier versions.

Elvis is everywhere.

RLM 83.

I just want to congratulate all of us for not turning this thread into another wishlist. Well done lads!

Which made it the perfect candidate to replace the Skyraider in the Sandy SAR role. The A-7D truly gets no love. I can’t think of a single book that focuses on its role in Vietnam. it really was a pioneering jet, first one with a HUD.

Tamiya hooked me up the same a few years back. I made it clear that I lost the part, it wasn’t a defect with their kit and they still insisted on sending it out to me free of charge. Great customer service.

I bought a pack of cheap artist pastels at Michael’s (a US based art supply chain). $9 investment gave me a lifetime supply. Just use an xacto knife to scape the pastel onto some paper and apply the powder with an old paintbrush. So much better than using paint and if I don’t like the effect, I just wipe it off and try again.

Back with an update. Work progresses on the interior. My planned subject is a Blackhawk making a routine supply run to a remote FOB, flying out a few grunts and some of their gear. Nothing glamorous but it was a critical mission that UH-60's performed in Iraq, made even more important as the threat from IED's made road travel extremely hazardous. I've loaded up the cargo compartment with a bunch of gear, the theory being that this 'Hawk was just waiting for the crew and grunts to get in, before being cranked up for yet another mission. I put a lot of thought into the layout of the cabin. In speaking with a couple of folks on FB who were Blackhawk Crew Chiefs during OIF, they said that often times, they pulled all the seats out (except for their two seats) and strapped down any cargo with ratchet straps. Cargo nets weren't used very often because the rotor wash could get them tangled and they became more trouble than they were worth. Sometimes they left the aft 4 troop seats in place (as I did), sometimes they pulled those seats as well and the grunts just sat on the floor (major safety violation in peacetime but during combat, the need for seats and seatbelts were waived). The standard (peacetime) seating layout for a Blackhawk included an aft-facing seat mounted between the two crew chief's seats. The guys on FB said this seat was nearly always removed so they could store more of their gear on the floor. The only time it was used was if an Instructor Pilot was doing a checkride with the crew, in those cases, they would turn the seat around so the IP could face forward As soon as the flight was over, they pulled the seat out again. Anyway, enough Blackhawk trivia for today. I had a hard time finding applicable gear for the cabin. Finally stumbled upon a set by Meng that did the job. I was mainly interested in the rucks and the "Pelican" cases that are commonly used by the US military these days. Next up were some of Reedoak's amazing helmet bags (2 closed and one partially open) and a HGU-56 flight crew helmet. This stuff is amazingly detailed, the only downside is the cost. Lastly, I added a few water cans, ammo boxes and other odds and ends. The ratchets were from an aftermarket resin set, the straps themselves were lead foil from a wine bottle. I'm generally happy with how things came out. Painting the ACU camouflage was a pain. I did the best I could, knowing that the stuff wasn't going to be super visible once the fuselage was sealed up. Here's a real-life ruck in ACU camo pattern. Regarding colors - note that the color in the pics I posted above is a bit off. The lighting I used makes everything look lighter and glossier. You will have to trust me on this one. So that's were things currently stand. Any suggestions, comments, etc are always appreciated.

Great footage. It's stuff like this that gets me thinking about my next subject for a build. Interesting seeing those A-7's with ECM pods on the outer pylons. I don't recall ever seeing that before. Thanks for posting!

For the average model builder (or someone new to the hobby) - yes, absolutely.

If the business model is to maximize profits with every release, I'd suggest the answer to that is a firm no. Time will tell. I'd love to see Kotare occasionally throw out an oddball subject but first, they need to address the "cool" subjects, many of which still haven't been done to today's level of quality.

It's impossible for this thread to become anything but a wish list. That being said, the only takeaway I can offer from the subjects Kotare has released so far is that they are not going to make the mistake that WNW did and go for obscure subjects that are picked because they please the owner (and the Lysander (and even the T-6) falls squarely into that category). They are focused on the "cool" subjects that are going to sell. Think about the 32nd product line that Revell offered up back in the early 70's. That's what I expect from Kotare moving forward.

Both. My books are invaluable but I’m finding some truly amazing info (especially on more modern subjects) on social media.

Fixed it for you. But your point about the Hellcat is spot on. Honestly, if I could only pick one subject that would be done to today's current standards, it would be the F6F-5. It's that significant of an aircraft (numbers produced and it's exploits) and current options are that lacking. Aside from that, (and not intending to take this thread into yet another wish list direction), an F-86 done to their standards would be amazing.

Unless someone has some high quality color pics of this aircraft, I’d be bit skeptical of the primer red tail section and the weird cowling paint work.

Crushed that they didn’t take the smart route and release a P-51K, the outrage on social media about this blunder is deafening. That said, I love late war Luftwaffe subjects. The aftermarket decal folks should have fun with this one (although since the K was built on standardized production lines, you don’t see quite as many wild schemes as you would with rebuilt G-14’s and G-10’s).

I was an Army Grunt in an earlier life. They gave us ear plugs but the only time I saw anyone use them was on the range (and even then, it wasn’t common). For live fire “ tactical” exercises, we never wore them. I’ve got degraded hearing and am 100% certain that my stupidity was the cause of this.

Any idea if the Aussie V3's will have the same two-color (Chocolate Brown / Green) scheme that's showing up on US tanks?

How’s this build going?