Oldbaldguy

I really like the paint job on these airplanes, including the An-225. Can’t imagine the planning that goes into painting something as big as these things are in something besides a military scheme.

Okay, let me see if I understand what I just read: The cut line in Dana’s book says there was a decal on the big oil tanks that said to limit the tank to 20 gallons of oil (even though it would hold more) unless the airplane was carrying a full drop tank at which point you could fill the bigger oil tank to the top - more gas equaling more time in the air. That is confusing because I assume you could fly the airplane safely with the bigger tank topped off if you wanted to without breaking the CG envelope. If that were true, then that means the increased oil capacity came about because that big P&W burned or dumped so much oil per hour that you would be running dangerously low on oil after flying the additional hours provided by the drop tank if you were limited to only the original twenty gallon oil tank. If you weren’t carrying additional fuel, then you didn’t need to haul around all that extra oil because twenty gallons was plenty enough to cover a flight on internal fuel only, thereby saving weight that could be allotted to something else, I guess. Does that make sense or have I just confused myself?

Looks a lot like a stock A.E.R.O shackle and pylon but your mileage may vary.

Good point. Flying it out likely would have been the only way to save it. Being one of a kind, I suspect the thing was a maintenance hog so it may not have been flyable at the time.

And I’ll bet if someone had taken you there blindfolded you still would have known exactly where you were.

Ah, burritos! Quickest way known to man to evacuate a skydiving jump plane.

The usual on-line sources show the Ukraine Air Force order of battle to be pretty scant across the board with minimal funding and improvement over the years. Apparently their fighter force is limited to a relative handful of aging Mig-29s and older SU-27s. Like most Soviet bloc countries, they are fairly well equipped with older but still effective ground based air defense systems. Looks like Russia is using airborne troops to take key objectives and it should be obvious to all that a big jet on jump run makes an easy target even for an older AD system, so their claim of downing one or two is very plausible. I’m hard pressed to believe their other claims of Russian kills, however. Does anyone honestly think Russian fighter pilots are so mediocre that they consistently lose a fight with older, less able equipment? And where are the vids of crashed Russian jets, captured Russian pilots and Ukrainian gun camera footage? I certainly haven’t seen any. Old habits die hard. Propaganda was viable in the old Soviet Union era, but in today’s world of instant communication where everyone has a phone with a decent camera in it, not so much. If, by now, Ukraine still has a viable Air Force, then the Russians missed the lessons-learned memo.

Are the smaller cans the same type you often see used on Navy airplanes with flexible guns in the early days of the war like the Dauntless and PBY?

Whatever it is, not sure it will fly. Got some nifty artwork on the flying bridge, however.

So do we know for certain that the shoot down vid is a fake? Because I promise you there is a lot of old Soviet style propaganda stuff going on on both sides. Most of the claims I’m reading beggar the imagination.

Well, since most poop floats…….

I know what a Ford Fusion is, but other than that, I have no idea what you just said. Never in my life imagined scale modeling would evolve to this level.

Center section? It’s just plastic and another solvable problem to wrap your skills around. Grit your teeth, hunker down and skin it! Think of how much fun we’re going to have watching you do it. And you could build up fabric covered surfaces instead of the plastic ones and make a bunch of little bullets for the guns and……..

Not likely Vought had the same wrinkly edge problems you’re having with these compound curve panels. Where you have to beat your panels into submission on the model, the 1:1 panels would have been preformed in dies and a perfect fit, needing only to be clecoed then riveted. You are having to build a Corsair the hard way, which makes the model even more incredible.

Hunh. Wonder why the thing had two skid balls in the panel?

Oh, man! Talk about a snake-bit project. Don’t bin it; every part of this is a learning process and it all will eventually fall into place.

You know, an awful lot of the public thinks fighter pilots in combat fling themselves around the sky for hours without regard to anything until one guy starts trailing smoke and the other guy goes home. Few are aware that fighter pilots must have a working knowledge of physics, be able to constantly recalculate, be an expert at energy management, systems management, resource management and situational awareness, endure constantly changing G loads, possess unique tactical skills and a working knowledge of the other guy’s capabilities, make instant judgement calls and endure just plain hard, sweaty work and a million other things that are all crammed into a couple of minutes of 3D pandemonium and mayhem while working through the very human need to protect your own ass. Many people on this site, for example, have a pretty fair grasp of aviating, but how many understand what it means to “work in the vertical” or why it was necessary or how it’s done? Or something as simple as how much their own head weighs in a 5G turn? Not many, I’ll bet.

Anyone who has haunted this site for more than a couple of days knows that it is populated by modelers who are driven to go the extra mile in their search for authenticity. We will happily argue for hours about the correct shades of various colors of some widget hidden behind a forgotten panel on an airplane none of us have ever seen or maybe get downright short with each other over the number of rivets in the wing of one version of a favorite airplane over a later version. All in good but sometimes teeth grinding fun and, well, we’ve all seen the resulting mind numbing realism captured in builds by any number of our more anal members. But, as good and as accurate as some of builders are, there is one very important thing about every airplane ever built that can never, ever be duplicated in any scale. Ever. And that is smell. Pretty much every airplane has a distinct aroma about it that is most noticeable in the cockpit. Never had a car greet my nose when I opened a door the way a well-used airplane will when you crack the canopy, open the door or settle into an open cockpit. Even my glider did it. Can’t explain it, but any aircrew will know what I’m talking about. Cockpit smell is a unique and tangible part of any airplane but something that I think will elude even the most talented builder forever.

Ah. The three primary points of contact: Feet, butt, head.

Very happy to see your youngster at least is not a leg, but why did he choose not aviate like his dad?

“Looking right” is absolutely the best way to go. It was my experience that all the surface detail was visible when the airplane was naked, but it all just sort of disappeared under a coat of paint. It may have been that the airplane was so smooth and slick that nothing really stood out, or maybe it was just so gorgeous overall that it was hard to make yourself look for the piddly stuff.

Gear up? There are those who have no those who will.

Since the insignia blue you painted on is a bit bright, I think I would do a bit of sanding and repainting, then go in search of some quality national insignia decals that are the right color. Heck, they are decals on many of the 1:1 jets, so why not? You know you are making me want to drag my ancient F-4 out from under the bench, right?

Wow! This is going to be easily the best Viggie extant, bar none. Big question now is: What squadron colors does it get? There are a plethora of options.

Sorry, I’ve lost the bubble on the cockpit seats - do the seat bottoms fold up for access from the cabin or for some other reason?