Oldbaldguy

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?

Well. I stand corrected. A little light reading over my coffee this morning revealed that the stripped-down RB-36 did operate at 50K over Russia with impunity and could go as high as 55K for short periods. Of course, the heavier nuke-laden bomber versions had to operate at lower altitudes and would have been much easier targets, so I was only half wrong.

A radial engined prop job routinely operating above 50K for long periods of time is a little hard to believe. I guess with the four jets and max boost it’s possible, but with a service ceiling of less than 45K for the J models, seems like a bit of a stretch.

Easily my favorite non USN biplane ever. This should be grand.

If I remember correctly, we ended up with these lumbering, gigantic things (none of which would likely have made it to their Soviet bloc targets before being shot down if the balloon went up) mainly through political intervention. Northrop’s flying wing was rapidly expanding the technology envelope of the day and was nearing serial production when it was beaten to the ground by congressional self-interest and cancelled. The B-36 was big and had long legs, but it was still a WW2 era bomber, meaning it’s technology was already two or three decades old and no match for pissed off Mig pilots defending the mother land. There is no way of knowing, but one has to wonder where we would be today technologically had the B-2 blood line graced SAC ramps in the 1950s instead of bombers designed to fight a previous war instead of the next one.

Dents: Non issue. All metal airplanes have ‘em here and there. Nature of the beast.

A guy I worked with in my NORAD days was a missileer with SAC until he turned up mildly dyslexic. He talked about being “SACumcised” and had the appropriate flight suit patch to back it up. The nuke alert mission in SAC was tough on all involved across the board.

Wonder what percentage of the population (not including people like us) are aware this thing ever existed?

The only constant is that there are no constants in Naval Aviation.

Not one for boats, but this is really nice. Nice build, nice water, nice figures, nice wear and tear. Just nice all over.

Lookit all the auto manufacturers involved in aviation over the years: Ford, GM, Bugatti, Alfa Romeo, Rolls Royce, Benz, Mercedes, Volkswagen, Honda, Mitsubishi, Kawasaki, Packard to name but a few.

Recanted

Gratifying to watch the Whale get some licks in even though they were probably pushing their luck that far down in the weeds. Another truly inspired Douglas design that ended up doing just about anything asked of it and then some. Still a bit of a lumbering beast, though.

Nope, you are correct. In the movie he was zapped while trying to play an electric violin in the bath and he’s Australian and a sympathetic character and I was trying for a play on words. Big leap, I’ll admit, but I thought I’d give it a go.

Holy cow! Yahoo Serious????

Skyraider, T-28, O-2, OV-10, OV-1, S-2, AT-37, probably others I can’t remember. Without question, manufacturers sometimes provided design specific stores pylons for ground clearance, W&B or other specific issues - none of which would apply here, BTW - but the shackles and other equipment inside the fairings are standard Milspec and often as not are supplied from the government’s big bucket of airplane stuff, so one pylon is going to look pretty much like any other in the same load class. Invaders sported underwing pylons during Korea, so it ain’t like On Mark was working from scratch.

We need one that goes to eleven.

Hunh. I would have thought they would have used standard US/NATO pylons rather than some in house design on the real thing - supply chain commonality and all that. If you are referring to the appearance of the kit pylons, wonder what the chances are that they are just as inaccurate as the rest of it.

And the question we’ve all been dying to ask: Do you think it will float?

Sorry, I got carried away above and missed what you were asking. You know that big fat silver thing at the bottom of your motor? Fed by and connected to the chin scoop on cowling? That’s where the cooler lives. Inside there. The drawing doesn’t show it, but that’s where it is. Fresh, cold air is rammed into the scoop, down the big duct, through the cooler and then out the door in the back. The door is adjustable from the cockpit so the pilot can control the oil temp. Pretty simple once you get it figured out. Is this going to be one of those forehead slapping moments?