Grunticus

Can this one be made from the kit version?

"Experiments with new equipment continued throughout 1966. In March, smoke extractors were installed to remove fumes produced by the miniguns from the fuselage. By year’s end, more reliable General Electric MXU-470 miniguns began to arrive to replace most of the SUU-llA guns and all of the interim .30-caliber guns mounted in U.S. gunships. The new guns featured electric loading from a vertical drum that held an additional 500 rounds and required less space than did the SUU-llA." The tactical tail code system was introduced in 1968, so if both these facts are true, it is unlikely but depending on the period it took to completely replace the SUU-11s. I'll keep looking, as I find the subject interesting.

This one does, but it looks like a warbird to me (albeit before repaint).

No rant, just a nice picture. I never saw it before.

Please do keep stretching my patience. My fascination for these birds matches your's, my knowledge about them does not. The sand / brown / green IIAF Tomcat scheme is (to me) THE most sexy cammo scheme ever (that;s why I don't mind paining it several times ). That, and the NC-123K Blackspot's scheme which is also just.....wow.

Not at all a closed thread, and I find all this information very interesting and enytertaining. I don't just have a modeling interest in IIAF Tomcats, but just am very fond of them. I really appreciate this. So tanks CAN be fitted in Iran to IIAF / IRIAF Tomcats, whether it happened or not. I'll probably will not add them, but might as it just looks cool. Thanks for this!

That F-86 looks awesome! The 80s were such great times in so many ways....colorful aircraft, peace in the world (largely), many new kits from Esci with unheard of decal options, and last but not least decent music. All but the "new kits from xxx" are history now. But I guess I'm becoming an old fart and belong here

Thanks! Fit was not too good after all (see below). Yes you may be right. Mine will depict a Tomcat at or shortly after delivery, so it will not be very dirty, just lightly accentuated panel lines and some soot around the gun muzzle. After the glue dried it looked like this: It's not so obvious in the photos but there are steps on almost all joints, and as is visible in the lower photo above the indent did not line up on one side. So, out with the diamond files and sandpaper.... After round one we have this: The indent now aligns. Looks like it needs a tad more refining though. The area where the wing glove starts is especially delicate to work on. It needs more work. Also I would like to recommend this glue. I have no affiliation with the seller or manufacturer in any way. It liqifies styrene slightly more than Tamiya Extra Thin (regular), but also dries faster. These properties make it form strong bonds rather quickly, which often looks like a tiny weld and eliminate filling when sanded smooth. For may applications it's my favorite glue. Cheers!

Thank you! Yes, the paint did come out nicely. One nice property of MRP paints is that they can easily and completely removed with ethanol or IPA without attacking the plastic. So paint it once or ten times, the surface will be the same. Thanks! I used MRP 104 Light Grey, MRP 343 Dark Green, MRP 121 Middle Stone, and MRP 233 Special Brown.

Thanks for this! Do you know of any photos showing the reinforcement plates?

The painted nose. The yellow is oak with white mixed in. In some photos the radome seems to be pure white, but in other photos it's clearly light oak. I think they were in fact unpainted? This is the lip I added. When held in place with a rubber band the seam seems to be doable with minimal work. No glue in these photos yet. The indents do not line up 100%, just 99.5%. We'll see if I can blend that somehow. Cheers!

You made me check it again!! Thank you. I absolutely adore the IIAF paint scheme, not just for the Tomcat. Their Orions....pure flying art.

Now...where was I? Oh, yes...painting the wings (again). My preferred method of masking camouflage, many thanks to @Tolga ULGUR for sharing the perks of this great material with me (UHU Patafix). Now that this screw-up is out of the way, I'll turn my attention to joining the nose section to the fuselage. I am thinking about attaching the nose to the upper mid section first, and then attaching that to the lower fuselage assembly. I think this will greatly easy getting the top seam to fit in the best way, to avoid having to fill and sand the complex top side-curvature with the indent as much as possible. I've already glued a small polystyrene lip to the aft upper fuselage curvature to act as a rough attachment point that will somewhat help with / force an even seam. Oh, the wings will of course be detached again for this to ease handling. I have also already masked and painted the nose light-oak for the same reason. Pics will follow. Cheers!

"Slightly improved"....Understatement of the year