paul fisher

Hi , Life raft is included in the kit, no worries, and yes, the decals arrived yesterday afternoon and I am working on finishing up the model and the instructions today....Gonna be a long weekend!

Here's a pic of the life raft tucked under the front of a 300 gallon drop tank, and the two color schemes provided with the kit.

I was told by someone who should know that it was planned, right after the T.7 which didn't happen for unpleasant reasons. Sigh. What a kit they would have done!

Good morning! Like the man says, it all depends on which one you want to build, I think the F.6 was re-released not too long ago so it may be easier to find. I still recall first seeing the FGA.9 kit at the IPMS Nats in Santa Clara in 1998 and realizing 1/32 was about to take off. A great kit that holds up quite well even today.If only they had done the Lightning!

The standard load for an A-1E in Vietnam was a spare wheel and tire strapped down in the aft cabin, a toolkit and a set of sparkplugs. The utility ships could have four seats in the back, two facing aft and two facing forwards, or all four facing aft.or any sort of load that would fit and could be strapped in properly.Utility ships also did target towing duty with a winch and reel slung under the belly in a cool looking fairing. I may do some masks for a utility ship , there was going to be a decal for that and some other planes but we had to cancel it due to lack of interest.The Navy AD-5 just didn't take off and sell like the Air Force kit did.Anybody that wants a VU-1 Utility ship shoot me a PM , I can get Montex to do them if I get enough guys to cover the costs. As for the AD-5Q / EA-1F elint ship I'd love to do it, but it requires en entirely new aft cabin set up , underwing pods, fuselage radomes and decals, all expensive stuff to do and I have to wonder what sales would be like.Might be surprised, as the Guppy is doing well , but I have to be careful not to let my enthusiasm for the subject outrun my bank account! best, paul

Thanks for the encouragement guys...Switched my BP medication and the hand tremors have subsided a lot, makes using the airbrush a pleasure again. As for the dark blue Guppy, you bet......They were all GSB until 56/57 and the kit has decals for a ship in GSB as well. I may do some masks for the utility paint job for the AD-5, pretty simple and I love that color scheme too.

Thanks Mike....The Guppy does not have a belly dive brake at all, they modified the well into an access hatch for a bunch of electronics in the fuselage behind the cabin. I'm loving that fluorescent AD-5 you're building!

More progress on my Guppy...I have made up the little life raft commonly carried under the port wing and gotten the big radome and landing gear installed. I snitched an older style drop tank from a Tamiya Corsair as many pics of the AD-5W show them carrying one on the right hand pylon to add a little help with the torque from the 3350. Exhaust stains differ a wee bit from a standard AD-5, it seems the belly radome created it's own local air flow pattern.Also, note the oil cooler doors are slightly recessed when close and so they don't catch as much of the exhaust stains as the surrounding skin... More soon! paul

So, in and amongst my casting and mold making i have made up a master for the funky ship made life raft seen on the Guppy depicted on the kit decals.Near as i can tell the fairing is red, with a yellow tip, and pretty beat up.The raft folded up and strapped into it is most likely yellow, and the straps black. This hangs on the main pylon on the port wing as seen in the picture of the real airplane...

Love this .....I keep thinking about migrating to 1/32 for the Schneider racers, but I have them all in the old Atelier NOIX kits in 1/48...kinda hard to make the leap!

Firefly Mk 5 for starters, may work up the earlier one later .......I thought HpH had a Wyvern in the pipeline? Hmm.

Not yet! The lady is not ready for her close-up! Soon as i can really put some time into it and some primer .

Still have one in that box on the wall next to an equally ancient Frog Sea Fury and Aurora Cutlass....Some of the touchstones of my childhood that still keep me going today.

We used to be deep into it too.....Had three tanks in the house , it was far better than watching TV! As the kids grew up and moved out we slowly gave all of our fishtanks and fishies to some friends who were even crazier about keeping fish than us. My favorite little clown Pleco died on me and it was like losing a family member and I sort of lost my interest after that.Odd how attached you can get to a fish! Anyway, it is truly a great hobby, and well suited to a relaxing hour or two.Also, they always seem to agree with you when you talk to them.

You can count on it!