bucklehead101

Gawd lololololololol that’s what I feared. Thanks for confirming it for me.

Hi all, long time since I’ve posted. First, I don’t know much about modding as the most I’ve done was trying to shoehorn LGBs off a F-100 and some minor skinning. Combatace in general has been the modding nest for flight sims on the internet. Probably the most talented group of individuals in existence who always shared what they knew to help others. There is a small group in DCS trying to bring to life the F-105D at a FC3 level of playability or greater. Is the WTR modding group still around? I know they had at one point created a new detailed F-105D, cockpit and had researched the Thud immensely. Seems they have pruned back their webpage including their contact information. At this point, research has begun and we’re looking for a 3D model or modeler. Pretty sure we could use some advice on it all.

I was never really a fan of the Hornet. Somehow it managed to replace or outlast all the "cool" planes on Navy decks. A-7, A-6, F-4, F-14. Now with the F-35 coming online, there is a strange attraction to buy and build them. The EA-18G and the Black Knights F/A-18F are from F-Toys and come pre-painted. All you need to do is glue them and decal them up. Every single other example here is a Dragon/DML kit. Unlike other manufacturers, DML tends to give you enough bombs, rockets, missiles and fuel tanks to fill every pylon and then leave you a few more to add to other kits. They tend to be fairly priced and easy to assemble as well. While the shapes might be off on some of their early production kits, they have improved immensely. Does it look like a Hornet as I lay on my bed and stare at them on my ceiling? Yes!

I happen to be out of town a lot. DML 1/144 EA-6B. This kit went together pretty well. Lots of extra parts for the EA-6A were included. I managed to save a AGM-45 and AGM-78 with additional pylons. Will have to re-use them for an F-4G build. This is the 1/144 JWings F-4D On the scale of 1-10 of paint and assembly, this is an 11. Its one of those pre-painted half decal kits that have been pouring out of Japan lately. Ended up gluing it together to hold it together. Put a little paint on the AIM-7s and AIM-9s. Applied remaining decals and it now suspends off my ceiling at home. Only issue was having to cut the doors to make them fit into the recesses. Little bit of white glue acted as a quick filler.

On trips out of town, I try to bring a kit or two, or three and work on them in the hotel room when Im not onsite doing network installations or surveys. I managed to complete these three 1/144 F-14As over a span of 3 days. The VF-114 kit is an Academy F-14A. Its an early F-14A with the small chin pod similar to the ones you'll see on the LS/Arii or early Revell kits. Decals are pretty sparse and I had to hand mix the orange paint and free hand the stripe on the nose. 4 AIM-7s are provided to mount in the tunnel. The second one is a Revell boxing of an F-14A. This kit, somehow managed to leave the factory with an F-15 canopy. I went ahead and ordered a vacuuform(sp?) canopy. This canopy was meant for the newer F-14A Revell kits and didnt fit real well. In my attempt to force it to my will, the knife went free, thrusting itself into my finger. How fitting as Forged in Fire was playing in the background. "That knife will cut" hahaha. A new chin pod was robbed from a D model DML kit, along with A model burner cans from the same D model kit. Decals were very nice. The only issue was the Wolfpack nose arrow printed wrong for one side. I had to cut the decal into several pieces and realign them to make it correct. I lost the weapons in the movement, and will get some soon! The third Tomcat is a DML/Dragon F-14A kit. It went together very well. Weapons include 2 AIM-9s, 2 AIM-7s and 2 AIM-54s. You even get little pilots to go inside it!

I was inspired by this thread and thought I'd take to air as a new 2LT with the 67th TFS flying F-15s over Dhimar. Got sidetracked by some heavy bombers. Launched an AIM-7 at one, killed it, lined up for a gun pass on a second one and then exploded. Nasty heater from the rear. After I cycle through some more single missions, I'll gear up for another deployment.

Dont know how many people are doing 1/144 kits, but from building F-4s in this scale since a young child, I have put the following together. In the realm of 1/144 F-4s, there isn’t a whole lot to choose from. There is the really old Otaki F-4B, which I think Arii reboxed early on. The kit in itself looks like an F-4. There aren’t many options for it however. 4 very skinny AIM-7s are provided. The canopy while it fits, isn’t the most accurate representation either. For the longest time, if you were looking for a short nose F-4B, this was the only game in town. I am aware of only one decal option ever being produced with this kit, a very basic VF-102 Diamondback. I want to say that Crown produced the next F-4, an E model. This kit generally looks ok, but it has a strange hump. Im not sure if its because the way the canopy comes up and meet the spine, and then meets the tail. Not inherently bad, just looks odd. Anyway, this kit comes with 3 bags of gas, sidewinders and sparrows. The current Minicraft offering is this kit.. Then there is the LS kit. A generally all around good looking kit. Its been reboxed by Lee Models, Aoshima, Heller, Arii, and AMT. Included in this kit are 2 bags of gas (no centerline), and two AIM-7s. LS did produce several 1/144 weapons kits, but they are getting ever increasingly hard to find. Ahhh, the Academy F-4E. This is the one you can find online for under $5 and at hobby lobby’s all over discounted for $2. Essentially the same kit as the LS. It has the same breakdown, same weapons, same gas tanks. The only difference I am aware of is the nose profile being a bit more slender, and the gun which has a weird "sugar scoop" profile. I’ve seen. Airfix, Revell and Hobbycraft have reboxed this kit. Again, its very similar to the LS kit. Recently, Platz models has put out some very nice Japanese F-4EJ Kai’s. They also recently released an F-4J that comes in a two pack. These are really nice kits complete with cockpits and pilots. Unfortunately, there are only wing tanks, no centerline. They provide the sidewinder rails as well, but no missiles. Below is a list of decal options I have personally seen. I know there are more out there. Minicraft: HO, Iceland ADC, JV, RAAF Heller: MI ANG Hobbycraft: OT, FC, UK Academy: FC, JV Revell: CR Airfix: RAAF Lee Models: OS LS: OS Arii: OS AMT: PN Otaki: VF-102 Platz: VF-84, VF-114, VMFA-451 Ok, so you’ve gathered up a squadrons worth of Academy F-4s from several arts and crafts stores in your town for under $20. You are not going to want to make 12 clones of the same bird. Luckily there are some decal options out there. Recently, there is a Vietnam Phantom decal sheet which is the downscale of a similar 1/72 sheet. You can find it on ebay. It comes with F-4C, D, E and RF along with a VF-111 option. Oh no! My historical correctness compulsiveness disease doesn’t allow me to simply apply short nose markings on a long nose kit! I’ve run into this problem, and contemplated grafting on a 1/72 F/A-18 fuel tank on the nose as someone else had. Used google to its maximum potential and ran across Liliput Air Force. http://www1.odn.ne.jp/citropen-cafe/liliput/index-e.html This guy makes resin parts for F-4s. I ordered a few of the RF-4 noses and short nose F-4 parts. He also sells centerline tanks and pods. The resin parts themselves are real nice. The short nose kits come with it ready for a J/S model, and have two different bulges you can attach to make a C or D (B or N I assume as well). While I havent used a short nose kit yet, the RF-4 nose seems to be designed for the LS kit. I have used it on an Academy kit, and its a few MM wider than the remaining nose section. A little bit of filler and sanding should fix it though. In addition to the F-4 parts, for sale are RF-8 conversion pieces, and a whole swath of decals. I am looking forward to using the 466th TFS F-105 decals. If you have any questions regarding 1/144th decals, I’ve been doing a whole lot of searching and would be happy to let you in on my findings.

Since finding work in the IT field, my addiction for computer based flight sims have gone down with the ever intense retina burn out gazing into monitors for countless hours a day. Getting married, moving out of moms basement, and moving into an apartment has made 1/144 the scale of choice currently. With a house purchase in the works, the 1/72 fleets may return. Until then, the 1/144 apartment scale grows. Completed these two earlier this month. CR is the old revell kit. ZF is the Lee models variant, which is very close if not identical to the old LS kit. About the F-4 kits in 1/144, there arent a whole lot of options even with almost half a dozen manufacturers and boxes. I have a few built and will get pictures up soon of the Phantom collection. On the bench in various forms of completion are Platz A-4E, Dragon A-6E, Academy F-4E (which has recently gotten a resin RF-4 nose job, an Arii F-4B, Arii F-100D, Dragon F-16C, Lee Models F-20 and Lee Models F-15A.

Cocas, it looks awesome. Air dominance is mine.