Marius Thank you for the appreciation, I am really flattered.
Regarding the GBU-8s, yes, they were certainly used in the Vietnam War, but NOT on the F-4Es back then. The GBU-8 was used in combat in the early 1969 for the first time. In Vietnam it was only a small number of F-4Ds from the 25th TFS that dropped the GBU-8.
Initially they used the rear cockpit radar scope, but ended up adding small TV sets to the rear cockpit to get better results. The TV screen was fixed on the right-side console of the WSO in not the most comfortable position. The WSO had to shield the screen with one hand against sun light and try to lock the target with the other. They used directly the bomb's seeker head for broadcasting the image in the cockpit. So no other external devices retrofitted on the aircraft were necessary. For target locking, the aircraft had to be more or less aligned with the target in boresight mode. For improving the locking and image contrast, the usual ECM pods had to me removed from the forward AIM Sparrow wells (as seen here in my Israeli F-4E) and fixed under a TER from under the wings pylons. This measure would have offered a more constant ambient lightning to the GBU-8 seeker and reduce optical interference. Other tricks and small changes further improved their performance in Vietnam.
Also Israel received from the US some GBU-8s for the first time during the famous emergency resupply mission of mid-October 1973 (Operation "Nickel Grass"). This new weapon could be launched from the already modified F-4Es freshly supplied from the USAF inventory. The GBU-8s were used for the first time by Israel in the October 1973 War after only a few days since delivery with just minimum instructions and familiarization. The very first practice flight was the combat mission itself.
Indeed, the Finemolds kit does not include any weapons, but the selection of equipment for the F-4 Phantom is so big, you can not include them in the kit without doubling the price.
@Bhm Dhn: I am personally very careful with applying camo over pre-shading by using a 0.2mm airbrush nozzle and starting with the camo edges until they are solid enough. This time I just messed up the colours and had to redo everything. Here is one other recent example where things went well: F-4E - Israel - 1973 | Album by Redicus (1:72)
Marius @Vintagemodeler: sure, you ca go to someone's page/profile and there is this button called "actions" close to the profile picture. There you can choose to "follow" or become "mates". If you are following someone, a list of those users will appear on your page and you can check them from time to time. I am also checking from time to time the modellers I am following. I don't know if there is any way to get notifications when some of your mates are posting something.
Marius Danke fürs Photo! Sind es normalerweise viele Besucher? Sonst habe ich den Eindruck vom Bild, dass einige Leute sogar was verkaufen?
14 January, 11:30
bughunter Besucher geht so, je nach Zeit. Mir geht es eher um das Treffen mit den anderen Modellbauerm.
Und ja, man kann sich auch als Verkäufer anmelden, kostet etwas. Es gibt ein paar Händer, Bücher etc.
It's not perfect, could have been a bit better here and there.
Clement: I also have the MiG-19PM from KP and I am planning to build it too. For the Soviet MiG-19S, there are only extremely few colorful schemes you can make, since most of them were in NMF. The Chinese copy, the Shenyang J-6 had a couple of interesting camouflage patterns in the PLAAF, Pakistani and after 1980 also in Egyptian service. I chose to do mine in a NMF in Vietnamese service: MiG-19S (Shenyang J-6) - Vietnam - 1972 | Album by Redicus (1:72)
Marius Thank you so much mates, highly appreciated! I think lightning and photography are quite important at the end. I am certainly not mastering this part.
Mike Siemers If your thinking of doing something other than one of the OOB options, I do believe that the Russian, Aussies, and maybe NZAF flew the "E's" also.
3 September 2023, 22:42
Marius Thank you Mike for the suggestion! The USSR had close to all P-40 variants in service and I am planing to build at least 2 such models. I am also planing one RNZAF and two more USAF P-40s. It's only the RAF ones I am finding a little dull.
Marius This appears to be the first announced kit of this new company.
I am personally interessted im the Romanian version, where some small differences are known to exist with respect to the early Orao version (instrument panel for example).
Marius
7+
Erik Leijdens
8+
3+
Thomas Kolb
Roden 1:72
7+
6+
5+
Michael Kohl
Ergolding
bughunter
5+
10+
6+
Andy Ball
Mike Siemers
8+
1+
