Canute
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Everything posted by Canute
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Lou, we had 4 F-4 bases in Thailand, plus a number in South Viet Nam (SVN). When I got there, the bases in SVN were mostly refuel and rearm spots for we Thai based F-4s. We didn't always have tanker support for these missions in the south. I stopped in 2 others bases in Thailand. Since I lived at Korat, our nearest divert base for weather or other issues (a/c closing the runway) was Ta Khli, north of Bangkok. The other base I stopped in was Ubon, a ways east of Korat, in the corner of Laos and Cambodia. Never went to Udorn, Nakon Phanom (Naked Fanny), and Nam Phong, a USMC base between Korat and Udorn. No travelogs about these. I did get to take an F-4 to Taiwan, where our depot was. We passed thru Clark AB in the Philippines to get there. -
No, Lou, we used Yankee dollars on base. The Thai currency was the baht and they were 20 to our dollar. If we went off base we had to use baht. I forget how we paid for food when we'd land at Da Nang and Bien Hoa, in South Viet Nam. Gas, rearm and grab a bean at the flight line snack bars (well, that's stretching it, but they weren't mess halls either). Da Nang's was the "No Hab". They had a posted menu for us aircrew, but almost everything we ordered got the answer "no hab", (no have in pidgin English). One time I got a BLT (that's bacon, lettuce, tomato) sandwich, less the lettuce and tomato. That was typical. The cook did load it up with bacon. AAAH.😀 Mark, 🤣, What a piece of S***. That clown was supremely ate up.
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Cool, the Chiefs. I was attached to that squadron back in days of yore when they flew Phantoms.
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OC, as long as you're not drooling into the box, should be OK. I've been know to open a box and ogle the parts, too. We had hooch girls to clean rooms and do laundry and boots. And for the same reasons as Lou. They all could have passed for your Grandma. Interesting stuff they'd heat up for breakfast. Oh, yeah, we were buying new undershorts every month. The "girls" cleaned them with steel brushes. Where they helped was getting fresh fruit downtown. We'd go and spend big bucks for pineapple, papaya and the rest. And wind up with a small bowl of goodies. Give mama-san $2 US and they'd fill the hooch refrigerator with fresh fruit. Go figure.
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Lou, I think we read your log loud and clear. Some of us just proof read and edit stuff better than others. I have a Ranger buddy of our vintage and his writing sometimes comes out scrambled. So what, I get the gist of what he's saying. I also know high priced engineers with the same issues. They're better when we talk face to face. Don't know what to say about the after market resin. Some of our guys tout Scalemates. This is their page for 1/35 UH-1: https://www.scalemates.com/search.php?fkSECTION[]=All&q=UH-1&fkSCALE[]="1:35" They do show a Viet Nam era door gunner for it, Lou.
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Lou, my brother, I agree with you. The good (relative) stuff is easy to remember; the bad we buried, deep. Hence, we don't like to dredge it up. You're right about long term relations from a 1 year tour, not many remain. However, being a career officer, I did forge some long lasting relationships. Have a buddy from Germany (73-76) living across town right now. We who went were altered by the experiences for good or bad. I feel we mostly grew up. My gripe was, after being sent off to save the world from whatever, nobody ever said thanks for stressing us out in doing the work. Ever since LBJ and his successors.
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Yep, we hung our hats on the precision bombing idea and the Norden bombsight. It was a wonderful early computer, but the levels of training weren't quite there. And we didn't understand the affects of the jet stream in the upper atmosphere. That's why LeMay went low (8,000 ft) over Japan. The jet stream played havoc with the bombs and accuracy was atrocious. Preciion didn't become real intil we developed laser and TV guided weapons.
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Usually the unit CO and a chaplain went out from active duty bases. Even in my Guard unit, if a guy lived close, we did it. Very tough duty.
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Airfoil shaped one is an angle of attack probe (lower one), not sure on the other. Maybe pitot tube?
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My first airbrush compressor was a pump without a tank. The pulsed air-stream affected how the spray did it's job. A tank to even out this pulsing would be better. You might pick up a tank at a big box hardware store without a compressor. Get it filled with air or better yet, dry nitrogen, and you may be able to do multiple sessions with that tank. The dry gas is better so you don't get water into whatever paint you're spraying.
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Well, you can still do research. Never can have too much.
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They were able to down a percentage. I don't have a number for you. That's why the big push to get the Mustangs out to do long range escort.
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Lou, ya think? I think aviators get short shrift at times. But, I'm biased that way too.
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Like Jack says, EPA pushed Testors, who bought Floquil, to pull it from the market. The Testors MBAs said nobody paints models with Floquil anymore (?). Floquil was a brand I think started as a lacquer on figures. Model railroaders started using it and it it was great paint. Testors got it and turned it into an enamel, before they killed it. 😞
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Be vewwy, vewwy careful.
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The kit fuselage has the opening for the chin turret already. That turret was a G model signature, as was the Cheyenne tail gun setup. Apparently, the last run of F models had the turrets, but if you want a tail number.... , A few F's were converted to YB-40 as long range escorts before the superb Mustang came on the scene and these also had chin turrets. See wiki: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boeing_B-17_Flying_Fortress Maybe a heavily gunned YB-40?
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Really like your engine detailing there, Craig. Nicely done.
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Denis, that's why Floquil was well liked. Fine pigment. Sure, you can use the dollar paints from a craft store and I do on structures and scenery. But for models that folks are going to study (thanks to hi-rez cameras and computer monitors), I'd like a paint blended for those models. Airbrushes do give finer coats, but not all of us are situated to set up a spray booth for any formulation of paint. Whether it's space available, solvent or lacquer and availability is also a factor. Thinning your brush paints like you suggest works very well. Oil paints are good for weathering. I've seen some master work done with oils.
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I remember looking at the blimps going in and out of Lakehurst when we went to the Jersey shore when I was a little guy. What did they cruise at. They looked slow. I think we passed them if they were paralleling the Garden State Parkway (newly opened back then in the mid 50s).
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Nothing there, Lou. No stress. It's like when you hear a certain tune on the radio/CD/mp3/streaming device and good memories pop into your noggin. I hear American Pie and think about me and my frontseater bugging the local base restaurant at Korat about the water buffalo steaks we were eating that they claimed was Kobe beef. Too chewy, by far. I lost him way too soon, although it was almost 10 years later. Peacetime flying accident. Overloaded airplane, underpowered airplane. Don't worry guys, I'm OK; that story has a thick scar over it. I did get film from Uncle Sam's photo guys to shoot slides while on missions. We had a "deal". Capeesh, Lou We couldn't let a combat photographer get in harm's way, you know. The film guys kept what they wanted and we got the rest. Sometimes half a roll of film might be shot on a tour of the water markets in Bangkok. Our standing joke was if we were shot down, we'd pull out the camera and swear we were just taking pictures, not combatants. 😁 Those dirigible hangars are a sight, Lou. You'd be wowed. Unknown if any still exist on the West Coast. Sorry I hijacked your log, Mark. Forgive me, brother.
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Flashback with the paddy picture. NAS Lakehurst, in New Jersey, has a pair of those monster hangars. They train the Navy deck handlers in one of them, I was told. And you know of the history with the zepplin there.
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Yeah, bad luck with the decals. Luckily, it's a popular kit with lots of them available. Paint job is superb, Craig.
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I went to an engineering school. In 69-70, I had a class with an antiwar activist type (he spent the first 5 minutes of every class talking about stuff he was doing in that area). I had to attend my Wednesday morning class in uniform, since it was our weekly ROTC drill session right after this class. The first few weeks with this guy were frosty. At mid-term, I had a C. How much he influenced that I don't know. Anyway, we did an all-nighter, at my fraternity house, gathering assorted problems for our notebooks. Engineering school = open book finals. Should be easy? Nope, took all 4 allotted hours to do the final, burning up my slide rule. I must have aced the final, because my final grade was an A. I didn't get a welcome home from anyone outside my family until the mid 80s. A lot of misguided folks believed the propaganda being spewed in the 60-70s. Still a bit of a sore subject for me. Anyway, enough hijacking Lou's build.
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Mark, primer on plastic, especially with using modeling putty. The putty sucks up paint; primer helps. And if you want to paint yellow or red, you must prime. They're translucent, so you need white or light gray underneath. Follow CDW, Popeye and others work on plastic.
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Lou, check this link. Michael has a lot on these pages. https://www.cybermodeler.com/aircraft/h-1/h-1_all.shtml Yeah, my return to the Big BX was not too shiny. Told to stash the uniforms before we left Travis AFB, Cal. Got spit at by the yokels in San Francisco. Luckily, my relatives picked me up pretty quick and I went low profile for a while. When I got home to Jersey, I was pretty safe, since a lot of my relatives were vets, as were many guys on the block I grew up on. I went to Germany, the folks around our base were friendly and my squadron mates were great guys. The job was good, so I stayed.
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