USN Trainer markings etc.

[Dizzyfugu]

Testors/Modelmaster colors have disappeared from German LSHs and web shops since about a year, and you also do not get them as direct import anymore - even though this might be caused by customs limitations, since paints are considered "hazaradous stuff" around here. That' also the reason why you cannot find any Tamiya 2C putties anymore around here. 

[kitnut617]

The owner of the hobby shop I go to, told me that Testors/ModelMaster was bought by a European company who's intension was to sell it in Europe, but found out after the purchase was completed, that most of the contents of the paint were on the EU's list of banned substances. So instead of making it compliant, this company just chose to discontinue the whole line. The owner of the hobby shop told me he bought up as much of what he could and he has about two years supply (but that was around November last year), after that -- all gone --- He told me even the acrylics will be discontinued ---

[zenrat]

Thats a shame.  As far as I am aware no one else does the US automotive engine shades in hobby sized lots in enamel.

However, a bit of googling and I have found a supply of Testors in Queensland.  All the colours I want except for Hemi Orange.

[PR19_Kit]

With reference to this pic of a T-28 again



what's the significance of the '2G' and the '233' markings? I guess the '233' is the actual aircraft number but it doesn't look like the BuAerNo. under the tailplane.

So is the '2G' the flight number of VT-2?

[kitnut617]

You'll probably find the serial number under the tail plane is the real serial number, and the aircraft has been painted to represent another.

Like this one I saw at the 2013 Airdrie Airshow.

[PR19_Kit]

Oh right, so the 'last three' would be the '233' on the nose, wings and fin in normal use?

Yours has a Canadian civil reggie too, all the colours in all the sizes! 

[PR19_Kit]

This gets more and more confusing.

That tail code 2G on the T-28 pic that I posted was never issued as any sort of tailcode in the USN. If it was just G it may have applied to Training Air Wing 4, which was based at NAS Dallas for some time.

That wing included the training squadron VT-27, which is the unit code painted on the T-28 which Kitnut617 posted! But that aircraft has a D tailcode, which DID apply to NAS Dallas!

My brain hurts.

I think I'll just make some codes up and confuse the JMNs, just as I am................ 

[kitnut617]

What is the serial under the tail on the aircraft you posted Kit ? I can't quite make it out.

[PR19_Kit]

138157 on the larger copy I have filed.

[kitnut617]

From Joe Baugher's USN/Marine Corp serial numbers page

138157 (MSN 200-228) Assigned to VT-2, NAS Whiting Field, FL [code 2G-233]
               Assigned to VA-122, NAS Lemoore, CA [code NJ-298]
               Transferred to USAF 4Jun71
               To NAS Pensacola, FL. SOC 11Dec71.  Converted to T-28D-10, line number 449
               To Royal Thai Air Force as JF13-113/15. SOC 14Aug84
               Preserved and on display at the RTAF Academy, Don Mueang, Bangkok

[PR19_Kit]

How odd, that 2G doesn't appear anywhere. In fact there aren't ANY codes with numbers in them. 

But there's another pic of VT-2 T-28s from NAS Whiting Field on the station's Wikip page, and they have 2G codes too!



I give up, it makes no sense at all, so I'll invent some codes.

[kitnut617]

Your photo must have been taken when it was in service with the USN then ---

[PR19_Kit]

It seems so, yes.

[PR19_Kit]

Another problem is the serial for the Double Pancake.

Unlike the RAF's serials there are almost no 'blank out' batches in the BuAer lists, in over an hour and a half of searching I've found TWO unused serials! I'm going to resort to the age-old method of using a cancelled contract number in the right historical period. 

[kitnut617]

There's an interesting article in the 2020 Spring issue of Air-Britain's Aviation World Kit, it's all about the British Serial Numbers and why there's gaps in them. It was all to do with deceiving the enemy about just how many aircraft the UK had. The 'black-out' gaps were made to be inconsistently spaced, with no two blocks of serials having the same amount of numbers in them and also irregular groups of numbers in any of those blocks so no pattern could be worked out.

And apparently, as revealed in recent declassified documents, it was found that nowhere in any document were these gaps referred to as 'black-out blocks', they were called 'broken blocks'