Captured aircraft

[tigercat2]

Not exactly captured aircraft, but what if the USAF flew the F-18 (or more likely, a beefed up F-17).  Nice looking birds, decals cobbled from the spares box.


Wes W.

[Captain Canada]

Sweet !

Love the look of the red-tailed bird.........Mmm, ADC gray !

 

[Keith Diamond]

great models   Is this based on the Testors 1/48 kit?  I"m guessing so because one is a family model and the other is a single seater.
I was considering do a similar idea in the past, but I didn't want to deal with some of the modificatoins I had in mind for the USAF version, especially considering the differing landing gear on a F-17.

[tigercat2]

Thanks for the complements.  Both are 1/72 (the only scale I do)  The grey bird with the proud red tails is an Italeri kit, buildable as either an A or B, and the black bird is an old MPC kit of one of the F-18 prototypes - I picked it up both kits at a swap meet for about $1.00 each.  

I know I should have modified the landing gear, but lack the skill/parts to do this.  I could have sprung for the Anigrand F-17 resin, but had these two kits laying around, and they look "good enough".



Wes W.

[elmayerle]

Hmm, the MPC kit of the prototype, is that one with the slots still between the LERX and the fuselage as they were originally?  I've been thinking one of those original kits could be a good starting place for a production F-17.

[Captain Canada]

I know I should have modified the landing gear, but lack the skill/parts to do this. 

Why bother ? In battle, who knows when it will be prudent to launch/ recover USAF a/c aboard carriers !

Besides, it also offers a CAT capablility if a bunch of crazy canucks bomb your airfield ! Seems to me, that all fighters doing QRA duty should have been so equiped !

[Ollie]

Oh, you can hang a plow on the cat bar, so when the plower is not starting, the F-18 can plow the runway!

Now that would be interesting!

 :dum: