Gondor's Grumblings

[Gondor]

Love the F-4 and the AEW Gannet so I say 'go!' on both !

Oh I plan to, trying to keep the workbench from getting cluttered with too many builds at the moment though which unfortunately means that I end up with a backlog of ideas and part builds 

Gondor

[Thorvic]

Love the F-4 and the AEW Gannet so I say 'go!' on both !

Oh I plan to, trying to keep the workbench from getting cluttered with too many builds at the moment though which unfortunately means that I end up with a backlog of ideas and part builds 

Gondor

I know the feeling

[Gondor]

I am having thoughts of building an F-4L, should be simple enough depending on the date it's supposed to be modelled from which means it either will or will not have the ECM fitted to the air intakes, under the wings and to the fin top. Only thing that will give me some concern is modelling the under wing aerials. It will though depend as I said on the date and that would come from the decals I need, these would probably do nicely http://www.hannants.co.uk/product/X72160

Gondor

Really thinking that I should do a later variant of the F-4L with the AN/ALQ-126 DECM fit which means it has to be after 1969, (this was the introduction date for this fit to other versions of the F-4) this limits the operational window a little as the Essex class carriers were being phased out of service by the end 1976. This means that decal choice would have to be very careful indeed unless I used one of the options for a shore based aircraft from the decal sheet I mentioned earlier.

Gondor

[Captain Canada]

Unless you use the China Lake decals then it could be well past the 76 era as a test bird ?

[Thorvic]

I am having thoughts of building an F-4L, should be simple enough depending on the date it's supposed to be modelled from which means it either will or will not have the ECM fitted to the air intakes, under the wings and to the fin top. Only thing that will give me some concern is modelling the under wing aerials. It will though depend as I said on the date and that would come from the decals I need, these would probably do nicely http://www.hannants.co.uk/product/X72160

Gondor

Really thinking that I should do a later variant of the F-4L with the AN/ALQ-126 DECM fit which means it has to be after 1969, (this was the introduction date for this fit to other versions of the F-4) this limits the operational window a little as the Essex class carriers were being phased out of service by the end 1976. This means that decal choice would have to be very careful indeed unless I used one of the options for a shore based aircraft from the decal sheet I mentioned earlier.

Gondor

Don't forget they were phased out of service because the need reduced with Vietnam coming to an end but also because they didn't have a replacement for the Crusader that could operate from a modified Essex. A Phantom that could operate from the ships would have extended their usefulness into the 80s when the mix of super carriers and the new CVNs would have replaced them (The USN did look to bring some back into service in the Reagan era and his 600 ship navy but the aircraft issue scuppered that). Plus it would have allowed for more viable exports to allied navies (such as Australia to replace Melbourne as the ship would have already been converted, rather than paying for a ship to be converted as was offered back in 65 !).

[Gondor]

I am having thoughts of building an F-4L, should be simple enough depending on the date it's supposed to be modelled from which means it either will or will not have the ECM fitted to the air intakes, under the wings and to the fin top. Only thing that will give me some concern is modelling the under wing aerials. It will though depend as I said on the date and that would come from the decals I need, these would probably do nicely http://www.hannants.co.uk/product/X72160

Gondor

Really thinking that I should do a later variant of the F-4L with the AN/ALQ-126 DECM fit which means it has to be after 1969, (this was the introduction date for this fit to other versions of the F-4) this limits the operational window a little as the Essex class carriers were being phased out of service by the end 1976. This means that decal choice would have to be very careful indeed unless I used one of the options for a shore based aircraft from the decal sheet I mentioned earlier.

Gondor

Don't forget they were phased out of service because the need reduced with Vietnam coming to an end but also because they didn't have a replacement for the Crusader that could operate from a modified Essex. A Phantom that could operate from the ships would have extended their usefulness into the 80s when the mix of super carriers and the new CVNs would have replaced them (The USN did look to bring some back into service in the Reagan era and his 600 ship navy but the aircraft issue scuppered that). Plus it would have allowed for more viable exports to allied navies (such as Australia to replace Melbourne as the ship would have already been converted, rather than paying for a ship to be converted as was offered back in 65 !).

Good point and well made. I will have to look up the tail codes of the various Carriers to see what options there are or I could go the Australian route as you mention.

Gondor

[Gondor]

Another Job interview today. A reasonable indicator is that I was selected for an interview, but then I have no idea how many applicants there have been so far and the advert is still running in one form or another.

An interesting thing is that in less than half of the jobs I have applied for I have had no response and those I have had a response from have led to an interview. In fact this current job interview I was phoned by an Agency saying that they thought I was suitable and could they put my name/CV forward. I had actually applied for the same job two days earlier 

Gondor

[DogfighterZen]

Good luck for that job interview, hope you get it!

[Gondor]

Well back home from the interview which went reasonably well, gut feeling says that I didn't get it

Gondor

[Captain Canada]

Bah. I was just going to wish you well on the interview....but you never know, maybe they saw it differently than you !

[NARSES2]

Hope your gut instinct is wrong, best of luck anyway with the search.

An interesting thing is that in less than half of the jobs I have applied for I have had no response and those I have had a response from have led to an interview.

Just before I retired we were advertising for a basic entry level clerical position and were inundated. It was just unrealistic to reply to even half of those. So despite my natural feelings we didn't. In the old days we would get a dozen or so enquiries at the most, send them application forms and then take it on to the next stage or send them a "not this job, but best of luck" letter. It's a reason most companies go through agencies who are supposed to do the preliminary sort for you, although in my experience they didn't do anything like that and just sent you everyone on their books who was up for that type of job. Reason we went back to the old fashioned method before I retired. No idea what they do now ?

[Gondor]

I'm probably going to end up making a rod for my own back. Having very silly ideas about cutting up an Airfix F-105F to make some thing rather different to the base kit. It will involve lots of scratch building and filler so I have no idea at the moment as to weather I will start this or not.

Gondor

Edit: Been looking at various things which would help convert the F-105F to a two seat P.1121 and realised that the tandem Hunter trainer cockpit might work for the cockpit area. However as I don't have one I can't tell if it would or not. Can anyone help out with this?

Further to this idea I have had a look at an Academy 1/48 Hawker Hunter F6 I have in the stash. 1/48 is not usually my scale being a dedicated 1/72 modeller most of the time. Although there would be a lot of work to adapt the fuselage of the Hunter to the P.1121 "B" it would be far less than adjusting the F-105F.

Gondor

[Gondor]

One of those days where you take one step forward then two steps backwards.

While attempting to make an easy modification to change an F-4M to an F-4L I broke part of the underside of the kit. Hearing a piece of plastic, which is not simple flat surfaces, ping off into the depths of the stash and possibly into the mouth of the carpet monster is not exactly the way to start the evening 

The good news is that while starting the search for the wayward son of a gun piece of plastic I found a Maintrack P1101 conversion set which I was thinking of using to provide the basis for the cockpit area of the P1121 "B" variant designed to GOR339 which was the General Operational Requirement that lead to the TSR2.

Gondor

[PR19_Kit]

Is that the tandem 2 seat Hunter conversion Alastair?

[Gondor]

Yes Kit it is, TsrJoe did say he might be able to provide me with a second set which would allow me to do both the P1101 and the P1121 "B"

Gondor