USAF A-61D Black Widow, South Vietnam c.1966-COMPLETE PICS & BACKSTORY

[AeroplaneDriver]

I've been going back and forth on what to build this week, but today I found this in a local antique store and was hit with a bit of inspiration. 

I'm still torn on how to finish it but right now it's between USAF Vietnam scheme with rockets and napalm, and more guns in the nose in place of the Radar, or USN WW2 ASW Patrol. 

[Gondor]

Both options sound great. 

Gondor

[AeroplaneDriver]

21 hours in and time to officially get started. Back to work on Thursday morning so setting myself a 4-day goal on this one.

[AeroplaneDriver]

Good progress tonight.  Nacelles are just dry fitted for picture purposes and it will need some PSR along the side fuselage but feeling fairly good about it so far.

Still torn on schemes but leaning towards a USAF Vietnam CAS/Sandy role with lots of guns. The four belly 20mms plus a Vulcan in the nose.  Napalm and rocket pods to round it out. 

[Old Wombat]

What is it with you & Dizzy, Nick?

You both seem to turn out stuff in a day that would take me the full week!



PS: If there was a vote, I'd vote VN COIN.

[NARSES2]

You both seem to turn out stuff in a day that would take me the full week!

My thoughts exactly. I thought the gap in the space, time continuum was restricted to Germany, but it seems to have spread to the US now 

[kerick]

I suggest a Maverick missile test mission aircraft flying out of Saigon.

[AeroplaneDriver]

Anyone else wondering why a guy who absolutely despises masking canopies would make a P-61 his last minute OWGB choice with no time to order a precut mask.     

One down, one to go.

[Old Wombat]

Nope, I put it down to it just being the usual whiffer insanity.

[AeroplaneDriver]

2.5 hours of masking.  This is why I buy precut masks. 

Finally done though.  Time for a little bit of PSR and hopefully primed tonight.  Visible up front is the barrel fairing for the Vulcan cannon.

[kerick]

I have the 1/48th Monogram kit. I can't decide to go late WW2 when some were painted OD over gray and used as strike aircraft or Vietnam.
The Vulcan gun will be unique!

[AeroplaneDriver]

Major construction is over and she is primed. Still needs a touch of PSR in a spot or two but should get the color on tomorrow.

The Vulcan in the nose is a bit of a giveaway that I went Vietnam rather than WW2 ASW.  So now my quandary is whether the SEA Camo is over light gray or black...

Thr decals will be from a 602 Special Operation Squadron which flew Skyraiders in Vietnam in the Sandy role, and at least one of their aircraft had black lower surfaces.  They also performed flare dropping missions over the Ho Chi Minh Trail at night so presumably the black aircraft was for that mission.

I'm really torn as I love the camo over black scheme but also over gray is so different for a P-61 (now A-61). 

[Dizzyfugu]

I'm late here; from the options presented, a COIN version would be my favorite, too, even though a Black Widow in USN colors (IIRC the Navy actually operated it) would like nice, too. It's a bit late, but a conceptual alternative could also be a USAF "bomber buster", with the radar replaced with some 37 mm guns, sans turret and overall NMF with some flashy unit markings? Mud mover is more plausible, though. 

[Weaver]

Also a bit late, but what occurs to me is some sort of night special ops fit that's like an early version of a B-57G, with big, clunky 1950s/60s night sensors and maybe even a Pave-Gat(?) style Vulcan (or earlier guns) in a trainable turret, either under the belly or the whole nose, like those trainable gun turrets experimented with on various jet fighters in the 1950s.

Might even make sense in French Indo-China war markings.

[NARSES2]

Impressed by the masking