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Playing in the Sandbox Group Build Sept 1, 2024 - Jn 1, 2025

VNAF T-28


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On 5/4/2020 at 4:28 AM, Clunkmeister said:

Tony, Harold’s goodies should be here in a day or two and we can meet up.  It’ll make a huge difference. 

On one of my SEA builds, I used two figures, both dressed in OD fatigues and wearing boonie hats. I made them similar to what the Spec Ops guys wore. Casual and laid back. Both were climbing in, one was an African American. To me they looked perfect. 

I think the VNAF pilots wore flight suits though.   

Looking forward to more

Hi, have you seen this link to the Trojans from Laos ( where they classed as T-28s? )They are not the VNAF T-28s but those of the RLAF

They also get mentioned in The Ravens (Pilots of the Secret War of Laos) by Christopher Robbins. I managed to buy a copy when travelling through Laos.
It explains the complexities of all the political and ethnic spits in Laos, during that era, and of the Hmong pilots who flew the Trojans.

http://www.t28trojanfoundation.com/aussies.html
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Edited by IainMackayDall
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Excellent stuff Iain.  These are some pretty fascinating aircraft when you look at everything they did they were never designed for.  

 

Cockpit is coming along.  It's not 100% correct but it gets the point across and I've busied it up a bit.  I'm working on making seat belts this evening since the kit ones are PE and I hate PE belts.  Also been painting engine parts this morning and hope to have it together in a day or two.  The pushrods and ignition parts do NOT want to behave so itll be a bit of a battle.   Then I need to figure out how in the world I'm going to partially paint the cowling so I dont have to mask off weird areas later.  

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TJTX That book I quoted, was quite an explanation to me as I toured Laos, as to how complex the situation was in Laos back during the 60's/70's. The US inherited many mobilised Hmong Laos from the French, using that 3 way divisions with the Laos ethnic split. The top being the richer lowland Laos and the other 2 are the most marginalised Hmong and Khmer ( Hmong sources from the North China/Russia and khmer from the South/Cambodia ) That and the King of Laos, with his 3 sons , the 3 Princes were intended to form a coalition in 1962, each one representing Royalist Laos, Neutralist, and Communist Laos. None acceptable to the US, Russian and Chinese power struggles then. The US involvement then, through the book was obviously aimed at the Vietnamese problem, but used and trained the Hmong to fly, like pilots like Lee Lue https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lee_Lue The US also has a strange bunch of volunteer flyers, flying with exceptional skill, all un-uniforned, flying through heavy ground fire to identify targets. The book shows all sides and makes any judgement difficult as to what was right and wrong through the Laos side of the conflict. It ends with only some of the Hmong pilot families getting a fraught passage to leave their homeland to set up a new life in the USA.

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Got the wings halves together, and a quick test fit.  Theyllhneed a fair amount of cleanup and better fit to the fuselage.   Gonna paint some interior engine areas today and then do some seam work on the ordanance. 

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Spent the afternoon working on cleaning the wings and trying to fit the cowling.   I'm using the sprue in tamiya cement filler trick for two ports on the wing that aren't on my T-28 wing.  The cowling.....oh the cowling.   I've gotten 4 out of the 5 pieces test fitting well.  The 5th one surrounding the oil cooler is a bit of a bastard.  Cleaning the fuselage area along with a little trimming inside the cowling piece has it almost lining up.  This is almost such a nice kit, almost.   Anywho I'm having fun with it and I think it'll look great and unique once done.  Also painted the prop, but some paint pulled up on a blade so now I've got to redo one.

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29 minutes ago, harv said:

Tony, so glad you got this. Your doing a bang up job on it. Better than I could......harv :popcorn:

Thanks Harv.  Ernie has been invaluable in helping me by giving me heads up on where and what to watch for.  The kit is a wonderful canvas to work off of with countless schemes and uses to build it as.

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Tony,I’m surprised you’re having so many problems with wing fit. On every one of my builds, they were the best fit of the entire model and literally plugged into the fuselage without even so much as a hairline gap.

Its a tough-ish kit, not Tamiya, but not early SH, either. You need to work for it, but it will give you love if you keep at it.

Oh, add more noseweight!  If there’s room, add more.  :rofl: I’m talking, make it gamma ray proof with so much lead. 

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1 hour ago, Clunkmeister said:

Tony,I’m surprised you’re having so many problems with wing fit. On every one of my builds, they were the best fit of the entire model and literally plugged into the fuselage without even so much as a hairline gap.

Its a tough-ish kit, not Tamiya, but not early SH, either. You need to work for it, but it will give you love if you keep at it.

Oh, add more noseweight!  If there’s room, add more.  :rofl: I’m talking, make it gamma ray proof with so much lead. 

I've got a bunch of fishing weights tucked behind the engine and that seems to have worked.  The wing to fuselage fit isnt so bad, there is a bit of a gap.  It was the spots on the left wing that were for different lights I presume.  Pictures of Bs over there didn't seem to have them.  

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Good news is the added nose weight looks like I guessed right.  She sits correct.   

 

Next thing is, does that dihedral look correct? I know it's a trainer so stability is the goal but dang!? Wings aren't glued, just dry fit.  

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Cowling is on except for the lower center seam.  I'll attack that after everything else dries.  A little filler in a few places and some cleanup and it'll be good to go.  

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