Post by HotRodTom on Apr 9, 2023 13:47:08 GMT -5
A little background on this bird:
I modelled an AC-47 from the Vietnam war, Douglas Aircraft serial number 45-1120.It was an AC-47D with the installation of the GAU cannons It went by the callsign "Spooky 21", was stationed at Da Nang Airbase, and it's last mission was on December 24th, 1965. It was last heard transmitting "Mayday, Mayday, Mayday, Spooky 21" at about 1050 hrs before being presumed MIA. All 6 crewmembers were reported MIA, and were not reported KIA until 2011, when an expedition to locate the missing service members at a crash site in Ban Salou, Laos identified them and returned the remains to the United States.
The servicemembers lost were:
Pilot - Maj Derrell Blackburn Jeffords
CoPilot- 1LT Dennis Lee Eilers
Navigator - Maj Joseph Christiano
Flight Engineer - TSG William Kevin Colwell
Aerial Gunner - MSG Larry C Thornton
Aerial Gunner - SSG Arden Keith Hassenger
Sleep well faithful soldiers.
You are not forgotten.
I used some nail salon liner tape and created the "light" in the nav-lights.
And more nail line tape for the landing lights
It took me about 15 minutes to lay down the lettering on this side of the fuselage
The block tail numbers were accomplished with Tamiya masking tape. The yellow tail numbers came from the kit and were carefully sliced and placed. Each number was approximately the size of a grain of sand.
And here are the "dragon's tongues" of the mighty "Puff the Magic Dragon" gunship.
An American Quarter coin for size comparison.
I modelled an AC-47 from the Vietnam war, Douglas Aircraft serial number 45-1120.It was an AC-47D with the installation of the GAU cannons It went by the callsign "Spooky 21", was stationed at Da Nang Airbase, and it's last mission was on December 24th, 1965. It was last heard transmitting "Mayday, Mayday, Mayday, Spooky 21" at about 1050 hrs before being presumed MIA. All 6 crewmembers were reported MIA, and were not reported KIA until 2011, when an expedition to locate the missing service members at a crash site in Ban Salou, Laos identified them and returned the remains to the United States.
The servicemembers lost were:
Pilot - Maj Derrell Blackburn Jeffords
CoPilot- 1LT Dennis Lee Eilers
Navigator - Maj Joseph Christiano
Flight Engineer - TSG William Kevin Colwell
Aerial Gunner - MSG Larry C Thornton
Aerial Gunner - SSG Arden Keith Hassenger
Sleep well faithful soldiers.
You are not forgotten.
I used some nail salon liner tape and created the "light" in the nav-lights.
And more nail line tape for the landing lights
It took me about 15 minutes to lay down the lettering on this side of the fuselage
The block tail numbers were accomplished with Tamiya masking tape. The yellow tail numbers came from the kit and were carefully sliced and placed. Each number was approximately the size of a grain of sand.
And here are the "dragon's tongues" of the mighty "Puff the Magic Dragon" gunship.
An American Quarter coin for size comparison.
Meanwhile, in more arab nations, it is considered a deterrent to your enemies to leave the dead on the battlefield, or to send the mutilated body back to the enemy. And, by mutilated, I mean barely recognizable as a human kind of mutilated. I think you would be mortified to know how we came across bodies in Kuwait and southern Iraq when we pushed the Iraqi army back within their own borders. Those bodies were of Kuwaiti soldiers who were killed and "exampled" by the I.R.G. forces. Terrible things. Unnatural things. The kind of sight that you carry with you for the rest of your life kind of things that you can't smile and share with your grandchildren when they ask "Tell me what it was like granpa...". War has never been honorable, but sometimes, SOMETIMES, one or more participants do an honorable thing and do actually honor the fallen by returning them back to their homeland to rest in peace. 
It's an interweb thing.....