My association with David actually goes back alot further than I knew as he owns Aviation Theory Centre, an Australian company that produces a large amount of aviation theory books, many of which I have spent a considerable amount of time studying in the pursuit of all of my Licenses, ratings and endorsements in my career as a pilot. https://aviationtheory.net.au/
David has many period photos of his time in Vietnam, some of which have never been published before and I was able to view some of them and will post them on this thread as they become available. Whilst at his house I was also able to go through some of his memorabilia that he kept throughout his military career including original embroidered patches, helmets and check lists but the real highlight was being able to flick through his log book. David did an exchange posting in the RAF, so amongst all of the exciting types that he flew in the RAAF and USAF there were even more exciting types like the English Electric Lightning although it was pretty evident that David's favourite was the Mirage of which he spent over 1000 hours flying. My own personal log books may have well been filled out by a kid with a crayon when compared to such a tome. David was also a member of the Deltas, an aerobatic team in the RAAF flying Mirages that was formed in the early 70's to perform all over Australia in celebration of the RAAF's 50th anniversary in 1971. He also designed their logo.
A log book summary page of types flown.
We are still to decide exactly which O-2 I will depict but we are leaning towards Serial Number 67-21368 in which David flew 67 mission in. A sample of his log book reveals some entries on this aircraft and also details of the combat action in which David took part in.
This aircraft still survives and is on display as part of a memorial to Forward Air Controllers at the Hurlburt Field Air Park in the U.S.
So lets get started on the build. There have been a few in box reviews of this kit so far, and they haven't been overly complimentary of the kit.
Some reasonably nice box art. Captures the lines of the aircraft well. Very sturdy and at a decent price point.
The negative reviews are for a very good reason, as the kit is very poorly packed inside, having all of the sprues including the clear parts packed in the same overstuffed bag exposing many of the finer parts to damage and scratches. This was also a bad part of the previous Bird Dog release.
I don't think the decals are going to be useable (spelling mistakes, out of register etc), so I will be waiting until the AOA decals are released.
The parts have tooling marks all over them and will require cleaning up. Notice the top edge of the circuit breaker panel,inside edges of the windscreen, tooling marks on the interior panels as well as the fairly visible placement of the ejector pin divots.
Mating parts of the wing surfaces will need a decent sanding as there is some poorly moulded areas on both upper and lower parts. Notice the top edge is far from smooth.
There is alot of flash all over the parts, notice the blade antenna (part 12) and the exhaust manifolds for example, and the broken engine mounts (parts 2 and 3) lets not get too excited though, as these issues and the ones above will be fixed with good old fashioned modelling skills and will not take too long to rectify.
