Mintox

Thats my thoughts exactly. I was only going to load her up with AMM's (fighter to figter missiles?) but then thought maybe fighter to ship missiles might work better in the context of dual control like the F14's. Here is the colour call outs I fogot to post:

Here is my Hasegawa 1/72 VE-1 Elint. I have to admit it turned out looking reasonable for something so infuriatingly small!

Finally made a start today on the VF1D. Main body done, plus wings. Tail section with additional etch fittings.

Ok one more photo. I decided the base was pretty ordinary so I spruced it up a bit. The plaque comes with the base.

Yep I'd buy pilots. Female or male doesnt matter. Deck crew would also be nice.

Yes I have seen that before and it looks sweet. I'm going to have to do one in standard colours and one in low vis.

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Yep I agree see below. I guess what I was trying to say is that the VT is a wasted design on a trainer. Without the booster packs I can live with it being a trainer but with the backpacks and leg boosters it just doesn't sit with me in a trainer role. I have seen it in a low vis scheme and it rocks. As I say I love the VT and VE designs but I just think the VT is a waste when described as a trainer. Anyway thanks everyone for looking and following this build. I hope everyone enjoys it as much as I did building it.

Last photo of it completed with pilots insitu. I'll post photo's in the model section later this week.

Looks great. Love the addition of the ground crew. Im curious - is the numeral on the tail fin supposed to be upside down? I assume its the number "5"?

Yeah I'm going to add AMM-1 missiles to it. Should look mean.

99.9% complete. I'm just waiting for the pilots to dry and I'll fit them (the canopy is simply sitting in place and not glued down) and its done.

I was going to do a VT in low vis vis colours but have decided to do my VF-1D instead in these colours, mainly because I'm pissed Hasegawa didnt do a 1/48 version of this in which case I would have done it in the orange and off-white scheme. Anyways I managed to get the paint scheme and colours from a very helpful website. I'll follow the old Hasegawa 1/72 low vis kit paint scheme:

I agree with you to a point but the amount of sensors on it to me kind of doesn't jell with the training role. I say this because the back pack boosters and leg boosters depart from the standard design which every VF1 can use. It kind of just looks out of place design wise. And as you mentioned the VF-1D is a dual control so to me that made more sense as a trainer, it even has a proper head with twin lasers whereas the VT has a head that is very much "electronic warfare" in style. I could understand wanting to get data for analysis for later for review of pilot performance but these sorts of sensor on modern aircraft trainers fitted internally so the extra bulges etc on the leg boosters for instance look to me like the bulges on the US RC-35 or Aussie B737-700 surveillance aircraft. Anyway i DO love the design. I like the more rounded boosters on the VT than the more angular standard boosters on the VE and VF's strikes.

Well I have a suspicion that the VT was in fact meant to be the VE originally but they dropped that design and went with what we now call the VE Elint. My reasoning is that although the VT has been called a trainer, all the extra comms equipment and sensors simply doesn't make sense and it isn't armed, which if it was a combat trainer it would at least carry a GU11 gun. I could be wrong but it seems out of place when it has all the booster packs on it. Anyway with modern sensors I think be bright orange is academic in terms of visibility.

Im liking this more and more now that I can see the potential for it.

Yeah no worries. Its 210 mm or about 8-1/4" old scale. Yeah it has to be my favourite then again any of the Valks with booster packs are my favourites. If you go by real world aircraft, those wingtip bulges are passive sensors. Probably used as a warning system for active sensors scanning them. As to why the VT has them is questionable but it does have similar bulges on the booster packs and the head has a sensor to the side so to me this is also some sort of jamming version although I know its supposed to be a trainer or civi version I did read somewhere it is a proper production machine so I would like to think it was like an ELINT version even though the VE is called ElintSeeker it has that huge radar on top which is more AWACS than Elint. Hey a grey low vis version of the VT. Now that floats my boat!

Slowly gluing parts on. Here I am just fitting the boost pack and sensor/arms.

Almost done. Here I have basically finished the wash into all the panel lines etc. I'm pretty happy with the results considering the level of detail Hasegawa has put into this kit it does buildup into something very nice. Next will be some chalks and oils and then I'll seal it with a dull coating and then add all the clear parts, add the cockpit seats, canopy and it'll be done.

A slight setback this weekend. While I have started to put the decals on I was carrying the main body and drop it. It crashed to the floor right on the end of the nose and cracked a good portion of it along the top and bottom of the joins leaving a nasty crack. While its repairable I decided to shelf it and start again. I strangely had three spare cockpits for the VE and VT. I have no idea where they came from but I was stoked. I also had a bunch of other parts too so I've started over again with the cockpit which is the reason its missing in this photo.

Sometimes they do. Its rare but they have done so in the past with the aircraft kits, cars etc. They usually offer better decals and etch parts or even resin detail sets. So yeah hopefully they'll reissue the Elint and Ostrich one day. Maybe even as a double kit would be awesome.

300? Hmm If we all buy two maybe three sets would that be enough?

Trust me the 1/48 kits crap on the 1/72. Only thing as I say they dont do the D or Elint or Ostrich. Three of the most wanted versions.WTF Hasegawa? Anyway I've started on my Ostrich but I dont think I'll do a in progress of this. I'll just build it and post it once its finished.

Yeah prices seem pretty stupid for this and the Ostrich. If I had a spare I would sell it to you. Anyway I am getting close to finishing this kit. The pilots will crap me when I go to paint them. 1/72 figures are just why. Why would anyone build 1/72 figures! Why WHY!!!

Oh yeah THAT part. Its a right royal pain in the arse. Yep I had to do the same. I wish they had supplied closed door like they do in the VF25 kits.