I've settled down with the new PC and have managed to press on with the E-2 Hawkeye. It's quite a big job and I went around a few circles trying to figure out the current paint schemes for the first two squadrons VAW-115 (E-2C) and VAW-121 (E-2D) that I tackled. Like the US Marine Corps, aircraft seem to change units quite regularly and repaints are quite frequent, particularly on the CAG Birds.
Here's a taster:
VAW-115 E-2C flight line:
Both the "C" and the "D" models have alternative animated wing fold options:
This is the current VAW-115 CAG Bird I believe. It seems to have been painted over several months and photos show different stages of completeness. I finally found what I believe to be the current scheme from a commemorative print made for the squadron:
I didn't get it right first time though. For a while I thought this was the current scheme from when the squadron was based at Atsugi, Japan. I''ll include it also, although it's now retro of course:
The hook is animated on all the models at the moment in readiness for an alternative "wet" FDE hopefully. I'll fix the hook up for runway use.
This is the VAW-121 E-2D flight line:
The "D" is a little different to the "C" externally. It has a different shaped rotordome stack, there is no cable duct along the right side of the lower fuselage, it has a second small duct on top of the air cooler on top of the fuselage and the pitot tubes are either side of the node rather than on top of it. The "D" also has a few extra "bumps" under the tail.
There are 4 "D" variations - fixed wing, animated wing fold and the same again with refuelling probes. I'm not sure if the operational squadrons have the probes yet, there are very few photos around, but the option will no doubt be useful for the future.
I still have 12 or so units to research and paint,including some export examples, but I'll have a break from that while I make the retro E-2C with 4 bladed props for current users. I'm not sure that I can find the serial numbers and paint schemes for the aircraft as they were, perhaps 20 years ago, because the current NP2000 prop versions are hard enough to bolt down. Apart from that, it's a great deal of added work, so I think I will provide the retro models and let others paint them as they wish.
John