I just GOTTA know - what does “Sgt. York” mean??
Sgt York was an air defense system developed in the early 1980s. A twin 40mm Bofors gun system mounted in a radar controlled turret on a M48 chassis, supposed to be able to keep pace with the new M1 Tanks and M2/M3 Bradleys , and named after the WWI Argonne Forest sharpshooting hero, Sgt Alvin York… Much of it was “off the shelf” systems and technology. It was the DIVAD (Divisional Air Defense) and was supposed to replace the M163 Vulcan tracks in US Army Mech and Armored units. Unfortunately, it did not work and the system was cancelled. But Tamiya came out with a 1/35 scale kit of it before the system was cancelled.
Cool! I had never heard of it til now. Very familiar with the “actual” Sgt. York, though, having grown up in Tennessee, and watched the Gary Cooper movie about him about a hunerd (that’s Southern for a hundred) times. Good to hear that the DoD decided to name something after him.
Yes, it was nice to see something that was supposed to be a “sharpshooter” named after him. Un fortunately it did not work. The radar had trouble locking on to low flying helicopters. Reportedly some firing tests were rigged, and in one instance, the radar locked onto the roof fan of a range latrine building rather than the rotors of a target drone chopper and the twin 40s made short work of that facility…
I’m modeling the technology demonstrator, the pilots during the test program weren’t wearing the JMCS helmets yet. As a matter of fact, the demonstrator didn’t have the equipment installed to support the helmet.
I reworked the exhaust nozzle. The demonstrator differs greatly from the production jet.
The unmodified kit part (from my previous build)
Modified part
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I’d love to see a video of that! [t$t]
Steve, good-lookin’ work so far. What’s keeping you motivated on this project?
What keeps me motivated…I don;t know…the uniqueness of the aircraft, I guess. I’m a fan of X-planes and Prototypes. I have quite a few in my collection, here’s a few shots:
Revell 1/32 Bell X-1 (Now gone…some guy talked me out of it. He has a nice X-1 desk model now.)
Lindberg XF-88 Voodoo - Scratchbuilt wheel wells, added a full cockpit.
Eduard 1/48 - Bell X-1
I have a lot more, just no pics…
Wow! Those are great-lookin’ birds! Very impressive. Did any of them win any thing? I see that they were all entered in a contest.
At those particular contests…No. Although my helicopters won at one of those.
Worked on the exhaust nozzle…I may have to tone it down a bit…what do you think? 
I would say that it looks very realistic. I wouldn’t touch it. Great job!
Cockpit work…Ejection seat stuff…
Added scratch built antennas…
The real aircraft:
Additions to the model:
Speed/Dive Brakes
Aircraft:
Model:
Milliput is your friend.
How’s she coming along, Steve?
It’s just about ready for paint, but it’s too cold to do any kind of painting.
Very nice scratch work here! Good eye for detail.
Know whatcha mean. I know some of the modelers here paint at the modeling table with no filtering, but I’ve tried that myself, and my wife let me know very quickly that she did NOT like the wonderful aroma that was coming from my modeling room… I kinda like the smell of paint in the modeling room… along with the light-headedness that sometimes accompanies that smell… Woo Hoo!!