A great pic of Graham inside the cargo area of the Bronco, loading food and provisions. This is the actual Bronco that is currently being restored at the Australian War Memorial.
Now to the ‘story’ behind the model. I am extremely grateful to Graham for preparing this for me, it is a unique perspective into a FAC sortie. This particular sortie earnt Graham the Distinguished Flying Cross, and makes for very interesting reading. I will be basing my model upon this particular aircraft.
USAF OV-10A BRONCO # 14620 - SORTIE FLOWN BY SQNLDR GRAHAM NEIL
AND FLTLT KEN SEMMLER ON 6 JUNE 1970 AT TRAI BI SOUTH VIETNAM
The RAAF provided some 36 Forward Air Controllers (FAC’s) seconded to the USAF in South Vietnam over a five-year period, all of them were experienced fighter pilots accustomed to the FAC role with FAC training in Australia and Malaya. Twenty of them flew the OV-10 Bronco.
The OV-10 Bronco was specifically designed for the FAC role and was introduced into South Vietnam by the USAF in mid-1968. The aircraft offered much better weapon load and cockpit visibility qualities than previous FAC aircraft in that theatre. Additionally, the suite of one UHF radio, one VHF radio, two FM radios and one HF radio, together with KY28 secure voice, offered a greatly improved communications capability. In terms of cockpit workload, the management of the radios offered the greatest challenge to the FAC during early sorties.
On the afternoon of 6 June 1970 OV-10 #620 launched from Cu Chi in support of 3rd Brigade 25th Division US Army, the aircraft captain was SQNLDR Graham Neil with anotherRAAF FAC FLTLT Ken Semmler in the back seat, the sortie was for planned visual reconnaissance in an area near the Cambodian border.
Ten minutes after becoming airborne while still in transit to the area of operations they were advised that an armoured convoy, exiting Cambodia, and a nearby base camp at Trai BI were each involved in two separate enemy engagements. Upon arriving at the scene of the engagements and after talking with the ground commander, they quickly assessed the situation and decided to give immediate air support to the convoy which was actively involved in a Troops in Contact (TIC) mission with enemy forces only 75 metres away in the woodline near the road. Two immediate airstrikes were ordered up for action alongside the TIC situation and for support to the Trai Bi base camp situated only four kilometres south which was concurrently receiving incoming mortar and small arms fire. If that were not complicated enough an artillery observation pilot, Aloft 07 radioed SQNLDR Neil to advise that he had spotted 12 enemy troops running away from the convoy contact, he marked their position with a smoke grenade and then SQNLDR Neil expended four 2.75 inch Rocket Projectiles (RP) on the marked position. During that RP pass the convoy commander requested immediate fire support to quell enemy action on his contact which had again flared up. Accordingly, the woodline to the west of the road was strafed with the OV-10’s four machine guns and the attack from the west ceased, temporarily. The convoy commander then urgently requested more strafing on additional enemy fire now coming from the eastern side of the road, it was obviously a planned ambush. After repeated strafing passes which were getting lower and lower because of height and energy being used up during tight manoeuvring the enemy broke off the engagements and SQNLDR Neil then resumed working with Aloft 07 against the enemy troops that Aloft 07 was still observing in retreat now about half a kilometre away from the armoured convoy. As he was rolling in for a rocket pass on the area that the troops were hiding in the convoy commander made another urgent request for fire to be again directed into the western side of the road to counter Rocket Propelled Grenade (RPG) fire which was now being suffered; all remaining HE rockets were expended on that target which was within about 30 metres away alongside the road and the RPG and small arms fire ceased for good.
SQNLDR Neil then provided top cover to a Dustoff Medevac UH-1H helicopter and then flew the four km south to the other enemy contact. Upon instructions, following consultation with the base commander, remaining 7.62 mmrounds were expended on repeated strafing passes on a woodline to the west of the basecamp. Realising that more support was needed he had called up two other armed OV-10 aircraft from Cu Chi and he controlled Issue 14 and Issue 04 as he would a pair of fighters. After their HE rocket fire the enemy broke contact.
Approximately ten minutes later the first set of immediate fighters, scrambled off alert at Bien Hoa arrived at the rendezvous, the weather in the area had marginal visibility with a solid ceiling of 2,500 feet and heavy rain showers moving through the target area. Hawk 07, a pair of A37 fighters, was initially briefed by Ken Semmler while Graham Neil was occupied dealing with final advice from the base commander and controlling helicopter gunships which were now rocketing an area on the other side of the base camp. The airstrike was controlled by SQNLDR Neil with the fighters dropping their eight Mk 82 500 lb bombs very accurately exposing and burning the cover from the enemy bunkers. While still controlling and marking strafing runs for Hawk 07 the next set of fighters, Sabre 81 a pair of F100 Super Sabres pre briefed by Ken Semmler, were brought into the target area from their rendezvous so they could assimilate the tactical scene with recognition of the location of friendly units; their Mk117 750 lb bombs were placed on target within three minutes of the previous set. Sabre 81 flight placed their eight Mk 117 Hi-Drag bombs on target only 250 metres from the friendly emplacements at the base camp, they then expended their 20 mm on strafing runs through the target, they were credited with the relief of the base camp and the destruction of five enemy bunkers.
No further enemy action was to follow. Despite a low fuel state SQNLDR Neil stayed on in the target area and briefed an oncoming FAC on the ground situation before diverting to Tay Ninh West because of their low fuel state and the deteriorating weather. After refuelling the aircraft was flown to the RAAFbase at Vung Tau to pick up some vittles and VB beer which had been arranged the night before. Ken Semmler and Graham Neil swapped seats and Ken flew #620 back to Cu Chi as the night closed in on a very busy but rewarding day for both FAC’s.
Thanks Graham!
Some more work. The instrument panel was painted very dark grey, with the instrument bezels picked out with black paint and then Airscale instrument decals applied. Most of these decals are actually 1/48 scale as they were the only way that I was able to make them fit the panel! I also fabricated the undercarriage lever from brass and plastic card as it is not included in the kit.
I wanted to depict the engine cowls closed. They have been designed to display open on the model and as such, a little work needs to be done to make them nice and neat. The panel lines where the cowl edges meat are a little sloppy, so my preferred mix of talc and superglue was used to fill the panel joints, as well as thin plastic card. I sanded the joint smooth. The longitudinal joint where the clamshell cowls meet has been sanded and rescribed to ensure a consistent depth panel line, with Tamiya extra fine cement ran into the freshly worked engraving to tidy it up.
I then lightly scribed a guide line across the join with a pin.
I used a JLC razor saw to lightly cut a new panel line along the previously scribed line, this tool is perfect for refining panel lines.
A little hard to see but the new panel line is straight, with a consistent depth.
