I can't think of a more atmospheric and artistically inspired box art painting than this one by Valeriy Grygorenko. The lonely jungle setting streaked with rain is beautiful in every detail. The monkeys startled by a passing aircraft seem ironically untouched by the war it is speeding towards. So may details to explore: the treetops of the bamboo forest, the crumbling ruins, but everything supports the portrait of the aircraft in its element. I was never much interested in the Mohawk, but this box art and an equally inspired one for a sub variant completely won me over. I bought both kits plus resin and etch detail sets. I recently got after market decals to replace the problematic wing walkways in the kit. Now I will definitely build it. No details on the kit tonight. Just want to post this for now and memorialize a great artist.

Great entry, Colin @coling
Besides a beautiful aircraft, the boxart is indeed amazing, a Mohawk in its natural habitat.

Thanks, Spiros, John and Stephen. I have some materials (shown below) to get this done. Your recent build, Spiros, was a big inspiration to pull this kit from the stash. Your version will be a hard act to follow, but I have some ideas. I will start by trying to super-detail the cockpit. The resin and photo-etch I have will probably be enough, but I am not yet sure about the resin ejection seats, I may build these up myself from the kit seat to make painting easier (as with the DH Venom I am finishing up now).

Here are the bits and pieces I have on hand.

The True Details pit is pretty complete but I like to use etch for the IP at least, so I have both. Whatever is left over for both sets I will use for my OV1B/C, which I plan to do up as the MiG killer OV-1C of the 173rd AVC Company (low-vis markings), discussed on this site awhile back. Here is the other Grygorenko boxart for that. It is another beautiful image of a dawn flight, lacking the specifics of place in the OV-1A boxart. As for the marking in this OV-1A build, I will use the Caracal decal sheet to do Option 2 of the 73rd AVN Company in High Vis markings. It's great that Caracal provides the wing walk decals, as these are the weakest part of the Roden kit.

The MiG-killer Mohawk was a JOV-1A flown by Major Ken Lee. The JOV-1A was the only armed Mohawk. The OV-1C is a recon-only airplane. I know for sure about this, since I am the guy who broke Ken's story back in 2003 in Flight Journal.

Those extras will make this kit looking even more beautiful, Colin @coling
Looking forward to the assembly.

Thanks for that clarification, Tom. I was going to consult you once again but thought I could get clarification on the model by reviewing previous posts. I will probably have to switch subjects and do this first one as Ken Lee's JOV-1A, since the OV-1A kit is probably closer in form to the JOV-1 than the OV-1B kit is. Were there major differences in the airframe between models or was it just pylons for the load out? Also, I wanted to do one high vis and one low vis version. I kind of thought the earlier models would be high vis. Obviously there are both finishes for Vietnam War aircraft. The 173rd AVN planes appear to be all low vis, from the profiles and photos.

I live near American Wings Air Museum. Lee has visited the museum. I asked a staffer and they have several airframes however, it still remains a mystery at which a/c was involved in the downing of the Mig.

https://www.facebook.com/pages/category/Nonprofit-organization/American-Wings-Air-Museum-438130183028214/

Nice detail image of the Mohawk cockpit on Facebook link. Thanks, Stephen.