Aaronw

You entirely miss my point, which is simply no current aircraft can do the low level precision CAS that the A-10 was designed to do as well as the A-10. Clearly modern precision armaments have changed the way most CAS is done. Retiring the A-10 is basically saying there will never again be a need for tree top level CAS because we won't have an aircraft well suited to that mission. Maybe that is no big deal, or maybe it means in the future pilots or infantry will be put at greater risk due to the elimination of that capability for the 20% (10%, 5%?) of the missions where that is the most app

From a purely modeling perspective this increases my interest in building a kit of these aircraft, at least they won't be easily confused boring grey jets sitting side by side in the case. These jets are screaming for some WW1 lozenge or dazzle camo schemes.

Very cool, and timely. I was just watching Futurama the other night thinking this ship would be a fun project.

Wow, this belongs in the conspiracy thread. I mean really what are the odds of someone in another country having the exact same walkway and patio table as you, just boggles the mind.

I had not realized there was such a size difference between the F-35 and F-22, particularly with the smaller A and B models. In 1/72 almost 2" in fuselage length and 1 1/2" in wingspan between the F-22 and F-35B.

I don't see this article as any more informed than the typical ARCr's comments. There is a reason the AC-130 is very restricted in use, it is highly vulnerable to WW2 era AAA and 1960s SAM technology, the majority lost being to AAA and shoulder fired missiles. Helicopters have suffered relatively heavy loses from ground fire as well. How many fixed wing close air support aircraft have been lost to ground fire and RPGs since 1991? It would appear all A-10 loses have been to SAMs. In 23 years of active use (1991-2014) in the most extreme CAS envelope how many A-10s have been lost to enemy act

There was a tip sometime back for painting the IR strobe thingy on helicopters which has a similar iridescent appearance. A base of silver with a random pattern of clear colors (Tamiya, tinted Future etc). I tried it on an Apache and it didn't look bad, I'm sure with more practice it could work quite well. The dealy bob on the helicopter is larger but I don't see why a similar technique wouldn't work on a missile IR seeker. I've also seen a similar technique used very convincingly to give the appearance of repeatedly heated and cooled metal like you would find on some exhaust ducting.

It could carry a torpedo in the bomb bay, but based on the Squadron book, conventional bombs, or rockets were the standard weapons used. It could also carry depth charges for ASW use (primarily in the Atlantic). There are photos of the PV-1 dropping torpedoes in training / evaluation, but no record of any use of torpedoes operationally. Anti-shipping strikes would have generally utilized low level bomb or rocket attacks and strafing.

I went on a WW2 Gato class submarine when I was about 12 and thought it was cramped. Some of the rooms on this sub look like they belong in a nice house. Sir, I've got something... it sounds like Pac-Man.

I agree. I actually appreciate those who point out errors in a kit, paint, decals etc up to the point that it goes from helpful to unproductive. Much of this hobby is subjective (including that line between helpful and unproductive). We are working with issues of scale, limitations of the materials and in many cases subjects that are poorly documented. Even those that are well known can require a degree of interpretation. Absolutes are hard to come by in this hobby.

I'm not a tattoo guy so there are no tattoos in my future, but if I were to do something aviation related it would probably be nose art or a unit marking. While the artwork is nice in those shown here, realistic aircraft just don't work for me as a tattoo.

If it includes non aviation, I've had Chief Brody's Blazer from Jaws on the to do list for quite a while.

That is neat, it never would have even occurred to me there might be any models from the movie. I like the movie but it is rather obscure, doesn't seem like many know about it. Nice job on the little guy. :thumbsup:/>

Name is ok, but I don't see the B-52s relation, lots of heavy bombers. How about Arclight Redux

I've wanted to go for several years, but it is a bad time for me with fire season often in full swing during September.

Those look good. What about some of the lightning bolts, or are those too aircraft specific?

Meh, the F-22 had similar issues with Mr. Stark. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H_kxRE8KfXA

You want a vector based program like Adobe Illustrator or Corel Draw. They allow resizing without pixilization although at a cost of learning some new skills. The two I listed are commercial programs (cost money) but there are some freebees out there. Inkscape is one of the free ones I am familiar with although I have no personal experience with it. If you make your own decals I would highly recommend learning to use a vector based drawing program, it will greatly improve the quality of your decals even if they are just done on a standard inkjet printer.

Hobbytown USA also has quite a few kits like those posted by Gregg. Tamiya makes some robotics kits too. I've seen some at Fry's Electronics that look like they would be appropriate for a 7 or 8 year old.

Not quite there yet, but it is closing in. I honestly forget sometimes, I was having trouble last year making the math work out, try as I might I couldn't figure out what I was doing wrong, but 1967-2013 wasn't adding up to 35. It finally dawned on me that my math was right, the problem was I wasn't 35 anymore and hadn't been for sometime.

Black, grey and silver seem to be the most common rigging colors people use. I haven't used ez line, but I think charcoal would probably be best, black may be a bit to stark a contrast.

It depends on the helicopter, but it is not an uncommon practice in the US to load a patient after shutting down. Some like the Bell 205 require a lengthy cooling down period before restart so will usually load hot, but the EC135 and AS350 can shut down and immediately restart so unless the patient is loaded and ready to go on landing may shut down during the loading process. The flight crews usually want to evaluate the patient before loading anyway, so even if ready to go they may take a few minutes to make a quick eval and any last minute treatments that may be easier on the ground than in

There are some quality snap kits out there that can bridge the gap between beginner and casual modelers and hard core modelers. Zvezda's Yak-3 and BF109F, Revell's Jeep Rubicon are some that come to mind. Many of the Hobby Boss EZ kits can bridge this gap as well.

Pretty much. I considered it for the Sherpa but after looking at the differences between the two aircraft I decided that converting the Skyvan might actually be harder than scratchbuilding the whole thing.

First I've heard of the company or of any one offering a kit. I'm not very skilled with vacform kits but worth a shot, thanks.