Diamondback Six

Seriously, CS, the damned thing looks like building it would be the stuff of which psychotic episodes are made... and things from my inside source seem to look like with the F-15 line drawing to a close with no SE orders on the books they're going All In on Growler. One would THINK, though, that given how the norm is for "spreading the business around", though, that a more logical move for them would be to focus more on a Maximum Effort to land the Next Gen Bomber contract. Oh, wait, with all those Boeing/McDonnell/Pentagon ethics scandals of the past 15-20 years... (Sorry, when MULTIPLE of y

I just got an interesting little all-hands email forwarded from one of my Boeing sources (and my source isn't even "Defense, Space & Security" but a whole different business unit) where the head of BDS&S is basically demanding the whole company contact their Congress-critters and shill for more Growlers... even as Chicago's getting ready to cut more heads. "We're downsizing you, but before you go... call your Congressman about this for us." *snort*

My first response upon being asked to build such a kit would be "tack an extra zero or two onto the end of my fee to pay for long-term psychiatric care..."

Re VHF, if that big-fool rig pictured is any indication, it's probably a safe bet that they can't operate while rolling and that there'll be basically a handful of "optimal spots" to put 'em. Which implies they ought to be easily fragged on the Opening Salvo and at least buy a little opening 'fore we gotta hit 'em again...

ISTR that there was supposed to be a Navy Prowler providing jamming support for that mission, and it was 100 miles off station, according to at least one report... for some reason I want to say I saw it cited in the Warbird Tech Series volume on the Nighthawk, but I'm not sure.

Sorry, as a B-52 guy... the only place I could see a GAU-8 having on a B-52 would be it you adapted the Goalkeeper system as a replacement tail-gun, and even that would probably be better served by a launcher and magazine full of Stingers, which have the advantage of being guided. The BUFF's big advantage: tons of room for new gear, both existing space and ability to make more by replacing bigger old systems with smaller modern ones. (And a big part of the B-1's payload advantage is the WASTED SPACE caused by an inefficient shackle-spacing in the B-52's weapons racks; today's H's have just ove

As a Hog supporter one thing I have to say... Re McManchurian McKeating and his "don't insult my intelligence", you can't insult something that DOESN'T EXIST. Seriously, the guy is a megalomaniac and has numerous other psych issues and I believe belongs in in-patient psychiatric care rather than the United States Senate. (I believe a lot of it is lingering bitterness about having believed admiral's stars were his birthright since Daddy and Granddaddy were both admirals and being denied those stars, and I think that's gnawed on him long enough and hard enough to loosen some major screws...) N

Interesting that they either removed one DIRCM from the Cosford bird, or only ever installed one... that's the box above the drop-tank, gray structure is the housing and black is the laser "turret" itself IIRC.

$200-250 and not even meeting reserve yet for an Otaki C-5? I have trouble with $100 for the Anigrand... O.O Oh well, I have two Pit-Road 1/700 C-5s floating around, and as a bonus since I was planning a diorama of one with a specially-modified Super Stallion waiting for load, Pit-Road makes almost exactly the mutt S-80 I had in mind, even with the added Pave Low nose avionics so it's only missing a #4 engine on the starboard sail. Just need to either find a shop this side of the Pacific with their chopper-collection box, or suck it up and put together an order from HLJ...

Planform is very A-12 Avenger II--the leading edge sweep is way too sharp for a B-2. Could be a UAV but it's not a B-2 with an LE sweep of 45 degrees.

"Holy S***, it's Viper!" NIce build, amigo!

[Tommy Lee Jones voice] "Swamp gas from a weather balloon was trapped in a thermal pocket and refracted the light of Venus."

Revell only has one major bug... they don't know how to make a kit "buttoned up to fly", so they only include an open canopy which it taks some work to close. That and the outdated LAU-88's, which are only useable for old electro-optically guided AGM-65s and were generally only loaded on 2 rails for drag reasons IIRC... the load is pretty close to a 1980s Cold War config, not even suiting Desert Storm. Look for aftermarket LAU-117's (the single rail launcher), then paint those Maverick seekers a kind of yellowish-green color to suit your photo references on later IR-guided AGM-65s. Also, typ

Perhaps there's a middle way... Boneyard most of the fleet in flyable storage, but maintain a small group for "core competency maintenance" and a cadre so that in case it becomes necessary to reconstitute the capability it can still be done. And I have all kinds of ideas about paying for it... 1. Defund the 89th Airlift Wing, cut the VC-25s up for scrap. Congress, the President/VP and the other Very Important P***ks either pay their own freight on commercial, or fly AMC Trash Hauler through Scott like any A1C. 2. Do we really need NINE HUNDRED generals and admirals? The AF alone has been see

The rebuttal, forwarded from a friend who's a retired C-130 Flight Engineer...

You mean they're resting on their laurels just like Revellogram? "Pride goeth before the fall..."

Someone who might expect to see a SERIOUS armor-crossing-the-border problem in the near future... Poland, Baltic States or Ukraine, maybe?

Good luck--maybe toss something up in B/S/T? I don't know when I'm going to be picking up a Set D, but if you haven't found one by then and you're in the US I'll keep you in mind--I build all my birds Loaded for War anyway, and try to keep a well-stocked "Ammo Box". Actually, I've completed more plane-loads of bombs and missiles the past couple years than planes to carry 'em... LOL The diameter is similar as is the length, but I did a quick stab at Googling drawings for you nad came up dry. :(

My advice? Ask someone with the Hasegawa 1/48 US Weapons Set D (Smart Bombs & Target Pods) kit if they can spare one for ya, or buy your own and have a planeload or two of spare Paveways, SLAMs and a couple LANTIRN sets.

I don't know who's more obnoxious... Viper jocks or the Cult of Hornet. Both have officially outdone even the Glock Kool-aid Drinkers... O.O

I'd really like to see a CH-53K in 1/48 and 1/72... but I've also noticed their page layout is lacking, and a lot of duplicate entries, like THREE for the C-5 Galaxy.

Let me direct attention, specifically, to the last verse, particularly its next-to-last lines...

Gentlemen, let me remind you, as a Recovering Journalist, about the Official Anthem of the Journalism Profession... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h0xr31XbSOU

Good reason to always wear a cup... means a little more work at the urinal, but provides both protection AND camo. :D

Checks, you forgot another biggie: the Old Empires' bitterness at being cast upon the ash-heap of history. You see this with some Brits, as Dick Marcinko described it "undeservedly pompous and utterly mystified that the Empire disintegrated so quickly", and Putin's drive to rebuild the old Russian Empire as a new czar. The Old Guard are still bitter that we had the audacity to show them for the houses of cards they were, and while we haven't been around long enough to really build a cultural-memory some of the ones in Old Europe and East Asia go back a millennium or more...