Tiger Tech

It's also worth knowing what type of rotor head the a/c has e.g. blades fixed to a rigid head will display very limited blade droop, if any. Similarly, CH-47 blades, especially those attached to the forward head, tend not to droop per se, as 'bend' where the blade root meets an elastomeric bearing

Hmm. Some useful points there. Thanks all. Maybe my partner will agree to letting Santa know I want one for Christmas.

G'day all Now that there's some in box reviews available of Tamiya's -35 on the web to watch, I wanted to find out from those who have already built Meng's 1/48 F-35A, which kit would be the choice? On price alone, into my hands (i.e. incl freight) there's about a $A35 difference in favour of Meng. Is the Tamiya kit REALLY that better - I know they've stepped up their a/c game recently with some totally amazing kits? Cheers

CF104 & Spook498 pretty much nailed it with their posts. I don't work on RAAF -35's but I do work on one of our Army helo types, of which the body is coated in a IR paint. Most of our panels are secured by either cadmium-plated tech screws (aka as torque screws) or turn-loks. Almost always when these fasteners are swapped out with new BDS, we don't putty over them but they do get coated with the airframe paint. I ack not the same a/c but the concept of maintaining the integrity of the IR function of the airframe remains. Hope there's something in my post that helps

Or could it even be titanium? I know the engine firewalls of the military helo I work on are made from this material. And then when we have to participate in a maritime environment, we coat the surface with a product called Bonderite which is similar in colour to Dk Dull Green or Bronze Green

After seeing heaps of the 'B' models whilst on deployment to Yuma last year, I'm really keen to get one. But at $A124 + GST through HLJ, I think I'll wait for the dust to settle. Not expecting any of the Australian online businesses to be significantly cheaper either tbh

Do you have any details Niels? Price? I have found it, if the sight is legit, for about $45 (not sure what country those dollars are) with free shipping. Am tempted to buy but...

Thanks Tank. I'm pretty happy to run with that bit of info. My search wasn't finding anything conclusive - could've been what I was typing into Google. Being a techo on military helicopters, albeit a boffin, I like to get the small things right.

G'day all I dragged out my Academy CH-46 recently to look at finally getting it finished. I have a question for those who might know about these things... Academy provide 4 different coloured decal stripes for the blade roots & the PCR's - which of these colour stripes are actually fitted to the front & rear? Academy's instructions aren't too clear here. Cheers

Does anyone know if there are any differences between the JMSDF & the USN -53's?

Awesome. Cheers Dave

Thanks Gino. I was tracking the Hasegawa kit was the benchmark for the 'D' but given the starting price of the Academy 'A', I couldn't pass up the opportunity to find out where it sits in terms of accuracy as an Apache in general, & whether the base kit was suitable to be a project to be a 'D' with the right extras bought to supplement it or just leave it as an 'A'. As Dave wrote, there's a big enough difference between the base airframes in reality that even upgrading this kit with a few 'D' specific add-ons, it can't be a proper 'D'. Which is fine. I'm happy to grab it for 15 bucks, thro

Sweet. Cheers Dave. That solves it for me

Roger that Dave. So the Delta sponsons are a different size &/or compartment layout then?

So Floyd...can I draw the conclusion then that with the 'D' model xtras I mentioned, I can build a Longbow from this kit?