Graham

Being a big Typhoon fan, my favorite sites are: - Eurofighter Forums. Official Eurofighter Site. Graham

AFAIK, the Rafale thing for the Royal Navy is just a rumor that got started and UK MoD is not actually considering them. French planes for Britain......Never! Still, it would be a pretty practical choice of a plane that's already in service and comparitively inexpensive. I'd love to see a Sea Typhoon, but politically, I don't think it's going to happen. Depite it being an excellent plane, the Typhoon doesn't seem to get much support or funding from the idiots (sorry, politicians) back home in UK. Also, with the changes that would have to made to the landing gear, wing and FCS for a naval version, it would take at the snails pace of Eurofighter development many years before a Sea Typhoon would be operational. Probably we'd have a situation where the new carriers were ready years before the actual planes to go on them. While I haven't done any research on the new UK carriers, I would guess that a larger deck would be needed to handle Sea Typhoons as opposed to some version of the F-35. Despite all the political squabling between the US and UK at the moment over the F-35, the Royal Navy will probably still end up being stuck with the bloody thing. Graham (not an F-35 fan)

Funnily enough I was recently reading about Japan's need to replace it's fleet of ageing F-4s. I reckon that the JASDF will eventually end up with a watered-down version of the F-22, that is if the US Government ever approves it for export sales. Some version of the F-15 is also a possiblity I suppose, as the Japanese have been operating F-15s for many years now. But I think the F-15 while still a good fighter, is showing it's age and has reached the point where it's capabilities can't be upgraded much more. To be honest, with their close ties to the US, I can't see Japan buying a European fighter (Typhoon, Rafale or Gripen), despite all being excellent planes. IMO Typhoon is second only behind the F-22, especially if it ever gets built with all of the proposed Tranch 2 improvements and it's a damn sight cheaper than the F-22 to boot. Graham

No HUD printing. Printing on the instrument panel. Graham

While not 1/48, I think I used to have a video somewhere on the main site of either a 1/60 VF-1 or 1/72 YF-19 (I forget which), showing transformation in just under 1 minute. Graham

They can't Tampo print in that location, because there is a seam line between the upper and lower fuselage parts. Graham

Y'know, I'm getting more and more skeptical about whether the F-35 will ever get into service. Seems like numbers to be purchased are constantly being cut and the US DoD is majorly pissing off partner counties in the project, especially UK, by refusing to authorise transfer of the necessary information and technology to allow partner countries to perform repair, maintenanince and upgrades. It's getting to the state now where the possibility of some member countries pulling out of the project is extremely high. Graham

The Macross Compendium (which is official), lists the VF-5 as a 'Light Space Fighter', not as a direct replacement of the VF-4 for main variable fighter. Also, according to the Compendium, the VF-5000 assumed the United Nations Forces' main fighter designation from the VF-4 (due to its lower costs) beginning in the later half of the 2020s until the VF-11 Thunderbolt's introduction. Graham

Without meaning to get all political, I'd say it's not so much that the US won the cold war, but rather the Soviets just couldn't afford to play anymore and gave up. Perhaps a good analogy would be the poker player who quits because the stakes have become too high and he can no longer afford to keep up with the big dogs, (or dog in this case). Perhaps it's more accurate to say the US won by default. Anyway, back to our scheduled airplane discussion. Graham

Back in the day, I used to be able to go from battroid to fighter or fighter to battroid in slightly under a minute, 58 or 59 seconds IIRC. Haven't timed myself for ages though. Graham

With it's ability to go low and slow, loiter over the battlefield for long periods of time, ability to carry an extremely large amount of munitions, absorb great amounts of damage and still make it safely back home and be repaired quickly the A-10 is still an extremely useful plane to keep in the US inventory IMO. The A-10 is not just a tank hunter, which some people tend to forget. It's capable of a wide variety of missions such as day and night Close Air Support (CAS), Forward Air Controller (FAC) and certain types of interdiction missions as shown in the Gulf war. Definitely recommend reading William L. Smallwood's Warthog book. which goes into detail with first hand accounts from A-10 pilots about how the A-10 performed in combat. I think in a situation with enemy troops in the wire, I'd rather have an A-10 come along to save my bacon than a UAV or fast mover with PGMs. As for the F-35, in all it's variations, so far I'm not impressed with what I've read. It seems to be overbudget, overweight, underarmed with only internal weapons (or if it does carry extra external weapons, looses stealth). Not particulaly fast, agile or long range. In the STOVL version especially, is likely to be extremely maintenance intensive. Just wondering how many A-10s could be purchased for the price of one F-35? perhaps it's time to start up a new A-10 production line . If the US does get into a shooting war with either Iran or North Korea at some point in the future, I can well imagine that as with Iraq, there is likely to be more A2G than A2A combat and the A-10 will be just the right plane for the job (again). Just my 2 cents. Graham

Correct me if I'm wrong here guys, but slow is actually good for CAS missions. Allows the pilot to see more of what's on the ground. Graham

I wouldn't say a new addition. I've been collecting Valk toys for a long, long time. While I'm not up there with the big guys like Godzilla as far as collection size goes, I still have a reasonable size collection. Graham

Picked up a second VF-0S yesterday from a small toy shop in the town of Tai Po, as my normal supplier wasn't able to come through for me. I paid HK$880 (US$113). From what I've seen here in Hong Kong over the last week, the VF-0S seems to retail for between HK$850 (US$109) the cheapest I've seen, to HK$980 (US$125), depending on which shop you go to. Happy to say this VF-0S was flawless. The tail spikes were undamaged, the paint job was crisp, Tampo printing was all straight. The joints were all sufficiently tight and the toy was able to hold any pose I put it into in any mode. While it's true that the knee and elbow swivel joints are slightly looser than on the 1/48 VF-1, I wouldn't really describe them as 'loose joints' per say and don't consder these 'slightly less-tight joints' a problem at all. All in all, I'm a very happy camper and will probably pick up a third one soon. Graham

Actually the A-10C is just a stopgap to give the old Hog better capabilities while the F-35 comes online, and to supplement the JSF once it does. Curent planning has the A-10 being replaced by STOVL F-35Bs 399656[/snapback] Heh, them wacky military planners. They must be smoking some very funny cigarettes if they really think that the F-35B is really a suitable and capable replacement for the A-10. Graham

Still don't have my Super Stealth yet, but got to handle one for a short time the other day and it definitely looks better in person than in online photos. The Superstealth box is ridiculously huge. Graham

Just wondering has anybody picked up the Takara 1/18 scale Scopedog toy that was released late last month and if so, how does it compare with the Yamato 1/12 scale version? Although I haven't handled the Takara version yet and it sold out pretty quickly at shops here in Hong Kong, from what I can tell it has the advantages over Yamato of having a cheaper price point, comes with a Chirico Cuvie microman pilot figure and has a weathered paint job. Graham

Just curious, anybody know where the chaff and flare launchers are located on the F-22, or even if it has chaff and flare launchers? If it has them, I'm presuming that like its offensive weapons, they must be hidden behind doors when not in use to preserve stealth. Graham

Not interested personally. There's already plenty of manufacturers such as Armour, Corgi & Dragon making detailed real-world plane replicas. Graham

You have to play through 50 missions before you even get to use the VF-1?!!!!!!!!!! Sorry, I'll pass. Graham

I find it pretty durable. Some joints may be loose, but that has nothing to do with durability. Graham

Wow, missed it when I was writing my review, but I just noticed over the weekend that the instument panel is also Tampo printed on. I love this toy. Graham

Heh, love the 'Golf Club Storage' marking on that F/A-18. Graham

Yes, a Corgi EF2000! I love the Typhoon and being British, it's the plane I fly the most in the Ace Combat games. Will definitely be picking one up. Graham

I've never tried messing around with the forum software before, so I'm going to leave this one to Shawn to fix. I've already emailed him and if he hasn't fixed it in a day or two, I'll chase him with a phone call. Graham