Vifam7

You could maybe put on a lightup gimmck on old pre-thermal sight era tanks like the M48 and early M60 tanks that had the Xenon searchlights installed above the main gun. But that's about it. The lightup head gimmick on this statue is indeed dumb.

Since I did not purchase the DX Chogokin VF-1S, the Metal Structure Nu Gundam, the SoC DairuggerXV, or any of the Metal Builds, I treated myself to this awesome thing.

Awesome! What scale and brand is that Abrams tank? Might have to get one myself.

Hobby Master. 1/72 scale. You can get it here: https://www.flyingmule.com/products/HM-HA19011

My most recent acquisition

Personally, I would deny, deny, deny! Kids crave what they can't have! And when they become adults, I'm hoping for a backlash where they try to get back at me by buying their own collection! . . . j/k

I could've gone into Hot Wheels collecting but I realized early on that they didn't really fit my tastes. Pretty much gave away the 100 or so I had collected. Decided to mainly stick to Tomica Limited Vintage and the occasional Kyosho for 1/64.

I saw Nine-0-Nine first hand many years ago. Even climbed inside and checked out all the crew positions. Really sad and tragic news this is. Lives lost and a rare WWII classic destroyed.

What's the scale size of that Swordfish?

If you want to use a pen type panel liner, then GM20 Black, GM21 Gray, or the "Real Touch" markers should be safe. AFAIK, these are the ones that use water-based acrylic type ink.

Here's my collection of 1/64 diecast cars. Mostly Tomica Limited Vintage Neo and Kyosho. How many can you identify?

It's probably also a big wasting of money due to inefficiency. India could probably shave their inventory into 2 or 3 fighter aircraft types. There's plenty of well-proven fighter jets out there with plenty of service life years ahead and extensive support. The fact that they have 7 different fighter/strike aircraft types suggests rampant corruption, lack of committment, and/or years of not having a clear plan for their air force.

2 notes. 1. The USAF has never objected to nor neglected the CAS mission. Just because they don't want the A-10 doesn't mean they object to doing the CAS mission. It's a fallacy. 2. Even if the Army took the A-10s and AC-130s and setup it's own fixed-wing air division, it won't make a difference. Ever since the Goldwater-Nichols Act of 1986, the individual services do not conduct it's own war activities. As such, all air assets (USAF, USN, etc) are now under the control of a regional command (such as USCENTCOM during ODS) tasked to complete its mission. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goldwater%E2%80%93Nichols_Act

The problem with the Super Tomcat 21 is that it wouldn't have solved the heavy maintenance issues inherent to the Tomcat, the huge costs per plane, the increase in weight on a already super heavy fighter, the lack of any stealth features, and the disadvantages of variable-geometry wings in terms of agility. While it's unfortunate that the Super Tomcat 21 never happened, in retrospect I think the Navy made the right choice in purchasing the Super Hornet.

My camera from 2007 started acting funny last year as well. Purchased a brand new one earlier this year once I learned that the RAF Red Arrows were making a North American tour. Went to the NY Airshow at Stewart Int'l Airport last weekend. My 3 best pics of the day. 2 of them are of the B-25.

Also: "infamous Skull Squadron" ?

Just make sure your camera is charged up and there's plenty of storage space in the memory card. The Boeing factory doesn't allow any cameras, including smartphones, inside though.

Just a few shots of comparing my recently built Hasegawa model to the newly released Calibre Wings diecast. The VF-1 in light gray is the Hasegawa. The Vf-1 in white is the Calibre Wings. My Hasegawa sits a little higher because I fitted F/A-18 Hornet wheels. If I had used the wheels in the kit, it would sit more in line with the Calibre.

I think the difficulty in finding a replacement for the A-10 is trying to figure out what kind of wars the USAF is expected to fight in the future and whether it wants a lower cost replacement to the A-10 or higher cost/spec replacement to the A-10. If the USAF is expected to fight in more low-intensity conflicts where the opposition has little to no anti-aircraft missiles or fighter aircraft force, then the choice is to buy something like the A-29 Super Tucano. If the USAF is expected to fight an enemy that has a credible fighter aircraft force or sophisticated SAM systems, then the choice may be to buy more F-35s. The A-10 is sort of in between. It's overkill for going after jihadists on camels and pickup trucks, but too vulnerable to fly in areas where there are enemy fighters or SAMs. Since it's hard to make the decision on the replacement, perhaps it's just as well that the A-10 goes on for another decade or 2.

Yeah, I would say that this kit is not for the beginner. The hardest part of building this kit is getting the motivation to start the kit and keeping the motivation to work on it. There are just so many things to work on, it's hard to get motivated and once you start, it's easy to lose the motivation due to the seeming lack of progression. Just too easy to get sidetracked by Bandai's gunpla and other snap-fit kits. That said, I'm now working on the Bandai re-pop of the old Imai 1/72 transformable kit. My goal is to put together a lineup of fighter mode VF-1S Valkyries from every manufacturer that made it in 1/72 scale.

I did it. I finally completed my 1/72 Hasegawa VF-1S. This is a kit that I started 7 or 8 years ago. When I first started on this build, I had a number of Gundam kits and ancient Arii 1/100 VF-1S fighter kit under my belt. Thus, I was feeling somewhat confident in being able to take on a Hasegawa kit. Initially, it went well. I got up to a point where the forward fuselage, main body, and legs were put together. But then I started painting some of the built up sub-assemblies and noticed areas that needed more filling and sanding. In addition, I messed up with the painting. The attempt to strip the paint off did not go well and so I started a 2nd Hasegawa VF-1 kit. After building another forward fuselage and pair of legs again, I got tired and completely lost interest in completing the kit. What was done was boxed up and put on the shelf with a promise to come back to it sometime in the future. Then, last year, Calibre Wings announced a diecast version of the VF-1 in 1/72 scale. With that in mind, I decided that I wanted to finish the Hasegawa kit so that I can put it next to the Calibre Wings model and compare them. I pulled out that 2nd kit that I started and began work. And now it is completed! Over the years, I've gained some skills in kit building but it's still not anywhere near what others on this board can accomplish. I painted the main body with Tamiya AS-16 USAF light gray. Instead of using the supplied decals, the black on the tail and both colors on the ventral fins were painted. The black trim stripes on the rear engine section (ie. the legs) were also painted . There was still a lot of decals to put on. While not the craziest amount ever, it's certainly the most of amount of decal work that I've ever done on a kit. Thankfully, the quality of the decals is good (unlike some other kits I worked on in the past). The most difficult part was getting the yellow stripe on the back to conform over the speedbrake. It just wasn't happening for me so I resorted to painting that area. The one thing I did not use from the kit were the landing gear wheels. The wheels included with the kit were so small, thin, and under-detailed that they looked ridiculous. I threw them out and swapped in aftermarket F/A-18 Hornet wheels. I think they really improve the look of the undercarriage. That said, the kit does build into a superb looking VF-1 Valkyrie. The level of panel-line and rivet detail is amazing (something that perhaps only Hasegawa could do to a kit of a fictional aircraft). And to be honest, I am just proud of finally completing this kit. A few more photos below. Canopy looks a bit cloudy due to my poor buffing skills. The panel-line detail is a bit washed out due to lighting, me using a very light gray color for the panel-lining, and these photos being taken via my phone camera (Galaxy S8). Bigger size pics, a few additional pics, and a slightly longer review can be seen here: https://wingedtoys.blogspot.com/2019/08/172-hasegawa-macross-vf-1s-valkyrie.html

If I had to choose just one favorite anime, it would probably be Aim for the Top! Gunbuster. I've watched this anime countless times yet it draws me in everytime and gives me "all the feels". Not to mention the beautiful animation, fantastic action scenes, wonderful music, Mikimoto at his prime, and one of my favorite voice actress, Hidaka Noriko, as the main heroine. Other top anime favorites include Macross: DYRL, Nausicaa, Porco Rosso, the original Area 88 OAVs, and the 0079 Gundam movies. As for manga, my all-time favorite is Hojo Tsukasa's City Hunter. Other favorites include Adachi Mitsuru's Touch and Miyuki, Takahashi Rumiko's Maison Ikkoku and Urusei Yatsura. Admittedly, all of my choices are old school titles from the 20th century. It's not that I don't like the modern titles from the 21st century. It's just that over the years, my tastes have somewhat changed and so it's easier to list the old school favorites (because those are the ones that stood the test of time the longest). Of the 21st century anime titles, I'd say Noir, Girls & Panzer, Yurucamp, and SSSS Gridman are up there. For 21st Century manga titles, favorites currently include Namori's Yuruyuri, Tanigawa Niko's Watamote, Takatsu Karino's Working! , Yanagida Fumita's Tomo-chan is a Girl!, and Mountain Pukuichi's Tamayomi.

There's plenty of 3rd party wateslide decals out there. Just go to Ebay and search "Macross decal". There's one Macross decal sheet that's scaled to 1/96 so it might be a perfect fit for HMRs.

The Super Hornet deputy program manager believed differently. https://yarchive.net/mil/fa18_vs_a6.html With regards to the tanker role, both the Super Hornet and KA-6D carry about same amount of fuel that they can buddy transfer. Approximately 16,000lbs. The advantage with the Super Hornet tanker is that it can keep up speed-wise with a strike package and perhaps go along all the way and back.

Here are the comparison pics. Top to bottom - Calibre, Kitz Concept, Bandai I haven't really compared the pilot figures but here's a pic showing the Calibre Roy (left) and the KC Roy (right) sitting in the cockpits. I think the KC figure is better painted but he's very loose in the cockpit. The Calibre figure is secure in the cockpit but it is a bit fiddly to put in due to the long legs. You'll need a toothpick to guide Roy's legs into the Calibre cockpit.