Nils's 1/144 aircraft build series

[Spey_Phantom]

ok, made this one this weekend, but it was a real pain the bum, turned out to to good

F/A-18C Hornet, Armee De L'air, Patrouille De France, 1994.

Following a decission to replace the Mirage III, 5 and F-8 Crusader, the French ministery of defence stated that in an effort to reduce costs, the new aircraft has to be used by both the Air Force (replace Mirage III & 5) and the Navy (replace F-8 Crusader). Dassault was asked to accelerate the developemtn of the Rafale, but the production model was still 8 years away from becoming operational. as a stop-gap sollution, the MoD place an order for 150 F/A-18C/D Hornets (120 for the Armee De L'air and 30 for the Aeronavale) these were devided in 8 squadrons.

in 2000, the French demostration team, the Patrouille De France was looking for a replacement for there Alpha Jets for the duration of the 2000 airshow season, as these aircraft were sheduled for overhaul and upgrade. as a temporary sollution, 6 F-18C's and 2 -D's were painted up in the teams colors. the pilots who flew them said it was much better the the Alpha Jet in maneuvrability, accelaration and performance. the PDF used the hornet from 2000 to 2002, until it was replaced by the Rafale-B/C.

Model: Revell F/A-18C
Decals: Revell Alpha Jet

[Slerski]

And now... Maybe you can do PAF's Rafale ? Your F/A-18 looks very nice by the way (but what can be the French designation ? Frelon was an helicopter...  )

[su27rules]

Nice scheme on that Hornet!!

[ChernayaAkula]

Liking all this! Lots! 

For some strange reason, my mental eye now sees an NH90 in USN high-viz livery and an Alpha Jet with AGM-84 Harpoons from the Hornet kit! 

Think Revell seriously needs to re-pop the 1/144 NH90. 

[McColm]

Great work

[James]

Keep up the superb work Nils. Love the Swedish Tonka btw. 

[Spey_Phantom]

SU-25 Frogfoot, Khemed Emiri Air Force, Wadesdah AFB, 1989.

In July 1985, the KEAF launched a competition to replace the elderly DH Turbo Mosquito's in the Close Air Support/ground attack role. that competition was wan in 1986 by the Sukhoi Su-25. an order was placed for 30 aircraft with deliveries starting in end 1987 to mid 1989.

the Su-25's were based at Wadesdah AFB near the capital and Djebel AFB in the east of the country.
in April 2011, followers of the Bahb el Ehr rebelion movement siezed control of the nation. defence force personel, loyal to sheik Abdallah Khaliz Ezab, fled the country, taking with them what was airworthy at the time. equipment that fled to Qatar include 2 SU-27's, 12 Su-25's, 2 CE-2C's, 8 Mi-171's and 20 JA-37 Viggens, equipent that was left behind was quickly dismantled to prevent the rebels from using it.
at the same time, another 8 SU-25's were in Tblisi, Georgia undergoing overhaul and an avionics upgrade, these would soon join the other 12 fledged frogfoots, allong with a multinational UN peace force, in an attempt to recapture the country and deal with the Bahb El Erh movement once and for all.

Model: Academy Su-25
Decals: custom

(NEXT TIME: KEAF JA37 Viggen, FAC E-2C Hawkeye)

[ChernayaAkula]

Utterly brilliant, that!

[NARSES2]

Your getting good at this small stuff Nil's   

Su 25 is fantastic 

[McColm]

Thanks for your models, I might have a crack making some 1/144 kits.

[Spey_Phantom]

E-2C Hawkeye, Flemish Air Command, Koksijde AB 2006

following a terrorist attack by an unknown bomber version of an AN26 cargo aircraft, NATO was blamed for the lack of radar cover over the BeNeLux region of Europe, with an AWACS coverage gap of 3 hours. the terrorists used that gap in the cover to perform there attack.

shortly after, the Waloon, Flemish, Luxembourg and Dutch Ministries of Defence had a emergency meeting on the subject and found that there at least 2 3-hour gaps everyday. it was decided that having an own AWACS cover was the best way to go, taking the stress of the NATO E-3's and providing a 24/7 AWACS coverage over the countries.
looking for a small, affordable and capable aircraft AEW aircraft, they decided to jointly buy 4 ex-US Navy E-2C Hawkeye aircraft. 2 for Flanders and 2 for the RNLAF. the first Flemish hawkeye arrived in March 2006, the second followed in januari 2007. the FAC E-2C's primarily patrol Flemish and Walloon airspace, while the Dutch patrol the Dutch and Luxembourg areas. later the pool was changed that both forces would fly 4 6-hour shifts, covering all 4 nations.

in april 2011, France, Flanders and the Netherland jointly signed an agreement to upgrade there E-2C Hawkeyes to E-2D Advance Hawkeye standard, upgrades include a new radar, 8-bladed props (for FAC and RNLAF machines) new operator consoles, better processors and cooling systems,....

Model: Revell 1/144 E-2C Hawkeye
Decals: Kit + custom

(next, i dont know yet...)

[McColm]

That's great, just got the 1/72 Hawkeye 2000 E-2C yesterday.

[Spey_Phantom]

thanks everyone, other 1/144 builds are coming, but at a more slowed down pace 
furthermore, i have decided to have a little microscopic conversion attempt.
im gonna try to convert a revell 1/144 SA330 Puma into a AS332 Super Puma, most important modification will be the extention of the fuselage by moving the cockpit forward about 7mm (plug made from styrene card and putty).

pics to follow sometime tomorrow 

[Spey_Phantom]

as promised, here's a picture, ive moved the cockpit forward and fitted a 7mm long extention to the front fuselage (scale calculated from info found on the web). same will go for the bottom.
the plug is made with sheet styrene, with a coat of revell plasto on top for shaping, still needs to be sanded down 

[Eddie M.]

Very nice!