Nils's 1/144 aircraft build series

[RPadavan2]

Very nice!  I too will be keeping an eye on this build!

[Spey_Phantom]

MIG-35 Fulcrum-F (Super Fulcrum), Russian Air Force, N/R-JOC, Zhukovski 18.03.2012.

the NATO/Russian Joint Operations Command (N/R-JOC) was established in august 2005, with the intention of the Russian Federation to work more closely together with its NATO counterparts in international piece keeping missions. during early joint exercises, it became clear that the biggest problem was was the incompatibility of the Russian Air Force's communications and datalink equipment with that of the NATO forces.

upgrading the entire force with more compatible eqiupment was to expensive, so the Kremlin has decided that all new aircraft as of mid-2005 should be equiped with an international- and NATO compatibal radio's and datalinks.

as part of Russia's modernisation plan, an order was placed for 326 MIG-35's in late 2010, these would be delivered in a standard comparible with that offered to India. the first units were delivered in july 2011. in early tests and exercises, the aircraft showed great performance and full NATO compatibility, making cooperation within an multinational strike force much easier.

Model: modified Revell MIG-29A, modified with cockpit, canopy of a revell F/A-18D
Decals: Revell MIG-29A











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TF-104S+, RNVLM, Louiseveld AB, November 2011.

ordered by the Republic of New Flanders Air Force in August 2011, the F-104S+ is the last version of lockheeds famous "manned rocket".
it was ordered by the RNVLM to fullfill in emergency intereim air defence requirement, following a reduction in the EF2000 force deu to budget cuts and the MoD's wish to have 2-tier fighter force. the order consist of 12 F-104S+ and 2 TF-104S+ trainers.

externally, the TF-104S+ looks similar to the older TF-104G once operated by the RNVLM, but inside its a whole new aircraft, featuring an APG-65V3 Radar, fully digital glass cockpit, GPS Navigation systems,....
the J-79 engine has been replaced with a P&W F-100 engine, witch gives the aircraft more thrust, lower maintainance costs, lower feul consumption and a greater range. the 2 TF-104S+ were delivered in mid-september 2011, in order to commence pilot conversion training in anticipation of the arrival of the first single-seater fighters in november/december 2011.

model: Revell TF-104G, from the boneyard
decals: DIY

[saintkatanalegacy]

Just gotta love the dual seat short nose cone fulcrum

[Spey_Phantom]

SAAB JAS-39E Gripen-BE, Belgian Air Force,
31 Squadron, Kleine Brogel, april 2019.

in 2012, Belgium started looking for a replacememnt for the F-16, former minister of Defence, Pieter De Crem, offially stated that he would prefer the Lockheed F-35A Lightning II with no competition, but due to problems in the development and raising procurement and maintainance costs have forced the Belgians to look elsewhere and so a competition got started.
types that ware being offered are the SAAB Gripen-NG, Eurofighter Typhoon, Dassault Rafale, F/A-18E/F Super Hornet,....

SAAB is proposing a tailored version of the Gripen-NG, designated Gripen-BE (version for Belgium). features made specially for the Belgians include the NORA-NG AESA Radar, an uprated GE F414 engine, improved link16 data link, a SCALP/Storm Shadow and JSOW compatibility,...
Belgium has a requirement for up to 48 new fighters, and SAAB is one of the more favorited as it offers the Gripen-BE at a decently low price and reduce life cycle costs, ideal for a shoestring budget defence like Belgium. the new fighter is expected to enter service between 2020 and 2025.

Model: Revell 1/144 JAS-39A (from the boneyard) with scratchbuild modifications, feul tanks from a scrapped revell/dragon F-16C,...
decals: DIY

model is made up as the marketing model used by SAAB in 2013, displayed at the Beauvechain Air Show of that year.
i know its not the best gripen model out there but its the best i could do with current resources,
maybe when Academy releases there new 1/144 gripen i will make a better one  

this is the first model in a series i like to call "Belgian AF 2025"

[Spey_Phantom]

with the 1/144 workspace clearing up now, its time to reveal the next 3 builds, these will be build simultaniously to cut time (and reduce stash).
one will become a Belgian Air Force Rafale-C, 2nd a Walloon Rafale-C and the 3rd will be an RS06 solo display aircraft (also a Rafale-C, from FS2004 model)

[Hobbes]

Nice builds Nils.
On the Gripen, I wonder if there's room to lower the undercarriage with the LGBs in that position...

[Spey_Phantom]

F/A-18A Hornet, Royal New Zeeland Air Force.
No.2 Squadron, Ohakea, 2006

in 2001, the RNZAF began looking for a replacement for the aging A-4K Skyhawk.
due to budget cuts, the selection were to be secondhand aircraft. types being evaluated were ex-french Mirage 2000, ex-USAF F-16's and F/A-18's.
in 2003, it was decided to buy 12 F/A-18 hornets from US Navy stocks (9 F/A-18A's and 3 F/A-18B's), in 2005 an additional 10 aircraft were ordered from ex-Canadian stocks (9 CF-18A and 1 CF-18B).
the reasn the RNZAF chose the F/A-18 is the fact that they already have some experience with the aircraft, with cooperation of the Royal Australian Air Force, so that would make training and joint operation much easier and the RNZAF would have acces to a spare parts supply from RAAF operators.
all 22 Hornets were upgraded to an MLU Standard prior to delivery (ssame standard as the RAAF Hornets)

Model: Revell F/A-18C (salvaged from the boneyard), with sparrow/amraam from old revell EFA90
Decals: DIY

next models planned: HMS Courageous's airwing (Rafale's have been moved to the later-list)
i got some more 1/144 models planned, but some are Real World.

whiffs planned for the near future are:
-Various F/A-18E/F's
-RAF Tornado F.3 (in 74 (F) Squadron markings)
-2 F-22A Raptors (1 in RAF markings, 1 in USAFE 32TFS markings)
-EF2000 Typhoon (Belgian Air Force)

[Spey_Phantom]

just finished this one this morning  

REAL WORLD ALERT

F-15C Eagle, USAFE, 32nd Tactical Fighter Squadron.
Soesterberg, The Netherlands, 1996

allong side is an older (one of my first models) F-15, witch it wil replace.
the old eagle might be scrapped or recycled one a future Whiff  
this model is a realword, but its the seed to a future whiff (in witch the unit is not disbanded, but re-equiped with F-22's)
also note my new scratchbuild Shopf F59 aircraft towing tractor (easy to build, but the cutting of the sheet styrene in this scale is a nightmare  )

Model: Revell F-15 Eagle (tractor, scratchbuild)
Decals: DIY

[Spey_Phantom]

before looking on what to start next, i thought i would give you a preview of one of the future build projects, known as "Project: Spectre".
the purpose is to create a new lightweigt tailless stealth fighter to supplement the F-35, only difference is its cheaper (reqirements similar to that of the F-5 Freedomfighter/tiger II)

ive got 2 old revell F-19 Stealth Fighters in the stash, but the thing is i never liked the inwards canted tailplanes of the F-19, as shown below:



what im gonna do is this, if Northrop bought the cancelled F-19 designs from Lockheed, and developed it into a new lightweight fighter, to compete with the JSF, i figured it would look something like this  
im gonna be looking at building 2 of these, 1 in USAF markings, and another in export customer markings (possibly Dutch).
next to the redesigned wing (canted à la X-36), im gonna remove the narrow weapons bay and fit it with a larger one with double the capacity.
as for ordanance, i havent quite thought that far ahead yet, but i think a few JDAM's would do the trick  



now that i think of it, kinda reminds me of UCAV "Tin man" EDI 

[Geoff]

, ..........."2nd a Walloon Rafale-C......."

I was wondering what your Walloon roundels would look like? I was going to use the red and yellow parts of the Belgian roundel for the Walloons, and the yellow and black parts for Flanders.

[McColm]

Great work
Great ideas

[Spey_Phantom]

thanks everyone,

ive decided to freeze the Rafales for a while, and concentrate on the on/off again carrier build.
i also like to start building something for the Time warp Theme Build.
but before all that, i gotta finish a few projects that have been on the bench for some time, such as my turboprop Grumman Widgeon,....

right now, there are 3 1/144 Superbugs currently under assembly (1 RNVLM, 1 Droopyspotter and 1 Danish), these should be finished by tonight.
until  then, here's a pic of the assembly line 

[Spey_Phantom]

currently under construction, a navalised Tornado F.3, the first aircraft for my HMS Courageous carrier.
the basekit itsself is a Dragon/DML Tornado F.3, nosewheel is from a Dragon F/A-18E/F, tailhook (not visible) is from a revell 1/144 Rafale-M.

this aircraft will be painted up in 899 squadron markings and will be armed with 4 AIM-9L's and 4 AIM-120's

[Spey_Phantom]

Panavia Sea Tornado F.Mk.1, 899 NAS, Fleet Air Arm, Yeovilton 2001.

in 1979, the Royal Navy started to operate 2 new large aircraft carriers (HMS Queen Elisabeth and HMS Prince of Wales, aka CVA-01) and had just placed an order for 2 lighter fleet carriers to replace the older centaur-class carriers (HMS Courageous and HMS Invincible).

to equip the 4 new carriers, the Fleet Air Arm issued a request for a new multirole combat aircraft to replace the F-4K/M Phantom and the DH Sea Vixen in the fleet defence role and the Buccaneer S.2 in the strike role. the Sea Jaguar, developed jointly with france was deemed to light for the requirement and France prefered its own Super Etendard.

BAe came with an idea and proposed a navalised version of the Tornado, witch was also offered to Germany. after evaluating the land based versions for the RAF, the Royal Navy agreed that the aircraft was right for the job, and in 1981 placed an order for 60 aircraft (20 Sea Tornado F.1's and 40 Sea Tornado GR.2's). the order was later increased by a further 40 aircraft in 1986 (to replace the last buccaneers).

the first Sea Tornado F.1's were delivered in 1982, but came to late to see action in the falklands conflict. the aircraft got its first baptism to fire during the 1991 gulf war in Iraq, where it operated from the carrier HMS Queen Elisabeth and allied US Supercarriers.
in total the F.1 shot down 6 enemy aircraft that were heading for the british carrier group, including 3 Iraqi Super Etendards.

the pilots nicknamed the Sea Tornado as "The Tonka(t)", with the (t) refering the name to the US Navy's F-14 Tomcat fighters.

in 2001, the aircraft were upgraded with new avionics, better ECM kits, Link16 datalink and inegration of the AIM-120 amraam to replace the skyflash. with the withdrawal of the CVA-01 class carriers in 2010 due to budget cuts, the number of F.1's were reduced from 20 to 14, with 10 aircraft at sea at any time. the Sea Tornado F.1 is expected to stay i service until 2016, when it will be replaced by the Sea Typhoon FGR.1 and F-35K Lighting FG.1 (F-35C).

Model: Dragon/DML Tornado F.3, modified with parts from an F/A-18E/F and Rafale-M
Decals: Kit + DIY









EDIT: forgot a minor detail, the serial on the nose  , fixed that.

[Slerski]

The Tonkat  I like that