AV-8B first look.

[NSA]

a fat black woman with liberal background?

With that kind of money? Sure.

 

[G.I.*EDDIE]

*disgruntled face*

There's nothing under my seat...

 

[Psycho Joe Guy]

There I plan to make good friends with the native hillbillies and learn the craft of living off the land and not society.

Ain't many of us left. All the damn Michigan and Ohio retirees have bought up most of the old farms and woods and turned them into subdivisions. Corny as it sounds, Hank Williams Jr's "A Country Boy Can Survive" has a pound of truth in 80's pop-country sound. I am taking the country BACK to the city. The DAY I moved into my city house nearly 13 years ago, there was a Redtailed Hawk sitting on top of my garage who looked at me as if to say, "Welcome buddy, we've been expecting you." My house is almost invisible to normal sat photography. I ain't hidin nothin;' I just like trees and critters...but not people.

If there's anything more disappointing than the existence of a 1:18 F-104 it would have to be a 1:18 F-35. I'm sorry, 5th gens are hideous, and I don't care what they may be capable of IRL.

The F-35 is a money pit of a turd that will very nearly cripple the US military, period. We have ALREADY lost the A-10 (yes, the Charlies) to keep the ocean of F-15C's at depth, and though it has been blamed on "the sequester," Lockheed Martin has been churning out F-35A's and B's AHEAD of schedule, even though none are even close to being combat certified.

Only 'test pilots' are allowed in F-35's on a regular basis, and China has their command link codes, but couldn't overcome the same software problems we're having, so they dumped the J-31, their low-rent copy, straight to export. The US has been losing serious real numbers of airframes since the mid 80's (Thank a former SecDef/VP unrepentant profiteer on US blood for that.) Not many people realize that ARMARC is supposed to be a rebuild-plant, not a graveyard for anything other than B-52's and C-141's.

Instead, Italian C-27's rolled straight off the assembly line and were dropped off at Davis Monthan and we have enough M1-A1/2/3's(which are STILL being built AND rebuilt) to PAVE most countries in armor, but no way to feed their thirsty turbines. The conspiracy nut in me says that's because they're intended for domestic deployment. The USAF is barely containing its glee at polishing its hard-on for turning F-16's into drones while its beloved Eagles are cracking spars from g-load and ALL units, active and training, are under maneuvering limits to keep them flying.

I'd pay $300 for this:

It only took Russia 30 years to copy it...poorly, but it IS one nice looking airframe.

I'm sure the USAF stops maintaining certain planes simply because they want them to fall apart and then they can show Congress that they, REALLY, REALLY "NEED" the F-35.

Bingo. They got the idea when the F-14 Tomcat was forced into retirement against the Navy's wishes to sell them MUCH lesser-capable Rhinos (that opinion was shared with me by a Rhino instructor pilot, who had flown Tomcats too, BTW). Now the Navy is stuck with buying MORE F/A-18E/F/G's to supplant the F-35C, the ONE variant LM is NOT turning out hand over fist.

Much depends on how much the service is willing to invest in, and stick with, an old aircraft. Old aircraft are not necessary more expensive and difficult to keep flying than new ones. The Huey is a good example. UH-1's remained in service for a LONG time because blade time and maintenance were significantly less costly than for Blackhawks and it was an established product. I find the adoption of the UH-72 to be ridiculous. It's basically doing the UH-1's job at the cost of producing a new helicopter. But the brass always wants shiny new toys. We don't like looking at "old" stuff because we assume "old" must mean "obsolete" or "inadequate".

God Bless the Corps for the Yankee Huey and Zulu Cobra. A Zulu is a better chopper than a Longbow Apache, but don't tell the Army; they'll take them away.

Which is why we will get pretty painted prototype pics, but no F-15 errr.... SU-27 ummmm.... I mean AV-8B.

R.I.P. beautiful SU-27.

Solid Gray paint job and red stars/bars = J-11. Give that thing a proper blue mottle and some big red stars on the stabs or at least paint the belly eggshell blue and call it an Su-30.

 

[K-Tiger]

Paint it whatever you like, JSI dumped their 21st molds to Trumpeter, so I bet JSI is out of the game. The Su-27UBK/J-11 will probably never exist as more than that prototype.

 

[Psycho Joe Guy]

Trumpeter = pay the same money for a model kit in 1:32 that 1:18 assembled and painted aircraft cost. I already have enough models to keep me busy until I die. I need to find whomever has that prototype and "encourage" its sale to someone who'll put it out.