TheyJammedKenny!

Really nice in every respect. It's so delicately done, and the paint colors lightened to show subtleties and texture. Now all you need are three-five more C-47s parked nearby, along with paras, and you can have a whole airborne company "chalk."

With significant caveats. For example, the USSR refused to allow Poland to build a supersonic trainer, roughly equivalent to the T-38. Excellent discussion, by the way. Lots of relevant material I was unaware of.

Now you're talking.

That would be an interesting an unexpected development, if true. With whom did you communicate, and how did they frame their answer? Mikromir has been working on a York for about four years and we've yet to see anything from that project.

Nice job on this. Does the BPK part fit when you cut down the forward part of the nose on the Heller kit? That's how I would approach it. It looks much better than the original Heller part, besides. Heller's windscreen is too tall. The 707/727/737 windshield is more "squinty." Now, if you were really hard core, you'd cut the fuselage just aft of the cockpit area and lower it by about 4mm to line up the windscreen with the passenger window line, another detail Heller got wrong. But you're against the clock on this one. For a similar project as yours, I would require 18 months start-to-finish.

I detect some well-grounded skepticism... Would you suggest that modelers not put down payment on a pre-order? It's about $50, depending on the Zloty exchange rate.

I thought the main criminals in Polish society during the 80s were the PZPR and ZOMO! These are small fry in comparison. Interesting footage, though, especially with the props blowing the air stairs over when pushed to "taxi" setting. Back to the topic: look, if we compare even by the standards of 1960, we're talking about a 7,000lb (3200kg) difference in empty weight between two identically-sized aircraft. Performance-wise, the Friendship could reach 50' altitude at 3,500 feet of runway; the AN-24 needed an entire 5,000 feet to do the same. The AN-24 guzzled fuel in an obscene way, even by 1960 standards, reflecting the USSR's sense of economics as an oil producer. We're also accepting the need to squeeze four beefy Russians or other East/Central Europeans in a tight cockpit to do the work of two pilots on a Friendship, so higher payroll costs. Is there really a need for a flight engineer? A navigator? It's a make-work program. That was bad enough for the USSR, but when it was imposed on the USSR's unwilling accomplices, such as Poland, it was a disaster. Poland, Bulgaria, and the whole lot did not need to operate over vast stretches of Siberian wasteland, with navigators trying to tune in on an elusive HF or LF signal to find their way to Novosibirsk (a closed city, anyway--why were they flying there?) other pleasant locations.

Not a fueled one, certainly. There is a special loading vehicle for Bloodhound that nobody produces, and it works similarly to the Mandator loader for the Blue Steel.

Two easy! I'm in with several potential projects. Thanks!

Nice! That's a serious paint job.

Nice use of a container lid! It looks great. One suggestion, depending on your tolerance for pain: the rain cover material on the land rover was originally delivered in the same color as the rover itself--RAF Blue Grey--and faded quickly to a grey with bluish tint. Of course, you could always say the rain cover came out of stockpiles bound for Aden, and therefore a replacement for damaged hardware.

Gentlemen, please! The real question: Are you going to build this kit? If so, why? If not, why not? For me, it's about aesthetics, so the temptation is there, but hasn't risen high enough to put me over the threshold.

On the basis of cabin comfort for passengers, internal cabin volume including cabin height, and quality of workmanship overall. It's also a gas guzzler with higher empty weight, indicating a typical Soviet preference for conservative design/manufacturing.

Interesting! It's a poor cousin of the Friendship...REALLY poor. On the other hand, the parts breakdown doesn't look bad. Didn't the original release break the fuselage into four or even six components? That was a showstopper for me.

Me too! Is anyone here in touch with A-Model/Sova-M? Anyway, I'm excited that the "Bandit" is about to become a reality, because, as @Middo wrote, it has lots of possibilities. So small, though!

Brilliant! Does the company also have land rovers available? If so, I'm sold.

Nicely done Tridents. Of the two, I'd say the X-Scale is the more accurate in shape, especially around the nose.

Rob: great job. What did you learn by using the MRP paints? How did you thin them? At what pressure did you spray them?

The JT-8 would do just fine, thank you, were it not for NIH (Not Invented Here).

I agree on the 1/72 scale-up idea. The trouble is finding someone who can do a competent design/execution and be willing to make sales of fewer than 500. If VAC is the way to go, that may be the only option. If someone has already rendered this as a CAD, that's a good start, but lots of work needed to render into something that can be broken down into components suitable for low-pressure injection-molding.

Very nicely done! Do you remember which Tintin adventure featured the Ground Grabber? Was it the one set in Scotland?

Does the Mirage need to be "real?" How about a Mirage IIICJ (J for Jugoslavija!) in spurious JRV markings? It would be a WHIFF.

Of course. This is all quite true, but let's let our fellow modelers have fun with this! The whole theme of this GB suggests a degree of creative play. I intend to make Mk.2 conversions myself, and the biggest hurdle is with the radome, which is a conical shape, rather than the elongated ogival shape of the Mk.1. The Type 82 radar will also be a challenge, but not a huge one.

Very impressive project. Now all you need is a Wasp. As for .50's, you are spoiled for choice. Just be sure to cut off the barrel-changing handle, if there is one, because modern M2s lack these.

This is the thinking of a madman. That thought has occurred to me, too, but I lack the space and requisite skills! I'm all in on this project. It looks completely insane, and your attention to detail is amazing. You might wish to down-gear the screws so the ship isn't moving at FLANK all the time...