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cerperal

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About cerperal

  • Birthday 19/09/2003

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  • Gender
    Male
  • Location
    Hampshire, UK
  • Interests
    1/72 British aircraft, 1/35 tanks, anything RAF

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  1. The Airfix tin wings are a joy to build with very nice decals and selection of stores, but there's a noticeable lack of panel detail and as others have noted the cockpits are pretty sparse - which to be fair is standard for your average 1/72 kit prior to the past few years. The Airfix SHARs go together nicely but especially in the case of the FRS.1 don't look particularly like Sea Harriers due to the completely wrong canopy shape (ironically it's correct in the ancient 1/48 SHARs). The Airfix kits are also still in 'new' circulation and are rather expensive - over £20 now new. If you wanted to build a plastic Harrier then the Airfix GR7/9 is by far the best kit of one. It's superb on all accounts.
  2. I'd imagine a not insignificant portion of those who would otherwise have gone into the services as anything from engineers to chefs now enrol at universities instead. As a country the education system is focused on sending as many people to get degrees as possible, so where in the 70s someone who wanted to be an engineer could join up at the local Raf station and spend their career hitting Harriers with a hammer nowadays the degree is everything - regardless of whether they have exceptional grades or not. Case in point - my dad fumbled his way through school and went into the Raf as soon as he could, becoming an electrical engineer. He'd probably have done an apprenticeship or lower level degree today instead - which is a bit of a sad thought to me. My plan was always uni first, then begging my way into the Chinook force as well. But then one of the other things hampering the modern military - incredibly stringent medical rules - scuppered that. There's obviously many, many other reasons. But that's my perspective as a current engineering student surrounded by people with absolutely no interest in the defence industry. I can't really add anything to what's already been said except that Typhoon and F-35 are so incredibly fused with the UK's economy, industry and operability that nothing else is an option. F-35 provides a platform a quantum leap ahead of the other aircraft you mentioned and aside from us building half the B we're committed to integrating our weapons and systems onto it, not to mention Typhoon is the superior aircraft to the rest of that list. Plus we don't have the capacity (or political climate within the forces, given recent news) to train god-knows-how-many pilots and certainly not to actually deploy them. Swarm drones are certainly looking like the future though, especially with Tempest. I was going to mention how this is all very off topic from the original Chinook point but given I've now added the longest comment I think I'll keep quiet. I doubt the Chinooks bought will be off the shelf, undoubtedly receiving a large overhaul in the UK to bring them up to HC7(?) standard. It's arguably the most important aircraft in the UK's fleet so I personally do not see a reality where the order is cancelled or reduced.
  3. Finally (what will hopefully be) an accurate RAF Chinook at a reasonable price. I shall be preordering mine to make sure they release some later models too. I'd be very happy with the releases this year if it was only this
  4. Apparently so! And complete with the classic box art
  5. Spitfire over Bradford-on-Avon last weekend was a welcome surprise. What wasn't was the helicopter fighting the wind last night and hovering over Bath for a good 3 hours. Anyone got any idea what it was doing? Doubt it was police given it clearly didn't have skids.
  6. What FAST really needs is its own dedicated spot. A completely new build, like Aerospace Bristol. It has such a wealth of artifacts, parts and documents and most importantly history that it is a travesty to be relegated to a small old building and tent, no matter how brilliant it is to visit. Obviously this won't happen, but it would give a lot of these so-called surplus aircraft a chance to return to their real home. This just reminds me of what's happened with Duxford's ground warfare hall. RAFM and IWM are the only places with space, and the only ones who don't want them.
  7. Last I heard those Challengers were basically left to rot in storage and would take significant work to get operational. Purely rumours I must admit, but I wouldn't be surprised if they're true. As an aside for previous replies - I believe the Rh120 is able to be fitted into Challenger 2 with relatively few modifications, so I wouldn't expect ammunition to be the issue given the Ukrainian track record of bodging things. CR3 entering service in 2025 currently is still a pipe dream, not that she wouldn't be ready but because the MoD have actually pulled their fingers out and allowed for proper testing. 2026 maybe - the program is ahead of schedule and I've personally seen her several times down at Bovvy. But I also think we'll see an increase in the number produced, decreasing the number available to Ukraine. Or that would be the case if the CR3s weren't mainly being built from CR2s in storage in Germany.
  8. I agree with everything you've said bar this. I don't like this rhetoric that's appeared, originally from Vatniks that has seemingly spread into Western circles, that somehow the Ukrainians don't know how to use their tanks. It was especially prevalent when the first images of the Leopards knocked out appeared. It's just categorically not true, according to Western sources and the Ukrainians themselves they're being particularly careful with Western equipment and I think the idea of them charging mindlessly towards the Russian border is frankly an insult to the Ukrainian forces. I suspect a similar thing will occur here as with the Leopards - wild speculation, criticism of Ukrainian use, and then the truth that it was hit by a mine and then focused by artillery will come out. The crews and tacticians aren't idiots, losses will occur as we all know. But the fact 1 Challenger has been lost while spearheading the counterattack at Rotodyne should be less of a focus than the 13 that haven't
  9. A little birdy told me that they are planning on slowly producing more kits in the UK. The new Spitfire was a resounding success financially wise that was greatly helped by them being home-produced, but looking at timelines the Sea King would have started development before the Spitfire released and so it was likely less of a certain thing.
  10. Interesting. Certainly an underrespresented airframe given its numerous appearances throughout popculture. Wonder if they'll mould the tail as fully detachable and throw in a nice Martlet to go with it.
  11. Interesting, I wasn't expecting anything else after the Seafire given it seemed like that was the extra surprise they hinted at before. Heard lots of rumours from several places though, so exciting stuff if it's any of those... which it obviously won't 😁
  12. About £60 new, if I'm remembering right from my old toy shop Saturday job. Most go nowadays for upwards of 130-150 on [unnamed auction site]. This is unrelated (apologies) but I saw the Airfix 1/24 Mossie for £170 at Tankfest, and the AH-7 for £40. So it would seem those early-2010s kits are reappearing again at more reasonable prices, here's hoping for more Merlins.
  13. If you mean the one now in the VCC at Bovvy, the T-55 you're talking about doesn't have ERA - it's a crude attempt at adding composite armour onto an outdated design. Obviously not much use against a CHARM round!
  14. Airfix's 1/48 Merlin, which is unfortunately rather rare and expensive now, produces a fantastic model OOTB. Admittedly it's bloomin' huge and only builds the old RAF aircraft but it's gold standard for detail and construction.
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