Captain Condor

The Aki kit may still be available direct from Aki. I got one last year by emailing them but it is still horrendously expensive, especially when you get stung for duties and parcelforce's exorbitant charges.

I am currently battling with the Zlinek boxing of the VES Su-15 kit which my wife got for me late last year when she was in Russia. It does seem to have disappeared from many of the sites since then. Some of the casting is a bit iffy even compared to the VES castings, the main wheels for instance are unusable but luckily replaceable with after market ones. Some of the seat was also missing but I had a resin seat ready for it. The main castings for the fuselage appear ok and the front fuselage castings went together quite well. I am hoping to make up Blue 23 using the Mig-23 cannon pod. For some strange reason the Su-15 kit was more expensive than the Su-24 but still less than 1000 roubles which at that time was around £10. I also have the Gran boxing of the Su-15 which has a lot of flash on it though the castings themselves seem slightly better than the Zlinek ones.

For the Su-24 the Strim kit is still available in Russia boxed as a Zlinek kit. The transparencies are different and there are no decals but the kit itself is the same molding. I have both versions and have compared them. The price in Russia is just over £10 at current exchange rates if you can find a shop to send one over. Below are a couple of shops which have them. I have used both in the past but only for deliveries to a Russian address. http://www.hobbyforyou.ru/catalog/4541-35836.html http://model-ka.ru/products/frontovoj-bombardirovschik-vvs-rossii-su-24m-strim-172

Managed to find the identity of this aircraft. It is the third production SU-15TM (0315304) which was modified to test the installation of the Mig-23 gun pod and is now preserved at Zhukovskiy. The airframe number can be seen on the inside of one of the undercarriage doors. Thanks again to everyone for help.

Looking at the pictures and at other installations the Mig-23 installation looks the closest. The back of the fairing looks much the same so I will go along with the Mig-23 gun pod and assume the front was also the same. From what I can see of the details they certainly look the same. Thanks for all the suggestions.

Probably not as the Fencer is equipped with a single multi barrel cannon. The twin 23mm cannon pods fitted on most SU-15s and supplied in the SU-15 kits are much deeper than this installation. Allegedly the fixed cannons were only fitted to very few SU-15s.

I have seen pictures of an SU-15 with fixed belly mounted cannons in a special mounting. Unfortunately the front of the mounting is missing from the pictures. http://walkarounds.airforce.ru/avia/rus/sukhoi/su-15tm/ds_su-15tm_025.jpg http://walkarounds.airforce.ru/avia/rus/sukhoi/su-15tm/ds_su-15tm_024.jpg Has anyone seen any pictures with the complete installation showing the front fairing?

With regard to the Amusing Hobby version and when it might be available this is the answer I got from HLJ this week. Dear, Thank you for writing. According to the importer, Amusing Hobby is up and running just fine, but they did not know when Amusing Hobby can release the Conqueror tank. When we receive the news about the Conqueror, we will be definitely accepting pre-orders for it! Hope this helps! Best Regards, Kunihiko Matsugu HobbyLink Japan

Seen the release date in China for the Meng T-10m is 23/05/2015.

Anyone heard anything as to when the above might be released?

Thanks guys.

Anyone know if the Panda and Amusing Hobby versions of the Object 279 heavy tank are the same model?

I see the Modelsvit Tu-144 is now available in Ukraine. At $388 ($292.5 discounted) its way too much for me, especially if you have to pay duty on top.

Back when the Hawk was being designed the question of the aerodynamic load on the pitot came up to make sure it was strong enough. The guy calculating the aerodynamic loads in flight noticed though that the pitot was at just the right height for any ground crew to hang on to as they were leaning against it. Since the load from someone holding on to it was much greater than any aerodynamic load this was the load used for its design. Some time later a pictrure was seen of a Hawk with one of the ground crew leaning and holding onto the pitot tube. Job done.

For fans of really big models Parc Models in Romania have the above kit available for 173.33 euro according to their website. Not my sort of thing but looks a very good price for an EU country. http://www.parcmodels.ro/en/p_Hughes-H-4-Hercules-7068_1.html