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Earlier this month I travelled with Netherlands based aviation tour company 4Aviation to Riyadh for the World Defense Show 2024. First held in 2022 the show is located at a huge purpose built exhibition centre some 55 miles north of the capital. The venue also has an 8,000 foot runway attached. Unlike the inaugural show which was interrupted by a severe sandstorm this year's show was blessed with blue skies and temperatures in the early-mid 20s. To offer a sense of scale there were some 770 exhibitors from around 75 countries ranging from the largest contractors to the smallest offering literally everything you could possibly want to conventionally equip a military from heavy armour to weapons systems, small arms, ships, uniforms, bridging systems, rations, munitions, drones by the hundreds and space and cyber warfare . I believe there were around 100,000 visitors across the four days the show ran for. Each morning there was a land warfare demonstration for around 30 minutes with the airshow taking place in mid-afternoon for a couple of hours. In addition to the Saudi Hawks, the Turkish Stars and the August 1st team from the People's Republic of China with their J10s were also present. Pakistan sent three JF17 Thunders and the home team contributed a Typhoon to the display. The French Rafale flew on day one and then left. 1. The show was protected by a couple of batteries of Patriots. Mortar anti-drone systems were also present. Incidentally, Patriots are also deployed to protect King Khalid International Airport. 2. The USAF deployed this Middle East temporarily based Lakenheath Strike Eagle along with an A-10C, E-11, F-16C, Blackhawk and a couple of C-130s. 3. The Poseidon flew through on day one only. A USAF F-16C flew three passes each day from another base. 4. The USAF flew in their CONUS based demonstration pilot although she flew the demo aircraft from elsewhere which she declined to name! 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. The Stars were supported by this Hercules and an A-400M. 10. 11. 12. This Leanardo Wildcat was flown in by an RAF A400M. 13. 14. 15. Unfortunately, the RSAF F-15SA didn't fly. 16. 17. 18. 19. 20. 21. Towards the end of the week the Saudi Hawks and the Turkish Stars put up this joint flypast. 22. 23.. 24. Former Red Arrow Mike Ling flew the RSAF photographer in the photo Hawk. 25. The future. New aircraft and new colour scheme. The Hawk Mk165 will replace the team's current aircraft. 26. 27. 28. Saudi Typhoon. 28. 29. 29. 30. 31. After landing the Chinese pilots formed up and then marched off. 32. After finishing their display the team organised three aircraft as shown and gathered for a group picture. As two of us trained our lenses on them, their photographers were doing the same to us hence we made sure our photo badges were turned around! Saudi Typhoon displaying overhead. 33. 34. A the final afternoon of the show progressed there was a definite feel of it coming to an end with drop tanks being fitted to the J10s and the Turkish F5s in preparation for their flights home. 35. That's it, thanks for looking

Hello All, As in the title I am still not too sure what to make for this one as I have a few options. I will list them below and see what everyone thinks. I love the paint work some of the RSAF's aircraft have, I will try to replicate it to the best of my abilities in 1/144! Yay! Onto the first candiate. The first one, and the one I am leaning the most to is the Hawk. Not the display team The Saudi Hawks (Wiki link) but an actual training aircraft. Altho the Saudi Hawks is also an option, the bottom one is an Hawk from Oman. I am also going to build that one at the same time... possibly. I will be using the Retrowings/OZ Models 1/144 kit. Got this kit a little while ago, been looking forward to building it. This is my second option, but I will be going it the camo scheme, NMF doesn't appeal to me for some reason. I just noticed that there is a MiG-21 in the top of the picture... Go have him Lightning! I got this kit as part of a "job lot" on ebay with 5 other models. I put a £20 in max bid for the lot and won. So I got this classic for £3.30-ish and it was still sealed! How cool is that?! The other options I haven't shown because either I dont have the kit yet, or could find the kit. My other options are a Tornado GR.1/4 OR F.3. Then I could always do an E-3A, but the decals would be bothersome. Then I noticed literally 5 minutes ago that I could do a Hawker Hunter, which I have lots of PE/Resin for... all in 1/144 too! I just got to find the kit first.. :/ Thus far I am leaning towards the Hawk... not decided. I will decide next year Kind Regards, Dazz