Dora 9 Diecast

Saturday, April 23, 2016

Pre-production photos HA8701 Bf 109E-4 "Hans Von Hahn"

New tooling! Hobby Master 1/48 Air Power Series HA8701 Bf 109E-4 "Hans Von Hahn" I./JG3, Granvillers, France, late 1940.

Pre-production photos HA4902 S-3A Viking VS-28 "Hukkers".

Hobby Master 1/72 Air Power Series HA4902 Lockheed S-3A Viking BuNo. 159741, VS-28 "Hukkers" USS Forrestal, US Navy.

Final product photos HA3220 A-26B Invader "Monie".

Hobby Master 1/72 Air Power Series HA3220 A-26B Invader 44-34517 "Monie", 37th BS, 17th BG, Korea.

Douglas A-26B 44-34517 originally belonged to the 452nd BG but became the property of the 17th BG when they replaced the 452nd at K-9, Pusan, Korea.

Now with the 37th BS/ 17th BG the aircraft was piloted by Lt. Robert Mikesh and crewed by Navigator First Lt. Middleton and Gunner A2C Kitchen. The aircraft name “Monie” was Mikesh’s pet name for his wife “Ramona”.

Robert Mikesh went on to fly in Vietnam and eventually became an author and curator at the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum.

Wednesday, April 20, 2016

Russian Mi-28N Night Hunter gunship crashes in Syria killing both pilots.

A Russian Mi-28N Havoc combat helicopter, deployed to Hmeymim airbase, near Latakia, Syria, has crashed near Homs on April 11, killing both crew members.

According to the Russian MoD the Night Hunter, a modification of the Mi-28 gunship optimized for night combat operations, was not shot down but crashed for reasons yet to be determined.

The Mi-28N is the third loss for the Russian forces in Syria: on November 24 2015, a Su-24 Fencer was shot down by a Turkish Air Force F-16; during the CSAR mission launched to rescue the two pilots (one of those was killed by the Islamists rebels), a Mi-8AMTSh Hip helicopter was hit by ground fire and later destroyed. A naval infantry officer was killed.

http://theaviationist.com/2016/04/12/russian-mi-28n-night-hunter-gunship-helicopter-crashes-in-syria-killing-both-pilots/

Record formation of 30 U.S. Army’s Kiowa helicopters.

On Apr. 15, a formation made by 30 OH-58 Kiowa Warriors from 1-17 CAV, part of the 82nd Combat Aviation Brigade, 82nd Airborne Division, took to the skies of Fort Bragg and Fayetteville, North Carolina, for a farewell flight over the base and the local community for the years of support.

The unique formation marked the final U.S. training flight for the armed reconnaissance helicopters as the last Kiowa squadron in mainland America prepares to deploy to South Korea to join the only remaining OH-58 unit outside the U.S.: after the 9-month rotation in South Korea the squadron will return stateside and adopt other aircraft, both manned and unmanned.

The Kiowa Warrior, is the armed version of the Kiowa, employed by the U.S. Army from 1969. The new variant, that embedded new systems and weapons pod, were inducted into active service beginning in 1987.

Since then, the OH-58s have flown in the Persian Gulf as well as in Afghanistan, conducting scout and light assault missions in a configuration that included a mix of Hellfire missiles, rocket launchers, machine guns and Stinger missiles.