gavman

1) Over-Pressurized G-Suits:

After placing a Dragon Wings F-16 pilot in the cockpit and closing the canopy, have you ever noticed that the pilot has ever-so-slightly expanded, thus popping open the canopy?


2) Hard Landings:

Perhaps the rear landing gears on the Dragon Wings F/A-18s need to be redesigned. They are plastic wheels glued onto metal struts. Out of the box, my rear landing gears often appear to be askew, so I've been breaking the wheels off and re-gluing them.


3) Naked Pylons:

The Dragon Wings jets are just begging for an accessory ordinance pack (maybe with little carts to lug the extra weapons around) for those empty hardpoints. The Corgi jets have fixed ordinance, but their USN VX-4 Evaluators F-4 Phantom is a wily temptress, since it has pylons but no Sidewinders.

Since most of the current Air Command (Sun Star) photos are overhead shots, it's hard to tell if they will bear pylons without weapons. I know for sure that the USAF 555th FS 'Triple Nickel' F-16 Falcon only has pylons for the fixed auxillary fuel tanks. Whereas, some of the F/A-18s appear to either have empty underwing pylons or ones loaded with bombs.


4) Shiny Happy People:

Does someone have a recommendation for reducing shiny decal film on Armour/Franklin Mint or Air Command models?


5) Just as long as they're not called Dragon Wings "Whirlybirds Series":

The Corgi helicopter strategy is for gunships to be in 1/48 scale and larger helos, such as the USMC Marine One to be in 1/72 scale.

So far I have sampled or will sample helicopter gunships in 1/48 scale (Armour UH-1 Hueys; Corgi Hueys and AH-1 Cobras; Model Power AH-64 Apaches; Air Command AH-64D Apache Longbows; and Forces of Valor Apaches and UH-60 Blackhawks) and 1/100 scale (Armour Sea & Super Cobras and Apaches & Apache Longbows). But what I really want are gunships in 1/72 scale, so they would go with the hopefully eventually-to-be-released static (as opposed to the dynamic, radio-controlled versions) Dragon Armor M1 Abrams tanks and Humvees.

gavman

Flying on Empty:

The only plane SANS pilot that's going to look natural displayed in a flying configuration on a stand will be the Corgi #AA33208 QF-4B Phantom US Navy Drone.

B-huj

Both pilots fit perfectly well inside this cockpit!


too bad this model can only be displayed sitting on its landing gear.

David Hingtgen

Quite a while ago, DW said they would make "weapons only" packs available. Hopefully it'll be pretty soon--I like putting on as many weapons as possible. I especially like having AMRAAM's AND Sidewinders, and very few releases have both. (DC 50th Annv. is the only one I can think of). And nearly every F-16 and F-18 release has at least 2 empty pylons.

I want a HARM/AMRAAM/Sidewinder/Mk83/Maverick set, and a bunch of various Paveways.

Some pics I've seen of the Air Command F-18's show Sidewinders and AMRAAM's, but they're very simply painted---pure white or pure grey. DW has much better weapons. (As you can see, I'm *big* on weapons).

One good thing: F-15C's and F-14's have such "standard" loads we should get good loadouts when DW releases them. (And there will be no half-dozen F-14 tiger meets)

__________________
We need more TWA twin-stripes!

gavman

To B-huj: Your pilots are obviously disciplined and well-behaved! You have done a good job in training (painting) them.

To David Hingtgen: I too enjoy my jets armed to the teeth with that "Stand down before I put you down" vibe going for them. This is probably the reason that I've held back on buying the "Blue Angels" and "Thunderbirds" planes.

However, I'm not sure if I would want to add Stealth planes to my collection that are packing an inordinate amount of heat. The Air Command F-117 Nighthawks have fixed ordinance with the doors to the internal weapons bays open so that you can see the bombs. I'm sure that the Dragon Wings ones will give you the option of displaying the weapons bays open or closed. The upcoming Giodi F-22 Raptor-01 Test Flight model has armed underwing pylons. I'm hoping that if it becomes common practice for the real life Raptors and F-35 Joint Strike Fighters to brandish underwing pylons, that Dragon Wings will do us the favor of providing us with snap-on hardpoints when they do their versions. After all, if I can live with holes in the bottoms of my planes for the display stand, I think that I can manage having slots in my wings for the pylons.

B-huj

gavman,

I am not sure if the pilots of real stealth planes would want pylons underwing, since that would undermine its "invisibility"...making the already vulnerable plane an easier target.

What I would accept is either fixed missiles, bombs and fuel tanks or detachable pylons. I really can't stand empty pylons either. An alternative would be extra loads of ordinance sold in packs (or given away )

gavman

Not only would underwing pylons reduce the stealth characteristics of their planes, the increased aerodynamic drag likely would result in higher fuel consumption! At least Conformal Fuel Tanks (CFTs) are intended to increase flight endurance with minimal drag.

Lockheed-Martin Conformal Fuel Tank Project F-16:




For more info on F/A-22 Raptor Weapons, check out:

http://www.globalsecurity.org/milita...22-weapons.htm

F/A-22 Raptor Weapons Layout Diagram from the above site: