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clap: a first for this thread. Congratulations skanchan95 on acquiring the Grim Reaper as I believe it was called by its crew. It is certainly a reflection of the times that the lines between an aircraft and a drone are blurring. When missiles came at least it was a clear line - missile= single time use; aircraft=reusable. But now?

Go for it. Some of the VPAF MiGs had truly unique and outstanding paint schemes!!!

Thank you sir. The effective and scary use of drones and suicide drones was very evident in the recent war between Armenia & Azerbaijan. It is scary to think that SAM systems and tanks could so easily be taken by out these cheapish drones.

1:400 Blue Dart Aviation Boeing 757-25FPCF Freighter VT-BDA "Vision XII" (NG Model)






My first NG models model and I am thoroughly impressed with the crisp detailing on the model. Unlike other 1/400 models from Aeroclassics or JC wings, the stencil work on this NG 757 is very sharp.

VT-BDA "Vision XII" stats
Status : Active
Registration : VT-BDA
Airline : Blue Dart Aviation
Serial number : 28718 LN: 752
Type : 757-25FPCF
Delivered (to Blue Dart): 28/10/2014
Engines : 2 x Rolls Royce RB211-535E4-37

Boeing 757-200PCF Freighter
The 757-200PCF is a passenger to freighter conversion of the Boeing 757-200 passenger airliner, developed by Precision Conversions and certificated in 2005. Boeing 757-200 airliners were converted to dedicated freighters for cargo operations. Modifications included the removal of passenger amenities, main deck structural reinforcement, addition of cargo handling flooring and the installation of a 757-200PF port-side cargo door in the forward fuselage. The forward two entry doors and lobby area of the passenger aircraft are retained resulting in a main deck cargo capacity of 14 full sized pallets and one smaller LD3.Environmental controls can be fitted for animal cargo such as racehorses, and rear exits and window pairs are retained on some aircraft to facilitate animal handlers.

Blue Dart Aviation
Blue Dart Aviation is a Indian cargo airline based in Chennai. Blue Dart Aviation Ltd. was incorporated in May 1994 as a 100% subsidiary of Blue Dart Express Limited, and launched its operations with a fleet of 2 Boeing 737-200 freighters on the 17th June 1996 and at one point in time had 8 Boeing 737-200 freighters. Blue Dart aviation operates with its main base as Chennai International Airport. It serves 7 Indian metro cities. German courier company Deutsche Post owns a 70% stake in the airline through its subsidiary Blue Dart Express. Currently it has six Boeing 757-200PCFs in service (VT- BDA, BDB, BDM,BDN,BDO & BDQ)/. Blue Dart aviation named all its aircraft as "Vision" followed by a number (in Roman numerals). Their first Boeing 737-200 freighter VT-BDF was Vision I and the last Boeing 757 freighter inducted in their fleet - VT-BDB is Vision XIII)























The real VT-BDA "Vision XII"

1:400 Blue Dart Aviation Boeing 757-25FPCF Freighter VT-BDA "Vision XII" (NG Model) [/quote]clap: Congratulations on your new acquisition. A great compliment to your 1:150 model. I notice you like collecting several of the same model/airline:) Thanks for the information. I never realized Blue Dart now had 6 757s. Good for them. The only 757 operator in India ever. I always had a soft spot for the 757 and found it a handsome looking aircraft. In the early 1980s JRD Tata was chairing a committee to pick a large mid-sized airliner for both Air India and Indian Airlines. And he recommended the 757. In the early 1980s the 757 came to Mumbai on a demo flight and I promptly turned up at Santacruz Airport to watch it land, taxi, park. It was the first time I saw a large by-pass turbofan on a narrow body.

Yes indeed. Very concerning. Every now and then we get these new weapons that at a low cost can knock out a much more expensive and larger adversary - torpedoes, infra-red guided AAMs, SACLOS anti-tank missiles, anti-ship sea skimmers etc. And then over the next decade come the countermeasures. Drones are here to stay. What better weapon, than a drone, to take out a heavily defended enemy airbases' runway.

Thank you sir.

Air India did operate, for a very short time, a B757-200(TC-GLA) wet-leased from a Turkish airline. AI also operated a few foreign registered/wet-leased B767-300s.






If you look at Air India's history, their cargo arm also operated a few wet-leased B747-200 and DC-8 freighters.

Wow. You really know your stuff. The DC-8s and IL-62Ms I knew about as I had watched them and the L-1011 from news articles but I had no idea about the B757 and B767. Thank you for sharing.

It is amazing how good these 1:400 models end up looking so good together.

I got the same scale model as well but mine is with sharklet wings :)

Finally my Bluedart 1:400 NG sharklet wings landed :loveit

Lovely!!!! Had there not been a non-winglet BD 757(BDA), I would have gone for BDB as well. I prefer the clean and conventional looks of a non-WL aircraft.

Your pictures seem to confirm my doubt that these NG Models aircraft model seem to be more whiter & shinier than the models from other brands. There is too much of white light reflection off the BD 757 model compared to models from JC Wings or Aeroclassics(see my pics above for comparison) .

clap: It is raining Bluedarts & 757s. Beautiful model. Like Sandesh I too don't like winglets even though they do reduce wing tip induced drag significantly. But I love the 757. In earlier designs wing tip tanks achieved the same purpose though with lower effectiveness. Bluedart, from what little I know, run very professional operation both flight and maintenance. I'd rate them higher than Spice and Go albeit they are smaller.

I had both options, but preferred the sharklet wings and yes the paint scheme is more of bright pearl white than compared to the white on the spice jet or vistara airlines scale models.

Are NG models plastic or metal? That photo with the reflection looks cool.

Okay guys my next member to be added to the squadron....

I served in first class Air Forces for over 50 years.
Even the Americans license built me - one of only 3 military aircraft of foreign origin ever to be license built by USA
My pilots in the IAF won more Maha Vir Chakras flying me than any other aircraft - guys, now this is a total give away :-)
The IAF was my third largest user

Who am I?

English Electric Canberra.

I wish the IAF would have gone for the Ilyushin Il-28 instead.:D (interestingly the Pakistanis operated both the Il-28 and Martin B-57 Canberra)

The Americans experienced staggering losses(62%) of B-57s in the Vietnam War: Of the 94 B-57Bs deployed to Southeast Asia in 1964, 51 were lost in combat and seven other Canberras were lost to other causes. Only nine were still flying by 1969.

They are die-cast metal I believe.

Its metal similar to the jet airways max.

Sir, all 1:400 (and smaller) models from all reputed brands are diecast metal models.

I am sure it is the English Electric Canberra, probably an IAF B(I)58?

And the PAF pilots who flew the B-57 hated the stupidly re-designated B-56(H-5/IL-28) because the B-57 was far more advanced, comfortable and capable than the Chinese built IL-28 they acquired.

That's because of the way the Americans(B-57/RB-57) & Australians (EE Canberra B.20) used their Canberra. In a SAM & AAA rich environment, flying a 1950s vintage Canberra at medium to high altitudes in interdiction & reconnaissance roles was suicidal.

Let's not forget when the Canberra was developed in the early 50s, it was originally designed as a high altitude level bomber. That approach had been developed at a time when SAM threat hardly existed, but by the time the Canberra variants started coming into frontline service with the major air forces, SAMs were becoming far more capable at high altitudes. The IAF quickly assessed that the Canberra flying at low levels to avoid radar detection was preferable on the sub-continental terrain. The IAF developed attack profiles that called for low altitude penetration of hostile airspace, quickly climbing to bombing altitude just before reaching the target, release bombs and then dive back to low altitude for egress. I believe most Canberra bomber missions from both sides were flown at night. One IAF Canberra each in the 1965 & 1971 wars, were lost to PAF F-104 & Mirage III interceptors at night...a low figure considering the number of missions flown by IAF Canberras at night and the successful low level getaways by IAF Canberras, thanks to their Orange Putter RWR, which warned them of being locked on or being searched by Pakistani airborne & ground radars and gave them ample time to drop down to the deck to get away.

The same could not be said about Vietnam where the USAF & RAAF operated their Canberras in completely different terrain and threat environment than the IAF & PAF.