[skanchan95]

DBJets is now the official dealer of Hobby Master Models for India (Hobby Master Worldwide Dealers List)

[V.Narayan]

Originally Posted by skanchan95

DBJets is now the official dealer of Hobby Master Models for India

Good for him. HobbyMaster is just so much better than most of the others.

Originally Posted by Foxbat

Thanks Narayan, I think I had mentioned the same store to source the Tu-134 "Crusty".

Yes that's right.

A bit of show of leg.....

[skanchan95]

Originally Posted by V.Narayan

A bit of show of leg.....

The Frogfoot!! Can't wait to see the whole deal. Just today I read about a Russian Frogfoot pilot named Major Roman Filipov.

[shashanka]

Hello Narayan, you've added one more member to your fan club! It must have taken years of focused and devoted labour of love to have acquired the kind of knowledge you have of the subject. And what a fabulous hobby to have. I plan to follow the thread now & will know where to turn when seeking enlightenment!

[V.Narayan]

Sukhoi Su-25 Frogfoot::1:72 Scale HobbyMaster
Wingspan of 8 inches and length of ~8.5 inches. Superbly detailed and with excellent finish.

Readers of this thread need no introduction to the classic Su-25. It is a top dog Close Air Support aircraft that is designed for the punishing role of flying low over a hot battlefield and hit enemy land forces' targets from tanks, to bunkers, to supply lines, to artillery pieces to what not. For this it has 12 survival features stitched into the design, 10 weapon pylons, two widely spaced engines and 3000 rpm 30mm cannon.

I'll let the photos do the talking.

Originally Posted by skanchan95

The Frogfoot!! Can't wait to see the whole deal. Just today I read about a Russian Frogfoot pilot named Major Roman Filipov.

Originally Posted by shashanka

Hello Narayan, you've added one more member to your fan club! It must have taken years of focused and devoted labour of love to have acquired the kind of knowledge you have of the subject. And what a fabulous hobby to have. I plan to follow the thread now & will know where to turn when seeking enlightenment!

Welcome Shashanka. This is one of the happiest and least controversial threads where all of us are friends. The younger members skanchan95 and Foxbat have a delightful library of knowledge and interesting titbits of data that enrich the thread no end.

[shashanka]

^^^ Narayan, I must thank you for the foregoing post - that the SU-25 has such a comprehensive range of attributes, shows the attention the designers paid to the "self defense" requirements in its CAS role.

I was under the common misconception that Russian war machinery used broad strokes in their development and not the kind of high definition, precise & clinical approach of the Western powers. The SU-25 makes a strong case for the contrary.

As a nuts & bolts hands-on engineer, this makes for fascinating reading!

[Foxbat]

Originally Posted by V.Narayan

Sukhoi Su-25 Frogfoot::1:72 Scale HobbyMaster

A very nice detailed 1:72 Frogfoot to go with your 1:72 Flanker
I really like that the model has the full array of weapons under the wings.

I guess aircraft like the Su-25 and A-10 can only be deployed on the battlefield when complete air superiority has been established and enemy air defences have been suppressed. 4 A-10s were shot down in the first Gulf War in 1991 and two managed to return to based but were damaged beyond repair.

Was this purchased from the Aircraft Model Store?

[skanchan95]

Originally Posted by V.Narayan

Sukhoi Su-25 Frogfoot::1:72 Scale HobbyMaster

Such a beautiful looking model, Sir. Congratulations!!!!

In case anyone is wondering why Russian aircraft have been given such weird names like Frogfoot, Flogger, Fishbed, Candid, Hind etc, well, they are actually NATO Reporting Names.

NATO "Reporting Names" are code names for military equipment from Russia, China, and the then Warsaw Pact countries. NATO gives easily understood but uncommon English words for those equipments in place of their original model designations, which either may have been unknown to the Western world at the time or not easy to differentiate.

The idea of such a practice was that the names chosen would not be used in a normal conversation, and will be easier to memorise. As per NATO's naming conventions; for fixed-wing aircraft, single-syllable words denoted piston-prop and turboprop, while multiple-syllable words denoted jets.

For fixed-wing aircraft, one syllable names were used for propeller-powered aircraft, while two-syllable names indicated jet engines.

Bombers had names starting with the letter B and names like "Badger" (2 syllables: jet), "Bear (single syllable: propeller), and "Blackjack" were used. F was used for fighters and fighter bombers, so you had names like Farmer, Fishbed, Flanker, Foxbat etc. Transports had names starting with C , which resulted in reporting names like "Condor" or "Candid".

The first letter indicates the type of aircraft, like Bear for a bomber aircraft, or Fulcrum for a fighter aircraft.

F — Fighter aircraft, also later ground attack aircraft. (E.g MiG-17 "Fresco", MiG-23 "Flogger", Su-15 "Flagon", Su-7/17/20/22 "Fitter", J-7 "Fishcan", J-8II "Finback")

B — Bomber aircraft.(E.g Tu-4 "Bull", Tu-22 "Blinder", IL-28 "Beagle")

C — Commercial aircraft and airliners, and cargo aircraft (An-12 "Cub", An-32 "Cline", IL-76 "Candid", An-124 "Condor")

H — helicopters (Mi-8/17 "Hip", Mi-24 "Hind", Ka-31 "Helix", KA-50/52 "Hokum")

M — Miscellaneous; trainers, reconnaissance, seaplanes, tankers, AEW etc. (IL-78 Midas, MiG-21U "Mongol", A-50 "Mainstay", IL-38 "May").

If an aircraft has multiple variants based on generation and role, the NATO reporting name remains the same, but they add English Alphabets at the end with a hyphen. For e.g , let's take the example of a Su-27 Flanker family:
Su-27 is Flanker-B
Su-27UB/30K/MK is Flanker-C
Su-33 is Flanker-D
Su-35 is Flanker-E
Su-37 was Flanker-F
Su-30MKK is Flanker-G
Su-30MKI/MKM/MKA is Flanker-H

As per my copy of the book - MiG-23/27 Flogger by Yefim Gordon, NATO reporting names for the MiG-23 family were/are:
Fighters:
MiG-23S/SM Flogger-A
MiG-23M/MF Flogger-B
MiG-23MS Flogger-E
MiG-23ML Flogger-G
MiG-23MLD Flogger-K

Trainer:
MiG-23U/UB Flogger-C

Ground Attack:
MiG-23B Flogger-F
MiG-23B/BK/BN Flogger-H

MiG-27K/M/L Flogger-D

[V.Narayan]

Originally Posted by skanchan95

In case anyone is wondering why Russian aircraft have been given such weird names like Frogfoot, Flogger, Fishbed, Candid, Hind etc, well, they are actually NATO Reporting Names.

Thank you Kanchan. This will help a lot of our readers who are not aircraft nutcases like a few of us. Flanker, Foxbat, Fencer and Fulcrum were among the better names the Americans gave. Fishbed, Faggot, Frogfoot IMHO were sad names.

Originally Posted by Foxbat

A very nice detailed 1:72 Frogfoot to go with your 1:72 Flanker
I really like that the model has the full array of weapons under the wings.

I guess aircraft like the Su-25 and A-10 can only be deployed on the battlefield when complete air superiority has been established and enemy air defences have been suppressed.

Yes your assessment is correct.

Was this purchased from the Aircraft Model Store?

diecastairplanes. Aircraft Model and EZToys did not have it.

Originally Posted by shashanka

^^^ Narayan, I must thank you for the foregoing post - that the SU-25 has such a comprehensive range of attributes, shows the attention the designers paid to the "self defense" requirements in its CAS role.

I was under the common misconception that Russian war machinery used broad strokes in their development and not the kind of high definition, precise & clinical approach of the Western powers. The SU-25 makes a strong case for the contrary.

Glad you are enjoying this thread. You should read some of the posts by skanchan95 and Foxbat - just outstanding for information & accuracy. Between 1945 and 1990 Soviet design philosophy and conceptual thinking rivaled that of the Americans and in some areas both rivals surpassed each other - I could give many examples but let two suffice. SSBN's or nuclear powered ballistic missile carrying submarines were an American master stroke of concept, design and rapid production that made assured second strike capability a definitive reality. On the other hand, anti-ship guided missiles - launched from ships, aircrafts or submarines, were a Russian innovation about 12 to 15 years before the West. Russians lagged in aviation electronics in both capability and maintainability but their designs were very well thought through. The Western writers criticized the short MTBO of Russian aircraft but ignored that in between the MTBO it machine needed little taking care of.

[skanchan95]

Originally Posted by V.Narayan

Thank you Kanchan. This will help a lot of our readers who are not aircraft nutcases like a few of us. Flanker, Foxbat, Fencer and Fulcrum were among the better names the Americans gave. Fishbed, Faggot, Frogfoot IMHO were sad names.

Yes, some very weird and ugly names.
From one nutcase to the others, name one western origin aircraft that was a given NATO reporting name (reverse engineered copies like the Tu-4 or the Z-20 don't count). I expect an answer from you or Comrade Foxbat

[V.Narayan]

Originally Posted by skanchan95

Yes, some very weird and ugly names.
From one nutcase to the others, name one western origin aircraft that was a given NATO reporting name (reverse engineered copies like the Tu-4 or the Z-20 don't count). I expect an answer from you or Comrade Foxbat

Aaaarrgghh!!!!! You got me stumped completely especially as you have cheerfully eliminated th copies of the B-29 and Dauphin. The Aerospatiale Frelon? Only other I can think of is the Lisunov Li-2 ie a license built DC3. But I don't know if it got a NATO name. Give up. Huff puff.
Over to Comrade Foxbat.

[skanchan95]

Originally Posted by V.Narayan

The Aerospatiale Frelon? Only other I can think of is the Lisunov Li-2 ie a license built DC3. But I don't know if it got a NATO name. Give up. Huff puff.
Over to Comrade Foxbat.

Great try!!!! But the license built Li-2 did not have a NATO reporting name. The Z-9 is a Chinese license built version of the Dauphin and it has a NATO reporting name, which I can't recall. The Z-20, which seems like a copy of the Black Hawk does not have a NATO reporting name yet. Frelon was the name given by the French to their helicopter. The key word here is Origin, which means manufactured in the west, but used by a Communist block country.

Come On, think. Scratch that brilliant mind of yours.

OK, a hint!!! It is from the WW2 Era and it was a light bomber and intruder. It's western name appears in a famous line from a William Shakespeare novel. May be I have made it too easy now.

And by all means, if anyone knows any other examples, they are free to comment.

[skanchan95]

1:400 Airbus A321-251NX D-AVZO - First A321LR (A321neo Long Range) with Airbus Cabin Flex (ACF) {JC Wings}

MSN 7877 is the Airbus A321NEO LR Prototype.

In October 2014, Airbus started marketing a longer range 97 t (214,000 lb) maximum takeoff weight variant with three auxiliary fuel tanks with 100 nmi (190 km) more operational range than a Boeing 757-200. Airbus launched the A321LR (Long Range) on 13 January 2015 with a Range of 4,000 nmi (7,400 km) with 206 seats in two classes. On 31 January 2018, it completed its first flight. Airbus announced its certification on 2 October 2018. On 13 November 2018, Israeli airline - Arkia received the first A321LR.

Indigo operates a few PW1133G powered A321NEOs, and are looking at the A321LR for future orders. Air India operates a decent number of older CFM56 powered A321-200s. Vistara has a few A321NEOs on order.



MSN : 7877
Airframe Status: Active
Registration: D-AVZO (test)
Type : A321-251NX
First Flight Date: 31/01/2018
Engines: 2 x CFM LEAP-1A32

















On a stand (Aeroclassics A320 stand). The Model did not come with a stand.


With its smaller sibling - Air India's A320Neo VT-EXF

[Foxbat]

Originally Posted by skanchan95

Yes, some very weird and ugly names.
From one nutcase to the others, name one western origin aircraft that was a given NATO reporting name (reverse engineered copies like the Tu-4 or the Z-20 don't count). I expect an answer from you or Comrade Foxbat

Originally Posted by V.Narayan

Aaaarrgghh!!!!! You got me stumped completely especially as you have cheerfully eliminated th copies of the B-29 and Dauphin. The Aerospatiale Frelon? Only other I can think of is the Lisunov Li-2 ie a license built DC3. But I don't know if it got a NATO name. Give up. Huff puff.
Over to Comrade Foxbat.

Bell P-63 Kingcobra

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bell_P-63_Kingcobra

Sufficient aircraft continued in use after the war for them to be given the NATO reporting name of Fred. By 9 May 1945, operational units had still 1,148 Kingcobras on strength

Originally Posted by skanchan95

1:400 Airbus A321-251NX D-AVZO - First A321LR (A321neo Long Range) with Airbus Cabin Flex (ACF) {JC Wings}

Thats an excellent and very well detailed model
Another one from DB Jets?

I have recently woken up to the world of diecast 1:400 models from premium manufacturers which are as detailed as their 1:200 counterparts. They occupy very little space and are comparatively economical. However some of the smaller planes like the 737 or smaller propeller airliners are too small for my liking in 1:400 and 1:500.

[V.Narayan]

Originally Posted by Foxbat

Bell P-63 Kingcobra

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bell_P-63_Kingcobra

Sufficient aircraft continued in use after the war for them to be given the NATO reporting name of Fred. By 9 May 1945, operational units had still 1,148 Kingcobras on strength

Thank you Kanchan. I had no clue the P-63 was given a reporting name after WW-2. Nice to learn something new. Because of its ruggedness the Soviets liked it while at the same time heaping scorn on the Hawker Hurricane Britain had donated. You are getting dangerous