DF-17

China’s new ballistic missile with a hypersonic glide vehicle as a payload.  It appears to be fairly sophisticated, but time will tell.

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China

China held a military parade to celebrate the 70th anniversary of the communist revolution.  Lots of interesting photos of drones and missiles and stuff.

 

H-6N

Photos have emerged of the latest Chinese version of the venerable Tu-16 bomber.  Apparently it has been adapted to carry an air -launched version of the DF-21 ballistic missile.  The apparently necessitates removal of the bomb bay.  Noted in the picture leading the article that the aircraft pictured is carrying the upgraded version of the old “Silkworm” version of the Russian “Styx” missile as well. I believe this is a version of the C-603 missile.

AS-1 build

No, not mine.  This is one from about 12 years ago when the Amodel kit was still marketed under the MP Models label.  It is built by master modeler Yufei Mao.  This is something to tide you  over until I get my but in gear and do some posting of my build.

Walking the dog #1

I’ve been a cat person most of my life.  While, my family had a small dog or two when I was younger, I’ve never really been a dog person, until recently.  About a year or so ago, my older daughter’s desire for a dog could be put off no longer and the modelwife and the girls adopted Charlie, who is a very good dog.

Charlie

One thing that comes with dog ownership is walking the dog.  It has the virtue of getting me out and moving when the weather is nice and getting me the exercise that I might not otherwise get.

Well, as I was walking the dog the other night, I was thinking about the recent incident in Russia wherein an explosion took place and radiation was released.  As I’ve said before, I think that Russia is, pretty much, a paper tiger, though one with nukes.  Russia doesn’t have the money to maintain the forces it does have, much less a bunch of extra money to pour into weapons development.  This makes the attempt to develop a hypersonic, nuclear powered cruise missile all the more irrational, or does it?

This is the thought that occurred to me as I was walking Charlie.  Because Russia is so cash starved, deep down they know that they can’t keep up conventionally.  In fact, their attempt to prop up their man in Syria is a drain on their meager resources.  Given this situation, investing in “Hail Mary” types of technological leaps makes a certain sense.  Very similar to what Germany did in the latter stages of WWII, pouring money into the V-1, V-2, etc.  It is even possible, but unlikely that one of these long shot investments might pay off and result in a great leap forward that staves off impending Russian military irrelevance.  I doubt it, but you can’t completely discount the possibility.  Viewed in that light, the recent radiological incident makes a bit of sense.

AS-1

I am currently building the AModel AS-1.  I had previously started a resin version of the AS-1, but due to wing warping and other issues I stopped that build.  One of the things I have to decide is the color scheme.  I have an interesting set of choices.

 

 

 

 

 

 

This one is overall painted silver.

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is a ground launched version in a Cuban museum.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here is a gray one with a white radar nose.

 

 

 

 

 

And here is a museum example red, with a yellow nose.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I think I am going to go with overall bare metal as illustrated on the boxtop, since I want to push myself with a bare metal finish.

 

 

I must have this

Turns out Bronco Models out of China is going to be doing a 72nd scale DF-1 SRBM.  The DF-1 is the Chinese copy of the Soviet SS-2 Sibling SRBM.  This will definitely fill a hole in my collection.

Good

Glad to hear it.

Russian nuclear accident

The folks over at The Drive are staying on the story of the recent radiological accident associated with a possible failed missile test.  As I’ve said previously, we may never know what really happened but I am glad to see at least some news sites continuing to follow the story.

More on that Russian nuclear accident

More of the story here.  I suspect that we may not know the full story of what happened here for 20 or 30 years, if ever.  However, I think this is a much more important story than we’ve been led to believe and I hope reporters keep digging.