MY MILITARY & TEST FLEET (1:400 SCALE)
Updated: July 2024
Until recently I had kept my collection almost entirely to civilian airliners, but this past year I have had the opportunity to acquire some military and test aircraft types, which often also provide the opportunity to expand the moulds I own and acquire some models with novel features. There are still some boundaries in place. I'm trying to stick to aircraft that have civil variants themselves, so there are no B-52s or C-5s here. The line blurs somewhat when you look at A330MRTTs and P-8 Poseidons, and I can already feel my defences are crumbling there, but for now all the aircraft are unarmed variants. Test aircraft are another area I can see will be getting new models in the near future and offer some interesting variations. Unfortunately, my 'new' area for the military and test fleet is already nearly full so I'll have to come up with another plan in the near future. For now, here is my military and test fleet (excluding PLAAF).
Top Shelf
The top shelf features the Orbital rocket launching Tristar I blogged about recently. Technically not military or test I know, but definitely unusual. In the test area there's the Honeywell 757 and an RAE VC10. The rest showcase aircraft from the air forces of Australia, New Zealand, Germany, Canada and the United Kingdom.
Bottom Shelf
The bottom shelf is all Russian. I'm definitely not a fan of Putin and his pals, but its hard to argue that they haven't got some great aircraft. Unique moulds in this space include the pair of Tu-134UBLs, a Tu-214SUS and the IL-76MD-90A with the much larger engines.