Finally a bit of modelling

Now that I've graduated from Uni(!) and got a new job (!) time for some hobbies! Got a bit of modelling done. I decided to finally have a hack at this very interesting kit that my wife got me in Ukraine years ago. The SB-2, also known as the Tupolev ANT-40, was the most prolific and advanced bomber of the mid to late thirties. It saw service with the loyalist forces in Spain as well as against the Finns in Russian use. During Barbarossa, many were destroyed on the ground and in the air they struggled against the modern German fighters. Shifted East in order to survive they provided the bulk of the medium bomber support in the early Great Patriotic War years. They were however quickly replaced by the more powerful Pe-2. Interestingly, many SB-2 were sold on to the Kuomintang/ Communist forces on China.

This kit was bouncing around my garage for years!

Don't confuse these with the slightly later Ilyushin DB-3 of "Torpedonostsy" fame. (This movie is highly recommended from me!)

I went with the boring yet ubiquitous Soviet dark green paint scheme.

 The kit itself was very tough for someone like me! Brittle plastic, poorly fitted castings, some very small pieces and rubbish decals. Ugh, at least it's over now!

It really makes the red pop!

That said, it will be a nice complement to my 1/72nd scale collection that is slowly growing in my garage workshop!

Some Republic of China Air Force schemes.

I toyed with the idea of doing the KMT markings but couldn't find any on short notice. Now that I've seen how terrible the decals look I may go ahead and replace them at some point. (That picture is from a museum in Wuhan, China and taken on my crummy old phone a couple years ago. lol)

Operation Deep Freeze LV Commences

So my excuse for missing the biggest FoW event in CHCH for some time is helping out the Christchurch City Council with the opening of the 55th consecutive Operation Deep Freeze.
I got to walk aboard a C-17 Globemaster and talk to some of the crew and pilots, in exchange for helping people park and find their way to it. I also helped stack donated cans for people in Christchurch that was part of the whole thing. Really fun overall.

I've been on these big cargo birds before when I was a jarhead, but they have gottten bigger and more capable over time. My longest flight is still an indeterminate number of hours on a C-141 from Okinawa to Thailand, (the long way around China and Vietnam), tucked between a couple jeeps (M151's) , a couple hundred seabags and a couple hundred other Marines.
On this C-17, gone are the long nylon covered benches, and instead we have individual seats.(?!)
There are also way less leaking hydraulics and I've noticed that the flyboys secure all of their gear pretty well nowadays. (What! I've heard of things going adrift...)

Roughly 5000 people showed up while I was working, so if you got a guided tour, then you stole my spot. Get me a text at least...;-)

I've always been fascinated by Antarctica and frankly I'm stoked that this operation is run out of my home town.