Monday, November 2, 2015

Soviet Air Power Triple Threat

A triple threat delivered right to my door today as my Amazon-ordered aerial reinforcements arrived en-masse.

2 x Soviet MiG-23 Floggers, and 1 x SU-22 Fitter aircraft.

There is also an SU-25 Frogfoot enroute but according to evil Amazon, he won't show up until December (???)

With this generous allotment of tactical air, my Soviets should have an easier time smashing a hole into NATO's forward positions.  Right?

The SU-22 will be first to be put together.  
I have heard mixed reviews about the 1/144 Academy kits.  I would appreciate anything you guys could offer in the way of advice regarding assembly, painting, etc.  2 of these kits are Academy.  I want to say that the SU-25 that is enroute is also Academy.

Obviously the MiG-23 was a fighter.  So these models will pull double-duty as MiG 27s or SU-24s.  

 The price on Amazon was too good to pass up.

I really can't wait to put these together and get them on the table.  Unfortunately I have SO many projects ongoing that they will stay on the alert ramp waiting for the balloon to go up.  When it does, they will be front-loaded to the beginning of the line, slapped together and sent into action be be shot down!

In other news, thank you to Ken for his excellent book recommendations.  I recently purchased "The Red Effect" and "The Black effect" for Kindle and have been reading "The Red Effect" on the train to and from work of late.  A real nail-biter.


If you are into Cold War gaming then these books are a must read.  As someone who has read most of the "classic" WWIII books (Red Army, Red Storm Rising, Team Yankee, Chieftains, First Clash, the Suvorov "Inside the Soviet Army" and "History of the Third World War" book to name a few) I can tell you this is the book you've been waiting for.  If you don't believe me, go to Amazon, look up "The Black Effect" and read the sample about the set-piece Soviet attack on the British position.  That may convince you....


I'm off to try and finish some of the projects on the workbench!

In case you'd like to learn more about these Wings of the Red Star, here are some links for further reading on theMiG-23 Flogger and the SU-17 Fitter.

9 comments:

  1. Nice pickups! I hope you get some good mileage out of them. I picked up Sabre Squadron on your recommendation. Haven't had a chance to try it out yet, but I'm looking forward to it. I've had to pick up a few reinforcement tanks to bulk up numbers a bit.

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    1. Ski,
      I have to get them built first but they will be welcome additions to my red horde.
      I hope you like Sabre Squadron. Recommend you join the forum on their website as the author is pretty good about getting back to folks with questions etc.

      So far I have really enjoyed them. I've played them with 15mm and also with microarmor with no problem.

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  2. Nice acquisitions! My mate back in Sydney just bought up big on a bunch of 6mm Soviet Tanks and AFVs so I can see the Cold War getting hot when I get back home too.

    See you this weekend!

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  3. Ahhh...must get these books. Thanks for the recommendation.

    I remember reading Chieftains as a kid and it scared the hell out of me (several relatives were in the BAOR at the time). Not a nice ending either...but that's a given considering the subject matter.

    I was also a fan of James Rouch's 'Zone' series in the 80s - the 'Dirty Dozen' of WWIII fiction.

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    1. Darren,
      You will not regret it. I can't put it down. Plus it has the added benefit of making me want to game more! Win-Win!

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  4. The B series Mig 23's were more multi role than fighter so you are indeed well covered. Lots of schemes to choose from and you can't really fudge them up since there were so many variations. Variations mean fun!

    http://plasticwarriors.blogspot.co.nz/2014/05/flogger-friday.html

    If you have a look at my site under the labels 1/144, you will see quite a lot of these. Fairly hit and miss kits, watch the air intakes and I would suggest you paint the canopy. I really must launch into some more Cold War stuff soon, I have that Fitter model to make as well, so it will be interesting to compare notes.

    Model on!

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    1. Paul,
      I hope I can paint mine as good as yours. I still remember your Flogger blitz and that made me want to get some Soviet ground attack aircraft into production. Though at the time I thought I was going to buy 1/72 aircraft...yikes!

      I will be doing the Fitter first so I'll let you know how that goes. I plan on finishing up the Hind gunship today. The Stuka dive bomber was finished last night (finally!).
      So I'll post him first then it's lots of Cold War fun after that as I have more T-55/62s to post as well as more T-80s and BMPs.

      The Cold War is definitely going hot here at Sound Officers Call!!!

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    2. I just commented on Flogger Fridays on Plastic Warriors. Oh yeah - definitely copying your scheme, Paul. Painted canopy and all!

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