中国人民解放军陆军 (PLA Ground Forces)

Hey Everyone

Hope you all had an enjoyable time over the past Christmas weekend...which is infamous for crazy shopping and maddening traveling, but also holds special significance for some (like me) in the form of Jesus' birthday and the gift of salvation. I'm curious, how many of us actually buys military toys/models for our friends and family?

Today we're taking a slight departure from the Fuchs and moving onto the soldiers of the PLA ground forces, who remain the largest standing army in the world, and have put in considerable modernization efforts to catch up with their contemporaries.

If you'd like to read up more about what's going on in the PLA, there's a database website (which sounds rather official to me) that you could read up about a lot of things, such as write-ups on their equipment and blogs about military events.

http://www.sinodefence.com/

While I was snooping around, I also found out that China enjoyed very close political relations to the US in the 1980s (to counter the Soviets), and China actually acquired Blackhawk helicopters from the US during that time...in spite of the Tiananmen crackdown in 1989 and consequent US sanctions, the PLA was able to keep the Blackhawks in flyable condition, taking part in multiple exercises and high altitude missions (a few were lost to crashes and pilot errors).

More info can be found here:
http://www.sinodefence.com/airforce/helicopter/s70.asp

Fuchs from the Back

Hello Everybody

I've been away with some traveling, and just got back home to have some time to do up the next post, so I do apologize for the slight delay.

This time, we have another shot of the Fuchs 6x6 APC from the back, mainly focusing upon the crew doors on the vehicle.

The TPz Fuchs can carry a total of 10 passengers, and has found willing buyers of the APC, ranging from Saudi Arabia and even the United States (as the M93 Fox). It has not been deployed in active combat, but has served in peace-keeping operations such as in former Yugoslavia under the KFOR.

To build on POI's point, wheeled vehicles have their own advantages and disadvantages when compared to track systems...a big "up" for wheels would be the durability of the vehicle, as it can operate even if a wheel or 2 are destroyed (in contrast of complete immobilization in tracked vehicles). Also, wheeled vehicles can operate for prolonged distances, as it does not suffer as much mechanical strain as the tracks. However, tracks (the 'continuous railway' when it was invented in the 1800s) are better at spreading out the weight (improving mobility in mud) and provide a smoother ride across uneven surfaces.

All in all, it really depends on what the vehicle is intended to do...maybe one day we will see walkers, with the Japanese leading the front with their gundams (their Asimo technology is really impressive) :P

Fuchs APC

Hey Everyone!

Great load of thanks goes out to JQ for putting the posts up for the past 4 weeks, and for you all who come down and read the posts/pics we put up.

Today we're featuring the German Fuchs APC, again made by our favorite Galoob (Micromachines)

There's actually a pretty long story how JQ and I tried to guess what the APC was. On first impression, it looked like it came from the BTR series, only to find that the Russian APCs have 8 wheels, and not 6. JQ and I pulled our hair out as we scoured the internet for a picture of a similar APC. The closest we came to was the German TPz Fuchs, which matched the toy, but had an even spacing of wheels (which the toy did not have). And on a random ebay micromachine hunt, we did find that micromachines listed the APC as "panzer-transport" or something to that effect...indirectly confirming the TPz Fuchs identity.

So here it is...the TPz Fuchs (Fox), the 2nd wheeled armored vehicle serving in the Bundeswehr, first made in 1979. It's reported that the Fuchs can run with 1 or 2 wheels totally damaged. Interesting piece of trivia: maximum speed is 105 km/h (65 mph), which is pretty darned fast.

Longbow Ah-64D and Apache AH-64C

Here we have the AH-64D LongBow on the left and the AH-64C Apache on the Right.

While they do not look as close as they are shown in the picture. The Ah-64C and Ah-64D in real life are pretty much the same helicopter.

Unfortunately, Micromachines failed to make a proper scale of both helicopters. The Longbow is distinctively differentiated from the Normal Apache by its large radar dome on the helicoper's main rotors.

The elevated position of the radome allows detection and (arcing) missile engagement of targets even when the helicopter itself is concealed by an obstacle (e.g. terrain, trees or buildings).

Further, a radio modem integrated with the sensor suite allows a D-variant Apache to share targeting data with other AH-64Ds that do not have a line-of-sight to the target. In this manner a group of Apaches can engage multiple targets but only reveal the radome of one D-variant Apache.

Just an extra info would be that the Longbow on the left is Joshua's while the Apache on the right is mine. The ufnny thing is that Joshua's Longbow looksmuch more like the Ah-64 than mine as my cockpit is way fatter.

While military enthusiast like me can tell such a difference easily, there are more detailed military enthusiast that scratch build model kits and can tell the disparity of various model kits that i hardly even noticed. Not too long ago, i was in the http://www.modelwarships.com/ website forum and it was discussing on the disparity of scale for the Shanghai Dragon Arleigh Burke Kit.

Such in-depth research really amazes me at times and makes me aspire to do be better which bring me to the part that I am organising my military kits and models so that i can get ready to take pictures wif Josh. Furthermore, i wanna do my models in an intensive manner as i have not for a long time.

In any case, Hope u have liked the 4 weeks of entries that i have posted. Josh is taking over for now and will be doing lots of interesting entries too.

Stay tuned and thanks for the constant support.