Category: Military

March 2018 | Dios Kurniawan

Last month I went to see the biennial Singapore Air Show 2018. I visited on the public day, with focus on the aerial display. Unfortunately, the aerial display would only be displayed twice and they were pretty short, less than 45 minutes each.

F-15s and F-16s belonging to Singapore Air Force are the star of the show. TNI-AU Jupiter Team was also present.

The static display was less interesting. The only star for the show – for me – was the gigantic A-400M. I wanted to get inside the plane but the queue was just too long. Other than that, only Gripen and Apache that stole my attention, but those two were also present in the previous years.

Malaysian Air Force Heavy Lift A400M

Taking aerial photos was my main goal of coming here so I brought my Lumix GX85 camera with 300mm lens. However, it turns out that a mirrorless is not as good as a DSLR camera for capturing fast-moving jets at airshows. Plus, the heat that day was unbearable, making it difficult for me to concentrate to take good photos.

A pair of RSAF F-16Cs performing a high angle-of-attack pass

TNI-AU Jupiters in action

RSAF’s F-15SG in a special ceremonial paint scheme

January 2017 | Dios Kurniawan

I am always fascinated by WW2 war machines, but I rarely built aircraft models from this era. So few months ago I bought an Academy 1:72 model kit of a P-51D Mustang, one of the most formidable fighter planes in the war. It is an inexpensive yet quite detailed model. It took me 3 months to finish it.

1:72 model kit

This P-51D (tail number 415255) was a miniature of real-life fighter flown by Lt Colonel Gordon M. Graham of the USAAF in the European theatre, circa 1945. He scored at least 16 kills against German fighters, as shown in the stickers near the cockpit.

Painting was done mainly with a brush, and weathering effect was done with a 6B pencil. I did not install the landing gear and the drop fuel tanks, because I wanted to allow the model to sit flat on my desk. I am quite happy with the end result.