Pulling out my "An-22" for everyone to see... (Insert wildly immature comments here)

A few weeks ago, I made an order with Armaments In Miniature for a number of their large transport aircraft - AIM are a fantastic little company that makes some interesting selections of aircraft.  Granted the selection for 6mm is still a little on the small side (oh man, this post is going to be so full of dad jokes and immature chuckles at an aircraft name it's ridiculous ;) ) the small selection they have certainly has some VERY BIG aircraft in it!

And so, with that in mind I went ahead and purchased for myself a number of aircraft:

AN-12 Cub transports which will also do nicely as Y-8 transports for my future Chinese forces,

C-130H-model Hercules aircraft for my USMC *No J-model is available yet*,

Some C-17 Globemaster III's, and finally

some IL-76 Candid transport aircraft as well.

As you can see from the pis, most of AIM aircraft come with some limited assembly required, usually the larger aircraft needing engines or tailplanes attached - a simple clean up with some detergent, a tiny bit of filing here and there - and with a bit of super glue *I always, and only, use Zap-A-Gap Slo set glue on my models of any type* they're ready for priming and painting!

Finally, we come to the most awesome of the aircraft available - The Antonov An-22 'Cock'... or as I like to call it "Runner up for the most awkwardly codenamed aircraft made by the Russians", only the MiG-15 with its (nowadays) 'interesting' nickname has it worse off.  Gotta love what happens when words take on totally different meanings over the years :)

 

Yes, that is a GHQ T-55... just an example of the size!

Anyhow, jokes aside - this thing is HUGE!  It definitely lives up to its real world equivalent and genuinely looks like it could indeed take a small army within itself!  It literally does not fit in the palm of my hands, and they aren't exactly small.

 

My AN-22 is so big it won't fit when I whip it out...

...okay, okay!  Fine, I'll stop! ;)

At the moment the An-22 is the biggest AIM make, I think... they might have the C-5 Galaxy as well, but I am not sure as the site is down for the count at time of writing.

A serious note though: These models are resin, and can come slightly warped due to the thin wings... for your own sanity do NOT try to flex them into shape without first putting them under some hot water for a while - the offending area will soften enough to let you bend and flex it safely for the model - and avoid you having the moment where you sit there in horror as the model you were trying to flex into place suddenly snaps under tension.

Thankfully that didn't happen here, I learnt that lesson years ago on a Forgeworld model... that was not a happy day! ;)

The AIM website is here if you want to have a look when it is up again.  Hopefully soon!

Before I head off, one last shot of some future air support on the way - A Mi-28 Havoc, an F-4 Phantom that will be in my not-Iranian Air Force colours, an A-10 Warthog and an Su-24 Fencer.  All nice models, and all going to be doing their bit for their respective armies!