If you only read one article on the D.C. midair collision one year ago today (and oh boy are there some you shouldn't read) this is the one. From the inimitable @willguisbond.com theaircurrent.com/aviation-saf...

I misaligned one of the roundels on the wings by about 1mm and now I can't unsee it.

Here's a bit from my last live stream where I was stuck defending against six opponents for about four minutes straight. I only manage to bag one maneuver kill, but I think it's still interesting to watch. You spend a lot of time defending in zeros given the BRs. youtu.be/YbCNb3gZS3E?...

The backstory behind naming our live streams "Airpower Wins Wars" was as a half-hearted joke the first time when we couldn't think of anything in the moment. It stuck after we kept getting earnest and, at times, aggressive comments saying airpower doesn't win wars on every stream recording.

For some silly reason I decided to use a brown wash to do the panel lines on my A6M2 model instead of black. It doesn't look bad, just "dirty" when I was aiming for clean. Oh well.

I still have to read this. An in-universe history of the Galactic Empire written by a real historian is such a fantastic idea. It was published in between Andor season 1 and season 2, but still holds up very well lore-wise apparently.

My favourite kill from the stream today, lol.

I'm playing some War Thunder air RB and hanging out now! www.youtube.com/live/vkN8ylK...

I'm thinking of doing a casual War Thunder stream again this afternoon as so many are trapped inside during the storm and also *gestures wildly* everything else. I did some troubleshooting, so the stream should be watchable quality this time.

We're doing a short stream today! www.youtube.com/watch?v=vHBf...

The Rise of Chinese Memory: CXMT, YMTC, and Fujian Jinhua - www.youtube.com/watch?v=qzfh...

I just thought of this quote randomly related to British assessments of Japanese aviation in the interwar period: "They retained images true of infancy but not adolescence; generalizations coined to explain old weaknesses predicted future ones." So good.

Annoyance time This artwork by Piotr Forkasiewicz was created for the cover of my Fairey Swordfish book from Mortons. We decided on the composition after studying all the accounts from the aircrews involved and photos of the op But whenever it is posted online, people decry it as inaccurate…

I've thankfully never had a post go truly viral, but I still remember one time I made a half-baked post mentioning "acrobatic maneuvers" while reading an interwar aviation source that I thought would get maybe 5 likes and it ended up mildly blowing up. The "prize" was contemporary air power dudes...

I'm experimenting with a streaming setup while playing some casual War Thunder air RB props. www.youtube.com/live/Y0kR-FA...

Here's a brief thread on part of the "Second Air Battle of Bougainville" fought 8-9 Nov 1943. The name originates on the Japanese side based on wildly optimistic claims that portrayed a great victory. It serves as an extreme example of overclaiming - something that plagued all sides in air combat.

The very first engagement of the first match I played in War Thunder in several months. I immediately dunked on a Spitfire Mk V and P-63 in a 1v2 where they had an energy advantage over me. It's like riding a bike.

Here's a brief thread on part of the "Second Air Battle of Bougainville" fought 8-9 Nov 1943. The name originates on the Japanese side based on wildly optimistic claims that portrayed a great victory. It serves as an extreme example of overclaiming - something that plagued all sides in air combat.

I have acquired theory

Chicken tikka masala time.

I got the decals on. I'm also happy with the dark blue on the cowling. That needs another coat still.

Listening to a lecture from Oleg Benesch while I tediously apply decals to my 1/72 scale zero propeller!

Here's a group of Japanese researchers confirming a suspicion I've long had about the oft-cited US Strategic Bomb Survey: that the people interviewed about the effects of the bombings were often among those most removed from their actual impact

Seeing as I'm blathering about Spitfires, here's a free mythbuster for Bluesky The little letter after the Spitfire mark designation - e.g. Spitfire Vb, Spitfire XVIe - what does it mean? There is a widespread misconception that it relates to armament configuration, and *only* armament config...

Here's one for @theaviation.show, from Richard Dunn's _South Pacific Air War_. 😏

Does this look alright to people? It's not matt aluminium. I'm just using Stormhost Silver. I can put a black wash over it to dull it down a bit, but I think this is acceptable?

They fixed it! My article is now open access. academic.oup.com/ahr/article/...

I guess I have to tap this thread again as the topic came up among other things. Sharon's poasts (laudatory) always make interesting people (derogatory) mad. I'm sadly not equipped to do a book recommendation thread on the wider history of the KMT, Nationalist China, and Taiwan.

Your 2nd favourite aircraft? (I'm away from my pictures folder right now, so this is all I have immediately on hand.)

I watched Hard Boiled for the first time. All I can say is... what a movie. I've never seen an action movie this unhinged. Then to find out they're doing a 4K restoration. youtu.be/lVQ-diI9PTs?...

I watched Union of Salvation (2019) about the Decemberist revolt and it's not great. It has some excellent scenes, but it's a mess overall. The main issue is it never stops to coherently explain the motivations of or characterize the plotters. Really impressive costuming throughout though.

Here's my kinda mid attempt at doing the 1/72 A6M2 cockpit.

This sale may be worth it to many of my followers. Here's just a taste of what I kind can recommend from this press. They have so much more.

Dear friends, I have resumed my work and the first video of the year is about a first set of book recommendations about the Italian navy in #ww2 👉 youtu.be/rpUJESo-1-o?... @crusaderproject.bsky.social @navalairhistory.com @drachinifel.bsky.social @dralexclarke.bsky.social

It's hard for me to pick as there are several top contenders, but Porco Rosso is the first one that came to mind in the moment. You'd think my favourite would be The Wind Rises, and I like it, but there's several I like more (Howl's Moving Castle, Spirited Away, and Princess Mononoke).

Third Thursday Lecture - Samurai, Knights, and Nationalisms: The Middle Ages in Modern Japan Thu 15 Jan 2026 with @olegb.bsky.social (@york.ac.uk) 6:00pm GMT, In-person in Norwich (venue TBC) & online via Zoom 🎟 Free and open to all – booking essential us06web.zoom.us/webi...

Pray 4 me.

Three more 'nids who wanna give you a hug. I managed to do some dry brushing with Evil Sunz Scarlet that actually turned out well. The Wraithbone dry brushing on the purple carapace is still meh.

American pilots getting the P-38 in the South Pacific: "We shot down 14 of 8 Zeros engaged." Japanese pilots confronting the P-38, returning to base without loss: "Huh. That new plane could possibly be dangerous if it was used better."

I popped back into some Space Marine 2 and went through this mission for the first time. Damn.

This is going to take me a while to get through...

Is there a good survey of the air-naval war in the Mediterranean that's still in print? Ideally single volume.

I drummed for a prolonged period for the first time in a couple years and now my arms want to fall off.

I tend to keep my head down on social media as I've aged. I can only recall making an anon account very angry by lightly critiquing the work of Alan Zimm (he wrote some history in my general area).

The Japan and Germany four-engine bomber supercut video is out now. youtu.be/_Qf1DC3Z2JU?...

Interesting mixed medium approach to this Asahi feature on opium and Japanese occupied Manchuria: www.asahi.com/special/manc...

We didn't get to this in the live stream, but my opinion on what to call the result of the Battle of the Coral Sea is that everyone is right. It's mostly debating semantics. If you put a gun to my head and demanded I take a stand, then I'd call it an American victory.

It's extremely difficult to neatly place yourself into a box as a historian. My core research intersects with military (including naval and air, which can be treated as distinct from traditional "military history"), intelligence, political, diplomatic, economic, social, and cultural history.

Ok I’m going to say it because Christmas spice and all that. a) It’s absolutely fine - indeed a great approach - to teach the history of war primarily from the point of view of social/cultural history. b) But the military side of things in those classes is often not well done historiographically.