National Military Museum visit at Soesterberg, Netherlands
On December 9th I payed a visit to the National Military Museum at Soesterberg in the Netherlands, this museum is located on the former airbase which was founded in 1913, due to money cuts the airfield was closed in 2008. Besides being used by the LVA (Luchtvaartafdeling), it was also used by the Germans during the second World War and by the USAF 32 Tactical Fighter Squadron during the cold war. Currently it is primairly used as nature reserve.
The museum itself is quite modern and has a lot of information regarding the ever existing wars, also the conflicts that the Dutch were in, which is quite a lot. A lot of armor and aircraft are on display and can be nicely viewed because of the large windows of the building, this also has a disadvantage because it makes it difficult to make decent pictures because of the background lighting, especially on sunny days. Quite some aircraft are hanging on the ceiling which also does not make it easier to get decent pictures.
The day we visited it was raining the entire day so that made it easier to take pictures inside but terrible to shoot the aircraft which were on display outdoors. I still decided to take some outside but it took me hours to dry my clothes afterwards. But definitely worth the effort.
Once of the reasons for the visit was the 50 years of F-16 exhibition, Alfred @alfred made me aware of this exhibition in his F-16 build thread, this to gather some information regarding the F-16 of 311 squadron which I'm currently working on for the group build "F-16 at 50" by Erik @airbum
Some pictures added to get an impression of the museum. Definitely worth a visit.
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- 1. F-16 tail art
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- 1. F-16 tail art
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- 1. Dirty Diana with the censored and uncensored side.
Fantastic pics! Thanks for sharing. Must pay a visit.
@ross4, thanks, Ross. You definitely should.
Looks like a good day out, shame about the weather.
@chinesegeorge, besides the weather, a fantastic day, George.
Nice pics John! @johnb
I go there at least once a year, sometimes we combine it with a visit to Thermen Soesterberg to keep the wife happy. 😊
@alfred, thanks, Alfred. Good idea for a next visit.
Awesome pics, must have been incredible to walk around and see so much aviation history!
@jroamer, thank you, Joe. A lot of aviation indeed but quite some armor is present as well.
Bedankt voor het delen. Prachtig. Ik hou vooral van de Dornier. 🙂
@paulwoodyvanacker, graag gedaan, Paul. The Donier is a wonderful aircraft indeed. Very impressive.
It's nice to see there are still a few around. We have parts of one in Australia, sadly most of the ones we had were scrapped.
Excellent pics of an excellent visit, my friend @johnb! Looks like you had a wonderful day!
Thanks for sharing!
@fiveten, you're welcome, Spiros. A wonderful day indeed.
Great stuff. thanks for putting these up.
@billkoppos, uploaded with pleasure, Bill. Glad you like them.
Thanks for sharing these, John. So many great modeling subjects. I like the Do-24 and F-104 a lot. Both are on my to do list. That Mig-21PFM is in great shape too.
@j-healy, my pleasure, John. From a distance the MiG21 looks quite nicely maintened but when getting up close, it is clear that it needs some attention. Hopefully they plan on doing that and have it displayed inside.
Awesome museum and great photo gallery John! Many thanks for this post.
@bobd56az, you're welcome, Bob
I'm impressed they got their hands on an F-15.
@dbdlee, this F15 is one of the aircraft sationed in Soesterberg with the 32nd TFS during the cold war.
That is one fine looking museum and collection. Thank you for sharing, John.
@gwskat, it sure is, Gary.
A fine collection of pictures. Thank you for sharing them with us. @johnb
@jdtruby, shared with pleasure, John
John vd Biggelaar (@johnb)
This is an amazing museum, and you have posted some incredible photos. There are some very rare aircraft on display. I have never seen photos of a real a Dornier 24 before. Years ago I had a Testors / Italeri kit of this kind of plane in 1/72 scale.
The Fokker D7 and the B-25 in a bare metal finish are also among my favorites out of this group. Is that a Cauldron or a Maurice Farman biplane hanging from the ceiling with the rotary pusher engine ? It's a neat looking plane too !
The photos of the F-100 are equally impressive. I really like how you captured the burned metal look on the rear section of the fuselage. The F-16 looks like a shark !
There's a very impressive amount of field artillery pieces there as well.
This looks like an excellent place to visit. Thank you for sharing these with us, and I hope you didn't get too cold when it was raining and you took the outside photos.
PS: I just noticed the manned V-1 and the V-2 displayed as it would look just before impact. What an incredible sight to see ! Is there also a Spitfire parked outside ?
@lgardner, a great place to be indeed, Louis. It is a Farman HF20 hanging on the ceiling, unfortunately it's a replica. The only existing one is in Paris. There is indeed a Spitfire outside, it does however need a bit of attention.
Great pics John, looks like it’s well worth a visit. Pity it’s on the other side of the world from me!
Apopeofchillitown, absolutely worth a visit, Ben. Hopefully you have the chance sometime to visit it.
Terrific displays at that museum ! Thanks for posting so many great photos , John @johnb . Nice to see they are so well taken care of
@ssgt, you're welcome, Jay. Especially the once inside the museum are indeed well preserved.
Looks like a terrific museum, John @johnb. Some rare looking stuff there, especially that Dornier 24. I have to spend some more time looking at your terrific photos. By the way, a couple of days ago, I visited the minuscule and less elegant Argentine Air Force Museum outside of Buenos Aires. Some rare stuff there as well. I was the only visitor. I will post photos later when I come up for air.
@eb801, they do have some exceptional armor and aircraft on display, Eric. Love to see your pictures from the Argentine Museum.
Hi John @johnb, thanks for the awesome pictures. Looks like you had a great day - next time i am in Amsterdam i will have to pay a visit to this museum! That B25 looks amazing.
@fxrob, you're welcome, Felix. Approximately a one hour drive from Amsterdam, definitely worth it.
Some really great pictures of a great museum, John (@johnb). Lots of ideas for models here. I really like the jets doing the aileron rolls down the length of the museum. Looks like it was a really nice visit, except for the rain. Thanks for posting.
@gblair, the idea of that roll is indeed great, it does however make it a bit difficult to get decent pictures from them. I saw that I forgot to include pictures of the F86 which I took for an upcoming build.
2 attached images. Click to enlarge.
Wow, what a great verity of aircraft. It looks like a wonderful museum. Thank you for posting the photos of your visit, there are some airplane there you don't see very often.
@curtisshawk, more than welcome, Clint. They do have some exceptional aircraft indeed.
F-86 is always cool, John (@johnb). Looking forward to it.