Astir8

Now that takes me back -about 50 years! Very nicely done

As a former user, at a very young age of a TE20 I think the weathering is excellent. I love it (though the paint would have been worn off the seat and steering wheel rim years ago!) From a purely practical point of view the 3 point linkage fitted with the trailer hitch cross bar is hanging way too low. I suspect that this is a fault in the kit as it seems to be a common fault in other RFI models as well.

"Flying doctor aircraft to Wallamboola base" A radio show in the 1950's predated the tv version

Sounds a nice kit. A sobering thought that the list price of £9.99 is 100 times the price of the last 1/72 Airfix Spitfire that I bought (2 shillings).

Also Comets and whole and sectioned Stugs in the excellent Finnish tank museum

Very true, but just repeating what it said on the box!

Following the tip from Admiral Puff I googled Lindberg Hawker Hunter and up one came on Scalemates. The box lid says Moveable control surfaces, retractable undercarriage, removable tail section, detailed jet engine and afterburner and WORKING EJECTOR SEAT! Scalemates say it's 1/48 but that's not mentioned on the box lid. So very clearly from the same series as my Crusader. Just move back time 60 years please. Thanks guys!

Looking at the F8J kit box art and Britmodeller kit review triggers a few more memories. The ailerons were moveable and the all-flying tailplane halves were connected via a hoop in the tailplane which fitted around the afterburner. It must have been quite a kit for its day. A Christmas present I guess.

It was exactly the same system on my Crusader. I don't know how accurate it was as a model but for its day it had a lot of detail and was FUN.

Yes, it also had a retractable undercarriage but the downlocks were feeble and it all had to be glued solid. I also had a Skyhawk kit of the same era, with a little opening hatch through which the engine could be viewed (a bit). My big brother had to build up those kits for me (and an Airfix Ferguson tractor) but it wasn't long after that I did my own very dodgy original Airfix Spitfire quickly followed by. Hawker Hart. I even once had the Airfix Southern Cross liner as a Christmas present. Should have kept it in the box!

Over 60 years ago, I had a kit of a Crusader which must have been 1/48 or even 1/32. It had a detachable tail with detailed jet engine which could be slid in & out plus an elastic band propelled ejector seat (but no parachute for the unfortunate model pilot). Possibly it was Lindberg line but looking through the internet I can't find any mention of it. Has anybody any memories of this kit?

The need for drag reduction pushed aircraft designers to aerofoil shaped "wires" with threaded ends quite early in the history of aviation. Ditto the avoidance of exposed turnbuckles. If you google "rafwires" there are a number of PE sets available for this scale. More difficult to use than EZ line unfortunately.

There was a description in Geoffrey Wellum's "First Light" of wooden wedges being used on the Malta-bound Spitfires butit went no further than the fact that a lucky seaman was delegated to hold them in position while the flaps were retracted - and trying to avoid the loss of fingers in the process!

Aaaargh! Sorry I spoke!

Pardon my saying ( and It's about 45 years since I built the 1/24 Hurricane) but are the OOB plug leads on the engine not a little crude in comparison with the rest of the fantastic quality of this build so far?

I can't believe that this is 1/72! It doesn't look a bit like my Airfix model - but that was in the days when the kit cost 7/6 and I was ten! I've a lot of interior photos of the BBMF Lanc which I took at RIAT in 2010 and your modelling is remarkably close to the reality as it was then - although the engineers dials were mostly black with white markings. Let me know if you would like any of them. I'm not good at posting photos on these sites

Congratulations on some brilliant modelling Just a thought. Looking at the original photograph and based on experience of being bogged into similar areas, the truck looks as if it may have been passing over an area with shallow flood water standing in the ruts. Possibly the lumpy bits were wet sand rather than rocks - hence the need for the rather elaborate duckboards So maybe a watertight base/edges to the diorama and half a pint of water added? Nah forget it, as I said, brilliant work

A very minor question - nothing to do with the built quality and weathering which are amazing, but the teeth on the track drive sprockets look curiously "vee" shaped. On any crawler tractor the sprocket tooth profiles are half-round so as to mesh correctly with the circular track pins. Is this apparent vee shape just a photographic accident or have the kit manufacturers screwed up a teensy bit?

Normal agricultural practice for chevron tread tyres (like modern tractor tyres) is for the chevrons to be pointing backwards (at the bottom of the tyre) on driven wheels (wheels which are powered by the engine). This aids mud clearance from the treads as the chevrons are squeezed together slightly under load and then relax a bit as the tyre rotates. (That's the theory but it doesn't actually work with wet sticky mud) It's the opposite way round for non-powered wheels which are only being rotated by contact with the ground. The chevrons should then point forwards at the bottom of the tyre. Possibly AEC used to argue that the front wheels on the Matador would be disengaged from the drive system most of the time so that strictly speaking the tyres should be mounted as shown in the factory photo. That also makes it that the tyres on the gun shown in the photo are on the wrong way round! Correction much later No it doesn't, the gun gets towed backwards! Doh!