Des

Much the same as has been said about the Esci/Italeri kits being a solid basis for a model and there is a lot of aftermarket resin available from L'Arsenal for different pods, tanks and weaponry used by the CT and CR variants. Have only ever seen the Kitty Hawk kit built and it has always struck me as not quite looking right , nothing specific but just a rather expensive little bit off.

Are any of the traders on the forum who will be attending next weekend's Scottish Nationals hoping to have any of the kits with them?

Tucano buzzing about at low level for a while this morning. Unusual these days to see any low flying military over this way yet when I first moved here just over twenty years ago there were low fliers most weekdays and sometimes depending on weather, deployments and exercises almost non-stop aircraft noise all day with Hawks , RAF & RN Harriers , Jaguars , both flavours of Tornado and F-15 , AAC Gazelle as well as the occasional Hercules , Sea King and Nimrod along with the more exotic visitors that Leuchars , Lossiemouth and Kinloss would attract using the town as an entry/exit point from the North Sea. With the fast jets especially (and on one occasion a pair of low and slow B-1B) usually a second or sometimes more following behind and offset to the side

There are three postage stamp sized black & white photographs on the instruction sheet for the decals I mentioned which I could scan for you if that might help but unfortunately the text is all in German. Images are of the cockpit area with sharkmouth and leopard markings captioned MiG-29 , tail area of aircraft 25 captioned MiG-29 and a rear quarter view of a complete aircraft captioned MiG-29 (MiG-29S). PM me with an e-mail address if you would like a copy.

Someone might have more detail but the link below describes the operator as The Centre for Flight Personnel operated by the 1521st. Airbase Unit located at Maryy-1 in Turkmenistan until the collapse of the Soviet Union. Here is a link to some information on the Soviet Aggressor programme - https://thelexicans.wordpress.com/2013/08/12/soviet-aggressor-program/ - which will give you some details that might form the basis for further internet searches. Back in 1996 Fliegerrevue Magazine produced a decal sheet in 1/72 with markings for the MiG-23MLD and both single and twin-seat MiG-29 used by the unit.

Apologies , I was aware that the coolant bottle for the Sidewinder was contained within the launch rail but obviously seem to have misunderstood the cutaway drawing of the missile pack in Kev Darling's 'Lightning The Operational History' and his explanation that ' Cooling of both the seeker head and onboard electronics was carried out using nitrogen stored onboard the carrier aircraft'

Fantastic work and a great example of what can be done with really old and challenging kits. Always thought after the S-58 and Wessex were modeled in 1/48 and Italeri brought out their 1/72 H-19/S-55 variants which Revell also reboxed that someone might have followed up in 1/48 but sadly not as yet , even Airfix could find a Royal Navy connection and examples to LIDAR.

Hi Mike, I already have a copy of it and it is a useful reference and includes properly coloured Andovers and by the skin of their teeth Hercules. Transport Command had been gone for almost a year when I first flew in and was airsick for the only time in my life in one of the latter from 242 OCU almost a year later during an ATC Annual Camp at Thorney Island in July 1968.

Going on memory because I cannot lay my hands on the book involved at the moment I do recall reading that thought was briefly given to equipping the Lightning with Sidewinder during the 1970s but as the cooling system for Firestreak/RedTop was not compatible with that for the AIM-9 it would have taken time and money to resolve and in any case stocks of the former were considered sufficient to see the Lightning out of service.

Thanks Glen, Rather confirms what I already thought , looks like it might have been interesting subject and having recently bought Keith Wilson's RAF in Camera volumes for the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s when I came across the old advert it occurred that had it been published it might have been a nice complement to the material there.

I would agree with all of the positive comments made about Modeldecals which like others I still use to judge other products against however the most recent sheets were first released almost 25 years ago. So is it the age of the range that apparently renders them no longer 'state of the art' in whatever way that hackneyed term can be applied to decal sheets or is it just another facet of the old is bad new is good outlook that dominates many aspects of life including our hobby today? Maybe another reminder that the Emperor's New Clothes was a cautionary tale not a life model.

I am sure that you will not be disappointed. Mention has already been made above of Richard Ward's 2005 'Lightning Squadrons of the Royal Air Force' but he was also involved along with Yves Fauconnier in a 'Jaguar Squadrons' book back in 2010 covering all users , both followed a similar style but in full colour throughout , were published by Ad Hoc Publications and like the Hunter and Phantom before them can be highly recommended for the same reasons.

I have a copy in front of me that was bought around the time of the original release in 1988 and very much following on in the same pattern as the Hunter book. A4 sized , 68 pages 4 of which are in colour , averages three or four images to a page and covers operational service squadron by squadron each of which has a brief introductory paragraph on the squadron with the remaining text comprising of at times very detailed captions for each image listing variations to markings and other details (of which there were many on UK Phantoms) followed at the end by single page appendices with one having technical data for the FG.1/FGR.2/F-4J(UK) and the other camouflage & marking information. Written by the late Richard L. Ward of Modeldecal fame it shares the same high quality and eye for detail as did his decal sheet instructions although without the art-work and I have found it to be extremely useful over the years.

Nice catch of an unusual conversion on one of the more colourful Hercules camouflage schemes. Recall reading up on the Moroccan Air Force some time ago when I was researching for an RF-5A conversion and discovered that with border disputes and other issues that it is an air force with a lot of combat experience going back for decades predating the current Islamist problems across the Saharan region.

There is a three-view at the bottom of page 1 at - http://wp.scn.ru/en/ww3/f/14/30/0 - that suggests overall FS 36357 Light Compass Ghost Grey for a Chinese Navy example.