Julien

Great shots! well apart from the blokes in budgie smugglers Julien

they look nice decals. Julien

If you dont mind sharing I would love these for the Lynx walkaround as we have nearly only the modern Lynx pics. Tony (sniperUK) sent me some great Army ones from operations in the 80's. Those older pics can be gold dust for the modeller. Cheers, Julien

Selwyn, Any idea about the Black dots on the Skyflash fins? Notice how clean (NOT) this Phantom is Julien

I can recomend Gator Glue, have been using it for a while. It is a type of PVA which dries clear, good for any type of bond where there is no stress. I used it on my latest model to stick the canopy down with no problems. Also good for landing gear doors and under wing tanks. They say on the bottle its not PVA but their own forumation. Julien

They are very much the same. The academy kit gives you an engine and the trolley to hold the rear fuselage if you want to split it. Academy kit preview here Hasegawa Kit preview here Julien

Dave, You may want to check out the Jaguar walkaround. Its possibly our most extensive walkaround on the site. Julien

Its an old colonial thing! Julien

I would say leave the pit as it is, when its black and hood is closed you dont see much. I might spend a seat but not a pit. Nice buy for £15 though, its £23 at Hannanats. Julien

get a mac get flashback! Julien

For those of you building the Airfix Lynx (Army/Marines) the Army Lynx walkaround section contains our very own Greg Buckley's walkaround of the Afghan version on the Airfix decal sheet. Hows that for topical! Julien

Have you read Robin Olds book, he had a bit to say on the Falcon and it was not good. It was really a missile for an interceptor not a fighter. They had it on his book on the C and that had no gun, he mentions the frustration of this saying how many more kills they would have got had they a gun. Julien

They look interesting Julien

Nice one, never seen a Yak-40 before. Julien

F-104G Starfighter CCV Hasegawa 1:48 The inclusion of the F-104G CCV was a pleasant surprise from Hasegawa, at least for someone like myself who likes aircraft slightly different from the norm. This is also good business for Hasegawa, as with a new decal sheet and a few extra parts they get more mileage from their excellent F-104G kit. The CCV in this case stands for Control Configured Vehicle. MBB (Messerschmitt-Bölkow-Bloohm) had configured this F-104 to be unstable in flight. Up until the mid 70’s all aircraft had been stable in flight. It was recognized by various aircraft companies that the way forward for advanced fighter design was in unstable aircraft controlled by computers using fly-by-wire. MBB began this programme in 1974. Availability of aircraft dictated they use a F-104G even though with such a positive stable airframe it was not ideal. The Bundesministerium supplied a Fokker Built aircraft s/n 23+91 (later re-serialed 98+36). This aircraft has since been preserved in Germany at the Wehrtechnische Studiensammlung in Koblenz. To achieve negative stability 600kgs of lead shot was first added under the tail pipe at the rear. This moved the CG (Centre of gravity) to the aft tip limit. The second and most visible addition was the mounting of a second tail-plane or canard above the forward fuselage. The incidence of this was set to -4° to ensure the wing and the canard were lift free at the same angle of attack (AOA). The canard had the effect of destabilizing the F-104 at up to 11° AOA. The bulges on the aircraft spine contained the actuators for the canard. Fuel in various tanks including the tip tanks was also used to shift the centre of gravity around. The system was developed between 1974 and 77. The first flight took place in 1977 to mainly test the computer control system. Later the aircraft was de-stabilised with ballast, and finally in 1980 it flew with the canard installed. During this first test flight no problems were recorded with the aircrafts handling even though by this point it was highly unstable. Over this period of time 130 test flights took place. In 5 phases. B1 – Basic F-104 – Highly stable. B2 – B1 + 600kgs Ballast – Moderately stable. E1 – B1 + forward ballast + canard – Marginally stable. E2 – E1 + 400kgs rear ballast – Moderately unstable. E3 – E1 + 600kgs rear ballast + fuel transfer – Highly unstable. MBB studies with the CCV indicated that artificial stability would reduce overall drag by 20% to 30% while increasing overall lift. This would result in a reduction in combat aircraft take off weights of 15% relative to a “stable” design.Other advantages of active flight controls would include; direct lift and side-force control to improve weapon delivery accuracy; flutter suppression to eliminate flight envelope restrictions; gust alleviation for greater crew comfort; and gust + maneuver control to increase airframe life. The results from these tests were used in the development of the European Fighter Aircraft, which became the Eurofighter Typhoon. In 2000 the performance of the MBB team was honored with the award of the Badge Of Honor of the Gessell-schaft fűr Luft und Raumsfahrt (DLGR; German Aviation & Space Association). It is interesting to note in an interview with the programme’s head Erwin Kunz he alludes to the fact that such testing would be unlikely to be approved in today’s health & safety environment! The Kit The kit is pretty much the standard F-104G as issued by Hasegawa in the past. The parts and details still look as fresh as when they first issued this kit. The molds must have been made well. Given that Hasegawa make extra sprues for their different F-104 kits, the box is pretty much crammed with parts. As the extra canard wing is basically another F-104 tail you get sprue D twice which gives a fair few spare parts. In addition to all the standard injection plastic parts there is a small bag of White metal parts, and a larger bag of resin parts. The white metal parts are a long instrument pitot tube that you would associate with a test aircraft. This has a small vane molded onto the top. Also in this bag are two smaller pitot tubes for the side of the fuselage. The resin parts consist of; the rear under fuselage ballast pallet; the mounting fin for the canard; the two upper fuselage actuator housings; a small tailplane cap; and plug which covers the gun opening. These parts are very well molded and will require only minimal clean up. The Decals Hasegawa give three options for what is in effect the same aircraft. Serial 98+36 Serial 98+36 This time carrying a blue badge on the intake Serial 23+91 The decals are pretty much standard Hasegawa fair, though it is good to see they have finally managed to print white as white not that cream colour they seemed to use for years. The CCV lettering is given in an orange colour as used on the aircraft. From colour photos I have looked at these, the colour looks spot on, as it is much duller than the dayglo orange used on the aircraft. From the same photos it shows that the dayglo areas were not subject to the same heavy fading of the dayglo areas as seen on operational aircraft. Conclusions This is nice addition to the Hasegawa F-104 family. It will appeal to F-104 modelers, Luftwaffe modelers and Test/trials aircraft modellers. Review sample courtesy of UK distributors for

I am pretty sure Mike is working on the Navy review. Julien

For those of you building the New Airfix Army Lynx, todays walkaround addition is XZ208 one of the decal options from Airfix. Thanks to our own Greg Buckley for these. http://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.p...p;#entry1008638 Julien

For those of you building the New Airfix Army Lynx, todays walkaround addition is XZ208 one of the decal options from Airfix. Thanks to our own Greg Buckley for these. http://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.p...p;#entry1008638 Julien

For those of you building the New Airfix Army Lynx, todays walkaround addition is XZ208 one of the decal options from Airfix. Thanks to our own Greg Buckley for these. http://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.p...p;#entry1008638 Julien

Decent clippers to remove the parts from the sprue and a real knife. I learnt a lot of modelling myself and for years I cut parts of the sprue with a knife. I had most accidents this way. Sprue cutters were a revelation to me in later life! Julien

I did, he sold all his liveries stuff Julien

Some great pics from Tony (sniperUK) taken at Carrickmore RUC station 1983-84. A couple more modern ones from Tony

Mish, I am spraying xtracrylix but dont thin it any where near this much. 50/50 at most, I thin with valejho airbrush cleaner as this also acts to slightly retard the paint. You might also have had a bad bottle. I have had one out of all the paint I have got. Julien

Big update of Seaking pics today. RAF Search & Rescue, RN Search & Rescue & Navy HC4 Julien