Jon Kunac-Tabinor

Thank you! The 1A was in SAM Vol.45 No.2 April 2023 with the BAC research X-plane glider on the cover cheers Jonners

Hi Mark- there are now, here you go. The 1A was in SAM last year ( drop me a PM if you want further info), but Sharky was just for me, and both had the assistance of Mr Chris Thomas in large measures, and I still owe him a special Tiffie too - Cheers Jonners

Hi yes I did! Albeit about 11 yrs later! I also used the stuff I did in that build (Sharkie) when I did a Mk 1A backdate- so the same scratch-built wheel wells and the engine top too. I think I used the newer Tempest kits top for the latter as I had a spare from a resin Mk II conversion lying around. cheers Jonners

Oh very much definitely- and I'd say it's all the better by far for your input too. Sorry, I didn't mean to infer you were somehow an agent of chaos in the 'gun port saga' – more just a reporter of what you were sent! My apologies if it read as otherwise. Just put the instrument panel decal on and those lovely yellow dials look so good! CheersJonners

Well as they appear to have sold out of the kit on their website, I'm guessing that the comments here are probably not too worrying for them! 😁 LOL To be fair they could do with looking at the instructions. For example, the internal gun port inserts don't need fitting for this version (and they obstruct the outer panels anyway) plus some part references are swapped too. But they are not the first kit maker to release the 'less obvious' version first to ensure sales, and they won't be the last either. FWIW, I suspect the bemoaning of lack of the later gun muzzles in actual 'for sale' kits wasn't helped on here by the inestimable @Sabrejet and his lovely test build, which must have been supplied with those parts still on the sprue, because he says they are in the box. It's a fab kit but a little finicky in fit in some areas, and those outer gun panels need careful filling to remove the joint lines too; but they do fit very well. cheers Jonners

Thanks everyone- we seem to have a Rumsfeld conclusion then! LOL My initial though was, like Graham Boak, that the black was used on 'silver' machines, but there seem to be plenty of silver ones with red too: although perhaps they were reapplied when red was discovered to be more 'visible'? What I do know is finding the appropriate versions in Afrikaans is impossible in red or black! Very nie lekker! cheers Jonners

yes- sorry - typo - edited and corrected now. Jonners

HI all- so my title really asks the question. There doesn't seem to be a time related answer (eg black was earlier and replaced with red, or vice versa). The only thing I can see is that camouflaged RAF Vampires seem to use red. Does anyone know why both red and black markings were in use? Cheers Jonners

Just another note to say that you can fit the Airfix drop tanks to the wings, but you need to amend the contour of the tank pylon mating surface to match the wing's and build up the front of the pylon to extend further up (assuming you don't thin the wing or thin it enough that is). Also the panel lines on the lower wing where on inside edges of the airbrakes are missing - you need to scribe these in or your tank pylons will seemingly obstruct the airbrakes and you'll be scratching you head as to why. And the cannon shell and link ejections ports are missing under the fuselage ( I also have a nagging doubt that the bottom line of the mid-fuselage is not flat enough) Cheers Jonners

Hi all - here's the cutaway - it's item 42. And I think the ammo box is just visible in this pic too: HTH Jonners

I did a very quick check of the fuselage widths between the Airfix single seater and the Pilot Replicas two seater and they are slightly different- the Pilot Replicas is a little wider. I dot think it's enough to look to wide per se when standing its own, but I'd say it would cause more problems than it solved if you grafter the two-seat nose onto the Airfix body. Ditto with the wings- the Pilot Replicas wing thickness actually seems to translate into the inner-wing intake section being a bit too deep at its outer end. So grafting the Airfix outer wings would leave a step that would be tricky to eliminate (I'd think- from a casual eyeball of the parts). Whether you could transplant the entire Airfix wing and intake section onto two seat fuselage is an interesting question given the differences in fuselage design and parts breakdown. I'm not saying it's un-doable (and I'm not one to turn down a challenge) but the differences in both areas just seem to make it impractical. Cheers Jonners

Both, but with more sanding towards the wing tip. Sanding the trailing edge also has the advantage of reducing the chord slightly which helps sort out the extra width that Bjorn noted. Cheers Jonners

Hi - selective sanding. I sanded the wings outboard of the booms and intakes. It still means the outer edge of the intake insert needs reshaping a little, but the boom-stub depth stays the same as does the wing to fuselage depth - so there's no step with the fuselage join or the boom join. It's not a 'perfect' solution but it avoids destroying surface detail. I actually think that the wing depth is too thick all the way across its chord where it meets the intake section. But that's virtually impossible to fix unless you create an entirely new wing. Cheers Jonners

Great work Bjorn! I bought this kit and I'm now reviewing it for a mag. I thinned the wing halves from the inside and that seems to have worked too. The bluntness on the leading edges seems to be in the middle of the leading edge, so sanding them thinner helps with this too- or at least it seems too!! I also needed to reduce the depth of the wheel well walls too of course. In the pic, the left hand wing is unchanged and right hand thinned. Looking forward to seeing your finished model. Mine is currently destined to be a SAAF T.55. cheers Jonners

Thanks for this- the PDF v1.1 is very informative, especially as I have to review the new kit and was wondering about flat floors as I was planning on doing it as a 27 or 28 machines! cheers Jonners

Stunning work!! My first is on final assembly, and my second is being painted. Should you need to know this, the wing leading-edge lamp glazings and wing-tip light glazings fit like a glove. Splendid stuff Jonners

Having tried both options on my two builds, I'd say removing the bulge from B27 is easier by gentle scraping and sanding. The two parts can be used for a 'cut & shut' fix but the rear section of part A65 has some subtly different cambers on its mating edges that needs some very careful scraping and filing to get it to match with the front section of part B27. It's doable but my opinion is it's far easier to just modify the intended kit part. cheers Jonners

Flattery will get you everywhere! Good luck Enzo- I'll keep an eye out for this build. And, yes- hope fully the plastic will be far better. Cheers Jonners

Yes the years and decades difference was what struck me in the comment I was quoting about. As a magazine, I think SAM can but only reflect changes in what people want- although I think I'm right in saying that we still very much want to publish articles that between them (at least) have a balance of the historical, the technical, model construction, and the decorative. The recent excellent series on the US of the Cuban Missile Crisis and modelling them is a case in point, as are Mr Bryon's beautiful built, superbly painted and knowledgeably understood models. Do we feature models that are built purely for the modeller's joy of painting and weathering? Yes. Do we feature models that are built purely for the modeller's joy of correcting faults in an old kit to give a decent result? Yes It's very true that many basic questions on what "the basics of what RAF camouflage was in WW2" frequently appear online, and they are also answered very quickly, and usually pretty well. I suspect that we are, as in many things, between a rock and hard place in terms of magazine content here. If we repeated this stuff in every article about a WW2 RAF subject we'd get criticism for being repetitive and telling more experienced modellers stuff they already knew. We can never win, and we actually know this (should this be called Rumsfeld's Razor?). Ditto for pretty painted models, or 1/144 ones, or biplanes, vac forms, or 'boring grey jets' or whatever subsection of the Venn diagram that makes up modelling en masse. There will always be someone that thinks a magazine has swung too far one way, or the other. Even fans of F-111s or Tornados 😉 I think what we try and do at SAM (and I hope we do it more often that we don't) is to give a good mix of things that will be an interesting and satisfying read, whether sitting on the throne pondering with the porcelain, hunched at your modelling bench, or on a recliner in 'The Med' sipping an icy lager. cheers Jonners

It's a question that's been asked before, and in the sense of a magazine reviewing stuff and saying "Here's a new product that does x, y or z, and we think it's very good because...." then yes, but that to me is like a magazine saying "Here's a new kit of a Farley Fruitbat, and we think it's very good because...". A magazine can't make a modeller buy things, it can only expose the modeller to things. A good advert may persuade someone to purchase its offering but that's different because the ad is designed explicitly for that, whereas a modelling magazine will focus on modelling rather than products per se. There occasionally seems to be a nagging feeling that, somehow, magazines are in cahoots with model companies to push products like its crystal meth. ("Once we get you hooked on resin wheels, there's no turning back! MooHahahahah"). It's just not true, and to the best of my knowledge, magazines don't push advertisers' products just because they are advertisers. Remember that with build articles we very much rely on what we are given. Even if we at SAM send a kit and aftermarket stuff out for a review build, the modeller isn't under orders to use it all, and can certainly say what they think of it (and they certainly do). I certainly do agree that some aftermarket parts can be replaced by basic materials, and a little skill, and of course the necessary time and effort. And for some that's the joy, whereas for others it's not. But let's take photoetch seatbelts as prime example of aftermarket. Now you could try and scratch build something similar, but no amount of tape and fine fuse wire or thin plasticard will compete, especially in 1/72 or 1/48. Multi layer, or 3D printed Instrument panels and consoles ditto. CAD designed and resin cast wheels with deep realistic tread and proper hub detailing, ditto again. And some people like that stuff too, as it's a time saver so that can get on with painting. I use it if I think it will add to the overall build, but I also scratch build a lot too, because I enjoy it , because it's good for my skills, and also because if it's for an article I think people like seeing it done. Should it be included in the box? Personally I like Eduard's approach of Profipack and basic Weekend kits, and I wish more companies would do that ( I know some are starting too). But I can guarantee that if all companies always put extra stuff in the box, then the same people moaning about the cost of aftermarket would moan about the cost of kits with it included too. Modelling is a broad church, and I think it's often best enjoyed by occasionally seeing how the other denomination sing their hymns. You don't have to change your tune, but you might just enjoy a different harmony or two. Cheers Jonners

I take your point, and I suppose we reflect trends. I would counter that the aftermarket came about as much because modellers were fed up of having to do conversions from old hen coups and whale's blubber as anything else, and kit bashing was much more a thing because of the paucity of kitted subjects. I wonder if the modeller of days gone by would have still 'dope and talced' balsa-wood conversions if the kits had been there, or not used PE because they liked sellotape seatbelts better? We try and feature conversions wherever possible in SAM, and one that don't just rely on a resin plug-in part too. As ever, I encourage modellers to build and submit an article if there's not one in you like. That's effectively what I did. Cheers Jonners

I'm always amazed at how many modellers who 'haven't bought a magazine for years' can still seriously say that newer issues have gone down the pan compared to ones from the 60s, 70s and 80s??? I mean how do they know? A quick leaf through in Smiths? I am of course biased as I do some work for SAM. Some people sometimes like to think of the past as a comforting, better time because it's reassuring – especially when the present is different, or changing in ways they can't grasp or handle. I get that and I also get it's just one opinion versus another, but I'd challenge anyone to pick up a copy of SAM from the last few years and prove it's not as good as it was 5 years, 10 years, 20 years, 30 years ago. And yes all magazines go though ups and downs (there was a time in the mid-80s that Scale Models was threadbare for instance) so there will always be exceptions. But in general? We are just as good now and we strive to maintain that. Cheers Jonners

Thanks everyone, I will pass on messages to Sabine. One thing I forgot to mention is that what Rowan like the most, was seeing his decals actually use don model. So if you have some, and were wondering whether to build that model or not – I'd urge you to do so. Just like beer shouldn't stay in the barrel, decals shouldn't stay on the backing film! Jonners.

Hi there's post here in chat. Jonners

Rowan Broadbent 17 July 1953 — 21 January 2023 RIP Rowan’s wife Sabine has asked me to let you know that he passed away peacefully while in palliative care in hospital, in Langeac, France on Saturday morning. Rowan finally succumbed to the effects of one of the cancers that he had long fought and valiantly resisted. Rowan was the man behind and the driving force of Pheon Decals, a company which did much to raise the profile of World War I aviation modelling, providing meticulously researched and beautifully produced decals for the enthusiast. His enthusiasm for, and knowledge of, the period was second to none, and this shone through in his conversations, his informative instructions and advice, and in the depth of research that was always evident in his work. He was also a passionate ‘petrolhead’, an aficionado of inter-war aviation and admirer of Hawker’s fine fighting aircraft – particularly the Tempest. Rowan had lived in France for nearly two decades with his French wife, Sabine. First in Brittany and then in The Auvergne where the two shared their house with two cats and a beautiful view over the valley of the river Allier and its surrounding hills. Rowan’s first battle with cancer started in 2017 when a kidney tumour was discovered, and while this was successfully removed, some of it had already settled into his brain, prompting another battle, with radiotherapy helping stop the progress. In between these two struggles Rowan had also tackled a heart condition which resulted in a stent being fitted, and a bout of sepsis after a particularly nasty attack of diverticulitis, a condition he had lived with for many years. He bore all of this with a healthy disregard for sentimentality or self-pity. While he would have been the first to admit that the occasional ‘black dog’ would bring him down, he maintained an ability to live life as fully as his situation allowed. He was loved and cared for by his beloved wife Sabine during all this, and was happy for every day extra he could spend with her, having long before decided that he could be at peace with whatever the fickle hand of fate threw at him next. The radiotherapy for the brain tumour and subsequent drug treatments prevented him from producing more decals as he felt he was unable to draw, or design, to the standard he required. He undertook a course of immunotherapy despite the inherent risks and while initially successful, these manifested themselves reducing his mobility and affecting his lungs. Even so he still continued to maintain composure and a stoic spirit. In recent months he had finally started modelling again having regained some dexterity and was enjoying himself immensely when the brain cancer returned. Fiercely passionate, and a true friend for whom nothing was ever too much trouble, I am proud to have known him and even prouder to call him my friend. He is survived by Sabine, his daughter and grandchildren, all of whom he loved, and loved to be with. For those wondering about Pheon Decals, Sabine would like you to know that she will accept orders again from mid-February 2023, to give her a chance to reply to the requests for stock or catalogues already received. All orders will be fulfilled in the order they have been, or will be, received.