Hepster

I built one of these many years back, if I recall it includes the optional parts to do a Pz IVE, including alternative rear decking and add-on armour. Very enjoyable build.

Isn't this a re-pop of the Italeri kit?

The nobbly thing on the nose is the terrain-following-radar (tfr). And a really lousy one at that, as it had a very slow reaction time to obstacles.

The Lindberg kit of the Victor is still available - I saw a newish copy in my LMS a couple of years back priced at a silly £34.99 - I picked up an old '70s edition of the kit privately for £2! Both Lindberg V-bombers are horribly inaccurate, but most closely resemble the prototypes of said aircraft. The box art invariably shows the kit in operational markings...

Nice The Novo is a repop of the Frog Kit, and was manufactured in the four years following Frog's demise in 1976. I recently had copies of both the Frog and Novo kits in my hands for examination - compared to the Frog original, which was well moulded and flash free, the Novo was covered in flash and, curiously, weighed about 10% more. Someone was selling a resin replacement nose for the Frog/Novo kits at Telford last year, as the one provided is a bit 'blunt'

I am inclined to agree that the one-piece tracks work quite well, once you have removed the prominent moulding line down the centre. As to why this hasn't been done in other kits, I suspect that the design of most tracks does not lend itself to this moulding method - for example tracks on German tanks always have enclosed holes at the sides where the teeth of the sprocket hook on, whereas the Cromwell has them on the edge of the track. Then there's the guiding teeth on the underside of the track, some tracks have pairs of them which would also be a problem.

Interesting topic, but worrying at the same time. I can certainly go along with the comments about the Roden He 111B/C kit, having built one and just about survived, it really fought back. I have the Lindberg 1/48 X-3 and a Beechnut kit in the stash, there does seem to be a common opinion that they are crud. Oh 'eck. I have tackled the Smer Macchi Costoldi twice, and it is buildable and looks good even if the props are wrong. I have found the Smer branded Heller repops buildable enough, after buying a few some years back when Wilkinsons were selling them off cheap.

According to Alfred Price's 'The Spitfire Story', the TR9s were given a similar conversion to that designed for Mk VIII types, in which the front cockpit was moved forward 13.5 inches, and the two front fuel tanks were replaced by a single smaller one, together with additional wingtanks inboard. Armament, when fitted, consisted of the outer .303 guns only. It does beg the question 'where are the filler caps?'. It does not give any detail of the armour fittings that you asked about, but I would question the point of armour on a training aircraft.

If you can get hold of an early noughties reissue of the 1/72 P1127, it is a quick and easy build. The years of wear and tear on the mold work to your advantage, as the rivet detail had worn off (mostly) on my copy.

According to Michael JF Bowyer's 'Fighting Colours', PSL 1969, the decision to camouflage was made early in 1937. He goes on to say that it was used on new-build types like the Hurricane in from 1937 onwards, but took several months to apply to legacy types. The companion volume 'Bombing Colours' gives the date that the instruction was issued as April 1, 1937.

I do remember Philip K Dick being interviewed at the time and saying how disappointed he was with the 1982 original. (He may have expressed his disappointment more colourfully). The Philip Marlowe style voiceover was a bit cringe-worthy...

Was chatting with a couple of ex-service types based in Aden in '65, they were horrified at the inaccuracies in the show. I did point out that it is basically a 'soap', so don't hold your hopes too high anyway (and yes, I do hate all soaps with a vengeance!).

Not only do I agree with the issues regarding the pace of Rendezvous with Rama, I would also argue that James White's 'All Judgement Fled' tackles the same storyline far more effectively and would translate to the screen more readily. For sheer sensawunda, James Blish's 'Cities in Flight' would be good. Incidentally, I can vaguely recall BBC doing a one-off production of Asimov's 'The Naked Sun' back in the late 1960s for TV... Its probably been wiped long since by now.

And they have managed to spell Panzer wrong on the dragonusa site!

I built the Revell 1/72 Tornado GR1 some years back, and came away from the experience convinced that it was the best Tornado kit that you can get in that scale. I didn't have any of the problems that you mentioned, but I did have problems with warping on some fuselage parts which, although a serious problem, I regarded as a one-off and couldn't blame the kit, and would love to build another one day.