John R

The Dorawings kit is a significant step forward in the products from outside the mainstream. Most of it went together very well. Most problems were self inflicted. The only significant problems with the Dorawings kit involve the nose section. That long nose probe is moulded as part of the fuselage nose and my first reaction was that it was unlikely to survive the building process. This was borne out shortly after assembly commenced when I realised that the end had gone missing and there was no trace of it so I did not know exactly how long to make the replacement. Repair was not an option. Even if possible it was bound to happen again so a replacement was made using brass tubing of various diameters but leaving the thinnest off until painting was about to start. There are several vanes supposed to fit on the probe. These are made from PE and there was no way my fingers could get them in position without them pinging off across the workbench. If anyone knows how to do it please tell me. The canopy is another problem. There were fitting problems but the real trouble for me was the masking. I could not get the masks for the window in the roof and the 'portholes' to stick in position and replacements had to be made without great success. I think that it spoils the look of the whole model. The NMF is Alclad applied over gloss black. After applying the NMF there arose a problem with the decals. See here for details https://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/235139192-dora-fairey-fd2-decal-problem/ The P1a was built many years ago using the Aeroclub vacform fuselage and the rest from an Airfix F3 but I thought that it should be included here for comparison as both originated at almost the same time. John

WV318 started life as an F4 but after an accident was rebuilt as a T7 and in October 1964 was upgraded to a T7A. She was used to train Lightning and Bucaneer crews. One of the last 4 to serve with the RAF she was painted black to commemorate 40 years of the type. Purchased in 1996 by Delta Jets at Kemble she was a regular on the airshow circuit until 2012 when Delta Jets ceased operations. She passed through a couple of owners then ended up at the International Test Pilots School in Ontario and is currently in service there. I had the good fortune to fly her on my 60th birthday, a surprise present arranged by my wife, and 24 years later my heart is still in the skies of Gloucestershire. The model represents her as she was when I flew her with a satin black finish. She was repainted in gloss black shortly afterwards for the Hunter Jubilee. The model was built from the Revell kit with the PJ Productions resin T7/T8 conversion kit. The only significant problem was that the place where you saw the front end off the Revell fuselage appears to be about 2mm too far back which creates a problem as the recess for the front of the wing has to be extended forward to compensate. Unfortunately the PJ forward fuselage had already been mated to the Revell rear section before I found this out. I thought that I had a picture showing the problem but it seems to have gone AWOL. Fitting the vacform canopy was something of a struggle which required some building up of the cockpit sides. The paint finish is Xtrakit 'Night Black' with a satin finish after the decals had been applied. Decals came from an old Xtrakit Hunter set which included a set for the Black Arrows. They are not quite correct for this T7 but were the only set available as far as I know. I had some trouble applying them as they had a tendency to break up. As luck would have it the worst case was the upper surface decals on the wing where part of the outer white ring went adrift. I reckoned that it was better to leave it that way than try to paint in the missing bit. There was a bit of last minute panic when I discovered that contrary to the instructions in the coversion kit this T7A was fitted with a tailhook and I had to make one. One is actually supplied with the kit for the T8 version but in my case the hook had been broken off before I received it (It was secondhand from Ebay) John

I stand corrected. I think that I was measuring the diameter of the blue ring. In fact a standard 48" roundel fits beautifully over the existing one which saves trying to remove it. Similarly a 30" one fits, not quite perfectly, over the one on the underside of the wing. It leaves a tiny white border which could be taken as the carrier film if you don't look too hard. John

No way! a. It's stuck on the model b. Even if it wasn't that sort of delicacy is beyond me John

If you simply type WG774 you get the 'gap' between the 7 and the 4 and that's how it appeared on the decals but the illustration in the kit shows it the way it appears on the a/c. Interestingly theWG774 on the rear of the fuselage of the a/c does not have the 7 and 4 closed up when it first flew but this was changed when it appeared with its brother at Farnborough in World Recorder Holder markings. Now it's me being unobservant. I had seen the white ringed decals on the coloured a/c and felt sure that I had seen them in pictures of the NMF version so didn't check further. Even worse the rather grainy picture I have of two of them together on the runway appears to show the fuselage decal with a white ring but the one supplied in the kit for that version does not have one. Even worser (sorry, but this is getting to me) replacement of the white ringed decals is not going to be easy. A quick check of the spares box showed nothing suitable and a measurement of those supplied seemed to indicate that they were 45" diameter which I think is a non-standard size. Gordon Bennett! why do we do this to ourselves? Thank you John

For better or worse this is how it has ended up. John

As the Americans say 'Close, but no cigar' The slope of the 4 and the 7 seem to be different but if you were not too picky one could get away with suggested remedy but here's how it looks as a lash-up and this was the only picture I could find of the a/c I'm off for a lie-down in a darkened room John

Ooh Err! I saw your post just in time as I have wasted an afternoon putting it 'right', as shown below. Fortunately the decals had not set and I was able to remove them. Thank you John

It does make me wonder if the manufacturers ever build their kits before releasing them

I just went to apply the decals and came across a 'Showstopper' which I have not seen flagged up by anyone else. Has it been corrected by Dora and have I got an early set? John

Really nice model but from the title I expected it to hanging from the HANGAR roof. Sorry about the sarcasm but some things do irritate and everything else is great. Please correct the title. John

Thank you. I should have thought of looking there. It was double whammy because it cleared up something regarding the fairing on the top of the exhaust John

Thank you. That sounds like a reasonable explanation but why were they left unpainted? Possibly so any cracking or delamination would be easily seen. That would also explain what colour they should be. John

What are the light stripes either side of the central frame? Are they inside or part of the frame? What colour are they and why? The picture is of WV318 when at Delta Jets but other T7s look the same

Nice work - for a youngster! When you are my age it's not seeing the tiny parts, it's not being able to handle them. Make the most of the time you still have the ability to produce work like that. Have you got one of the magnifying lenses with ring light built in? Worth every penny John

Really nice work. I think that I built mine at the same time as your first attempt so, unlike your second attempt, it was built straight from the box with no worries about accuracy or aftermarket additions. Innocence is a wonderful thing! John

All I can say is...WOW!

Looking at it with the strongest magnifying glass I could find 28 is still unreadable. As it goes on the side of the canopy I suspect that it might read 'Pull Here' to indicate the location of the emergency release handle. As to the others, the location under the wings possibly indicates the location of jacking points, but why is there not a third under the forward fuselage? John

It's bit late to answer the original question but here it is anyway. I converted the Airfix Mig 17 into the prototype and it is quite an easy fix. I repositioned the airbrakes by means of a decal as that seemed to be the easiest option John

It is interesting to seee how other go about a 'mojo restart'. I have done any modelling for a year and decided to use an old model from the depths of the stash (Revell Gripen prototype circa 1990) to see if my ancient fingers could still handle the tiny fiddly bits. I found that they could but the end result was unsatisfactory because of the kit's deficiencies. You ended up with something to be proud of but I have something that ended up at the back of the display cabinet but really should be in the bin. John

Well done. I just wish that I had gone that route instead of trying to correct the fuselage height. After all it does look like an XP-83 John

Not having made a recent mass market kit ( my interest is in the esoteric) I can't comment on that but the quality and the fit of the parts is very good indeed. By the standards of the kits I am usually landed with ( Avis, Amodel, A&A, MicoMir) it is exceptional. My problems have been with fitting the instrument panel. I left it until I had the cockpit installed in one half of the fuselage because I couldn't be exactly sure how and where it fitted. On fitting the engine and Jetpipe I found that the engine part was too large and had to be reduced in diameter. Not all the locating spigots would fit their matching holes. At first I thought that the tongue was too thick to fit the slot in the wing but one of the slots was too narrow by a gnat's whisker and the tongue had to be trimmed to match. That's all so far John

How did you manage with the tongue that goes through the fuselage and into the wings? Mine is too thick to go through the fuselage and the slots in the wing roots on the fuselage are different sizes. John

I am not sure what support the tongue offers except perhaps to help get the wings lined up with the fuselage and each other as it is very flexible. There is part of me wondering if to spare the hassle of widening the slots in the fuselage by doing without the tongue. I had a similar to you about the old kit. A friend suggested making a 221 but I have a vacform for that. Decisions, decisions... John

I have just received mine and there are a couple of decals without the the white surround in addition to the main sheet I have just started mine and am much impressed with it. Not perfect but so far ( cockpit section fitted to forward fuselage and rear section ready for glueing) everything has gone together with only minor adjustments. One problem ahead is that there is a tongue which goes through the fuselage to support and align the wings and the slots in the fuselage halves are undersize and will need careful opening out. Edit. I have just tried assembling the wings and the tongue is too thick to fit the slot in the wing so perhaps the tongue needs thinning as well or instead. John