lufbramatt

4 pages in and I still don't actually get what is being said. But it's a new Spitfire kit so we must find something that is wrong! We just don't know what and why yet. But it's definately wrong. That much we can be sure of.

does anyone really care? after seeing Jen Wright's gorgeously finished Airfix PR19 at Yeovilton last week, the kit looks every inch a spitfire, capturing the long, sleek lines of the 19 perfectly. One mm here or there is pretty pointless to argue about.

Two issues there: 1) convincing someone that owns a spitfire to clear out their hanger (the answer from the BBMF or rolly Royce will be NO unless you have some sort of legitimate historical research reason to be doing it, or unless you stump up a shedload of money) so you can get a 360 degree view of the aircraft 2) 3D scanners are insane amounts of money to hire- the equipment needs specialist operators and it's quite time consuming to set up and calibrate to get meaningful results. Model kits arn't exactly the most profitable things in the world to sell, I very much doubt there would be excess profit margin to splurge £xx thousands of pounds on extra research. Peter Jackson is reputed to do this for the WnW kits, but he happens to own the aircraft, and doesn't care if they make any money! The guys doing the CAD design for these companies work in a 3D CAD environment day in, day out, I'm sure they're more than aware of how laser scanning works and if it was viable all the kit companies would be doing it.

Late build lancs definately had no windows and the skin around them was unbroken. Have a look at pictures of Just Jane at East Kirkby. But probably a bigger proportion of lancs did have the outlines present. Either way, as stated above its much easier to fill the resulting outline and paint over than it is to cut out or scribe 20 or so identical, correctly spaced windows.

The hercules cowlings are parallel sided (ie straight cylinders) so would be impossible to mould in one piece without changing the shape (to add a draft angle so the parts will release from the mould) and losing all the detail off the sides which would create undercuts. You could mould them correctly in one piece with a "slide mould", but for 4 cowlings, it would add massively to the cost of the kit as the tooling and production costs would shoot up. It's kind of a "pick any two" situation- cheap kit, correct details, ease of assembly . . . ETA- did anyone notice the big bomb trolley on the "dambusters" optional parts sprue? Also looks like some extra detail has been included for the upkeep release mechanism like the hydraulic pump and spring/girder thing that pushed the calipers apart.

AFAIK the different fairings for the tail turret relate to the different turret types (3x.303 vs. 2x .50 cal). There was a H2S radome on the clear sprue as well which might indicate plans for slightly later versions?

yes, the whole tailplane appeared to be fully pivotable with separate trim tabs/elevators on the back. Had separate flaps underneath as well.

It's quite hard to see the offset fin on a 1:1 hurric, think the twist angle is only about 2 degrees, so the leading edge should be offset about 1mm in 1:72!

The outer exhaust stains go under the wing due to the dihedral on the outer wing sections ;-) The other ones get sucked over the top. Lots of people make the mistake of using black for exhaust stains, use shades of oily brown all the way to an almost cream colour in the middle (think the light staining was caused by the pilots leaning the mixture right out to save fuel, raising the exhaust gas temperature). Go easy and stop before it looks overdone. Less = more

Jamie Haggo did a similar thing on his 1/48 Trumpeter Wellington. I spoke to him about it at Telford a couple of years ago. He sanded down the back of the plastic parts until they were really, really thin and then carefully cut away small areas to reveal a very thin edge. He then built up the framework inside with plastic strip. With careful painting to give a singed look it looked superb. http://www.hyperscale.com/2010/galleries/wellingtonmkiii48jh_1.htm

Lambourgini have sold well over 1000 Aventadors (they sold the 1000th one nearly 6 months ago) and they have been selling very well in the far east . . . apparently one of the best selling hypercars of recent times. If you have enough money to buy a £200000 car you have enough money to get a Pocher version and pay someone to make it. I don't think these kits are aimed at modellers at all, they're aimed at the owners of the real cars ;-)

I expect the GR1 will have minimal weapons, just fuel tanks and SNEB rockets to get it down to the cheaper price, and the GR3 will include the same plastic as the GR1 but with an extra sprue with new noses, aerials, tailfin, more bombs/rockets/pods etc. They did the same with the Spitfire Mk1a to make the Mk1/Mk2 kit, and the Mustang with the F51D version. Note that all the other new tool airfix 1:72 harriers are all in series 4, so they've actually made the series 3 GR1 cheaper rather than the GR3 more expensive.

And the proper Standard Tilly not the Austin one that Tamiya did in 1/48th.

I'm sure the Eduard brassin one could be shoe-horned into the airfix kit with a bit of adapting.

Probably be able to get it around the £35-40 mark online though, 50 quid is only the RRP. Didn't think anyone actually paid full price for anything these days? hehe