stever219

I'd love to come out to play with you at Telford, but none of my Coastal Command models are presently fit to be seen and/or are inaccessible. Added to that I haven't got any transport and the present Mrs Stever219 has other plans for me that weekend. Have a good show though, and post some pictures of the stand for us to enjoy.

Sorry Harvs, I'd not spotted the seam, but thank you for your warning for when mine does eventually emerge.

Something else that Airfix "missed" is that most Lancasters had fabric-covered elevators, not metal skinned (look at the elevator on the 101 Squadron aeroplane in the photo above). This was a contributory factor in the only(?) production test-flying accident involving the type. During the high speed dive part of the flight the fuel dump pipe doors under the wing centre section tore off and struck the elevators, tearing the fabric. The airstream then unravelled the weave of the fabric, reducing elevator effectiveness to the point where recovery from the dive became impossible. The crew of four died in the ensuing crash. As a temporary "fix" two additional ribs were inserted between each of the standard alloy ribs: the fabric was laced to these in an effort to restrict any future tears to a smaller area of fabric, thereby hopefully obviating a repeat of this accident. I've an idea that metal-skinned elevators came in with the Lincoln and were retro-fitted to Lancasters remaining in service as and when the opportunity arose.

As the real aeroplane was built in proper feet n inches your use of them for the model is entirely appropriate: none of that namby-pamby foreign decimal stuff here, thank you! Apart from that it looks like you're doing very well with this kit, but I've got to resist starting on mine 'til I've shifted some of the EEC Pile of Doom mountain that I've accrued over too long.

Sorry it's a bit late for your first one but how about attaching the engine support struts to the fuselage top (and/or upper centre section) with PVA (or blu-tack?) whilst you build up the nacelle? Hopefully that should ease any alignment issues. If not I'll get back under my rock while you jump on it.

A very nice result there. I also like the two blokes sitting in the back, and your rather battered-looking chocks. My Airfix Dak is presently stalled as the wing root joint needs some major sorting out and the fuselage crown seam has split, again!😖 Yours might just be the inspiration I need to dust it off and try to get it finished.

Flying boats had to come out of the water at some point for servicing, repainting or whatever so seeing yours parked on grass isn't so inappropriate. I do like the look of your Stranraer, superglue lakes notwithstanding.

Give the "lighter shade in the middle of each panel" treatment a miss: aeroplanes do not weather like that (nor will you find dark smudges along every panel joint). An alternative approach would be to apply a coat of satin black to represent Smooth Night and then to apply a coat of matt black to represent RDM2A Special Night. Once this has dried you can then gently abrade ares where wear has occurred and reveal the Smooth Night underneath. (In some cases a very fine abrasive will put a slight sheen on a matt paint finish, so put your paint mule to work and give it a try.). Mixing some very dark grey in with your matt black and applying this mixture in areas where heavier than average wear occurs might also help to break up the overall blackness of the model.

You're right, I should. Small missiles sounds like a very good starting point: bombs and radomes can be useful too. I haven't checked the Walkaround page on here, but Canberra Kid's website (sorry, can't post a link) has plenty of material for us to play with.

I should relocate my copy of this kit: I hadn't previously noted the "PRU" badge. For a 1982-era aircraft or later (some earlier schemes too) you're going to need to make the RWR antenna fairings for the fin leading edge and fuselage tail cone. Both are shown quite clearly in the painting instructions. Matchbox provided neither, having opted for colour schemes from earlier periods in their initial issue, and Revell, understandably, haven't updated the moulds to include them as far as I can see.

That old kit still buffs up nicely, definitely a favourite here (I hope that I've still got an unbuilt one in my stash somewhere for a rainy day). Interesting choice of markings too.

Thanks for the comment on the winch Zebra, it's very appreciated, especially after the lack of fun installing the cannon in the top turret of one of my Shackletons. I really shouldn't try modelling at the end of a long day.

Were the quadrants scale thickness they'd intrude further into the cockpit than they should due to the unavoidable side wall thickness (the kit's plastic is thicker than the aluminium sheet used on the real thing, just as in almost every plastic kit ever produced). If it bothers you that much you can always either scratch build replacements or wait for the Eduard etched brass and hours of folding and playing with superglue. Had it been produced by Eduard it would have been frustratingly over-engineered, with myriads of near-microscopic parts, and wouldn't have made Airfix any money.

I collected my Airfix Walrus today and so far I've only managed a quick perusal of the instructions and a peek at the parts without opening the bag (the Shackleton twins would never forgive me if there was another major distraction now that they're so close to completion). One aspect of this kit that I'm not really looking forward to is getting the anchor cable winch installed neatly. That said I'm glad I've got this kit and not the Classic Airframes/Special Hobby rendition. Also does anyone know what the two open-topped boxes are for on the starboard side just behind the lower rear spar carry-through?

I think the tailplane trailing edge fillets were moulded separately to facilitate installation of the glider towing bridle in the Mk. IV kit. Your close up of the rear turret installation really emphasises the width and depth, and the radiused edges of the panel lines in this kit: they make some of the works of the Matchbox-phantom-trench-gouger look restrained. Those on my Mk. IV have been slathered in filler to hopefully reduce their visual impact.

Hope the kit's better than the paint job on the "prototype".

There is nothing hideous about the Victor's looks: aggressive, yes, purposeful, yes; belligerent, yes; futuristic, yes; hideous? Never! You want hideous? Try the B-52: slab-sided, angular, lumpy, blunt..........

Pilots probably won't go to Ryanair unless they've already got 737 ratings (Monarch was (?) an all-Airbus fleet) so it'd take six months and the pilots' own money to get them. Cabin crew might go to Ryanair, but with other operators offering better salaries and working conditions I suspect that only those who can't go elsewhere will. Whatever happens I hope those who've worked so long and hard for Monarch can find employment elsewhere some time soon.

Look at the shape of the break on the shaft: it doesn't look like a clean break to me. There also appear to be the remains of some fan-or stator-blades in the lower-left quadrant of the fan duct which suggests that the fan and its cowling twisted off, so I'm wondering just how close they came to an even more dramatic failure than the Qantas '380 suffered. Definite "Good Show" for the crew though.

I had to visit an automotive refinishing paint supplier for my old day job and asked whether BS381C applied in his line of work. He told me then of the 10% tolerance, as well as the fact that he could also supply paints to RAL standards, although he didn't say whether the Germans also allowed some leeway. I certainly didn't intend to imply that Colourcoats applied such a "loose" interpretation of the standard when formulating their paints.

Paints, even from the same manufacturer, vary from one batch to another: there is a 10% tolerance on British Standard colours (other colours are, apparently, available). You painted your models, not unreasonably, with two tins of paint which, even from the same manufacturer, are almost certainly from two different batches with slightly different pigments and carrier medium, thinned differently and exposed to light over differing time spans. They are going to look different, simples! Full size aircraft would be subject to the same issues and I suspect that IF you could find a good colour photo of two Typhoons with adjacent construction and/or serial numbers they'd look slightly different too (cue Chris Thomas). I've stuck resolutely to Humbrol through thick and thinners, even though the quality of some of their paints has been pretty atrocious in recent years but, as Panzer Vor!'s just posted Sovereing Hobbies, nee White Ensign Models', Colourcoats take a lot of beating; I just wish I could get them locally. Hannants' Xtracolor and Xtracrylix are widely regarded as good, but the former is also known as "Nevadry" and the latter comes in modeller-unfriendly tall, narrow bottles with openings to narrow to get a chisel-edged brush into, and I hate the waste of decanting paint into bigger jars, especially for small jobs. Tamiya have introduced a range of RAF/FAA acrylic paints but some of them bear only a passing resemblance to their stated original (and mixing older Tamiya paints to get BS381C colours is not for the faint-hearted or time-poor modeller).

Mine is currently waiting for me at my LHS.😁😁😁. Looking at the 3d rendering very few joints are going to be in the middle of flat areas so risk to detail should be minimal, but I'd rather that they had used the harder plastic as per the Victor and P-40 as I find it more pleasant to work with, I.e. harder to break when separating it from the sprue, for example. I'm not 100% certain but I think they have arranged wing construction along the lines of the old HP 0/400 kit to facilitate rigging.

Someone on one of the club stands at the IPMS Brampton show yesterday appeared to have a working prototype of exactly that (sorry, can't remember which club). Resin fin, so NF12 or 14 as the 11 and 13 used the Mk. 8 fin, outer wing panels, fuselage fuel tank covers, new nose, cockpits (no bang seats and black boxes for nav) and some etched brass details. Let's hope either that that makes it into production or that Airfix pick up on the most aesthetically appealing and, in some cases, colourful night fighter Meteor and do the whole nine yards in injected plastic for we assemblers of kits. Rather fancy the Alley Cat Mk. 4; probably easier to build than the Classic Airframes example lurking n the stash.

If you get the forthcoming Alley Cat conversion you will use most of the Airfix fuselage, apart from the cockpit area and extreme rear from the fin root leading edge. You need not waste the redundant cockpit by using it to depict a trailer-mounted "hands on" exhibit as used in the past by RAF recruiters at airshows, county fairs and the like, or as a crash rescue training aid diorama (plenty of scope for brutality and weathering).

That Meteor looks fine. I'm glad youhaven't washed and weathered the pants off it: most contemporary photos show the aeroplanes with quite a glossy finish and, as the C.O.'s jet, '844 would probably have been the shiniest on the unit. This was always one of my favourite Matchbox kits; I'd be really chuffed if Airfix did a night fighter in 1/48th to compliment their Mk. 8.