Gary C

ANG P-51's shipped to Korea were wrapped in the same stuff.

The PIDS is in the later boxings of the Kinetic A/B. As far as I know nobody does an ECIPS pylon in any scale yet although it's the sort of thing Attack Squadron may do.

The P-51D was meant to be July although I think it may have been even earlier than that. Either way even Hornby themselves have admitted that products have been delayed as mentioned in the profits warning issued a couple of days ago. http://www.kentonline.co.uk/kent-business/county-news/model-maker-hornby-shares-plummet-after-warning-weak-summer-sales-sandwich-kent-131676/ If things carry on the same way to the end of the year then there will be real difficulties. They've already been to the shareholders twice, sold off property and been to the bank. It's hard to see where money is going to come from if they can't generate it themselves. Expect a thin 2018.

From ebay, a 1/48 Revell Chinook HC.1 for a whopping £17.99 and five more Koku Fans from 1974. And from Hannants, 1/72 Barracuda B-1B nose and tail correction set and 1/72 Attack Squadron C-130E/H engines and sponson sets.

From ebay, a 1/144 Roden C-5B Galaxy and another 1/144 Roden C-141B Starlifter from emodels.

It seems to be selling on ebay. I've just bought one, £91 all in from Poland. Given that people were paying £80+ for the Revell/Otaki kit it's not a bad deal for a modern kit with dropped flaps and slats. I'm just pleased someones finally done one. If it checks out okay I'll be picking up another 3 or 4 at least, depending on whats on the Caracal sheets.

This...I think it counts as a bargain... http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/FM-Handley-Page-Halifax-Mk-III-1-48-Plastic-Model-Aircraft-Kit-/253104681715?hash=item3aee36f2f3:g:GrUAAOSwkthZmJzp

It is the Esci kit, the sprue shots are on the Italeri website.

Try this... http://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2017/04/10/leading-shareholders-aim-oust-chairman-ailing-hornby/

They're trying to put a brave face on it, but not everyone is playing along. This appeared three days after the above report... https://www.ft.com/content/07bf35be-1ddf-11e7-b7d3-163f5a7f229c

It depends on what you mean by the biggest. The Grand Slam wins the prize for being the heaviest but that's only because of the casing. The actual explosive content is only about 8000lb, the GBU-43 is more like 18,000lb. You get a similar result in yields. Different bombs for very different jobs.

Yeah, I'm thinking about them, certainly the radome set and tip tanks. You get replacement flaps, cowlings and wheels in the plusmodel boxing...not sure about the nose set, need to look at some pics.

Books... Charlie Chasers - The history of the USAF AC-119 Shadow gunships in Vietnam Here there are Tigers - The secret airwar in Laos 1968-69 Batcats - The USAF 553rd Reconnaissance Wing in Southeast Asia 3 copies of Koku Fan from 1982 And kits... 1/72 Valom RF-101G/H 1/72 Roden C-123 Provider 1/72 Heller Noratlas 1/72 Plusmodel Warning Star - the full meal deal...I'm torn between doing it as a regular ADC EC-121D or one of the Igloo White Batcats. Maybe I'll buy another. Gulp.

I'm pretty sure no active duty AF unit has ever replaced F-15C's with F-16's. Langley, Eielson, Holloman and Tyndall have all traded in F-15C's but for F-22's not 16's, whilst Eglin got the F-35. USAFE and PACAF between them have 3 Squadrons of F-15C/D's left, the 493rd, 44th and 67th. At 24 per squadron and a handfull of spares that totals 80 aircraft at the most. ACC has no front line F-15C/D units now and the 65th AGRS is no more, although I'm sure there must still be some with the test units either at Eglin or Edwards as well as the WPS at Nellis. I'd be surprised if they totalled anywhere near 50 jets though. I would guess the arrival of the F-35 is driving this. The 388th FW is currently swapping it's block 40 F-16's for it with the 34th FS already done. There are a lot of other units that will be doing the same in the the not to distant future which is going to leave a lot of very capable late block F-16's going spare. Some of the current ANG F-15 units such as California, Montana, Florida and Oregon already had the earlier block 25/30 F-16 anyway prior to getting the F-15's that were freed up by the arrival of the F-22, so swapping back should be no problem from a capability point of view. And given the heavy usage ANG Viper units have seen in Iraq and Afghanistan in recent years having a few more around would be very welcome. Add in the cost savings from removing a type completely and it does seem like a good idea.

I went into the Peterborough Hobbycraft a couple of weeks ago and the Airfix section looked pretty poor. It used to form the bulk of the models but now its pretty thin with a reduced section and boxes facing outwards to try and hide the gaps. Having had no new releases in for a long time now, I guess they're discontinuing Airfix. There is lots of Revell as usual and the Tamiya and Italeri sections appear to have taken up the slack, loads more 48th Tamiya than there ever was so models must still be selling well. The LHS has also seems to have cut back a bit as well, the main wall used to be all Airfix with the end wall for Revell. Now the end wall is solely Revells armour, cars and ships and a third of the Airfix section is now given over to Revells aircraft. They've also started to stock some Zvezda and a few second hand kits so I guess they're casting around for alternatives.