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  1. OK. I went though the threads and I figured I will build the Sea Vixen, having never built one before. A Sea Venom, yes, but not this. I also have a Sea Tempest, SeaFire, Phantom, etc...But this one caught my eye. I actually have the Revell reboxing too, but I like the options of building one of the birds off of the Hermes and, well, @Enzo the Magnificent is building the Revell kit...anyway...This kit does give me an option for the Hermes, two for the Eagle and three from Yeovilton. I'll take the Hermes. Sprue in bags... A lot of options... The profile (For now. I might change my mind.) Now that I have a clean bench, I will take a day to gather my thoughts. --John
  2. The Chipmunk is getting some decals on, and I might just squeeze this one in. I am building the Xtrakit Sea Vixen with a couple of add-ons. The FAA enhancement set for the new tailpipes and bang seats and a nose undercarriage out of a very old Aeroclub set, as the kit one is in resin and looks a bit thin in places. In my enthusiasm to start on this I had forgotten to post some in build photos, so here are a couple to demonstrate progress. I know that the Xtrakit has some shape issues, but I have it in the stash, and it is still better than the one from China.
  3. XN650 served with 892 Sqn aboard HMS Hermes before the unit disembarked to Yeovilton. It was part of the ‘Simon’s Sircus’ Royal Navy aerobatics team in 1968 which according to those who saw them were one of the best ever aerobatics teams. This is a wonderful kit from Airfix, fitting together really well. It does need quite a bit of nose weight. I built it straight out of the box, including decals, no aftermarket at all, it didn’t need any in my opinion. Paint is all from spray cans; gloss EDSG and satin/gloss white. Any comments and ideas always welcome!
  4. Should I use it and if so how? If I shouldn't use it what should I use instead? Or can I just use warm water? Lots of conflicting advice and opinions out there on YouTube and other modelling sites. Bagman
  5. Part of a series of end-of-year KUTA builds, which was prompted mostly by a very enticing looking GB calendar for 2023 and the disturbing realisation at the size of the stash when looking through it deciding what to build. I had intended to bunch them all together out of shame of clogging up the boards with more of my rubbish, but in the end opted not do on the basis that seperate threads might make future searches easier. This is the recent Revell reboxing of Cyber Hobby/Dragon's Sea Vixen FAW2 kit. The book on this kit is that it's well engineered, builds beautifully, but has a plethora of accuracy issues both large and small. I'd say that's a fairly accurate assessment, the fit is excellent, and the build a joy if one is able to resist the urge to modify, which had been my initial plan. In the end I made a fair few changes, most notably that I modified it to an earlier FAW1. Given the original CH tool was of this Mark, the modification is not as wholly involved as it might otherwise have been, since the later extended 'pinion' booms are just extra parts on a separate runner that overlay the existing FAW1 shape. Specifics can be found in the WIP thread linked below, but a quick summary of the changes from the instructions would be: Nose replaced with Aires Quickboost resin (I would recommend the shape of this one over the Pavla personally) Way out-of-scale kit pilot seat was replaced with a lovely Barracuda resin one. The random addition of a single Firestreak missile, stolen from another CH kit (the 'blue jay' boxing of their Sea Venom), since the kit only comes with rockets and redhats. In terms of kit modification: The observer hatch required sanding down and a decent amount of fettling required to fit the (fortunately still included) FAW1 clearpart to the reshaped FAW2 fuselage. The FAW2 wing booms were simply omitted various minor changes such as the painting of the canopy, choice of stores, and omission of the refuelling boom for the (also still on the sprue) earlier FAW 'horn'. There are of course other issues with the kit that may or may not trigger you (most notably the canopy shape), but being both unobservant and lazy, I opted not to correct them. I've given a more thorough list of post build thoughts on the kit, some of its issues, and some suggestions for modification at the end of the WIP thread for those also planning to build one. This model represents XJ586 from 890NAS operating from HMS Hermes in 1963 (shown below, from this video) and appears to be a later configuration of FAW1, which had the later style ridge beside the cockpit, and many of which (if not this particular aircraft) also had the FAW2-style refuelling boom. Being a cheapskate, I selected one from the video whose markings I could mash up from the kit decals (which incidentally were inconveniently thick, but well behaved). There are of course a few further inaccuracies in marking arising from this approach. These aircraft appeared to carry a single yellow training round firestreak (thanks to @Dave Swindell for a plethora of useful info on that), which is still on the pylon when landing, as this aircraft is depicted. The build was a bit of a love letter to Gunze, being finished mostly in Mr Color lacquers and varnishes, with the odd bit of Tamiya thrown in here and there, and some rather ineffective oil work over the top. It's also inadvertently turned into a bit of a showcase on how many different stages of weathering and shading you can put into a build without any noticeable effect on the finished model! Following my usual practice, I continue to serve up half finished dross to the RFI boards in the knowledge that, owing to my lack of enthusiasm for the necessary remedial action on the various issues (partcularly the massive glue damage on the exhaust underside), a 'properly completed model' is unlikely to ever occur. So with very little shame, I'm depositing my dog-eaten, coffee stained, partly missing homework here and then running off to play with some shiny new kits. Thanks very much for looking, thanks everyone following the WIP with helpful suggestions, tips and generally enough encouragement to allow the build to occasionally progress in spite of my laziness. WIP Cheers, Andy
  6. Hello all, here's a build log of Revell's reboxing of Cyber Hobby's much maligned Sea Vixen kit. It's one of the first kits I picked up on returning to the hobby, ticking the boxes of being a favourite aircraft in a modern tooling that by all accounts builds beautifully. Also, wanting to try as broad a range of of different manufacturers, the dragon/CH style was something I was keen to check out. Of course that was before I saw how unfavoured it was for its many accuracy issues; but undaunted, I thought I'd plough on regardless with my fingers in my ears and hopefully still achieve something totally OOB that looked sufficiently Sea Vixeny on the shelf, while having a lovely easy time doing it. That didn't quite go to plan however! Having a fondess for carrier borne FAA aircraft, I tend to build them wings up if I can. I shows off the uniquely naval character of the design, and has the added bonus of saving some of the the little space I have. That was the plan with this one until I acquired a copy of Airfix's 1/48 kit. That will certainly require a wings-up build, so for variety and to show of the the lovely profile of the type, I thought I'd instead build this one wings out, everything down in landing configuration. This gives me a lot more freedom to be very lazy on the internal detail! Of course it also means building the canopy closed which (as you can see from the box art) has a dodgy kink in it that I was hoping to hide by posing it open, but you can't win them all. Further to differentiate the two, I thought it would be nice to build one as a FAW1, which has nicer lines to my eye. The Revell kit is in a much better position to make this conversion, since the CH tool has the FAW1 wing boom shape moulded into the wings, with the FAW2 shoulder extensions added on an additional runner. There will of course be numerous other changes that need making, but I'm going to be lazy try not to make too big a deal about it. So we'll call it a FAW1.5. https://www.scalemates.com/products/img/2/6/8/1316268-12741-89-720.jpg I've actually been nibbling away at this one for months, a tiny bit at a time, but finally it's moved up on the build list to get a little more attention, so this first post will be something of a catch up. Apologies for the lack of pictures, I haven't really been documenting it much. Inital pokes at the cockpit showed it to be very much an abstraction of the real thing. One of the quirkier aspects of the aircraft is of course the side by side seating arrangement. The kit has no opening between the two, so I started by cutting out the gap between the detail. On breaking through to the other side, you realise that nothing really lines up. The seats too, are bizarrely way out of size (apparently 1/100 scale). It's probably a good thing that I changed my mind and decided not to pose the two cockpits open then. In the end I poked around with a knife, added a nice Barracuda resin Martin Baker seat for the pilot (in my stingyness, I decided to keep the 2nd one in the pack for a future build, since the observer side will be all but invisible), and ended up with this. You can see how out of size the kit seats are... The pilot's didn't even protrude above the fuselage. It's all going to be invisible, so I really haven't laboured the point much as you can see. It seems to have taken an aged to finally close up the fuselage. The main sticking points (aside from the above) have been the modification of the observer's cockpit bubble from FAW2 to FAW1 and the addition of nose weight. On the former, the bubble filed down fairly easily, but then came the decision on how to fill it. I was originally going to try with CA and talc, but then realised that clear runner included the hood for CH's FAW1 kit as well. However, this turns out to be a rather bizarre shape: A fair amount of modification of both the clear part and the fuselage yielded this: Now of course one only has to look at the real thing to see that this is off quite significantly, but seeing as there's a ridge to mark the window moulded into the part, it would require some delicate sanding an re-polishing to correct. So, in the spirit of not getting too bogged down, I left it there and blundered on. Masked and underpainted in black, hopefully the effort to fit the clear part will yield a slightly better look. The hole on the pilot's side has come back a bit to make space for the larger seat, but there's not whole lot of space under the hood. Incidentally, you can see some dimples around the area, which unusually mate up with stubs in the canopy pieces. Clearly, the model is not designed to have the cockpit posed open, despite being in two pieces. Now for noseweight. I am slightly tempted to leave it out entirely, since with a bit of stiffness in the lowered tailhook, I may be able to just let it flop into a 'just touched down' pose; but somehow I felt obliged to do my due dilligence. The instructions ask for an entirely unrealistic 25g in the nosecone, which filled with lead shot, can only hold 10g. I assume they mean total of 25g wherever you can fit it. In any case, once pointed out, I couldn't see past the rather dodgy kit nose shape. It's bit like Gandalf's in that respect! So out with an Aires quickboost replacement, and some rejigging of the calcs. The heavier resin nose doesn't help actually; since it only adds about 4.5g at the furthest point, where you might otherwise fit 10. A guestimate of the position of the (forward canted) rear wheels and some quick testing of how much lead split shot would fit into each cavity suggests that 25g in the nose equates to about 33g elsewhere: In the end, there's lead shot and PVA all under the cockpit, and up the rear firewall, and more to come in the cavity behind the nosecone. Given I've based my calcs on requiring all of the 25g in the nosecone (which seems basically impossible), I think that should probably be way more than enough. Famous last words! So there we are, fuselage and wings all buttoned up (the fit throughout has been really excellent actually) and various bits of grey and metallic painted in all the appropriate internal bits, hopefully we're not a million miles away from paint! Hopefully more progress in the not-too-distant future. Thanks for looking in! Please feel free to let me know what modifications to FAW1 or (relatively low effort) remedies to CH's errors that I have missed! Cheers, Andy
  7. Bagman

    Ahoy

    Bought a model tank while on holiday (1/72 Firefly). Enjoyed it so much I bought a 1/72 Sea Vixen. (Bargain price from Jumblies) Already exhausted trying to read The Sea Vixen thread. Might go back to AFVs! Will post profile pic when I’ve worked out how to downsize image. B
  8. I apologise - we started this one a few weeks ago I've been meaning to post a WIP but just didn't get round to it... My son received the Revell 1/72 Sea Vixen for Christmas. It's one of his favourite aircraft - we have fond memories of seeing XP924 / Foxy Lady at airshows down here in the south before her belly landing. I've read up on the 'imperfections' of this kit. But for my son and me it resembles a Sea Vixen, so it's one for the stash and the collection. The main aims of this kit (for me at least) were to channel my inner perfectionist and let my son do the lion's share of the build - with me assisting. Obligatory box shot (sorry forgot to take a photo of the sprues). My son then started wondering if it was possible if we could actually make XP924. The Revell kit supplies decals for 899 squadron. I then looked online and found some decals from the old Xtrakit box. Ordered and the arrived pretty promptly from Czechoslovakia... In the meantime we made a start. Painting the parts for the cockpit. All OOB. Cockpit instrument decals were applied onto a few spots of Humbrol gloss and the cockpit assembled. Somewhere at this point I read online if a cockpit really is black don't paint it black. A bit late at that point. As @Harry_the_Spider said in his WIP - darker than the back of Satan's sock drawer in there - 🤣 It was a good start. And then today we noticed this as we cut the lower fuselage from the sprue... Initially I thought we must have broken something as we cut - but no that wierd bit on the RH undercarriage bay just looks like a bad part where the plastic didn't get to the edge of the mould... Jr is a bit gutted. We've got plenty to be getting on with whilst we wait to see how this gets resolved. We can prepare the twin boom tail, the ordnance. Mask the canopy. Hopefully it will get sorted soon by the shop the kit was purchased from or Revell 🤞
  9. Special Hobby is to re-release in Autumn 2022 the MPM/Xtrakit (link) 1/72nd de Havilland DH.110 Sea Vixen FAW.1/.2 kit - ref. SH72336 Source: https://www.hannants.co.uk/product/SH72336 V.P.
  10. This year is in dire need of ending as far as modeling goes. Seeing as my Vindicator hit a massive snag and killed my rather limited patience, need to get something done to boost my mojo 😕 and take with to the show end November. Anyway, this kit needs no introduction. Won't bother with a contents picture, by now it's a well known kit around these parts. Aftermarket consists of some True Details seats, brass pitot tubes and by end next month, a set of Reskit wheels. For scheme, I'm probably going with the box art shark mouth Vixen flying off HMS Eagle, but I could decide on the HMS Victorious bird simply because it's not well represented compared to the above. Will decide at decal time. Going for wings folded, saves space and my personal rule of thumb is to build things with wings folded when the opportunity presents itself. But again, that could change. Anyway, wish me luck....
  11. de Havilland Sea Vixen FAW.2 1/72 Revell (03866) The DeHavilland Sea Vixen was a twin boomed fight designed for use by the Fleet Air Arm in the 1960’s. It was the first British twin seat aircraft that could achieve supersonic speed, although not in level flight. While it was a great improvement over the previous FAA aircraft, it could be difficult to handle and many were lost in crashes during its operational history. The Royal Navy Historic Flight current has the only flight worthy example, although this too had an accident not long ago where its hydraulic system failed and it had to be landed on its belly at RNAS Yeovilton. This caused considerable damage to the underside of the fuselage, and it is now highly unlikely to fly again. The Kit Here Revell have reboxed the Cyberhobby kit from 2013, which was a re-issue of their FAW.1 kit with new parts for the FAW.2. This is released under their "British Legends" box art. the kit arrives on three major spures, two smaller sprues, and two clear sprues. the parts are very well moulded with fine recessed panel lines, the slide moulded single part tailplanes looking very good indeed. There is the option to fold the wings included in the kit. Underwing stores include a pair of Red Top missiles, 2" Rocket pods and fuel tanks. Both styles of canopy for the radar operators station are included in the kit. Construction starts with the cockpit. There are single part seats for the the pilot and the radar operator. Consoles and side consoles are added along with the instrument panels. Details here are provided as decals. Once the cockpit is complete the sub-assemblies for the intakes and exhausts are made up. Now we turn to the large main body mouldings. Holes must be drilled for the wing pylons, once this is done the wheel wells and additional intake parts are added. The intakes and exhaust, and cockpit can then be added in. The radar operators side window is then placed in the upper moulding before the two are joined. At the rear of the top body there is a housing for the emergency RAT which can be modelled deployed, or this area can be closed up as the modeller wants. At the front the nose cone goes on, and at the rear the exhaust nib follows. The modeller must now decide whether they want to fold the wings or not as different parts are used for this on the main body. To the rear the tail and its supporting booms are made up and added on. The wings can then be assembled as needed. Here separate flaps are provided as single parts for the open wing, or two part for the folded wing. There is detail in the wells but no option on the instructions to show them extended. If building the wing down the outers can now be added in place. Following this the tail booms go on with the enlarged fuel tank parts going on over the wings. Moving to the underside of the aircraft the large central air brake is added, this can be either in the open or closed position. If modelling the aircraft in flight all the gear doors can be closed up (though its worth mentioning no pilots are provided in the kit). If modelling the gear down then the gear legs and wheels can be built up and added. Moving to the rear the large arrestor hook assembly is built up and added, again this can be raised or lowered. The canopies are added at this stage along with the wing mounted re-fueling probe and pitot tube. The prominent wing feces are also added at this stage. Underwing pylons ad armaments can be added as required. If you were modelling your aircraft with folded wings the outers can now be added with the stays to hold them up. Decals Decals are printed in Italy by Zanetti and should pose no problems. 2 options are included; XJ609 - 890 Sqn Fleet Air Arm, RNAS Yeovilton 1971 XJ578 - 899 Sqn Fleet Air Arm, HMS Eagle, 1970 Conclusion This is a well thought out and executed kit of the Sea Vixen FAW.2. Its great to see it re-released by Revell as its now readily available with a good quality decal sheet, though with fewer options than the original. Highly recommended. Currently, Revell are unable to ship to the UK from their online shop due to recent changes in import regulations. Revell model kits are available from all good toy and model retailers. For further information visit or
  12. All complete and I've even managed a photo shoot with my other Sea Vixens too. This is the latest addition to my HMS HERMES Air Group, a Sea Vixen FAW.2 of 893 Sqn in the early 1970s. This is the Xtrakit/MPM model, built almost entirely from the box, but with a selection of various decals, some FROG Red Top missiles and a replacement ejector sea for the pilot. I know this kit has received lots of criticism and that was one of the reasons it has sat in my stash unloved since 2008, but now that it is finished the only thing that really still grates is the length of the tail booms (and if I had known, it would have been an easy fix to lop off a few mm from them). There are other disappointing detail issues, like the nose shape and Observer's window, but I can live with them and with a little care, the kit is certainly not unbuildable. ... and now to compare: with the superb 1/48th Airfix kit; with a FROG kit converted to an FAW.1 using Magna resin (with nose cosmetically extended a few mm) and Model Art decals; with an original FROG kit bought in 1976 when they first appeared (whose wheels disappeared way back in the 1970s!); with a Eastern European FROG repop kit converted to a DH110 Pirate; and finally, all the 1/72 kits together: FredT
  13. For my next build project, Dynavectors 1/48 Dehavilland Sea Vixen. Wanted to get away from another silver finish and since I wanted to do something different and there didn't seem to be another VIxen being built, This came to the fore. If there is enough time left I may do another but we shall see. And as this will be the first completed build of 2021 and I have several Vacs in different stages of completion,(all on the Shelf of Shame) as a New Years resolution 2021 will be the year of the Vac. Let us begin shall we? 2 All kinds of lovely plastic to cut and sand. My biggest concern will be the decals. this kit is about as old as the last one I did and even with multiple coats of clear lacquer they still wanted to shatter. I had spares for that. This aircraft, I don't have much for Fleet Air and there is only one set on the market at Hannants. But will be some weeks before I get that far to worry about.
  14. Trumpeter is to release in 2017-2018 a new tool 1/48th de Havilland DH.110 Sea Vixen FAW.2 - ref. 05808 Source: https://www.facebook.com/TrumpeterModel/photos/pcb.718760784949184/718760511615878/?type=3&theater V.P.
  15. Just got a deposit refund from Jumblies saying the 1/48 Sea Vixen re-pop has been cancelled by Airfix. Oh well. Wonder what other repop might get the chop this year - Javelin too ? Tony
  16. 1968 Simon's Sircus In an attempt to control the size of the stash, I have a rule that my groupbuild entries must come from the existing stash. So while researching 1968 I came across the Sea Vixen's of Simon's Sircus. Simon's Sircus was an aerobatic display team comprising six Sea Vixen FAW.2 aircraft from 892 Squadron. The team operated for a single season during the summer of 1968 and was named after 892 Squadron’s commanding officer, Lt Cdr Simon Idiens. The team's airplanes were painted in standard FAA colours of dark gray and white with yellow and black wolf's head badge on the fins. Simon's Sircus pilots had a real lioness for a mascot. Need to find a 1/72 lioness. They were based at RNAS Yeovilton and displayed at numerous RAF Airshows and Royal Navy Air Station Air Days during the 1968 season culminating at the Farnborough Airshow in the September. Towards the end of the season, they flew coordinated displays with the Buccaneers from 809 squadron Phoenix Five This was not the first time the Sea Vixen had been used in a aerobatic team, 766 squadron formed a team of five Sea Vixen FAW.1. Fred's Five displayed during 1962 & 1963. I believe that Simon Idiens was a member of this team I will be using Xtrakit's 1/72 Sea Vixen FAW.2 for this build. Decals will be from the Model Alliance sheet "Royal Navy Aerobatic Teams" This sheet also includes decals for a Buccaneer from the Pheonix Five, waiting for Airfix's new Buccaneer.
  17. DeHavilland Sea Vixen FAW2 Trumpeter 1:48 The DeHavilland Sea Vixen was a twin boomed fight designed for use by the Fleet Air Arm in the 1960’s. It was the first British twin seat aircraft that could achieve supersonic speed, although not in level flight. While it was a great improvement over the previous FAA aircraft, it could be difficult to handle and many were lost in crashes during its operational history. The Royal Navy Historic Flight current has the only flight worthy example, although this too had an accident not long ago where its hydraulic system failed and it had to be landed on its belly at RNAS Yeovilton. This caused considerable damage to the underside of the fuselage. Hopefully we will see its wonderful shape in the air again in the future. The Model With the Airfix 1/48 kit now out of production and getting harder to find, modellers may be pleased to see Trumpeter releasing this kit, but be careful what you wish for. I’ve this kit a little while now, and thought it necessary to do a fair bit of research before writing this review as Trumpeter have a reputation for grabbing defeat from the jaws of victory when it comes to British aircraft types. First of all let me say that the moulding is up to the standards we expect from a modern kit, with fine panel lines, recessed and domed rivets where they thought they should be. I say this as there are some spurious panels and fastenings over the surface of the kit. On the wide upper surface of the fuselage some panels aren’t the right shape, and most of those which are fitted with quick release clips in real life don’t have these represented on the model, but more like screw fasteners. Some of the prominent vents don’t appear wide enough, plus the hot air duct around the cockpit is not wide enough. The same can be said for the underside, with none of the panels matching photos of the real aircraft, plus the sides of the airbrake bay at the trailing edge are not quite correct. The panels on the booms are either completely missing, the wrong size or have the wrong fastenings, and the raised rear sections of the booms, where they meet the tailplane aren’t prominent enough, in fact they look like they are part of the boom rather that an addition, with just a panel line where it’s meant to be. The tails are at least accurate in shape, but again the access panels are mostly the wrong shape, size and position, plus the panels on top of the tails are only represented as panel lines of the wrong shape and no fasteners. This goes for the insides as well as the outsides. While the intakes look pretty good, as do the exhausts and nose cone there is something not quite right with the nose section, some areas are too curved while others not curved enough, making other parts look wrong, particularly the navigators hatch, which is then correspondingly too narrow. Whilst in the nose area the cockpits are, shall we say, interesting. They don’t seem to match photos at all, other than general appearance. The cockpits of the Sea Vixen is cramped and very busy, you just don’t get this feeling with the kit example, but I’m sure the aftermarket companies will come to the rescue, even if you can’t see much once installed, there are prominent handles and fittings that are visible with the canopies open. Oh, and don’t get me started with the seats, they are awful and don’t resemble any seat I know and/or have worked on. Moving onto the undercarriage, while the legs are a little simplified they do at least seem to match the real thing. As for the bays, there is some nice detailing within on the roof and sidewalls, as well as the undercarriage doors, and Trumpeter do come close to achieving what’s in the real bays and doors, but they’re still not quite right. The interior of the airbrake bay is better, but appears a little too deep and the equipment not quite in the right place or the right shape even. It’s the same story with the pylons, in that they have an ok shape, although not perfect, but with the spurious panels. The kit comes with four missiles, two Red Top, with clear seeker heads and two Firestreak, with protective covers, why they did this is a mystery as the FAW 2 was generally armed with Red Top, whereas the Firestreak was used mostly by the FAW1, but not worry, that’s not the biggest problem with them, the main wings are of each missile wrong in shape and design. The drop tanks look ok though, if a little skinny. For the sake of completeness I will go through the build process as with my usual reviews. The build begins with the assembly of the nose wheel bay, which is made up from three parts into which the four part undercarriage leg and wheel is attached. The intakes are also assembled, with the single piece intakes being fitted with three piece trunks and two etched parts. The main undercarriage bays are also multi part, with the sidewalls being glued to the roof section. The nose bay, main bays, intakes and the arrester hook bay rear bulkhead are glued into the lower section of the fuselage, followed by the upper fuselage section being glued to the lower. Each of the two ejection seats are made up from five parts, then glued into the cockpit tub, which is then fitted with the longitudinal framework, pilots rudder pedals, joystick and instrument panel, followed by the navigators instrument panel and radar stick. The completed tub is then glued into the upper nose section, along with the navigators side window. The two booms are now assembled, each of two halves. The two piece horizontal tailplane is the glued between the two tails and the whole assembly glued to the fuselage/inner wing assembly, although it might be better to glue the booms in place before adding the horizontal section to keep everything aligned. The upper nose section/cockpit assembly is also glued into position. The outer wing panels, whilst separate are not given the option to be posed in the folded position. Each is made up of upper and lower sections and fitted with the two piece ailerons, PE wing fence, and clear navigation lights before being attached to the fuselage assembly, along with the cockpit HUD, canopy, windscreen, and two piece navigators hatch. The main undercarriage legs are made up of upper and lower sections, to which the two piece wheels are attached before the assembly is glued into position, along with their respective doors. The jet pipes/exhaust are fitted with the rear face of the engines before being slid into the aperture in the fuselage. The separate nosecone, in-flight refuelling boom, front and rear airbrake bay bulkheads, and nosewheel bay doors are then fitted as are the large air-scoops adjacent to the airbrake bay. The missiles and drop tanks are assembled and attached to their respective pylons. They are then glued into their respective positions. The three piece airbrake is then glued into place, as is the three piece arrester hook several aerials and the two pitot probes completing the build. Decals The decal sheet provides markings for the three aircraft. They are very nicely printed, with no sign of carrier film, in good register and nicely opaque. Unfortunately the colour schemes indicated on the painting guide, and thus the colours of the decals, particularly the underside serials are wrong. The problems are mainly due to the undersides being depicted as grey, rather than white, which, given that the provided serials are white and not their correct black, it’s all a bit of a mess. The callouts for the upper-sides are for extra dark sea grey and dark grey, where in fact they were only ever painted in extra dark see grey over white. The options are:- Sea Vixen FAW2, 127/E XJ565 of 890 NAS. Sea Vixen FAW2, 464/C, XN654 of 893 NAS, HMS Centaur, circa 1964 Sea Vixen FAW2, 707/VL, XN647 of 766 NAS, RNAS Yeovilton, circa 1969 Conclusion The Sea Vixen is a very distinctive and surprisingly large aircraft which deserves to be well kitted. Unfortunately, no matter how beautifully moulded the parts are, or how fine the detail if it doesn’t look right then let alone be accurate it does leave the modeller a little flat. I’m sure it will still sell well, and will look the part in a collection viewed from about three feet, but, in my opinion it just doesn’t look right. I’m sure the Sea Vixen experts will have their own opinion, I have only laid out what I think is wrong with the kit. Review sample courtesy o UK Distributors for
  18. Dear all, This may be a detail beyond the hive-wisdom of the forum but here goes: I'm intending in the near future to build Sea Vixen XJ481 as used by A&AEE at Boscombe in Martel missile trials during the 1968-73 period. This will involve scratch building a new nose housing the camera gear used to film the missile firings but my question is: does anyone know the kind of camera(s) likely to have been installed to record these trials? The usual web and National Archive searches hasn't thrown up any definitive information and although there are one or scholarly historical articles that might have been of interest, these are tucked away behind exhorbitant journal paywalls. Any information would be most helpful. Thanks for reading. Tony
  19. Just finished my 1/48 Sea Vixen FAW.1, using the Alley Cat conversion of course, as XJ488 of the RN Test Squadron at Boscombe Down. This was a real pleasure to build, the conversion works a treat, just requires a bit of caution when cutting the original kit parts. Didn't go to town with much detailing although I did use the Aires cockpit and Master pitots. If you want to see it done properly, check out Ex-FAAWAFU's WIP thread, I'm in awe of his work! On to the photos...
  20. Asking for suggestions on references similar in scope to Daco or Reid publishing referances on the Meteor, Venom, Sea Venom and Sea Vixen. Thanks.
  21. This is my High Planes Sea Vixen FAW1 - I have to admit this model has sat on the shelf of doom for several years in an almost completed state with even some decals applied - I was inspired by the excellent posts of Sea Vixens and Buccaneers on BM to have another look at it and finally complete it. The High Planes kit is a limited run kit and can form the basis of a nice model with some work. I utilised some Airwaves Sea Vixen etches adapted to build up some cockpit detail for observer & pilot plus their Airbrake & ladder etch. Master pitot tubes & refuelling probe tip Also push moulded a new canopy as I stuffed up the vac form one in the kit scratch built arrester hook in down position as the model is a tail sitter Model Alliance decal sheet MA-72121 for the 890 Squadron markings I also used Copper foil tape for the windscreen framing & part of the canopy framing – it is a black backed self adhesive tape easily cut in to strips and bedded down with a tooth pick Copper foil tape on sliding canopy below After looking at the above photographs I decided the red don't walk markings were a bit too subdued so I traced over the lines with an Artline plastic tipped red pen & sprayed with Testors clear lacquer to seal it After completing the High Planes Sea Vixen FAW1 I unpacked my old Frog Sea Vixen FAW2 from its storage box - after seeing a photo of a Sea Vixen in this pose I thought I would try mounting the Frog Vixen in the same dramatic way - this was done by drilling into the wingtip and inserting brass rod to support the model - the underside was masked off and given a fresh coat of white as the original finish had yellowed over the years since first built - decals from the spares box & serials home printed - quite pleased how it looks from this angle and it has given an old model a new life - she is now back in the display case Now back to the Buccaneer .
  22. I recently 'rescued' my part built Frog Sea Vixen from my shelf of doom. I understand it's most obvious fault is the 'too short' forward fuselage. As I've yet to add the radome (suitably counterweighted) I would hope to correct this by adding a suitable spacer. Could anyone advise how much this should be and also any corresponding increase in diameter of the rear part of the radome. Bring on the putty.
  23. I have reached the stage with Ark Royal where there is a lot of sitting around waiting for layers of paint to dry fully, so it's high time (as Fritag and others have reminded me...) that I return to the world of flying machines. So here we are: Airfoil 1/48 Vixen, with Ally Cat resin conversion to FAW1, Quickboost small intakes, Heritage seamless big intake, Eduard PE and a donation from Madmusky, a fellow Britmodeller, of 4 Firestreaks which he didn't need for a Lightning build. Those of you who are familiar with this kit will see that I have already taken the plunge and cut the top half of the original cockpit off, ready for its resin replacement. (Original visible far top left, and the replacement on the right of the lamp.) This to be built as an aircraft that my next door neighbour flew as a Sub Lieutenant first tourist on 890NAS in the early 60s, and to be given to him for his 75th birthday later this year. Besides, I think the Mark 1 Vixen was a superb-looking aircraft, even if the Red Tops and extra fuel made the Mark 2 a more potent machine in real life; it just looks so much better without the sticky-out bits on top of the wing. I haven't quite decided how to pose it yet, but the current favourite is just catching an arrester wire, with everything dangling / hanging out. This will be the first time I have painted a figure in around 40 years, and that's the bit that is currently giving me the most worry! Welcome aboard; stand clear of intakes, jet pipes and exhausts - start the Vixen.
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