Danny

Must admit I kinda like the look of the Lysander. Although it's not my normal scale, I think Airfix will eventually twist my arm when they inevitably release an all-black Special Duties release one in 2026 😎

Very nicely done CC Mustangs look great in RAF camouflage. I really like your desert scheme too. Don't think I've seen a desert Mustang before.

Can there be such a thing as a Mirrel? 🙃 I definitely have a plan. Until the moment comes to go and fetch the next item on the plan from the stash then instead come back with something completely different! Great thread by the way. Would it be worth moving to "Chat" to see what the wider community is?

Thanks for the reply Black Knight. So.... after doing a lot of googling to try to find the dimensions of the Corgi Land Rover and coming back with nothing I decided to try one of the reproductions from eBay. Turns out it doesn't fit at all 😒 Unfortunately it's neither long enough or quite high enough. My current plan is to try cutting it to see if I can stretch it out and try to make a new canopy using a dried babywipe and PVA glue. To be honest, I'm not holding out much hope for it so my Landy is looking likely to remain a pick up anyway.

I'll play along. Might have one or two different aircraft to the rest 😊 1/ Fighter - Prop - Hurricane 2/ Jet - Harrier 3/ Bombers/Ground attack - the mighty Avro Lancaster 4/ Trainer - DH Chipmunk 5/ Transport/Utility - not sure. Either the Dakota, Avro Lancastrian or Hercules 6/ Helicopter - Sea King 7/ Airliner - I'll move the Dakota from "Transport" to here 😇 8/ Civil - err... do civil registered Hurricanes / Spitfires count? 😊 9/ Aerobat - Blue Angles F-18 Hornet. Just nudges out a Red Arrows Hawk because the Hornet looks better in my opinion. 10/ Prototype/Demonstrator - TSR 2, with an honourable mention to the Fairey Rotodyne. (not produced)

Hello everyone, I’m thinking of starting the new Airfix Land Rover kit and I appreciate that this is a bit of a long shot but I wondered if anyone has tried to use the canvas from an old Corgi toy with it? There are reproductions available on eBay but I’m not sure if they’d fit. Cheers,🍻

Gutted to see this but Hattons is closing down 🥲 They are having a sale so thought it might be worth sharing here. Link

These links might help explain the latest on KB976. Personally I doubt she'll see the light of day as a complete airframe any time soon 😒 https://youtu.be/iVmw8RFgel4

This has been an interesting thread to read through and not quite what I expected. Personally, when I saw the news my thoughts went to thinking that it could mean 8 new restorations on the go and started wondering what marks they are (IIb's I believe?), could they be flyers and what markings would they be and so on? But is the cost of the originality worth it? Absolutely. When it comes to original parts, once the usable items have been incorporated into a new build (even it if it just the data plate 🙂) then what value do they have? They can't be used in future rebuilds, and if they have already been assessed as unsuitable then arguably they shouldn't (admittedly I'm thinking of flyers here). I understand the point about the loss felt when scrapping them, and I sympathise but my attitude changed after having kids. My son's favourite aircraft is the Spitfire, so I took him to see them at the BBMF to encourage his interest 😇. He took far more from seeing them up close as living, breathing aircraft with a soul and their own personalities than a pile of scrap (to his perspective) in a museum. For me, getting young people inspired into aviation is key, even it's not the career they go into and that makes these restorations worth it to keep it going forward. Also, another aspect that I don't think has been mentioned is the question of how original are the aircraft that have never had ground up restorations? Take the BBMF Lancaster for example. To my knowledge she has never been rebuilt from scratch but over her lifespan she's been stripped and rebuilt many times as part of maintenance schedules going to different depths. During her near 80 years lifespan time she'll have been assessed many times and worn components replaced to keep her safe and airworthy. I'd take a punt that she probably has as much original components from when she was first built to today as some of the ground up 'new build' restorations like the Spitfire Mk I's that were rebuilt recently. Anyway, just my 2p's worth. Going back to the Hurricanes. From the news articles I've read I get the impression that they are hoping to make one complete frame out of the parts they've recovered. If they could identify the frames, I wondered if it would make sense to sell some of the complete aircraft to fund the restoration of the ones they want to keep?

Hopefully this won't lead this off on too much of a tangent because I agree with your sentiment with regards the loss of the RNHF but as far as the BBMF is concerned I understand that each of the services are permitted to maintain one historic element. The RN have HMS Victory, the RAF have the BBMF. Turning the RNHF over to a charity also has it's advantages. Maintaining historic aircraft within the modern MAA framework is incredibly challenging so by removing the aircraft from the military register and onto the civilian can make them easier to maintain. Hopefully that'll reduce costs and help ensure the longevity. As for the 9 egos in formation. They aren't budgeted as a historic element in the same way as BBMF and aren't kept for that purpose. If the reds were to be cut it would probably save a bit of money, but as a long as the people at the top are pilots I doubt the reds will ever truely be on the chopping block (unfortunately).

Horrific incident. There are so many videos about it and at least one ‘news’ feed reporting it as deliberate, possibly based on social media comments. I hope that doesn’t gather traction and skew the general reporting. I have my own opinions on what I think has happened but I don’t think here is the place for that. Not until the FAA or appropriate body looks into it and publishes their report. Thoughts are with those involved.

Hi all! I’ve found myself returning an Airfix kit to Amazon twice now because they both arrived with the label simply stuck across the front of the box. No packaging to protect the contents or thought to how the label will leave a sticky residue behind when trying to remove it. I'm just curious if anyone else has had this? My understanding if that Amazon will have done this to reduce their packaging costs and impact on the environment but it does feel like the people packing it have just assumed the kit’s ‘just a toy’? To be fair to Amazon they did have accepted the return but I’m not so confident that they listened to my concern.

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Cracking build there! Danny

Hope you don't mind me asking this guys but I've just been reading that Witham have some ex-jungle Sea King's. I'm curious, will you guys be putting in for one? It would make a good stablemate for your Shar and the Wessex?