RJP

Hannants have it available to backorder. How long it has been out of stock, I can't say. I know it was a squadron mail order item (exclusive?) but have you tried contacting Falcon directly to see if they are still making it?

I will be following along and looking for tips. I too have the kit, bought to build as a gift for my sister-in-law who had a ride in TE308 this past year. Mary went on to a private licence and flies Chipmunks these days so the opportunity couldn't be passed up. TE308 was at one time owned by a man in Windsor Ontario and we spent many hours ogling when we were kids. The challenge so far is to acquire the appropriate decals for the period, early 1970s.

There is, or was, a Soviet-made kit in 1/72 from IKAR (sp?), later taken up by Eastern Express. After you get past the unbelievably poor packaging and chop away the flash . . . This one looks distinctly better.

An odd advantage to living in Canada in the 1960s was that I could often get a choice of US- and UK-made Revell kits, sometimes in the same shop. The base bits were the same but often there were differences, mostly colour schemes and decals. The two-piece canopy comments got me digging. When I first built one, it was a Revell USA kit and it had the one-piece canopy. I knew about the opening canopies on the UK production and always assumed they were amendments to the US company's products. The Corsair was not alone in this. My scanned instruction sheets from Revell USA (Venice, California) were copyright 1964, but the Potters Bar (ie UK) sheet is dated 1963. Perhaps the kit originated in the UK after all? And if that was the case, I wonder why the gadget-happy yanks would remove a sliding canopy. Odd.

It is worth knowing that some types, IIRC including the Whitley, made use of lanolin paste in the same areas. It's variously described as mustard yellow or beige and was smeared on as an anti-ice measure.

I'm mildly curious about your conclusion. I did look briefly for online reviews but came up empty. And I do have an early example of the Airfix kit in my stash, purchased back when the world was young and before I realised my building ambitions had already overtaken my display space. I do have my own ideas about the Airfix kit but no basis for a conclusion with respect to the Trumpeter effort. Out of curiosity, I also had a look at the Hannants website. There is no way I would part with 80 quid to find out; I'm curious but not that curious.

I recall the Airfix has a greater wing chord than the Revell. Which was more accurate I never knew. Also the Airfix rivets could have passed for stove bolts. Revell's were quite fine. Airfix had open cowling gills but Revell had none at all.

I wonder why anyone would think there is significance in a photograph of that period being posed. Film was expensive and so were chemicals. Cameras were bulky and heavy. So if you're going to be taking pictures you didn't just pop off with a cell phone, you made it count. Of course it was posed. Better one should ask why they took the picture at all. Was it part of a larger sequence? A bit of whimsy by a senior officer? That said, it's a nice shot of an attractive aeroplane.

This takes me back. I'm finding this an interesting glimpse of how things used to be done. Not the glossy instant gratification of today's publications, I am imagining somebody - a lot of somebodies? - sitting down with typewriters and paste pots. Good on 'em. And yes, my right click button is getting a workout. I am looking forward to long evenings of browsing through, no internet needed. A delight.

I haven't got the kit; why I resisted I will never know. That said, I'm not sure I understand why the gun pack needs replacing? Is the kit piece inaccurate? I had a look and don't see criticism of it in published reviews. I can tell you there were two separate packs for the real thing, the initial one used on the Mk. If and a deeper one on the IVf, necessary to provide clearance for the Mk.IV's longer nose. Or am I on the wrong track?

In the mail a few days back arrived a 1/72 Airfix Typhoon, 2013 version. Sent by my nephew in Bristol, he'd bought it from the Hawker Typhoon RB396 project who are selling kits and other items to raise money for their work. I see from their website that work has moved to Duxford, adding another excuse for me to visit the next time I'm in England. I enjoyed seeing MN235 at Hendon some years ago. The kit has been on my want list but I'd never seen one made up. I haven't begun it yet but it has now gone to the top of the pile.

The scheme is perhaps not immediately obvious until one realises that Mother Nature got there first. A lovely summer day, watching the gulls flying about below me as I peered over the edge of the Niagara Gorge below the Falls. I was about 10 and had recently completed my first Airfix Sunderland. Lo and behold, the Sunderland scheme, single shades of grey upper surfaces, white below. Even white leading edges.

W Nr 584219 became Air Ministry 29, marked as seen in the photo above. It was exhibited at various museum locations in the UK and became 8470M in 1976 and was later moved to Hendon. I understand it has since been sent to Germany?

Your posting got me digging around. The machine was delivered in April 1944 and did 80 trips over a short period in the winter of 1944-45. It survived to be photographed in colour by Charles E Brown in May 1945, just a week or two after the European shooting ended. It was back in the States very quickly after that, delivered to the Kingman AZ graveyard by July and sold for scrap in mid-1946. So just 15 months in service. The aircraft looked like it had been through the war, and it had, suffering major combat damage to the port wing and the tail group with replacement components coming from a camouflaged specimen. I have to guess the colour photos suffered colour shift - the original Airfix instructions specified the Bomb Wing chevron and the replacement elevators (both) and rudder were to be painted violet. They even gave a mix formula using Airfix paints - 3 parts Blue G6 to one part red G1. I never found Airfix paints in shops here in Canada but the Humbrol equivalents worked a treat. I too have one in the stash and have intended to replicate the kit as Airfix specified in 1964. You have given me a push in that direction.

That kit was the cat's pajamas when it was first issued way back in 1962.