Mike

We would have a helluva job ahead of us if we removed every country that was/is/has been engaged in a war that someone thought was wrong, so we have to take a more pragmatic and practical way of looking at it. We model the machines, not the ideologies, and if you can't separate them, then perhaps look away. In addition, this is likely to be a Russia only boxing, and won't be available elsewhere, but @Homebee is a stickler for completeness, so he included it anyway. The ultimate and highly personal statement of your political views is to vote with your wallet. If a company produces a model that you disagree with (sounds silly when you say it out loud), don't patronise them with your modelling shekels, dollars or kopecks

Miles M.52 Supersonic Test Airframe 1:72, 1:48 & 1:32 AeroCraft Models Following WWII, the jet race had reached a position where resources could be assigned to it, and those of the remaining Great Powers were engaged in an undeclared competition to be the first to reach the speed of sound in level flight, retaining control of the airframe in the process, and maintaining that speed for an extended period. British aviation company Miles had been issued with an Air Ministry Specification E.24/43 in 1943 for an aircraft that could exceed 1,000mph by utilising cutting-edge aerodynamics and design technology, on which work carried on until the end of WWII in absolute secrecy, but with the incoming peacetime Labour Government in 1946, budgets had to be trimmed viciously to bring the country back from the brink of bankruptcy. Once the project had effectively been cut, its existence was revealed to the British public, at which point a lot of criticism was levelled at the government for cancelling a project that could have engendered National Pride at an important time. This led to some additional trials of scale models that were air-launched from Mosquitoes, and a wind-tunnel model that achieved a scale speed of almost Mach 1.4, but its days were numbered. Final cancellation after validating the project’s merits was painful, and the knock-on effect was a blow to Barnes Wallis’ Power Jets, resulting in the cancellation of the development of their afterburning engine, which led to them being swallowed up in Britain’s pell-mell run toward merging as many aviation companies as possible in the shortest time feasible. In America, Bell was suffering development problems with their similarly tasked X-1, and Miles were permitted to share their aerodynamics and engineering data with them, giving valuable resources with which to achieve that goal with Chuck Yeager at the controls, which was incredibly important to American national pride. The M.52’s advanced aerodynamics eventually filtered through to production aviation once supersonic flight became a standard capability for fighters almost a decade later, so Miles’ efforts weren’t wasted. Whether Eric ‘Winkle’ Brown would have been looking forward to performing the test-flights or not, we’ll never know. The Kit This is a range of brand-new 3D printed kits from AeroCraft that are designed and printed by the owner Ali in either 1:72, 1:48 or 1:32 scale to suit your preferred build scale, which broadens the market for this innovative jet that came so close to giving Britain the Supersonic crown. The kit arrives in a white top-folding box with a digital painting of the subject flying high over fluffy cloud, plus the name and scale of the kit. Inside the box are several Ziploc bags of parts, totalling twenty-eight grey resin parts, plus a single clear resin part, accompanied by a small decal sheet, a sheet of pre-cut vinyl masks, and a two-sheet instruction and painting guide to round off the package. As is normal for 3D printed parts, they are attached to their print-bases by many fine fingers that taper at the top end to reduce clean-up once you have liberated the part(s) from the base. A little light sanding is usually sufficient to make any marks disappear, after which you can start putting parts together. This kit is no exception, which I know because I couldn’t resist removing all the parts once I’d finished (and in a few cases before I’d finished) taking the photos. I think I have a problem. Please Note: We reviewed the 1:48 kit from the range, but we understand that the others are different in size only for the most part, and should build in the same manner as the kit detailed here, just to a different size. Detail is excellent, and thanks to the design and incessant march of printing technology, the quality of the parts is equal to the task, given that the M.52 was engineered to be as slippery as possibly by the design team. The part-count is relatively low, which is in part due to the ability of 3D printed parts to have undercuts that would make even resin-casters jealous, and partly due to the slender, simple design of the M.52, which is an elegant pointed tube with a few wings and wheels, to render it to its simplest shapes. The detailed cockpit is held within a teardrop-shaped nose-cone with conformal glazing, a simple engine of the centrifugal-flow type is slotted inside the fuselage along with the exhaust trunking, and single parts are used for each of the five flying surfaces. The rest of the parts make up the three gear legs and their bay doors, plus a pitot probe in the tip of the nose. Construction is likely to begin with the cockpit, as modellers are creatures of habit, although you can start anywhere, as the two large instruction diagrams are provided in the form of exploded diagrams, the top an isometric 3D rendering, while the lower is a line-drawing from the opposing angle. Over the page are detail steps for the more complex parts of the model, which will be of great use when building the cockpit and aligning the components inside the fuselage. The lower nose takes the form of a teardrop-shape from above, inside which a single part that consists of the instrument panel, coaming and nose gear bay that are fitted, along with an L-shaped control column and the pilot’s seat. You have two choices here, including a seat with and without belts, and an instrument panel that either has a representation of the dials, or hollow depressions for you to apply your own dial decals if you prefer. A coaming over the rear of the cockpit assembly covers the back of the seat, and is completed by the addition of the resin cast clear canopy, which will doubtless benefit from a dip in Klear to enhance clarity of the casting, using the supplied vinyl masks to protect the individual panes of the screen until after final painting. The cockpit assembly plugs into the annular intake ring around the front of the fuselage, and here it is critical to leave the four pairs of rods that will key into the depressions in the back of the cockpit surface, as they look uncannily similar to printing supports that are removed at the beginning of the build process, and the kit would be poorer for their accidental loss. Before commencing work on the centre fuselage, it is worth noting a cylindrical part that is referred to as “weight”, to hold the nose of the model on the deck once it is completed. A piece of brass or plastic tube could be fitted with end caps and filled with lead shot or something else suitably dense to give your model the necessary weight to stand on its wheels later. The weight, and a tapered plug slide inside the centre fuselage part, which is formed by a hollow torus with two gear bays, wing root slots, and a keyed rear lip. The aft fuselage is initially a hollow shell, which the exhaust trunk slides inside from the front, keying between two guides on the inside lip that prevents it from pushing too far inside, followed by sliding the engine into the trunk, which again self-seats, leaving the inner exhaust suspended inside. Joining the two ends of the fuselage together and dealing with the circumferential seam in your preferred manner, installing the nose cone in the intake trunk once the two surfaces are painted an appropriate metallic or yellow shade. The wings and rudder fin slot into recesses in the fuselage, using the large jig that has been provided to keep them at the correct angle while the glue cures, remembering to orientate the wings correctly before applying glue, ensuring that the flared wingtips face the correct direction. The elevators are of the all-moving type later used by the X-1, and these fit on pegs in a similar manner to the real surfaces, giving you the opportunity to offset them as you wish. The kit is designed to be built in the gear-down pose, and there are three gear legs and their wheels, plus bay doors supplied for this purpose. During initial testing of the kit’s build it was found that the early gear legs were bending after completion, so Ali has designed a new set that have been printed in a more robust resin, and come with a set of four custom ‘props’ that can be placed under the model to add support long-term. Your other option is to build the model in the air of course, either taking off with the gear still deployed, or airborne after a little adjustment of the bay doors to depict them closed. The main gear legs have a supporting strip between the two tapering struts, which should be removed before building, adding a wheel to the lower of each one, and fitting a two-part wheel and hub to the nose gear leg. Each bay has a single door, with locations called out on the diagrams to assist you. The final kit part is the pitot probe that fixes to the tip of the nose, of which there are two in case one has been bent or damaged in transit, or you’re a clumsy modeller like me. Markings The M.52 never flew as a full-sized aircraft, so its scheme is moot, but can be estimated based upon other projects of the era, which often flew initially in bare metal straight out of the hangar, and were later painted trainer yellow from the habit of avoiding friendly anti-aircraft fire from overzealous gunners. From the box you can choose either of the options below, or make one up of your own to riff on what might have happened. The decals are well-printed with good registration and colour density that should simplify the decaling process. Yellow and black Prototype P symbols are included in addition to the six peacetime roundels, fin flashes, and tail codes. Conclusion If you enjoy researching and modelling projects that almost made it, in this case because of politics and the parlous state of Britain’s finances following WWII, AeroCraft have created this high-quality model of the M.52 in all major aviation scales that will allow it to live on in our cabinets. I really must finish reading the M.52 book I have on my shelf. Very highly recommended. Miles M.52 1:72 Miles M.52 1:48 Miles M.52 1:32 Review sample courtesy of

Messerschmitt Me.410A-1 (A04069) 1:72 Airfix The sleekly styled, twin-engined Me.410 Hornisse started life as the Me.210, the intended replacement for the Bf.110 that was already showing its age, and forward-thinking planners correctly anticipated that if war broke out, it would quickly be outclassed, leading to heavy losses. The replacement process was begun before WWII started in the West, but turned into a protracted gestation due to problems that presented themselves before it could be turned into a viable heavy fighter/bomber. The Me.210 was a flawed concept that suffered from unpleasant and sometimes dangerous handling characteristics, garnering such a poor reputation that when the substantial changes needed to fix these problems (initially designated the 210D) were underway, the decision was made to rename it the Me.410 to distance it from its origins. The 410 utilised an improved DB603A engine, lengthened the fuselage over the 210 to improve the centre of gravity, utilising an amended wing planform to give it a constant sweep-back of the leading edge to bring the aerodynamic centre further forward. Coupled with leading-edge slats that had been removed from the initial 210 design, the resulting aircraft that was significantly more pleasant to fly, had a respectable top speed and could carry a substantial war-load. On entering service in 1943, its initial success as a night bomber over the UK was most definitely not a portent of great things to come. The 410 was a day late and a dollar short so to speak, and no sooner had it reached the front-line and started attacking the bomber streams, than the Allies darkened the skies with fast, manoeuvrable single-engined fighters such as the Spitfire and Mustang, which could easily out-fly the 410, a problem that would be exacerbated by later designs such as the P-47 Thunderbolt and the P-38 Lightning. Pitched into battle without fighter cover, they were easy prey to the Allied fighters, and the balance was only slightly shifted by the introduction of Bf.109 and Fw.190 escorts. Production ceased in August 1944 to concentrate dwindling manufacturing capacity on the Emergency Fighter Programme for the ultimately unsuccessful defence of the Reich. Due to its relatively short career, the marks that saw action progressed only as far as the B model, although high altitude C and D models were on the drawing board, but never saw service. Despite its flaws, the 410 was quite innovative in its weapons carriage, and had a nose-mounted weapons bay directly under the cockpit, which could house a palette of munitions, either bombs, cannon, reconnaissance cameras or the 50mm Bordkanone that was used to attack daylight bomber streams. Due to the upgraded engines that gave it more capacity in the bomber role, a pair of bomb shackles had to be added to the inner wing undersides to accommodate the extra load. The twin remote controlled "barbettes" on each side of the mid fuselage were also of note, as they were controlled by the rear gunner from the aft cockpit using a traditional pistol-grip system could also pivot up and down, but the barrels could also be rotated out sideways to fire one of the two barbettes at an off-centre target behind them. Movement and aiming was all carried out using controls attached to the pistol grip, and must have surprised more than one potential assailant. The A-1 model was designated as a Light Bomber, a job that it was well suited to, giving the Allies a run for their money on night operations, where they proved difficult to catch. The 410’s equipment bay right beneath the pilot in the A-1 accommodated the nose armament of a pair of MG17s and MG151/20 cannons, plus shackles for droppable munitions, with a maximum of 1,000kg. A pair of 500kg bombs was the usual, but alternative stores could be carried in the same space. The underside of the nose bay had two clamshell doors that partially retracted into the fuselage, allowing easy exit for the bombs, and offering the crew an immediacy of feedback upon dropping. After the war, several of these interesting aircraft were taken as war prizes by the Allies, but sadly only two full airframes still exist today, one in RAF Cosford in a fully-restored state, which until the 1980s was capable of ground-running despite props that were shortened to equalise their lengths after an “incident”. The other still awaits preservation in the US at the National Air & Space Museum, where it languishes in a queue of spectacularly rare WWII German aircraft. The Kit This tooling from Airfix was unexpected, and a slightly unusual subject matter when you consider its relatively short length of service and numbers. The kit arrives in Airfix’s red-themed top-opening box, and inside are six sprues of dark grey styrene, a separately bagged clear sprue, decal sheet inside the instruction booklet that is printed in colour on matt paper, is accompanied by a single A4 colour printed sheet of profiles for painting and decaling the model, which has the stencils on separate line drawings for clarity. Detail is excellent, and the part-count at 149 is commensurately high, with much work going into the cockpit, weapons bay, gear bays and the other usual focus areas, plus finely engraved panel lines and crisp clear parts that have been engineered in sections to recreate the twin bulged aft sections around the gunner’s position. Construction begins with the cockpit floor, which has the side consoles moulded-in and has decals applied to highlight the details. A window is inserted into the forward floor, installing the gun pack below in what will become the weapons bay. The next step involves fitting the pilot’s seat and the bulkhead with head-rest behind him, followed by control column and a small instrument rack fixed to the floor, then an extension to the cockpit is fitted behind on a lug, which is involved in supporting the frame around the gunner’s position, adding extra details to the frame before joining it, and detail-painting the weapons bay below it. Work on the cockpit stops for a while, as the gunner’s position is built on the wing lower, which must be built next. The lower wings are moulded almost full-span, drilling out flashed-over holes depending on which decal option you have chosen. A combined spar and gear bay bulkhead part is inserted into grooves in the lower wing, strengthening the assembly further, then adding the gunner’s compartment, which is made from a tub with a separate rear that is covered with moulded-in radio gear boxes, and the seat on the top edge of the area. It mounts in the centre of the wing aft of the spar on three turrets, the forward edge of the compartment resting against and overlapping the spar. A triangular door insert fills the main gear bay opening for the gear-up option, or the bays themselves are installed, with plenty of moulded-in detail for the avid viewer to look at. The fuselage must be completed next to join the two crew compartments, in advance of finishing the wings. The starboard fuselage half has an electrical panel applied near the rear of the cockpit, and half of the pilot’s instrument panel plus decal at the front, adding a bulkhead to the front of the tail-wheel bay, painting it all interior green RLM02. The port side has just the instrument panel half installed with decal at the front, then has the cockpit glued into position, with location assisted by a scrap diagram nearby, then the fuselage halves are joined around a toothed drum without using glue, which will form the base for the rear gun barbettes. Once the glue has cured and you have dealt with the seams in your usual manner, the fuselage is lowered onto the lower wing, taking care not to damage the gunner’s compartment, and is glued in position, followed immediately by the two upper wing halves with moulded-in upper nacelles. Once the glue has cured and seams are dealt with, you have a choice of dropped or retracted leading-edge slats, using different parts for each option, and ensuring you don’t get them mixed up between wings. The elevators are next, and again you have a choice by using different parts, offering dropped elevators without having to do any additional work, or you can pose them neutral by replacing the lower section that has the flying surfaces moulded-in. The assemblies fit into slots in the tail with zero dihedral, and the rudder panel is inserted into the moulded-in fin, which can be posed deflected as you wish. The engine nacelle fronts are made from two halves each, adding the cooling bays from two more parts each underneath, then sliding them into position in the wing fronts, leaving the small gear bays open to receive the struts later in the build. The two-part weapons bay insert is glued into place under the nose to complete its distinctive snub-nosed profile. The next choice is whether you wish to depict the radiator fairings with the cooling flaps open or closed. The radiator cores are common to both options, and the two sides are fitted together on a trio of turrets, then they are inserted into the radiator fairing of choice, adding the sides to the assembly appropriate to the position. The outer flap panels are inserted into gaps in the wings behind the radiators at 10° deflection for the open option, then the fairings are installed into the depressions in the underside of the wings to complete them. The ailerons are next in line outboard, and are fitted with a pair of horn balances into slots in the parts before they are installed in their bays, and these can also be posed deflected if you wish. There is still much to do, starting three-part tubular night-flying exhausts, or with exhaust stubs that are moulded on a carrier, and are slotted them into the nacelles on each side, then adding flare hider panels that help protect the pilot’s night vision and make the aircraft less visible at night. The rear defence barbettes on the sides of the fuselage must be glued carefully to ensure they remain mobile, adding the gun barrels into the slots at the rear of the fairings to complete them. If you are building your model on the ground, the main wheels of the 410 are supplied in well-detailed halves with a smooth tyre that has a little sag moulded-in to depict the weight of the aircraft compressing them. Each gear strut has a separate scissor link spanning the black gaiter over the oleos, adding a retraction jack behind the leg as they are inserted into the bays, gluing the wheels on the inboard side, and fitting a bay door to the front of the bays. For retracted wheels, a single part covers the tail-wheel bay, which is substituted by a pair of linked open bay doors for the wheels-down option, after which the nicely detailed tail-wheel strut with moulded-in wheel is glued into the bulkhead inside the bay. The next option is dependent upon whether you drilled out holes in the lower wing earlier, which receives two bombs on pylons. The three-bladed props are moulded as one part, and are trapped between the spinner and back plate, then a stepped washer is slipped over the axle at the rear without glue, and is trapped in position by another washer that is glued into position to allow the prop to remain mobile unless you overdo it. The two completed props are slotted into the fronts of the engine nacelles, and these can be left until after painting to avoid damage or messing up part of your paint job. Before the canopy can be installed, two triangular supports are added to the space between the crew positions, and the gunner’s two-part control centre with pistol-grip is fitted at the rear of his compartment. The unusual glazing strip that extends the pilot’s view over the nose is inserted, then the complex shaped canopy is built from three components. The windscreen has the entire canopy roof moulded-in, and it is completed by gluing the two side glazing components to the sides to achieve the correct tapering, whilst bulbous shape at the rear. This is glued into position along with a radio mast offset to the starboard roof frame between the crew stations at an angle to the vertical from the front, adding a pitot probe to the port wingtip, and if the aircraft is wheels down, a crew access footstep that drops from the fuselage on the port side. Under the fuselage are fitted a long towel-rail antenna and another straight mast with a bulbous end. Markings There are two decal options on the sheet, which share the same splinter scheme on the wings, but have different patterns and mottling on the fuselage. From the box you can build one of the following: W.Nr.10185, U5+KG, 16./Kampfgeschwader 2, Amsterdam-Schiphol, Netherlands, October 1943 U5+CX, 13./Kampfgeschwader 2, Coulommiers, France, August 1943 Decals are by Cartograf, which is a guarantee of good registration, sharpness and colour density, with a thin gloss carrier film cut close to the printed areas. Because of the proximity and limited space between the fuselage and engine nacelles, scrap diagrams show the locations of the various markings and stencils in those locations that would be invisible on standard profiles. Conclusion This is an extremely well-detailed modern kit with an interesting choice of decals and plenty of build options to personalise your model. Very highly recommended. Review sample courtesy of

Some do. Can't speak for any Androids these days, but there's a magick light scope on my iPhone

I grew up on the flight path of the much-missed Mosquito, seeing it on its regular test-flights in the skies over sunny Chester, as it was kept at Hawarden. I used to love hearing the twin Merlins, and would rush outside to see her come rain or shine. I lost track of the aviation and modelling world in the 90s, so didn't hear about her tragic crash, but I was gutted retrospectively, both for the loss of the men and the machine. The Mossie was doubly special because most of the rest of our local air traffic is civil stuff, and those are just glorified tubes to my tiny mind.

M3 Lee Medium Tank (63521) 1:35 I Love Kit via Creative Models Ltd In the years before WWII America realised that they were lagging behind in respect of armour, a fact that became especially clear when Germany came out from under the Versailles treaty to show off and then use their new tanks and Blitzkrieg tactics against their European neighbours. The M3 Lee was conceived in 1940 as a medium tank carrying a powerful 75mm gun, partly for manning by their own crews, but also because Britain had requested a large number of tanks to make good their losses from the Dunkirk withdrawal. The resulting Lee was a decent tank but suffered from a high silhouette and limited traverse of the sponson-mounted 75mm gun, although it was still widely used in Allied service despite these deficiencies. In British service it was known as the Lee if it was fitted with the original American turret, or the Grant when using the lower-profiled British specification turrets. The Lee was used primarily in Africa and the Pacific theatres where 2nd line equipment was deemed adequate to be fielded (for the most part) against the enemy, aided by the fact that the Japanese were generally far behind with their tank designs and tactics. It underwent some substantial changes including cast, then welded and back again to riveted hulls, plus changes in the power pack and deletion of the side doors to add needed stiffness to the hull. The riveted hulls suffered from rivets popping off inside and becoming projectiles when hit, which could be just as lethal as a penetrating round and was never fully eliminated. The Kit I Love Kit have created their own line of newly tooled kits of the M3 Grant/Lee, starting in 2021 and carrying on with various new boxings in the following years, plus this new boxing of a Lee at full height, evidenced by the cupola and machine gun turret on the main turret, in a similar format that the early Grant Mk.Is were based upon. The kit arrives in a top-opening box with a painting of the vehicle on the front, and a cardboard divider in the lower tray to keep the hull parts and other sprues from rattling around during transit. Inside the box are twelve sprues and three individual parts in sand-coloured styrene, eight brown sprues, a clear sprue, a small Photo-Etch (PE) brass fret, an instruction booklet printed in black and white, and a sheet of painting and decaling profiles printed in colour on glossy paper. Detail is good for this exterior kit, although there is no rolled steel armour texture moulded into any of the plates, and a very fine sand-cast texture is present on the turret parts, which could be improved by using liquid cement and a rough brush to stipple the sand-cast texture a little deeper, and texture could also be added to the main armour panels if you feel the urge. Construction begins with the running gear for a change, making up the bogies from two wheels on a pair of swing-arms each, being careful to orient the Vertical Volute Spring Suspension (VVSS) parts correctly, using the scrap diagram to assist you. Six bogies are made in total, with return-rollers in the top of the units, held in place by the front panel that also holds the swing-arms in position. The rear bulkhead has a pair of access doors with PE hinges fitted into the hatch, adding exhausts and more towing eyes with shackles, plus idler wheel axles before it is mated to the rear of the lower hull part, mounting the glacis assembly to the other end, adding two bolted flanges to the centre, and inserting a pair of towing eyes with shackles in slots at the sides of the final drive housings. The bogies are fixed three per side on raised plates moulded into the hull save for the drive axle that is separate, making the drive sprocket from two parts, and the idler wheels from four parts each so that the tracks can be installed. The track links are made from four parts each that have a total of six sprue-gates to remove, with 77 links per side, and no ejector-pin marks to deal with, thankfully. Once the tracks are in place, the fenders are detailed with PE shackles and light cages, adding the lights with clear lenses, and the round-down ends to the rear of each one, locating them on the sides of the hull on two lugs per side. A machine gun turret is first, inserting a two-part gun with pivot into the turret drum, and locking it in place with a pair of pins, adding a two-part hatch to the top, two vision slots with hatches to the sides, and a pair of small parts on top of the mantlet, setting it aside for the turret. The mantlet has the barrel inserted, pushing a .30cal machine gun through from the inside, clipping it inside the upper turret, then closing it in by gluing in the lower turret, which acts as the trunnions for the pivot point of the main gun. The turret roof has a simple two-part mushroom vent, then the machine gun turret is dropped into the hole in the roof, fixing two aerial bases and a rolled PE part into the roof, and an armoured hatch with clear glazing on the right cheek of the turret. The vertical step behind the turret has a viewport with clear slot inserted, fixing two C-shaped and T-shaped PE parts in a small recess on the opposite side, adding an aerial base to one side with separate spring base. The upper deck is started by adding clear lights to the rear edges of the area along with exhaust mufflers, fitting them to the edges of the deck once it has been detailed with pioneer tools, a towing cable, PE mesh and brackets. Two hull side panels have hatches with vision ports, handles and latches inserted, removing some details from the upper hull part as indicated, then installing the vertical step made earlier, a T-shaped stiffener to the roof, and adding the side panels over the blank sides of the upper hull, fitting filler caps, lugs and more hatches with clear slots, plus two stowage boxes to be fitted on the sloped sides of the engine deck, which is slotted into position and snugged up against the vertical step behind the turret ring, and topped with a pioneer tool after drilling out holes in the lids, sliding the engine deck into position last. The turret can be twisted into position at this stage, but it is probably best to install the 75mm gun first. A semi-cylindrical mantlet is clipped vertically into the surround, gluing a plate across the back to prevent it popping out again, slotting the barrel into the hole in the mantlet, and adding a small part to the top of the surround, which includes a pivot peg that is locked in position in the starboard hull without glue, the top peg held in place by the two-part roof section, which has a periscope added to one side of the pivot. The completed upper hull is then glued into place on the lower, fitting the cover panel over the rear of the vehicle, completing the model. Markings There is only one decal options on the sheet, but as usual with Trumpeter/HobbyBoss/I Love Kit there is no information offered on the location, period or regiments of the decal options, but the vehicle codes should allow the intrepid modeller to find out the back-story if they feel the need. From the box you can build the following: The entirety of the sheet is printed in yellow, so while registration isn’t relevant, colour density and sharpness are perfectly adequate for most modellers, but if you’re a stickler, you could do worse than check your references before proceeding to paint. Conclusion A well detailed exterior kit of the M3 Grant that should satisfy many, although there are many other options on the market. This early variant option should be easy enough to paint in a single predominant shade of green, and offers plenty of opportunity for some weathering or fading of the paint with age. Highly recommended. Review sample courtesy of

What an unpleasant and wholly unsatisfactory experience for you Enzo You're not famous or newsworthy though, so the police won't be interested unless they can make a scapegoat of you for something that makes them look good. Sadly, they don't do much in the way of psychological testing during officer selection to weed out the inappropriate candidates before they can do harm As to people? They seem to have lost all patience, inability to be wrong, and self-control seems to have gone out of the window too. The world's gone to hell in a handbasket, and I can't see much of a chance of us getting back from there. I think I'll stay home and talk to you nice people on the forum going forward. The loons on the street are just too much trouble. I find that the weirdest part of the whole affair. Why did she even bring that into the convo? Seems pretty random and utterly inappropriate, but gives some indication of her deranged mindset.

Wouldn't be much of a Mod if I couldn't

aboard Stuart

They’re 2-part epoxy putties. I bought some in the past from the UK, so they’re available somewhere, but it’s so long ago since I bought mine, I couldn’t tell you where I got it from. You can roll it wafer thin, as long as you have a bit of talc on both rolling surfaces, a bit like rolling out pastry. They’re very much finer textured than Milliput, although you can still roll that out, just not as finely. Figure scupltors use the other products because of their features, sometimes both at once, as each has its own special merits. You’d have to ask a sculptor what those are though, as I picked up that information in passing several years ago. I’ve slept an awful lot since then

Don’t the figure sculptors roll out sheets of Magic Sculp or Super Sculpy and lay bits of it over the figures? Texturing it could be achieved by pressing it lightly over a a cloth or some other texture, but you’d need a bit of skill. That’s probably why I don’t do it

My best guess is harmless nonsense? 🤡

I'd agree with Ross, tape is best. Paint it white, mask, optional second coat of white or clear to seal the edges, and then bang some red over it, all coats as thin as you can manage, then maybe seal it with a couple of coats of clear varnish, and gently sand to even out any ridges. The only issue I could foresee is the thickness of the strip needing to taper with the lance. In that case, you might need someone with a good grasp of maths, or a bit of trial and error with cutting the tape to a taper.

I've only just "tuned in" as they say, and although it's technically making a cycle that thinks it's a car in IRL scale, you're building the thing out of DIY products and such, so it's a lot more like modelling that say, restoring a traditional car in IRL scale. I'm not going to be a grinch about it, so there

No worries... I've got brain today anyway, so just ignore me

Hi Nick, and to the forum We've had someone draw our attention to this thread as it seems to be turning into a Work in Progress thread after your initial introduction posts. Do you intend to keep on with the building here, or start a new thread? We'd have to move the whole thread into WIP Aircraft if so, but if you'd like me to separate the Modelling content from your intro, I can set up a new thread with those posts in WIP, which you can link to in here so that people can see where you've gone to extend your collection. Drop me a PM when you've had a moment to ponder what you'd prefer

Still showing as "Boeing B-17G™ Flying Fortress™, 774th Bomb Squadron, 463rd Bombardment Group (Heavy), Italy, July 1944." on Airfix's site, which is the same as was written on the instructions. https://uk.airfix.com/products/boeing-b-17g-fortress-mkiii-a08018a

Boeing B-17G/Flying Fortress Mk.III (A08018A) 1:72 Airfix The B-17 that first flew in 1935 was quite a different aircraft than the one that flew during WWII, having a glossy bare metal finish, a traditional vertical tail with no fin fillet, and lots of bulging art-deco glass. The press coined the term "Flying Fortress" because of the number of gunnery positions around the aircraft, which stuck and was later trademarked by Boeing. Its first attempt to gain approval and induction into the USAAF was foiled by an unfortunate accident that wrote off the prototype and killed the pilots, but it was given a second bite at the cherry because of its comparative performance, and was eventually accepted into service with more powerful Cyclone engines and without the blister-type waist gunner windows. The E model (British Fortress Mk.I) was probably the first "real" fortress, with a large expanded tail, tail gunner position and guns in the nose. It also has the familiar ball-turret on the underside that stayed with it throughout the rest of production. The F model (British Fortress Mk.II) brought in some more changes, most notable of which is the almost frameless nose glazing, which afforded the bomb-aimer a much better view, although he must have felt commensurately more exposed as a result. The G model with its jutting remotely operated chin-turret was the final mark of the war, and fought doggedly over Europe with a formidable offensive armament consisting of 13 guns. This of course was at the expense of bomb-load, which diminished with the distance from home that the Fortress was sent to bomb. In British service it was known as the Fortress Mk.III, where it served with Coastal Command in small numbers. Post war the B-17 was converted and used in a number of civilian roles, as well as some remaining military and pseudo-military roles such as Coast Guard or search and rescue. There are still a comparatively large number of airframes in airworthy condition, and most Brits that have been to the air show circuit have probably seen the Sally-B at some point in their lives. The Kit Airfix released this kit back in 2016 and then followed it up a year later with an RAF Fortress III version and a couple of special editions, one with diorama potential, the other with extra decals. This kit is a rebox of the original release but with a new sprue and decal options. The red top-opening box is adorned with the usual high-quality digital artwork from Adam Tooby, this time showing a stream of Fortresses on a bombing run. Inside the box are ten sprues in mid-grey styrene, a clear sprue, decal sheet, and the instruction booklet that is printed on white paper with spot colour. Inside the booklet are two separate folded A3 sheets of glossy paper that contain the profiles for the two decal options on one sheet, and the stencil locations for the British and US variants on a separate sheet of line drawings to keep the profiles uncluttered. The mouldings are clean and crisp as we’ve come to expect from Airfix, with fine, recessed panel lines and plenty of crisp detail on smaller parts, bomb bays, gear bays and the interior. Construction begins with the cockpit, building up an open-topped box with two pairs of rudder pedals in the raised forward area, separated by a two-part centre console, adding control columns with semi-circular yokes at the top, locating them in small recesses near the rear of the raised section. The flight crew seats are built from a single-part seat with two sets of legs and a piece of armour at the back, slotting them into the main floor, at which point you realise the length of the legs. A stepped bulkhead is inserted in front, fitting the full-width instrument panel after detail painting and applying the dial decals under the coaming to add realism. The bomb bay walkway has a pair of bomb ‘ladders’ attached to slots, making side frames with their own ladders, each with slots to accept bombs, which are made from a two-part body and separate fin unit, following the scrap diagram to align them correctly. One bomb is installed on each ladder, sliding them into the rear spar if you are modelling the US Fortress, while the British decal option leaves the bombs on the sprues, but retains the ladders, both options adding a section of the roof to the spar, then closing the assembly with a shorter forward spar. The rear of the aft spar is detailed with four radio equipment parts, following the detail painting instructions, then the cockpit is installed to the forward spar, extending the interior before building the rear compartment. A long floor section has a bulkhead with three more equipment boxes and a pair of three-part swivelling seats fitted forward of the belly gun cut-out, with more detail painting needed before proceeding. The fuselage halves have ribbing moulded into the interior where it will be seen, and waist gunner windows can either be fixed in place, or left off, drilling out several holes, fitting a small square window over the wing root, and opening the slot in the upper nose to accept a bull-horn antenna late in the process. The forward interior is slipped into position in the port fuselage half, adding the rear behind it, which locates on tabs in the fuselage and on the rear spar. If building the British decal option, a blanking plate is inserted into the belly gun cut-out, as they were removed and faired over to allow more weight for fuel on longer flights. A gear bay insert is added behind the floor for the tail wheel, fitting a large ammo box in the sides that feeds the waist guns, each with moulded-in supports. Another pair of crew seats are built for the nose crew from three parts each as before, but the bomb-aimer’s chair has a different set of legs and the famous Norden bombsight in front, adding an equipment box, ammo supply and a tubular mount for the nose gun for the US option, omitting the ammo and fitting a box on the raised left side after drilling out a location hole from the underside. Scrap diagrams show the correct orientation of the interior parts from the front for both options to assist. If building a US airframe, the belly turret is made from a clear portion of the bulb, fitting an insert, then sliding a pair of guns through the holes from within before adding one side of the glazing, the rudimentary seat, then the other side to complete the sphere. The completed turret is then clamped in a two-part mount, adding a suspension arm to the top, then trapping the top end in a curved fixture with a styrene washer that should allow it to rotate if you are careful with the glue. The completed assembly is then glued into the roof of the fuselage through the holes in the fuselage and floor, and can be posed semi-retracted or deployed for operation as you wish. The fuselage can then be closed, trapping the two-part rudder panel between the tail halves as you do, dealing with the seams in your preferred manner once the glue has fully cured. The wings are prepared by adding three inserts around the inner nacelle lowers to form the main gear bays, fitting another section of skin to the outer face that has the supercharger trunking moulded-in. A bulkhead with engine mounting stub is inserted in the nacelle, adding more detail to the side opposing the trunking, with the help of some scrap diagrams that show correct alignment, strengthening the assembly by placing a bundle of cables/hoses in the centre of the roof of the bay, before inserting a pair of twin intakes in corresponding holes in the lower wing leading-edge, slipping another pair of inserts on a carrier between the nacelles. The ailerons can be posed clean or deflected anywhere up to 12° in either direction as you please, filling the outer nacelle with a circular bulkhead that also has an engine mount moulded into its centre, fixing another pair of inserts on a carrier into the inner wing toward the trailing edge, after which you can close the wing halves, repeating the same process for the opposite side. The completed wings are then mated with the fuselage by sliding them into position over the two wing spars, gluing them into position, allowing the glue to set with the aid of a jig or jury-rigged contraption to ensure correct alignment of the wings. The elevators have separate single-thickness control surfaces, making the panels themselves from two halves each, inserting the completed assemblies in slots to the sides of the tail, and noting that they can be deflected either 23° up, or 14° down to add a bit of individuality to your model. All four nacelles have two-part superchargers inserted in recesses in the underside, adding extra trunking into the recesses on the inner nacelles, following which the engines can be made from three parts each, the front cylinder bank, intake spider, and exhaust collectors, which differ between the inner and outer engines. After detail painting the engines and installing them to the front of the nacelles, two-part cowlings can be slipped over them, with a choice of open or closed cooling gills in the rear, as shown in scrap diagrams nearby. The first gear leg is the diminutive tail-wheel, which has a two-part strut and separate wheel, fixing it to the bay installed earlier, following which the main gear is started by gluing the two hub halves together, then sliding them through the two-part wheels, which have diamond or circumferential tread and a small flat spot moulded-in, with the option of posing the gear retracted or deployed as you prefer. There are no bay doors to hide your sins however, requiring two parts to depict the struts, rolling the wheel around to hide the flat-spot within the bay, gluing them in place with the assistance of accompanying diagrams. The deployed gear option also uses two parts, first adding one, then the other into the bay, followed by your choice of tyre tread patterns. You also have a choice of open or closed bomb bay doors, the latter achieved by simply cutting away the hinge-tabs from the single bomb bay door part and gluing it in place in the bay. To open the doors, you must first score and cut the bay door part in two along the pre-weakened seam-line, adding a pair of actuator jacks into the front and rear of the bay so that the doors can be fitted at the correct angle to show off the bombs. The Flying Fortress lived up to its name by bristling with .50cal machine guns from almost every aperture, which were intended to give full coverage against enemy fighters when flown in tight formation. The tail guns consist of a pair of guns that are slotted through the rear lens into a vertical pivot, which is in turn attached to the two-part clear fuselage section, adding a one-part depiction of the floor and ammo supply before it is glued to the rear of the fuselage under the tail fin. Another pair of guns are mounted on a pivot and trapped between two halves of a cylindrical turret that has two small windows in the rear, mounting it under the nose in a recess, adding a teardrop-shaped aerodynamic fairing behind it. The British decal option mounts a small radar instead of the turret, then covering it with a different all-encompassing aerodynamic fairing over it. The upper turret has a basket added under its ring, fitting the twin guns into recesses in the top, either aerodynamically posed level for travel, or elevated for battle, dropping the turret into position behind the cockpit, installing the glazing later at the same time as the canopy. A single rear upper gun is slid through the large window in the rear of the crew blister, adding a small aerial mast on the spine, and inserting the waist guns through the windows, and a hatch with window into the port fuselage side aft of the wing trailing edge. If you have elected to open the waist windows for action, two small supports are added to the lower edge of the cut-outs, mounting the gun in the socket just inside the lower frame. The British decal option has a pair of fairings fitted under the fuselage just behind the waist gun positions, locating on a hole in the underside. Clear landing light lenses and their covers are added to each wing outboard of the engine nacelles, then the nose is finished by adding clear side panels that have ribbing moulded-in, and an optional cheek gun pushed through a hole from the inside before installation, adding a lozenge-shaped window to the centreline at the top. Behind that an astrodome is inserted in a circular cut-out, with the fairing moulded into the clear part for a clean join, adding the clear nose cone to the tip, and the main canopy over the cockpit, with a bull-horn antenna between the two top nose windows for both options, finished by placing the glazing over the top turret as previously mentioned. Another antenna is mounted under the tail gun for the British option along with another pair of masts on the fuselage. The final act is to add the props to each of the four engines, which are each made from a three-bladed prop with boss moulded-in, which pushes through the separate bell-housing of the engine, and is secured at the rear with a pin, carefully gluing the pin to the back of the prop if you wish to be able to move them later, inserting them into the centre of each engine, completing the engines and the model, so remember to paint the bell-housing before you get to this stage. Markings There are two decal options in this boxing, one in British colours, the other in USAAF service. There are differences in equipment fit that will influence your build process, so it’s a good decision to choose early. From the box you can build one of the following: B-17G, 774th Bomb Sqn., 463rd Bombardment Group (Heavy), Italy, July 1944 Fortress Mk.III, No.214 (Fe3derated Malay States) Sqn., No.100 (Bomber Support) Group, RAF Downham Market, Norfolk, England, 1944 Decals are by Cartograf, which is a guarantee of good registration, sharpness and colour density, with a thin gloss carrier film cut close to the printed areas. Both decal options have different stencils, so a second sheet of decal instructions are provided, consisting of line-drawings with the stencils pointed out to reduce clutter on the main painting and decaling sheets, which are both A3, and printed in full colour. Conclusion This isn't the only available kit of the B-17 in this scale, but it is up there with the best. This recent tooling has excellent detail and plenty of parts that include options specific to each airframe. It won't be a done-in-a-day build, but it should result in a rewarding experience. Overall, this kit is a real gem and should build up into an excellent model. Highly recommended Review sample courtesy of

Appreciated

I just noticed that you've posted this twice, once in Vehicles, and here in the GB, which is against regs and we ask people not to do that. You made a comment early in the thread that a post had disappeared, so I'm wondering if another Mod has de-duped it before. I've merged both threads and de-duplicated your posts so people don't have to view the pics twice, but if anyone's said the same thing in both threads and they want them gone, just Hide it yourself, or Report it to a Mod to get it removed. Nice work on the Metro BTW. I remember playing Colin McRae's Rally on X-Box back in the day, and the Metro drove like it had a fifth castor wheel in the middle of the chassis

Insane, but the problem is that by flagging it up as bunk, you’ve given it more views by getting people to click on it. That will affect the stats, and consequently they’ll probably mark it as “successful”, and come up with another one like it. Depressing, eh? it’s all about the views, aka money.

I had the same problem with a microwave, a nice multi-use Panasonic. The cavity magnetron unit went, and It was about £30 extra to buy a new one with a full warranty. The right to-repair is one thing, but when they over-price the parts you need to make a cost-effective repair to discourage you, that's a whole different ball-game. Evil gits Meantime, we're being forced to throw away goods that are perfectly repairable because it's economical to do so, chucking tons of aluminium, plastic and steel away for the want of a few quid's worth of spare parts

I'm a fixer. I hate paying out money to get back to where I was, so I've fixed anything from a Tumble Dryer, to a Motherboard, a Monitor, and an LED strip-light. It's mostly a case of finding the blown capacitor, as that's how they usually engineer failure into electronics, as they all have a lifespan at a particular temperature, so you can pretty much predict when it's going to go. I started off with zero electronic knowledge, and have gathered a wee bit, but nothing too fancy, but it's saved me quite a few quid. If I can't fix it, it'll usually go to the tip after I've pulled it to pieces in an attempt to find out what's wrong with it, and I usually try to get something that's better the next time. I've recently discovered Miele appliances, and that they're engineered for a 20-year lifespan, unlike many other brands. I'll happily pay a few quid more for something I can depend on, and would rather give my limited funds to someone that's not trying to fleece me into buying a new one a few years down the line. If more of us did that, we might end up with better products to buy.

Without a shadow of a doubt. He’s the only person I know that can render a room uninhabitable for half an hour or more.

Westland Sea King HC.4 (A11008) 1:48 Airfix The Sea King is one of the most enduring rotary-winged aircraft of the Cold War period, the original Sikorsky SH-3 Sea King flying for the first time in 1959 under the company code S-61. Although no longer in production, the Sea King continues to serve with air arms around the world, including those of Canada, Germany, India, Ireland, Italy, Spain and the until recently, United Kingdom, although they still fly in private hands. The WS-61 built under license by the then British-owned Westland was substantially different from the American airframe though, powered by a pair of Rolls-Royce Gnome turboshaft engines, which were a development of a General Electric power-plant, so not entirely new. British air-sea warfare doctrine required other changes to equipment fit of the Westland built Sea Kings, which were further sub-divided depending on what tasks they were expected to undertake. The first British Sea King flew at the end of the 60s from the docks to Westlands to act as trials and patterning airframes, going into service first as Anti-Submarine HAS variants, and adding more capabilities as time went by. The HC4 Commando played a part in the Falklands War, alongside other marks that were transported into the islands aboard the ships of the Task Force, where one was lost, presumably due to a bird strike, with the crew and SAS passengers killed on what should have been a routine ship-to-ship journey, sadly. During the Gulf War conflicts, the Sea King was deployed again, providing important inter-ship transport facilities, although their AEW facilities weren't needed due to the blanket coverage provided by other assets. A further crash during Gulf War II highlighted the need for better night operations equipment, and throughout the type’s service, one constant was change, with earlier variants often upgraded to the same standard as their replacement, which is evidenced by looking at the history of XV666, which started life as a HAS.1, was re-engineered as a HAS.5, and finished up as a HU.5, going through many livery changes, and changing operator into the bargain. Many Westland build airframes have been sold to overseas operators, including Norway, Australia, India, Pakistan and Belgium amongst others, and although the Sea King has been retired from operations with the British Armed Forces, they still fulfil a training role under the auspices of HeliOperations, training German crews to operate the Sea Kings that are still on charge with the Marinefliegerkommando. The Sea King remains in the skies of Britain thanks to Historic Helicopters, who have restored several airframes, some of which still fly. The Kit For years the choice of British Sea King kits had previously been poor, and those that were available were all of advancing years, so the fanbase for this old girl had been wishing and hoping for a new kit in this scale for quite some time, and Airfix duly obliged last year with a brand-new kit. This is the second boxing from the new tooling, and includes new parts specific to this variant that will allow the modeller to build a more representative model. The kit arrives in a large red-themed box with dramatic artwork on the front that has a golden-hour tinge to the colours, and the decal option profiles can be found on one side. Inside are three bags containing six sprues in grey styrene, a clear sprue in a separate bag, a decal sheet, and a thick instruction booklet that has colour profiles slipped inside, printed on folded A3 glossy paper, with one side for each of the four options. Airfix clearly put a lot of effort into the tooling, as evidenced by the detail that is visible on every part, of which there are fewer than the original boxing, but still an impressive 289. The exterior is covered in fine engraved panel lines and rivets, with lapped panels in places, and stiffener plates in raised relief where appropriate. The seats and any cloth elements have folds and wrinkles to give them a more organic look, and the detail extends from the tip of the tail to the end of the nose, including avionics and equipment boxes, much of which will remain visible thanks to some crisp-and-clear transparencies. There are also some parts that will remain on the sprues depending on which decal option you choose, and doubtless yet more boxings to come that depict other variants. Construction begins with choosing a decal option, as each livery of this boxing comes with a different sensor and equipment fit, so you need to decide right away. The first three pages of instruction steps have you opening up many holes in the floor, lower fuselage, sides and roof, for which you will need a drill of size 1.1mm, reduced from three sizes in the first boxing, plus a blade to remove some antennae and a flashed over hole in the lower fuselage near the rear of the boom. It would be a sensible idea to cross through the diagram steps you won’t be needing in advance to prevent any mistakes at this stage that could have you turning the air blue later. The real building starts with the interior, and is based upon the full-length floor with a step up into the cockpit, adding a nicely detailed bulkhead with a separate barrier at the step-point, then building one side out with equipment storage that slots into the floor and aligns to a ridge on the back of the bulkhead. On the other side of the hatch, a shallow step is placed on two holes to locate it, then the crew seats are built from a back that has a pair of front leg extensions and braces that support the seat pan, which has grooves moulded into it, and a rear pair of legs that are stiffened by the moulded-in brace, making it look like a folding chair found in most schools of our youth. To keep the pilots’ comfy, an L-shaped seat cushion is laid into the completed seat, hiding the joins. The seats fit into holes in the cockpit floor, plus collective and cyclic sticks for both crew, and a pair of foot pedals for them in the nose. The instrument panel is based on a T-shaped former, adding three detail skins to form the side of the centre console, and topping it off with an extremely busy central instrument panel, for which two decals are provided, with another for the main panel. The centre console assembly is glued to the floor in the nose, and is covered by the coaming and instrument panel assembly, then five rows of canvas seats of various lengths are made from base and backs, adding tubular legs to the front. A similar jump-seat is placed against the avionics housing behind the cockpit, with another two near the entryway on the left, siting the longest run on the right with an extra two in the tapering rear, plus four sections of seats on the opposite side, including two more in the rear, closing the cab off with a bulkhead in the rear. The passenger compartment has an interior wall skin fixed to both sides, and there are a few ejector-pin marks that will need dealing with if you think they’ll be seen, and it’s almost certain that some or most of them will be obscured by the internal seating. The interior fuselage assembly is completed by inserting a narrow ceiling strip where all the ejector-pin marks will be invisible. Side windows are fitted to the fuselage halves later, and blanking inserts are added to cover holes in the right side before closure to allow you to adjust its depth to minimise clean-up. You can pose the door open with this model, but if you have opted to close it, the door, window, and ladder insert are fitted at this stage on the port side. Before the fuselage can be closed around the interior, the exhausts must be made up from two halves, plus a tapered lip, both fitted to a bulkhead with the lips facing outward and toward the rear, then slotted into the top of the interior without the use of glue to allow adjustment later. The port fuselage half is brought in first, locating on a pair of lugs near the centre of the lower edge, and mating with the exhaust bulkhead, as illustrated by a scrap diagram nearby. An insert is added to the open rear of the rotor cowling, then the starboard fuselage is brought in, locating in a similar manner, and allowing you to glue the whole assembly, dealing with the seams in your preferred manner. Various rectangular recesses in the lower fuselage keel are filled with inserts, and the skin for under the nose is a separate part with clear landing lights on a carrier applied inside, gluing the part in place at the front of the fuselage floor, then inserting a short tunnel under the floor of the cab as a spacer and a pair of antennae in the floor before gluing the keel into position. The rotor cowling is completed by installing a large insert over the rear of the hump, and adding a curved section to the front, both of which have fine mesh panels moulded-in, then the intakes are built, starting with a central divider that has the curved cowling glued to the top, after which a choice of two styles of intake trumpets are inserted, their part numbers depending on which decal option you choose. The side cowlings are common, as is the panel at the top rear, each covered with detail, then behind the rotor, a spine fairing is applied along the boom, removing a small raised portion for some decal options, flatting the area back to match the profile of the rest, which is best done before it is glued onto the model. A duct is applied to the port side of the boom on a trio of lugs that slot into corresponding holes in the side, taking care to align it carefully before the glue cures. Returning to the front, there is a choice of nose cone for the decal options, one of which also has a small rectangle sanded flush on the port side, and two have either two or four flashed-over 1.0mm holes drilled out from inside. The HC.4 doesn’t have the familiar sponsons for the main gear that were used in other variants, instead having fixed gear. The aerofoil mounts are made from two halves, and have separate tips, plus an ovalised cone underneath into which the stubby gear legs mount, adding the wheels later. The diagonal support struts are made from two parts each and are installed after the winglets have been plugged into the fuselage on two pegs, nestling into recesses in the sponson and fuselage sides, making two pairs of wheels with one added to each end of the cross-axle at the bottom of each strut, adding clear flush-mounted lights, sensors and other small parts to each one, with scrap diagrams helping with orientation. The fixed tail-wheel comprises two parts, as does the strut and yoke, the wheel flex-fitting into position, and slotting into a hole in the stern of the fuselage’s keel. Another choice is ahead of you, allowing you to fold the tail of your model if you wish, cutting off a small tab on the two tail halves, as demonstrated in the scrap diagram. The two halves of the fin are glued together, inserting a mesh panel in the top, and the stabilising fin and rotor cowling on either side of the fin’s tip, with a choice of clear light added to the fairing on the fairing. The fairing is assembled from upper and lower half, trapping an axle between the halves before it is mated to the fin, which should allow it to rotate freely if you’re careful with the glue. The fin is completed by choosing the straight link between it and the boom, or adding the two open bulkheads on each side of the break, making for a strong connection between the two assemblies. We’re back at the nose again, glazing the canopy with two side sections and the combined windscreen/roof, which has an overhead console glued to the inside before it is installed. There are two windscreen parts, one with moulded-in windscreen wipers, the other without for those that want to take advantage of after-market PE detail sets when they build their models. That’s rather considerate of the designers, especially as it isn’t even their concern. There are two choices of intake filters split between the decal options, the first of which is a simple deflector with fairing behind it, the second a sloped box that is built up from individual faces that filters the air before it reaches the engines. Both types fit over the same portion of the roof, and are shown from the side in scrap diagrams to assist with placement. four more side windows are installed, the port one having a choice of flat or blistered parts in the rear. Now the fun begins. There are four pages devoted to the aerial fit for the decal options, one for each decal choice, so pick your fit and get started. This includes items such as a crew step, as well as radar warning fairings, chaff and flare boxes as the technology became available. When you come out of the other side of that, there is a door gun mount that consists of a GPMG (Jimpy) General Purpose Machine Gun on a substantial but lightened structure that pivots out for operation, a rescue/deployment winch suspended over the large side door, the fairing formed by a single part into which the winch mechanism slots, while the two support arms are mounted on the inner side, fitting onto the transition between side and roof above the door. The door itself is a single part that accepts a window with radiused corners, and this can be posed slid open or closed, as can the door on the port side behind the cockpit. If you didn’t select the closed option early in the build, the open option has the door halves detailed with a ladder in the lower part, and a window in the upper, gluing them to the top and bottom of the aperture, as shown in the scrap diagram. Whether you fit the fin folded or not, you fit the rotor and actuator crown in the centre, using the same parts for both folded or straight options. The main rotor can be posed folded or open and ready for flight, the instructions starting with the latter, building up the details of the rotor mechanism, then skewering it and the lower portion through the centre with the axle and adding actuators to each blade root. The spinner cap is glued over the centre for all options, the colour differing between them. To finish the main rotor, you have a choice of early blades for option A, and later blades for the other options, all of which fit to the blade roots in an overlapping half-joint for strength. To build a Sea King with folded blades, a different rotor-head is used, with the blade roots positioned accordingly, as are the detail parts, following the stages exactly, only ending with all the blades facing in the same general direction, except the two outer blades that splay outward a little. The last job is to glue the completed rotor into position in the cowling, although you could leave them loose for storage or transport. The only thing missing from the folded arrangement is the curiously shaped bracket that supports the weight of the blades near the end, but you could either make one from scratch or wait until the inevitable aftermarket support arrives from Eduard or someone else. Markings This boxing has four decal options like the initial outing, but this time there are four discrete airframes at different periods from the Sea King’s career with the Royal Navy, picking some important dates where they were used in active roles for major operations. From the box you can build one of the following: ZA298 ‘King of the Junglies’, No.846 Naval Air Sqn., Fleet Air Arm, Royal Navy, HMS Fearless, Operation ‘Corporate’, Falklands Islands, 1982 ZA312 No.845 Naval Air Sqn., Fleet Air Arm, Royal Navy, Operation ‘Granby/Desert Storm’, King Khalid Military City, Saudi Arabia, January-February, 1991 ZA480 No.845 Naval Air Sqn., Fleet Air Arm, Royal Navy, Croatia, 1995 ZF122 No.845 Naval Air Sqn., Fleet Air Arm, Royal Navy, Royal Naval Air Station Yeovilton, Somerset, 2013 Decals are by Cartograf, which is a guarantee of good registration, sharpness and colour density, with a thin gloss carrier film cut close to the printed areas. Decals for the exhaust hider patches, tail-rotor tips and tramlines on the main blades are included, as well as several decals for the flight and operations instruments that are all printed on clear backgrounds so you don’t need to match any colours. If you prefer to paint these however, you can use the decals as patterns to create your masks. Conclusion This boxing adds variety to the mix, with new parts to give it additional realism. The detail is again fabulous, the options well-researched, and the decal choices should appeal to a great many. What will the next boxing be? Extremely highly recommended. Review sample courtesy of