ChrisL

I don't know, I reckon that the original Batman: The Animated Series Batmobile wins that crown. It's long (art deco-esque?) lines makes the Keaton Batmobile look like its superdeformed little brother.

I discovered these a week or two ago. They're interesting and very more-ish, I've ended up spending much longer than intended watching them because I think "another 5 minute video won't hurt" and before I know it half an hour has gone by!

If the Cheiftain a Chieftain variant? It turns out I have two favourite tanks and neither were on the list so I went for the Panther for being a well rounded design. For the record my two favourites are (in no particular order) the Crusader (not a good tank as far as I can gather, but I like its funny shaped turret) and the Centurion (because with it the UK did everything right, for once).

I saw a game of Phoenix Command being played in my Fresher's Week back in '93. It was a 1v1 double blind game for two freshers, with a GM who knew the rules. It took all afternoon and simulated about 30 seconds, I think. The loser opened a door, looked left, looked right and got shot in the back of the head as the winner turned a corner and spotted them just as they looked away. I also own Silent Death and quite a lot of Battletech stuff, not to mention all the figures from my early teens misspent playing Games Workshop games...

I think that the initial mirrors at least were car wing mirrors attached by squadron mechanics rather than at the factory. This would suggest that there was no standard style of mirror or fitting. Presumably this would make it hard to determine what exactly was fitted to a specific Hurricane at any given time, unless there was a decent photo reference available.

The light orange is the main base colour, the dark is for the Lion, which is handled by the Syhart/Revell decals.

Personally I am happy that the kit will come with a camouflage scheme that isn't XL513. XL513 obviously had an unusual scheme but it's nice to also see what it's a deviation from. Quite a lot of the aftermarket Victor decal sets seem to have XL513 as their only camouflaged B.2, which I find frustrating. Edit: Not that I'd mind if the kit came with the XL513 scheme too, mind!

Syhart's page for their decals for this plane now links to Mr Paint who are doing light and dark pearl oranges: Light Orange Dark Orange

Until today I had vaguely assumed that the missing numbers in the F series were due to various proposals and stillborn designs being given designations but never coming to fruition. I also had an impression that unusual aircraft, such as the US MiG 29s used for air combat training were also given F series numbers. However a quick look at Wikipedia's X series page suggests that the F-35 has been given that number simply because it is derived from the X-35 demonstrator.

I appreciate that the forum software has chosen to mark this thread as "hot".

It's a pity that it's a difficult build but the end result is very good. I think I'd still like to have this kit myself as the Viper is an impressively mean looking aircraft but it does sound like hard work to get it looking as good as you've managed.

When I was little my dad made model kits and he had a 1/48 Revell F-4E/F from the same era, in a very similar box. It was, to my eyes, pretty much the best model of anything ever. It was in SEA camo with a sharkmouth. The tail hook moved and the cockpit canopies opened and closed. Therefore you are utterly wrong to call that F-4J a turkey. It is a living, breathing, amazing link to warm and happy childhood memories! I got my own example the F-4E kit off eBay a while back so hopefully I'll be able to recreate that mythical plane at some point.

It looks a lot like a modification of Revell's Episode IV-VI Millennium Falcon easy kit. In fact the only differences I can see are the radar dish and the paint scheme. Presumably the kit comes with different crew figures too. I got one of the old ones half price in a Hobbycraft sale once but I agree that I'm not sure it'd be good value at full price. At the time I had broken my hands and so an easy build was all I could manage so for half price I was happy.

Looking at the sprue shots, part 43 is a pair of AIM-9L Sidewinders, while part 44 is a pair of IRIS-T missiles. IRIS-T is used by Germany. Sidewinders are an older missile that has been replaced by ASRAAM in the RAF and IRIS-T in the Luftwaffe. The box art shows an RAF Typhoon carrying both Sidewinders and ASRAAMS, which seems unusual. Then again it also shows the Typhoon carrying Storm Shadows, which may make it speculative as I don't think that Storm Shadow has been cleared for use yet. If parts 37 and 39 are alternative parts then I'd guess it comes down to whether your chosen Typhoon has an additional pair of stores pylons (part 39) or fairings where those pylons would be (part 37). That however is speculation on my part, as I don't have the kit. I hope that helps!

I recall reading a magazine article that said that the three carrier model was based on one carrier on deployment, one in refit and one being used for training at any given time. The third carrier was necessary primarily because cat and trap flying is very difficult and it takes a lot of time and effort to get pilots qualified for it and to keep their skills up. Apparently though the effort required to convert a land-based Harrier pilot onto one that can operate off a carrier is comparatively trivial. This makes a two carrier model practical. I think this article was in an aviation magazine around the time that the PM announced his intention to switch the UK's F-35 order from Bs to Cs. The article was pointing out that the carrier order was based on the use of STOVL aircraft for more significant reasons than the exclusion of cats and traps. Regarding the wider F-35 debate, I am undecided. I feel it will come down to whether all the new technologies (not just and probably not primarily stealth, but all the sensor fusion and information managment stuff) being put into it are as much of a step change as some claim. I reckon that the point-by-point comparisons of the F-35 to existing aircraft miss the point, the F-35 will be a success if it ends up doing useful things in ways that are utterly unlike to how current aircraft are employed. As a tenuous analogy, mobile phones wouldn't have taken off if people just expected them to be a better way of making phone calls from their homes. In some situations mobile phones are less useful than land lines, but there are many situations where a mobile can do things you couldn't even try to do with a land line phone. Time will tell whether the F-35 is offering the smartphone capabilities that everyone wants, or MMSes that nobody cares about.

Thanks for the information, General. My minimal references seem to suggest that (unsurprisingly) very few of the B.2 Retros flew without Blue Steels, i.e. with a traditional bomb bay. That's the thing I've struggled to find information about - basically B.2s with ECM warts but without Blue Steels, as I have a bomb bay conversion and prefer the flat bellied look too. SR.2s had externally normal looking bomb bays but didn't have the ECM warts. Anyway this is becoming academic now, I may well change my plan and use my Revell/Matchbox kit as a K.2, seeing as the forthcoming Airfix kit will make up a variety of B.2 options far more easily... Oh and congratulations on getting the AMW job!

Sorry for the misinformation (and my poor reading skills). I do however stand by my opinion that the Victor looks nice without slipper tanks. From the point of view of my stash of aftermarket parts for the Matchbox Victor kit and my preference for camo rather than anti-flash white, it would be nice to know what B.2s and SR.2s were fitted with ECM warts but had a conventional bomb bay and received a camo paint job. Mostly camo B.2s appear to have carried Blue Steels rather than having a conventional bomb bay and as discussed above the SR.2s didn't have the warty tail cone.

There's a photo of XM717 in SR.2 configuration with ECM warts but also without slipper tanks on its wings. I think that the tankless configuration looks nice on the Victor as it shows off the crescent wing very nicely. (I found copies of the picture on Thunder and Lightnings and a site called Airrecce, but Britmodeller didn't like me linking to one or other of them.)

I have a Revell boxing of the Matchbox kit. Aftermarket accessories have slowly been gathering with it in its box. The big Flightpath set with the resin intakes, resin wheels, an excessive quantity of decals, a B.2 conversion set (or two), resin seats, and the two White Ensign PE sets are all stuffed into the flimsy side opening box along with the original plastic. I really want to do the Victor justice but I think that with every extra I acquire for it I further intimidate myself away from ever starting it. With Airfix's announcement I may now have the motivation to have a shot at it. I'm not sure I'll be motivated to tackle the Matchbox kit once I have the Airfix kit to hand. It'll probably end up as a K.2 now though, doesn't seem like much point in putting in even more effort to convert it to a B.2 or SR.2 when the Airfix kit will support one of those out of the box and will probably handle the second easily too.

Alt + 0163 is your friend.

Rechecking AMW, that build's MAT is painted in Sky. That sounds like a good backup plan if my attempts to produce a plywood finish fail.

Dang, that's good. Now I'm intimidated!

Thank you!

I'm building the new Airfix Beaufighter in the box's Coastal Command scheme. I've noticed that while the instructions have a painting guide for the scheme's torpedo, they don't indicate a colour for the torpedo's monoplane air tail (MAT) - the bit that attached onto the end of the torpedo. I dimly recall that the build in AMW may have painted this a bronzey colour but as MATs were made from plywood this seems a bit unlikely. The picture about halfway down this page suggests that its MAT is a light colour, possibly the same colour as the Beaufighter's belly (so presumably Sky). Does anyone know if that's the case?

The Sea Fury that Airfix released a few years ago was definitely the PM kit - I have it in both boxes.