Graham T

This crops up regularly on ebay & I keep letting it go. May grab one on the strength of this, looks rather nice!

I use the Xtracolour (enamel) Dark Camouflage Grey/Dary Sea Grey on my RAF Harrier/jaguar & Tornado, they look OK to my eyes.

I don't think it's all Labour's fault. The last Conservative government instigated sweeping cuts under the "options for Change" post cold war review. Despite this I believe that with something like £33bn, the UK is still the second largest spender on defence in monetrary terms. As a proportion of GDP, we spend as much as France & more then Germany - the most suitable comparisons. Problem is that unlike these two nations, we are currently fighting two "small wars". Look back in history as far as Wellington & Nelson during the Napolionic Wars, no British Government has EVER been keen on large expenditure on defence. We've been caught with our trousers down several times as a result. The opinion of the "man on the Clapham omnibus" is often that defence spending is a waste of resources, however, as long a the UK has a largely "home based" defence industry (& BAE Systems for instance is the largest defence contractor in the world outside the USA), the benefits to UK Ltd are significant through wages to those building the ships/aircaft/tanks etc., to the companies with full order books & ultimatly the exchequer through income tax & corporation tax from profitable defence companies. Ho hum!

With that 'tach? Could easily be! Or is it Freddie Mercury?

My favourite: "The Whistling Tit" or "Whistling Wheelbarrow" That's the AW Argosy.

Nice work, bet you had fun masking for the topside camo! Now if the missus was compaining about getting the hall plastered, what's she going to say when you stick this little beauty on top of the telly?

Canberras modified for trials purposes? Hundreds of them! Can you be more specific about a particular version or is it just the PR9 you're looking at. There are quite a few good books about such as that from Crowood Aviation "The EE Canberra & Martin B57" that contaim such details. Another is the "EE Canberra, the History & Development of a Classic Jet" by Bruce Barrymore Halpenny, although I have reason to doubt all the facts contained in this one. They are good starting points. In addition, I'm sure the Canberra is well covered on the web so a Google will turn up a ton of references. Good luck!

http://www.hyperscale.com/2008/reviews/acc...stpreview_6.htm This will look nice with the "forthcoming" Trumpeter 1/32 RAF modern jets!

Seems that all those who complained that Hasegawa had the fuselage all wrong on their 1/48 Mk IX were right!

Their metalcote stuff has really gone downhill, it is impossible to brush apply, matt black that's like tar from day one, got a tin of their clear green that I use for nav lights & it is basically sludge. I have ecountered similar variable quality with Xtracolour.

British cockpits of the period were indeed basically black. Some modellers prefer a very dark grey though.

Wow thanks for posting. Curious sound track - Johnny Cash/9" Nails! I always thought that the full title of that machine was "Fellowship of the Bellows" & yes, it was paid for by Argentina - or maybe British ex-pats in Argentina.

Bill, I see you've encountered the same problem that I did with fitting the Paragon flaps, when you remove the upper & lower flap sections from the Airfix wings, those triangular sections that are left do not match up!

Oooo shiney! Nice work.

I built the Airfix F3 kit years ago in 1/48 & an Italeri GR1 kit last year. IMO the Italeri GR1 & F3 kits although not perfect are much better than Airfix but Airfix gives you a better selection of stores & decals. If you can run to it, buy BOTH & cross kit - especially if you want to build an upto date RAF GR4 (Airfix kits in particular crop up very cheaply on ebay). if possible add a Neomega pit & some of the many Paragon add-ons such as dropped flaps/slats, corrected fin front, wheels, pylons etc. although it end up as being a very expensive model then! I think that the Revell kit which appears on ebay from time to time is the Italeri kit

I built the Aeroclub Canberra B2 of which all the main airframe components are vacform & frankly, it was a doddle!, far easier than some mainstream injection kits I've tackled. It's just the cutting out & prep that takes time. I have the "British modellers usual selection" of Dynavector kits on the shelf (Sea Vixen, Javelin etc) but I'm convinced that when I start them someone will bring out an injection molded offering, just like CA did with the Canberra! In fact, I shelved a CA Canberra project as I couldn't get the fuselage together.

The B(I)8 could also carry SNEB pods & Nord AS30 missiles (never seen one of those available!). Overseas users seem to have made greater use of underwing stores than the RAF.

Well, we don't want to hijack his thread but here's one of mine, also with Neomega pit. In answer to the question about stuffing the pit prior to painting you can either: Use masking tape to seal it closed Use a sponge torn into small pieces & stuffed in Wet tissue paper My favourite is to mask the canopy & attach it before spraying (if you're going to disply the canopy open, just tack it in place with PVA or similar.

Very nice job.....didn't know Ronnie Corbett was in the RAF!

Here's mine in 1/48. I used the 100% LERX from the AV8B kit, BL755 & GBU's from Flightpath, TIALD from AMRAAM, Aires cockpit & wheel bays & MA decals. I scratch built the deployed IFR probe (although the one from AMRAAM which turned up too late looks pretty good). I couldn't find any good pics of what the TIALD pod pylon should look like so used a bit of license & modified the kit strake.

Have to go some to beat the Paragon offering - brilliant IMO

Hey Chris how did you replicate the MDC in the canopy?

Which kit/scale Hatchet? That bang seat looks extremely "iffy" & nothing like a Mk10!

One method I've used is to "pre-mask", that is paint the intake & apply masking before you install. Continue with the build & spray then remove the masking. Removal can be difficult depending upon the model so it'll only work with some (for instance, I used it on a 1/48 F18E where it ewas comparativekly simple.). If it's difficult to remove, try soaking the model in warm soapy water over night. HTH

Thanks Mike.....I rather suspect you're right about the stance - especially with the nose gear but then I don't think this is the first kit where the manufacturer has made that mistake!