Graham T

On the one Sea Vixen I've built, I interpreted the colour call out "blue/grey" as Medium Sea Grey. Looks ok to me!

Don't blame you, that's a beautiful job!

Probably males sense that they would have been repainted in UK colours at some stage of their lives. I'm building an early FGR2 so will probably go with the US Dark green delivery colour.

Yes looks good. I'll see what I've got that might match!

Can anyone advise of the best colour for the gun pod on an RAF FGR2? The Revell instructions call for "green" but I suspect this might be a US rather than UK green. Also some shots show the pod in the underside colour of LAG. Prefer the green to break up the underside monotone but appreciate some guidance on the exact shade if poss!

Deleted - swearing

My daughter came home from work today with an Arma Hobby Yak 1-b. Her boss bought it and asked her to give it to me - no idea why, except he knew I build models! Anyway, it's really the wrong scale & subject matter for me but it looks really, really nice so I'll nail it together & let him see the result.

Thanks!

Im trying to fit these into my 1/48 Hasegawa Phantom FGR2. I get that you have to cut away part of the "hidden" lower fuselage (hidden by the one piece wing when in place), but the cans still foul the recesses in the fuselage sides for the auxiliary intakes present on the Spey engined F-4. The only way I can see to proceed is to shorten the cans. Anyone else had this & can advise?

Thanks. A dark green colour? I may correct this next time I have the relevant paints out!

Really nice. Shame Airfix never did it in 1/48 but I may well keep an eye out for one in 72nd.

So very glad to finally get this finished. It fought me all the way with poor fit, misleading or unclear instructions plus a lot of errors by Kinetic - some of which I tried to correct but frankly just getting the thing together out of the box made most of the necessary corrections too troublesome to contemplate so I limited myself to repositioning the inner wing pylons 5mm aft of those provided by Kinetic. That said, it sure LOOKS like it should & I am relatively pleased with it & would probably do another armed with a lot of foreknowledge about how best to build it!

If it's anything like the Sea Harrier that I'm currently wrestling with, that won't be ALL the instructions miss out - fitting the wing assembly?, drilling location holes? etc etc.! Go carefully!!!!

Remember nailing this kit together when I was a kid, probably about the same time as you!

I'm not 100% certain but there are an awful lot of used parts in the FRS1 - maybe enough to make the FA2 instead!

I rarely primes except for metalised finishes. The only exception for me is if the kit has a lot of resin parts mixed in with plastic or a lot of filler, here I find it best to get the whole thing the "same colour" before applying a colour finish. Never had ANY chipping issues.

Ouch that's fantastic!! CMR really are beautiful kits, I built their Wyvern a few years back & that was a beauty.

First of all, thanks to Nick (NG899) for all the info he sent me about this kit & the machine I was considering building, BUT......this is perilously close to ending up in the bin before I loose all sanity that remains to me. There are a lot of inaccuracies with the kit (as explained fully by Nick) some of which I tried to remedy with my limited skills but only really got as far as moving the wing pylons aft. Everywhere I look are examples of poor fit, most noticeably the intakes themselves, their blow in doors & wing to fuselage which results in a virtually impossible to tackle gap on the underside. Back to the blow-in doors, I THINK that on the 1st generation Harriers, these were not "powered" as such but spring loaded & the "upper" two on each side hung down due to gravity with the others closed. They would only ALL be open when the engine was running - Kinetic give you options for all open or half open half shut - neither of which are really representative of a machine at rest, whatever I used the half open, half shut option & ignored the awful sink holes in them, hoping they wouldn't be too noticeable! On the Harrier, the nose & main wheel doors cycle closed after extension (FOD protection) & good luck trying to the the doors to fit shut with the Kinetic parts because they don't without a lot of work. In addition to poor fit, the instructions are full of mis-numbered parts & missed steps (nowhere does it tell you where & when to fit the wings to the fuselage- obvious I know but that wasn't the only example I found). The flaps & ailerons are separate parts with poor fit & with the small actuators for the latter which possess two pins - one of which corresponds to a hole in the ailerons themselves & the other to a hole in the wing underside.......except these holes have to be drilled before you assemble the wings but there is nothing to indicate this on the instructions. The weapons pylons are an exercise in confusion & again I believe there was part mis-numbering here. Every time I look at the kit as it is I find another area that requires filling etc. This was an expensive kit, I have rarely binned a kit before completion & this would be an costly addition to the local land-fill but REALLY? I'll probably persevere simply due the the financial investment but it's a real mojo-sapper! Rant over.

Probably - I believe they were the same tank & interchangeable - several bases where Hunters & javelins shared facilities.

Niiiiice - especially getting those walkway decals down right. One thing though (not a crtisism & easily remediable if required), I'm pretty sure that on all Sea Vixens with the bulged RO's hatch it was blacked out. A coat of gloss black should do it!

Just a quick question that's been bothering me for a while: I lay down a gloss back base coat before the over all "main" shade but, when attempting to produce different shades of alclad on various panels do others mask around the panel concerned & then reapply the black primer or do they simply spray the subsequent alclad shade(s) directly onto the first?

Good job & I like that shot of the F-4 & F-14 in flight together!

I seem to remember that a Spey powered Mirage IV was briefly considered by the UK after the TSR-2 cancellation so not far fetched!

First job (part time) early 70s aged about 14-15 pumping petrol at a filling station Saturdays, 7am-6pm for £6. Considered myself to be as rich as Croesus too. First full time job working in a clothing shop before getting a proper career late 70s.

Nice little Gnat. The 1/72 kit must be absolutely tiny!