lasermonkey

We get quite a lot of them 'round these parts too. What magnificent creatures! I managed to get a long-range photo of one at Old Warden a couple of years ago.

Pretty much everything from the Shuttleworth Collection, with the odd few from Duxford now and again. Oh, and we often see Mark Jeffries practicing in the distance. I like living here!

Lovely stuff! I'm a big fan of Miles aeroplanes, and these really are excellent. Well done!

I have some walkarounds of the Hart, Hind and Demon if it's any help. Cheers, Mark.

Maybe these might come in handy: Cheers, Mark.

Hi, I popped over to Old Warden at the weekend and was very pleasantly surprised to see the Demon there. As they had a few panels off, I thought I'd take a few shots... More here Cheers, Mark.

As we're on the subject, I don't know if these will come in handy to anyone: More Here.

Me too! We use them at work when handling delicate optical components. As we don't re-use them, I take home what would have been otherwise thrown away.

I've built the M and D variants and didn't have that problem at all. I found the overall fit to be very good indeed. I'm sure that doesn't help you one bit, mind......... edit: this is how my D turned out:

Having heard much about the narrowness of the Airfix Hurricane's nose, a quick look at some scale plans confirmed this. Once you've noticed it, it's hard to ignore. Anyway, I thought I'd have a go at correcting it. What I did was cut off the extreme nose, immediately forward of the exhaust stacks and packed out the fuselage halves with plastic strip, so the nose followed the plans. I then glued together the bits I had cut off, and with a thin, plastic card shim (to make up for the saw cut), glued it back onto the nose, making sure it was centred. This way, you ensure a circular section on which to affix the prop and spinner. It was then a simple case of fairing this in to the, now wider, nose. It's not particularly difficult to do and it does make a vast improvement. I will post pics as soon as I can (I'm making the model at work). Incidentally, on this Hurricane I'm using the DH prop from the Airfix Spitfire I. I'm interested to see how it looks when it's finished. Cheers, Mark.

I'm a big fan of Lifecolour paints. Like many acrylics, they take some getting used to, and all seem to have their own particular foibles. I thin, with distilled water+ a few drops of Liquitex Slow-Dri acrylic retarder, to the consistency of semi-skimmed milk. This way, I avoid any nozzle clogging. Lifecolour isn't keen on being the first coat onto bare plastic, but it can be done. It has a tendency to pool onto the plastic, so I mist on the first couple of coats. It will still tend to bead and pool, but if you leave it be, it will self-level. Once that's dry, you can use heavier coats. I've yet to find any paint that gives a smoother finish. To clean up the airbrush, I use hot water with some washing-up liquid. It works a treat in my Aztek. Of course, one has to flush through afterwards with water, to remove any bubbles! Many people struggle trying to brush-paint Lifecolor. I did too, until Andy from MR&ME told me that it's possible of you thin with water which has a drop of washing up liquid added. It really works. I also add some retarder, and use several, thin coats. Hope this helps.

I believe the correct colour is Hellgrau L40/52, which most manufacturers label RLM 63. RLM 63 is very similar to RLM 02. White Ensign do L40/52 in their Colourcoats range. HTH, Mark.

Probably the first conversion I ever did! I used the Airwaves replacement resin nose, the Aeroclub prop and spinner, the Falcon Clearvax canopy and turret (guns robbed from a Frog Blenheim), Airwaves etched brass set (heavily butchered to make anything fit) and scratchbuilt fin/rudder and rear decking. Not the best pic in the world, but for my sins, here it is: At the time, it was pretty much the only option. Now I have several MPM kits, along with a Pavla and CMK example. I'm not sure the cost and effort is worth it these days. That said, I still have an Airfix Defiant lying about somewhere, and if I ever find the necessary parts for cheap, I may well be tempted to try to do better. I've certainly learnt a lot since doing that kitbash!

Pics 7&8 are of MH434, which is a IX. I should have said!

These any help?

Well, I manged 14 in total last year: Airfix Spitfire IXc Airfix Spitfire I (x2, one of which finished as a PR.1E) Italeri Spitfire Vb ICM Bf 109E-4 Hobbyboss La-7 Hobbyboss Mustang III Revell P-47D Hobbyboss Bf 109G-2 trop Revell Fw 190A-8 (x3) Hasegawa Fw 190D-9 Matchbox Lysander II All 1/72. I have to do all my model making at work, as my workbench is currently full of broken, vintage, analogue synthesiser. I have no facility for using an airbrush, so I'm having to use a hairystick. I think I have some way to go until I get anywhere near mastering brush-painting. Anyway, I have managed to bring a few of them home and did some "quick and dirty" (in some cases, quite literally!) pics. Matchbox Lysander II: ICM Bf 109E-4 Revell P-47D Italeri Spitfire Vb Airfix Spitfire IXc All were built pretty much straight-from-the-box, except, in some instances, for decals. The Spit VB has a replacement canopy from the spares box and the Spit IX has Airwaves exhaust stacks. The Spit IX was slapped together pretty quickly, just to see what it was like. I really enjoyed building that one, and have another on the go at the moment. And yes, I should have dusted them before taking the pics! Cheers, Mark.

Lovely model! I had my first flight in that particular aircraft, so I'll be doing it myself one day. I got a good seat, too!

Didn't try the stripes. The yellow leading edge decals were more trouble than it's worth. I ditched them and used Microscale yellow, which went on far better than I hoped.

I used the roundels and stencils from the kit's decal sheet and had to really work at getting them down snugly. In the end, I resorted to a mix of isopropyl alcohol and Humbrol liquid poly (!) to get them to sink into the panel lines. Once they were really snuggled down (this took several applications of my home-brew decal softener), I had no silvering issues. I brushed on several coats of Klear to get a nice, glossy surface and used Polyscale flat acrylic varnish afterwards. I'll be using aftermarket codes and insignia from now on, but think I'll persevere with the kit stencils. Oh, and I found that some of the indentitifier numbers were sealed in with the actual decals. Luckily, I had checked them before and separated them with a sharp scalpel blade. Next time, I'll be trimming the stencil decals very closely to the print.

If that's the one I think it is, it's actually Yellow 15. Eagle Cals have this a/c on one of their sheets. I think they're the only ones to get this right. linky Cheers, Mark.

I wondered where that Demon had got to! I can remember when it was rolled out at Skysport Engineering, a few years back, but haven't heard a thing about it since. Great pics, I wish I'd remembered there was a show on yesterday!

You may be pleased to know that White Ensign Models does Sky Blue (duck egg blue), Eau de Nil (duck egg green) and MAP Sky Blue (an extremely pale blue), along with good ol' Sky in their Colourcoats range.

Mine arrived with a short-shot starboard fuselage ( the fin is a little, rounded stump!). Hopefully Airfix' customer service hasn't declined. It was exceptional when I used it in the past.

Ok, I tried the 35" fuselage roundels in the "forward" location (centred on the radio access hatch) and it looks spot-on to me (even if the ring ratios aren't quite right). 35 inches it is! I have to say though, the MA decals are very disappointing. It looks as if the white on the roundels doesn't go right to the edge, meaning the yellow surround looks "washed out" at the extreme outer circumference. It's ok from 2 or 3 feet away, but doesn't stand close scrutiny. Just as well most of my models are "three footers"! Worse than that, the 19 numeral for the fin is way too big- it just won't fit! Also, the white backing is out of register, giving it a white "drop shadow".Luckily, I have the Kits At War set which also includes K9797 and their 19 numeral is the correct size and well-printed. Should you decide that you would like to do K9795 or K9797, get the Kits At War set, but use either Modeldecal or Xtradecal for the roundels, as the KIW roundels are rather poor as well.

Thanks for the input everyone. I shall try some 35" roundels and if they look right, I'll stick with them. I have just dug out my old copy of the November '82 Scale Aircraft Modelling which has an article on Spitfire camouflage and markings from 1938-1940. There's a side view of K9795 and the caption states that the fuselage roundel was 37.8". That's probably where I remember it from! The article is compiled by Ted Hooton and probably the source of the Wilkipedia entry. Interestingly, the side-view show the top of the roundel being level with the top of the access panel. The photograph I posted shows that the roundel doesn't reach up that far. However, the yellow and white rings looks to be slightly out of proportion to the blue ring and red centre, something I hadn't noticed before. The wing roundels look to be perfectly in proportion. It's certainly been an interesting build so far!