Bell209

One of the world's ugliest aircraft but you've done a great job on her!

I used this walkaround a lot when I built mine, Pappy. Very useful and should answer most of your queries.

If you're not determined to do 1/72, the Brigade Models' conversion in 1/48 comes out quite nicely. It uses the Hasegawa/Revell Mk.IX kit as a base and gets rid o the problematic fuselage in the process. I did mine as SM520, as that's the one I flew. I needed to order quite a few decals and print some, too, though. Have a look at it here, if you like.

Every B206A/L I've ever worked on had bulged windscreens. It may have been a production change but it's only a slight bulge. I concur with the chin windows - most are also bulged slightly. Most also have a slight blue tinge, too. Original Bell ones may be different but almost no-one buys them as they're too expensive!

A very nice phinish and one of my favourite F-4 schemes. Well done!

Nice to see it finished, Rich! I suffered many of the same struggles with my build - I hope to finish it before long, too!

Lovely job, Ray

I didn't realise there was a resin flap set available. I might've gone down the Tamiya path instead of the Hasegawa route, had I known.

Great to see these in progress! Steve's got a nice little collection he works with there and he's a willing and knowledgeable reference source. It's a pity the collection's no longer open to the public. When I was last there many years ago, Harold Thomas still took the Sea Fury (and maybe the Beaufighter and Vengeance as well?) outside for a run occasionally. Too many close, whinging neighbours to do that now.

Same here. I suspect it's a only valid for a short period.

Me, too!

I've got this in the stash, so I'm keen to see how you go.

Well worth the struggle. My favourite civil aeroplane.

It was a mammoth WIP but you got there in the end - well done, mate! How to make a silk purse from a sow's ear.

My most enduring memory was one of our C-130Es, which landed at RAAF Richmond with #3 AND #4 shut down! One was shut down for a suspect oil leak and the other had the turbine blades let go after that (the T56-A-7B became somewhat prone to that near the end of its life). Luckily, the right (boost) side hydraulics only powers one half of the redundant flight control boost system. Had it been the other side (and we had that once on a C-130H), they'd have needed a much longer and wider runway and would've had to go to Sydney (Richmond is only 7000' long and not all that wide. Left (utility) side p