Jonners

Thanks Keith. I'd love go havs a serious go at one of the 1/48 Aeroclub interwar kits, but they're like rocking horse proverbial with prices to match! About 20 years ago I bought a Demon kit from John's stand at a model show (I think I bought this Gamecock at the same time) but, probably overawed by the idea of building a serious vacform kit, I sadly never finished it and somewhere along the way it ended up on the great Shelf of Doom in the sky. I still have the bag of metal parts but, now that the thought of vacforms no longer gives rise to nervous tics, I wish I still had the whole kit!

Cheers @Horatio Gruntfuttock, great to hear from you again! All is well, thanks; apparently there's a bug going round but I and my family have managed to avoid it so far. Very glad to hear that you're well. Club meetings and shows? Blimey, people here look nervous if you pass them in the street! (Those who aren't attending illegal raves and parties, that is.) There's nothing wrong with being a 'looker-onner'; I spend more than enough time doing it myself and being amazed at what other BM'ers are able to produce! Jon

I rather like it with all those empty pylons - uncommonly restrained! That’s a very nice model, Ian; the paint finish and weathering are absolutely spot on. Lovely job. Jon

Thanks for your generous comments, folks. I've also just remembered that I meant to add the prominent pale tapes to the struts, as well as the pitot assembly! Perhaps it isn't quite as Ready For Inspection as I thought...

I thought that, when it was suggested to me by @John Aero himself. I can't claim any credit. I really like those Aeroclub multi-media 1/72 biplane kits - great subjects that require a bit of effort bit can be made into very presentable models. I didn't know that, J-W. Thanks for the information - I may have to consider getting one sometime. Jon

Hi folks, I built Aeroclub's lovely little Gamecock about 20 years ago, finished it in 43 Sqn markings from the kit's superb decal sheet and rigged it with invisible thread. Three house moves later it was looking very sorry for itself, relegated to a cardboard box in the shed and with parts broken off. I recently decided to salvage it, especially as it fits right into my current interest in between-the-wars RAF biplanes. It was stripped to its component parts and restarted almost from scratch. For those of you who are unfamiliar with the kit, it has injection-moulded wings, ta

My avatar isn't really an avatar as it's a picture of me in the 'office', taken a few years ago at the north end of Bressay, Shetland. The name seemed obvious and was chosen before I realised there was another Jon, who signs off as 'Jonners', on the forum! Jon

That's a nice-looking kit, Mike, and an interesting subject. I've seen a few Pucaras, although to be fair most had been 'ballistically dismantled' to varying degrees... Jon

They were a bit odd in the cockpit, too: Move your left hand back from the throttle and there's the flap lever which you move rearwards to lower the 2-stage flaps. Move your hand further back and there's the Emergency Engine Shut-Down Lever (EESDL) which you move rearwards to shut down the engine in, unsurprisingly, an emergency. Now, can anyone perceive a weakness in that particular bit of cockpit design? That's why the flap lever had a paddle top and moved in an S-shaped slot, whereas the EESDL had a red spherical top, was surrounded by yellow-and-black striping (whic

I definitely agree about the airbrake being up when parked, Pete, and I couldn’t remember how the flaps were left. I still have my Tucano Student Study Guide somewhere but it would take an archaeological dig to unearth it, so I checked the internet (far simpler) and found that nearly all of the photos of parked Tucanos show them with the flaps set to ‘mid’ ie slightly drooped. How I wish I’d taken more photos during my flying training days! Jon

Brilliant! I can understand a certain amount of fully-justified pre-flight trepidation on the part of the test pilot as he approached the real thing. Now, I really must extract digit with another scratchbuild myself. You always provide plenty of inspiration, P! Jon PS. Methinks thos should be in RFI...

Yup - the ‘unmatched’ black and white pattern gave a highly visible flicker effect when the prop was spinning - much more effective than a blurry yellow circle. The Airfix decals do a good job of representing this.

Phew! I thought I had given you another ‘bum steer’ for a moment there! It was a long time ago...and, fortunately, less stressful that @Fritag‘s experience! It's item 63 on this Embraer variant cutaway: https://forum.warthunder.com/index.php?/topic/415718-embraer-t-27-tucano-and-a-29-super-tucano/ (Scroll down the page and you'll come to it.) Jon

Huge fun, in spite of the learning curve (and torque reaction), once I'd realised that I stood a fighting chance of passing the course! Streaming to FJ/multi/RW came at the end of the full course, rather than at BHT or (as now) on conclusion of elementary training so it was effectively fast jet entry standard for all, or the chop. I never had the pleasure of flying a JP, but the Tuc provided tandem cockpits unrestricted (in the front) by framing, plus the joys of inverted spinning. Oh, and the blast screen in front of the rear seat meant that the instructor couldn't back up his (or

Oh, okay. I confess it wasn’t high on my list of things to remember at the time!