WolvoWill

The more I look at it the more I like it - the weathering is very subtle, better than on my dark grey GR4, where I went a bit overboard. Looks like its about to fall over though, the display base its anchored too must be heavier than it looks!

I like it, grey and green really suits the A-6E. Got me thinking of another 'what if'...imagine if the F-111 had been cancelled completely, and the USAF were forced to buy the A-6E for use as its own all-weather night strike aircraft? A USAFE based A-6E in Lakenheath markings wearing the SEA or 'European 1' scheme, with Pave Tack on the centreline and a load of LGBs....hmmm

First up, two USAFE jets. F-16C Block 40 (88-0526) of the 555th FS, 31st FW, Aviano AFB, Italy - Converted from the Tamiya 1/48 kit, decals a combination of Astra, Afterburner and Twobobs. GBU-38 bombs and the Sniper pod from Shull24.com, with GBU-12s from the Hasegawa weapons sets. This kit really is as good as everyone says! With new decals for the ANG Wing Kings forthcoming from Afterburner you can even make one with colourful markings too F-15C, 493rd FS, 48th FW, Lakenheath AFB, UK - Had this in a semi finished state for over a year, finally got round to completing it! Decals are from Afterburner, another great sheet from them. Wish in retrospect I'd done the squadron flagship as this colour scheme is a bit boring . I have tried to correct some of the kits inaccuracies and modernise it for a modern spec jet (which means AIM-9X from the spares bin, new missile rails from Wolfpack designs, and replacement antennae and bumps on the nose) but I realise there are a couple of omissions like ECM bumps on the tail spikes. Finally, a model I've refurbished. This was originally a 111sqn F3 in the new medium grey scheme but after building 'Shiny Two' I realised that whilst I had used the correct colour from Humbrol, it just didn't look right, with the grey being too light and not 'blue' enough. So out came the model-strip and after about 4 goes the model was back to bare plastic. This time I painted her as ZE168, an F3 of 25 squadron, RAF Leeming, in the original old style Barley/LAC grey schemes. Decals are a hotch potch of Xtradecal, Airfix, and Model Alliance provided the eagle badge for the tail. Had to paint the tail band in the end as whilst there is an xtradecal sheet that provides it, its too tall and too short to fit the tail of the Italeri kit! One can only assume its sized for Airfix's poorer offering All comments welcome! And yes I know I need a better camera still

The outer pylons are only stressed up tp 650lb or so...AFAIK the maximum design strength was to allow carriage of the BL755 cluster bomb, with little thought given to anything heavier...so 1000lbers would be a no no

TIALD and AN/AAQ-14 are different sadly, though they fulfil similar roles and are of a similar capability. Bit of worthless trivia - TIALD pods were made in a former biscuit factory in Edinburgh!

With you there, XI sqn jets have always looked good when alongside other squadrons aircraft when comparing type for type, though treble one always know how to paint a jet well too

Glad its available soon, I look forward to the pics you'll definitely be getting an order from me for one! I have two GR7/9 kits on the way from Revell, one will be a T10 and the other a late GR9....hopefully they'll turn up this week. Any other resin items forthcoming? I realise you may be keen to play your cards close to your chest, but keen to know of your plans if they're well progressed. Particularly interested in any progress on the Typhoon inner wing pylons (and fuselage pylon for the Litening pod if you're able...), along with any other RAF weapons or updates applicable to modern RAF craft - we need Brimstones

Yep, same plastic with wrong ejector seat and only the 65% LERX. Saying that, I have two on order one to become a T10. Decals look interesting, one example being the 41sqn anniversary scheme, but the other option is still a mystery. This isn't one of Hasegawas best kits and its over-engineered/very fiddly in areas, but still your best option for an RAF Harrier. This boxing is cheaper by a £1 than the original kit, and I bet Revells decals are better than Hasegawas

Yup thats the RAPTOR pod

Understand your point of view (and experience ) but its definitely a valid load these days - have seen too many pics for it to be a case of another weapon being dropped first, and besides, what could you load in front of the LGB? A 1000lb iron bomb (or any other similar/lesser sized weapon) is the only thing that would physically fit (two PW2 LGBs front-rear would be too long for both of them to fit, the f/r parts of the pylons aren't far enough apart for that). But would then obscure the seeker head of the Paveway if you wanted to drop that first, and apart from Brimstone and CBLS, everything else I can think of that you'd load on a Tornado would be too long to fit in front of the LGB)! I can only assume that the centreline mounted DJRP is a real heavy so and so and that coupled with the weight of the targetting pod is sufficient to bring the CoG far enough forward. By the way, ever seen the RAPTOR pod on a Tornado? That thing is apparently a bitch to load due to its size, shape and fragility, being even bulkier than a JP233 - spoke to a 13sqn pilot a while back and one of the first things he said about it (without prompting) was how much the armourers/techies hated strapping it to a jet!

In my view Humbrol 125 is *much* too dark for the RAFs grey C-130Js (these exist in both green and grey variants after, so you might want to clarify which colour Herc you're doing decals for) - Air Mobility Command Battle Grey (FS16173 or X158 Xtracolour) would be much closer to the mark. Compare photos of USAF and RAF Hercs and C-17s and you'll see they're all the same grey, and it ain't gunship. Of note is the darker grey or green coating on parts of the undersides/rear fuselage of many RAF Hercs for use in the Afghan theatre - this is a neoprene protective coating to help prevent damage when operating on rough gravel strips....see here: http://www.airliners.net/photo/UK---Air/Lo...130J/1258531/M/ Not sure on what colour I'd say for this, but RLM-80 or RAF Dark Green seem close to my eyes. Jen is the resident Herc guru so should know more though Great to see you double checking this sort of thing

Only time I can think of anything being hung of a rear Tornado shoulder pylon without anything on the front part is the latest Telic loads - TIALD (or more recently Litening 3) on the forward left, a Digital joint recce pod on the centreline, and an enhanced paveway 2 1000lb LGB on the right rear! Looks a strange and rather ungainly setup to my eyes, but what looks good has little bearing on whats useful operationally (the A-10 is proof!) Plenty of photos in AFM of this load but few and far between on the net...see p5 of 28 of this MOD produced document for a picture http://www.raf.mod.uk/rafcms/mediafiles/C0...19AEA63ACDB.pdf

So many options! Especially cool looking loadouts in my view would be: 4 or 8 GBU-12s on the CFT and fuselage pylons (combined with two wing fuel tanks and the winder/amraam pair combo) 4x GBU-12s with 3x GBU-38s on the opposite side (combined with two wingfuel tanks and the winder/amraam pair combo, seems to be a common Afghan theatre load these days) 4x GBU-31 (for a very heavyweight strike loadout, thats 4x 2000lb bombs on the fuselage pylons...as carried by the Lakenheath based 492nd over the 'stan recently, I have photos ) 2x GBU-24s under the fuselage 2x AGM-130s under the wings (need the Promodeller boxing to find these weapons though) Images/profiles of these loadouts can be found on the Strike Eagle site as mentioned

A good T10 conversion would get my vote over the basic TAV-8B, but given the similarities and the breakdown of the hasegawa kit it shouldn't be too hard to design a conversion where either variant is possible.

Nice trio, planning on building a Hawk T2 to complete the set? Bloody hell the gnat is tiny! And here's me thinking the Hawk was small... I have the Tucano kit in my stash but it looks quite a lot of work - the propeller blades are smashed into about 8272 pieces as well despite the cardboard protective packaging, which presents another problem apart from the iffy fit which seems apparent on dry fitting of the fuselage halves.

Mine turned up the other day, but plenty of other things ahead of it in the queue! Would rather model it as an updated Mirage 2000-5F as well, so will wait and hope somebody turns out an aftermarket set with the required changes as well as some decals - primarily cockpit based with few discernible airframe modifications from where I can see, but the weapons pylons and a full set of MICA EM and MICA IR missiles would be a nice addition

I would very much like the following: Green and grey RAF Tornados complete with full stencilling (many interesting, colourful yet strangely unavailable markings here, from RAFG and the UK based units) Tornado update sheet - standard 12 and 14 sqn 'markings, maybe the latest 617sqn flagship in its medium sea grey form as well (ZA601). All the other squadrons latest markings have been covered well between Model Alliance and Xtradecal, but the lossie birds have been neglected somewhat. Also maybe add the XV jet with high vis markings as well? Must come with complete stencils - you already have the artwork drawn for this as part of the Anniversary Tonkas sheet, and references are plentiful given the current nature of these schemes. Typhoon supersheet - all squadrons covered with a load more correct serial options to match the colours of the Revell kit.

Thank god!

The tanks included in the IDS kit are really undersized (the only accurate 'small' tanks are included in the Italeri ADV/F3 kit) - you're much better off robbing some Hindenburgers. The tanks are interchangeable anyway, so just because photos show your jet with the little 'uns doesn't mean its never had the big ons fitted at some point. AFAIK on actual operational missions the larger fuel tanks have always been carried in preference to the small ones, though if you're talking CBLS then its clearly a training mission you're loading for

Flightpath stuff is great but soooooo fiddly - am sure the CBLS aren't as complex as some of their bits though! I have bought a few of their sets (Paveway IIs) and the detail is spectacular but with so many small parts be prepared to spend a lot of time on the weapons. I have 4x 1000lb Paveways to put together for a Typhoon build...but I reckon it'll take me longer to do these four bombs than it will to assemble the rest of the kit.

Must be a bad week for twin seat conversions - have been working on a Jaguar T4 but just realise I've cut the nose off too far back so am having to reattach the nose parts to both fuselage sides, strengthen the new join, fill, then make the correct cut later to graft on the new nose piece :shithappens:

Looks good, am planning to tackle one of these at some point using the Alitaliane conversion (already have it, just need a base kit!). Not sure which is the better of the two sets, the one I have is good in some areas (ejection seats are fabulous) but the nose fuselage sections are very warped indeed and will require serious filling on the underside. One thing which maybe you wish I'd not mention, the resin LERX on that kit appears to be closer to the 100% one than the 65% LERX which all T10s use - not sure how right the conversion is in this sense, or whether its just my eyes playing tricks!

Thank you for the offer but have already managed to order a sheet, may take a while to get here but no hurry! Got an F-16, Tomcat and Hornet to finish first (in that order). I may end up scratchbuilding/modifying the intakes to closer represent those of the F-111C (from appearance the kit intakes are a hybrid of the 'triple plow I' intakes on the A/C/D/E F-111s and the 'triple plow II' on the FB-111A/F/G variants). Whilst cutting edge seamless ones are available I am somewhat loathe to give David Klaus any of my money, and experience of other seamless intake replacements tells me that getting them to fit will be a bit of a pain! Adding the splitter plate, and making some form of intake trunking to extend back further inside the fuselage should bring them close enough for my liking. John, nice Vark! The flaps and slats look especially impressive when dropped, really adds something to the finished model,m bit beyond my skills I fear though! Good call on the rearf uselage bracing too, was looking at it in the box and thought it might benefit from a bit of stiffening around that area due to the large cross section and thin side walls.

Well the kit turned up today, first impressions were crikey, its big! Definitely the biggest 1/48 I'll have built, eclipsing the Hasegawa Tomcat I have in a half completed state. Going to be a pain to display thats for sure, but mighty impressive. Surface detail is good, fully engraved (if a little soft compared to the likes of Tamegawa) but the cockpit, afterburner and wheel wells are very poor indeed - glad I'll be doing it 'in flight' as this will save me a lot of trouble and expense, though the afterburner cans will definitely need replacing as they look so basic, reminiscent of ESCIs poorer efforts from the 1980s! Bad news is the kit contains intakes for the FB-111A or 'G' model only, but thankfully scaledown and cutting edge do aftermarket intakes for both types of intake, so I can get these to model a 'C' model - would have rather done without, but the kit only cost me £3.75 plus postage so a bit of aftermarket doesn't hurt too much. An Elta 8222 pod (Paragon) and Pave Tack pod (Flightpath, though I may get the scaledown item and see which is easier to install) have been ordered, as have decals.

You've reached the same conclusion I just have after reading up on the differences - the FB-111A kit is probably easier to model as a RAAF 'C' model as a G! I'm pleased with this as the C model has much better loadout options, though I'm now struggling to decided which to do! AGM-142 seems to be the favourite, though a Pave tack pod is available and I have some GBU-10s going spare The kit is inaccurate for an FB-111A (and thus also the G model), in the following ways: Wrong shape fuel dump fairing Wrong shape wing pylons Wrong size fuel tanks with wrongly angled fins However the first two, whilst wrong for the FB-111A, are fine for an RAAF F-111C, and the fuel tanks would need replacing with the scaledown items whichever model Pig I go for as the kit ones are so wrong. The differences in air intake design between the two variants I'm interested in are catered for in the kit - both styles of intake are included.