Steve Coombs

Aha! I always attached the keel part (the underside after the wing) first as a backstop for the wing assembly, and wondered if that pushed the assembly a touch too far forward, requiring some scraping of the fuselage at the nose joint. I never got round to it, but I wanted to experiment by following the instructions (heresy!) and trimming the mating edge of the keel as required for a good fit.

Ooh. nice fit of the wing under the nose. How did you do that? My attempts at this kit have required a fair bit of scraping in that area to get it all to fit without ridges.

I was on holiday with the folks at Trewan Hall, St Columb Major in 1976 and 1979, and had a pleasant time spotting the Canberras and Nimrods. In some dark corner of the flat I should have a grossly underexposed slide of some stripy Canberra TT18s flying past from the International Air Day. 4th August, 1976 - nearly 46 years ago! Eek.

Coming along nicely there! I note the short-shot Red Top missile fin on the sprue. I think it's compulsory! Every Airfix Lightning kit I have bought has had this as a 'feature'. This is where I offer my habitual tips of clipping the bulkhead at the inner end of the jetpipes simply to cover the end of them, making the unit a slide-in fit near the end of the build and saving some weight at the back; and to put a plastic tab in each fuselage half where the top of the belly tank is to meet, so the tank isn't able to 'turn in' at all. If you fancy a crack at an F1 or F3 sometime, the Alley Cat conversion is very nice if you can get your hands on it (I think modelsforsale.com stocks Alley Cat stuff these days).

I imagine Xtradecal could do very well by issuing a UAS sheet and an overseas users sheet to cover the bases. XX630, for personal preference!

Very nice work so far. Have you been able to check the fit of the cockpit transparencies? That chasm in front of the air intakes might cause some bother.

I wonder if we will see any Condor planes in red/yellow(ish) stripes? That'll cover all the bases - red/white (ketchup/mayo), yellow/white (mustard/mayo), and then red/yellow (ketchup/mustard). I only tolerate red/white with my Currywurst.

Geweldig, hoor!

This is a magnificent piece of work. A different scale, admittedly, but I wonder what Wingnut Wings could have made of the Avro 504, had it survived? The Friedrichshafen raiders, Home Defence, training, service in dozens of air arms, and a further lease of life as banner towers and barnstormers. Options galore! Alas, not to be.

The replacement photoetch arrived safely this morning. Thanks for the prompt and excellent service.

I wonder why the Blinovitch Limitation Effect didn't kick in?

You gotta roll with it.

Dennis would be proud. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r4PtwybKEXw

Oh dear. I wondered if this was one of these issues where the colours are known but not the pattern of distribution. It wasn't meant as a Nelson Muntz moment.

I note the colours of the upper wings on the card are reversed in comparison to your Red 9. Did the Luftwaffe have A and B patterns like the RAF? Though I should imagine that as 1945 progressed, the challenge would be to get anything painted at all.