tempestfan

I absolutely see your point in your reluctance to spend a substantial amount on a great kit and have fear all along to mess it up. Here you have two mules that will likely teach you a lot, even if in the end you decide to bin either or both. But you will gain valuable experience. One idea if it takes your fancy: Look for either the Aircraft Archive Post War Jets volume with the Victor drawings by Arthur Bentley, or one of the SMI mags that had them printed (possibly over two issues). You could go from the drawings and make corrections where needed, add detail where needed, and/or even make your first attempts at rescribing a kit (if it gives you pleasure - it's not difficult, but will improve the Matchbox's peculiar "twin line" surface detail no end). And it will also assist you in improving just about the ugliest aspect of the kit, the dreadful intake interiors with their splitter plates that do not quite meet where they are supposed to be and look like some slabs nailed into the intakes.

387 has a pretty dark tone on the rudder, which may well be DG. The streak on 389 looks quite close.

Looks like a slight Kiwi bias there 😉 A pity Warren Schrader apparently didn't like talking (and writing) about himself and his exploits, or being written about.

Tomas - I bought three of the would-be "ultimates" a couple of years ago, all around EUR 60 delivered, give or take a few. You get a lot of weight for your buck (or Kronor). There is definitely some very useful stuff and some quite interesting reading. The industrial action background in the A-20 book was highly interesting, as things like that rarely get mentioned. OTOH, I have a bit of knowledge on the Boston, and did spot a couple of errors in the British section on a casual read. In addition, one of the chapters is essentially a technical manual spelled out word by word. Which I consider pretty pointless. The long introductory section in the B-26 book is interesting as it gives a lot of background to Glenn Martin, but somewhat culminates with a lengthy discussion of the groundbreaking question "was Glenn Martin gay?". I did not dare read further, and the B-25 title remains essentially untouched. You will certainly find lots of useful stuff, but to me the books look like a (sometimes rather incoherent, or somewhat random) collation of mostly secondary-source information, apparently many drawn from contemporary aviation mags.

I don't think it has a different exhaust - the base kit is the IIIE/R, whose exhaust should be near enough the one in the 5 for Revell not to bother. And why would they, if they hadn't enough impetus to get the nose visually right...

This is the Osprey - large difference with the page count, so the Specialty Press title looks to be vastly expanded. Thanks for making me aware of yet another book I don't have 😉

Was that the US (Motorbooks?) title? The Osprey series in the UK was "Production Line to Front Line", but I think stopped after only four produced, which is a pity, as they mostly included pin-sharp professional documentary shots. If that Michael O'Leary were the same person as a certain **well known** person, I'd be inclined to say "oh - he's done something useful in his lifetime" 🙂

The 22/24 and Seafire 46/7 are airframewise very similar to my understanding, and the 47 would require a gearbox I think - could that have any meaning in this discussion?

I'm a lawyer - so do I 🙂

@Stephen Allen - apologies I have noticed this thread only when you have her buttoned up mostly. I have the Pilot's Notes, and they have good cockpit pics (no more help for you, I know...), plus a schematic (only) for the Observer - the only thing it really shows is a swivelling "armchair" for him, and this was done pretty well IIRC in the good old Vista kit. So if you'd like a pic, drop a line. Someone upthread asked for the resin parts in the SH, I think? I have a couple, and I do think (***think***) I know where they hide.

Looking up references is cheating.

Thanks, that passed me by... my first daughter was born in August 11, so I am excused 😉

Not sure if I'm fit to insert a screenshot from Earth... There is a section of taxiway (?) going almost East/west, connecting the main runways, like the horizontal bar of an A. Between the runways there's a round "pan", as well as on its Eastern end. If you go to the road outside the fence, 45° up from that pan, the view NNE is pretty similar to the background of the pic - I think.

Hessen-Kassel sent a large contingent of troops to the American Revolutionary War ("Sleepy Hollow"). I also thought of Henschel, but as far as I'm aware, they did not really continue aircraft production post-war.

Ah, OK - thanks, I wasn't aware of that.