cmatthewbacon

Hi, Roy... are these any help: http://www.penelopepitlane.co.uk/vmchk/wheels.html http://store.brmmodelcars.com/en/23-1-32-rims http://www.slotclassic.com/models/cja01.htm ? bestest, M.

Just to get back to the original rationale for my post -- I'm not saying that I'm not interested in the latest aviation technology; I'm not saying that I don't understand why the latest design techniques result in similar-looking aircraft (I spent five years of my journalistic career on an engineering magazine covering the latest materials technology for aviation in the 90s); I'm not saying that the latest manned aircraft couldn't whup any earlier generation. All I'm saying is that, for me, the latest generation of aircraft have lost interest as a MODELLING SUBJECT. No more and no less. And I'm drawing a comparison with my teenage years when the latest, coolest jets were my primary interest. That's all. I'm not expecting you all to feel the same. YMMV -- that's the point of the internet, isn't it...? ;-) bestest, M.

You clearly have a different definition of "variety" from me! Certainly, for my shelves, there's enough difference between a Lightning and a Starfighter to qualify as "variety". Same for, say, a Voodoo and a Mig-25, which were both designed for long-distance interception... I suspect the problem these days is that not only are designers essentially designing to the same requirements, but they're using the same computer modelling to optimise the end result for those requirements. The solutions may be better, but the differentiation between them is limited. It's the same trend as in the mobile phone business -- engineering has driven efficient solutions to the touch screen smartphone, which means that now all the manufacturers sell virtually indistinguishable, similar-sized black slabs of plastic and glass... bestest, M.

Don't get me wrong - I'm not saying the latest jets are boring because they're grey! Tomcats and Eagles and F-16s and F-18s (especially ones with big Viking's heads on the tail) are cool... I'm more contrasting today's era when there are so few new types emerging, the ones that get built will be in service for 50 years, and development is more likely to come with software updates than next generation hardware, with the era I was born in and grew up in (which was the late 60s, 70s and early 80s). You know, when you could buy a book of "modern military aircraft" and it would have 300 pages. What I find "boring" is the lack of variety -- where are the Starfighters, Vulcans, Harriers, and Mig-29s of today? Even the latest generation combat aircraft from the US, Russia and China tend to look very similar... Back in the day, every Paris Air Show or Farnborough would bring new aircraft, and the kit manufacturers would race to tool up neat 1/72 kits of them. These days, Revell can do a state of the art 1/72 Typhoon, safe in the knowledge that for the next thirty years it'll still be in the frontline, and at worst they may have to do a new weapons and "lumps and bumps" sprue every 5-10 years. I agree, watching a Typhoon perform at Waddington is far from boring. But having to build the same 10 types for the next 30 years is definitely enough to prompt a switch in genre for me! bestest, M.

I work in the mobile phone business. In the last five years, the phones we sell have gone from a range covering every price point from £30 -- £600 (of which Nokia made one at each end and a lot more in between) to a range that consists only of expensive flagships (iPhone and Galaxy S4) and cheap "good enough" Android phones and a few really low budget talk only phones. And the second hand market is booming. I think military aircraft have gone the same way. There are a few "silver bullet" technology leaders, affordable only by a select group, which are vastly more capable than they need to be, fighting the war before the last one. And a lot more "a bit better than the neighbours' planes... probably" affordable or second-hand last generation but still pretty good "mass market" alternatives. It would be interesting (academically, though I hope it never comes to it) to see what happens if you put up drones up against well-flown F-16s or Mig-29s rather than convoys of Land Cruisers... bestest, M.

Looking at those Italeri F-35 sprue shots in 1/72, and assuming that one day there'll be mainstream (non-Panda) kits of the thing in service, I'm declaring the official end of my interest in the latest military hardware. In my teens, I built 200+ more or less "current" 1/72 aircraft from Hunters and Mirages right through to state of the art Eagles and F-16s. I had a model of every current USN aircraft, and most of the combatants from Israel and her enemies. But now we're not only in the era of boring grey jets, but they're even UGLY boring grey jets. I bought an Academy F-22, but can I be bothered to make it? The last cool jets were the Eagle and Su-27... IMHO. So, in my view, we're officially at "the end of history" for military aircraft. Instead of ten new types a year, we have planes designed to be in service for decades, with software upgrades. Plus they don't even look good... Good job there's plenty of history to go at, and other modelling genres, eh? Bring on the McLaren F1 and Avro Mirage 720, I say... Bestest M.

I guess mine will be here any moment, then! Anyone know if Steve at Hiroboy is going to do some colour matched Zero paints for F1s? I fancy the metallic bottle green, whatever that's called... Though I might have preferred an " Enthusiast Model" treatment, in the end having a model of the greatest road car of the last 30 years on the "Cool Shelf" is worth it. You can keep your Veyrons... Bestest, M.

I'm not sure the sales record of kits produced as a result of "market research" carried out by listening to the chatter on Internet forums has been stellar... Bestest, M.

And at the risk of starting a different argument, I think the bravest thing about the Bomber Command crews is not that a a select few flew a technically very difficult mission deep into Germany to attack a high value (if not actually very well defended) target, but that across Bomber Command as a whole, crews kept on going back, time after time, knowing that the odds of surviving their 30 missions were against them. Other than the U-boat crews, I doubt there was another group of fighting men who put themselves at harm's way at such risk over and over again... bestest, M.

I think that if Tarantino can get away with using the word nigger 109 times in Django Unchained, a few historically accurate uses in a faithful, well-made dramatisation of real events is hardly going to cause a big problem. Personally, I hope he also shows the stories of some of the people downstream when the dam was breached as well -- war is grim for anyone caught up in it, and the bravery and suffering on display (on both sides) should surely be more worthy of opinionated discussion than the name of a dead dog... A movie that tells the true story of the Dambusters, like, say James Holland's excellent and well-balanced account would be a very worthwhile project, and rather more than a simple remake. (For example, I don't think until reading the book that I had hauled on board just how fast Gibson had to form the squadron and train them, whilst at the same time the bomb tests were going wrong time after time...) bestest, M.

Phantom: 50cm wingspan, 75cm long. Cost of Tamiya 1/32 Phantom £109 Lightning: 46cm wingspan, 71cm long. Cost of Trumpeter 1/32 Lightning £90 Typhoon: 46cm wingspan, 67cm long. Cost of Revell 1/32 Typhoon £49.99 (but now widely available for £29.99, which suggests there are quite a few in stock that haven't sold at the higher price) The Revell Typhoon has the best part of 400 parts. You're gonna have at least two parts in the kit that are over 60cm long, plus lots of others on big frames. Chances are that your tooling costs are going to be at least £600K. Is there a market for 6000 £100 British Phantom kits in a reasonable time frame?(because think what else you could be doing with that £600K -- 10 or more new mould 1/72 kits, or a 1/48 Hunter to add to your Javelin and Sea Vixen, plus four more Classic British Jets... and a 1/24th E-type!) And of course, that's incorrectly assuming the the £100 goes to Airfix. I'd be surprised if more than £60 did, and there's other costs to cover as well as tooling... make that 12-15,000 1/24 British Phantom kits to sell in three years... Airfix must be a) very confident of their market, and probably making something rather smaller, if they make it at all... bestest, M.

Didn't get the camera out in time, but we had two Spitfires transiting from the north-west towards Leeds about an hour ago. One clip-wing, one regular. And yes, the sound was brilliant! bestest, M.

I think this whole thread has convinced me that there WON'T be a new 1/24th jet from Airfix. No one's come up a with a single suggestion that would make any kind of commercial sense for Airfix. They are all too big, too niche, too dull or too "already done in 1/32" (and I don't buy the "A Trumpeter 1/24th xxx doesn't make any money for Airfix" argument -- there are few enough people who have the budget or house room for a 1/24 model whether built or in the stash, and I seriously doubt that many of those would lay out £100 or so for a _second_ whatever it is if they already have one). The Mossie was a one-off "vanity project" for Airfix under the new ownership, to demonstrate that the brand had been revived and could take on the world. But it's been done, now. I'd be happy if they just rereleased the Spitfire with some new parts to the same standard as the originals (unlike the Mk V bits) so you could make a Mk IX. bestest, M.

Speaking as a man who has a 1/32 Sabre on the shelf, that's a big enough kit already... bestest, M.

...it's not going to be a Canberra. How many of the 1/48th ones were sold at full price? And how many ended up being knocked down to £9.99 before being sold? And a 1/24th would be twice the size! I don't think Airfix is really counting up the list of worldwide users and using that to estimate the potential market size. Their core market is the UK, and the mainstream modeller. IF they are doing a jet, then it's going to be a smallish one that appeals to the same kind of people as buy Sea Vixens and Javelins. The 1/24 aircraft are ALL iconic. Based on that, if there was to be a new 1/24 jet kit, my money would be on a Hunter. Of course, the best-selling thing they could POSSIBLY tool in 1/24 would be a state of the art E-Type Jaguar... bestest, M.

I'm not sure ANY 1/24 jet is going to sell "to younger modellers". The older, smaller aircraft (109, Hurricane, Spitfire, Mustang) whose tooling is well and truly paid for are the best part of £60, the Stuka and Harrier about £70 (and the SHAR £80), and the Mossie was what, £130?. A new-tool smallish jet has got to be in the £75-90 bracket, and as for a Phantom... And I know Revell has knocked out its rather good 1/32 Hawk and Lynx for a LOT less than that (I think my Lynx cost me £16...) but if Airfix takes the same route, they'll be hard-pressed to keep the other, old-tool kits at the higher prices! So, I'm not sure that "appeal to the younger modeller" is what they're looking for -- more like "appeal to the RICHER modeller..." I guess the Typhoon has the benefit that it can be sold for the next 50 years before it goes out of service! Personally, I can't think of a jet that I'd buy in 1/24, for space reasons. I'd be very happy with a state-of-the-art Hunter in 1/48, and I think a Camel in 1/24 for the centenary of it's first flight in 2016 ought to be a "no-brainer" and will be snapped up by all those folks currently buying Wingnut masterpieces (plus it won't take up so much room on the shelf -- the 1/28 version fits happily on a my regular bookshelves, unlike a Phantom!) bestest, M.

Thanks, chaps! Thanks! I think you need a sunny day (or at least a "sunny interval") to fully appreciate the "electric red"... bestest, M.

And a few with its stablemates: The "Scuderia" shot. Just the Cali to build, and an FF to source from someone, and I'll be able to replicate the Ferrari "atelier"... Best.Drag.Race.Ever Spot the difference... bestest, M.

Another great kit from Revell in their "599" series: Highly recommended! bestest, M.

Thanks! Anyway, I'm calling this done, now: Proper pictures to follow in RFI... bestest, M.

And finally... That was earlier this week, but I only managed to get photos today. The fit of the chassis into the body is superb. One tip for anyone else building one: attach the mirror to the part for the windscreen interior before even painting them. The mirror attachment is tiny, and the mating surfaces are at the wrong angle, so it needs to be test fitted and trimmed until it's pointing the right way! I din't do this and attaching the darn thing took a long time and turned the air over my bench blue! On the home straight now, I hope! bestest, M.

OK... that's a NART car, Grossman and Roberts, and it was originally painted in a colour called Blu Genziana: http://www.ferraridatabase.com/The_Cars/1962/250%20GTO%20Serie%20I/1/250%20GTO%201%201962.htm which MIGHT be: Blu Genziana 16229 (a Max Meyer colour). It's NOT "Blu NART 523" Your best bet is probably to Steve at Hiroboy a ring and see if he can get an equivalent colour match from Lechler, who supply his paints... bestest, M.

That looks fantastic! Great work. For varnish, have you tried Winsor and Newton Galleria Matt Varnish? it's meant for matting down acrylics or oils in a painting, and I swear by the stuff... My only tip would be that, for me, the light highlights on the chin and nose are too light. They're probably in shadow, under the brim of the hat, so I think they look too pale and starkly contrasting. But that's probably just me, or the photo, or something... What scale is he? bestest, M.

Well, at least here's a period picture of the "Swedish" GTO, raced by Ulf Norinder. Not a paint code, I'm afraid, but you can see the colour: bestest, M.

Maybe we should be challenging that perception. 120,000 people attend the British Grand Prix. Goodwood Festival of Speed gets 185,000, and the Revival, with pre-bought tickets only and a "period" dress code gets 138,000. Silverstone Classic is relatively new, and gets 80,000. I'm sure some of those people are the same ones, but personally, I have no interest in attending a modern GP or Le Mans, but Donington Historics or Le Mans Classic is a different matter... bestest, M.