hairystick

Taking a stab here, but I'm thinking it will be linked to the RFC's re-branding centenary. This obviously provides a wide timescale (100yrs worth) to pick a model from and then release it for the commemorations.

Most excellent! I shall follow this thread with interest as I have the airfix kit (sans Japanese girly theme) in the stash. The info on all the aftermarket goodies is a gem to start with! This should be an entertaining build. Do you have a colour scheme selected for it yet? Regarding the comment on "only the facts", that is what proper journalism is for - just research the facts and present them to the reader/viewer and let them come to their own conclusion. Sadly all we see nowadays is "presenters" regurgitating the work of others and then informing us on what our opinion has to be. [/rant mode]

I've visited this aircraft a few times over the years, at Ardmore airfield, south of Auckland. She's been outside for a fair while and I'd be intrigued to know how the structure has fared up. She has seen the new Mosquitoes been re-made and take to the air in front of her, as well as a few Spits and P-40's. Hopefully she gets well fettled and pimped back to nicer condition in her new (old) home.

I have to say that the kit has been lifted to another level indeed, in that picture! It has suddenly come alive, but I should have realised that as all painted kits lack that "something" until detail and decals are thrown at it. She's coming along rather nicely PC. We, here in the future, haven't killed off any musicians (yet), so it is going well! Highly recommended, in fact.

That'll be my deodorant... It's branded "aftermarket", which will be ironically quite useful on this build. The other whiff will come from masochism, and not in any sexual way either! This comes as standard in this kit.

Do it!!!!! The world needs more Banana bombers. "Youth" require education on how a proper aircraft should look. Politicians require education on how an aircraft does not require "stealth" abilities when flying so low that the pilot needs to pull-up to lower the undercarriage...

Absolutely beautiful! Great photography and on a cracker of a day too.

That's a well killed-off mojo! I'm approaching a year since I started and have now applied primer and pre-shading. The first 4 months were "challenging", attempting to repair all of the sink marks, ejector pin marks, and attempting to get things to line up correctly. Then began the modifications required. I'm convinced that entirely different people were given different parts to work on, perhaps even teams of people, who had no communication with each other. There is a suspicion that the cleaner's assistant did some design work on a few parts...

Not just "a bit"... Airfix have a lot to answer for, but I guess they keep aftermarket, photo-etch and filler companies in business!

^ Interesting! I was presuming that the rough strips that they operated out of in the Pacific theater were to blame. Sand / coral type stuff being blown around, etc, etc.

It was common Naval terminology to say "the never-guesser". Something to do with statements on the bridge, along the lines of "you'll never guess where we are now Sir!"...

From what I have gathered from farcebook, there will only be 4 Phoenix missiles supplied, so no chance of a "John Wayne load-out".

The problem came about from quite light female pilots, in addition to the weight of the million dollar hat that all pilots wear in this jet. The triangular headbox seems to be the normal shape now. Keep an eye on the MB website as well. http://martin-baker.com/products/mk16-ejection-seat-f-35/

Ohhhh' yes indeed! Having completed the monogram kit a year back, I filled the entire nose (long nose version) with lead and that was just sufficient to do the job. The colour scheme that you are doing is quite interesting and will be a nice difference from all the black P-61's modeled. This kits looks rather well engineered so I'm looking forward to seeing the results.

Brilliant work! The others on your bench look mighty fine too. That Freedom Models kit is truly amazing, isn't it? So well engineered and an utter pleasure to build.

Fantastic to see and yes, the mojo does appear rather well topped-off! That is a rather long and svelte fuselage there. A very pretty aircraft indeed. I'm looking forward to this.

Thanks for that. The sheer quantity that is in the fuselage is impressive, but my investigations into the wing-blowing systems and the vortex generators got me wondering due to the size and construction of the outer wing panels.

Sorry I'm late! Still attempting to catch up fully with this thread but i'm 20 pages behind... Lots of lovely details being added and learning a bit as well. A silly question to the Bucc experts: Were the outer wings plumbed as fuel tanks? I can't find any reference to this so have to guess they are dry? My 1:48th airfix (a curse upon them!) Bucc has re-started after a 9month lay-off because the kit is utter guano. Weirdly things are going well and primer has been applied now, so extra work begins rectifying newly discovered faults. The primer is showing up how pretty the shape of this aircraft really is.

Evelyn Tentions? Has she been moved out of the main exhibitions hall?

Exactly.

Fabulous work! Is there a transfer of Garfield included, for the canopy?

"It's having a lie-down after a long squawk". Not the best of situations, but luckily nobody was hurt.

Your interior detail has been most impressive to watch as it appears and enhances the cabin and it had me wondering how to "display" it. Would it be sensible to use one of those little convex mirrors (some people stick them onto the side mirrors of their cars to see more area) and pop it onto the cabin floor? This wouldn't be fixed in place, but if displayed at a show it could be used to view those "hidden" areas? An even better alternative is aviation plywood. These are available in a range of sizes thinner than 1mm! It has the benefit of not splitting along the grain like veneers do. Lovely stuff but be prepared to mortgage the house if you want a substantial quantity of it...

Didn't the cranked probe appear in '74? Seem to recall it being mentioned recently, due to fuel going down the intakes with the straight probes.