TallBlondJohn

Because they both topped the hard FAI definition of 100km - they had to, or the Soviet Union would have died laughing. In fact they did 100 miles just to be safe OK there is debate about where space physically starts, but spaceflight is 100km. Unless you are the US Air Force, for the usual political and parochial reasons (and the X-15 is one of my all time favorites, I have the books and models to prove it). I have slightly less issues with Virgin/Branson than Amazon/Bezos as businesses and human beings, but if I was to take one of their flights (and yes, I can afford one - but just one) it would be Blue Origin simply because they go into space, no arguing. If VG could top 100 miles with passengers they would.

Very nice - just the right amount of gloss too. I've built the same kit, same boxing and it was a bit of a battle, not helped by blue-tack masking pulling off the Xtracrylic paint. The tooling is ancient, 1960. Maybe they tweaked it in 1983. My decals had better register but were just as bad. Still, its a Hunter. The Revell kit is much better I hear - so little chance of Airfix retooling anytime soon .

That livestream was excruciating, but congrats to VG on nearly, but quite, going into space. Or as the BBC diplomatically puts it, "going to the edge of space".

Sometimes with these partworks the publisher/manufacturer offers spare parts (for a price). Could be worth a try?

My W4 had even more flash than that. But cut it off and its all fine. Personally I rather enjoy removing flash, maybe its a nostalgia thing.

Aha yes - MiG YE-4/2 I'd guess

Mig-19, Mig-21, F4D Skyray mash up?

1/600 is a natural imperial scale, 1 inch = 50 feet, so easy to work off plans. It was chosen by Airfix early on when every manufacturer had their own scale - so Heller, for instance, went for a metric 1/400. US manufacturers tended to go for 'box scale' where it varied to fit standard boxes, so your Lindberg (IIRC) Destroyer Escort and USS New Jersey ended up the same length, and other manufacturers had odd random scales like 1/570. But ship kits were always a niche market so no industry standard emerged. Except in Japan, where the manufacturers teamed up to form the 'Waterline Consortium' in the 1970s to do the entire IJN. 1/700 was chosen simply as it got Yamato into a standard box - and it suited smaller Japanese households. The Consortium branched out beyond Japanese subjects and eventually it became the global norm. 1/350 obviously is just half 1/700. But if you build in 1/600, you soon realise its the ideal scale for ships. 1/700 is just too small and fiddly, 1/400 a bit too large. 1/350 or 1/200 works for big 'display' models but not for a collection, unless you have a mansion. 1/600 is good for the eyes and efficient for shelf space. Unfortunately we will never see a new tool use it - another of those Betamax things I'm afraid.

Nice build. Is the propellor wrong for just RAAF Bulldogs, or all of them?

Funny, I just bought one too - the mouldings look very nice. Will follow with vested interest,

Blue = engines at full thrust. Red = engines cooling after braking burn. This takes a while as somebody deleted the radiators from the design. Yellow = in between. So not odd at all - the EVA pod is doing a visual inspection after Jupiter orbit insertion. Infinity awaits... Beautiful build, wish I had the room for a Discovery.

Fantastic - having built this kit myself I know what an achievement yours is. I ended up replacing the fuselage completely with an Academy one and just using the nice thin wings and superb decals. Nice base too - the oil leaks are perfectly done. (Technically, can a rotary engine 'leak' when its designed to throw fluid out in all directions?)

A very expensive way to shift mud - or sand. Beautiful model though, superb finish and photography

Bald Eagle?

Does anybody know how many inspection ports should be on the bottom of the fuselage for an Albatross W4 (or failing that a DII, assuming they are the same)? I filed off the ports on my 1/72 Roden to replace them with PE without making a note of how many there were - and now I can't find conclusive evidence anywhere. Just a sprue shot would do! Thanks