Pat C

Harry - link to my FAW1 below. Actually I think this does have serious shape errors particularly around the cockpit area and the decking over the engines, plus the booms being nearly 1cm too long, but it does build very nicely. Pat

Having bought sheets of stars and bars from several decal manufacturers I have noticed that none of them agree on how big 15” is in 1/72!!!!! Or any other measurement for that matter. Xtradecal seemed closest IIRC.

Very nice Islander and look forward to seeing the refurbished one too. What scheme will you do? Pat

As indeed am I !!!! Thanks for all the kind comments. I hope to see some more pink aircraft on RFI soon! Pat

The Lanc is certainly talking to me Wooks it looks amazing - let’s have a few close up shots pls!!! Pat

More classic Airfix from me - this is my effort at building the Skyvan as G-ASZJ which was the 4th Skyvan and the prototype "Skyliner" all seater variant. And, yes, it is very pink! van7 A few tweaks are needed to change the basic kit into the Skyliner. Most notably two new windows need to be cut out, one filled in, and a rear passenger door was scribed in place of the blanked window. There is also a blister of some kind under the fuselage which was formed from a chopped up Hunter drop tank. van4 With a fuselage that is basically a cuboid, you would think construction should be foolproof but in my efforts to tightly squeeze the components together with rubber bands my first attempt resulted in a distinctly rhombus shape when viewed from the front!!! Fortunately it came apart pretty easily!! van9 This beast is another enthusiastic tail sitter. The front is crammed to the brim with steel shot and yet it was still insufficient to keep it level. Fortunately the replacement 4 blade props and spinners are white metal from Aeroclub and just about tip the CoG forward enough. I needed to slim down the faces of the Garretts in order to match the (correctly) pointier white metal spinners. G-ASZJ can also be seen with three bladed props earlier and later in its career. van8 The pink scheme was used around 1971 and there are some nice pics of this aircraft at the Paris Air Show. There was an earlier version of the scheme with a lemon yellow colour rather than pink. Although you would think that pink is pink, it took a few goes to get the right match. I used Gunze H19 with a touch of red, with a generic light grey for the lower fuselage. The engines were painted with my diminishing stock of Citadel Mithril Silver. van11 Decals for the scheme came from Two-Six. There was a moment of head scratching caused by the scenario below but fortunately the decal being black could simply be flipped over. I can confirm that later prints of these decals do have the logo correctly handed!!! Untitled This aircraft had a long career - it was certainly flying as recently as 2013 as 9Q-CSD with Swala Aviation in Kenya. Hope you like! Pat van5 van1

Very nice - you've done a great job with the rear fuselage join which can be a pain on this kit. Pat

Thank you! Kit decals went in the bin alas! They are Modeldecal for the stencils and the ULAS badge plus generic sheets for the serials and the roundels. Thanks! 2p coin is very small . Finish was airbrushed but it needed several touch up sessions to get the demarcation between red and white to my satisfaction. pat

This is my attempt at the old Airfix kit of the Scottish Aviation Bulldog, flying in RAF training colours of the mid 70s. With Mrs C frowning on additional shelf space being made available, kits of the size of the little Bulldog become more attractive - wonder what she will make of my plans to do an RAF Neptune???!!! bulldoga bulldogd The kit is pretty basic but still quite crisply moulded. Mine was an older boxing with a Swedish Air Force trainer on the front. The critical advice is to get enough noseweight into this thing. I stuffed the nose with stell shot but there is very little space to cram much in and it was still determined to tail sit. In the end I hollowed out the back of the spinner and stuffed some Tungsten putty in there which just brought the CoG forward enough. bulldoge bulldogc The nose gear is very spindly and was snapped off early in the build and then vanished into thin air. In the end I fabricated a rather crude replacement from bits of white metal and thin metal tubing but it is just about passable. Decals came from an old Modeldecal set and represent an aircraft from the London University Air Squadron. Paint was Humbrol 208 for the red with Gunze white and Xtracrylic Light Aircraft Grey. I wondered about the instructions to paint the front tips of the blades red/white/red as most Bulldogs appear to have black/white striped blades - however Modeldecal were indeed correct that at the time this aircraft was portrayed (1976) it did have the red/white/red tips. If only you could rely on all decal instructions! Hope you like!! Pat bulldogb bulldogf

Very nice Gannet - looks like it may have leaked on your table!! Pat

Wow! Hand painted markings? You must have a very steady hand!

Well the IWM site is a treasure trove. Here is AH896 nearest the camera with 403 squadron as mentioned by Buz. Cammo pattern is clearly visible on outer port wing. Something has definitely gone on between the two pictures!! Pat ROYAL AIR FORCE FIGHTER COMMAND, 1939-1945.. © IWM (CH 2573) IWM Non Commercial License

Looking at this, I wonder if that is in fact the answer - the light/ dark demarcation on the wing appears to be just inboard of the roundel. You can just make it out on the first pic but it appears to have less contrast. I'm struggling to see the light/ dark demarcation by the MGs that shows on the first pic so perhaps it is shadow. Apologies as I cant figure out how to embed the larger pic as Troy did!! AMERICAN AIRCRAFT IN ROYAL AIR FORCE SERVICE 1939-1945: CURTIS HAWK 81A TOMAHAWK.. © IWM (CH 5874) IWM Non Commercial License

But it is the port wing that has a cammo pattern that doesn’t match the fuselage pattern and also appears to have just one large dark green area and one large dark earth area. There is another pic of this aircraft on the IWM site with two other 26 sqd aircraft and I must say that it is still the port roundel red section that stands out to me as being slightly different in size and tone from the others. pat

Chaps - grateful for your thoughts on interpreting this photo. Does this look like it may have had a replacement port wing fitted? The cammo pattern on the port wing looks to be more like that associated with the alternative pattern with the fuselage stripes going the other way, plus the roundel looks to be a different size to that on the stbd wing. Is the entire outer wing in Dark Earth or does the Dark Green just look faded out because of the lighting? https://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/205210195 Pat