Pat C

Grant On the assumption you mean the fighter does this link help? http://www.cbrnp.com/profiles/quarter2/whirlwinds.htm Pat

Brilliant job Paul Here is a pic of my attempt at the same kit. Knowing how long it took me to get this looking half as good as yours I salute you!! What did you come up with to make the inner wall of the intakes? I shoved a rolled up piece of paper in mine held in with white glue. It actually worked rather well. SAM also do a "Gulf War" resin set - useful as the Matchbox kit has neither weapons nor pylons. But crucially, it does have two crewmen!! Pat

Wonder if we'll see a glut of the Matchbox kits appearing on E-bay? It is probably just the light but some of the panel lines look raised rather than engraved to me. Does anyone else see that? Pat

Have tried the Humbrol acrylic "Fire Orange" which actually sprayed very well although the paint was very "gloopy" in the pot and needed quite bit of distilled water to get to a reasonable thickness to spray. My pots did not have the warning sign on the botom. The result was I ended up with most of the contents of a pot over my hand and the floor. Pat

Zed - once you have tried the rattle cans it will only be a short while until you go all the way and get an airbrush and compressor. When I began making kits again I brush painted and came to the conclusion that I was no better at it than when I was 10. I used a rattle can to paint the underside of one aircraft and the difference was astounding. No brush marks, nice even tone all over, nice crisp demarcation lines. rattle cans have an annoying habit of letting out occasional splats of paint so be prepared to sand down the odd patch and respray using a small template or bite the bullet and get yourself an airbrush - maybe Santa might oblige?? Pat

GCN - i wonder if your problem might have been caused by grease on the model? that would explain why the enamel might cut through it and the acrylic "run off" as you seem to be describing. How much have you been thinning the paint? I tend to use Gunze acrylics amd I probably thin only with a few drops of water - obviously you would need to know how much paint I am starting with for that to make sense (!) but I probably only thin 9 paint to 1 water. I spray at around 20-25 psi. Pat

Cheers Jen - I was coming round to using that or US OD. I've seen modern RAF Dk Green also referred to as BS641 - is 241 the correct designation or a different colour? Looking at the BS 381C colour chart 641 doesn't seem to exist!! Pat

I think Humbrol 150 (Forest Green) looks quite close but, surprise, surprise it is not one of their acrylic range. And has no equivalents in anyone elses colour range. Pat

Was fondling the plastic of the Italeri Wessex last night (after the Mrs had gone to bed) and decided it was to come to the top of the pile but wondered if anyone had any views on a suitable match (or mix) in acrylic paint for RN helo olive? I know there is an enamel by Hannants but not in their acrylics range. Pat

My mistake! I've got a Matchbox one on the go at the moment and as I've got some spare Frog wings I was thinking of trying to graft these on. Would also love to do an S1 in 1/72 but I can't bring myself to take a razor saw to a kit to fit the resin intakes!! Pat

Very nice builds - what scale is the Skyraider? What did you use as the basis for the kit? Also you can't beat a bit of day-glo!! What paint did you use? I've had some success using a Humbrol acrylic day-glo orange sprayed over red, but I undestand day-glo can be a bit hit and miss (yours is a hit of course!) Pat

Thought you might like to see a few pics of the Frog 1/72 Buccaneer made up. Not sure if this kit was ever reissued by Novo and if not, why not. To say this was a challenging build would be a massive understatment. First problem was that the upper fuselage hung over the bottom fuselage requiring a lot of work to smooth out and a not terribly successful attempt to avoid the sides of the intakes looking flat. The kit is also completely see-through. I inserted drinking straws into the exhausts and after blocking off the intakes crudely with bits of plastikard, I glued in a roll of paper into each one. It sounds odd but it worked. The kit comes with a load of four Martel missiles but I wanted to do mine clean so I fashioned my own pylons. The pilots are Matchbox and were essential to fill the sparse cockpit, and the tail bumper and arrestor hook are from the Aeroclub white metal set. For some reason the Matchbox and Airfix Buccaneers in this scale do not have the wing vortex generators and the wing mounted radar warning receivers that this kit does have. Frog even remembered that one of the vortex generators was removed on the wings of the Martel aircraft. Kit was finished with decals from the Xtradecal S2 sheet. Was quite pleased with how it turned out in the end, but suspect most people would turn to the Airfix kit for an FAA aircraft or an early RAF one with the flat bomb-bay. The Matchbox kit has the bulged bomb-bay so is no good for an FAA aircraft unless you want to try major surgery.

Cheers Keef - as it happens just yesterday I added the Airfix SA Bulldog to my stash!! My Gnat is in the Light Aircraft Grey/ Day-Glo scheme so I decided to leave the yellow life preservers alone. As for the SHAR, to be honest you can see bugger all through the canopy anyway. After the triumph of getting all the wheels to sit on the ground I didn't have the heart to rip the canopy off!! I'll try and post some pics at the w/e. Pat

Cheers Derek - although now I realise that the Matchbox Gnat and Sea Harrier I am in the process of finishing have crewmen proudly displaying inflated life preservers in yellow. Now to decide whether to open up the canopies at great cost to personal sanity as aerials, pitot tubes, undercarriage etc goes flying in all directions or chalk one up to experience and let well alone!! Pat

Thanks everyone for their help - I shall print this thread off for safekeeping! Derek - While you are here could I trouble you to ask another equipment question (and forgive me if I am displaying collosal ignorance here) but when did British aircrew life preservers change from the yellowy canvas (Mae West style) ones you associate with WWII airmen to the modern green ones? Pat

presumably you could have never gone wrong with a little black number as well. Excellent!! - I'm probably the only person still putting pilots in my models but those little Matchbox guys hide the absence of a cockpit very nicely. Plus how will the planes fly otherwise? Pat

Sorry Gary - the perils of reading too many posts at the same time!! Thanks for the help. Just spotted pic of a Gannet with the crew looking like they are wearing the silver helmets. Pat

Thanks Mark - I am looking mainly at 60s and 70s and trying to decipher B&W photos!! I think I had pretty much settled that some were white and thank you for your confirmation! The green helmets would be same colour as the flight suit? Pat

Just wondered whether there was any rule for thumb for determing flight helmet colours for RAF/ FAA jet aircraft. Did colours vary according to role or for trainee pilots? Pat

if you are feeling brave, sand it out using successive finer grades of sand paper. Finally polish with a cotton wool bud dipped in abrasive toothpaste and dip in Future. No more scratch!! Pat

I don't know if anyone else has had the misfortune to own the Pioneer Ta-154 kit 1/72 (also reboxed by Matchbox) but this was truly a disgrace of a kit. The wing was moulded in one piece, and it looked like the manufacturers had just poured molten plastic in a flat banana shape on the floor of their factory, and thought yup close enough.

Thanks guys. Peebeep - If I recall correctly for no obvious reason the P-70 came with some kind of maintenance frame and a couple of ground crew so you could have a simple diorama? Otherwise I think its the same kit with the gun nose and ventral tray isn't it? Also boxed by Revell AG in Matchbox form just to confuse people!! Pat

My first outing in this forum so please be kind!! This the very old Revell US kit, the one you may remember that featured box art of a desert full of Panther tanks being bombed by a US marked Boston - just when did the Panther reach North Africa remind me???!!! Kit had rivets and lines sanded of and rescribed. Decals were from a sheet by Kits At War. Not sure about the placement of the red fire extinguisher decal above the small porthole in the side of the fuselage. All other Bostons I have seen have this below the porthole. Kits At War say it should be above and I slavishly followed their instructions. The kit props were very weedy and I replaced them with Aeroclub white metal props. They also help keep the nose on the ground!! Pat

AHA!!!! http://www.ipmsdeutschland.de/FirstLook/Re...rey_Gannet.html

Looks like you can do an A-20 J/K aka Boston IV/V out of it. Cue the sound of a thousand Matchbox kits being put in the loft. Pat