Simon Cornes

They’re bound to do every variation on a short Merlin engined Spitfire you can think of. And then the same for Seafires. These guys have got to justify their investment and this core mould will be in use for years. And if it’s accurate, why not!! Might be nice if they branched out into Griff Spits too and left the 60 series engined varieties to Tamiya - no point reinventing the wheel if there’s plenty to go at!

Look at the IPMS SMW site. Download the hall plans then work out where you want to go. The first time I went it blew my mind!!

I’ve been looking at maybe some lead wire - as you say, easy to find something to take it over the free post bar!!

Yes, they've already reduced my pre-order price. And yes, you can add to your order. With the pre-order system you get an email from Hannants saying they have the kit in stock. You can then check your 'basket' - with pre-order in it and then go to the 'home' page and add whatever else you want in the usual way. That's what I'll do anyway. But then, what about Black Friday (24th November)? Would the likes of Jadlam and Tiger offer a further discount then? Can you do that with a pre-order? The only thing you can do is wait until the 24th and then see what options Tiger and Jadlam give! I'm going to stick with Hannants for the time being!!

And now I see Hannants are giving the pre-order 10% discount! But one thing - they normally require you to spend £100+ to get free postage. Jadlam and Tiger are both giving free postage. No big deal, I'm sure I can find something useful to add to the order that will take it over £100 but be aware in case you thought it was exactly 'like for like' compared to Jadlam and Tiger!

Exactly but then you ask yourself how many kits the likes of Jadlam and Tiger will have ordered and so do you order and pay now or wait to see what Hannants do? The eternal question but I think my ideas are becoming clearer!!

Have you paid for it yet? With Hannants pre-orders you don’t pay until you actually buy - you have 10 days to complete the purchase. I wonder if Hannants will change their minds and give the 10% discount after all?

Thank you. Tiger Hobbies notification on BM implies that they will supply to other retailers who might in turn discount even more! I have a pre-order in with Hannants who said that they weren't allowing the normal discount because of the £/$ exchange rate but Tiger said they'd acquired dollars when the rate was more favourable so could do it. I wonder if Hannants will move from their stated position? A tenner is a tenner after all!

Interesting - who?? !!

I think Walter was saying that the barrel casing tapers, not the round but I must admit that I though that the American and British round were essentially the same, clearly not though. Simon

I had no idea the British .303 had a tapered casing, I thought it was parallel sided? You live and learn!!

I believe that US produced brownings, certainly those intended for ground use, had circular holes so I can believe ones manufactured in the U.K. could well have been modified with oval slots. The Imperial War Museum and RAF museum don’t know!!

I started off by thinning xtracrylix dark sea grey and extra dark sea grey with eau de tap and the paint went on okay although I had to use a much higher pressure than MRP lacquer for example, partially to try to avoid paint flow stopping although I did find myself cleaning the front end of the brush several times. The paint went on but was a bit ‘gritty’ and I got two area of what looked like contamination reaction - circles of paint with hardly any paint in the centre - which was odd as the complete airframes were primed with Halfords grey acrylic plastic primer. I sorted that out with a careful brush application. Yesterday I got some Vallejo airbrush cleaner and tried it with the Dark Green. Much smoother finish so I’ve learnt something. Thank you all for your advice - very useful!!

That’s great guys, now I just need some xtracrylix thinners- I didn’t know they had their own, I thought water would do?

I have never used this paint before but I need to airbrush a 1/48 Harrier and get it right first time!! Can you advise on thinning? Is tap water okay? Does it dry matt or gloss? I assume matt? What would you gloss varnish it with? Klear maybe? I should add that I’ve used Xtracolour in the past but I’ve had problems sometimes with maybe overthinning and then poor coverage. I’ve also use MRP lacquer and found them very good but they don’t do modern RAF colours!! Im just after some reassurance I think because I’m running against the clock for SMW !! Many thanks Simon