delticfan

That's interesting, giving a width of 171mm but assuming as with car tyres that the size written on the tyre is its uninflated width the scaled down size is somewhere between the airfix and sword tyre. To me the airfix one looks right either that or get some resin ones. Thanks for taking the time to measure up.

Martin and everyone, thanks for the additional advice, if you could measure the tyre width this week that would be really helpful, I'm doing a mix of airfix and sword models so would like a bit of commonality in parts and think the undercarriage should all look the same. Thanks again looking forward to the definitive answer.

Great help Mike thanks. Keith

I have a Sword 1/72 T5 but compared to the Airfix F6 the tyres look a bit on the thin side. I measured the Airfix ones (main gear) and they scale up to 200mm wide but the Sword one are approx 160mm wide. Does anyone know the correct width and any suggestions on aftermarket alternatives......Thanks.

Thanks for the details on the K2, I didn't realise the wings were shorter, but it would be interesting to see how airfix have assembled the wings and if the tips are extension that could be interchanged.

The new airfix kit is a B2, what are the thoughts on how the K2 will be released, will it be an upgraded add on as was done with the Valiant or a brand new release. Thoughts please?

I'm pleased someone else seems to be interested in variations in codes etc. Your decals look spot on for font weight, I have a set of xtradecal code letters but they look a little on the thin side regarding thickness, yours look correct. I can see a few binbrook F6s getting built over the next few months and T5s and F3s - great stuff, great memories too.

Thanks for the reference offer, I'm trawling my way through the posted serial numbers and googling for photos. Might need your help later, the book looks great reference material though.

Mark, Thank you for taking the time to list out the details of so many aircraft. Not sure I'll be modelling all of them but it's a good start! Thanks for all the informed replies, really helpful. Thanks Keith

Thanks for the informative reply, I never gave the C reference gap a second thought until you mentioned it, very interesting though. I do remember at the time aircraft illustrated gave quite detailed movements of airframes in and out of squadrons and I'm sure they stated the tail codes., maybe I should dig out the old copies from the shed! My intention was to pick a point in time and model it with several aircraft, might sound a bit nerdy but I wanted to be as accurate as possible. Your idea of referencing photos is probably very good, I think 1985 was a good year!

Can anyone suggest a source of info on serial numbers and fin codes for lightnings in the era 1982 - 1988. The aircraft swopped fin codes quite a lot as they were allocated around the various units. The codes I am referring to are AA to AZ, BA to BZ, DA to DZ etc. Some idea of dates would be helpful too where the codes were matched to serial numbers. Maybe there are websites with this info but I struggle to find them.