PaulR

Evening all, Having bought both the new 1/48 Airfix mk 1 and mk v spitfires, I am a little puzzled by the canopies. F3 is clearly the flat sided canopy I most associate with BoB spitfires. F2 and F1 are the clearly the blown canopies adopted later (anyone know when exactly?) but I can't see the difference between the two. Could anyone advise on this? Best regards, Paul

My two cents... I'd love to see a sheet or two on USAFE aircraft of the 80s and early nineties... Ramstein/Spang F-4s in euro 1 and hill grey, a range of F-16s and F-16s, F-111s, A-10s etc. Basically anything that might have appeared at a Mildenhall airshow during this time. I know xtradecal has a couple of their early sheets available, but new sheets to the latest standard would be great! Paul

Afternoon chaps, Well, we're there with numbers! Mish, would you be able to add this to the vote? I have a mind to give the GB a more dramatic name - how about the 'Red Storm Rising' GB? Particulrly appropriate since the same scenario seems to be working up again 25 years later! Cheers for all the support. Paul

Cheers chaps! One more willing victim required!

Evening all, Have rather neglected this thread due to work, that necessary unpleasantness for the purchase of more kits . . anyway, thought it time for a headcount to see where we are with this... and it's 27! Just three more to qualify for the vote. . . must be able to do this. Was trying to think of more interesting subjects to whet modelling appetites. Let's see; WR coded aggressor F-16s, Wildenrath Phantoms. RAFG Buccaneers, Chieftain tanks, Norwegian/Dutch F-5s. Anyone got any other ideas? Paul 1) PaulR 2) Lex77 3) Andy C 4) Milktrip 5) Procopius 6) Whitestar12chris 7) Peter Marshall 8) Marlin 9) Bootneck?? 10) PaulJ 11) hgbn 12) Caerbannog 13) Cookerbacher 14) Jabba 15) Vingtor 16) Buffoon 17) CliffB 18) Vipplelt68 19) Sleeperservice 20)Shermaniac 21)Tomoshenko 22) Heloman1 23) Modellingminion 24) Shaun 25) DaveJL 26) Wellzy 27) Trickyrich

Well, I'll have to a proper count, but I make that 19 or so. Was just thinking about the tank side of things; chieftains, leopards, late M60s, early Abrams, T72s- Tamiya to the rescue here, at least in 1/35!

Sounds fine! P As a RNoAF enthusiast myself, I think yes! Paul

Hi there, Am building a mkivf in Malta colours as per the xtadecal Malta sheet. Would anyone happen to know if this airframe needs anything in the way of tropical filters etc that might require aftermarket items, or is all I need in the box? Would be grateful for any advice. Paul!

Thanks for the interest so far! Anybody else? Another thought... Torrejon F-16s and Italian starfighters? Frontal aviation mig 23s?

Did exactly the same kit in exactly the same markings! probably one of thed best 109 BoB schemes beautifully executed! Paul

Hallo Mish,Yup, am thinking anything based in Europe specifically during the 80s. Paul

Hallo Chris, hadn't actually considered this, but why not? Could do tanks as well; it would simply have to be something from that specific time period and theatre. Paul

Four replies in 10 mins! Anyone else? Oh, just thought... Canadian F/A-18s, Belgian mirages...what else?

When: 16th April 2016 to 14th August 2016 Hosts: PaulR, TrickyRich and Col. Evening all, Have been perusing alot of enthusiast forums with lots of shots of the heydays of Mildenhall airshow, and have been reminded of all the variety of aircraft types and schemes to be seen at that time. Just a pity we lived under the threat of imminent nuclear armageddon! Mind you there were some compensations...BT and CR coded F-15Cs, LN/UH F-111s, A-10s, Spang F-4s, late Lightnings, aggressor F-5s, Honington Tornadoes, early Mig29s (not that you have seen them at Mildenhall at that time!), European F-5As, Starfighters... well, you get the idea! Plus, there was all the music... possible idea for a group build? Paul

I'm up for this. Am just finishing my CA Wyvern in Sudz stripes, so need something to go with it...I shall ponder this!

Thought I'd better get motoring with my entry for this GB! I was originally going to do my Airfix Tunnan for this, but I found out it didn't represent the version the Austrians used. Then I caught a pic of an Austrian Vampire in T11 with fetching dayglo trim; so this is what I am going to build. Here are the obligatory box shots, and initial construction. While you can get the markings from one of the Xtradecal T11 sheets, I am going to use a range of serials and national markings from the spares boxes to save money. I have to say that the Airfix Vampire T11 is a top kit; I've already done an Admiral's Barge T22, and there will be more after this!

Hallo all, Well, my first for 2015. I am on a bit of a Japanese 'kick' at the moment, and the latest is my efforts with Hasegawa's 1/72 F-2B. I've got both the single seater and twin seater in 1/48th, so this was a try out, particularly in regard to the oft discussed colours for the sea camouflage. I added Master pitot tubes and resin ejector seats; these happened to come with the unusual canopy breakers fitted to the ACES2 seats on F-2s. I left it with minimal stores, since the trainer F-2s don't seem to carry much in the way of ordnance. With regard to the blues of the camouflage, it seemed that every man and his dog has a mix for this, and looking at photos doesn't help; they very (depending on lighting conditions) from a bright blue to a darker more petrol blue. I hate mixing colours because I often make more than one model, and I like consistency, so I was looking for an out of the bottle solution. I know Gunze Sanyo do a set, but these seem very hard to run to earth, and I can't establish if these are enamel or the acrylics I work in. In any instance, Tamiya do my favourite paints, and I eventually settled on XF17 sea Blue for the darker shade and XF-18 for the tricky lighter blue. To my eyes at least it makes a very satisfactory match, and experiments in different lighting show that it changes in the same way as the real paint does. I have a bit of a theory about Gunze Sanyo (probably completely unsupported by the facts) that there is 'crossover between' their range and Tamiya's. For example Gunze Sanyo do an official 'Barley Grey'; when I compared it to the Tamiya XF19 that I use for this colour, the results were not just close but identical. The only difference seemed to be that the Gunze Sanyo was slightly glossier than the dead flat of the Tamiya. Tamiya's market is naturally predominantly Japan, and given that phantoms in the JASDF have worn this two tone blue prior to the F-2s makes me think that they fielded these two shades side by side for a reason. Anyway; all idle speculation! All in all, a cracking little kit, and I am looking forward to tackling its bigger cousins. Apologies for dodgy photography; still wrestling with my new camera.

Fantastic! This is the picture that I most associate with the battle of Britain; am intending to build the 1/48 versiin for the BoB group build!

Hallo there, Really what it says on the title! I am building the new Airfix Blenheim IV; would the flaps have been left deployed on the the ground, or up as per the Spitfire? Any comments gratefully received. Paul

Super choice of scheme! Am planning 1/72 version of the same using a modified revell f-16c. Out of curiousity, did you use the PWMP conversion set for this? Also, I'd be very intersted to know which brand of paints you used for the top colours? Regards, Paul

I hear you brother! Just had our traditional 12th night meal and 'wassailed' our apple tree. Nothing like a good mix of Christian and pagan traditions to round off Christmas after my first day back. The propect of going back to reality tomorrow emphatically does not appeal. Still, Airfix have new BoB spitfires and hurricanes in 48th scale coming up shortly...there are compensations, I suppose. Paul

Ta for the info! Paul

That's a splendid model, of exactly the markings I would like to do. I'm normally pretty 'up' on decal producers - but VF seems to have passed me by! Are they still available? Also, does the Wolfpack set include the lantirn pod and bol rails? Would appreciate any guidance. Also, have to say your collection looks grand! Best regards, Paul

Ta old chap! P

Hi all, Am due to start an Austrian J29F Tunnan for the 'lesser built airforce' Group build, and have the Airfix kit plus resin cockpit, decals etc ready to go . . .but, I have recently seen somewhere that the Airfix Tunnan (ex. Heller I think) is not accurate for an F version due to the exhaust end being appropriate for an earlier version. Is this so, and if so, is the difference significant? I am thinking here that if it is similar to the difference between an F4 hunter and an F6 hunter, well, in 1/72 I could live with it. However, if it is a significant dimensional change, what am I looking at? Would appreciate any comments from this in the know! Best regards, Paul