Eric Mc

So THAT'S what the song was about.....

Brilliant. The old ways still work.

The stealth characteristics of the Gannet are rarely talked about.

Airbrushes are extrtemely good value compared to the past. You can get a decent airbrush and compressor set up for under £150 these days.

I'm sure it's not perfect but those vents are so obvious that I can't finish my Hasegawa build until I find some way of depicting them. I decal would do, to be honest.

A lot better than mine.

That is a cracking looking F-105D. I had a go at the Hasegawa one but it lacks the vent slits in the nose which are so prominent on the real thing. I might search out the Trumpeter one now as it looks really good.

Lovely. I have a number of these in my stash (thanks to Aldi's cheap Airfix deals - and I even won one in a raffle 😀).

Nothing a bit of sanding can't sort. One thing I did was add wingtip navigation lights from clear polystyrene. These things are the bane of my life now as many kits (especially 1/72 ones) don't iclude them and I feel I can't really feel that a kit is properly completed if they arent't included.

I noticed that too. Not an issue with me but rather strange.

I built one not too long ago. It's a lovely little kit and probably my favourite Airfix build ever (and I have built a few over the decades 😀).

Progress slowed down at the moment due to end of month work deadline pressure. I hope to get back to my bench after the end of te month.

Some images from the Halifax at Hendon - You can see how deep the right hand side of the canopy is compared to the left.

Because the Halifax was designed with single pilot operation in mind, the nose to the right of the pilot sloped down more sharply to give him a better view to the right on take ogff and landing - a bit like on the long nosed Blenheim IV. Matchbox didn't quite get the nose shape right, apparently. They also did not include the metal bars that lie underneath the two perspex hatches over the navigator's and radio operators position. At this juncture I'm not too sure if I want to bother spending too long trying to correct these areas. I just want to finish the build.

Although I made a start on this build over five years ago, personal circumstances at the time brought the buiild to an early end and I have only just resurrected it. The model is of its time (1980 or so) and does have its shortcomings. However, the Halifax is such an interesting looking aeroplane that I think the various inaccuracies are a bit lost under the various lumps, bumps and other protuberances of the design. I am building the early Mk I option in the kit and will finish it as Christopher Cheshire's aircraft MP-L/L9530. Cheshire was the older brother of the more famous Leonard Cheshire. Progress so far involves lots of fit issues and filler. This is chiefly down to Matchbox's effort to provide different versions of the aeroplane in the one kit, which results in separate nose pieces - which don't fit that well.

I'll keep an eye out for it.

Simple answer is, no I haven't. The next question is, is VMS Flexy available in the UK?

British aircraft of that era tended to have small coloured bulbs mounted behind clear perspex covers - so they didn't have red or geen coloured light covers in the wingtips. They are a bit of a pain to replicate in small scales i.e, 1/72 or smaller. I tend to cut out the wing tip section, let in a small block of clear styrene held in place by strong super glue. Once cured, you can sand the styrene block to match the wingtip contours and then polish. The problem is that it is very easy to dislodge the glued in styrene during the sanding and polosihing process - which is very annoying. In 1/72 I don't bother trying to drill out an aperture for the green (I prefer blue to be honest) starboard bulb and the red port bulb. As this method involves fairly vigourous sanding and polishing, I usually do this early in the construction process and well before main painting.

Thank you. It's nice to do something other than an aeroplane every now and then.

It's just arrived off the boat I actually have applied some weathering and toning down but I didn't want it covered in grime.

Ooh - that looks like one for the library.

Just had a look at the movie - excellent. It proves that Flying Fleas could actually FLY!!!

Probably more to do with BBC trying to protect their commercial interests and preofits. They are being squeezed massively at the moment from a financial point of view so they are being a bit more robust in protecting their intellectual property rights - as is their right.

Looks absolutely lovely. I'm a big fan of the Trident even though it was not a massive commercial success. The exhaust crackle has been mentioned. I was told that this was because the exhaust gases actually went supersonic so you were actually hearing mini sonic booms. One of my favourite "spotting" memories is standing near the end of the old Runway 24 at Dublin Airport watching BEA and later BA Tridents go to full throttle on the brakes as they built up to full take off thrust (sorely needed) and looking at the tail fin panels vibrate due to the sonic shock waves. Watching the undercarriage retraction sequence was always interesting too.

Something a bit different for me as I rarely venture into the world of scale Armoured Fighting Vehicles (AFV). However, I was asked quite a while ago if I could build this for an acquaintance as he has a keen interest in The Great War. It's taken me far too long but it is finally finished. The kit was originally issued by Airfix back in 1967 so that needs to be borne in mind when building it. Having said that, it actually went together without too many issues. Tank afficianados (of which I am not one) will tell you that it is inaccurate in a number of areas but in this case, ignorance of the real thing is a bonus and it looks OK to me. The most difficult part of the build were the paint scheme and attaching the steering mechanism at the rear. My build was from the 2009 "Red Box" reissue and the moulds appear to have survived the decades without too much deterioration.