Des

Basically sums it up , and comes down to what you want out of the build and Eduard do provide a replacement in their release for the below par ejection seat in the Trumpeter plastic.

If we are into prophecy . . . . . early CAD work or box-art will identify a 'fatal flaw'.

Lovely job and an excellent metal finish , saw the Irish Air Corps 'Silver Swallows' at an airshow once and the Belgian Air Force solo display a couple of times and the Magister must rank as one of the noisiest jets ever built and the only one I have ever seen picked up by the nose and turned to fit into its parking slot. Picked up one of the AMK Magisters at a show during the summer and then bought the Max Decals but jury is still out on whether to go for one of the metal options or something in camouflage when I get round to building it.

The Matchbox kit brings back memories , good enough kit when it first came out for the cost and what you got but BASIC !!!! What an excellent job you have done with what was a very bare canvas to start with , a result to be very proud of.

Neither 1/144 scale nor airliners are especially 'my thing' but the 'Red Square' scheme was nice on whatever carried it and your Retro Airbus is especially well done as is the 747 WIP. Back in the 60s someone gave me a BEA Red Square enamel lapel badge but some thieving so-and-so pinched it from my blazer in the school gym changing rooms , would have looked good on a model display base had it survived the decades since.

With the usual 'Subject To Change' caveat the Airfix Website pre-order listing for the RAF boxing of the FG.1 has been showing 'Black Mike' as a decal option for a while , other is an early service 43 Sqn. aircraft in Green/Grey/LAG with Type D roundels. The same source also shows the B-25B decal option in the calendar.

Have they sorted out the serviceability problems with their existing fleet? If not buying more seems a bit pointless.

I have both the book by the late Tim Lamming (which I believe has been recently re-printed with additional imagery) and the Warpaint on the Vulcan which are mentioned above and would recommend both. A quick look on my bookshelf came up with another three books by Tim Lamming later known as Tim McLelland with different images and approaches to the subject - The Vulcan Story 1952 - 2002 by Tim Lamming published by Cassell V-Bombers - Vulcan , Victor and Valiant -Britain's Airborne Nuclear Deterrent by Tim Lamming published by PSL Vulcan God of Fire by Tim McLelland published by the History Press Also on the shelf and again extending the range of images used - Volume 3 of Wings of Fame published by Aerospace which has a 62 page feature on the the Vulcan by Paul Jackson V-Force - Britain's Airborne Nuclear Deterrent by Robert Jackson published by Ian Allan Vulcan - Last of the V-Bombers by Duncan Cubitt with Ken Ellis published by Osprey which is mainly photographic covers general history, operational use , survivors and the 1984 and 85 display seasons with the RAF's Vulcan Display Team. Despite some unavoidable repetition all have their own merits.

'Yung Yin' named after Glasgow's Sir William Connolly , CBE in his younger years before his career took off?

I helped a friend to research early 9 Squadron service Tornado GR.1 a while back and these were some of the points I came across in addition to those mentioned regarding IFR and LRTMS , apologies if you already have them. Before the move to RAFG in 1986 all safety and servicing stenciling was in English only. Full serial was carried below each taileron. White lined wingwalk markings were carried. Position lights had coloured lenses rather than strobes. Inner wing pylons were not fitted with AAM launch rails on the inner face and droptanks still had four fins. BOZ had not been released to service in the early years so outer pylons were either empty or carried a Sky Shadow Pod with side bulges and ventral air intake on both although only the port side was wired for it. Looking at various photos back then I had come to the conclusion that there was some variation in the pods that were being carried. Live pods had white nose and tail bands while inert ballasted pods carried blue , otherwise both carried the same yellow lifting bands , radiation waning triangles etc. At least one image I found showed that the side bulges on the inert ballasted pods were the same green colour overall whereas the live pod bulges had a deeper almost emerald green section to the leading and trailing edges. Gloss white pods without bulges and air intake were only on the development aircraft although some were later converted and painted painted orange and white with camera windows in the sides for test purposes. If anything was being carried on the two under-fuselage pylons it would usually be a CBLS on one or both although there were some photos around of inert 1,000 lb. bombs with blue bodies and standard green tails being carried.

Got to be careful when casting aspersions on good old British (Made in India) engineering.

Fujimi UK Phantoms first released in 1987 but the closest Scale Aircraft Modelling magazine I have handy is from 1991 which has the FG.1 'Black Mike' Special on sale for 10.99 and FGR.2 for 8.99 , in comparison the Airfix Vulcan was 9.50.

I was not involved with the Yak project but quite voluntarily made a donation towards the 737 project that Out-Of-The-Box launched around the same time. Realised at the time that nothing might come of it but saw it as a way of developing a new step in our hobby and was prepared to take the loss if need be so other than one query a while back to see if there was any progress have not chased it up at all so was very surprised this evening to receive an e-mail from PayPal telling me that an e-cheque reimbursing my donation is in the process of clearing.

Don't quite know what the relevance of the Hasegawa kit is in this comparison as their 1/72 FG.1/FGR.2 as also released by FROG dates back to the second half of the 1960s and does not compare to either the Fujimi or Airfix kits. Built several of the Fujimi kits and own but have not built a couple of the Airfix and the general impression is that the Fujimi mouldings were quite literally a good bit sharper than the Airfix which as mentioned above are a bit soft in several ways. As well as having much finer panel detail in general Fujimi also managed to cater for several small but significant minor details which Airfix either deemed irrelevant or were beyond their 21st. Century scanning technology. It is worth the extra care to ensure a smooth fit for the Fujimi air intakes and the dip between the engine bulges on the lower rear fuselage could be a little deeper. Depending on version the Fujimi kits offer either an air-to-air including gunpod or air-to-ground weapons load including recce pod , reasonable cockpit detail for the time with multi-part seats and decals for panels but they do not include the folding options of the Airfix of which the IFR probe option especially is a bit basic and not quite connected. Also seem to recall that some of the Fujimi UK variants included optional single/multi-part canopies. FG.1s from both offer the extended nosewheel leg which some seem to get excited over but is of very limited use other than during catapult launches and airshow static display. Having seen the Airfix kit and depending on price I think in any future purchases I would favour the Fujimi/Italeri kit although back with the initial release I found that the extensive decal sheets were prone to silvering but that may have changed in later batches and should not be an issue with the Italeri rebox.

Looking forward to it Adrian.

Some fascinating stuff there , thanks for sharing.

And delivered this morning although it will take a while to even flick through all 560 pages.

To take the November issue (and not your I-16 which is a very good example of modelling) but faddish in the sense like other publications out there a lot of space taken up by the painting process - a double page spread of 16 stages in applying Bf-109 camouflage each with the paint tin used , several views showing the nuances of natural metal on the J-29A which to my eyes at least were lost on their journey to the printed page , double page spread on how to apply SEA Camouflage to an F-4. The Gee box is there to the other side of Navigators position and your comment is accurate , some crews did do Gee checks crossing the North Sea but working on a line of sight principle once over Holland and before being jammed they had to 'pop up' and risk radar detection to get a fix. By Summer 1943 H2S began to be used in widespread squadron service across Bomber Command , the scanner assembly used the fixing point for the short-lived ventral gun turret so always possible that standard squadron aircraft completed in March that year might have some elements of the equipment such as the cable runs installed but probably not the display and control boxes which if carried would have to be maintained and were exposed to unnecessary damage. The Type 464 did not carry the H2S scanner and was generally stripped of all non-essential equipment so hard to see why they would leave the otherwise useless black boxes in place at the cost of another couple of gallons of fuel. One of Harris' objections to the Dams Raid was that any aircraft which survived would be of limited operational use afterwards and as far as I can see the Type 464s that remained in service after the Operation Chastise never had the scanner retro-fitted. There was also the security aspect of needlessly carrying sensitive equipment on a raid where there a higher chance than usual of an aircraft being shot down , it was already known that the Germans had salvaged parts of at least one H2S set from one of its earlier raids while it was in limited service so why risk giving them more for no reason. But maybe this was not the case.

E-mail this morning from SpeedyHen to say that the book has been dispatched by them and should be with me in a few days.

I thought it had resisted the faddish painting rituals quite well since the Canadian diversion a few years ago until very recently.

The end of the month and the publication date for everyone’s ‘favourite’ triad of UK modelling magazines approaches with the opportunity for the usual glass half empty criticism of the present and reminiscing over past and now lost forever golden days of the British Modelling Press. I was on a quest this week to find a reference to a full-scale aviation project from the 1960s and dug out my moldering heap of Royal Air Force Flying Review and its replacement Flying Review International. Did not find what I was looking for but got rather sidetracked by some of the information I did find (will my life ever be the same now that I have discovered the SNAC NC211 Cormoran?) including the Model Talk column in RAF Flying Review. These were generally on a single page and over the issues I have there were a number of writers over the years but the snippets that follow are all from columns written by Philip Burden whose style , enthusiasm and glass brimming over approach for the hobby, which was quite restricted back then compared to today , I found very enjoyable. Conversions September 1963 Style – Slip Wing Hurricane Conversion using two 1/72 Airfix Hurricanes of the day – 240 words , one postage stamp sized black & white image and for the super fastidious the hinge lines of the elevators should be altered because the elevators of the ‘Slip Wing’ Hurricane were increased in area by some ten per cent. Quality control was an issue back then as some of us may recall but instead of complaining today about whether each sprue or at least the transparencies are bagged separately this August 1962 review of the Heller 1/50 Breguet Alize (interesting because I have one in the stash containing a couple of pieces of thick sprue in a box of loose parts as was often the style back then) reads – I found that the plastic was reasonably good but what impressed me was the fact that there were no missing parts. Future releases announced years in advance seem to be a part of the hobby today along with the inevitable hothouse atmosphere of interminable moaning that follows about mistakes in first draft CAD or box-art , soul-searching about whether or not the toilet door handles will be the correct shape , impassioned pleas on which options to include (or not include). In the 1960s there seems to have been more an attitude of being grateful for whatever turned up whenever it turned up. How about this ‘Future Release’ heads-up from October 1962 – COMING SOON: A new model from Airfix, probably to a 1/72 scale is likely to be manufactured soon. I understand that the company hope to have this kit on the market before Christmas. Or a more parochial view from January 1963 – STOP PRESS: Two new models from Airfix, both of which will be to a 1/72 scale, are expected in the near future. These models are of English jet aircraft. Or this latest release from the Far East in June 1963 – FIRST CONSIGNMENT: Good news for all modellers interested in Japanese kits! I hear that Arthur Mullet Ltd., 16 Meeting House Lane, Brighton now have in stock a large number of 1/96 Japanese kits. Accuracy and while purists today quibble about millimeters and are appalled by any hint of a moving part it seems that over half a century ago priorities were rather different. A review of the Aurora Wildcat in January 1963 concludes with – ….. although it has no special features, the model is reasonably good. And of the 1/50 ITC Grumman Duck from July 1963 – Although not a top class model it is reasonably authentic and I recommend members of the anti-‘gimmick’ brigade to make a note of it. Display advice from May 1963 when the kids latest attempts or dad's more professional efforts were often to be seen displayed on the living-room mantle piece or elsewhere – The general consensus of modellers seems to be that models look best when hung from the ceiling with a wall as a background. After some fifty-five years I do not know if Mr. Burden is still with us or not but if so I wish him well and offer many thanks for the opportunity during a rather dull and wet week to re-read his words and be reminded of a perhaps calmer time when modelling was merely an enjoyable pastime rather than a source of competition and contention.

Out of the C-130 books on my bookshelf I would suggest the following two as having the best RAF coverage but obviously there are probably others out there. Hercules the C-130 in RAF Service by Tim Lamming is basically all captioned images and takes you up to just after the Gulf War - not suggesting this link as the best place to buy the book but it gives an idea of what is out there - https://www.abebooks.co.uk/servlet/BookDetailsPL?bi=1206997216&searchurl=bi%3D0%26ds%3D30%26bx%3Doff%26sortby%3D20%26tn%3DHercules%3A%2BThe%2BC-130%2Bin%2BService%26recentlyadded%3Dall&cm_sp=snippet-_-srp1-_-title1 C-130 Hercules In The RAF by Clive Bennet is a bit (but not much) more text based but still well illustrated and covers from entry to service up until a year or two ago - again a link to sellers with the same proviso as above - https://www.abebooks.co.uk/servlet/BookDetailsPL?bi=30367015256&searchurl=kn%3DC-130%2BHercules%2Bin%2BThe%2BRAF%2BBook%2B%7C%2BBennett%2BClive%26sortby%3D17&cm_sp=snippet-_-srp1-_-title1

Hope that the box-art is a mock-up and not one of the 'Super Decal' options , good to see the Fujimi UK Phantoms making a reappearance with all their thirty year old fine detail that has yet to be bettered.

VC10 would be fantastic but which one as it is a bit more complicated than 'BOAC, RAF camouflaged & grey' with no easy one size fits all for the different variants?

Remember the Matchbox kit being released in the early 1980s , lovely little kit and you have made a great job of it. Modeldecal had just done an injection-moulded FRS.1 conversion for the GR.3 when Matchbox released their kit (same happened around the same time with the twin-seat Lightning) so they added the decals as an addendum with full stenciling to another decal set then almost at the same time Scale Aircraft Modelling provided a 'freebie' decal sheet with 'high'viz' markings for all of the original squadrons before the Falklands turned everything grey. Quite an exciting time to be modelling.