silverkite211

Very nice! I have the XIVc kit to build at some point.

Very nicely done! The Mk XII has a rather brutish aspect to it, doesn't it?

From CNN.com, (CNN) — A B-2 stealth bomber crashed early Saturday morning local time in Guam, according to the Air Force. Two pilots who were onboard during the crash, at Andersen Air Force Base, ejected from the bomber and were in good condition afterward, according to an Air Force statement. The pilots were from the 509th Bomb Wing. The military was not releasing their names. Emergency responders were on the scene of the crash. A board of officers will investigate the crash’s cause. Thank goodness the crew got out safe.

I will say that, as far as I know the Airfix 1/24 scale kit and every other kit that has offered those markings always seem to do 'Kiwi III'.

It has certainly held up well over the last five years. And you did a very nice build, too.

I feel confident saying that the paint scheme should be OD and Grey.

Well it's not the most esthetically pleasing aircraft, true, however I think that it, rather like the Swordfish has a certain appeal about it all it's own. It would surely never be mistaken for any other aircraft!

More amazing perhaps then the fact that it flew, I once read that at the 1936 Hendon Airshow a Heyford performed a loop in front of the crowd.

I have a 1/48 scale Sea Fury with a vacuform canopy and the MDC 1/32 scale Typhoon that I posted pictures of in the Ready For Inspection section of the forum came with a vacuform canopy, too. A trick that I use is to use the back of the knife blade and gently scribe around the outline of the canopy until I am almost through the material, then it can be either cut through with the hobby knife or you can flex the plastic along the scribed line and it will break away. As already mentioned you will need to make a few swipes along the cut edge with a sanding stick or some sandpaper to get rid of the rough edge. John Kunac-Tabinor certainly wrote an excellent set of how-to instructions.

Very nicely done. I've had a liking for the Heyford from the first time I ever saw a photo of one. I really should acquire a kit to build sometime.

Nicely done, those old Airfix kits can often be a challenge. I've always liked that mark of Blenheim.

That is very nice! It looks great, you should be proud.

That's awful! Although it looks like it was merely a case of the tailcode was put on upside down. I know this comes as a "water under the bridge" type of suggestion, however you might have been able to float the decal up off the surface of the tail with Micro-Sol or something similar and, if modelers luck was on your side, perhaps even rotated the decal and reset it. And don't feel too bad about getting the decal upside down, I've seen two occasions of someone placing a US natioal insignia on upside down, in one case the modeler in question was a professional, who was paid well for his work.

I've never read his book, however I do know that he had a long, colorful career.

As the others have already said, that is a very well done Hurricane. You sound like me (and I'm sure many other modelers), I'm my own worst critic, but you should be proud. And, it's nice to see a Hurricane in desert markings, so many people seem to do ETO based Hurricanes.

Thank you. You know, you could probably get to see these in the flesh, if an invitation to your palatial manse would be forthcoming. Uh, provided they haven't been sent off to their rightful owners before then. And again, for those who have complimented the Typhoons, thank you for the kind words.

I have used Model Master non-buffing Metalizer, when I want to deal with the hassle of special thinners and clear coats, however many times I have used Aluminum for the exhaust areas, darkened behind the burner cans with a Model Master color called Jet Exhaust, although it depends on the variant since earlier variants of F-4 tended to have "smokier" engines, in that case I'll used some highly thinned black and airbrush on very light coats until I get the desired effect.

Thank you for the compliments. I forgot to mention that the Revell kit was built almost OOB, I drilled out the exhaust stacks and boxed in the radiator inlet, since it's completely open on the original kit. However it was really something how well the Revell kit fit together, very little filling was needed, and the wing to fuselage fit was really nice, I've had some kits of more recent vintage that didn't fit as well.

The TRUE Typhoon. Typhoons, actually, the Cardoor Typhoon 1B is an original 1973 issue Revell kit, in the markings of Roland Beamont's personal aircraft, while the late 1B is the MDC kit, I'm afraid that I don't know anything about the markings. Amazingly I was able to use the squadron codes, serial number and personal markings of Beamont's aircraft that came with the kit, the roundels and fin flash came from another MDC Typhoon. But, enough of that noise, here's a few pictures. Paints used were a combination of Tamiya and Model Master Acryl, followed by a Future glosscoat, decaling, finishing with a Model Master Acryl flatcoat.

I have a Revell of Germany kit 1/100 scale kit that allows you to build either a AV-8A or GR.3, it has different noses fins and tail caps. Is this just a reworking of the aforementioned Takara kit?

I agree. I understand that due to budgetary constraints that military units sometimes must be reduced in number, however when I think of James McCudden leading his 56 Sqn pilots in their SE-5s against Verner Voss, or 74 Sqn always being the first to receive the latest variant of Lightning, it saddens me to think that these fine squadrons are gone, perhaps forever. I also agree with you about the paint irregularity, I think it was a matter of the paint simply not being mixed in the proper percentages, and due to time constraints they weren't able to spray a test square to see if it was fomulated correctly.

Happily there are comparitively few differences to take note of with the F-4 Phantom II, nothing like the seemingly myriad little differences with Bf-109s for example. 74 Squadron is one of my favorite RAF squadrons, I built an F-4J(UK) many years ago, using the Monogram kit, as it happens, I need to build another, better one sometime. I didn't know as much about Phantoms then as now and I neglected to remove the arrowhead shaped reinforcing plate on the stabilators, US Navy Phantoms didn't have them. If I may be allowed a moment's thread drift... This is one of my prize possessions, the five delivery flights were known as (code named, possibly?) 'Tiger Trails', they started at the NARF Facility in California where the planes had been brought out of storage and reworked, stopping overnight at Lambert Field in St. Louis, then on to Newfoundland, where the planes were painted (in colors that did NOT match the BSC specs) and from there on to England. I saw a photograph of this patch in a magazine article once, and this is the only one that I have ever seen in the flesh. I was saddened when 74 Sqd became a Reserve squadron and saddened even more when it was disestablished.

A person has to learn somehow and if it isn't by asking questions... Or, as I heard it put once, 'The beginning of knowledge is the statement "I do not know" '. Glad I could help out and answer your question.

The nosegear strut remained the same double oleo unit. And, in my opinion the only stupid question is the one that you don't ask.

The good news is that the Hasegawa FG.1 kit comes with the nosegear door for the FGR.2, as well as the neccessary nosegear strut. The bad news is that the FG.1 kit comes with slotted stabilators and the FGR.2 had solid, unslotted stabs. The options that I see at this point are that you can fill in the slotted leading edge of the stabilators, or you can try to find someone who would be willing to trade you their FGR.2 stabs for your FG.1 articles, or I believe that I saw someone in another thread here at Britmodeler make mention of aftermarket resin stabilators being available.