Giorgio N

Periklis, can I ask when the mk.10 was introduced ? I built a mirage grey over silver F-5A a while ago and used the seat from the box, but if the Mk.10 was used on these I can still swap seat as I didn't glue the canopy. Mine represents a plane operating in 1985-6. Also, can I ask if the silver one posted by Pappy carried that colour scheme while in service ? Or was it decorated like that only after retirement ? It would make for a good subject ! Thanks ! Pappy, your model is comoing along really nicely ! I must keep in mind your modifications as I'm planning an Italeri F-5B myself in the future (with turkish markings though)

The lack of a good first generation F-5 in 1/48 has puzzled me for years. Now that two arrive at the same time, I hope we'll be spoilt for choice ! While I can understand that being a trainer the T-38 will have less appeal, personally it's a plane I really like, so I'm looking forward to this as well. If then kinetic will scale this down to 1/72 I'll be even happier. The one thing I hope is that the anounced T-38 will be a proper T-38 ! There are plenty of differences between this and the F-5B, so much that I believe two totally different mould would be required

Re. the number of aircrafts in the air wing, while the Nimitz class carriers can carry up to 90, today this number is much lower being more around 60 aircrafts and 6 to 8 helicopters. Even in the '80s there were rarely more than 80 aircrafts on board, although it must be said that some of these were quite big !

Rick, if you'll manage to find an Xtrakit XII, I can suggest some other uses or your spare academy XIV: an option is to do a 17 Sqn. japan based XIVe with clipped wingtips and the unique overall medium sea grey with dark green upper bands, as I did with mine. Or if you want to do some work you can convert it into a low-back XIV and there are a few schemes for these. No problem sending yo some material to check the length ! Give me a couple of days ! As I did my own XII years before Xtrakit did theirs, I'd however suggest you cross kit the academy kit with something else that can give you the parts required. Mine was done by adding a shortened fujimi cowling to a KP Mk.IX, but other kits can be used. A couple of points I forgot in m previous mail: - elevators: these have the smaller horns, use those from a Mk.V - tail wheel: some XII had the retracting type used on the XIV, some had the older fixed one. Check the one you want to do and modify if required. If you are familiar with all the spitfire bits and pieces and have some in your spares box, it's not a difficult conversion.

It can be done, but with the Xtrakit Mk.XII around I'm not sure it's worth the effort... Should you want to go ahead and convert the Academy kit, the steps requird are: - shorten the nose. Not too difficult, just cut the engine at the firewall, remove the length of the angled upper cowling panel at the end of the cut engine part and this will give you a correct length mx.XII engine. This area is where the additional length was added when the 2-stage griffon cowling was introduced on the XIV. If you can't see this area, I can post a drawing that shows this. - remove the underwing radiators and replace. The XII has a less deep radiator on one side and a Mk.V style round radiator on the other. Robbing them from a Mk.V would work - modify the tail: the Xii has a Mk.IX style tail and not the bigger Mk.XIV one. You can either just cut to size of replace with a Mk.IX tail and a IX/VIII pointed rudder. - bring the ailerons to the full length ones, as in most spitfires marks. It's just a matter of flling some panel lines. - replace the wingtips: all the Mk.XIIs had clipped wingtips while the academy XIV has full span tips. Cutting and sanding will work, alternatively cut and replace with parts from a suitable Mk.V (as I did when I made a clipped wing XIV e from the same kit) - replace the propeller: the Mk.XII has a 4 blade prop instead of the XIV 5 blade. You can fill the openings on the academy propeller, drill new ones and use only 4 blades. The academy propeller is however quite poor in shape - change some panel lines: the XIV has tanks in the wing leading edge, the XII doesn't. Just fill the relevant panel lines. - add the bulge on top of the cowling. While you're in this area, you might want to correct the academy rocker covers that don't really have the right shape. This will give you a Mk XII. However, as the academy XIV is quite inaccurate, if you want a better looking spitfire you could also do some other modifications, mainly reducing the depth of the front fuselage. If you're happy with the academy kit shortcomings, the steps I've mentioned should be all that's needed. As I said before, not sure if it's worth as there's a Mk.XII that can be made straight from the box

Nor originally did any other F-5A or F-5B. It was only the F-5E that introduced a radar and its related screen. However it seems to me that Pappy knows he's not beeing 100% accurate and the F-5E panels really add a nice touch to the final result.

Very nice pic. of the T50 !! Thanks for sharing

Ken, your joke reminds me of my very first Airfix catalogue in 1982 or 1983: it was the italian edition of the catalogue, and I was puzzled by seeing a model of the "Stirling corto", that just means short Stirling.... I wondered if there was a long Stirling as well, then I found the "Sunderland corto" in the same price series and felt something was wrong... I then discovered that the translator used by Airfix had translated the name Short as well.... :lol: Memories apart, I never really realized the Stirling was so much bigger than the Lancaster. Comparing the qualities of the two, looks like one of the few cases wehre size does not matter...

It was Model Aircraft Monthly did a two or three part series with profiles and some info.

Any plastic part that is covered with paint or primer will not take glue well and will not glue properly. However for some parts masking is overkill and a simple solution is to scrape away the paint carefully with a blade. Same for the holes where guns or antennas will be inserted: the primer from a spray can will not really enter the whole hole, as long as the hole is free you can apply glue to the part to be inserted and this will find clean plastic at some point. If some paint has closed the hole, use a needle or a file to open this and glue the part.

That's me then ! Although I modified it into a Seafire III by further shortening the nose (that is already short for a IX), replacing the radiators and adding other details. Just to be more of a masochist... http://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.p...&hl=seafire Totally agree ! Their Spit IX is inaccurate, has coarse details and fits terribly. For the same money the Airfix kit, albeit not perfect, is 1000 times a much better choice.

Not to worry Joachim, my day is not completely ruined... I'm one of those who prefer to know if something is wrong ! I'm moe worried by the fact I didn't spot the mistake myself... I must be getting old !!! On the spit IX propellers, I should add that while I said the KP one was bad, it can be reworked into a decent enough prop with some work. I did this to replace the propeller on an italeri kit (that has probably the worst of all the 4 bladed spit props). And IIRC the matchbox kit wasn't too bad... have one in the spare parts box, must give a look at it !

Bugger, you're right joachim ! I had bought the set but never checked the radiators properly. Oh well, out comes the plasticard again...

Looks like the Spitfire IX propeller is something the kit manufacturer don't like to get right: bad are airfix and hasegawa, bad was the KP one, absolutely terrible is the Italeri one. I can recommend the pavla set as not only it has a propeller but also contains a number of parts that are a clear improvement on the airix ones, like the radiators and the gun fairings. It also includes gun bay covers with the large bulge, necessary to do the desert scheme option in the decal sheet.

Not too bad if it's the Heller mould, as I recall this being quite good. Still, a new mould Alpha Jet would have been welcome, more so as Revell did a decent 1/144 kit a few years ago. I'm surprised that they never did a new 1/72 one, considering the plane has served in the Luftwaffe for many years.

Phil, I'm planning a fewfor my own harriers, as I plan on building a USMC AV-8C, a Spanish AV-8S and a Thai AV-8S. I might make a few more if someone is interested.. mind, I'm very slow in these things ! Forgot about the vents, will have to add those as well ! I was hoping to do the spanish bird for the harrier GB but then got stuck and found a last-minut holiday, so no time left for the harrier.

This is very annoying, and I hope Italeri will re-release the GR.1 as they did with the SHAR and the GR.3 In the meantime, I've managed to find an original Esci AV-8A box and Im making a resin copy of the GR.1 nose.

This is all becoming more and more interesting.... take a spit V, add two fuselage camera bulges and an unusual camouflage and the result would be a very interesting model ! Wonder if there's ever been any picture of a XIII in squadron service with the RAF ? Failing that, even a plane out of factory would look cool. At least if I can manage to reproduce the PRU mauve paint !

Not the matchbox one, as that didn't really represent a true Alpha Jet. The picture on that page does not look like a fujimi kit either, I compared it with my model built from that kit and there are several differences. Maybe ex Heller ? Wold be good if it were a new tool kit though !

In general, the stencils should be above everything else, as these are related to the operation and maintenance of the planes. However, while this would be true for a plane just out of the factory, stencils are often overpainted when in service. It sounds quite strange to me that the national insignia would be over the stencils, as both were applied at the factory. Personally I would apply the insignia first and the stencils later. Then when it comes to the unit insignia, everything could happen.

Kev, thanks for your offer ! I'll sure take up this, although my Varsity is not going to be built soon. I'll Pm you with details of my e-mail address. Regarding the windows, I should have added that the airmodel kit has them in the wrong place, so just filling the aperture wouldn't work as new need to e cut, and at that point I thought of replacing the whole strip. I have some clear plasticard that I hope I can bend with some heat from a hairdrier... It woun't be easy, I know ! I'a also thought of using some thick clear plastic and sand this to the right curvature, similar to what I do for the navigation lights. Still finding clear plastic that's 2 or 3 mm thick is not easy. Other techniques that I've see used emploied clear resin: the windows are blanked from the outside with teflon kept in place with tape, resin is poured from the inside and the final result will be a clear window with the right curvature. A similar technique can be used with the Synthaglass I mentioned before, a friend uses this to make quite big windows for doll's houses. Problem is I believe the Synthaglass is not available in the UK yet. Windows apart, £100 is not a small price, but I'm really tempted by an RAF 1/72 comet 4 ! Expensive it might be, but the subject is so beautiful that I could burn the budget and go for it. It would then sit in the stash until I move to a bigger house

No problem, give me a couple of days

Jon, as you already use klear to brush tamiya's, you will have no problem in adding a couple of drops to xtracrylics paints for airbrushing. This is something I do whenever I aibrush water thinned acrylics (vallejo, lifecolours, xtracrylics) and the klear seems to make them much smoother both for the airbrush and on the model surface. Problem is what will I do when my supply of Klear will have dried up ????

There's a product called Synthaglass that can be used to make transparencies with very good results up to sizes that are not possible with glue or microscale krystal klear. It's also much more transparent than both the older methods and can be used fr curved windows and even parts like transparent tips. It would work well for the windows of a 1/72 airliner. Said that, I'd probably use the technique I plan on using on my airmodel Varsity: cut the strip of fuselage containing the windows, replace with a strip of clear plastic and then use masks to reproduce the windows. Something that however is Ok on an old vacform I bought for a tenner, not really ideal on a brand new £100 kit...

It's not too hard to add some details to the HB kits: a dremel and an eduard zoom sheet can do wonders. This is my HB 109G-6 with some added details during construction: Not tamiya quality, but I really had a lot of fun building this. However with the academy 190D kit costing little more than the HB one, I don't know if I'd go for the latter. Have to say the academy kit looks very nice in the box. Have yet to start it but I'm looking forward to it.