Giorgio N

We shouldn't forget that manfacturers like AZ or MPM do not see their customers in the low budget market. Because of the mould technology used, their production numbers are much lower compared to the likes of Airfix and Revell, from 100 to 1000 times less per mould. As their production numbers are low, their kit will not even reach all that 10% of people who are happy to spend this money. They can't even think of the 90% who would like to spend less money, they would not be able to make as many kits anyway. As such it makes sense that add that something more for modellers who want more. Asking AZ to do thousands of Spits at a fiver each is a bit like asking Lotus to build cheap city cars by the milions...

For that money, I'd be really wee weed off if it were a matchbox repop ! But the same price tag makes me think it will be a new kit.

YES !!!!

Cheaper for sure, satisfying I wouldn't know, my Italeri spitfire is using most of my patience, the fit is really bad !

Regarding the panel on the fin, I've seen pictures of this in medium grey but also in some sort of grey/green. Regarding the colour, Canberras were supposed to be in High Speed Silver.

The lander was manufactured by Grumman, the command module by Rockwell. That's a fantastic story ! I would not have wanted to be the manager who was presented such a bill !!

I agree with most but not on the F-14. This had some decent panel lines, although worse than those on the harriers, but had a lot of fit issues and lenty of errors. The F-15 on the other hand wasn't bad. The tornado was a disaster and the hornet wasn't good either.

Another difference is the lack on french examples of the RWR fairing on the tail. The area around the gun muzzles is also different, with a different arrangement of the cooling holes. There are differences in the cockpit too, as the RAF planes had a much more sophisticated avionics Other sure will know more

Guess you're talking about the 1/48 kit. What camo scheme and decals are you interested in ? The 326 was used by many countries and as such wore a number of schemes. In italian service you mainly have orange planes, as these were used for training purposes only. A few were in aluminium, with Alitalia using some for initial jet training in an aluminum/white/dayglo scheme Australia was a big user of the Macchi, in both RAAF and RAN service. The planes were used initially in white/orange/aluminum or white/blue/aluminum (for the navy) schemes but later a number of camouflages were used. The best option is to give a look at the decals made by Hawkeye models in Australia, they offer plent of choice for an Aussie Macchi http://www.hawkeyemodels.com.au/Menu.htm Argentina is another well know user, with the 326 serving in the navy. Initially the planes had a grey over white USN style scheme but later a sand/green over grey scheme was used. There was thread about the 339 last week on this same forum, the scheme was the same. Aerocalcas has done decals for argentina's 326s. Another scheme was then used with dark grey over white. Neighbouring Brasil also used the 326, and actually built it under license (as did Australia and South Africa). These planes were in the SEA scheme. Not sure who makes decals for them though. South African planes were mainly overall aluminum. Then there are Dubai planes in grey and sand and sand/brown, Ghana and Cameru planes in green/brown, planes from Zaire, Togo, Zambia.... Decals might be hard to find for the more exotic uses however.

Thanks Dave, PM inbound !

THanks Gary, I had completely missed this reissue. Looks like I don't need to convert anymore ! Although £17.. ouch ! I know there's resin in the kit, but a small fleet of Talons is going to be expensive. Maybe I should still investigate the conversion idea...

Rearding the Esci-Fujimi connections, back in the days there were rumours that the masters of several kits of the wo companies came from the same designer. Can't vouch for the accuracy of this, but it's undeniable that there are several similarities between the harriers and also between the phantoms. That article is very nice, brings back a lot of memories ! One small point, as mentioned by Jonathan, Esci actually started their plastic model business with 1/48 kits, the 1/72 airplanes followed a few years later. This was quite unusual for a european company, as 1/48 was considered an "american" scale. I remember well when the first kits appeared advertised in the italian Mickey Mouse magazine (yes, I was that young...). And even more unusual was that they only focused on post war planes with very few wartime subjects. As a final note, I might be wrong, but I seem to remember that the same person that was behind Esci started a die cast airplanes business after AMT bought Esci.

After buying a second hand copy of the beautiful pictorial history of the Talon edited by Schiffer, I'm starting to look for info on building a few models of this beautiful Airplane. I know that sword did both a 1/72 and a 1/48 kit, but my understanding is that they are hard to find. This means that I might have to convert an F-5B, something that I'm planning on trying on the old hasegawa T-38 before committing to a better kit (that can only mean the revell rebox of the esci F-5B). Now some might ask why convert a T-38 kit into a T-38: the answer is that the hasegawa T-38 does not represent a T-38 but an F-5B. Now I have a list of modifications ready, and I believe these are: - remove the lerx - reshape the intakes - fill the slats - change the main wheels - replace or modify the seats (that in the hasegawa kit are rubbish anyway) - add a triangular shape in front of the windscreen (this also affects the lower windscreen area) - remove the brake chute fairing - rework the exhaust area - lower the horizontal tailplanes position (not a modification to do a T-38 but rather a correction to the hase kit) - modify the lower fuselage Looks like a long list, but the real hard part to me seems to be the last point, especially as I'm not sure how to do this. Pictures show that the area in the Talon is flat, while it's bulged on the F-5 (guess related to the wider wheels ?). I'm thinking of cutting the whole area from the kit and replace it with plasticard. As it's all flat might do the job. However, has anyone ever done a similar job ? Any suggestion on how to do it ? Am I right in thinking that the exhaust area would be the same depth on the t-38 as on the F-5 ? On the same subject, I read that Fine Scale Modeler had an article on the same project in their November 1995 issue. Does anybody have this and can tell me if the lower fuselage modifications are mentioned ? If so I'll hunt for a copy of the article. Did I forget anything ? Decals wise I think I'll print my own. There's plenty of options I'd like to build, with some of the planes used or tests being very nice. Now I'm sure sword will reissue the kit as soon as I finish the conversion... assuming that the sword kit is correct, I've heard different opinions on the matter. Guess that at worst it will have some F-5B features..

I can confirm their golden yellow is very good for an RAF Sea King. Unfortunately it's one of those colours that doesn't really cover very well. I always needed to spray a lot of thin coats, even more than those normally required with other yellows.

There aren't that many pictures taken during the early years either, so making the colours out of the pictures isn't easy. Mind, in a 1983 magazine one of the colours suggested was US intermediate blue, the same you used !

Hmmm... true that it's a cheap kit, however if I look at pictures of the built models on the web or look in the box at the model shop and I don't like what I see, why should I buy it ? If I don't like the way that kit looks I'd rather spend those £7.99 on something that I do like ! Would this be enough of a reason not to buy and therefore build a kit ?

That's a very nice picture, and to me shows a white underbelly. I compared the picture to one I have in a book of 5-257 right after delivery and the latter shows bluish undersurfaces that are clearly darker than the gear legs (that were supposed to be white) and are a good match for 35550. The picture of 5-256 shown on this page shows to me something similar http://tisfoon.irandefence.net/showthread....9883&page=8 Again, the undersides look darker and bluer than the white wheels. Maybe while 35550 was the original colour, and is mentioned in various references, the planes were repainted at some point with similar blues but white undersurfaces ?

Tim, I can add to Ian's suggestions the Hobbycraft skyhawks. These are not bad, not as good as the hasegawa but much better than the old Esci. Not sure how easy they are to find though.

In a sense yes, asNorth Vietnam used the Mig-15 in its two seat version (Mig-15 UTI). However it was the Mig-17 that was the combat plane equipping the air force at the start of the war, later supplemented by more modern types.

I thought Airfix was a private business, in the market to make profit, and not a charity that must be helped. As in my job none of my potential customers buys anything from me if they're not 100% happy with what I offer, why should I buy from Airfix something I'm not happy with ? The airfix Mig-15 looks weird when compared to pictures, something is not right with the nose to my eyes. I believe it's the position of the wing relative to the intake lip and the canopy that throws the shape off. Yes it's a £7.99 kit, and a lot of modellers will be happy with it. But for £3 less I can buy the Hobbyboss kit that looks much better to my eyes and will make probably even more modellers happy. As to correcting it, I don't mind correcting shapes, but with alternatives around, would it be worth the hassle ?

You're not too wrong, the colours used were 35109, 35190, 35488 for the upper surfaces and 35550 for the lower surfaces

The propeller is not related to the version (Vb or Vc)but to the manufacturer of the plane: generally speaking, Supermarine and Westland built machines had the DH, Castle Bromwhich built machines had metal initially and then wooden Rotol.

F-84s were not used in vietnam or indochina. The only involvement of any '80 series fighter in the war was the use of Australian and Thai Sabres to defend airbases in Thailand, but none had contact with the enemy.

Chipping can occur on removable panels, expecially those that are removed often, like ammunition bay covers. Personally I just use a very small brush or a sharpened toothpick to deposit a minimal quantity of paint. So minimal that it's more a drybrushing than proper painting. I always do this before the washes, so I don't usually have need for masking the panel lines. I agree with Pigsty's comment: pure silver is too bright, a toned down metallic colour is better. I normally mix some silver with the darker boltgun metal. But I guess that using chainmail from the same citadel range would work fine. Alternatevily you can use a metal paint as a base on which paint the camouflase, and then with the tip of a knife or some sandpaper scratch lightly the paint until the metal shows through.

Checked the supermodel instructions but they give no colour correspondance. However they give the green as 34079... not sure if it's right, the green in the pictures look lighter. On a website I've seen Humbrol 168 given as a match for 30318... this is the Nimrods Hemp, and it's totally different from the pictures I've seen of these Macchis ! Guess mixing is the only solution. If however you use acrylics, a look at vallejos might provide something close enough. They have so many shades !