colin ritchie

bob - in the slightly amended words of Leo McGarry in "The West wing" - there are 3 things you never want to see made , Laws , Sausages - and my models ! No I was too busy slathering the little sod in filler to take pics - and to be honest , its such a lash up internally - i really don't want to be reminded of the lost weeks spent to get it this far ... suffice to say 17mm plug inserted behind the cockpit, old Revell F-2 nose cone added, (too small in profile i think) , plug added at the back between the end of the fusalage and the jet pipe section , and Lex's amended using Epoxy putty and hope! I've deceided to ignore the recessed missile bays in the fordward fusalage , and just add the missiles to the fusalage bottom - cheating I know , but by this time , i'm passed caring .. Pit is a modified BB F-3 one - again , an ok starting point , but not that good.. Add to that fin mods - and re-engraving access panels on the fordward fuslage .. and that's my year so far!

hmm 32nd 111SQ F-3 .. you mean like this .... Be kind - its a conversion from a couple of GR-1's by yours truly .. and its not the best ......

If you do get a hold of the F-2 kit - watch the warpage on the wings - about 5-6 years ago airfix re-popped the kit , and I picked one up at the Wonderland stall at Leuchers that year, (on offer at £13 Ithink!!!) , the Upper wing halves were bent upwards at something 20-30 degrees - Looks like it had been pulled from the mould too quickly Its not a major issue , but a pain to remedy in what is otherwise a great kit

Mods not with standing - it'll be nice to have them back in production - I feel a big Granby Tonka coming on .... As for re-release - we can but hope! , i

I think it's fairly rare , Hasagawa dosen't do huge runs of these re-boxings - Its a great kit , I loved building my Longbox , but it is a complex kit ..

Well at least you don't have to engrave the wings - one of the blessings of that kit .. I built mine a couple of years ago , and it seemed to be an ok build , not too much in the way of filling/fettling .. but that blessed re-engraving of the fusalage .. Ugh!

:shithappens: Sorry James ...... Back to the F-3 .. its a painto bring one out of a GR-1, 80% comminality - Hah!, maybe if I had some of your skills I might not spending 3 months sanding!

can I just join the chorus singing your praises john , really exceptional work , its als a bit depressing for me as well.... You see I'm trying to wrestle an F-3 in 32nd from a a couple of IDS Tornado's , and looking at what your doing just makes me realise how many corners I'm cutting , however after the cutting/sanding/filling I've been doing over the last 8 weeks or so , perhaps I'll be forgiven if I leave my U/c bays looking a little underdressed! Oh and if any company (Revell?) ever announces a 32nd F-3 I'm claiming credit in sparking the idea! John I just wish I had 1/2 your skill, if I did my own work would liik a heckava lot better!

Very impressive indeed .. the seats especially are superb!

Practice makes perfect ... the wing to fusalage joint on the Tamiya 32nd F-15 series can be a total pain to get right , I've spent far too log sanding and filling that gap on my first 2 Eagles - but there is a soloution , first when it comes to the wing joint , DO NOT USE any of the screws , they just distort things , Get the upper fusalage part, and add the upper wing panel to it , BEFORE you fit the lower fusalage - that allows you to "massage" the join. Thne add the lower fusalage , and then the lower wing panels - result - no join to work out all I can suggest witht he front to rear fusalage is to spend as much time as you can getting the joing surfaces as clean as possible, and then bring them together with the joining surfaces "softened" with glue, its just a case then of applying enough pressure to get everything fused together , avoiding the need for lots of sanding - hopefully! One area of the kit that gets ignored to some extent is that of the vertical stabs, if yuo look at a real F-15 there is no gap at the bottome of the stabs, but i've seen lots of F-15 models where such a gap is obvious , you really need to fill and cover any trace of a gap there . I think the size and cost fo these kits lulls a lot of builders into the belief that they are shake and bake wonderkist - they're not, they need a fair amount of fetteling to get the best of of them - but is can be worth it My f-15c from a few years back ....

Get a hold of the Osprey book "Modelling the F-4" , there's a rather nice F-4J build in that , complete with some rather nifty colour recomendations , based on fragments of real F-4's - complete with xtracolour matches - well worth the price

I'd agree with all those who voted for the Tamiya viper , I've built 2 Tamiya and 1 Academy F-16 in 32nd , and the Tamiya kits build like a dream.. really simple to put together and accurate - BUT don't write off the academy kit alltogether - if you look at it as a box of aftermarket bits , rather than a kit - it makes extremly good sense you get things like the unique f-16 Low Drag TER's , 4x500LB GBU-12's , a complete LANTRIN set, Aim-9X's etc etc , and combine that with a truly beautiful decal sheet ,(including complete weapons stencils) its really a a bargin, especially if you want to build a block 40 CG F-16 , I once worked out that the extra weapons etc in the Academy kit , were worth approx twice what you'd pay for the kit ..

ain't that he truth ..... the good news tho' is I didn't pay for the model - annivsery present frm the Mrs.. wonderful lady

Very sensible move the Black Arrows .. however the wrap round scheme is possible However it does take a LOT or tape.....

wow - I'd love to get my hands on one othose kits again , as a very young, and inexperenced modeller , I saved up for months to get that model when it was first released, and screwed it it royally ..... :shithappens: Watch the decals is the only advice I have that might be of use - on mine the fusalage bands dimply exploded apart on contact with water - other then that , try searching on line - there are enough of the real things out there - some one must have pics...

Brilliant - that's what i was looking for .. And off to amazon to go book shopping thanks !

I'm just finishing off my F-6 , and I would point out that the Revell cockpit has been re-worked somewhat from the original F9 release , more detail added to the rear bulkhead etc - but its still inferior to the True Details option I guess - however when its painted black ,really a lot of the detail really melts in to the shadows .. Oh BTW I used the 12Sq wrapround camo option from the Xtradecals sheet - not recommended unless you a masocist - or like masking! - next time - the Black Arrows option!

Ok all this talk of Tornado F-3's a couple of weeks ago in the light of the Black box pit got me thinking about convertiting a Revell 1/32nd GR-1 into an F-3 In the words of the Blessed Saint Clarkson "How Hard Can it Be?" Well plenty - if like me your shocking lacking in decent F-3 references Very! Now I've go most of the airframe mode worked out , and dimensions in hand , I've even got an old Revell F-2 that's donating its nose , but for the life of me I cannot work out where the Mid fusalage plug went , (down the plug hole is not funny!!! ) My reading of the pics I have suggest that it was added into the rear of the cockpit section before it started flaring out to meet the rear fusalge , but I don't really know how big it was , I've seen 1.36M mentioned (4 1/2 feet) , but just dosents seem to square with pice , (1.36m scales out to 1.5" or so in 32nd and that really dosen't look right at all...) Any help on this mad undertaking gladly accepted!

Well over on LSP there whas an announcement from Cammett that they should have their first PCM1/32nd Spits IX's in tomorrow (Sat 3rd ...Race ya!) their Web site

Not scientific or definative , buti've seen pics of Vampires on Malts in the Mid 50's being re-fulled by a QL tanker , as per the old airfix set - so they were stillaround for sometime after 1945 ...

Well there's This - LSP Review of the kit - or ifmyou want to know how it builds try Here for an online build of one ... Overall looks like an excellent kit 0 and a pretty decent package ..I speak as someone who spent at least £60+ assembling the doings for my MkIX buld last year Hope this helps

bugger it I missed it ... My old boss who wors in an office about 1/2 a mile from the Dyce had a grandstand view - me on the other hand - not a dammed thing.. great shots tho! Poor 56 Sq... Sniff ...

It may be a part of the standard RAF famlirisation routine they operate, what I was told is that all RAF Aircrews based in Scotland must be famliar with the ATC procedures for all major airfields in Scotland , goes back I believe to the old Cold War doctrine that all aircrews must be ready to divert to any operational airfield in the event of a base closure. We get a lot of flybys inAberdeen, Tornados and Nimrods , and the occasional Typhoon - they basiclly do a fast pass through the controlled zone - great fun to watch .. Even more fun when we had Jaguars up here as well ,

OOPs ... , should have realised this would have been spotted earlier!

Have a look Black Box Main site - thy are listing a a 1/32 cockpit for a Tornado F-3 - for the Revel kit ??? Now assuming they don't mean the dreadful old F-2 of less than happy memory - i can only assume Revell have deceided that its time to re-work the GR1 into the F-3 - but does anone know for sure .. any rumours floating about - I hanvn't heard a thing ... If its true tho..Wopeeee!!!!!