colin ritchie

I'g guess more like £79.99 .. (awh heck who cares its a 32nd Lightning ... And my birthday is in February - so the cost is my wife's problem!!!)

I know what you mean , I've got pics of early F-4G's and they are basiclly a maintenance manual with wings... I built the old Revell 32nd F-4E years and years ago, and that ended up covered in the blessed things ... at least the later hill Grey schemes cut down on a lot of the stencilling - and working in 32nd means you can actually see them !

Typhoon pics ... Correct me if I'm wrong - but doesn't that look like 32nd Storm shadows.... - Op telic GR-4's now got weapons!

Well in the words of a P-51 restorer over on ARC ... and that I think sums it up perfectly Plastic ...If its wears black crosses , eventually you'll get a decent kit of it , in any scale you want , doesn't matter is it was a drunken scribble on the back of a napkin .. someone will kit it .. contrast that with the bread and butter allied air forces.. especially in 32nd , hurricane - release date 1969/70 - Mosquito - mid 70's ditto the Beaufighter .. long past their sell by date , but still punted out time after time , with no sign of a replacement . OK the flurry of excitement when the likes of Trumpeter release things like the P-38, or special hobbies the P-39 does go some way to helping -- but its not enough ...B-25. A-26 .. not that bigger than a 110 ... The later this year we have the Revell 32nd Ju-88 , great , decent price as well it seems - but would a Mossie been too much to ask .. lots of versions , lots of opportunity to release multiple versions .. Ah well, all we can do is dream I guess . It seems I'm German bashing in this rant , and to an extent I am , its this whole "Only German WWII sells , there fore its all we'll produce" mentality that distorts the market , and ensure that every single version of the 109 will eventually be kitted ,(OK the F is still waiting to be done properly!), and us RAF modellers spend a LOT on resin trying to produce a 32nd scale Spit that isn't a Vb.. such is life in the modelling ghetto! I love the PCM IX, but even its best friends will concede its crude in places, and the fit is less than stellar , can you imagine the outcry from some modelling sites if this was the only way to build a Fw-190A-4 in 32nd ... thank goodness for Trumpter , and to a certain extent Hasagawa , perhaps thanks to them we might see some gaps in the Applied ranks filled eventually!

NOOOOO - Too small.... we need them bigger , how are we to know how much they suck if we can't see them properly ......!!! Ok calming down again - the commentary on the Swordfish suggests a direct "adaptation" of the Tamiya Swordfish .. maybe they've taken a similar amount of "inspiration" from the airfix Lightnings - we we can but hope .... still is noce to knw the One true scale is thriving!

a 110 in 32 big.. Hah .... Try a Su-27 , or 2 F-14's , or 9 complete Tamiya F-4's .. now that takes up some acreage !- lucky I've got an understanding wife! The 110 does look to be a nice kit, but I'll pass on it , along with all other German WWII subjects .. bring on a decent Hurricane or Mossie in 32nd though ...

Superb , just a beautiful build ..

Beautiful work , just beautiful.. I wish I'd had a fraction of your skill before my butchery of the WE Hood 11 years ago!

In the right light those are the colours the Raptor appears to be painted , but as Daz said - in direct sunlight there is a weird metallic/prismatic effect to the paint , that makes it look like metallic grey - there are some modellers who have tried to re-produce this effect , using over sprays of metallic lacquers , but frankly you're on your own trying to reproduce it accurately . Like most things on the F-22 , the exact composition of the paint is a secret - one thing I could guess tho' - it won't be cheap!

Thanks for the kind words, frankly I'm so hacked off with the little so and so its been relegated to the back of the work pile for the time being - i'm just burned out on her .. AS for other manafacturers, well there was Cleavland Model Resins - Deal old Rod Clements - all ambition, and the business skills of suicidal lemming ..I remember having words with Dave Clements(?) of Flightpath a few years ago re F-3 conversion, he was amazed that CMR were even going ahead with it , let alone how little they were charging for ir, (Lemming remember!) AS all of us who've approached the F-3 from the GR-1 know , its a myth the 80% commonality, they are very different birds, and getting it right in 32 is no easy task , as I've found , .. want an example - Well on Saturday evening I'm trying to halve the width of White decal stripes to llow me to do the walkways on my F-3 ... Burn out - you'd better believe it! I

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...