Sten Ekedahl

Indeed!!!!

CONGRATULATIONS!!!!!!!

Pavla makes resin drop tanks for the Su-17/25.

I don´t have access to that photo nowadays, having retired from the Air Force more than two years ago. I saw it many years ago at Uppsala Air Force Station while I was working there. The only photo I have is a close up of un unidentified Hornet undergoing engine maintenance at Uppsala. BTW, the visit to Sweden by 65 Sqn took place in May 1948.

Looking great! Just as I remember the Draken from all my years in the SwAF!

Very nice model of a good looking aeroplane in a very flashy paint scheme! I have seen photos of this particular aircraft taken at the Swedish Air Force station in Uppsala when 65 Sqn. visited Sweden in 1947.

Looking very good! Hard to imagine that it really is the old Matchbox kit.

Had already bought two Trumpeter kits before the Revell kit was released, so Trumpeter it will be - including the full etched works from Eduard. Decals? Probably Model Art from my (too) big stash.

It might not be a bad deal after all, buying from Hannants, since you are going to Teelford anyhow. I don't know how it works in the UK, but here in Sweden if I order something from outside the EU, I have to pay the Swedish VAT (25%!) for the stuff when I pick up the package from the Post office.

Janne Sairanen of IPMS Gothenburg has built a very nice Vigilante this year. He has published a lot of WIP pics here. Unfortunetely the text is in Swedish, but I think the pics speak for themself.

Airmodel did a vacformed fuselage long ago, also intended to be used with the old Frog kit, but it is neither very accurate nor well detailed and in my opinion should be avoided in favour of the Aeroclub set.

I built the Skybirds 86 Scimitar many years ago. I was one of the most enjoyable builds I've ever had! Yes, it was a lot of work, but the two(!) full A4 pages of written instructions were extremely detailed and well written and had solutions to every imaginable problem that might arise during construction. The cast metal parts were the best I have ever seen! The only change to the kit I made was to substitue two of the extra tanks with a pair of Bullpup missiles. It is still a nice model but unfortunately the Model Art decals have yellowed over the years. BTW, I met Mike Eacock at Donnington several years ago and remember him as one of the nicest persons I've ever met!

Do smoke a pipe have a beard and enjoyed your models!

Ooops! I hope you first sprayed the canopy with the inside colour, otherwise you will have a canopy with white as the inside colour of the frames. :shithappens:

Quickboost, Paragon, Airwaves, anyone, please?

Very nice build! Agree it's not the prettiest aircraft ever designed, but never the less, I think it has a certain elegance. Reminds me of Farnborough 1982 where I saw one of them do a fly past. Yes, I am that old!

You'll need an awful lot of lead in the nose - and there isn't much room for it there - to counterbalance all that plastic at the rear end!

Nah, I've seen worse.

Nice to see this kit! I started building one of these myself, many years ago, but unfortunately it has stalled. Since then I have found a very nice but fiddly set of etched parts for this kit, made by Extra Tech, that I am planning to use on it. Regarding all those windows, I installed them from the start, before painting - which I haven't started yet. My method, which I have used on several other kits, is to first sand and polish each separate window with one of those four-grade sanding sticks intended for polishing fingernails (these sticks are very useful and can be easily found in hobby shops for girls, i.e. beauty shops). Then I carefully file the hole in the fuselage, and frequently testfit the clear part, until I have a tight and snug fit. With the clear part in place I then carefully apply liquid glue (MEK) with a 000 size paitbrush along the edge. When doing this it is important to apply the brush in the direction from the fuselage part towards the clear part in order to minimize the risk of getting glue on the visible part of the window. A steady hand is advisable! On aircraft with a flush outer surface I try to fit these windows slightly proud of the surounding fuselage. When the glue has dried completely (i.e. next day) I use my nail poli... ehm.. sanding stick, to achieve an even surface and then polish the clear parts to be even clearer than they were before (actually not that difficult). A coat of Future can also be applied afterwards to improve it even more. One of the reasons my build have stalled is that I am not quite sure about the interior colour (natural metal or light grey?). The other reason is that I am waiting for the correction set for the original French built version to be released by HR model for this kit. The main part in this set is the forward upper fuselage piece between the nose turret and the windscreen. The kit part is straight when seen from the side which apparently is correct for aircraft licence produced i Czechoslovakia, but there should be a noticeable kink in this line on French aircraft. BTW, the origin of this kit is not Heller. It is an old KP kit, and a rather nice one in my opinion. It will certainly require a bit of work, but hey - isn't that what modelling is about?

And what's the verdict from the experts?

AMS - that feared and dreaded disease! How wonderful it is when someone else has got it too! I'm really enjoying this one - and learning a lot from it.

Steve, Be strong! Don't listen to evil temptations! Keep the true faith and stay with God's scale !

Lovely model of one of the most beautiful aircraft ever built! One small question, though. I have always believed that RAF aircraft of that era were glossy, and that matt colours were not introduced until the late 70's at the same time when the fuselage and top wing roundels were changed to low visibility res/blue instead of the previous D type. Please correct me if I'm wrong since I have several projects in store from the 50's and 60's.

... or if you can get hold of an old Rarepalanes Victor! I had the privilige of meeting the Honorable Gordon Stevens at the Plasticfest at IPMS Farborough in 1982. He had just released his Rareplanes kit of the Victor and brought a built up model from the kit to the Plasticfest. His only comment was: "I finished this one in just one and a half week and that proves that it's not as difficult to build a vacformed kit as most people think it is." (!!!) IIRC the Rareplanes kit is much more accurate than the Matchbox kit (which arrived just months after the Rareplanes kit and killed the latter economically).

Not only UK modellers...