Tiger331

Steve Well done, mate......its a cracker and will hopefully inspire me to get on with one or two of my own when I get home in two weeks time. As for the JP3, I think you would derive a lot of satisfaction from both the CMR or Aeroclub kits....its just a question of scale. I certainly wouldnt be daunted by an all resin kit given your unquestionable skills with the delightful Airfix Chipmunk. Once again, well done and I look forward to seeing the next instalment in due course ! Mark

Recently visited the two Glasgow based shops.....one closes today......this was offering 30% off kits and 50% off paints/tools. The city centre shop, which appears to be staying open for longer, was only offering 20% off kits but still 50% off paints etc. the Vallejo paints had already been relocated from Silverburn to the City Centre shop....thinning out fast.....I took quite a few of the remaining Grey shades. Do look out for anomalies amongst the kit prices though. Whilst most are discounted from full price, there are some (as others have noted) that are still showing previous offer prices and the very helpful staff (working in trying circumstances) are honouring these prices. I walked out with a Revell Rafale M for 7.99 and the chap in front of me nabbed a Tamiya 1:48 Lancaster for 60.00 so do look carefully in whichever branch you happen to visit. Tiger331

Michael Any idea when the Basingstoke branch closes ?. Im due to visit my parents next weekend and that branch of MZ is the nearest one to them. Like you, Ive always enjoyed visiting the shop and it would be nice to pay them one last nostalgic visit before they close, if possible Cheers Mark

Just completed a successful foray to both the Silverburn and St Enochs branches of MZ in Galsgow. As others have reported there are not massive bargains to be had in the kit selections but you do need to look carefully as there are some hidden in amongst the stock. I managed to pick up a Revell 1:48 Rafale M for 7.99 and the guy in front of me in the queue scored a Tamiya 1:48 Avro Lancaster for 60.00....most of the stock at Silverburn is now at 30% (tomorrow is their last day) with St Enochs remaining at 20%....so Airfix and Revell are the only real bargains. I did pick up a load of Tamiya and Vallejo paint and some Tamiya weathering products and tools for 50% so came away happy. Also managed a quick visit to Jamiesons (not been there since 2005) and picked up some old mags and the new Airfix Fw-190 kit so a real result. Mark

But let's face it, Heloman, what we REALLY want them to do (hard on the heels of the Lynx family and Merlin) is a 1:48 scale Puma HC.1 !......Thats LONG overdue and crying out for a kit, given its longevity in Service and all the operations its been involved in, and not just with the RAF. Mark

Steve...keep up the great work.....still cannot get over the fact this is the 1:72 AIRFIX kit......just goes to show what can be done with skill, dedication and motivation. I'm not sure if you only do stuff in the 'Gentlemans' scale or if you have dabbled in 1:48...?...If you do cross over to the Dark side, you're in for a bit of a treat with the new Fly Models Jet Provost T.5, which is a very neat kit and the brand new Kittyhawk Jaguar GR.1/3 also looks very nice too. I don't want to hijack the thread with too much nostalgia.....maybe I'll drop you a PM sometime since (quite coincidentally) your name cropped up in more than one conversation I had last year with another former colleague of ours...Andy Wilkins....(Ex Neatishead FC but I forgive him his indiscretions !). BTW, the Cyprus trip was in November 1984 and I'm pretty sure you were on it....We took half a dozen jets including a two-seater. Paddy had, indeed, been in Oman but was a QWI on 54 Sqn with Frog and Brian 'The mad Rhodesian' (cannot recall his surname right now) whilst I was at Colt....maybe he moved to the Sim after I left although I cannot really imagine him settling into that environment ?. Approaching the final hurdle.....keep up the great work !. Mark

Steve, I've just come across this thread of yours so apologies for the lateness of my arrival.......great, truly great, to be taken back down memory lane. Quite apart from the superb modelling that I'm witnessing it's good to see an old colleague on the forum and all those photos of times past (Chippes and JPs). I was the Station 'Mover and Shaker' at Colt during your early time there and responsible for getting you all to sunnier (Nellis, Deci and Akrotiri) and colder/wetter (Tirstup/Bardufoss) climes so spent quite a bit of time away from the station 'down range'. Fortunately, the upside was making quite a few friends on the Squadrons including Gus Donald, Pete Tholen, Dick MacCormac, Paddy Mullen and Len S (RIP - my roomate at IOT). IIRC we both deployed to Nellis on Red Flag and also to Akrotiri supporting an Army exercise where our SENGO gave us all a very valuable lesson on the need to wear a seatbelt - his 'Glasgie Kiss' with the windscreen was not pretty !. It was also an honour and a privilege to become an Honorary Member of Shiny Six during my time at Coltishall - still, probably, my best tour in the RAF. Anyway, returning to the project, I simply cannot believe what you have achieved with the venerable old Airfix kit.....I well remember building one years ago but have moved up a scale and have yet to embark on the Heritage kit I have in the inevitable stash but a lot of your work has provided great references for that project in due course. Congratulations on a great build and I really look forward to seeing it in the Ready for Inspection section in due course. Cheers Mark

Hi, Tanks/AFVs are not my area of expertise but I notice Academy have a 1:48 scale Challenger MBT in their range. Anyone know anything about this kit ?. Is it relatively new, or a re-pop, and is it any good as a basis for some kit bashing. I know there are very good 1:35 scale kits out there but I would prefer 1:48 to fit in with my aircraft models. Thanks in advance Mark

Hi there, Yes...you're right.......Its the 'T' sprue that, by all accounts, contains the slightly different JSDF cockpit parts and some aerials, none of which you need anyway. For some strange reason they only included the 'T' sprue in the standard JSDF issue and the one I am getting (the second 'special limited edition' issue) only has the 'S' parts.....I've checked the sprue map for this kit against that for the WAH-64D 'Royal Army' issue and its exactly the same so I was not really sure why Heritage are trying to dissuade people from buying the JSDF AH-64D kits when they are effectively the same kit !. Anyway, I'm sure I can solve the puzzle with all the excellent feedback and photos available here on BM. Thanks for your interest. Mark

Mike, Well, well.......Of course, I never checked the RAF kit....looks a lot better and certainly closer to the size of the Paragon/Mastercasters wheels I have...agree with you on the nosewheel though.......I'm sure some enterprising soul will come to our rescue in due course though ! Thanks for the feedback Mark

Hi there, Just acquired a couple of the new Kittyhawk 1:48 scale Jaguar kits (both French A and British GR.1/3 variants) and noticed a glaring difference in size between the Mastercasters resin mainwheels and those included in the kit ?. The difference is quite marked and, unfortunately, I do not have an Airfix kit (for which the Mastercasters set was originally designed for) to hand. The Kittyhawk wheels look positively huge in comparison and mindful of some of the comments on this website and others about accuracy issues with some of the new Kittyhawk releases I just wondered what the overall view was ?. None of the more recent reviews in the modelling magazines seem to highlight this an issue although given the lack of research that goes into a considerable number of reviews that now appear in the UK modelling press I'm not really that surprised. I would welcome some feedback Many thanks in anticipation Mark

Hi there, Just starting to put everything together to get on with a couple of Hasegawa AH-64D/WAH-64D builds myself ......I'm planning a AH-64D Longbow as a retirement presentation to my boss who used to fly both AH-64As and D's with the US Army. I'm building a AAC WAH-64D alongside this project and just managed to procure a second, cheap, JSDF AH-64D Longbow for the project. When researching which WAH-64D upgrade set to purchase, I noticed that Heritage Models state that their set can be used with any Hasegawa AH-64D kit with the EXCEPTION of the JSDF variant...and yet the JSDF variant has exactly the same plastic (barring one EXTRA sprue) as the WAH-64D 'Royal Army' kit.....so can anyone tell me why Heritage would make this caveat ?......doesn't make sense to me at the mo' Thanks for your help... Mark

Dobro Dan Miroslav ! I remember seeing these flying close to the city of Belgrade when I visited in both 1998 and 2009. I do like the 'new' Serbian roundel and am currently working on the Eduard MiG 21bis. I'm hoping to complete it in the two-tone grey experimental scheme and have the Lift Here ! decals to do the job. Congratulations on a great build and display ! Mark

Hei Hei Jorgen, Not a bad choice if you haven't done a helo for a while.....watch the fitting of the lower hull piece to the fuselage....IIRC, I needed to trim this down a little and used some filler. The sponsons are a little tricky too....their fit is not 100% and you could lose some of the engraved detail when you fill and sand the joints. Other than that, it goes together pretty well. The cockpit is a bit sparse under all the glazing so you may want to consider a Eduard zoon set for the instrument panels, seat straps etc. If I find the info on the Apollo 11 'pick up' decals I'll forward them to you. Good Luck Mark

Nice build......I'm not sure all of the Fokker 100s have been retired yet though ?. I regularly fly KLM Cityhopper between Stavanger, here in Norway and all points in Europe and often find myself on one of these aircraft rather than the Embraer that was supposedly going to replace all of the Fokker 70/100 fleet by 2012. In recent months I've seen quite a few Fokker 70/100s parked on the ramp at Schipol so I am guessing the re-equipment programme has slipped, either because of production backlogs (likely given the popularity of the Brazilian airliner) or initial in-service teething problems (less likely).....I think its going to be at least a few more months before we see the last of these popular Dutch aeroplanes out of service with KLM. Tiger331

And thats precisely why some retailers are doing just that.....refusing to stock Hasegawa kits. I know of at least one well known UK retailer/MO outfit that is no longer taking new Hasegawa kits and stocking more Airfix, Revell and Eduard to compensate. Even my own LMS, with a local modelling population conditioned to paying £45 for a Hasegawa 1:48 P-51D Mustang or £65 for an Airfix 1:48 Canberra has drastically reduced his stocks of Hasegawa and is filling the shelves with Revell, Hobby Boss and Roden kits amongst others. There is some evidence that some of Hasegawa's kits are now appearing at more reasonable prices but I think the days of £15.99 F-104s and £24.99 F/A-18 Hornets are long over. Mark

Not factually correct on the BAE issue. This is a 100% new kit and, as stated, it is unlikely that Revell will have it ready by October. They have already taken on board the issues with previous Hobby Boss and Italeri kits and are utterly determined to get this one right, given that its a largely 'home grown' product that also happens to be operated by their Air Force. We are not dealing with The Revell-Monogram team here.

I would steer clear of the Aires CDS......It's got great detail but its a nightmare to fit to the Hasegawa kit (for which is designed). I had to thin down the side walls of the kit until they were literally paper thin and then have a go at the sides of the resin parts too. In spite of this the fuselage is still too bulged to allow the canopy tofit snugly so I have had to model ths particular kit with the canopy open. Ive since built two more F-104s with the Cutting Edge and CMK detail sets and they fit like a dream in comparison. Hope this helps Mark

Very nice......I've been watching progress with this in the WIP Section for a while but was away for two weeks on business and took my eye off the ball and kinda lost track. Having 'invested' (and I mean that quite sincerely !) in one of these kits last month I'm keen to start work so your RFI has provided real inspiration. Thanks for sharing it with us Mark

I mainly do 1:48 and have lost track of the 1:72 world. I've recently been asked to contribute two 1:72 scale kits to a project and need to do a Jugoslav MiG 21MF and Antonov An-2 Colt. Can the 1:72 modellers out there give me some recommendations, please ? Thanks Mark

I think you mean the 1:48 Airfix and Italeri kits..... As far as I can ascertain both have issues although these are minor in nature providing you are not too fussy about 100% accuracy. The earlier Airfix kit has some nice detail and is pretty accurate but its pretty typical of an Airfix kit of the time - this was well before the current raft of finely detailed kits with a slightly smoother plastic surface. The Airfix kit was made from quite thibk plastic with some heavily applied panel lines (not quite as bas as Matchbox) but I have to say made up examples look the part when finished in a nicely applied colour scheme. Cockpit details were fairly spartan but there are a host of aftermarket sets to dress these kits up. Some of the smaller parts could do with being replaced and Eduard, for example, do some nice photo-etched if this is your thing. The italeri kit is of a much later period and s typical of that company 's most recent products. The plastic is much finer and some of the detail matches too....they also include some photo-etch too which is a nice touch. I understand there are some minor accuracy issues with the Italeri kit which mean that, although it is much more refined, its not quite as accurate as the Airfix offering. That said it looks like a Hawk when its finished. The only other issue with the Italeri offering is the decal sheet. At first glance it looks stunning since it has been done by Cartograf but quite a bit of it is inaccurate and its best replaced with an aftermarket shett from the likes of Xtradecal or Model Alliance, if you can still get the latter. Hope this helps with your deliberations Mark

Pure brilliance !. I have a couple of these in the stash and hope to start one soon.....You've done a great job and given me the motivation to proceed. Mark

Not a pilot but lots of great trips in the past.... 1. Back seat in a 26 ship Hawk formation over London for the VJ Day 50th Anniversary celebrations in August 1995. Made all the more memorable by declaring a minor emergency on our recovery back into Valley some 45 minutes later. 2. Chasing a Buccaneer formation over the North Sea from the right hand seat of a Hunter T.7 on a late summer evening 3. Flying low level along a Norwegian fjord in a Czech Mil-24 Hind Happy days Tiger331

Just read the thread on the 'other site' with some mild amusement . I must admit I wondered when Anything Reviewed from China would start ripping this kit apart. I'm just surprised it took them so long. For what it's worth as someone who has actually built this kit, rather than just talked about it, its a cracker. Sure it's got one or two minor accuracy issues, largely based on which particular sub-variant you want to build, and it definitely is not a 'shake and bake' kit as some others have 'experienced' or suggested but it is superb nonetheless. I do not tend to build kits these days without some inclusion of aftermarket parts but this kit could easily be an exception. I did add a resin KM-36 ejection seat but this was sheer indulgence on my part...the attention to detail is superb and GWH, as a very young company, should be credited with delivering another top quality product. The fact that they have gone back and made some minor tweaks (even including an adjustment to the type of inner packaging they supply for the main fuselage parts) is testament to their attention to detail (in every respect) and attitude towards customer satisfaction. They are most definitely not part of the 'pile 'em high..sell 'em cheap' brigade. The only minor criticism I would make is that the kit is 'over-engineered' in places, mainly associated with the supply of full engine units and this created some fit issues with the outer engine fairings so I used a bit more filler than I had at first anticipated. With some care and attention, the vast majority of the kit does fall together quite nicely and the end result certainly looks the part. I will admit that the drop tanks (not the centreline tank which is light years ahead of anything previously offered) did not look right and this is one area where they did fall down but, then again, how often do we see these tanks fitted ?. I know it should not be used as an excuse but other than this and one or two other minor accuracy issues, it really does look the part when finished. Bring on the 9-13 with all the improvements GWH have already introduced to this second offering in their family of Fulcrums ! Mark

If you are planning to do several Soviet-era jets with the rather garish blue-green cockpit colour then I'm reliably informed that a 50-50 mix of gunze sangyo aqueous hobby colours H-15 (bright blue) and H-46 (emerald green) is perfect. These paints are quite difficult to find but the Model Design Corporation (MDC) in UK stock them, for sure......ive got them from here in the past. HTH Mark