fightersweep

It's a typically nice Tamiya kit, but the only things missing for me are the usual inaccuracy in the wheel well and that the kit omitted the option of dropped flaps (don't see many parked Mustangs with raised flaps). No big deal, but at least Airfix addressed both areas in their kit. Steve

@Nytram Well, I was close....but no cigar! Found the photo after much rummaging and it was Sun XXII my Dad snapped back sometime in 1975 at the ferry jetty at Tilbury: Steve

Yes Sir! That was one of my photos. Quite a well known one now as it's appeared in a few publications, but still a great photo. Steve

Here's a nice photo that I found as part of my research. Taken on June 3rd 1945, the photo shows "Ice Cold Katy" with the crew of 1st Lt. Richard Guy and the ten passengers slated for the return flight to the US at war's end. Richard Guy, who is front row centre, sent me a series of photos taken on the day when we corresponded back in the early 90s. Kneeling on the right is Major Donald McCree, CO of the 612th Bomb Squadron, who flew as co-pilot on the return trip. Once back in the US, "Katy" ended her days awaiting the breakers at Kingman, Arizona. Somehow, I managed to find her hiding in an aerial photo taken at the time. Never thought I would find a photo of her at Kingman, but 25 years after starting my research, I found an image. I never expected to find one, ever! The Kits World decals have a few errors as far as "Ice Cold Katy is concerned. Once you get around to building her, give me a shout and I'll help out with the markings. Cheers; Steve

@Ratch Same here. My interest lies in the Northamptonshire bases, and also specifically one B-17 that flew from Deenethorpe. 30 years research there that I hope will make a book in the next few years, or at least a few magazine articles. Come to think of it, I remember seeing a build of "my Fort" over on the Airfix Tribute Forum. "Ice Cold Katy". Was that one of your builds? Steve

Great work Sir! A very nice pair of Forts there, set off by some great support equipment and ground crew. Love it! Also refreshing to see some Forts that have something other than the "Triangle A" on the tail. Do you have a specific interest in the 305th? Steve

Fantastic work! She looks the biz in the BOAC colours. I know it didn't make the close of the Heller GB, but the result was well worth the wait. Bravo! Steve

Nothing against our Belgian friends, but I'm liking the Spit in her new RAF roundels. Nice work! Nice to see another Heller kit in the RFI section. I think I'm still missing the Heller GB. Still building the large stash of French plastic I accumulated and enjoying every minute. The Mk XVIe is most definitely in the build queue. Will we see some more Heller goodies in the near future from you Tony? Steve

Wow! That interior detail looks amazing. Great work indeed. What did you use for the carpet in the cabin? Steve

Hadn't heard about the possible fit issues myself. As long as it's no worse than the Roden He 111C I'm currently building with a hammer and Isopon P38, then I think it'll be ok.

Well, looking at the sprue shots and going by the quality of their Emils I'm putting together, this kit should tick all of those boxes. Can't wait to pick one up myself. Steve

@TonyOD No. Not yet Sir! Suffice to say though that, for a reasonable £17.99, there is a Hickory currently sitting in my Hannants basket (Would have bagged it sooner, but my basket was full of Special Hobby "Lightly Armed Emils") Steve

@thommo That's an impressive pile of Matchbox goodness! My 12 year old inner self approves greatly. Had a rummage through my Matchbox stash, but many are in the "collection" and not in my "building" stash. However, I did stumble across one duplicate which has tempted me to leave my wingy thing comfort zone and venture into the realm of wheelie things: I've only partly assembled a bit of the engine so far, so it's largely unbuilt. Being an Essex boy, I may have to throw this into the GB hat by law. Steve

Really nice to see this kit built up. Might even be the first one I've seen. Great work! Looks fantastic! Used to be a dab hand flying the F-19 over Libya on my Amiga 500 back in 1990 courtesy of Microprose. Great sim for it's day. Steve

That's a lovely build! Looks superb. You've got me rummaging now as I'm sure I have a photo of Sun XXI that my Dad took at Tilbury as we were waiting to hop on the ferry across to Gravesend. I seem to remember we used the ferry a lot as I'm certain he got free travel on it working for BR. He was a signalman at East Tilbury and Purfleet at the time. This would have been around 1975 just before we moved to sunny Southend. Thanks for sharing your fantastic build as it brought back a few memories for me. Steve

Crikey! I've actually been blown off my seat! Outstanding modelling and photography and probably some of the most lifelike images I've ever seen. I like photos #4 and #5. I've always wanted to see a Bf-110 and early Emil at a UK air show some day. Seeing these fantastic photos, I now feel like I've had that itch scratched. Steve

I'll be onboard to follow this one! Glad to see the old girl being built at last. It's one of the few Airfix kits that I haven't ever managed to get around to building, but there was so much ahead in the build pile that it always got overlooked, that and the fact that what I'm really after is an AOP 9. Looking forward to the progress! Steve

I've got a feeling the link is to a photo of the replica Spitfire that has been at the Norfolk and Suffolk aviation museum for many years. This was one of the replicas built for the Battle of Britain movie. https://aerialvisuals.ca/AirframeDossier.php?Serial=126831 Steve

Thanks Andre! I guess I should have done a search here first! I'll go a give the thread a read. Cheers! Steve

Hi all; Just a quick question regarding Ju 52 D-ALYL "Olympiade XI". Should the airframe be painted silver or light grey? I'm currently building the Italeri kit, and the instructions call out light grey for the overall colour, yet nearly every other build of this scheme I've seen is silver. I've got very little reference on the bookshelf on pre war Lufthansa colours, but the few that I do have do reference a light grey, as well as silver. Is it just a case of take your pick? Thanks in advance; Steve

Nice to see this kit getting some TLC instead of collecting dust in my stash. I'll tag along with this build if I may? Also nice to see the bodyshell with some primer on. It really highlights the nicely done details of the kit as we would expect from Hasegawa. When I opened the box initially, I screamed like a big girl as soon as I saw that red plastic bodyshell. Nothing quite like red plastic to make a quality kit look like it came out of the Starfix factory. Great also to see a 70s Datsun being built. I do love 1970s Japanese cars. Cheers! Steve

@Troy Smith I think the recent Heller GB has earned me the Francophile modelling badge! Let it be said though that I do like Heller a lot! Having just fished out one of my Heller K-4s (the proper K-4 not Heller's earlier Gustav pretend K-4) and found that the prop seems to match the direction of the photo you posted. The kit was one of the black box versions. Hope this helps (I'll post an image as soon as I get the chance) Edit: One thing I don't quite like about the Heller K-4 prop assembly is the backplate of the spinner. I think it's a bit thick and gives the whole spinner a bulbous look. I made a thinner version from plastic card and that improved the look considerably. Steve

I think a list like this could be vastly different if say, asked a year down the line. My modelling is more often than not fuelled by so many fads, whims and distractions by shiny things that my stash is ever changing. However, if asked right this minute I would go for the following; 1: Trumpeter 1/24 Junkers Ju 87A. It's big, it's an Anton and who'd have thought it! Begging to be built. 2: HKM 1/48 B-17G. Because I've bought enough aftermarket to sink a boat, but it's also a special project for me. 3: Dragon 1/32 Messerschmitt Bf 110C. Gorgeous kit and one I intend to build as the A/C that crash landed on my mate's Dad's farm in 1940. 4: Trumpeter 1/24 Hurricane. Lovely kit that fortunately came from their "A Team". Hope to build as a Geoffrey Page tribute. 5: Aeroclub 1/72 Vickers Varsity. Lovely kit and I will build a vacuform model if it kills me. 7: Airfix 1/72 B-17G. This one is earmarked as Sally B circa 1983. The subject I wanted to build most as a 13 year old. 8: Tamiya 1/32 Spitfire XVIe. This one will be TD248 as she was when I helped out on her in the early/mid 90s when owned by Eddie Coventry. 9: XS Models 1/32 Yak 11. To be G-OYAK for the same reasons as above. 10: Matchbox 1/72 AW Siskin. My favourite nostalgia build of my favourite bi-plane kit from Matchbox. Nuff said. @TonyOD I had the same problem with Heller. I LOVE all of their kits. I couldn't just pick one or two, so went for other choices if I couldn't pick every Heller kit ever. Crikey, looking at that list, there's probably enough work there to exceed my life expectancy anyway! Steve

@tomprobert Thanks Tom! I've got dozens of photos of the Fort I'm researching, and I have a really nice close up of the waist gun position. You can see the inside of the fuselage, but frustratingly, there's no way of determining any colour. It looks light though, so I'm going with natural metal. It was a 35-DL by the way. Any recommendations for the closest green, maybe from Humbrol? I've got an old Gloy paint that I think might be close. Cheers; Steve

@Rob K. Great work so far! The interior looks fantastic! Also nice to see the proper colour call outs being used and given the thumbs up by @tomprobert Eagerly following this build now. Hi Tom! Thanks for the B-17 input once again. So! The bulkhead walls of the radio room, bomb bay and rear fuselage should be silver and all internal doors natural wood and everything else bronze green? I knew about the green, but wasn't sure which bulkhead colour was what. I'm about to embark on the HKM kit as a Douglas built aircraft. Likewise, I haven't seen anything conclusive on Douglas built interiors either, so I'm going to go this route. Edit: Agreed! I do wish Eduard would research their interior colours! Cheers! Steve