Dave Fleming

Very nice - I wish Flashman had been adopted (Like to see a GR9 in it...) BTW, the markings are 13 Squadron

I bought them from 84 through to 2003 religiously, but haven't the last couple of years. Bought this years a few weeks ago because I was away from home and needed something aviation to read in the hotel!

It also appeared in a Revell box at one point - but then so did the Italeri one!

I know the aircraft has been painted, but that still looks like a PS job to me!

Depends on how much it matters! There are some differences in the rear cockpit in particular - the RN FG1 only has a 'half' console on the right hand side. I have heard that there is equally much diufference between an early and a late cockpit

Bearing in mind Revell's penchant for releasing differing variants a few years apart, they'd be daft not to include some options in the tooling - although it will probably be Dambusters and Tallboy/Grand Slam rather than mk II. There was a rumour that the Matchbox Lancaster was supposed to be a mk II, but it was felt to be too little known a variant.

NOt seen SAM or MAM yet.

IMO it's a toss up with the amount of work you need to do to make a decent one - The Hasegawa NEEDS the Flightpath set, and is far too expensive for what you get(£16 last time I looked!!). The Italeri kit needs about as much detailing, but is a good bit cheaper (esp if you can find it second hand). One aspect of the Hasegawa kit that is hard to deal with is that the wing chord is too small.

No-one, as far as I know, did prototype decals. Modeldecal did a sheet (76?) that had the initial F2s delivered to 229 OCU (same sheet as F4J (UK))

Yep, they used the RN pods during the war (Hence why they are included in the kit) but all the point noses were gone by then. I just wish there was a way to get the 2in pods in 1/72 without buying a CMK Bucanneer!! I used to have that photo on a poster on my wall when I was about 10!

Doesn't the kit have fatter RN 2in rocket pods (3x rows of rockets) as opposed to SNEB/Matra 68mm ones (2 rows) Not being a 1/48th person, I only have a vauge memory of this. I do recall seeing early GR1s with 2in pods, but with the rounded frangible nose cap and not the conical one.

Is the number of turbine blades correct? :-)

Now there's an idea - Life on Mars in the RAF!! 2007 Tornado pilot transferred back in time to, say, 1940.............. I once wrote a short story based on that thought (although it was a Jaguar pilot in 1970s) - then along came the Final countdown....

Actually, the ONLY external difference between a GR1 and a GR3 is the heat exchanger exhausts on the upper fuselage saddle - two on the GR1, one on the GR3. You CAN see pointy nosed GR3s.

I have it, I'll see if I can find it.

No-one is wrong. the colour was 641 up until the 1990s revision of BS381C, when it was moved to 241.

Toothpaste - it works if you use a plain white toothpaste (especially the cheaper ones) Brasso - the solvent attacks plastic, as others have said, but you can use it by soaking a piece of rag in the polish and then leaving it to let the solvent evaporate off. You are then left with a polish-impregnated cloth which can be used to polish plastic. that said, I'd still prefer Micromesh. If only there was a UK retail supplier of the large sheets.

Too long - at the time MB made the kit it was widely beleived that the NF14 nose was longer than the NF12. In fact both are exactly the same. It's down to an optical illusion due to the shorter windscreen and a mis-interpretation of the nose of the 12 being longer than the 11, and the 14 is also longer, being translated into the 14 being longer again than the NF12

Just remember to throw away the NF14 nose!

They produced one last year - Alcock and Browne colour scheme - but mucked it up by including the F-4K armament/nosewheel detail

Aren't the ones the RAF are getting the undelivered Utility ones rather than the SAR ones?

Shots are from the Flight Archive http://www.flightglobal.com/StaticPages/Archive.html Well worth a browse or two!

Did someone mention 602 and gun patches??

Dig out one of the old Harrier SIG newsletters and you'll find some bloke called Fleming already did one. Must update it - managed to get a few more entries over the years (The 4 Sqn Winter ones) but some things remain elusive - 3 Squadron coloured tails on GR3s, and grey wing tips on GR1s for an Exercise in the 70s. God, you're right I did - my thought was that that pic was too good for the little camera I was using then, but I'll check the Cds. EDIT - Oh that's neat! I added my reply to Bill as a second 'Add reply' and it automatically added it to the one above!

Actually, the Hasegawa/Italeri re-box pricing is fairly easy to explain. Hasegawa kits are imported into the EU as completed goods. they therefore incur import duties as such, and the importer passes that on to the end user. Revell imports just the plastic, so it is classed as 'components' and incurs a lower duty. I suspect Italeri maintain their profit margin on the Revell boxings.