Seahawk

Top of my list too for airframe details. However I haven/t seen the Wingleader book yet which may trump it. The WL won't have the scale drawings of the 4+ book.

Do you have Shipcraft 1 German Pocket Battleships by Roger Chesneau? It includes 2 sets of 1/700 drawings showing Scheer appearance changes 1939-40 and 1940-43. The good news is that Scheer is closer to Graf Spee than Luetzow/Deutschland was.

If they used the old cheap soft plastic, I reckon even a new Airfix kit would come an expensive second to the very crisply moulded Heller kit. With the harder, dark grey plastic they've been using more recently (eg on the Me 410), I reckon those corrugations could look stunning.

One of the most interesting posts I have seen on Britmodeller for a long time. Despite the Martlet/Wildcat being a subject of special interest to me, there was much that was new and interesting to me. Information also well presented and assertions well supported by evidence. Well done!

Long ago I downloaded fom the internet an Excel spreadsheet by a chap called John Loughman. It looks a bit clunky to modern eyes but it was obviously a real labour of love. It covers at least aircraft, AFVs, warships, possibly more. Its particular strength is that it goes back way into the 1970s and possibly earlier. It's no longer kept current probably because the guy who compiled it is no longer with us. A google search on "John Loughman modelling index" will pull it up. HTH.

Great to see a familiar name from the past reappear. Great work on the 3D printing: some excellent results. I had a model railway, well, train set, long before I started building kits and every now and again still feel the draw, though my ambitions go no further than superdetailing the old Airfix kits with all the wonderful accessories available nowadays.

I think it is more likely to be one for Airfix’s future releases. The lower wing already has flashed-over location holes for the wing-root bomb racks of the bomber variant so in my crystal ball I foresee another boxing (or two) with different bomb-bay parts for the bomber and PR variants.

Someone recently recommended cigarette papers to me. I have tried them once so far and was very pleased with results: thinner with finer “weave” than tissue, more conformable than thin polythene. A bit of water to help them conform and thinned PVA glue to stick in place and fix folds. Try it - a quid’s worth of paper will last you a lifetime!

With area-ruling like that, she’d have to be a Buccaneer.

The flip-side of quick-drying paints is that they try to skin over very quickly in the pallette so I do keep some water handy in a dropper bottle to thin them as required. i think you'd have the same issue with any modern model acylic paint.

Found it thank you, exactly as described. Unfortunately I arrived at 4.03pm on Friday and despite the stated opening hours, he'd already shut up for the day. Can't blame him as things were pretty dead around there on a wet Friday. A shame as from the window displays he has some unusual stuff.

Are there any model shops someone might accidentally stumble across while visiting Armagh or Belfast?

What? Leaving doors open unnecessarily where they might be spotted by the baleful eye of the captain or first lieutenant?

Looking at Ian’s photo, it seems to me that the top of the fuselage forward of the pilot and the cowling top are in black too. They certainly look darker than the TSS on the wing upper surfaces.

Having had the chance to examine Ross's 6th IWM photo under magnification, I judge that it and the ROYAL NAVY titles are in fact present, just a bit faint. I see no reason why the aircraft code would not be in red.

If the 1 Aug date is correct, the first three are staged on the day of 816's disbandment. NB the first photo shows that, on at least one aircraft, the lower underwing stripes extended under the rocket racks. The 3rd one is interesting in showing that, on at least one aircraft, the stripes on the underside of the upper wing were narrower than standard. NB in photos 1 and 3 the aerials (?) along the leading edge of the upper centre section. Anyone know what they are for? The 4th one is the one from the Harrison book I refer to in the post above. The 5th one, cropped, is the one in the Andrew book referred to above. The 6th one is the Urquelle for the photo most commonly published to demonstrate D-Day markings on Swordfish: select 1, 2 or 3 aircraft to taste!

838 Sq were based at Manston over the D-Day period, presumably doing the same thing for the eastern flank of the D-Day area as 816 and 819 were doing for the western flank. Interesting that the same photo is cropped differently in various books to show 1, 2 and 3 aircraft. This is the only one I've seen showing Q, so good spot. As for S's identity, I'll see your MJF Bowyer and raise you Ray Sturtivant (FAA Aircraft 1939-45) and Peter London (In Cornish Skies), who agree on NF243. Airfile not my reference of choice but Sturtivant confirms NF211 as present with 816 during the D-Day period but is silent on her code. Given the general scarcity of photos of invasion-striped Swordfish, I thought I'd point out an excellent view of a Swordfish peeling off on p.44 of FRA Andrew's The History of RAF Perranporth 1941-1945. The photo credit is to the same CF Motley, who get the credit for the other photo, so it probably shows K, S or Q. The wing invasion stripes look to be of standard width. The upper wing ones start immediately inboard of the upper surface roundels and are at right angles to the swept wing leading edge. The lower wing ones are further outboard, starting where the wing leading edge starts curving round to the wingtip and ending at the outer edge of the rocket racks. They too are perpendicular to the wing leading edge, so not at the same angle as the upper wing ones. Actually, now I look more closely, a photo on p.94 of Bill Harrison's Crowood Swordfish book shows 3 Swordfish of 816 Sq from above: one may be N or R. [Correction: we now know it's K.] They all have the lower wing invasion stripes in slightly different positions!

From Sturtivant's FAA Aircraft 1939-45: NF117 delivered 30.12.43; ? Sqn ditched in Irish Sea 31.1.44 (S/L JE Helfrich rescued). So lost long before D-Day. The D-Day stripes on Swordfish were most commonly seen on 816 Sq Mk.IIs, detached to RAF Perranporth in Cornwall on anti E- and R-boat duties during the period 20 April 1944 (arrived Perranporth) to 1 August 1944 (unit disbanded). The other 2 squadrons at Perranporth on similar duties were 849 anf 850 Squadrons with Avengers. If you want to avoid 811 Sq's NF243/S, other aircraft operated by 816 during this period were NF245 (crashed into the sea 23 May 44 during anti-submarine bombing practice) and NF235 (lost 18 mi off Perranporth 23 July 1944): no info on codes. The commonly-seen photo of NF243 S shows her in company with aircraft K but the latter's serial is illegible - in fact I couldn't swear it and the usual ROYAL NAVY titles are even present. I'm can't recall seeing another photo of invasion-striped Swordfish which is not to say they aren't out there. According to Sturtivant's British Naval Aviation 838 Sqn, also with Swordfish, was based at RAF Harrowbeer in Devon on similar duties and would also have been a candidate for D-Day markings: again evidence is lacking (AFAIK). 816 Sq operated under 15 Group RAF control based at RNAS Limavady, Northern ireland, from 10 Jun to 14 July 44 and from 25 Aug to 30 Sep . The intervening period and the time immediately before D-Day was spent embarked in HMS Biter, which was supporting Gibraltar convoys. Passing through the general Western Approaches area may have require the application of invasion stripes but I don't have evidence to prove it.

To be fair to Hasegawa, they did, uniquely in mainstream 1/72 Spitfires, recognise the Spit VII's deeper rear canopy by moulding all their Spitfire VII/VIII/IX kits with it: you had to overpaint the bottom bit for VIIIs and IXs. Agree with @FinnAndersen that the Eduard kit is a better starting point nowadays. Agree with others that the Italeri Spitfire IX (and by extension its derivative boxings) is one of the worst of Italeri's 1/72 offerings. I bought one, realised its awfulness and was tempted to sell it on at a show but my conscience got the better of me and I decided not to foist that bag of excrement onto anyone else. Besides, they might have come looking for me afterwards.... NB I didn't think the IT Spitfire V was as bad but it's totally eclipsed by the new Airfix kit nowadays.

The difference is that the Sword-tooled Xtrakits were only issued under the Xtrakit label. As I heard it, Hannants were more than slightly miffed when MPM started issuing the MPM-tooled Xtrakits under their own label as well. Should have got themselves a better lawyer.

On the latest Hannants hot news sheet: reissue of the Xtrakit Spitfire XII.

Yes, doubling the price just for the sake of a World Of Tanks label on the box was extremely cynical.

@FatFlyHalf In case you missed it, @Latinbear currently has one for sale at a very reasonable price. (Tried to post link: didn't work.)

I'll be interested in how you get on. In my never-ending quest for a brush-paintable matt varnish that really does dry matt, I recently tried Lucky matt varnish, only to get a gloss finish. My conclusion regarding the "Lucky" name is that it means you'll be "lucky" to get a matt finish out of it. Gave it my usual 5-minutes' shake before use: maybe I had a dud bottle. Still, suggest you try on a paint mule before your latest pride and joy.

Think there are two reasons: Firstly Airfix no longer keep large warehouse stocks of kits in the hope they'll all sell one day. Actuarial benefit to Airfix in that they don't have money tied up in stock or incur the costs of warehousing it. Secondly they have probably twigged that, for all the talk of a cost of living crisis, there is a fair bit of money swilling around in the enthusiast demographic. It makes business sense to actively feed the Fear Of Missing Out by producing kits in small(er) production runs which disappear off the shelves like snow in July. "I'd better buy one right now because I don't know when I'll see another one." Anything that increases the feeding frenzy when a new kit comes out is good news for sales figures.