Wez

Appear or are actually too large? We know the 5 spoke hubs are smaller than the 4 spoke hubs but are we expecting the difference to be more pronounced than it is in reality? Failing that, measure up the Airfix wheel hubs and compare them to a trustworthy, accurate and properly scaled set of plans. I agree, it's a lovely kit. Until somebody actually verifies the Tempest 5-spoke hubs are too big, your Typhoon wheels are safe.

They're included in the kit aren't they? Franks quotes the Mk.VI style spinner as being 2 1/2 inches longer, you can definitely see a difference between a DH spinner (shorter, blunter), than the rounder and longer looking Rotol effort.

Thanks for that Chris, the Franks book (Airframe & Miniature No.4), states that Mk.5 Srs 1 ser no JN807 and JN781 were converted to TT.5 standard (not as prototypes, my mistake), but I'd have to see evidence of that before I take it as gospel. Most of those, but not all that I can make out as having the longer spinner have been SN serialled aircraft but I've also seen pictures of SN aircraft with the shorter spinner associated with the DH prop, I guess they just got what was available, strange that the ministry didn't standardise on the Rotol prop and spinner fit in post war service.

Depends, check the serial number of your chosen subject against Paul's post below: Thanks for showing this, it was the first thing I checked on my three kits which arrived today, fortunately all were fine in this area, looks like it was extracted from the mould too soon. You were right to return the kit. I agree about the parts and the panel lines, I think Airfix have done a great job with this kit. You can definitely make a Series 2 Tempest from this kit. With regards to the spinners, it's not a case of the longer spinner was fitted to the Series 2 and the shorter to the Series 1, many, many Series 2 had the shorter spinner fitted, check your photos. A while back I had some correspondence with @Chris Thomas, this included some photos of TT.5's, I was surprised to see one of them had a longer spinner which I normally associated with the Mk.VI and commented on this to Chris, he confirmed that some did indeed have the longer spinner fitted but at that time, he couldn't align it with any particular production batch, it seemed the aircraft got whatever was available. Does anyone know whether the surviving Series 1's were overhauled to Series 2 standard? I know at least two were converted to TT.5 standard as the prototypes. This kit's gone to the top of my pile, I'll be starting mine this week.

The question I have regarding the series I aircraft, did they get modified to the series II standard as they went through works/overhaul?

Martin, You're correct but what you're quoting is the specification of the paint vs an observed description of the paint. Even in aircraft engineering, some people are blissfully unaware of what the proper colours should be, many is the time when somebody has been looking for some paint to do a touch-up and used the wrong colour because interior grey is interior grey isn't it? Well no, it could be medium sea grey, it could be dark Admiralty grey or even dark gull grey. FS.36622 is a very light grey especially when newly applied, under certain light conditions, to some observers (especially if they're unaware of what the spec's/proper colours should be), would describe it as white.

Mate of mine was a split brain (airframes/propulsion technician), on 237OCU, he told me that it was quite routine for some Bucc' pilots would select wheels up as they trundled down the runway and as they achieved flight speed and the weight came off of the WoW switches, the undercarriage would retract and those spectacular take off's would result. Except on one occasion, there was a dip in the runway and the wheels became light enough for the WoW switches to operate before the aircraft had fully achieve flight speed with the aircraft settling back on its belly, blacking out the runway and requiring expensive repairs. Apparently, the routine practice of doing this was stopped (at least for a while, officially, of course, once a pilot signs the aircraft out they tend to do what they want - there's nobody looking over their shoulder).

Aerials are easy but I don't recall any stand out differences, IIRC, the Airfix 1/48 kit was released as an Aussie version with additional rockets which the RAAF used in Korea. Hopefully Airfix will release these in the initial release.

I like a Thunderstreak, I like a French Thunderstreak even more! Grand job there Stéphane, well done sir!

I missed this, as I have the recent Airfix Sherman Firefly count me in

Go on then, count me in!

Thanks for the heads up. Good luck with yours, I look forward to seeing the result.

Special Hobby have recently released a 1/72nd scale kit of the futuristic looking Bugatti 100 racer, as the real aircraft had no markings, the kit contains no decals which got me thinking what if the French turned the Bugatti into an interceptor aircraft? The real aircraft was designed in response to German advances in aviation, it was constructed from wood in a similar fashion to the superlative Mosquito and was powered by two 450hp Bugatti engines which drove contra-rotating two bladed propellers via a common gearbox (similar to the Fairey Gannet). Its calculated speed was a phenomenal 885km/h, that's an astounding 553mph to you and me! The aircraft never actually flew and was hidden away during the war but a replica powered by two motorcycle engines did fly in 2015 only to crash, sadly with fatal consequences in 2016. When I got the kit I recalled that the Caudron C.714 was a lightweight fighter based upon earlier Caudron racing aircraft, if they could do that with the Caudron, maybe they could do the same with the Bugatti... The Back Story In my alternative history... ...In 1938 with the storm clouds of war gathering the Ministère de l'Air was scrabbling around for modern aircraft types to re-equip the Armée de l'Air. The Ministère had become aware of Etore Bugatti and Louis de Monge designing an aircraft to win the 1938 Coupe Deutsch de la Meurthe aeronautical speed competition. Bugatti and de Monge were confident the aircraft could reach the unheard of speed of 885km/h, the Ministère de l'Air were extremely interested, like Caudron were doing with the C.714, could the racer be adapted into a fighter. Bugatti and de Monge being patriotic Frenchmen rose to the challenge and set about adapting their design. Cramming military equipment such as guns, a radio and some armour protection for the pilot into the same airframe would increase the aircraft's weight and it's top speed would be reduced but the two men were confident it would still be the fastest thing in the skies, estimating its speed to be in the region of 750km/h. By the time the work was done the 750km/h estimate proved to be somewhat over optimistic but it could still achieve a useful 700-720km/h (437-450mph), unfortunately, the aircraft was difficult to fly and by attempting to keep the airframe identical to the original racer concept, there was precious little fuel, a long sortie would last no longer than 45 minutes, typical combat sorties would use the fuel up in about 30 minutes or less. The Ministère de l'Air was desperate though and accepted the aircraft as a point defence Intercepteur. The aircraft would be stationed at strategic points and would be launched at the very last minute using their, for the time, phenomenal speed to climb and intercept incoming raids. A handful of aircraft were assigned piecemeal to units and only the most experienced pilots were assigned to fly the aircraft. Pilots praised the aircraft for its high speed but flying it required constant attention which made it tiring to fly, it was a good job sorties were short. As the fortunes of war turned against the French, unserviceable aircraft were burned to stop them coming into German hands as the French forces retreated, finally, at the armistice there were fewer than a dozen aircraft left at Le Bourget airfield. Determined the Germans weren't going to learn the secrets of the aircraft, pilots and groundcrew set fire to the remaining aircraft so that none survived. The original prototype and all documents associated with the aircraft were hidden and only rediscovered post war. The model... The model comes in three plastic sprues (one clear), plus a number of resin parts, the latter are used for the main wheel wells, the radiator faces in the tailplane structure and the exhaust fairings, as previously stated, there's no decals, I have some spares kicking around which will hopefully do the job, I'll dig those out later in the week. Anyway, here's the stunning boxart showing the racer in flight... ...here's the kit contents... ...I've made a start glueing some parts together, here you can see the fuselage halves, the long cylindrical fairings on the cockpit wall are, I think, for the engine drive shafts. Locating these fore and aft is left to the modeller, I used the cockpit rear bulkhead to align them but I might need to fettle them later. Special Hobby suggest the cockpit interior to be red, frankly, that's not a very military colour for a cockpit so I went for something resembling bleu de nuit, a dark blue which was used on many French aircraft cockpits, I actually used Humbrol 104 for this. I also painted the wheel wells a chamois colour which is typical of many French aircraft (I used Humbrol 93). Special Hobby state the wheel wells are in a wood finish, great for a racer but again, not in keeping with a military aircraft... I'm leaving the paint to dry whilst I start getting dinner ready (steak and chips with a red wine and mushroom sauce in case you're interested). More updates in the coming days.

I remember those days well, it was common practice to roll your beret up and pad your shoulder with it. One thing I didn't learn until very late in the SLRs life was that it came with various lengths of butt, usually during your annual recertification you just lined up behind whichever rifle the Rockape told you to and fired that which is why you sometimes ended up with a bruised cheek or a black eye as the rifle bucked with its recoil. If you actually ended up with the right sized butt for your physique this never happened. One thing with the SLR, you always felt that you never had to hit anything with it, the shockwave caused by a near miss would be enough to take a limb off! The SA-80 actually requires a level of marksmanship.

Time to give this one a push. Any subject from any country that has a coastline from Spain to Greece, as well as Portugal, Malta, Albania or Cyprus is eligible. A Portuguese fishing smack, anything from the Spanish Civil War, a recreation of Toulon harbour after the ships had been scuttled, a Knights Templar, any Italian sports car, an Akrotiri based Wessex, a scale model of King Zog... ...you get the picture, any subject from any time from any country that has a coastline in southern Europe. The possibilities are endless!

Finger's, toes and knees crossed for that to happen! Hoping there'll be a rash of new decal sheets to accompany the subject too, I'd like to see some for single seaters assigned to night fighter squadrons (there were a few), and those used in the target facilities/target tug roles later in the aircraft's career.

Definitely!

Go away and take a large poo in Geordie speak

I don't agree it should be locked, I just think those with an axe to grind about Airfix's business model should take their bellyaching elsewhere, please concentrate on the forthcoming Airfix Meteor F.8! There have been some very useful posts about the Meteor F.8 in this thread, it would be a shame for them to be lost or people have to repeat themselves in a new thread.

I must say that box art and the chosen colour schemes are very reminiscent of the 1/72nd kit Not necessarily a bad thing though

The A-4C models were built as A-4C's not converted from B's.

You're right although it did vary an awful lot.

You're right, it's how they were when I first started working on them. Some time in the early 90's they went away for a structural mod after which, they came back painted in the DG/Lichen Green scheme, unfortunately, one of ours needed to have its tail boom replaced and the only replacement tail boom was painted in the earlier DSG/DG/Black scheme. We the groundcrew liked our mix'n'match cab but the sqn boss wasn't too happy with it, eventually it went in for a Minor servicing and it came back with the tailboom either replaced or repainted with a green/green example. The boss was much happier.

Thanks for that, the black had a much higher demarcation in my day, especially on the cabin. Still looks nice though and brings back some memories.

It's not quite there, the original scheme was DSG/DG/Black undersides, then it went to DG/Lichen Green then the overall green, this one looks like it doesn't have the black undersides.