JohnT

I have the Trumpy 1/32 Mig 15, a resin cockpit and Squadron replacement canopy along with some nice Korean War decals. I am rather short on ref materials though. There is a wee 1/1 scale original in the museum down the road but its a Polish aircraft. Does anyone know if there were differences to watch out for if I use the museum one as a guide? Thanks in advance John PS Can see Jonners getting excited already with World Cup fever - Good luck from North of the Border, just wish we had qualified to beat you in the final ! Actually I think that by not qualifying we have saved ourselves much embarassment - though I will deny ever saying that !

Brilliant thanks Phil much appreciated John

Any BM'ers out there that can suggest web sites to look at for cheap flights to and from the USA. We want to fly in August from Edinburgh to Denver and later back from Boston. I've looked at the usual suspects, Skyscanner, Opodo & Expedia Is there anyone better chaps? Thanks for any assist John

Spot on Dave I am due you a pint for the first correct answer ! According to the book by Les Taylor (same surname but no relation) it was a JU 88 A-1 of KG30 code 4D EK shot down at Hoy Orkney Island by226 Heavy Anti Aircraft Battery on the little island of Rysa on 17 October. Battery No 1 gun fired and its 4.5 inch shell blew the glazed nose clean off. The nose landed by the gun crew while the aircraft fell at the mouth of the Pegal Burn, Isle of Hoy. The German radio operator Fritz Ambrosius was badly burned but parachuted to safety while the captain Oberleutnant Flaemig and another crew member were killed. The aircraft was part of an attack of KG 30 from Westerland on ScapaFlow and they sunk the old Iron Duke that was serving as a depot ship. Luckily a tug got a line on her and beached her before she slid under the waves. 1 man was killed and 25 injured. Oh and I was wrong about the Saro London "kill" - it was a Heinkle 111 from KG26 and not a Dornier. Sorry. The London belonged to 240 Sqn at Sullom Voe and damaged the Heinkle which then limped home and crashed and was w/o in the landing On 21 December Spitfires from 602 and 72 at Drem attacked 2 bombers and shot them down into the Forth. Sadly the bombers were Hampdens from 44 Sqn en route to Waddington. I suppose they were mistaken for Dorniers? I wonder what other little titbits are tucked away in this wee volume? JohnT

Thats exactly what I thought too but as long as the books author has the dates right then we are wrong. Of course the book might be off but I think it might well be right for reasons which I'll elaborate on after getting home for tea ! The chap certainly seems to know what he is talking about. The "Humbie Heinkel" would be the second to come down on UK land though the first on the mainland. I am including all the UK islands under "British Soil" and obviously we are talking about the Scottish Islands here

I had a great little read last night from a small book "Luftwaffe over Scotland" Now I thought I knew all about the first German aircraft in WW2 shot down over British soil (as opposed to over the sea etc) but I was wrong, or so it seems Rather than give the game away straight off are there any suggestions ? I was thinking the 603 shoot down of the He 111 near Humbie, East Lothian just South from Edinburgh but maybe not.............. I'll post what the book says later tonight! And not only that I was staggered to read that a Saro London had an air to air kill with a Dornier Flying boat ! The most unlikely air to air kill ever ??? JohnT

I've got one in the stash and never quite felt I had the skills to tackle a serious vac form but my mind was turning to attempting this one. The advantage over the Fonderie Minature kit is that the Contrail offering has parts to do an early merlin engined Halifax if I recall and not just the B111 version. Drop me a PM if you want me to pull the kit and answer any questions or send pics regards John

BIG DITTO except I was thinking more in 1/24th Absolutley brilliant, well done that man John

I should have known when are you doing the 1/24th version scratchbuild then ?!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Ah -thanks Bill. 5 years ! Oh well "Little do ye know your own blessedness; for to travel hopefully is a better thing than to arrive, and the true success is to labour." Could be a motto for modellers !!!!!!!!!!! 5 points for the first person to id the author without using Google then ! John

Knowing how much we BM'ers drool over and yes, well our Vulcans, Valiants and Victors (in no particular order in case that starts a rash of my Victor is a better/nicer plane than your Vulcan posts) I was more than a little pleased to see Sanger doing all three in due course. The Vulcan seems reasonably well advanced and clearly planning is in hand for the other two. While Vacs do need more attention (ok lots) I can't see all three being done in this scale anywhere else. Hells bells its taken 50 years to get a Vulcan, Valiant and Victor in 1/72 and the last two are pretty much pigs. Hopefully the forthcoming Airfix Valiant will be worth the wait but no breath holding. Anyway full kudos to Sanger for attempting all 3 in 1/48. Perhaps they might expedite the manufacture if enough advance orders or interest was shown by fellow BM'ers. I hasten to add I have no connection with company other than as a customer of 2 or 3 of their products which are yet to see the light of build And yes Mike - I know about the Stirling - I had 3 and gave one to Nick as a freebie but not sure I did him any favours I als noted they have both the B47 (which Darius did a great job on) and a B52. Hey Darius - you want to trailblaze that one for us too? regards to all John

Hi You could certainly count me in for copies. I have both Trumpy kits so it would be a set x 2 ! Hope you are able to do it ! John

Brilliant the one I had was a WW1 scene with tents and what I recall was dusk/dawn in background but I could be way wrong on that. Wonder what else modelling related that I have forgotten about over the years? JohnT

Interesting article reminding us of the chap who as an auxilliary shot down the first enemy a/c over the uk http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/8681848.stm

Brill, thanks Roger as for getting it to a competition standard - that would be a first !!!!!!!!!!!!! John

Hi I got the Wyvern from Geoff (Magman) and was going to do a simple OOB with the decals he sold me the only change. On the comments heer I saw it described as a nice kit with only a few issues. Tried to find out more but drew a blank. Anyone able to shine a light on it further? thanks as always JohnT

Very nice work Josh Way way ahead of me when I was 8 Come to think of it my efforts were so bad I stopped doing pilots Keep this standard up and you will be getting mine to do on a commission basis ! JohnT

Thanks Dave very much appreciated now just to work out what to do and not to do ! Off to look at photos and see if I can find one I like and then apply my new found knowledge thanks again John

Hasegawa did a museum series of models in 1/8th scale, Sopwith Camel, Triplane and SE5a but also did smaller "parts of" kits which included the Vickers and Lewis machine guns and - though I might have it badly wrong - the Camels engine? Still come up on e-bay as is the SE5a (the rarest one) and the Fokker Tripe (the most readily available) at the minute at about £600 I see JohnT

I see that Tamiya's new Spitfire Mk8 has a display stand option so it can be made in "flying" pose. Time was when any self respecting manufacturer included a stand and as a boy I always put my models on one until I discovered the ceiling at an age when keeping the completed model in good nick was more important than dogfighting with it. Usually I just secured them without glue so they could be pulled off and played with. So should manufacturers go back to including stands? Yes or No ? John

Thanks Dave much appreciated

Thanks for the pointer Calum much appreciated John

Hi Calum Lovely work and looking forward to viewing the finished article I just started a new post on the possibility of doing a 1/32 Seac Thunderbolt from the Trumpeter P 47. Trouble is I don't know anything worthwhile on the RAF version. Am I right in thinking the aircraft was virtually unchanged in RAF service from the US version except for the external paint scheme? Hoping to benefit from your hard earned wisdom regards JohnT

Hi I found myself as the proud (?) owner of the Trumpy 1/32 P47 D (Kit without dorsal fin) and also the Osprey Book on RAF aces in the Mustang and the Jug. Not a favourite aircraft of mine so not much ref material at home other than the very basic stuff but there we are. I will try a Googling session later. First off is the Trumpy kit suffering from any major issues that I'll need to address? Also from what I have read the RAF designation of Thunderbolt II seems to be identical to the P 47 D version with even the cockpit and wheel wells/ interiors etc all painted as per US spec and the paint job only different for the camo on the RAF machines (suppose I could look at a nm finish) I am guessing that barring a major glitch with the Trumpy version (and that hardly ever happens !) it might be more or less an OOB build with a different colour scheme finish ? Or am I suffering from the innocence of the ignorant !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Any comments most appreciated as always JohnT

sent !