johnd

Looks fabric to me. John.

There's this for the Beaufighter VI John.

They're too small to be replacement cowlings, they'd be too narrow. And the snug fit inside the fuselage is too much to be a coincidence for me. John.

That was my first thought, but if you place them inside the fuselage so that the exhaust slots line up, they act is a barrier to stop the exhaust parts from falling through. John.

That's my understanding too. John.

I find it to be good paint but definitely needs thinning before use. The downside is that the colour range isn't great and you'll need to mix it to obtain the right match in most cases. It is odourless (at least to my hooter) but don't assume it's matt, there are some gloss colours in the range. John.

Seconded on both counts! John.

Mine too and me too! John.

Mine was marked as 'dispatched' seven days ago, but no sign of it as yet. John.

Mine too, if it's any consolation. Thanks for the tip-off. Only the expert set so far though, the junior set is still under "future releases". A bit more hanging on, then... John.

They brought out a Vb in the 90s (96?) which wasn't well received due to its lack of "gull wing" and a few other inaccuracies. They released another earlier this year that is better but still has a few glitches. John.

Superb modelling and an inspiration to brush painters! John.

There's a CMK one: Spitfire Engine Aires made one for a Mk.V but it was for the Tamiya kit so no idea whether it would fit. John. PS I'm not necessarily suggesting you buy that one, it's just for illustration.

One overtree for me, skint at the moment. Will aim for more later. Anyone know if there'll be a UK importer? John.

I think they do complain, I know I have. Humbrol just doesn't reply. John.

Whenever I take the decision to not buy any more kits because I've got enough already, someone does something like this. John.

It was a bit of a daft question, born of frustration. I guess I'll find out the diameter of the propeller, draw a circle, draw three lines 120° apart, line up the prop holes, drill enough so that the blade tip aligns with the circle edge, then sort out the pitch by eye. Wish me luck 😂 Thanks, John.

Hi all, I'm trying to put together the resin propeller on a 1/72 Fly Hurricane and it looks a little trickier than expected. In particular, the holes in the spinner casting look very shallow for the rather long pegs on the blades. This leads to the fit being vague, not something I'm used after the Quickboost ones I've had. Any ideas how to proceed? Drill the holes out? Shorten the pegs? Thanks, John.

That appears to be the problem with Humbrol: inconsistency. If you can't rely on it, take the hit and move on to something reliable, like Colourcoats. I've moved over to acrylics and had the same issue with duff Humbrol so now I buy Hataka, at a cost. The annoying thing is that Humbrol can be quite good if you stumble across the right tin... John.

while I agree, blades with different pitch and not quite at the requisite 120 degree angle look worse. Mould the propeller blades together, I say! John.

It's the new mould, the gull wing is fine. John.

The basic shape is good, it suffers in the detail a bit. Fit is quite good but be careful where the wings meet the rear fuselage. A plastic tab is in order there. John.

High Planes conversion? John.

Best wishes to the cantankerous old git and look forward to seeing the finished article even if it is beyond the end date. John.

I believe that was the VIII. There is a Jeffrey Quill story involving the XII though. He was invited to bring a Spitfire along to a demo for bigwigs. He suspected something was afoot and took a XII. It turned out to be a race, which he won, with a Typhoon coming in second and a captured FW 190 in third, the exact opposite of what was supposed to happen, apparently. John.