12jaguar

I've added the black bars on the leading edges, I assume on the real thing these are de-icers? Nothing as complex as that, they're simply black neoprene tape that is an anti-erosion strip. John

Thanks for the mention Elger, it's been a pleasure helping you out; you've had a real feel for the aircraft and it shows. We took some 1:1 stirling parts to the Brampton Model show today and they were warmly recieved, and also took my Mk IV and Cliffs Mk I, it's a kit that you have to beat into submission somewhat which was disappointing as we offered our assistance early on when some of the CAD renders went public. I ech what everyone else has said, best rendition of the Italeri kit I've yet seen John

The profile of the leading edge of the mainplane is well off underneath the slats but these at least help to mask the issue. The pylons are totally wrong as is the weapon load out. there's some odd depictions of panel lines and I wouldn't recommend having the avionics bay door open as this looks nothing like an RAF Jag. I replaced my secondary heat exchanger fairing on the spine with a resin aftermarket one John

I recall them being installed on the engine doors as part of a modification package when I was at Abingdon in the late 80s so you should be ok but check your references John

that's it

A quick note guys that the 'yellow' primer doesn't extend to the rear of the airbrake recess and is confined to the bay itself if that makes sense. If you want to be really pedantic, the spurious panel lines that are within the first leading edge panels outboard of the intakes should be filled as the port one was a solid panel and the stbd one had a removable panel that looked nothing like the one in the kit. there's some good pics on the web that should show this. John

Cheers Neil for the unashamed plug Glad to see the mug still survives on the workbench. Unfortunately we've run out of them but if anyone would like to see what we;re up to and donate the price of a pint (or 2 or 3 LOL), then head over to the address under my signature cheers John

lovely job there Elger Can't wait to see the finished article. I missed your earlier post showing the CWG with 3 of the crew interred. Easy to forget that behind each of these models there lies a very personal story John

welcome😎

IIRC (and it was 16 years ago) there were no Class 1 items on the aircraft, there was a couple of Class 2s and the rest were 3 - 4; a few of which were gaskets although I think mainly fuel system. We did get involved however when a sharp eyed member of the public noted on Scrap Heap Challenge that the punters were merrily using Cengar saws to cut into what appeared to be phenolic asbestos drop tanks with resulting clouds of dust etc. They weren't Jag ones though, looking more like Hunter items IMHO. John

Hopefully you have some informative emails Neil John

unfortunately they all pretty much ran out of fatigue life

Most legacy aircraft (designed in the 60s and early 70s) contained asbestos in one form or another. in the early 2000s (when I worked in the Jaguar/Canberra Engineering Authority) there was a decree that came from the Secretary of State for Defence who stated that the MOD should make every effort to remove asbestos from it's equipment. So at great cost with the aid of BAE Systems we set about identifying each and every part that contained the stuff. Of the 10s of thousands of parts on the aircraft I think we identified less than 200 that had it in one form or another. IIRC they were categorised from 1-4 with one being the nasty stuff (blue chrysotile) or areas where loose fibres are exposed regularly to maintainers etc. We discovered that the honeycomb composite panels that made up a large part of the aircraft, if manufactured before 1973 contained a small amount of asbestos in the bonding resin. The only way to replace the asbestos would be to rip out the main structural mbers of the aircraft which would effectively have scrapped it. After carrying out a risk assessment, the only way we could cover it was to issue a warning in the repair manual which stated that you had to take suitable H&S precautions when drilling into the panels, and all of this for a tiny percentage of asbestos that may or may not have been present. It's a little known fact that PRC sealant which will be familiar to an ex-RAF riggers out there also contained a small amount of asbestos as a binding agent up to 1973 so the same precautions were also taken when disturbing it. In short we never completely removed all of the asbestos from the aircraft but these were all in the low risk categories 3-4 and most were buried in electronic boxes not routinely exposed to maintainers. I'd be very surprised if the SeaKing EA didn't carry out a similar exercise and I wonder if the Australian serviceman who kicked this off had been exposed to an aircraft where perhaps the identification and removal had been a bit less thorough if indeed it was the source of the problem. You are more likely to have been exposed to greater amounts of asbestos if you lived in a UK house built before 1980 or went to school in the UK. However if you worked in a RN ship stripping out asbestos lagging that's a different matter John

Hi Neil great work as always. Hope you don't mind my being a pedant, but for Middletons Stirling there shouldn't be a radio fitted above the Nav's desk as this was only found on some Mk Ivs and Mk Vs. Also the glycol tank on the stbd side of the cockit should be mounted on a platform/step not diurectly on the floor as it is now cheers John

Hi Neil If you can wait till the weekend, I can take some detailed photos of our tail oleos with some dimensions John

nice update Neil, she looks an absolute pig to put together, but you're certainly doing the old girl some justice John

something we are aiming to rectify (albeit only the front 25 feet or so) feel free to visit our website below and as the General says, we're only too glad to help out John

Nice update Elgar. That 120 looks a lot lighter than I recall, perhaps I could suggest 'dirtying' it up a bit, although it does help to make things much easier to see detail though the glazing. Excellent work down the back end as well, it looks sufficiently busy down there cheers John

Cool😎

And of course you would all be most welcome It's looking a lot more 'cockpit like' now

Another great build mon General of what looks to be a well thought out kit. must drop some hints to Mem Sahb and the sprogs...... John

Hi Greg try looking at our website http://stirlingproject.co.uk/ or there's: http://sas.raf38group.org/forum/viewforum.php?f=6 John

what do you need??

What can I say Elger, you're certainly doing the old girl some justice . I'm glad that James and ourselves in the Project have been of use to you, I wish I had your patience in 1/72, doing it in 1/1 is bad enough. Cheers John

Absolutely