Fishbed

The Wingleader books are defiantly "nerd" level for details (https://wingleader.co.uk/books/hurricane-mki-wpa3/) so well worth a look. Hopefully they will do more in the future (not that my bank balance will like it) Tim

The title had me going for a minute there. thought it was about Grove Airfield just down the road from me 🙂 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RAF_Grove) Tim

you will be giving @Martian ideas, and he has enough as it is!! Tim

It is a lovely kit. Put mine next to my Blenheim and was surprised by how much shorter the Blenheim is! Need to get the Beaufighter out the roof to see how that looks next to the pair Tim

The Abingdon show will be held on Saturday 30th September. Doors open to the public at 10am. Details of how to find the show and the list of vendors and clubs attending can be found here - https://www.abingdonipms.co.uk/abingdon-ipms-show/ Tim

going off topic, sorry, but I have Roberts in the stash that I'm slowly getting the extra bits for (including the Big Gun Monitors book). If you find what colours (and pattern) Roberts used (ideally for the Sicily landings), could you let me know? Need to put an order in with Uncle Jamie sometime :-). Thanks Tim

................and now I've posted the photos, I notice the wonky mudguard/fender, why is it always after posting?

This is one of those kits that was sitting on the dreaded shelf of inactivity. Didn't take much of a much to finish it off in the end. Even now I still have not added any aerials. Oh well. Kit was built as it came in the box. They go together well. Wheels a bit tricky, but I've done a few now so it was OK. I used some Inside The Armour decals I purchased many years ago to do a vehicle from the Northern Irish Horse. Now to get the NA75 over the finish line........ Tim

Hi your Lordship, I was hoping that Eduard would come to the rescue, but they never released a set for this (or not that I found). I used the Airscale generic 50's dial set ( https://www.airscale.co.uk/#!/Instruments/c/142396758 look under early jets) and some from an old Mike Grant set I've had for donkeys years. The gun site was from Quick Boost. Tim

I built this a year or so ago. Had to add detail to the cockpit as I wanted the canopy open. I did find (probably my own fault) that the fuselage was a bit banana shaped once I had it glued together, so had to do some surgery to get it straight again. I was not happy with the engine intakes, so replaced them with some Baracuda replacements, same for the wheels. More details here - Looks great on the shelf once its done though. Tim

Thanks Martin, wish I was going to be about to see your display this weekend. tim

well blow me down...... I do believe you have spotted today's deliberate mistake! how I missed that I don't know. you may leave your coat where it is 🙂 Tim

Another of Bristol's twin engined beauties to add to the collection. Picked this one up soon after it was released, and it did not befall the fate of many of my purchases and end up in the ever growing stash/loft insulation. I attempted to reduce the size of the engine cowling by running a strip of 20 thou card round the inner edge and blending in. Typically, soon after, resin replacements were available, but that's a few quid saved. I did add the Eduard "space" set to the cockpit to improve the detail a bit. Lots can be seen through the very clear transparencies. Having said that, the details added to the radio compartment are completely invisible, so may be I should have saved these for some other use. Paints were my usual go to Humbrol 29 for the earth and Coulourcoats dark green and sky. The green was sprayed on freehand (well following a pencil line I had drawn on) to get the camouflage pattern. Decals were from the box. A very enjoyable build. Tim

Noted. I’ll use the “for web” option next time I shrink the images. Good job I did not post the original 6000x4000 images! Tim

I dragged this one out the loft last year as I thought it was about time it was built. Now or never scenario 🙂, I have had it for a few years now. I added the Eduard seat belts to the seats, but apart from that it was pretty much out the box. The instrument panels had some generic dials added from an Airscale and a Mike Grant set of dials I have in the decal stash. The Bobcat kit is not to bad. Mine had a number of sink marks that needed removing, and the fit was "OK". filler required on the engine nacelles. Several shades of Alclad used to give it some variation in the finish, but most surprising is how big this monster is! (now I notice I must have caught the nose probe as I was getting ready to photograph the kit, so it does look a bit wonky. to lazy to re-photograph the kit, so please ignore that bit 😆) Tim

Thanks for the comments all As Graham said, it was supposed to be a fighter. There were plans for it to carry bombs or rockets under the inner wings.......... Well, I'm sure they had plans to take it places more exotic than Cowes 😉 Oh, go on, you know it makes sense (ever the enabler me) Tim

A bit of a quick build (by my standards) of the Xtrakit SR-A1 flying boat. Plenty of history about this jet powered flying boat out in the interweb. A short run kit, but goes together reasonably well. The area round the jet pipes and wing joints needs a bit of care/filler/elbow-grease. Some nice detail included for the cockpit. Just take your time as with any other limited run kit and you have an unusual aircraft for your collection. Gave it a coat of Alclad aluminum paint, not much else needed really. Decals are those that came with the kit. The base is some foam board I picked up at a model show (yes I will get round to edging the foam at some point. probably?). I used the back of a couple of different sized spoons to make the ripples on the water. And yes, I'm not sure the Solent is ever that blue 🙂 Tim

Hi Ben, I've only done 1/72 Lightnings (so far, do have the airfix 1/48 in the loft somewhere), and have used Alclad (or HR Hobbies as it is now) airbrushed with a coat of varnish and not had any problems. Tim

If its the 1/72 version, then I used the conversion with the Eduard VIII, and it fit well. Tim

Yes, that's correct. I did just that, new set of decals and job done. Tim

I'm just down the road in Wantage, so know it well. A scurry eh? not sure then that nugget will be of use again 🙂 . not much we can do about the age issue. Oh, yes. tempting, but bending those to shape will be "fun". could use the kit parts as a template. What amazes me is the lack of expression on the young lads face! doesn't seem a bit bothered by the entire experience. Tim

The General did this very conversion - May be contact him to see what was involved. My guess is not much. Tim

Well, I was only going to build one of Airfix's Chipmunks, a 6-AEF one based at Abingdon or Benson due to the local connection and the White Horse on the badge. Whats not to like. I was planning on using the markings in the Xtradecal set X48221 for the 6 AEF markings. However, while looking at the decals the set of day-glow markings for an all grey plane just screamed out that it needed using. One order later, and it was a double build. WG431, of Glasgow & Strathclyde University Air Squadron and WB550, 'D' of 6 Air Experience Flight. One from the '60's and one from the '90's. Lovely little kits. Removed the locating pins on the wings as advised by other builds. I used the Eduard space set on WB550 and the Kits World set for WG431 (one was 4 point, the other 5 point harnesses.) I was going to re-scribe the early battery access hatches on WG431, but didn't, and didn't add the strengthening plate just behind the engine on WB550. I did add the UHF aerial on WG431. Its a shame someone does not make thinner engine access panels for this kit. The ones provided are so over scale. Other than that it was all fairly plain sailing. I did try using the Humbrol 174 as advised in the instructions, but it looked to orange to me, so gave it a thin over-spray of 16. Looks better to my eyes anyway. On to the pics. * If you are wandering about the "jump, Jonny, Jump" watch the delightful video linked at the end 🙂 Tim

Thanks for your input Troy, very interesting. Now I’ve looked at that photo many times, and until you pointed it out, I’ve never twigged that the exhausts look different. Todays learning experience 🙂. Tim

This is the special hobby boxing of the Eduard Tempest II. Lovely kit to build, almost a perfect fit. I kept changing my mind as to which marking to finish it in, but in the end I went with the 33 squadron aluminum finish. I've now purchased an overtrees kit from Eduard so I can do one of the others with the spare decals. I tried to get the batty worn look the one photo I found of the aircraft has, where the camouflage is starting to show through the aluminum sprayed over the top. could have done more, but live and learn. And yes, the rockets should have a coloured band on them, but i wimped out at that point 🙂 Tim