The original Kit Builder

Turkish bird gets my vote, too.

Pitot tubes were often obscured by the censor who actually had no idea what the workings of an aircraft were. Anything, therefore, that looked like an aerial was visited by the brush of obliteration. I for one, would really like to know what they saw fit to blank out in its entirety over on the right. I wouldn't mind betting on a glider.

Thanks John. Trevor, I will most likely use my usual decal to a gloss, overcoat with a water based flat approach and if there is any significant shift, I will report back. I wish I could afford a set of chips.

Greetings all. I have a Fleet Air Arm prolect coming up which requires a finish of EDSG/DSlateG/Sky. I know that Humbrol have recently released a new Dark Slate Grey and am wondering whether anyone has used it yet and can offer an opinion about it. I have only seen it on my monitor as yet and although it is reasonably well calibrated, the shade looks a little off to me. It seems from the Humbrol swatches to be lacking a degree of green-ness. Can anyone confirm or deny my impression, please? Chris

Really nice. How did you get round the frankly awful canopy fit?

I've seen one in the box. The moulding is first rate; delicate and fine. The outline looks pretty good to my eye, but I haven't had chance to compare it to any drawings. There are 4 decal options included, all of which are pretty colourful and the decal sheet looked to be in good register, nicely printed with accurate colours. Chris

Richard, Tamiya, Hasegawa and Eduard all do E3's and I think ICM and Zvezda do as well. I cannot speak for the markings, however and the choice of kit would depend on how much you are willing to spend to "crash" a 109.

The aircraft coded AZ-B looks DE/DG only because the red saturation of the print is too high. It is actually the modified day scheme of OG/DG over Night, as far as I can tell. Kit

Send it back, Nick or at least drop them an e-mail and specify that you want the new stuff, which I must say, looks the best match ever. Kit

Outstanding. I've built a few of these myself and come up with a few changes to the build sequence to make some things easier, whilst making others less so. I am impressed by the edges of the lamination lines on your propeller. Mine are not as straight as yours. What's your method?

And then, after the Plumbers had wrecked them, they were sent to the structures bay for the proper tradesmen to fix.

If you PM me with your details, I'd be interested in buying a bottle from you, too, for five quid.

Yeah, now I think on it, it was Italeri that covered the AM B25, which shows how bad my memory's getting, if nothing else. Not much wrong with the old Monogram kit, though, if that's what it turns out to be. I built one of them back in the late 70's or early 80's and it seemed OK to a much younger me.

Last time the Red Bull B25 was issued, it was, IIRC, a reboxing of the AM one, with engraved panel lines, rather than the raised lines of the Monogrm kit. There are an awful lot of re-releases in that list, either with or without a few new parts, though many will be welcomed back, of course.

I only wish they'd release a few more of these types in 48th. A new Gladiator and some 50's-60's British types in such a sclae would be most welcome.

Brown was well out of effective range, at about 300 yards, above and to the starboard side of von Richthofen's machine. The triplane flew under perfect control for nearly two minutes after Brown was forced to break off, which, had he, (Brown) hit von Richthofen wouldn't have happened, as the only bullet wound the German had suffered had pretty much destroyed his heart and lungs, passing from below left, (portside) to upper right, (stbd) through his chest cavity. This passage is entirely opposite any possible injury that Brown might have caused and, in fact, the only effect Brown's fire was witnessed to have had was to make von Richthofen weave once, presumably to identify the potential threat, before dropping back onto Wop May's tail. When asked about it, all Brown would say was that "all the evidence is out there" if anyone wanted to find it. He never made the claim, either at the time, or after, which I think he would have if he'd had even the slightest belief that he had achieved it, because of the kudos it would have earned him. He was too honourable to lie about it, I think. Still, as I said, he was an ace in his own right, he was undoubtedly a hero in the proper sense of the word and his Camel was colourful, with a red nose, fin and tailplanes. Sorry, swap port for stbd and left for right. I posted this after driving half the length of the country after a weekend at my folks place and should have been unwinding for bed.

I believe that the underside is a shade of grey. If you look at the port engine cowling, you can see the demarkation line between the upper and lower colours and there definitely isn't any black. Also, assuming the usual conventions, if the underside WAS night, the sqn codes would, (or should) be dull red. I would respectfully suggest that the "commonly interpreted" scheme is wishful thinking, at least in this instance, with the darkly shadowed fuselage underside aft of the mainplane and the de-icing boots influencing the interpretation. I would say that it is a standard example of TSS.

Not to detract from the thread, or Capt Brown's achievements, but recent forensic analysis indicates that he couldn't possibly have shot down von Richthofen and, indeed, he never claimed to have. He was given the credit by the RAF, even though the likely contender was a Sgt, Popkin, I think, of the Australian Infantry. No getting away from the fact that Brown was an ace, though, or that his machine was colourful.

Better than mine, I think. Very nice.

Note that the nozzles on the big wing Harrier has one fewer guide vanes. If you look closely, you can see the third vane in the SHar/GR3 nozzle inside the outboard curve.

The only pic I've ever seen of Vanguard out of the water is a colour print, which clearly shows the grey underside, (which I always thought was black). I think it's an oldish photo' though, as it was taken before the slabs were fitted to the sides. Does anyone know what they are, by the way?

Most, if not all DR1's appear to have been delivered with the cowling painted the same as the deck forward of the cockpit. This was the same olive as the streaking applied to the canvas, but in a solid coat. Cowlings were usually repainted in Jasta colours by the recipients after delivery. If a cowling appears light in colour in an image, (without wishing to get into a discussion about orthochromatic film) it is likely to be white or yellow. Sometimes rudders were also painted in Jasta colours, so deciding that a given cowling is white, because it is the same shade as the rudder doesn't always follow. The thing is, though, that even WW2, which was relatively well pictured, leaves many questions regarding colours and after nearly a hundred years, can we ever know for sure what colour a particular cowling was, unless it has been specifically documented?

Thereby showing how little I know of the Barracuda!

It strikes me that, with the undercarriage retracted, those white discs would be directly behind and visible through those "windows" and would effectively obscure almost everything else that might be visible through them. Many aircraft of the period were designed with mechanical "locked" indicators of varying degrees of effectiveness, (and some still are) so I'd not rule it out as a good possibility.

Anyone got any idea whether the new Klear, with Johnsons Wax is usable, or have they ruined the formulation completely for this type of use?