John R

The old ones were cut back and bits of sheet were stuck on, carved roughly to shape and faired in, by eye, with Milliput

I built a Heller version, the 94B, about 14 years ago and, whilst I did finish it, it was almost consigned to the bin on several occasions. I have also built the Emhar 94C and that was not much fun either but having a proper cockpit would make life simpler as I remember trying to decide where to fit the kit item was somewhat difficult. Lots of pictures here http://aviacaoemfloripa.blogspot.com.br/2011/03/lockheed-f-94-starfire.html and a built Emhar kit here http://www.clubhyper.com/forums/groupbuildframe_2.htm

Actually there are many more things than those to take into account but thanks for the warning. I did get a Falcon conversion set which had a nose and a canopy. Unfortunately the nose was not the first one and the canopy didn't fit, whether that was because it was designed for a different maker's F4B or my incompetence is undetermined. This is where it's at Latest mods were fitting fuel dump Next in line are removal of the fin 'bulge' at top and sorting the nav lights

You will need a lot more than a radome and fin corrections. I reckoned that the A version is too long and the whole shape of the front fuselage was wrong and the cockpit width indicated that the russians had some very slim pilots!

But why are the pipes 'chamfered' so that the openings face forward? Are the vents mainly for use on the ground so if the tanks are overfilled fuel does not get spilled on to the airframe. In the air positive pressure would be recovered by the vents facing forward and would stop fuel being sucked out. Also if they are fuel vents what was the purpose of this hole in the centre of the tail cone on the prototype?

Do not even think about the Flagon A if you want an accurate kit. I can't comment about the 'F'

What is the purpose of the bit that sticks out of the rear fuselage underneath the fin? The end is a tube with each end chamfered off to make it triangular with some openings that face forward. I first thought that it must be a vent but that seems unlikely. I cut if off the model I'm building as it was bound to get knocked off. When I went to replace it the part in the kit, a Fujimi RF4B, looks too small. I am right that it should be more substantial? John

All most interesting - thank you. Perhaps I should have said that the one I'm trying to build is the prototype.

Yes indeed, I did mean Khodynka. Thank you for pointing it out. Perhaps I should not answer posts after a good meal at which drink had been taken. Khodynka was a sad place when I visited a few years ago (2009). Has it gone completely? It was good to here that some a/c had been rescued. At Zadorozhny they only had the Yak 38 and 141 when I was there. John

****! Thank you all, especially Richard E. I DID look in the walkaround forum but obviously not carefully enough. Interesting how little resemblance those bits on the model bear to reality John

Would these help? The first two were taken at Khodynka (not Zhadorovsky as I originally posted, Thanks Flankerman) where they had apparently left to rot. Not sure if it is a 9 or 11 This was taken at Monino - parked in the open John

I managed to knock off one of these protusions and whilst trying to replace it I wondered what it was for and what was the proper shape on the real thing. Not having access to an actual a/c and unable to find a decent picture aroused my curiosity. Can anyone please help? John

Airliners are not 'my thing' but in your case I'll make an exception. Class Act John

My Hasegawa YF16 has recessed panel lines. It was the kit which could be built as the original or as the CCV version. It also has a single nose gear door.

A short while ago my Hasegawa YF16 (1/72) had an argument with a cupboard door and lost part of its pitot. I need to repair it for a club competition. Does anyone know the configuration and dimensions? I cannot find any 3-view or decent photo showing it. Whilst on the subject of the YF16 I believe that the F16A was a little longer and had more wing area than the YF16 but my YF16 seems to be the same size as an Italeri F61A that I have in the stash. Did Hasegawa get it wrong? Also I have seen pictures of Revell boxings F16A and YF16. Are these the same model with different decals? John

The only question remaining: where do I put it???? Obviously you need a Blister hangar in the garden!

It's on Modelsvit's 'to do' list.

The E-150 was the first of a series of interceptor prototypes for the times when bombers were expected to be flying at very high speed and altitude. Very much a ‘missile with a man in it,’ a speed of Mach 2.65 and altitude of 74,000 ft were attained but it was let down by its engine. The first flight, in July 1960, was 18 months late due to engine problems and these were never fully resolved during the test programme which ended in January 1962. The kit is of the ‘limited production’ type and requires a fair amount of fiddling to assemble. You are supposed to assemble the cockpit, u/c bay, nosewheel and intake cone as one unit before fitting it to the fuselage. I sensed that this was not the way to go and left the intake cone and u/c leg until the model was complete. The rudder and wings come in two parts which too thick and require much scraping and sanding to get them down to size. Fitting the wings to the fuselage required fiddling and filling. The ring slot around the aft fuselage was an ejector which boosted thrust and whilst it supposedly worked well it was never used on any subsequent a/c. One of the trickiest jobs was fitting this. When two halves were glued together I found that the ring was too small and I had to insert a strip of plastic to make it the right size. (This may well have been a problem of my own making as General Melchett, who is also building one, did not have this problem.) There is then the problem of fitting it to the rear fuselage whist keeping it concentric. I ended up by adding some inserts to the inside of the jetpipe to add support. The General sent me a photo of his showing an arrow on the ring to show where to fit it as his would only fit in one position! Even after this some careful scraping of the rear fuselage was needed to make the slots look right. I didn't use the kit pitot tubes but made my own from 0.8mm brass tube. I got around the problem of fitting the 'wings' to the wing pitot by cutting off the end of the kit pitot and fitting it into the brass tube. The finish was a bit of a problem as I believe that the a/c was painted with a silver lacquer. I first tried Alclad Airframe Aluminium over gloss black, intending to apply a semi-gloss top coat but it looked too dark so it was overcoated with Semi-Matt aluminium. With the model nearly complete I made several attempts to snatch adversity from the teeth of triumph. I picked up the tin of green paint after spraying the fin and then picked up the model and left a lovely green patch on the fuselage because failed to notice that the tin had some wet paint on the outside. Fortunately white spirit does not affect Alclad so I got away with it. I then managed to gouge the canopy frame when removing the masking necessitating some filling and some respraying. (some extra work is needed but I didn't want to risk ruining it before posting) The final straw was fitting the u/c legs on the wrong sides so the scissors faced forward instead of back so the u/c doors would not fit. They had to be broken off, drilled out and a piece of brass rod inserted. I hope you like it. Any comments, good or critical, are welcome. John

Hannants do a Soviet Red Stars decal sheet - by techmod 40020. Says WWII but they look modern.

I did try scribing them but it looked so awful that I used a decal, originally made for my P1081 It is now complete and can be seen in 'ready for Inspection' http://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/234977721-hawker-p1052-maintrack-172-vacform/

The other stages are here

Hawkers first swept wing jet, first flown in November 1948. Here in its original form with unswept tail. It was later fitted with an arrestor hook and carried out carried out deck landing trials in 1952. It was then modified to have a swept tail instrumented for pressure plotting. Interestingly this was done long after its successors, the P1081 and Hunter, had flown. Finally completed after being on and off the 'shelf of doom' for several years. The WIP thread is here http://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/70610-hawker-p1052-maintrack-vacform-172/ One point I would like cleared up, if anybody knows the answer, is that in the only pictures I have seen of it on the ground the forward nose u/c door is retracted whereas the opposite was the case for the P1081, which was a modification of the second P1052 VX279 John

The part of the u/c leg to which the wheel is attached is too long so the bottom was removed and a hole drilled for an axle made from brass rod. After fitting the legs 'baby' can stand unassisted. 'All' that has to be done is make and fit the numerous gear doors.

After the last post - disaster! I removed the masking from the canopy and found the cockpit to be full of bits of plastic dust from the cutting and sanding that had been necessary. I tried to remove the canopy but it fractured. As it had been such a pain to make using the 'crash' method I was somewhat disheartened. Further pain occurred as I decided to remove the paint and the remover also removed much of the filler. It was then consigned to the shelf of doom whilst I got on with something more rewarding. However I really wanted one of these for my collection of early jets so out it came again. This time I made a moulding machine to suck the plastic over the former and much to my surprise it was a lot easier than expected. So after much work it now looks as if there is a good chance of it being finished although there are all the fiddly bits of the u/c to be made and fitted. The decals are the original Maintrack 'Letraset' type. To anybody who wondered what had happened to this project - Thank you for waiting! John

Nice work. I didn't know Modelsvit released one of these. The fitting problems seem to be common to all their offerings. I believe Amodel did one as well. Does anyone know what that is like? John