John R

Barrie Hygates book of British Experimental Jet a/c has a drawing showing the lettering. You would need to scan this into photoshop making the letters white ( or cream) surrounded by magenta then print it on to white decal film. The problem, after tidying up the lettering, would be matching the photoshop magenta to your paint. I have done this on US Navy a/c where I wanted white letters on blue John

This represents the YF100 at the time of its first flight For those who want the background see this WIP thread http://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=77256 I had been thinking about doing this for some time but didn't want to ruin a new kit if it went wrong. I thrn got this as a partially completed piece of scrap at the model club. I tried to finish it in Alclad polished aluminium but got into all sorts of trouble and settled for stainless steel instead. The lighter bits are Alclad dark aluminium over the stainless steel. I started to use the decals supplied with the kit but these broke up and I then realised that the USAF letters needed a different font anyway. I then made some of my own by copying from the 'Detail and Scale' book of the F100 but then realised that these were not correct either. Fortunately CTmodeller (expert modeller, painter and all-round good guy) had a suitable set. I had to make the YF100 logo and tail numbers. The most fun(?) was the shroud around the jetpipe which seemed to be different to any other of the variants. This was made out of sheet after I had dusted off my engineering drawing memories to produce a cone. This was painted with Alclad jet exhaust and the segments were represented by decals. John PS. That nose probe is removable

Great shots and a nice variety but what is that strange blue background you have over there? John

Lovely job Melchie. Do you do anything else but build models? Your output puts mine to shame! As to the SST, I actually stood under the full size model when I worked for Boeing in mid-sixties and my thoughts were along the lines of 'I DON'T BELIEVE IT'. This was also the time when someone decided to test the American public's reaction to supersonic bangs by subjecting Seattle to quite a few of them. They were not well accepted and probably contributed to the demise of the SST. If you were outside they were acceptable but inside a big building like Boeing's assembly hall or an apartment block the place shook. John

I built one of these a few years ago. The panel lines are a bit deep and I had a little trouble with one of the intakes where the lip had to be built up a little but otherwise it went together quite well. Be careful with the decals as they are rather thin. I also reckon that they are not quite the right size but it depends on how picky you are. Enjoy - it makes a nice model John

Progress - but slow and now I need more help - please I was about to add the 'USAF' decals supplied with the kit but realised that they used a different font so it looks as if they will have to be home made. Does anybody know what colour was used - black or dark blue (Insignia blue)? The same goes for the colours of all the other markings. Also the top of the fin appears to be a lighter colour. Was it a different shade of metal or was it some kind of resin like they used on radomes? John

Relief - after all this time Thanks John

"so I'd bet that the U/C legs and doors were in fact Seahawk" I think that you will find that they weren't. There appears to be another rearward stay and extra doors associated with it. John

You might be better off starting with a Sea Hawk for the fuselage. The Hunter was a much slimmer a/c. There was a post some time ago from a chap in Australia who assembled a P1081 from various bits. I've got a P1052 and P1081 in 1/72 scale currently stalled until I can find out how the u/c doors and legs are arranged. If you are at all picky this is the most difficult area to sort out Good luck! John

If you are going to start putting this sort of stuff up I am going to regret showing you how to do it!! I'm glad your old Microscale decals worked as the Hasegawa ones probably wouldn't. I built the Hasegawa F15 prototype and the decals were almost impossible to use. Unfortunately I had no choice. John

Thanks Melchie. I was aiming for 'first flight' standard for which, as far as I can determine, the lower nose probe was used . John

It's an ex-ESCI kit 1/72 scale For those interested there is now a thread in ' work in progress' http://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=77256 John

North American YF-100 Super Sabre prototype I had hoped to have this finished by now but somehow life got in the way! It started life as a partially built ESCI F100D left at the club last month Modifications include : Re-profiled fin with a strange, and so far unidentified, thing on top Removal of the inner wing extensions and flap lines and re-scribing ailerons Removal of what looked like strengthening plates under the wing Addition of the upper nose probe. Reduction of the wingspan The extreme rear end is also significantly different to production types and requires fabrication of a new exhaust ring. The worst moment came quite late on when the forward undercarriage bay became loose and fell inside the fuselage. Fortunately the fuselage was sufficiently empty to enable it to be extracted via the hole for the afterburner ring. After cleaning up it was possible to re-insert via the gear bay hole but holding it in place whilst re-glueing provided some considerable amusement! One interesting item is that this kit, by ESCI, is supposed to be one of the most accurate but the intake shape is wrong. It appears to be a perfect ellipse whereas the actual shape is not. I do not feel up to trying to correct it. I am wondering what paint to use for the upper surface panels of the wing which are not polished metal. Any advice would be appreciated. I wondered if the YF-100 logo appeared on both sides of the nose but all the photos I have seen show it on only the right side. Some photos show FW 754 on the left but a poor quality first flight photo appears to show neither. Ah, the joys of research! John Rieley

Lucky chap! I went 2 years ago and the weather was awful. Grey and bitterly cold. The a/c weren't cooperative either - no topside shots. John

I intend to use Alclad Polished Aluminium over Alclad Black Base for the shiny bits. I did wonder what would happen if I used a grey primer over the black on the 'anodised' section and then used the polished aluminium over the lot. John

Which paint should I use to represent the greyish bit that looks like anodised aluminium on the the topside of the wing? At Scalemodel World a couple of years ago the Alclad stand had just this combination of shiny and grey and I wonder how they did it. John

Here's the one with the Hurricane last year John

No, Sunday at Eastbourne - seen from Beachy Head John

I took this one of her back in 2005 at Flying Legends in the pre digital days. I've got a similar shot to yours but with the wheels up. Nowhere near the quality of yours, though John

Tornado in a hurry John

Don't know if this quite on topic but I thought that it might raise a few nostalgic smiles. Looking for something to occupy a 5 year grandson I wondered if he might like to make a model. Yes please! So I dug out an Eastern Express Hunter from the stash, bought and saved for just such an eventuality. I managed to keep the knife away from him as we got the parts to fit. He wielded the glue brush and after brief wait for the glue to dry, on went the decals as he didn't want to paint it. Start to finish in a couple of hours - Remember those days? Have I just started another youngster on the road to ruin? John

Thanks for that. It was only £3 and I thought that if it was rubbish it could be passed on to the grandchildren. Some of the 'english' could only be described as quaint and that made me suspicious. John

Just picked up a KiTech Mig 31 going very cheap. Who are KiTech and are they and their Mig 31 any good John

Thanks John

I was always under the impression that it was lost due to an in-flight fire whilst it was fairly new, Mutt Summers having to bail out. Correction/enlightenment please. John