John R

I built one of these back at the end of the Eighties and was most impressed by the way it went together. Can't comment on the accuracy as it was before I got interested in such things, as long as it looked about right that was good enough. My only problem was that I had not learned about handling decals and didn't realise how much you could actually move them around. You should enjoy it John

Nice job. I built one of the Emhar kits many years ago and was singularly unimpressed so you deserve a pat on the back. John

I built one of these back in the Fifties when you had to carve them out of balsa wood. I've now got one of the Czechmaster versions in the stash which is beginning to clamour for my attention John

This started life back in August and appeared under work in progress as http://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.p...c=53543&hl= Progress hardly seemed an appropriate term and the at the beginning of December I had some rather painful back trouble which was followed by 'flu in January but finally I managed to get a grip on things and now it's done. It's a mixture of Heller F84G fuselage, Airfix F84F wings and tail. Nosewheel undercarriage is from the F84G. The main u/c used F84G legs and wheels with F84F wheel covers. A new canopy was moulded using a shape derived from what pictures I could find. The body of the nose probe was turned from 1mm tube using a battery powered drill to get a bit of taper and the tip was 0.5mm Finish was Alclad polished Aluminium over Alclad basic black undercoat. I am a bit disappointed with it as a couple of years ago I produced a stunning finish on a P1 but haven't been able to repeat it since - very frustrating! Fin decals were homemade. It took a lot more effort than expected. Was it worth it? Well, there can't be too many of these about... John

Are these of any interest. It's the Yak 15 at the Zadorhozy museum in Moscow John R

Have you found this? http://airfixtributeforum.myfastforum.org/...about18474.html It is a box review of a 1/48 version and the photos show a resin jetpipe interior with cone and turbine blades John

Will this help? It's the back end of a Yak23 in the Zadorozhny museum in Moscow There are pictures of Yak 15s in Yefim Gordon's book 'Early Soviet Jet fighters' but they don't show much, only a very dark area. There is a nice colour picture of a Yak 15 on the cover but the 'onion' appears to stick out a lot further than in pictures of this and other 15's in the text. As they say 'museum a/c are funny things' John

Ah, the loss of innocence! I remember when I used to be able to build kits straight from the box and then one day the thought occurs 'surely that can't be right?' and life is never the same again. "Perhaps I'll build it and give it to a young nephew.............. " Better still - get together with the young nephew and build it and another young soul will set forth on the road to hell.

Thanks. I was more cautious with the second wing and gradually raised the temperature until I was able to straighten it but it was a bit 'comfortable' before I could de-warp it. I let it soak to get the whole thing at a uniform temperature and cooled it running water. It was stable for a few days but then I found it had remembered how it used to be and the warp crept back in!!!!! Why can't it remember that it came out of a straight mould? John

Comparing the Heller kit fuselage with photos and a 3-view it appears to me that the wing is positioned too high, about one wing's depth. Has anybody else noticed this? John

I heard that you can immerse them in hot water but how hot does it have to be? I didn't work very well for me even when the water was too hot to put my fingers in so I tried dropping the part into boiling water for a few seconds before fishing it out with tweezers but it nearly melted. It would appear that somewhere in between there is an optimum temperature. Does anybody know what it is or does it vary depending on the model manufacturer? John

No I didn't contact Bill. His article covered most of the things I wanted to know. I have just re-read it because I could not remember him saying anything about the wing position apart from the fore and aft alignment. I have just looked at a 3-view and some photos of the straight wing F84s and it appears to me that the Heller kit does not have the vertical position of the wings correct. I wonder if anybody has any views on this. I thought Bill's model looks OK as it is. Why do we let things like this bother us? John

I thought that this would be a comparatively simple task but... Things went wrong almost immediately. The donor wings were warped and were not responding to hot water treatment so I thought that I would try dipping one briefly in boiling water. DISASTER! It buckled and whilst I was able to get it back into roughly the right shape lots of milliput was required to rescue it. I then discovered that the F84E canopy was not suitable as the prototype F84F had a Vee windscreen. As if this was not enough the wings are lower on the fuselage than the E. At this point I put it away until I was in a better frame of mind. On picking it up again recently I came to the conclusion that the wing planform was not correct and that the chord at the tips had to be increased and then discovered that one wing was shorter than the other - it must have shrunk in the hot wash so a little was added to the root. These additions can be seen in the photo. To lower the wing position on the fuselage I made a box into which I could fit the existing wing tongues as this looked to be the best way of getting the wings lined up and providing a secure fixing. Now for the canopy. I made a mould by lining the F84E canopy with Micromask and then filling it with Milliput. Much to my surprise I was able to extract the filler. The plan is now to add Milliput to the forward section and sand it to the correct shape. John

I've just looked at the washing thread. You do things the hard way, don't you? Keep going - it will all be over by Xmas! John

Is it finished yet or have the men in white coats taken you away? It was beginning to look as if all the effort was worthwhile John

Nice job. What is X Planes GB please John

If you like aviation photography please have a look at this thread http://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=57805 John

Why not sell your Matchbox T55 on Ebay? They go for silly money John

I built the CF100 mark V many years ago. As I remember it went together quite well except for one item - the rear fuselage was way out of alignment and required careful sanding to get it right. I was later told that this was a deliberate mistake as the kit was a 'rip-off' of the Astra vacform and they wanted to avoid charges of plagiarism. The same reason was given for the incorrect placement of the aileron actuators on the CF105. JOhn

Thank you for introducing me to NEAT IMAGE Here are some of my efforts http://forum.keypublishing.co.uk/showthread.php?t=104063 Where were you? I took these at the east end John

Nice job John

Welcome - a man after my own heart. Have you seen my prototypes? What did you have to do to the Sea Hawk to make the P1040 John

I'm a bit confused by your reply. It sounds as if you have an F16A and want to mark it up as a YF16. I do not know how important this is to you but I believe that there are dimensional differences between the F16A and the YF16. John

Thanks for the compliments. My next project is the Hasegawa prototype F16, which is about half-built. which of us will finish first? John

3 Mach 2 kits! The men in the white coats will be round to take you away soon. Lovely work - you deserve a medal John