GMK

Thanks. Hmmm, maybe it’d fit inside one of the basketball presentation cases.

What are the dimensions of the completed kit? Thanks.

Great thread! Quick one; how did the Walrus/Seagull come to a stop when landing like this?

Didn’t the UK move away from the confusing practice of renaming foreign-supplied aircraft in ~1943? Thinking reverting Tarpon to Avenger and Martlet to Wildcat. Save for fragile national ego reasons, or an attempt to claim a level of (absent) design input, I can’t see a valid reason to rename platforms that will be required to inter-operate. Confusing a hypothetical UK ‘Triton’ (manned aircraft e.g. P-8) with a US ‘Triton’ (unmanned aircraft) with completely different capabilities, but similar roles, doesn’t sound particularly smart.

Maybe. But the Typhoon is now more expensive to buy than the Lightning (F-35 type).

Lovely pics - thanks for posting them. Shame they didn’t pop their ‘barn doors’. Would love to confirm whether the rumoured full colour Union Flag painted inside is actually there!

Yep, the only Lightning in RAF service that’s been deployed operationally

Word is that it is full colour.

There’s moves afoot to shift the roundel and add tail numbers, but a hard no (at this stage) for unit markings. The US Navy has sprung for full colour markings, and most other operators have unit markings, not sure why UK Lightnings don’t?

I don’t think the international rules for military markings have changed. Going from memory (!), markings visible from the above, each side, and below are required. With the aircraft being jointly operated by both the RAF & the RN, I’m guessing that the traditional “Royal Air Force” or “Royal Navy” titles are a bit too controversial to apply?

Looks sharp: Apparently there’s also the Union Flag on the underside of direct lift fan cover. Looking for pics.

Nice update: Plus a conversion to a high back.

First flight also completed.

Operative words being “changes to”. There’s no additional cost to getting it right the first time.

But surely sticking to historically-consistent - rather than functionally relevant & safe - markings is more important?