sammy da fish

Very nice indeed well done a true inspiration to all. Thank you for letting us all have a view. simon

Excellent model there very good indeed. Just one observation as an ex liney, nobody would be allowed to wear such a chip hat as that on the line. This would be considered to dangerous as regards to FOD Foreign Object Damage to the aircrafts engine and flying controls. Quite often I or someone else higher up would ask any young liney to empty there pockets and these pockets should be empty of coins/mobiles and any other non authorised tools on the line. Beautiful model though a pleasure to see.

Thanks Mike for your in-depth build. I agree that those tan coloured blobs are punker louvres for fresh air and the thing in the middle of them is a standby back up compass. Simon

Thank you for sharing your model with us all. Very well done there. Simon

I concur with John’s comments whole heartedly. I get very upset when I see on here some so called subject experts spouting off on here about certain aspects of a model not even released yet. Most have never even worked on these lovely subjects but are able pontificate to the Enith degree about this rivet or that panel line. Most of the time they don’t get the right picture. I take a case to show you what I mean. Sea Fury 1/48 someone was saying that the rivets on an oval panel on the side of the tail was wrong in some way. Well although I have never worked on such an interesting subject being to young(57) and working for the RAF and not the RN. Going back to that oval panel it is not riveted at all but was removable for servicing purposes with countersunk screws. Secondly and to get another thing of my chest- Rivets it took years for me to perfect the art of fitting these bloody things. Literally thousands of them. I spent a lot of time reducing some to within 5 Thou of the skin. I would have a normal rejection rate of about 5% that I needed to sort in some way. There are many types of rivet used as well ranging from hitalumium these are nice mauve coloured ones, tucker pops which most people know and the Joy of Joy to use a Jo bolt. The point I am try in make here is that we aircraft maintainers are in the main trying to get rid of a rough surface to provide as smooth a surface as possible. Where as the modern trend in modelling for some people is get the riveting tool out we must put all of the rivets back in NO look at your subject in detail first see which rivet lines are prominent some may be domed rivets or Dzus fasteners or some other fixing. This is just a rant as it gets me unset the vast majority are not looking hard enough at your subject yes Airfix may get it wrong but so do other manufactures. Look how wrong the New 1/72 B-52 is? Can you imagine Airfix getting that wrong OMG. Simon

What heart warming story and nice model as well thanks for posting.

I would be very proud and pleased with build well done. simon

Now which one shall I buy the Kitty Hawk or wait for the Zvezda kit?

Just seen this, I am sorry to say that having built the Airfix/Meng/Tamiya P51’s as a comparison exercise I can not agree that the Meng one was better than the other two. Airfix kit was very similar in detail and had about the same fit issues as the Meng kit, Tamiya model has the best fit still, even though it is some twenty years old. Which one would I buy for future builds 1st Airfix, 2nd Tamiya, wait for the Eduard kit and lastly the Meng rendition. This is only my opinion and I didn’t expect to come out in that order at all. From press perception I though it would be 1st Meng, 2nd Airfix and lastly good old Tamiya. I am loooking forward to the Eduard model next year. I am willing to discuss further if anybody wishes and I do not work for Airfix or Eduard. Simon

Nice build there like the light coloured panel lines cool. Simon

I must say I would be very proud of producing such an excellent model, well done there. Simon

Remember chaps the burger van lady Vee will ba around the back of the show very close to the competition room. This is because there are two temporary classrooms on the public car park. Which are there due a lighting strike on the school.

Congratulations and may you have a long and happy life together.

You have captured the look of the real aircraft well. I don’t often give praise on Britmodeller. Would like to see your model in the flesh now. Well done chap

Looks very good there like the restrained weathering. Well done.