Max Headroom

with fire. Herding cats

Yes I was - sorry!

I could see a Mosquito re issue with parts for (say) Tse-Tse. Has anyone who has the current release checked the lettering on the sprues to see if there is a ‘missing’ one? But if f a new subject, I would venture something Japanese maybe? Zero, Tony or Frank anyone? Trevor

Apart from aircraft, anyone have any thoughts on ‘other stuff’? Trevor

Hah! Everyone knows that Airfix do 1/24! Trevor

Late to the party - sorry! Now that you’re going to detail the heck out of this, Airfix will now surely release a new kit and for that, we the rest of the Briterati, salute you Trevor

random gerbils for breakfast* *absolutely no idea

I’d love one in 1/48 but 1/72 would do. The only on in captivity in Europe is at the RAFM and to be honest there are a LOT of things non standard about it, some of which I set out with my pictures in the walk-around section Trevor

G29-1 ex North Weald and Southend. My pictures from the 80’s and finally the nose which I believe is now with Paul Allen My understanding is that the carcas remains unrestored Trevor

Stunning build and great attention to detail. Looking good Trevor

Coming along nicely Trevor

in deepest, darkest Dagenham

Thanks for the encouragement! Once I found what type of bombsight it was there were lots of photos to be found. I’m not claiming true fidelity to the original, but hopefully all those ‘who know’ will recognise it and know I’m in the ballpark. I did a trial fitting with the nose transparency to make sure it fitted and it does, just about. More later….. Trevor

in no way whatsoever

I had half a MK.IX Spitfire left over from my AZ post war MK.16. A £4.99 injection of Aldi Airfix MK.I sees me 95% towards a prototype MK.III Trevor

I envisioned a boxed-in structure with a lid on top. To that I would drill a central hole and push the ‘camera’ lens through. I think it’ll actually work! Repeat for the other side, paint the inside of the box black and the lens casing a sort of grey and that’s it (hopefully). Trevor

Apparently it’s a MK.IX bombsight and was a common fit to many RAF bombers. A quick internet search revealed the following pictures http://www.canadianflight.org/content/course-setting-bombsight-mk-ix https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Course_Setting_Bomb_Sight#/media/File%3ACourse_Setting_Bomb_Sight_in_use.jpg https://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/1941-mk-course-setting-bomb-sight-464515061 There seem to be a few variations on the gubbins going on in the front, which gives me an excuse to have ‘artistic licence’ (aka bodging something together). Half a hour’s work with sprue, wire and glue got me here and finally a colour wartime shot. Not sure who, if anyone now, has the copyright, but happy to remove if asked Also lots of nice incidental detail there, such as the taped-over join where the two halves were bonded together. Now onto the camera housings. Cheers for looking. Trevor

DM incoming. Trevor

Blimey you seem to be having a torrid time putting this together. I definitely didn’t have any bother putting mine together. It seems to be one of those things I’ve read about in that one reviewer can have no problems, whilst another fights running battles throughout the construction. One of life’s mysteries. Moving onto the hole, I have taken the liberty of blowing up one of your shots and can only conclude that the strut(?) on front of the camera is hiding it? Trevor

6th columnists are worse

against the naughty world

I’ve run out of adjectives. Superb will have to do for now! Trevor

Hello again. This time I’m concentrating on the ventral portholes as an exercise in doing something other than the cockpit. (a chap needs a change of routine). As I said above, whilst the camera port glazing is provided it’s up to the modeller to cut out the holes. And oddly, nothing is provided for the porthole in the entry hatch. I snipped off the portholes off the sprue and fiddled around until they fitted. The outside surface is flat rather than contoured and I’m prepared to go along with that on the basis that the cameras needed a flat surface. Once satisfied the holes had been further reamed to the right size, I then painted the mating surfaces the Tamiya IJM Green I now use in lieu of Humbrol 78. Once dried, I will then fix the glazing. I needed the F.24 cameras, or at least the front bit to show through from the inside of the bomb bay portholes. Looking around, I thought that the runners in the kit looked pretty wide and so cut a length of the one with the wings. A quick scrape and sanding to remove seam lines I then looked for a way to hollow out the runner and found my little box of dentist drills. Iv’e had these for about 40 years and have been very useful, especially after I bought the hand-held twist drill. Using the widest drill I hollowed out the runner in a few moments. To finish off, I cut it out further with a scalpel tip. A wipe with liquid cement to smooth out the rough edges and I had this……. I’m thinking that it may be a tad narrow, but I’ll check later. Maybe I have a couple of spare bombs somewhere if necessary? Turning to the crew hatch porthole, I looked for suitable clear plastic. Initially I thought of using a junked CD jewel case, but dismissed that idea as the plastic is too brittle - maybe ok for squares and rectangles, but circles? I think not. The answer was in front of me and that was to use the carrier plastic off the Tasman vac form I have a Scale Aircraft Modelling saw and template set and as luck would have it, one of the circles was the same size as the hole. I secured the sliver of plastic with lots of tape. As you can see this isn’t the Tamiya stuff, but a roll of masking tape from my local DIY store. Lots more for lots less and it’s exactly the same stuff! And what’s more, when The Boss wants another wall painting beige/tope/camel, I’m ready A few minutes scratching away with the point of a needle brought me here I suppose I could have carried on until I worked my way through, but life is too short (especially at my age) so I snipped away with my pliers. So that’s where I’m up to at the moment. Im thinking about that bombsight again……. Trevor

I must say mine fitted together like a dream. Maybe yours was a Friday afternoon moulding? For mine the gun troughs were not a problem as I decided to do the unarmed version so filled them in. Seeing the wheels reminded me that for whatever reason, Airfix didn’t put in the perforations on the nose wheel. Dentists’s drill sorted that. Trevor

Never realised they did airliners! Was this an original or a Redbox from another manufacturer? Trevor