Stramash

Very nice - just checked my log book, flew WD390 almost 40 years ago on 23 May 1983! Flying Selection Squadron at RAF Swinderby, Test 1 with Flt Statham. I have very little recollection of the trip!

Unfortunately not, my day is full tomorrow (morning taken up with post-dinner recovery I expect . . ). Pity, perhaps another time?

Cracking stuff. I'm actually at a dinner in the RAF Club this evening, and will be knocking about in the Running Horse Tavern afterwards!

Oustanding modelling, well done!

I was doing my officer training at Cranwell on that day. We stopped whatever log-themed leadership exercise we were doing as the noise from 16 Olympus engines rolled across the Lincolnshire flatlands. Tremendously loud even from 10 miles away.

Nice. My profile pic is me standing beside that very machine when I was going through FSS a long time ago.

Magnificent. Stunning work.

I'm giving up. That's magnificent.

Underwood was a couple of courses behind me at IOT at Cranwell. Someone pointed him out to me (this was a couple of years before his first cap) and said "he'll play for Engalnd one day". Obviously, I poured scorn on this - still no idea how my mate could predict that, as I don't think he'd ever seen him play.

A stunning pair. Really like that finish as well from the W&N can. I'm going to get some..

Here's my first lockdown build, a not very satisfctory rendition of a memorable (for me) JP3 from the Airfix kit. I was a few courses behind Fritag at Church Fenton Unfortunately, my piloting abilities were somewhat less proficient than his, and my RAF flying career ended after a horrible trip on a miserable day in November when I failed a flying test for the second time in JP TMk3a XN595. I'd been struggling, so no great surprise. Anyway, I've added a few vents , scoops and ariels which are missing from the Airfix model, and added bits to the seats from an Eduard set. It's the first model I've finished for a few years, and I was quite pleased with it - until I looked at the photos. They don't half highlight the flaws! I like the Airfx kit though. Might do the JP I soloed in next (XN552 since you ask . . .) now that doing XN595 has brought some sort of closure.* * It hasn't.

"Ejection seat pins all removed and stowed". Except they weren't. Still embarrassed over that mistake from one of my JP3 trips. Lost my solo cat temporarily as a result.

That is modelling of the highest standard. The detail and the finish are exemplary in themselves, but light and sound too . . . . you are one very gifted fella!

Stunning work - I'm smelling the avtur from here, and remembering feeling the old anxieties arising as I strapped into a JP3 for another 60 minutes of bollocking . . .

It was Rareplanes I think. I did one in '82, currently in bits in my loft. It was incredibly difficult to get right, especially due to the complexity of the wings I seem to remember. However, it did look the part once finished, and was obviously the only game in town for a 1/72 Victor back then.