earlswain341

Parts are back now. Just final fettle to fit. Dont know how to post photos on this site so any advice will go down a treat.

Just received the scans and they are spot on. Should be getting the printed examples very soon. Once I have them in my sticky little fingers, I will take a rubber mould off them and then fettle the fit using a resin casting. No point messing up the originals.

I'm about to start on my most ambitious project so far. Haven't mastered any parts for 6 years and thought I would have a crack at the RAF Airseeker in 1/72 scale. The masters have been scanned and a 3D print of all the bits and bobs are with Lancashire 3D in Preston.. Should have them back on Wednesday and then taking a silicone mould of them to fettle the fit for the AMT/Italeri stratotanker. I will post pictures as it progresses. Should make one heck of a model.

how about him in the F35 flying up against a third world country that bought a full force of harriers for just £100 million.... err !!

The cammo scheme is wrong but the nose, tail and intake splitter plates are spot on for the Jag prototype, only the nose profile remaining on first production machines, the tail being raised and the splitter plates being cut back. I remember seeing a couple of Jags identical to this operating on the M61 motorway before it opened or was it the M6. Hope that helps Steve

Halfords do a reasonable flourescent yellow in a rattle can which has a lime tint Steve

Sorry to add my 2penneth in to the mix. There are actualy two distinct shades of IRR NATO green. One for airframes and one for vehicles. I have rattle cans of both to paint my models and the vehicle version is very different to the airframe shade and quite a bit lighter. The vehicle version is half way between the Lichen green and airframe nato green so could it be that this was the colour used ? It would account for it being described as Nato green but a few shades lighter than the Nato green we associate with RAF aircraft. Just a thought Steve

Actualy there is a Lady in Canada selling the Bobcat Harrier T4 for around £5. I bought ten Shackletons and a couple of the Bobcat models a few months ago. She's on @BAY as MODELMAAM Hope this helps

Forgive me if I'm wrong but in order to negate the effects of a nuclear flash, the canopy was coated in pure gold. This was applied using a process called vacuum metalizing. A thin strand of gold has several thousand volts put through it, instantly vapourising it. In a vacuum and with an electrode fitted to the canopy, the gold forms a very thin film on it This is also used on the F16 canopy and several other front line aircraft. It's possible that the tint you see is created using this process. Steve

I've just received a couple of pods and they are excelent. Well done Shaun. Put me down for a Terma pod if you make them. Steve

Libya may change its markings soon so I wouldn't rush into marking it up just yet

Yes and no. The Aeroclub bomb bay is more accurate than mine as you have to remodel the depth of the nose on theirs to match the depth of the forward bomb bay. On mine, I grafted on the existing nose profile so the depth matches the kit without further sanding/reinforcement. Not strictly accurate but neither is the frog model. As its done for my own use primarily, I wasn't too worried. The only issue I need to overcome is resin shrinkage making a slopy fit but I.m working on it. My next mould will have a sliver of plasticard inserted along the bomb bay centerline to widen it so when I remake the master, it will shrink to fit. Steve

Actualy, if you read the "how to make a radome " above, it's an Airmodel moulded radome on an extended Modelcraft bomb bay, Steve

Colin, Yes and no is the answer. I was appalled at the non matching halves on my Gannet radome so I used it as a mould, filled it with a water based resin then took several sheets of wet and dry to it. i then mastered it to create a decent radome. You can graft the airmodel radome straight on if you don't mind it looking lumpy.

I'm sure one of the aircraft was zebedee. does anyone know which one ? steve

I hope it's the way forward. Short runs, reboxed with new decals would keeep demand satisfied and interest on the boil. The 1/48 canberra B2 had so many posibilities . T11/19, T17, T4 etc. All they had to do was mould a cut line inside the nose and release alternative noses with decals. Same goes for the T2 Jaguar, T4 Harrier, T4 Lighning. It can't be that expensive to knock off a mould. Airfix added new weapons to their Tornado GR4 kit at no extra cost along with instructions, decals etc. I know we are a relativly small band who kitbash, use resin, white metal and brass. These mediums can put people off, but plastic never would and it would create more interest and therefore sales Once buyers/modellers get used to the idea of converting, they may just attempt something more adventurous. remember the canberra B6 lost for all time just to create the american version ? A moulded cut line and replacement nose would have avoided all that. come on Airfix, give us what we want but in smaller doses. re

I'm sure our neighbours realise that secretly we admire them greatly for their true patriotism. The French are admired for their support of their own industry, jobs, defence and their own people. They don't have much of a model manufacturing industry though. We have and we don't support it enough.

When putting into a French port with a Royal Navy crew, the French would probably break their own strike to raise a blockade and then set fire to it. Or sell it behind our backs just because the European commission won't give them a farming grant on it. I know tha last bit is hardly likely. They would get the grant from Brussels, no problem VIVE LA DIFFERANCE ( HMS WATERLOO would be my choice ) Jean-Claud

Mark, Your info is very much appreciated. At first I will do the last 6 in service and take it from there Once again thanks to everyone who posted Steve

Thanks for your kind offer, however, I am well on with a master now, using the AIRMODEL radome and intend to knock off a few to convert my stash. It would be something to do the last six in service. I have tried to contact Sanger via email to buy their decal sheets and see if they could supply just the whitematal undercarriage legs from their MR1 kit, but the email just bounces back. They only do the 1/48 AEW2 as far as I can tell Steve

As far as I can recall, the RAF sneb pod was a 2 row and the RN pod has 3 rows of rockets. I think the Airfix harrier had the RN pod in the kit though I no longer have the kit for reference. Steve

Bill, You are right when you say the Lightning sold well initialy. The problems arise with model shops reluctance to re-order when more recent releases will fly off the shelves at a quicker rate. I couldn,t buy a Lightning localy some 6 months after release because my model shops wouldn't order any in for me. This, I was told, was due to Airfix order quantity/minimum pricing strategy at the time. I believe you couldn't just order 10 of one kit. Severa ldiferent kits had to be purchased to fulfill an order. AIRFIX should do limited runs with new decals, preferably printed by Cartograph or similar, who take on short runs a-la Hasegawa and first offer them to those who subscribe to the news letter or, pre-order through the website maybe 3 months before release . These can then be sold by AIRFIX on a direct supply basis and they would roughly know what demand there is. I would gladly buy 5 or 6 on this basis. ( probably 10 as I have 14 Canberra B2 in the stash and will make every one of them ) Also, and I hope AIRFIX are taking note, they could manufacture their own conversion sets without screwing up the original moulds. These can be ordered at the same time as the main kit. If I can knock up a T17 conversion set inside a week, I'm sure Airfix could. Hope you are listening guys at Airfix Steve

For internal carriage read limited payload/range. You need to put up 3 F35's up to match the firepower of a single Typhoon, surely. Also, when you consider the present range of weapons developed ( Brimstone, CRV etc ) how can F35 cope with these. To my mind, we will be purchasing a compromisecapable of carrying a handfull of missiles or a couple of LGB's. Can we use F35 as a RECON PLATFORM ? Turning now to stealthy aircraft. How many Jaguars or Buccaneers were shot down in the gulf....None and the Bucc was as stealthy as a brick. Lets face it, the chances are that in the future, any war the US leads us into will be against some 3rd rate, tin pot country with the sophistication of a 3rd generation airforce with Hardened Aircraft Tents. OR are we going to rely on UMCV's in the future. BAe are ahead of the game on that one and why, because they went it alone, designed and manufactured an aircraft themselves without a multi lingual commitee and, more importantly, ensured a skill base be maintained within the UK. All the government has to do now is cancell the bloody thing and ask if we can buy someone elses. I'm with Bobski, sea Typhoon or Harrier 3. If anyone can develop a sea going Typhoon, it's BAe. Who designed and built EAP to prove the Typhoon concept? We did. Vtol? We did. Area rule fuselage ? We did Keep it British

With floats