AAbshier

Beautiful work! Mine's stalled at the moment (very busy real life intervention) but am now inspired to get back at it! Andrew

Great job on your F3! You now join an elite group who have battled these Trumpeter kits to completion! Mine: http://modelingmadness.com/review/viet/gb/ablite.htm Andy

I'm not usually a fan of contemporary airliner twinjets, but when Frontier came out with the animal-design tails which included the dolphin, I had to have one in my collection. I was a dolphin trainer years ago, and am still very much a dolphin enthusiast, so I found a Revell A319 and got to work. With one important exception, the kit is mostly stock. The decal I used, from 8A Decs of Mexico, had window openings in the large "Frontier" titles that came nowhere close to matching the window openings in the Revell kit. Rather than try to fill in the windows (which always leaves "shadows" of the windows when sanded smooth) I removed the window strips completely and replaced them with plastic card. Basically I made a pure freighter out of the A319! Here's how it looked once I got the inlays sanded in: After that, no worries. Paint is Testor's enamels for the most part. I did use Tamiya XF-26 for the nacelles, which was a virtually exact match for the green parts of the titles. The laser-printed decals from 8A Decs worked very well for the most part and responded nicely to the Microscale decal system, however, the dolphin design decal leaked some pink after application of Micro-sol. Word to the wise is, keep your Microsol application to the decals to the barest minimum. To get the door outlines aligned, I cut off the "foot" of the R on this side even with the bottom of the door outline. I later found it had blown off the model! Thankfully I found it, and got it stuck back down in a puddle of Future. I used Revell decals for the stenciling. Some of them seemed overlarge and too prominent and next time I may dispense with them. Still, I'm happy with how this one came out. Next is the orca, which Frontier flies on an A320. Zvezda, here I come!

Here is the first Airfix Lightning I built to completion. It is finished in the markings of 56 Squadron for the display season of 1963 if memory serves. I used the Eduard reboxing of the Airfix kit, and did it as a review build for Modeling Madness (review is here: http://modelingmadness.com/review/viet/gb/ab48lite.htm). Since I covered the build details in my article, I won't repeat myself here but instead run some pics that didn't make it into the MM article. Andy Sarasota, Florida

Here is the third model in my first Lightning trilogy. This is the Lightning F6, built from the Airfix kit. I had it in my stash before the kit was reissued, and decided to start it when I was finishing up my F2. I used the Eduard brass set for enhancements in the wheel wells, and a Neomega cockpit. The kit is otherwise stock. This was my first "big tank" Lightning, and I found it to be more challenging than the two small-tank Lightnings I did previously. I found the Red Tops to be harder to finish and paint than the Firestreaks. I also had some paint finishing problems that necessitated a partial stripdown of one of the wings for refinishing. The paint is Testor's Ocean Gray, with old-old Floquil-formula Aeromaster used for the RAF green. I used Humbrol Barley Grey for part of the ventral tank. Undersides are in Alclad Aluminum, with Alclad Polished Aluminum used for the nose ring. I modeled this particular aircraft (seen here: http://www.aviation-picture-hangar.co.uk/xr769am.html ) because the scheme incorporated both the 5 Sqdn. and 11 Sqdn. markings for a short time. It had just been transferred to 5 Squadron at the time the photo was taken, and the markings had not been fully changed over yet. I used a mix of Airfix kit decals, Barracudacals stencils, and Cutting Edge decals to get all of the markings on the model. I didn't like how this model came out initially, but it's grown on me, and it's one of my favorites now. Yes, there will be a second Lightning trilogy, so that I can finish up the single seaters. It's possible now that Airfix has announced the reissue of the small-tank Lightning in 1/48 scale. Andy Sarasota, Florida

Here is a completion of mine from 2012. This is the Lightning F2A, built from the Airfix kit. I bought the kit and started it in 1998 when it first came out, but got stalled on it. I pulled it back off the shelf when I got the Eduard/Airfix reissue of the F1A/F2 as a review build for Modeling Madness. I was going to finish both kits concurrently, but ran into paint problems with the F2, so it got finished later. The kit recieved a Cutting Edge resin cockpit, but is otherwise stock. The NMF finish is Alclad II Aluminum. For the polished intake ring, I used Alclad Polished Aluminum over a base of Floquil CSX Black. The blue on the spine and tail is Xtracolor British Airways World Scheme Blue, which is a very close match to RAF Roundel Blue. Squadron markings and roundels are by Cutting Edge, with stencils and walkways from Barracudacals. For the gun openings, I used the smooth plates intended for the F3, and carefully drilled out the openings using a dental burr. The pucker factor was sky-high for this, but it worked, and they look much better than the poor kit offerings. (ASIDE: why hasn't some resin maker done good gun troughs for this model?) Andy Sarasota, FL

Does look really great, but Jennings is right, that's some righteous bucks for those of us in the former colonies. Maybe it will be less once they get imported. Still, it looks like a keeper! Can we hope for a definitive Hunter in 1/48th from Airfix? A guy can dream..... Andy Sarasota, FL

And remember kids, Fisher resin parts contain no fish by-products. Never had them, never will. Seriously: these look great. I hope he does some things for the short Connies also. Andy

Beautiful work. I just finished my Britannia and may not show it here because it looks nothing like yours! Andy

Eeek. I wouldn't touch the Aires wheel wells with a 10 ft. pole. On two of my Lightnings I used the etched-brass wheel wells from Eduard. It still gives the wheel wells a nice finished look, and are about 96% easier to install, needing only a wee bit of thinning on the upper wing half. (My first Lightning was started just after the kit came out, so it has the plain WW's straight from the box.) Those finished wheel wells by noeyedears do serve as an argument for fighting the Aires WW's in. Not for me, though--life is too short! Andy Sarasota, FL

Great job on the models! The more I look at the Roden kit, the more I like it. The nose is a bit wonky, but nothing sandpaper can't fix. The roof line to the windshield is about 300% better than Minicraft's kit. I'll definitely pick up one or three in due course! Andy Sarasota, Florida, U.S.

Sounds like the old Propagteam decals. I seem to recall that saliva (!) applied underneath the decal enabled it to slide and be positioned on the model. Thereafter your model will be known as a "spitting image" of the original. I started an MPM Hudson and found it rather challenging. It can be done, but take your time. Andy Sarasota FL

That's me! I'm hoping that Airfix will do a York eventually. Yes, a guy can dream...... Andy Sarasota, Florida

Plus an AModel VC-10 would be righteous bucks/quid/Euros--probably in the US$200 range or thereabouts. I agree, Airfix seems to do well on outline accuracy, so I'd rather they did it. I voted for the SVC-10 airliner. Hopefully if Airfix does it, it will have full airliner windows (which can be plugged appropriately for the tanker versions) and cut lines inside to convert to a Standard. Most of the military stuff can be add-ons from what I see, which can be provided on a separate sprue and left out of an airliner boxing. A guy can dream. Andy Sarasota, Florida, U.S.

Pretty much you're stuck with chopping and altering things left, right and center. I struggled with one for 3 months, fixing the most egregious problems, but didn't have time to fix the biggest problems with the kit. What you get looks like a Lightning, sort of. Here is is: http://modelingmadness.com/review/viet/gb/ablite.htm Andy Sarasota, FL

I can wait. I think. Andy

Actually I do, just up the road in Bradenton, and they have a branch store in Sarasota Square Mall, just minutes away from where I live. They don't have a huge stock but are happy to special order. Some of us are fortunate. :-) My point about the wait times is that it really does take months, it seems, to get these kits on our side of the pond. That said, your point is well taken on grousing about it! Andy

This one's been a long time coming, but I'm glad it's here. Now I only have to wait the usual half a year before it hits the shops in the United States. Andy Sarasota, Florida

The love child of a C-17 and IL-76! East-West detente! :-) I hope a few of them fly for Air China when the type goes into service.

I used a Neomega resin cockpit for my last EE Lightning build and it was a drop fit. I'm sure this cockpit will be the same way, and for me that's a big selling point. Trying to shoehorn resin cockpits in from other manufacturers takes out a lot of the fun of model making! Andy

The schemes appear correct as far as the drawings go. The question will be if the colors and fonts are done right on the decal sheet.

Someone do Patrouille de France 1986 markings please! That's when I saw them fly at the Abbotsford Air Show; been wanting to build a model of one ever since but the choices up to this point were bad (Heller), worse (ESCI), and expensive (PJ Productions)!

But it will go so well with the A380 you plan on building, right? Um, right? Andy

Sprue Brothers has Minicraft 777 kits, I think from their Great Models Webstore purchase since they don't typically stock airliners.

Will HobbyTerra be stocking these kits?