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Hi there, I'm well into my second Gnat, having thrown the first one against a wall in disgust! I was upset by the step abaft the wing, the poor under wing joint and the sloppy steps between the fuselage halves. OK, so on number two.... The fuselage is actually more cut outs and gaps than continuous airframe and its all just a bit wishy-washy and sloppy, and this is where the poor fit seems (to me) to originate. Rather than just apply glue and bash the fuselage halves together, I took a bit of time to "stitch" the fuselage one section at a time from back to front. This means that the fuselage joint took three modelling nights work but its worth it when you put the wings on, the saving in filler and no need to rescribe all of those panel lines that are a tad heavy but look ok under primer and paint. Im now waiting with bated breath for another three Gnats to come into my local shop, so I can ignore the bad weather and the lousy easter TV and the family and give them the attention they deserve. square-peg

fantastic replies. Thanks all round. will have this one done for telford. see y'awl, square-peg

Im interested in building a Meteor F3, and really want to do an aircraft from Acklington. 263 was formed in Acklington by re numbering 616Sq on 19/08/1945. I have a couple of serial code tie ups; HE-A, EE285 and HE-X, EE301. Sadly I can find no photographs of any HE coded F3s. Can anyone help with photos or trusted profiles. If 616 was re numbered at Acklington, how long were they there before the change, and how soon would the code change take before 263 moved to Finningley during September '45. cheers, Square-peg.

Hi guys, I have a coloured photo of a wartime Barra. I can clearly see the vetical walls of the wheelwells are a brick red/rusty brown that I associate with aircraft bag tanks. square-peg

Hello playmates. Painting aluminium is a very difficult art. Aluminium oxidises very quickly and the paint just flakes off if you get it wrong. For this reason all aluminium parts will be etch primed with an acid based, zinc oxide primer. ZO primer is prepared shortly before it is used (as it goes off fairly quickly) and varies widley in colour density from a pale pea green, through yellow to mostly aluminium with a thin veneer of Lime-ade ( who can forget that tasty pop treat from the 70s). Once the etching primer is cured it can be overcoated with any colour of undercoat. Hope this was useful. square-peg

Its a superb photo, and had me reaching for the decal files to try to find a match. That W is quite un findable until you think about using an upside down M. I have a copy of the old Spit IX profile which shows a similar but different IX in this scheme. MJ216, coded FC-WF. The yellow patch seems to extend forward to half way down the door panel (clearly seen in the Profile pic, not obvious but discernable in the Aeroplane photo. Plus the Profile pic shows Post War RWB roundels. Square-peg

Dont panic, the Carpena sheets look great on paper, but when you study them against photos there are some shocking guess work and generalisations. A close escape for you

Used to work in the defence industry. Your man who mentioned layers of armour is almost (mostly) right. Armoured steel is made as a black bar, forged from a white hot billet, rather than rolled like bright shiny mild steel. As the outside layer oxydises and cools at a different rate from the centre the outside surface is of a rippled texture which is generally harder and more brittle than the core. On a tank, this does not really matter and so can be left rippled in places, but in an aircraft and other sensitive places it can be dressed on a surface grinder to be glassy smooth. Believe me when I say that you never want the stress involved in drilling into armour plate, think about it, it is probably harder than your drill. I think that the circle is to show the difference between armoured plate and externally identical non armoured plate. I know which one I want if someone is shooting at me!

Halfords Vauhall China Blue for PRU Blue, from a rattle can. Xtracolour PR Pink was too pink and needed to be watered down with a half ounce tinlet of white, then its very pretty. I can remember a method for making PR Mauve from Airkit I recall Humbrol Lufthansa Blue and red but cant mind the mix, will look it out and get back to you. Square-peg

Hi fellas, I have the 1/72 MPM Douglas DC2 and really want to do it in an impressed RAF scheme. I can only remember sketchy descriptions like Olive Drab uppers over civil scheme polished metal. Id really appreciate if you all could help out with some links for this. Cheers