Lazy Builder

This is already looking very good, RAF Chinooks seem to have acquired loads of bumps and sticky out bits over their lives which are never included in standard kits. You've made a great start so I'm looking forward to seeing this finished in all its glory. Keep up the good work!

Very nice job on those cockpits especially the instrument panels. Looking forward to seeing the end result.

I've seen photos of these F-100s and always thought they would make an unusual and very interesting build. This is a very nice job - it looks great. But, what is that lump on the nose?

Nice build, takes me back to Germany in the 80s. Good job!

£45 for 1/72nd scale kit! With prices like that it looks like they are actually trying to stop people modelling. It just can't be that good - can it?

Fantastic photo, so much going on. A busy day at the office for the 'teccies'. If you look very carefully you can almost see some panels lines or perhaps not!

Jeffrey That was my idea too. I am wondering if a Testors Komet might fill the gap. I think they are cheaper but might suffice for wings, it's either that or find pictures of Komets with their wings off. I have a feeling that they may be attached at the same point as the kit and just need a picture of the wing internals to make it the idea work. I'll let you know if I come up with anything. Best wishes Ian

Andy, That would make sense, otherwise it seems a bit extravagant. Wish they'd put another pair of wings in the box and I could have made 2 !!!!

Both sets of sprues are exactly the same.

If you've beein flying clapped out biplanes then something this 'modern' looking has got to be an improvement, hasn't it? Having read a bit about the period the RAF aircrews thought they'd got a bargain. It was only when they encountered the Japanese for the first time that they knew what was really going on but then it was all over very quickly.

Looks like they had seen the Brabazon and were into the multi-storey luxury limer idea too. I wish some of these monsters had flown it would have been amazing to see and would have kept the Golden Days of aviation going a bit longer.

My Best Beloved bought me the Dragon 1/48 Me 163 with engine for Christmas (thanks to Trevor at Train Times). The kit is lovely, very well detailed and includes a maintenance stand,ground crew and an etch fret and new decals. My confusion arises because the kit comes with 2 identical sprues for the fuselage, cockpit and groundcrew figures but there is only one set of wings. There are no blanking plates or details to finish the 'other' fuselage/wing joint. I have checked and have all the parts I'm supposed to have but it doesn't seem to make sense. Am I missing the point?

Speedy, Great build mate, weather looks a bit dim for the Gulf though. Best wishes for the Festive period. Ian

On sale at MZ having seen yours I may shell out some cash and get one. What a nice build!

That looks so cool - nice build.

I bought one of these kits in East Berlin in 1989, before the wall came down, and due to the ridiculous exchange rate it cost about £0.02, i.e. 2p! I only bought it because it was the only kit I could find on the trip and I gave it away a few years later as I didn't build Russioan stuff. The way your build is going perhaps I should've kept it. Looking forward to seeing the end result - keep up the good work.

In fact liked it so much I went out and bought one first thing this mornming - see what you've done!

This is on my Christmas list. If I get one, I hope my build looks as good as yours.

Very nice build - looks just the job.

I love Corsairs so this fits the bill for me. Nice job well done!

For much of the air ops we've been involved with lately (Afghanistan) aircraft such as the Skyraider or something similar would have been ideal platform, capable of escorting rotary while having enough payload and loiter time to hang around and cause dismay to the Bad Guys. It would be cheap to operate and train the crews, being heavily over engineered they could be made to last and could be continually updated in the way we have with the tanker fleet and the Chinook. As to the carrier jet issue, I think that this generation of fast jets will be part of the transition from mostly manned to mostly unmanned combat aircraft fleets. There is a huge political benefit to UAVs, as the voting public don't care if they are shot down, additionally UAVs don't care if they are sent on a ten minute or 10 hour or indeed 10 day trip. Bearing in mind the capacity and range of the current generation of UAVs, the next generation with limited artificial intelligence will be capable of so much more and can get anywhere much quicker that any aircraft carrier and can quickly be reinforced or removed as the situation changes. In my view JSF will probably become too expensive and complex to be bought and maintained in sufficient quantity to be viable for the UK. While the A/F 18 may be so 'now' it could be upgraded to carry most air-to-air and air-to-ground weapons for the foreseeable future and at 'reasonble' price and perhaps as importantly it is a proven system that could be ordered off the shelf now. However, the debate may be purely academic as we are spending so much on the Welfare State, bailing out banks and a host of other stuff that we'll be lucky to be able to afford much in the way of defence at all.

I've got 2 as this is such a nice kit with paint and glue all for £5.99, I'm fairly sure it's the new boxing so well worth the money. Get 'em while they're hot !!!!!

Now that looks like a Lincoln. My Dad spent some time as a rigger on Lincolns and had photos of the aircraft he worked on. You have captured the look and the spirit of the aeroplane perfectly.

I've got a 1/48 Catalina and it's big, so's my B-17G, B-17F, B-26, A-26 and that's in their boxes. A 1/32nd scale Catalina is just silly...............................................or is it?

I picked one up today at The Hobby Box at Uckfield (Great shop - highly recommended). It looks great, comes with it's own reference material and has interesting decals. I've got Academy, Airfix, Monogram and Revell/Hasegawa kits and this one looks the best in every respect, it's pricey but you get what you pay for. I only hope that I can do it justice.