Aeronut

Thanks. I'll have a look out for them as it the C-160 pod we tried on the Nimrod.

If someones producing resin Terma pods could they do them in 1:72 also, as I need a pair for a Nimrod.

I do hope the person producing the instructions isn't the same person who stuck the undercarriage doors on the test shot build.

If Revell produced it in 1:32 (as they at one point announced) I was going to turn it in to a Gliding Club Launch point to acompany their glider models

I have photos of a partly painted Black 6 and also it fully painted undergoing initial engine runs outside 'A' hangar at Benson I've also got a photo of the slashes in the grass it made on it first take off after it hit the trench carrying the cable across the airfield to the Watchman radar.

That brings back my memories as an eleven year old on hid first trip in an aeroplane (Ringway to the Isle of man) looking down out of one of those monsterous (by todays standards) windows.

I have a photo of two versions of the Spitfire tow hitch for the Hotspur glider and they're nothing like this target tug. For the Spitfire glider tug the tow hitch was mounted on the tailwheel axle.

Out of interest, a RAE report I've read about improvements to aircraft for intercepting the V1, noted that the Mustang III had wings which were covered in badly paint chipped paint - up to SIX coats of paint.

I think the RAF decided to call the RIVET JOINT RC135, Airseeker, just to stop me calling it LOOSE RIVET. After all the aircarft the RAF will be getting were built in 1964!

In the interests of accuracy the RAF didn't conduct LAPES (Low Altitude Parachute Extraction System) drops they did ULLA (Ultra Low Level Airdrop), a similar concept but totally different equipment.

At the Guild of Aviation Artists annual exhibition which starts on Monday 18 July there is the Roy Cross original artwork for Airfix's DH88 Comet and two Roy Huxley paintings that look like those for the Matchbox Brewster Buffalo and Westland Lynx for sale

If you PM me I can provide copies of the Hotspur AP which will give you all the detail you'll need. From what I can discover the interior wasn't painted, although the interior of the rear fuselage incorporated into the Middle Wallop replica was painted silver.

I'll believe that when I see it

The L100-30 were built by Lockheed. Marshall's stretched the RAF Mk 1 Hercules using Lockheed designed fuselage plugs 100 inches long at the front and 80 inches at the rear.

After amounting 2500 hrs as an instructor on motor gliders with the Air Cadets I thought it was about time I obtained 'a licence' so went for a NPPL (M). Despite all that is written the BMAA still insisted I had to do a minimum of 25 hours (much to the incredulity of the CFI). Some of the duel was even flown with me saying "Have you tried teaching it this way?". In the end I spent 19 of the 25 hours getting bored flying solo. But is was all worth it, I can now fly when and where I want to without some 16 year old trying their best to kill the pair of us.

I was told this week that I had been allocated a weeks work on Rivet Joint Airseeker, well after some of the code names for some of the systems on Hercs, Nimrods and Sentry, Airseeker didn't seem out of place - Then I found out it was the new name for the Loose Rivet aircraft.

Well we've had Fat Albert so now its welcome to the Fat Lass.

I'd describe ZE410 current colour scheme as white and dark grey with the Serial in black on the dark grey positioned under the forward doors, and its only visible when the light is just right, there are no other markings on the airframe. She is no longer flying and for some reason the Director of Special Forces dosen't want anyone to know where she is, but I do and as I want to keep the doors and windows on my house, I'm not telling.

Then there's the US Navy scheme from the film Hot Shots.

So a 1:24 Hart family is still possible then.

The outer mainplanes and tailfins on the Lancaster and Manchester although different in shape had the same number of identical ribs in their construction. When they realised they needed a taller fin for the Machester they just spaced the ribs further apart. When they realised they needed a bigger wingspan for the extra two engines on the Lancaster the same trick was used. It was my Grandfather who converted the assembly jig drawings - on his kitchen table after his shift had finished!

I can't wait for the A109, I even know which one I'll finish it as - ZE410, although I'll probably need two kits so that the Argentinian 'before' scheme can be modelled as well. It'll be intereseting to see if they get the markings right. 410 has its serial painted in black on dark grey and even in real life you can just about see it if you are within feet of the aircraft and you view it in the right light.

I would think that 1:24 would be ideal for a carefully chosen biplane ie single bay and with at least one wing positivly attached to the fuselage. The rigging at this scale would be engineered into the kit from the start, even getting RAF wires correct. So it has to be a Gladiator, or a Fury, or a Hart, or a Heinkel 51.......

I have some copies of photos of a Heyford towing a Hotspur 1 glider (dating it as late 1940/early 41) but unfortunately the quality is such that both aircarft are just sillouettes so no idea what the colour scheme was.

Has Kev67 been told an 'urban legend' based on the time when Airfix had a 1:48 Vacform Vulcan on the stand as a teese? As to the rapid prototyped Lynx, nothing odd about it, it was presented as just that, a prototype showing us the level of detail and the shape we can expect, and I for one is finding the wait for the AH Mk 7 unbearable.