stever219

I've just had a brief discussion with one of our club members who remembers Shackletons and he remembers the entire interior being in Night. Airfix have only had former AEW airframes for reference and their interiors benefitted from work done on the MR 3 to improve crew comfort on long sorties, including the interior colour scheme. I'm sure I've seen it in print somewhere (Ian Allan "Modern Combat Aircraft" series perhaps, or Dalrymple & Verdun but can't presently locate either book. The fuselage joint was picked up in Jen Wright's article in Airfix Model World and seems to be capable of reasonably quick and simple resolution. OK, it ought not to be necessary in this day and age, but none of us are infablible, inflailabable,.....foolproof and it ought not to be a show stopper.

Nice bit of nostalgia there. I still have one of these somewhere. Two small points though: RAF flying overalls in the Meteor 4 era were blue grey with orange yellow Mae West and silver or white bone domes, most probably the former, or leather or cloth World War II style helmets. Also that join below the leading edge is a skin joint; the Meteor never had leading edge high lift devices. Have you decided which unit markings you're going to use? RAF markings were in a state of flux throughout the Meteor 4's service, from "Type C/C1 roundels in wartime lower-visibility colours in all six positions and Night unit codes through to "Type D" national markings with brightly coloured squadron bars. Some aircraft were to be seen with wartime national markings on wings and fin but with post war markings on fuselage with squadron bars. IIRC VT291 of 609 Squadron was so marked. Of course you might not want to do an RAF one at all. Hat n coat time......

Roland and Heinkel for me please!

You could try using a fine razor saw (the smaller of the pair that Scale Aircraft Modelling sell is quite adequate), drawing the blade in one direction only. I used this method to get the pitot for the 1/48th and 1/72th Gnats, both very fragile mouldings, off their spruces without breaking them

Dogsbody my browser's playing up so I can't enlarge your image, but your Stirling looks like she's got the Mk. III dorsal turret and possibly a joint, or exposed strip of clear Perspex around 3/4 of the way back along the radome (about where the front of the clear part on the Lancaster 'dome would be.

The RAF's B-17Gs had their radomes painted Night overall, but if I remember Martin Streetly's "Aircraft of 100 Group" articles in Scale Models they were slightly translucent. I don't think the Lincoln had the same "issue" as the Lancaster IIRC as the radome was located on the rear fuselage extension immediately abaft the weapons bay (but I could be wrong......).

That does look good. Are the markings those from the kit or did you have to go spares box or after market for them? Which unit is your subject from? I have a razorback P-47D in 146 Squadron markings somewhere, but I can't remember which kit I used. I'd like to do a few more too to represent an often-overlooked aspect of the RAF's war.

I still have my Aeroclub Shackleton transfer sheets :-)

AMW generally run their articles a few weeks before the feature kit is released, so in the normal course of things I'd expect the Shackleton in December, but a source that I regard as very reliable independently gave tomorrow week as the release date yesterday evening. Let's hope the first containers don't end up west of Iceland like the Swifts did.

Manchesters and early Lancasters had single-curvature bomb bay doors, giving the belly a straight line in profile. As bigger bombs were introduced the doors were given the familiar curved lower edge to increase available volume and clearance. The Lancastrian didn't need this additional volume, although the former bomb bays now accommodated additional, cylindrical (IIRC) fuel tanks and the older shape was quicker and easier to manufacture.

IIRC Vickers also managed to select the wrong alloy for TSR2; components mis-handled (dropped) on the production line developed cracks from the impact points and there may have also been instances where drilling for fasteners also precipitated cracking. At cancellation efforts were being made IIRC to redesign the aeroplane for a new alloy which would have added around 40lbs structure weight per (25 tons empty) jet, but this might have been offset by the work being done to simplify the flap blowing and air brake operating systems.

In the early part of the war Bomber Command camouflage went through several changes. Many bombers started with a low straight demarcation between upper and lower colours. (As the war progressed the Night undersurface colour was extended up fuselage sides as an anti-searchlight measure with the under surface paint finish changing from pre war Night to RDM2A Special Night, a very matt sooty finish and then to Smooth Nightand eventually for a very few airframes to glossy anti-searchlight black). The pattern tended to differ from one airframe to another, let alone between units. Some types, notably some examples of Hampden and Manchester, had straight demarcations from wing leading edge to nose and from wing trailing edge to tail plane leading edge. Eventually the pattern standardized on the familiar late-war high demarcation. You'll need photos of your chosen airframe to be entirely accurate, but for many early examples a gently and unevenly undulating wavy demarcation should suffice. Most pictures of Whitleys that I've seen do not show the scalloped or tight undulations seen typically on Wellingtons, some Manchesters and Halifaxes.

Looking at the quality of the artwork on the plaque I'd treat the individual letter "G" with a degree of suspicion. IIRC there is a 102 Squadron association who might know someone with more detailed information, or the Squadron ORB might be accessible in the National Archive at Kew. There was also a series of books detailing Bomber Command losses in date order year by year through the war published by PSL or Ian Allan which might also prove useful.

That looks fine from here. I have two on the go (massochism runs deep; you do not want to know what my day job is) and I've also encountered some of the fit problems. My biggest worry is installing the armoured (?) inner windscreen panel in without irretrievably smearing it, even with pva.

Dear Airfix, please can the 1/24th Typhoon have markings for R7752 when flown by Roland Beamont when with 609 (West Riding) Squadron when based at Manston? There's a local connection (Manston to Margate) and some panels from R7752 still exist at RAFM Hendon. The yellow spinner and under nose panel (IIRC) should attract some attention too. Please?

Wishicouldfinishmodels, it's a new tooling. Airfix did a Do 17E/F in the early seventies which was good for its time (it even had recessed panel lines) but this s an entirely new product and it's a very good kit. It needs careful assembly and following the instructions is recommended (guess how I know) but just look at mitchem's results with it. I'd be really pleased if mine turn out half as well as his.

It's a splendid kit; enough detail for most of us straight from the box but room for detail freaks to go to town. Mine's already reached major sub assembly stage and I'm a notoriously slow builder. Look out for the main undercarriage units: parts D25 are very fragile and I've found them difficult to line up and install.

Like DaveCS I don't generally do Japanese subjects, but this looks far too good to avoid so if Father Christmas or the Birthday Fairy leave me one I shan't be sending it back. Roll on Airfix's new-tool Hampden!

Scale Aircraft Conversions do a replacement white metal undercarriage set for this kit (around £12.00 from Hannants, IIRC). It's more robust than the kit parts and reduces the splay angle on the main legs slightly (Airfix have overdone this slightly). I can't remember if it includes the auxiliary struts as fitted to XR220 (and '219 for her last few flights) but as they're not load bearing in the model the kit parts could probably be adapted off required.

I wonder if "Nan" has had new, paddle-bladed props installed, with the spinners pre-painted white, for service with Tiger Force. The paint on the spinners shows a lot less damage than that on and around the radiator intakes.

It is the same kit: Airfix haven't yet done a new tool Mitchell, but one to their present standards would probably sell very well when the competition is the horribly expensive Hasegawa or the rather basic Italeri offerings.

The Airfix F(AW)9, if you can find one, isn't too bad but the rear fuselage and tailpipes are under sized. The FROG/Novo/Eastern Express F(AW)9 has less detail and the nose is too short (but it's easier to convert to F(AW)8 standard than the Airfix kit, but the transfers are likely only to be fit for the bin (Novo's are least worst in this respect in my experience, but coat them in varnish before applying or they'll disintegrate). Maintrack did a number of fighter conversions for the Heller T3 (reboxed by Airfix) and I think these are available again. Apart from that you might find a hideously expensive early FROG kit which probably represents one of the prototypes.

I do. It does.

Apparently all examples "inadvertently" delivered to America have sold so, maybe, it's not just us dyed-in-the-wool RAF modellers who have found this kit attractive. Maybe there are people out there who are reversing the conversion in Scale Models of more years ago than I want to (or can) remember to get an F-11F Tiger?

Ascoteer, thanks for the APU comment. What I meant to trype was that the intake and/or exhaust on the fuselage side were different between the two marks.