Paul Wagner

Great info! Did not know that. Paul

I found the Hasegawa F3 to be excellent, if you can find one at an affordable price... Paul

Very nice. Tell me about the little RAAF rondel under the cockpit....? Paul

I'm just going to throw a vote in for the Airfix kit. I've done both it and the Hasegawa, and thought thought the Airfix was jolly good, and fun to build - some people just don't like Airfix, fair enough, but if you do, give it a shot... Paul

I can vouch for this method - it works. How long they take to fade varies quite a lot though, so keep an eye on them. As far as crumbling issues go, you need to test something from the sheet to see if it's holding together. Sometimes they're fine, sometimes they disintegrate, in which case you also need to spray or paint the sheet with decal film. Paul

So were the Magics on kinked-out pylons, as with RAAF Mirages? Paul

What kind of AAMs did Argie Daggers/Mirages carry in the war? I've seen some depictions with Matra Magics, but suspect that's not right - was it early Sidewinders? Paul

Wow, actually in stock and everything Yay for HLJ! Thanks for that - wouldn't have thought to check there! Paul

I don't see that they two should be linked at all, and frankly resent the fact they are - it smacks of blackmail. If some little engineering firm in Woop Woop, Qld, happens to make the best doowhackies in the world, then why should they be barred from selling them unless we agree to spend untold squillions on F35s? If we decide F35s are too expensive / aren't suitable / won't be ready in time, is LM going to cancel all Australian contracts and get their doowhackies elsewhere just for payback? And if we're "partners", why aren't we getting the source codes to our own aircraft, so we can maintain and modify them as we see fit? What's to stop some future US Govt - perhaps run by crazy Tea Party types - from withholding access to our own aircrafts systems if we don't go along with whatever mad military adventure they want to get into next? Not being given full operational sovereignty to them should be a deal killer straight away. We aren't "partners" in any real sense - we're customers, and should act like it. That means not committing to buying the aircraft until it's actually finished, working, and in full blown production, so we know exactly what were getting and how much they cost. Until then you can't believe anything the LM salesmen says - or indeed any other salesmen says (the "aspirational" nature of the Typhoons strike capability, being another example). Govt and defence officials are duped into buying crap all the time by enthusiastic arms salesmen, and you end up with unholy messes like, say, the Seasprite. Unlike the US or even the UK, we have nothing else to fall back on and we can't afford to get it wrong, and need to be a whole lot more careful and critical about what we buy than has been the case over the last 15 years. Getting stuff that works is much more important than being on the "cutting edge". And if that turns out to be the case, it'll win any competition, won't it? So where's the harm in waiting? I do understand the way the program was supposed to work, and why, and it may have been nice in theory but frankly it's become a mess. If and when the F35 is ready for service, then you evaluate it and if it's all it's chalked up to be, then you buy it. Until then, keep your wallet closed and your mind open. Paul

Woo hoo! I'll PM you! (now to track down another Fujimi phantom...!) Paul

The RAF gets both. The RAAF and RCAF doesn't. We just get the "Lo" bit. That's the problem, and why we shouldn't be committing to buying them until they are actually up and working, and we can do a direct comparison with the alternatives. Paul

Defence got slashed in the Budget - and all the available money got put into new subs. Apart from delaying any purchase of F35s for several more years, the Growlers got put off too. So not for a while yet... Paul

That sounds about right. When it comes down to it, the problem with the f35 isn't what it may - or may not - be able to do, it's that LM expects Us (the taxpayers) to pay Squillions for them BEFORE they have proved they are any better than the alternatives. If the F35 can win an open competition against the Typhoon, Rafale, Gripen and Super Hornet purely on capability, then great, I'll sleep happily at night. Until then, you have to take anything the LM marketing department claims with a grain a salt... "The F35 Lightning II - your plastic pal who's fun to be with!!!" Paul

I'd want the 1/72 92 sqn set - no luck on eBay today though! Paul

Aeroimageworks does a nice set of shark teeth grey nurses: http://www.aeroimageworks.com/decals_72.htm The Ventura descales are good too if you can get some (ie eBay) and theres this set from jays: http://www.jaysmodelkits.com/jaysmk/index....products_id=210 As for Caldwells, they are a dime a dozen - I've got at least 6 sets! Of course, when you are planning to do all his planes, it's barely enough.... Paul

I want a replacement canopy for a 1/72 Hasegawa Mozzie. I can find Pavla and Squadron ones, the latter stating it's designed for an Airfix kit. Which (if either) might fit the Hasegawa kit best? Or is there another available option I don't know about? Paul

Yes, fixing the bugs in the gadgets won't help if the overall concept is flawed. Everything about the F35 strikes me as a lazy, arrogant design - don't need speed, don't need to manouever, don't need to see behind you, don't need to carry more than 2 missiles, don't need thrust vectoring, don't need any of the attributes the last 100 years of air combat says you need. Why? Because you have Stealth! I call bull**** on that. I'm sure it will be a perfectly adequate light attack jet, with enough self defence capability to operate if the enemy has been cleared out by proper fighters like Raptors or Typhoons... which is exactly the role it was designed for. Now, however, there's no Raptors... and suddenly we're supposed to buy it'll be a kick-bottom air dominance fighter all by itself? Rubbish. It's totally unsuited to the primary role of services like the RAAF and RCAF ie to defend our homelands, and - even assuming the gadgets all work - it's capabilities are all geared towards dropping bombs on other people's homelands, which is really not something we're particularly interested in doing. I also suspect the Chinese have already hacked the thing, given the reported security breaches (and no doubt many unreported ones). The US's stated strategy in Asia is to "contain" China, and they have been pushing super-hard to get everyone - us, Japan, S Korea - to buy F35s for "force compatibility" reasons - so China will essentially be "contained" by F35s and not much else. If I were China, and not wishing to be "contained", I'd put an awful lot of effort into neutralising F35s, and they have proved themselves to be quite good at hacking stuff! So I predict (and remember this folks!) when China gets round to engineering a lesson-teaching confrontation with the US, the F35s will fritz out, just like the Cylons did to the Vipers in the BSG reboot... “I really don’t know to what extent the weapon systems that have been developed over the last 10 years have been penetrated, to what extent the chips are compromised, to what extent the code is compromised. I can’t assure you that as you go to war with a cybersecurity-conscious, cybersecurity-capable enemy that any of our stuff is going to work.” Richard A. Clarke, former top White House terrorism advisor, at a Washington, D.C., cyber conference, Nov. 7, 2011 Paul

Ah, 'twas the Blue Phantom! Thanks! Now, is there a decal set for it? Paul

On the last page of the current (June) Airfix magazine, there is a small photo of a RAF Phantom in a very dark scheme I've not seen before. I presume it was some kind of anniversary scheme? Anyway, does anyone have any info on it, or better photos/references? I thought it was quite fetching.... Paul

I know what you mean - the EDSG always looked "blue", and was generally depicted as such - remember this anyone?: http://www.dinky-collector.co.uk/dinky/725...om/IMG_3022.JPG (When I was a kid, I did my Matchbox Phantom in gloss dark blue (I still remember the hassles the old enamel paint gave me) I when I returned to the hobby I did one in Blue just for nostalgic reasons. It's wrong, but looks "right") Back you your problem. If you want to blue-up the EDSG - and I agree you should - try mixing in a some Non Specular Sea Blue (UA44) - and then a little white. As has been pointed out, the colour things appear to the eye can vary quite a lot from what they actually "are", so just mix a colour that looks right to you. Paul

Some of us do yes ("hate" barely covers it!) ... fortunately the Govt has just put off committing to buying any for a good few more years (for budgetary reasons) so we may yet dodge the bullet. If it get delayed any more, they are seriously considering getting more Super Hornets instead, and if that happens I can't see them replacing brand new Super Hornets with F35s a few years on, so we might end up with no more than one sqn of the things. Personally, I'd like to see Typhoons or Rafales instead - at least they are in service and we know they work! Paul

Oops - 1/72 Paul

Deleted

The Airfix has pilots AND lots of stores AND the most reliable swing-wing mechanism I've seen in any Tornado, and is easy (and designed to) to display wheels up - so I think it'll suit your needs better (and I applaud you choice doing so - planes are supposed to fly !) Paul

Yes, all 1/72 - when I returned to modelling I decided to stick to just that one scale... Paul