Davidf66

Thanks for all the answers chaps. Figures have now been sorted, I ended up using a mix of PJ Productions US Navy pilots, F-16/F-18 pilots and the Aires Aerobonus figures with a couple of Hasegawa arms chucked into the mix. I don't kmow how to post pics on here but I have a few on facebooks U-S-A-F models group page. Thanks again, cheers, David.

Thanks, I think my mate has a fairly decent collection of Hasegawa and Monogram/Revell 1/48th kits. I'll see if he can help, otherwise it's a re-sculpting job.

Hi everyone, just started work on my first diorama, going to be reproducing the Inverted F-14 versus MiG-28 (F-5F) scene from the movie Topgun. I have the kits, got a few aftermarket bits but I need to sort out the crew figures. I can do some re-shaping if necessary but thought I'd ask here first. What I have so far is the Aires (Aerobonus) F-14 crew figure set, which is lovely by the way, for Maverick and goose and a couple of PJ Productions modern US Navy pilot figures. The issue I have is that for the Tomcat crew, I need to have them with their visors raised and oxygen masks on and for the MiG-28, I need them to have their visors lowered and oxygen masks on. Neither of the above mentioned sets provide this/these configurations. Does anyone out there know if there are any figures, even just separate heads, available either in kits or as aftermarket items that would save me the hassle of re-sculpting the resin figures? Any help would be greatly appreciated, Thanks in advance, best regards, David. As an aside, I have to say that the AFV Club F-5F is possibly one of the best fitting kits I've ever made. I have pretty much completed assembly of the main wings/fuselage section and, so far, not a drop of filler has been used. The Hobbyboss F-14 is almost as good but takes a bit of work to fit the U/C bay doors in the closed position, and the intakes are going to require a couple of filling and polishing sessions to get them to look seamless....

I agree with the above comments, The Pro-Modeller kit is the better of the the two, Revell (USA) also released it as an F-84E with the earlier unframed canopy.

Hi Leptiprince, if you have no luck, feel free to pm me. I might be able to order them for you since I work in a model/hobby store in the UK that stocks Airfix kits. Good luck, best regards, David.

Very nice! Think I might have to direct some of the newbie model makers that come into the shop I work at to this video. I think it would help them a lot, well done!

Stunning! Seeing the results you achieved with this kit has got me all fired up to see if I can find a 1/48th one somewhere. I built the Italeri version for a client many moons ago, it was nice, but yours is awesome! Well done!

I'm making the 1/24th GR.3 for a client at the moment, while doing some research into the kit, I found a very comprehensive build which used elements of the Flightpath and Heritage sets. I wish I could remember where it was as the guy making the model gave a very in depth look at the pros and cons of the available updates. I do remember that he said that both the Heritage and Flightpath cockpit sets had good and bad points, hence using elements of both, I believe a certain amount of scratch-building was also required. I'm making my clients model strictly OOB, with the pilot figure in the cockpit to help hide the lack of detail, as the extra cost involved in adding all the upgrades, cockpit, wheels, U/C bays, nozzles, etc, put it beyond his budget. It actually goes together fairly well but definitely needs careful test fitting and parts preparation.

By the way, if you haven't had a crack at the Airfix Vampire, I can recommend it most highly. I'm not known for my fast-paced builds but I quite literally had this built and ready for priming in one day. I used the very smallest smear of filler around the port underside wingroot, the rest of it needed nothing more than standard parts prepping and test fitting techniques. Now if only they'd scale it up to 1/48th or, even better, 1/24th! (I'd actually really like it in 1/32nd but Airfix don't do 1/32nd aircraft kits!)

Many thanks Wez, Dambuster, Deanflyer, Yep, looks like I was getting confused with the markings it wore as part of the Vintage Pair and the markings it wore when in service with 79 Sqn. Thanks so much for all the help/info. I'm off to see if I can find a suitable decal sheet. Thanks again, best regards, David.

Hi all, I'm currently building the 1/72nd scale Airfix Vampire T11 in the markings of XH304 I've got the model pretty much completed except for the Sqn emblem on the nose. the information I have points to it being in the markings of 79 Sqn, however, I cannot find a decal sheet with this emblem on it. Unfortunately I cannot post pics at the moment but it appears to be a white circle with an arrowhead on each side, coloured black and dark green with a pale blue strip dividing the colours vertically. On the white circle, there appears to be a Flamingo. Apparently this is the markings it wore when flying with The Vintage Pair and, so I've been told, there was a decal sheet for the Vampire and Meteor of the Vintage Pair released many moons ago. I have had absolutely no luck in finding these decals. Does anyone on here have any information regarding these decals? Or, even better; does anyone have the markings I'm looking for going spare? I don't need roundels, codes, etc, I've sorted those using Xtradecal sheets, but I do need the nose emblems to finish the model off. Worst case scenario is that I end up hand painting them onto decal film but I thought I'd ask here first, Thanks in advance for any help or information provided, all the best, David.

The Monogram B-26 is a nice kit, I made one years ago, didn't do anything special or add any aftermarket bits to it but I did rescribe the panel lines. I remember it being a fairly easy build as long as everything was test fitted. I believe it was also released by Revell a few years back. If you can still find them, Meteor Productions did a couple of sets of decals in their 'Pick Your Nose Art' series and I believe there may have been some done by Superscale or Xtradecal. Monogram also released the kit in a limited edition which actually had a bag of resin updates and some very nice decal options but this is super hard to find nowadays. The 1/32nd model that was mentioned was supposed to have been produced by Wingscale but I believe that there were some problems between the owner of Wingscale and the Chinese company that was going to be tooling the moulds and producing the kits, I'm fairly certain that their first kit, which was going to be a B-25 Mitchell, was later released by Hong Kong Models. Either way, I think we're long overdue a decent, modern tooling of the B-26 in both 1/48th and 1/32nd.

I made the Academy F-18D a few years ago, it's a lovely kit although you might want to look into some A.M seats for it, depending on the A/C you're making. Apparently, the seats included in the kit aren't relevant to any of the decal options provided by Academy. As Dad 203 mentioned, you would be doing yourself a favour by getting the G-Factor landing gear. The intakes are the only area of the kit that I had any issues with, they take a fair amount of sanding and filing to get them looking right, if possible try to get hold of the Rhino Productions seamless, resin intakes. The F-18 D was never a dedicated 'Wild Weasel' Aircraft but there are plenty of pics of them toting HARM's. As for the Trumpeter F-18E, it's horrible! I made one on commission a while back and was truly disappointed with it. The intake trunking assembly is awful, I ended up having to use kitchen roll superglued to the outer seams to get any strength in them and then had to spend hours sanding and filling to get a seamless look to them. It lacks detail for such a large kit and just feels very 'clunky' during assembly. Having said all that, it looked OK when it was finished but it wasn't a 'fun' build whereas the Academy kit was a joy, even with the intake issues. Hope this helps, D.

No worries, glad to hear yours is on the way. treat yourself to some turned brass M.G barrels for it as the ones in the kit are a little lacklustre, especially if you're doing a strafer. Also, check out AMS resin, he does a great set of propellor blades and prop governor upgrades. Personally, I'd have one of each version, the B-25 is one of those aircraft that 'does it' for me, but funds just wont allow it at the moment, ah well, maybe one day......

This subject has also been discussed on LSP. Gary at G&T resins was looking into it but, unfortunately, came to the same conclusion that Mel at S&M did; basically it would involve so much work that the conversion would cost way more than the actual donor kit, (about $250 if I remember correctly) and, based on the amount of sets that might be sold, it just wasn't a viable option . I was getting all excited about a 1/32nd British Phantom but it does look as if it might never happen unless someone just goes ahead and produces a full injection moulded kit. I can't see Tamiya, Revell, etc going for it but Trumpeter might, the only question then is how much would it cost and would it be up to the same standard as their TBM/TBF Avengers (YAY!) or to the same lack of standard as their E.E Lightning (Boo!) I'll just keep my fingers crossed that someone decides to take it on, would love to do an F4-K loaded with SNEB pods.....